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Wild-eyed Alan Roberts -- a.k.a. Jim Noir -- belongs to the mad-scientist school of pop, concocting intricate epics that create a sense of intense claustrophobia.

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Since leaving Interscope last year, Trent Reznor has been on a productive tear. The latest evidence: For as little $5, you can download Ghosts I–IV (or for you diehards, Halo 26), a stunning collection of 36 instrumental tracks that is one of the most varied and ambitious releases of his career.

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These British phenoms' energetic pop-rock tunes are eminently listenable and sometimes downright joyous (album opener "See the Sun"), but nary a nanosecond of the Kooks' second album could be called original (the Strokes again, eh?). And for now, Luke Pritchard and Co.

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Glasgow has a well-earned rep for churning out bands led by weepy would-be lotharios, so it's past due for a new angle on the oversold market. Enter Frightened Rabbit singer/guitarist Scott Hutchison, who favors caustic over cloying ("Let's get paralyzed down both sides," he offers on "Fast Blood," a bashed-out anti-anthem) and specializes in bitter detail, not fey bemusement.

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This Texas coaster covers plenty of bases on his third album, many of them alcoholic, and the tastiest perched between stadium rockabilly and Dylan-worship folk rock. Whether he's feeling nostalgic for small-town foibles or fancying himself a drunken poet knockin' over whiskeys with his bad liver and broken heart, he's cornier than he thinks.

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A band that looks as youthfully innocent as Awesome Color shouldn't be capable of making such convincingly grizzled rock, but good Midwestern genes and a steady diet of Stooges records can apparently work miracles.