Son Ambulance, 'Someone Else's Déjá Vu' (Saddle Creek)

Lavish, expensive '70s rock reprised as artsy indie craftiness.

If the ultra-lo-fi shitgaze genre (Pink Reason, Times New Viking) represents one extreme of indie pop, Son Ambulance clearly represents the other. Omaha-based multi-instrumentalist Joe Knapp spent three years making Someone Else's Déjà Vu, and the album is another reminder that lush studio-reliant soft and prog rock of the late '70s can still offer legitimate inspiration.

Ratatat, 'LP3' (XL)

Studio whizzes twist electronic pop into an intricate spectacle.

Guitarist Mike Stroud and multi-instrumentalist Evan Mast give their subtly textured, rockist electronica a more festive, uplifting mood on the duo's third album.

Melvins, 'Nude With Boots' (Ipecac)

Sludge-punk godfathers lumber on with caveman insouciance.

The Melvins' remarkable Houdini/Stoner Witch/Stag run of bone-rattling, first-class heaviness in the mid-1990s was updated with 2006's charming (A) Senile Animal. And it was no fluke, because now comes the even better Nude With Boots, studio album number 19 (!). Bassist Jared Warren and second drummer Coady Willis (a.k.a.

Dillinger Escape Plan, 'Ire Works' (Relapse)

Metal virtuosos chew up and spit out genres.

This New Jersey quintet sounds nothing like Lamb of God or Mastodon, but they all share the distinction of being classified as "extreme metal," and all three have emerged from a steadily built grassroots fan base into the world of six-figure sales and major-label contracts.

Coheed and Cambria, 'No World for Tomorrow' (Sony)

Soon to be starring in a new reality show, Man Bites Prog.

The emo demographic, not known for surprises, pulled a big one a few years back by going bonkers for this upstate New York band's unapologetic fusion of the aforementioned genre with Rush, Dream Theater, and early Queensrÿche. But on their fourth full-length, Coheed's emo leanings have faded.

Shocking Pinks, 'Shocking Pinks' (DFA/ Astralwerks)

If late-'80s indie-pop fans started a fantasy league.

The Shocking Pinks' self-titled debut could be the result of a supergroup featuring members of bands on the fabled New Zealand label Flying Nun -- the Clean, the Chills, the Verlaines, the Bats. This is no accident, as Pinks leader Chris Harte grew up immersed in the influential jangle of his homeland, where there were hooks to burn.

Syndicate content