Spring 2009 1 Camera Obscura - French Navy  This Glaswegian band may have only formed a dozen years ago, but its sound hearkens a much earlier era in pop music, with a swaying '50s feel and a practical overabundance in tambourines. The five-piece isn't afraid to dress the part, either.
iTunes 2 Sydney Wayser - La Di Da Growing up, 22-year-old Sydney Wayser split time between living in Paris and L.A. Her sophomore set spends equal energy on lush orchestration and artful, sweet lyricism.
myspace.com 3 Harlem Shakes - TFO Tambourines, horns, harmonies, big thumping percussion and singer Lexy Benaim's nerdy, buoyant vocals make the new album from Harlem Shakes as technicolor as one can dream.
iTunes 4 Neko Case - Middle Cyclone The front cover of Neko Case's newest concoction features the sultry firebrand perched on the hood of a 1968 Mercury Cougar with a lance hoisted above her shoulder, her face determined and earnest. The album is just kinda like that. Also, imagine guests like M. Ward and members of the New Pornographers, Calexico and Visqueen helping push the thing.
iTunes 5 Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, The Commuter Former Grandaddy mastermind Jason Lytle fronts this new solo psych-pop effort in every respect, playing every instrument and performing every vocal part himself, resulting in a sound that is as gigantic -- yet strangely intimate -- as his homebase of Montana.
iTunes 6 Cryptacize - Mythomania Cryptacize takes a less-is-more approach on its debut, and not for lack of skill: it gives room to let its singers to do what singers do best (hint: sing) while making its bare bass and guitar lines as raw and nasty as a 1960's thriller.
iTunes 7 Mexican Institute of Sound - Hiedra Venenosa Camilo Lara paints an authentic mural of electronic, dub and a handful of Latin dance music traditions together and keeps the BPM high. Thankfully, Lara is actually from Mexico; if he were trying to be ironic it'd just break our little hearts.
iTunes 8 La Strada - Sun Song "La Strada," the 1950's Fellini movie, is about a young girl who gets sold to a violent Carnie as an apprentice. La Strada, the band, is a five-piece accordion rock troupe from Brooklyn, bustling with charmed orchestrations and high energy. The first will break your heart into a million pieces; the latter will put it back together with stickers and magic.
iTunes 9 School Of Seven Bells - Half Asleep This dream-pop trio writes imaginary communiqués between the members of the School of Seven Bells, a maybe-fictional institute of pickpockets in South America in the '80s. The synchronicity of the sisters' voices in these songs indicate that such correspondences are among the prettiest in petty thievery history.
iTunes 10 Lukestar - Shape Of Light Norwegian fivesome Lukestar were apparently inspired to form after uncovering a mutual love of Queen, which does not explain at all why they pair itty bitty voices with great big noisy drums and three-chord guitar rock.
iTunes 11 Leena - Mean Old Clock With the "Mean Old Clock" EP as her first release, Australian singer Leena is only just getting started. This heavily-mixed set has contributions from producers Josh Pyke, Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, Tori Amos, My Morning Jacket), and Mike Daly (Whiskeytown).
myspace.com 12 Great Lake Swimmers - Everything Is Moving So Fast Tony Dekker and his band choose to record in old barns, houses of worship, purportedly wooden buildings one finds in rural wildernesses like Dark Island, N.Y. and Rockport, Ontario. Location is everything, as the band breeds an earthy, spooky aura all over its fourth album "Lost Channels."
iTunes 13 Other Lives - Matador Tbd Records is having a good run lately, with releases from, well, Radiohead and White Rabbits. Stillwater, Okla.-native Other Lives has a good home for its emotional tunes, with song after song like the perfect exit music to a tear-jerking finale of an HBO drama.
iTunes 14 Fol Chen - No Wedding Cake A mix of dance and psych-rock one minute and eerie pop the next, this Asthmatic Kitty act is just as bouncy and weird as their name implies.
myspace.com 15 O+S - We Do What We Want To Orenda Fink of Azure Ray makes up the "O" portion of this band, while Scalpelist (Cedric LeMoyne of Remy Zero) represents the "S". An invisible, but omnipresent, "M" comes from Michael Patterson (Beck, Notorious B.I.G., Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), who produced this melancholy collaboration.
iTunes 16 Maria Taylor - Time Lapse Lifeline We couldn't write about one half of Azure Ray and not the other! Maria Taylor suggests fans listen to her latest solo set laying down. Other tracks on her album suggest you also ride a horse, write a love letter to The One That Got Away and walk in the rain without an umbrella.
iTunes 17 Swan Lake - Heartswarm Swan Lake combines the rock grit and experimental cajones of three distinct songwriters: Dan Bejar (Destroyer and New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes). With spacious, weird soundscapes, our hearts swarm indeed.
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