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Paris-born, Barcelona-based Manu Chao has always been a traveler, roaming the U.K. to pick up punk, heading to Central America to immerse himself in salsa. The premise of 2001's Próxima Estación: Esperanza -- Chao moving casually between styles and languages as radio static smoothed the transitions -- was apt.

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After crafting two gorgeously understated Sub Pop albums that languished, this Oakland quartet teams with Yo La Tengo producer Roger Moutenot to create a make-or-break manifesto (on Jack Johnson's label!) that often trumps indie rock's big-leaguers. Intensifying the light and shade of his tunes with finely detailed psychedelia, leader Zach Rogue picks up the alternative pop gauntlet R.E.M.

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Much of Devendra Banhart's appeal since his emergence in 2002 has had to do with the ways in which he's been able to convince us that he's not just a standard-issue dirty hippie: Consider the flamenco-flecked folk songs on 2005's Cripple Crow or the singer's bizarro gossip-column dalliances with Lindsay Lohan.

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The eighth studio album from these folk-pop weirdos opens with 25 seconds of squelchy insectoid chatter that comes off as willfully annoying. Then the noise resolves into a chunky electro-throb that forms the basis of a fine summertime pop tune, featuring samples of monster movies, words like "broccoli," and a chorus woven from the cheery sounds of steel drums.