Arcade Fire
Inspired by Haitian rhythms and modern disco, Win Butler, Régine Chassange and company ask tough questions that are easy to dance to.
Vampire Weekend
Although they’ve moved away from their delicious African-pop hybrid, the New York smartypants remain relentlessly inventive.
Valerie June
Her “organic moonshine roots music,” featuring old-school hymns and stomping blues-rockers, makes for an intoxicating brew.
Franz Ferdinand
The Scottish pop-rockers sound as fresh and vital on their engaging fourth album as they did on their first.
Laura Marling
The English folkie mixes soul-baring, Joni Mitchell-style confessions with entrancing Eastern mystic tinges to devastating effect.
Neko Case
One of the purest voices on the planet continues to venture forward bravely.
Janelle Monáe
Psychedelic soul with a sci-fi twist, Monáe’s latest takes us deeper into her android alter-ego’s dazzling alternate universe.
Lorde
The 17-year-old Kiwi had the year’s savviest hit with “Royals,” but her entire album boasts a brave voice that is bright, thoughtful and impossible to ignore.
Atoms For Peace
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke gets happy with this funky side-project that finds his choir-boy falsetto dancing deliriously with some monster grooves.
M.I.A.
Her cross-cultural mélange has sometimes been too abrasive, but here pop’s agent provocateur finds the right balance of jarring beats and sweetened love songs.
BEST REISSUES
Paul Simon
Otis Redding
Joseph Kabasele
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
OTHER DISCOVERIES, REDISCOVERIES AND ENTHUSIASMS
Luke Winslow King
Rokia Traore
Django Django
Kobo Town
Laura Mvula
John Brown’s Body
Pokey LaFarge
Zaki Ibrahim
Jake Bugg
The Mavericks