1. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Real Emotional Trash
(With a new drummer, courtesy of Sleater Kinney, the former Pavement frontman unlocks his best collection of songs and performances in years. Melodic, jammy, and just a shade controlled enough to be catchy.)

2. Los Campesinos!, Hold On Now, Youngster...
(This Welsh collective throws everything they've got against the wall for a choral blast of bells and whistles. It's kinda like 90s punk group Bis, mixed with a little Talking Heads.)

3. R.E.M., Accelerate
("You cannot resist" is the last refrain on this latest from the college rock pioneers. And, it's kind of true. All the hype about the "rebirth" of R.E.M. is justified, as this is their tightest and most accomplished output in almost a decade.)

4. Sun Kil Moon, April
(For all those Red House Painters fans who wish Mark Kozelek would return to that project, fear not. Under this moniker, he gets back to his hushed folk styles, and delivers some epic odes to a bleak morning.)

5. Moby, Last Night
(So much of the pre-release press around Moby's new one, is calling it a "dance album." That's a bit misleading, especially if you're familiar with Moby's dance albums. Instead, this is the follow-up to Play that we always wanted. He experiments with samples, beautiful vocals, and lots and lots of beats. But it's an ambient pop record first.)