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Plundering the 1980s for inspiration (shock!), 27-year- old New Zealander Pip Brown emerges with a confection of synth-infused, mammoth-chorused tunes that sound surprisingly and thrillingly fresh. The trick lies in Brown's blissfully irony-free attitude: Through the digital wizardry and pumping beats, you can hear an unabashedly heartfelt and occasionally vulnerable artist.

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By now, when it comes to his lyrics, you have to wonder if Chad Kroeger is just taking the piss: "Gotta meet the hottie with the million-dollar body," he marvels, checking out a stripper with a "pretty pink thong" at the start of the new Nickelback album. "They say it's over budget / But you pay her just to touch it," he concludes.

Because 2008 wasn't enough like the ultimate battle of good versus evil, Beyoncé would like to throw her hat into the fray. Or, rather, her glove -- the silver Terminator accessory she's been sporting, which signifies the haute couture arrogance and can-crushing prowess of her new persona, Sasha Fierce.

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On his first collection of original material since 2001's Fight to Win, Afrobeat scion Femi Kuti and his sprawling Positive Force ensemble unfurl 12 songs of serpentine rhythms and civic disobedience.

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Downtown ennui is blown to the winds as laptopper Kieran "Four Tet" Hebden joins jazz drummer Steve Reid for their fourth, and furthest-out, collaboration. Harnessing acid-rock bass, analog squiggles, and what sounds like a drum showroom's worth of percussion, these New York odes jump from On the Corner funk to the cosmic maelstrom of the Boredoms.

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This unlikely twosome seem too ludicrously incompatible to inspire any musical alchemy: She brought extra twee-ness to Belle and Sebastian's twee-est years, and he growled through grunge as the lead Screaming Tree. But when she writes the songs -- dark, deliciously dreary stories of yore -- and coos in the background as he spreads the vocal molasses, there's an audible click.