Black Ghosts
Beautiful, sublime, and masterful in its production, this album is brilliant on every track. The Black Ghosts combine energetic electronic grooves with touches of funk and jazz, with a sublime craftmanship that merits an extra large portion of toe-tapping. I’d love to call this album playful, but the serious effort given by the obviously talented musicians in this group can be seen from the first moment the music fills the air and enters your cerebrum.

The Hold Steady
Recently I referred to this band as a group finally fulfilling the potential of what midwest rock could do (from Minneapolis-Saint Paul originally, their roots grew in Brooklyn). They have also been referred to as “America’s Bar Band” – however the driving feature of this band is undoubtedly their ability to combine meaningful, sometimes heart-wrenching lyrics to a full, rock band back without ever coming across as just trying to do so. The lyrical influences, from Bruce Springsteen and Jim Carroll to Atmosphere and Jay-Z, show in this vibrant, far-spanning effort!

Chromeo
If the fun-loving, superfunk attitude that all but drips out of the air when this album is on makes is purely evident that the two members of this band never made it out of the disco mindset. But given all the modern advantages of The Electronic/Communications/Nintendo Age, what comes out of the speakers is the exact thing that would come out of Hal’s exercise room in Space Odyssey 2001! “When you wanna go Wow! When you wanna scream and shout tonight!”