IN THE CHRISTMAS GROOVE
VARIOUS ARTISTS
(Strut)

Sick of the usual holiday favorites (though I'll never tired of Saint Mariah), I was pleased as rare twist punch with In the Christmas Groove — a compilation of obscure stone cold soul, funk, and other vintage grooves from Christmas past, namely the 1960s and '70s holiday spirits.

Read more »

MWAHAHA
MWAHAHA
(Mwahaha Music)

Poor choice in band name aside, Oakland psych-rock quartet Mwahaha's debut has a lot to offer. On album opener "Swimmer," Ross Peacock sings "I swim deeper through darkness and danger / from the surface and its beautiful light" in an alluring falsetto over warm synth tones.  Read more »

By Irwin Swirnoff

THEE OH SEES
CARRION CRAWLER/THE DREAM
(In The Red)

It's very easy to take things for granted in San Francisco, and in many ways that's been the demise of so many amazing things in this city; we forget to applaud, support, and revel in the magic when it's here, only to lament it when it's taken away. Thee Oh Sees are on fire, this is their second full length of the year. Their work ethic is as charged as the songs that fill this record. Something happens when you listen to Carrion Crawler/The Dream, you blast it loud and then you begin to move, and sweat, and get out of your head and into your body and feel so raw and alive. Don't take them for granted; they are the best rock band on the planet right now. See videos after the jump. Read more »

SUPER 11
SUPER ONZE
(self-released)

Led by hand drumming, three-stringed n'goni lute, and organic pitch shifting Malian chant, Super 11's Super Onze is a compelling set of songs. The band, a collective formed in a remote region of Northern Mali, plays Takamba, a type of music typically created for weddings and other ceremonies. It comes from a rich musical history, linked to other artists in the area, and in style to acts such as Ali Farka Touré.

Read more »

Listening to local SF rapper Richie Cunning's new song Pure Imagination has proven to be terribly infectious, as I haven't been able to get it out of my head.

Read more »

PJ HARVEY
Let England Shake
(Vagrant)

It’s not really a subtle couplet, “Weighted down with silent dead/ I fear our blood won’t rise again,” but with it the title track for PJ Harvey’s newest offering Let England Shake sets the stage for the songs to come. A surprisingly melodic exploration of the still reverberating effects of World War I on England’s shores and English mores, Let England Shake is both a call to arms and a plea to lay them down again. And despite its deliberate focus on atrocities past, the album can’t help but to implicate all current and future wars within its narrow rifle scope. Read more »

JESSICA 6
"White Horse" and "Fun Girl"
(Peacefrog)

Siren of the dance floor Nomi Ruiz is looking and sounding even better outside of Hercules and Love Affair; in fact, depending on the petty commercial whims and deeper prejudices of the world, she could be the most alluring pop diva since Aaliyah. Washing in on peerless cymbal-sprays, "White Horse" comes on like the 21st-century answer to Shannon's "Let the Music Play" while also notching top spot in the current Madonna revival. Its video sashays through the kind of N.Y. nighttime sleaze that just about disappeared with the Gaiety, and does so with style. The older "Fun Girl" has traces of the Hercules sound as well as Janet Jackson's and Aaliyah's feline flirtations with guitar rock, and a warped horror-tinged sound that make sense when one considers Jessica 6's original name was Deep Red. Check out the flawless combo of windblown hair/keyboard at 1:14. Can't wait for the album. Videos after the jump. Read more »

ARNAUD FLEURENT-DIDIER
La Reproduction
(Columbia/Sony Music)

If you're a lover of chanson-tinged pop and you found Benjamin Biolay's recent double-LP a letdown, then there's bittersweet relief to be found in this song collection, which covers similarly vast instrumental terrain with an ease that the ostentatious Biolay didn't manage. Fleurent-Didier reminds me a bit of Gerard Manset, but not quite as brooding -- there's modernity and whimsy to his compositions and vocal delivery. The interplay between vulnerable voice, acoustic guitar, piano, electronics, and orchestration in "Reproductions" is flat-out gorgeous. The Contempt-inflected music video for that song is one of the best I've seen in quite a while. Totally, tenderly, tragically, after the jump. Read more »

SILK FLOWERS
Ltd. Form
(PPM)

There's something endearingly ungainly about Aviram Cohen's singing, but Silk Flowers is most successful in instrumental mode, and the majority of Ltd. Form steers clear of the morbid imagery and Michael Gira-like or Andrew Ridgely-type baritone posturing that characterizes three of the album's tracks. The highlight is "Small Fortune" (which I keep wanting to call "Small Wonder"), an electric dream Phil Oakey would covet. It cries out for a dramatic pop vocal, yet likely is more resplendent without one. Listen in after the jump. Read more »

PETER GORDON
Love of Life Orchestra
(DFA)

With Arthur Russell duly sainted, the New York City avant-disco revival turns to this extensive, expansive studio project and its lush, sax-dominated epics. Blessed with the mastery of a conductor, Peter Gordon brought together a community of musicians -- including Russell, David Byrne, David Johansen, Art Londsay, and vocalist Rebecca Armstrong -- with distinctly lavish and madcap results. "Extended Niceties" and "Roses on the Dance Floor" are as terrific as their titles, and "Beautiful Dreamer" is exquisite. Two tracks after the jump. Read more »