Weezer
Red Album
Out Now

It takes 41 minutes to listen to the “Red Album” in its entirety. Time is not something that can be refunded...
Read full review here

Best Song: "Pork & Beans "
For fans of: being kicked in the crotch

Wolf Parade
At Mount Zoomer
Out Now

Spencer Krug continues to have the midas touch. His influence seems even greater this one than Wolf Parade's debut. Keyboards take a more prominent role, and the songs are generally much darker.

Best Song: "Fine Young Cannibals "
For fans of: Arcade Fire, Sunset Rubdown

Wye Oak
If Children
Out Now

This one's a grower, combining elements of slo-core and shoegaze, while maintaining a very dreamy pop feel.

Best Song: "Obituary"
For fans of: Ida, Low

We Are Scientists
Brain Trust Masteryed Album
Out Now

Boring 80's-influence, synth-heavy indie pop rock. A step down from their decent debut.

Best Song: "Ghouls"
For fans of: The Bravery, The Killer

The Night Marchers
See You in Magic
Out Now

Speedo is back! The sound of Reiss' new proect doesn't fall far from the relentless, rapid-fire fury of the Hot Snakes, but it's less abrasive with a little rockabilly catchiness fused in.

Best Song: "Open Your Legs "
For fans of: Hot Snakes, Rocket From The Crypt

No Age
Nouns
Out Now

Taking cues from early Sonic Youth, Nouns is built on noise and feedback, but with depth that sometimes includes delicate moments, sometimes abrasive ones.

Best Song: "Things I Did When I Was Dead"
For fans of: Sonic Youth, Liars

The Breeders
Mountain Battles
Out Now

Mountain Battles is everything fans could have wanted. Whenever a band goes so long without releasing an album, expections are lowered, but their 4th full-length lives up to their legacy, coming quite close to the brilliance of Last Splash.

Best Song: "Walk It Off"
For fans of: Pixies, Belly

Man Man
Rabbit Habits
Out Now

Just as crazy, and more upbeat and catchy than Six Demon Bag, Rabbit Habits is the best album Man Man has released so far.

Best Song: "Poor Jackie "
For fans of: Captain Beefheart, Star Wars Cantina Band

The Constantines
Kensington Heights
Out Now

A true rock band. Kensington Heights is their best album yet, greatly improving on ideas from their previous albums.

Best Song: "Our Age "
For fans of: Replacements, Springsteen

Indian Jewelry
See You in Magic
Out Now

A dark, powerful mix of experimental noise and drone rock by a shapeshifting band with an endless roster of members.

Best Song: "Pompeii"
For fans of: Warlocks, Black Angels

Unicycle Loves You
Unicycle Loves You
Out Now

This Chicago band mixes influences from every decade to create one of 2008's most infectiously catchy records.

Best Song: "Dangerous Decade "
For fans of: The Cars, Stellastarr*

Xiu XIu
Women As Lovers
Out Now

A perfect mix of experimentation, unique instrumentation and melody. It's a bit challenging, but insanely rewarding which is why Women As Lovers is an early frontrunner for album of the year.

Best Song: "No Friend Oh! "
For fans of: Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes

The Pyramids
Pyramids
Out 4/22/08

Textured soundscapes that are often simultaneously dark and haunting as well as beautiful.

Best Song: "Sleds"
For fans of: Godspeed You Black Emporer!, Explosions in the Sky

Fuck Buttons
Street Horrrsing
Out Now

Experimental done noise that occasionally builds into something colossal and brilliant. It can be at times hypnotic and and at times painful, and most people probably won't enoy it.

Best Song: "Sweet Love for Planet Earth"
For fans of: Black Dice, A Place To Bury Strangers

Foals
Antidotes
Out Now

Full of really great dancey guitarhooks that make this one of the most popular and promising debut records of the year, but it doesn't always live up to all of the blog hype.

Best Song: "Cassius"
For fans of: Klaxtons, Bloc Party

Cadence Weapon
Afterparty Babies
Out Now

Musically fresh with funny intelligent rhymes. Some of the best hip hop being created right now.

Best Song: "Limited Edition OJ Slammer"
For fans of: Atmosphere, El P

Apes & Androids
Blood Moon
Out Now

A freshly dancey, funky mix between vintage Michael Jackson, Queen, Beck and '80s synth pop. Running near a full hour, it tends to be a little long, but Blood Moon is an incredibly fun debut record from one of NYC's most exciting live bands.

Best Song: "Johnny & Sarah"
For fans of: Beck, !!!

She & Him
Volume One
Out Now

Zoey Deschanel made te right choice when she decided to make her first record with Matt Ward. Everything he touches turns to gold. Her voice is lovely and full of emotion, often reflecting vintage Patsy Cline.

Best Song: "Sentimental Heart"
For fans of: Neko Case, M Ward

Power Pill Fist
Kongmanivong
Out Now

Unique, incredibly bizarre, noisy, drugged out electronic music that can be really challenging to listen to.

Best Song: "Honey, Stroke My New Beard"
For fans of: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Lightning Bolt

Gutter Twins
Saturnalia
Out Now

The first full album collaboration between alt-rock legends Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan sounds like a dark black version of Twilight SIngers, with Lanegan's voice taking it to a very eery place. If you already love Dulli and Lanegan, you'll love Gutter Twins.

Best Song: "God's Children"
For fans of: Twilight Singers, Screaming Trees

Destroyer
Trouble in dreams
Out Now

Dan Bejar remains one of the best and most unique songwriters making music. Plays like a beautifully painted dream.

Best Song: "The State '"
For fans of: Sunset Rubdown, New Pornographers

Apples in Stereo
Electronic Proects for musicians
Out Now

May only be a compilation album but this is the same delicious pyschedellic beatle-esque pop that we've come to expect from Apples in Stereo. These songs will get stuck in your head for days

Best Song: "Hold on to this Day "
For fans of: Beatles, Beulah

Dragged By Horses
Deep in the woods
Out Now

Music that perfectly fits it's name. You'll surely feel like you're being dragged by horses deep into the woods (in that good way). It's heavy and relentless.

Best Song: "One Way Ticket To Rome '"
For fans of: Jesus Lizard, Shellac

Jukebox the Ghost
Lust Lust Lust
Out Now

Harmless piano pop. A nice listen, but won't offer much of anything new.

Best Song: "Hold it On "
For fans of: Ben Folds, Mates of State

Nada Surf
Lucky
Out Now

Lucky is a return to the more heartfelt tendencies of Let Go. Although it never quite reaches the beauty of Let Go, there's plenty of top notch tracks, and in all fairness Let Go is a once-in-a-lifetime type of album. Pay close attention to the heavy Teenage Fanclub influence on Matthew Caws guitar sound on this one.

Best Song: "Ice On The Wing'"
For fans of: Teenage Fanclub, John Vanderslice

The Raveonettes
Lust Lust Lust
Out 2/19

The fuzz heavy sound of Chain Gang of Love is back, and the result is another great Raveonettes record.

Best Song: "Blush"
For fans of: The Jesus & Mary Chain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Vampire Weekend
Vampire weekend
Out Now

Coming from a scene proned to create heavy dense, experimenal music, Vampire Weekend's looser sound is a breathe of fresh air. There is nothing groundbreaking here, but there are a bunch of really great fun pop songs.

Best Song: "M79"
For fans of: Paul Simon, Buddy Holly

Lightspeed Champion
Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
Out Now

Certain moments show promise, but his debut never quite breaks any ground or gives the listener anything substantial enough to make it memorable.

Best Song: "Salty Water"
For fans of: Bright Eyes, Okkervil River

Evangelicals
The Evening Descends
Out Now

This one is a rich, original album from a young band that will soon be indie stars. The Evening Descends is dark but uplifting, with layer after layer of shifting sounds and styles. With such a heavily layered soundscape, every listen provides new experiences.

Best Song: "Party Crashin'"
For fans of: Flaming Lips, Of Montreal

The Magnetic Fields
Distortion
Out Now

Distortion is a perfect title for this album, but it doesn't mean this album is filled with overwhelming noise. Many of the songs on Distortion have the fun, humorous vibe that made 69 Love Songs so amazing, but it's also a more solid cohesive album. The return of Shirley Simms also makes this album special, as she contributes few of the standout tracks on this one.

Best Song: "Til the Bitter End"
For fans of: Raveonettes, Fiery Furnaces

Mars Volta
The Bedlam in Goliath
Out Now

Mars Volta has developed into a rock goliath, able to create songs as monstrous as Zeppelin, but with the tendency to drown in their virtuoisity. The Bedlam in Goliath is not as instantly rewarding as past records, because it's so dense with rich instrumentation.

Best Song: "Cavalettas"
For fans of: Led Zeppelin, Queen

Sons & Daughters
This Gift
Out Now

If only every song was as good as "Chains," this could've been the big break out for Sons & Daughters and could've been a really great album. Instead, most of the songs lack that perfect sing-along charm that makes "Chains" an early favorite for song of the year.

Best Song: "Chains"
For fans of: Grease, Raveonettes

Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Quantum Fucking (A Fictious Real Life Account Of Young Love In The Streets)
Out Now

From the opening bassline, you know that Fatal Flying Guilloteens are on the attack and ready for the fight, playing with the aggression of 90s legends The Jesus Lizard. Quantum Fucking has an exhausting recklessness that makes it both tiring and rewarding.

Best Song: "Great Apes"
For fans of: Big Black, Jesus Lizard

Beach House
Devotion
Out Now

Soft California pop drowned in dreamy atmosphere, Beach House's Devotion is great for a lazy day.

Best Song: "Heart of Chambers"
For fans of: Grizzly Bears, The Thrills

Big Sleep
Sleep Forever
Out Now

Big Sleep chooses to let 3 tracks of rocking instrumentals set the tone, before introducing any vocals. The band then uses mulitple vocals to ride along the huge waves set by the huge distorted guitars. Big Sleep proves early on that they know how to rock, but also manages throw in a ballad, before going right back to rocking.

Best Song: "Sleep Forever"
For fans of: Les Savy Fav, Shellac

British Sea Power
Do You Like Rock Music?
Out Now

They've taken the sounds of underrated bands like The Church and Echo and the Bunnymen, and added more soaring guitars and a sense of immediacy.

Best Song: "Atom"
For fans of: Arcade Fire, The Church

Black Mountain
In the future
Out Now

This one will not allow itself to go overlooked, the way Black Mountain's debut has been. "In The Future" is just too big and epic to not receive the acclaim it deserves as a modern rock masterpiece. Everything about this album is huge, the ideas, the riffs, and there's even a song that clocks in at over 16 minutes. Black Mountain has taken the grandiose ideas of the 70s rock gods like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and given it the new life that so many others have failed to do.

Best Song: "Bright Lights"
For fans of: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin

The GoStation
Passion Beofre Function
Out Now

An impressive debut overflowing in huge passionate stadium anthems. For every miss, there's a huge hit, and they'll eventually break through the wall that keeps them from big time success.

Best Song: "Twin Six"
For fans of: U2, Oasis

Hot Chip
Made in the dark
2/5

If this one doesn't make you crack a smile and shake your hips, then you truly are doomed. Each track is a treasure trove of delicious 80s beats, quirky sounds and pop genius, taking Gary Numan's synth-machinery sound and adding dance grooves to it. "Ready for the Floor" will be one of the biggest hits of the year, and people everywhere will know the name Hot Chip.

Best Song: "Ready For The Floor"
For fans of: Justice, Devo

Atlas Sound
Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
2/19

Bradford Cox's debut solo album is a lush lullaby at times hinting at brilliance. At times this dream becomes hypnotizing, lullng the listener further and further into a trance, only to carry the listener further into this psychedellic dreamworld.

Best Song: "Recent Bedroom"
For fans of: Deerhunter, My Bloody Valentine

Foxy Shazam
Introducing
Out Now

Expect this one to make a major impact in early 2008. It plays like a hybrid between Blood Brothers' energy and Queen's dramatic song structures.

Best Song: "A Dangerous Man"
For fans of: Blood Brothers, My Chemical Romance