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Gemma Ray has a dramatic flair for jarring contrasts -- chanting the title of "Tough Love" in a shell-shocked deadpan as a toy piano plunks in the background or perfectly copping Beach Boys–style wooos in "Fist of a Flower." Had Phil Spector forced his girl groups in a more noir-soundtrack direction, this might've been the result.

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This shaggy freak-folk trio’s second album boasts more than coolness by association (Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is a former bandmate). Gather, Form & Fly extends Megafaun’s back-porch mad science into unexpectedly epic realms, including straight blues and even pure pop, embellished with skronky, experimental sound effects.

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The great divide between the Avett Brothers’ raucous live shows and their records’ restraint continues on the North Carolina quartet’s major-label debut. But I and Love and You still represents a serious change-up.

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Although most of the songs on Patterson Hood's second solo album predate the existence of Drive-By Truckers, they'd easily fit on any of his band's records -- same low-life characters, busted dreams, and black humor, rendered in solidly gothic Southern rock.

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Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, best known as cofounders of early-'80s indie legends the dB's, have done fine work individually, but they’re still meant to be heard together—and hERE aND nOW deftly proves it.

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Todd Snider was born in Oregon, but he's a spiritual Texan -- a hardheaded, sharp-penned Americana songwriter whose character-actor croon fits somewhere between Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker.