began on 2005’s Woman King EP. The Shepherd’s Dog slips into sultry dub beats, jazz piano, and even jovial whistling, but the real orchestration is in Beam’s voice, a sigh so angelic it masks the religious turmoil within. STACE Y ANDERSON

The Go! Team:
“Archer? We don’t
even know her!”
Sharon Jones and
the Dap-Kings
100 Days 100 Nights ½
ITUNES MYSPACE

The full-figured antidote to emaciated “Rehab” dolls It’s wonderfully quixotic that the indie set—not normally known for soulful exultation or, indeed, much more than mannered, fidgety whiteness—has embraced 51-year-old belter Sharon Jones, whose songs sound old and new, wiggly and sensual, raw and cooked. Her crack band of Dap-Kings have enlivened everyone from Kanye to Amy Winehouse, but their most natural habitat is in Jones’ Aretha-like tales of sex (the grinding “Let Them Knock”), independence (the bumping “Nobody’s Baby”), and the good Lord himself (the slinky “Answer Me”). JOSH MODELL

Bettye LaVette
The Scene of
the Crime
ITUNES MYSPACE
Detroit soul queen flirts
with banality, recovers

The indie Tina Turner follows up her tightly wound 2005 comeback, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, in the company of Drive-By Truckers and Muscle Shoals vets, whose mannered blues shuffles unfortunately sound like they’re backing a beer commercial. On the better, slower songs by Elton John and Uncle Ray, the band trades slide guitar for pedal steel, and LaVette’s fierce voice drops to a whisper. Then, on Willie Nelson’s pleading ballad “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces,” devastation ensues. SEAN HOWE

Ending”), expressions of passion (the country-ish “Blush”), and reflections on lust (the arena-friendly “Sex Without Love”). Occasionally, Lee’s wit triumphs over his predictability, notably on “Birds and Bees” (a sexy duet with Mandy Moore) and “What Would Jay-Z Do?,” a thoughtful essay on self-doubt. JON YOUNG

touring schedule, guitarist Elisa Ambrogio and drummer Pete Nolan (founding member Leah Quimby left last year) have combusted a ferocious no-wave mix of detuned feedback, demented drumming, and holy-ghost free verse. Boss finds the duo (with producer/Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo on glockenspiel) still feral but also forlorn. On the heartbroken “Empty Bottles” and the spectral “Hartford’s Beat Suite,” Ambrogio emulates Karen O circa “Maps,” openly showing her bones. ANDY BE TA

insisting that her second album be a double-disc set like her first, this New York singer/songwriter/ pianist knocks out her third, a brisk nine-song set that plays like the breathless first act of a stage musical decrying American fascism. Backed by jazz vets who amplify the hairpin turns of McKay’s manic melodies and labyrinthine lyrics, this justified ham spits out pun-filled, potty-mouthed social commentary as flügelhorns honk and xylophones tinkle. BARRY WALTERS

After 12 albums, Al Jourgensen is yanking the plug on the act that led the way for every Reznor, Manson, and Zombie to follow. His farewell is also the last album in a trilogy vilifying President Bush, and while there’s nothing here as dense and biting as the Ministry slams of Bush Sr. in the ’90s, Jourgensen can still pile on the jackhammer beats and clever samples. “Death and Destruction” crowbars Dubya clips between chugging riffs; the anti–Big Brother blast “Watch Yourself” is paranoid metal madness; and the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” gets a power-thrash makeover. JASON BUHRMESTER

JAMIE BEEDEN/COURTES Y PRESS HERE

Ben Lee Ripe ½ ITUNES MYSPACE

Veteran love junkie dusts off
the usual pickup lines

Now in his second decade turning out romantic guitar pop, Australia’s Ben Lee could use some new subject matter. Featuring members of Rooney and Good Charlotte, his sixth solo album includes unexceptional tales of desire (the emo-tinged “Love Me Like the World Is

Les Savy Fav
Let’s Stay Friends
ITUNES MYSPACE
Beloved Brooklynites return
triumphantly, loudly

Les Savy Fav’s legend—built on maniacal shows and the antics of singer Tim Harrington, who requires tactile audience interaction to get off—has only grown over six inactive years. The breakneck, invigorating Let’s Stay Friends almost captures the band’s sweaty, live weirdness on record, and it leaves enough breathing room for their wicked smarts to shimmy up through the hip-shak-ing indie punk. “Raging in the Plague Age” gives a Hold Steady hotfoot to Trail of Dead bombast, but it avoids the premeditation of both in favor of an unfakeable impetuous fervor. JOSH MODELL

Magik Markers Boss ITUNES MYSPACE

Connecticut noise rockers, um,
draw on their influences

Like their name implies, Magik Markers’ music is scribbled, messy, and a malodorous high. Over the course of innumerable CD-Rs and a relentless

Matt Pond PA Last Light ½ ITUNES MYSPACE

It’s not a town. It’s not even a pond. It’s just a man. Over six albums, Matt Pond PA have established themselves as stevedores of the indie world, diligently unloading straightforward rock kept apace by chamber flourishes (cello, violin) and Pond’s monochromatic warble. Last Light still follows a logical, workmanlike path, but detours into arch, twitchy guitar and languid, countrified ballads that show a poised sincerity. Aided by Neko Case, “Taught to Look Away” pushes the Pennsylvania boys into a new realm of desolate beauty. STACE Y ANDERSON

Kevin Michael
Kevin Michael

ITUNES MYSPACE

For now, afro’d Philly kid is a Legend only in his own mind With his downy afro and thrift-store gear, this 22-year-old singer looks the part of a bohemian soul eccentric. And on the first track of his debut, Michael delivers a true incense-and-beads anthem: “We All Want the Same Thing” is a clever let’s-just-all-get-along party cut, powered by a chugging slide guitar vamp and a sprightly Lupe Fiasco rap. But the rest of the album buries otherwise thrilling moments—the eerie “Ha Ha Ha,” three-hanky ballad “Ain’t Got You”—amid a steady stream of generic R&B. And the schlocky Wyclef cameo? Indefensible. MICHAEL ENDELMAN

Nellie McKay Obligatory Villagers ITUNES MYSPACE

Life is a cabaret (again) for this
tireless showbiz subversive
Having split with Sony after
Ministry
The Last Sucker
ITUNES MYSPACE

Industrial-rock godfather goes out with sampler a-blazin’

Modeselektor Happy Birthday! AMAZON MYSPACE

Knob-twiddlers get by with some help from their friends Taking their name from a knob on the vintage Roland RE-201 tape-echo machine, the Berlin DJ/production duo of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary line up a series of ace cameos on their wildly eclectic second album of original material. Thom Yorke beams in ghostly vocals on “The White Flash,” French rap geeks T TC are sliced and diced on the funky “2000007,” IDM malcontent Otto Von Schirach scares the kids on “Hyper Hyper,” and Maxïmo Park get processed on the bonus track “I Can’t Sleep (Without Music).” J. NIIMI