St. Vincent - Marry Me

$14.98 (list price), Pop/Rock/Soul, Beggars Banquet

Basic Story: St. Vincent, the moniker of 23-year-old singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Annie Clark, releases her eclectic debut.

Sample: “While Jesus is saving I’m spending all my days/ in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints/ while people are spinning like toys on Christmas day.”

Verdict: This may be her first record but Clark is hardly a newcomer. Having played guitar for the Polyphonic Spree and in Sufjan Stevens’ touring band, she is now following the path set by My Brightest Diamond, also an offspring of Sufjan. While her voice is easy to melt into, the music attempts to cover too many styles with few sounding like her own. Fans of Feist might find something they like here but mind you it’s been done already, only better.

MF Doom - MM..Food?

$17.98 (list price), Hip-Hop, Rhymesayers

Basic Story: Hip-Hop’s most prolific masked rapper gets the reissue treatment for his acclaimed 2004 release, ‘MM..Food?’ now packaged with a DVD of live performances.

Sample: “Doom was always known to keep the best girls backs bent/ some say it’s the eyes/ some say the accent/ a lot of guys wonder where they stacks went.”

Verdict: Today, MF Doom has proven himself as a top hip-hop contender. This reissue, however, takes us back to a man still trying (and succeeding) to make a name for himself. The appropriately titled album’s track list reads like a deranged restaurant menu where even the most disgusting items (‘Vomitspit’) go down easy. In a genre that seems to have fallen short lately in originality, there is no better time for this album to have been made available again. Super.

Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions

$15.98 (list price), Club/Dance, Domino

Basic Story: Mark E. Smith of The Fall teams up with Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner of Mouse On Mars to release the trio’s club-worthy debut.

Sample: “At a traffic circle/ a man in a yellow helmet on a mountain bike pulled up to me/ I went along with it at first/ he started singing/ I was in my garden.”

Verdict: At first, combining members of Mouse on Mars with The Fall’s Mark E. Smith looks as strange on paper as it sounds on a stereo. The songs largely succeed, however, with a surprising charm. Smith’s lyrics are still razor sharp while his vocals, caked with effects, remain typically nonchalant. His attitude struggles to cooperate with the music at times, but on “The Rhinohead,” the combination makes for at least one track guaranteed to pack a dance floor.

My Morning Jacket - At Dawn/Tennessee Fire Demos Package

$15.98 (list price), Indie/Country Rock, Darla

Basic Story: My Morning Jacket’s former label compiles demo versions of songs from their first two albums, adding some rare and unreleased live tracks for good measure.

Sample: “Oh, don't carve me out/ don’t let your silly dreams/ fall in between/ the crack of the bed and the wall.”

Verdict: If you happened to buy At Dawn when it was first released in 2001, there’s a chance you already own its respective demos from this compilation. If not, this disc is a must have. The stripped-down lo-fi acoustic recordings of songs like ‘I Needed It Most’ allow for an intimate look at the creative process behind one of the band’s best albums. Early versions of Tennessee Fire songs are a worthwhile bonus but the At Dawn demos are strong enough to stand alone.

Dungen - Tio Bitar

$14.98 (list price), Psychedelic Rock, Kemado

Basic Story: Sweden’s Dungen give us their fourth album and the follow-up to their critically acclaimed and groundbreaking 2004 release, Ta Det Lugnt.

Sample: Lyrics in Swedish.

Verdict: Tio Bitar translates in English to “10 Pieces,” the total amount of songs on the album, which range from two to almost nine minutes in length. Whether long or short, the songs give Dungen plenty of time to shift the musical direction several times over. The band often goes from slow, spacey pieces built around intricate fiddle playing, to fuzzed-out stadium rock, and vice versa. Overall, the songs are harder on the ears, lacking in melodic direction and increasingly self indulgent. It’s difficult to even pick out a standout track. Perhaps another case of a one album wonder.

The Takeovers - Bad Football

$14.98 (list price), Rock, Off

Basic Story: Robert Pollard and Chris Slusarenko of the retired Guided By Voices team up once again for their second album.

Sample: “I am snitching out your man/ I am rolling out your plan/ breaking out lawn furniture/ in father’s favorite temperature.”

Verdict: The Takeovers, one of Robert Pollard’s many post-GBV side projects, are in top form here, outshining many of his recent solo ventures. Bad Football features several guest musicians, including Stephen Malkmus and the Decemberists’ John Moen who help realize the potential of Pollard’s musical collages. Though some songs remain in drunken sketch form, the album is a predominately focused effort filled with several Pollard classics, including ‘My Will,’ one of the catchiest and best songs he has written in years.

A Band of Bees - Octopus

$15.98 (list price), Psychedelic Jam Pop, Astralwerks

Basic Story: The third album from Isle of Wight’s A Band of Bees pushes them slightly closer towards jam band material while maintaining traces of throwback psychedelia.

Sample: “Lost to the swell/ stand and deliver/ my coins in the well/ arrows in my quiver/ is there any love in the harbour?”

Verdict: The summer is here and it’s hard to imagine a better season to see the release of this album. With its free spiritedness and rhythmic grooves, Octopus takes you back in time to a place that looks and sounds a lot like San Francisco in the late 60s. For all you hipsters, fear not. The jam band aspect is subtle and non-threatening. Occasionally the band slows things down a bit, like on the soul flavored standout “Listening Man,” which sees singer Paul Butler doing his best Sam Cooke impression. Yes, these are kind bees, far more concerned with the sweetness of their honey than trying to sting anyone.

The Ladybug Transistor - Can't Wait Another Day

$14.98 (list price), Pop, Merge

Basic Story: Veteran indie-pop group The Ladybug Transistor’s sixth full-length manages to sound both melancholy and uplifting at the same time.

Sample: “So, when I lost you/ all the people would say/ that’s okay/ you know that the sun will shine another day on you/ but how could they know/ what you meant to me.”

Verdict: While listening to Can’t Wait Another Day, it’s difficult to disassociate lyrics like the ones above with the untimely death of the bands drummer, San Fadyl. However, Fadyl passed after the album was recorded, making such comparisons an eerie coincidence. The music itself is relatively brighter, due in part to some colorful saxophone and trumpet arrangements. In addition, the album features guest appearances by Sweden’s beloved crooner Jens Lekman and Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele. Whether it’s pop or gloom, The Ladybug Transistor seem content right in the middle.