Betty Davis, "Betty Davis" and "They Say I'm Different" The "woman too wild for Miles" was that and so much more. These essential reissues collect the first two albums this onetime wife of Miles Davis made in the early '70s, and they consist of some of the grittiest, raunchiest funk ever recorded.
Drug Rug, "Drug Rug" It's all here, from Appalachian country blues to pastoral pop daydreams and delirious indie rock. A swirling, star-spangled debut from this Cambridge outfit led by lovebirds Tommy Allen and Sarah Cronin.
John Fogerty, "Revival" Like a hurricane or great flood, Fogerty's evergreen voice is a force of nature: ageless, unaffected, and unfazed by fad or fashion. Hearing him sing again with so much joy, conviction, and spirit on a bona fide comeback album was one of the year's most unexpected, prized treasures.
David Kilgour, "The Far Now" The Clean's singer-guitarist added to his sublime string of solo pearls with a seventh effort awash in gorgeous layers of fuzz-toned guitar and gilded pop melodies. "The Far Now" showcases the underrated New Zealand master at the top of his game.
Kings of Leon, "Because of the Times" With spooky charisma, a bag of snake-charmer riffs, and singer Caleb Followill's slurred sentences that suggest more than they spell out, the Kings tempered their usual blasts of woolly '70s bong-hit boogie with dark, ruminative wonder.
The National, "Boxer" On the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Cincinnati quintet's latest, the National moved its malaise indoors. Like its predecessors, "Boxer" was all nocturnal ambience and an insomniac's astute, if woozy, observations. Frontman Matt Berninger sings everything as if it were a besotted epiphany.
Pop Levi, "The Return to Form Black Magick Party" Liverpudlian Levi's full-length solo debut struck like a mad, thrilling bolt out of the blue. He called it "astral pop" - a giddy, glammy concoction of sugar-rush bubblegum kicks that sounded like a mash-up of old T. Rex, "Ziggy"-era Bowie, and Prince LPs played at double speed.
Elliott Smith, "New Moon" This second posthumous double-disc collection of demos could have easily passed for a proper Smith album, which says much about the quality of songs and level of artistry Smith was working at during his most fertile creative period. A stirring, painful reminder of what we (and he) had, and lost.
Spoon, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" Will one of America's greatest indie rock bands ever stop being great? With a razor-sharp bundle of hooks and clipped rhythmic moves, Spoon delivered yet another deliciously pungent collection of pop that also had, to quote one of the track's titles, generous helpings of "rhythm and soul."
White Stripes, "Icky Thump" Ten years on, Jack White's guitar riffs are as hard and Zep-heavy as ever, and Meg White hits her drums with a proto-primitive wallop powerful enough to match her ex-hubby's racket. The duo's latest was another step away from its lo-fi garage-blues beginnings and toward its true destiny: a classic rock 'n' roll outfit whose song never remains the same.
