Aerosmith on 'We All Fall Down' – Track-by-Track Premiere

Diane Warren song 'was just weird enough for us to pull off,' Steven Tyler says Aerosmith, 'Music from Another Dimension!' Columbia Aerosmith have a long history of hit-making, with a winning streak of Top 40 singles spanning four decades, from 1975's "Sweet Emotion" to 2001's "Jaded." Most of those songs were written by members of the band, but they've also reached outside for material from the likes of pop composer Diane Warren. She provided Music From Another Dimension! with "We All Fall Down," another tortured, romantic ballad sung by Steven Tyler: "I will catch you / Never let you go / I won't let you go through it alone." The band has a notable history with Warren, who wrote their massive 1998 pop hit "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," the climactic tearjerker from the movie Armageddon, which co-starred Tyler's actress daughter, Liv. It was Aerosmith's first Number One pop hit. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. 100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Aerosmith Based in Los Angeles, Warren has written pop hits for vocalists as varied as Elton John, Celine Dion, Faith Hill and Gloria Estefan. The traditionally hard-rocking Aerosmith somehow fit into that company, and she offered "We All Fall Down" to the reunited Boston band. "I think she has some kind of intuition," says guitarist Brad Whitford. "She just knew that it was perfect for Steven to sing." Guitarist Joe Perry also heard Warren's early demo of the song and played it for his wife, Billie. "She started to cry when she heard it," Perry says now."That's when I brought it around again: 'Steven, remember this one?' It was just one of those Diane Warren songs. It carried its weight. It was just great." Tyler compares the song's dramatic pacing to a rock single he remembers from high school, 1967's "Come on Down to My Boat" by Every Mother's Son. "The chorus goes 'We  . . . all . . . fall . . . down.' That's monumental in any song. When you do a song and all of a sudden just the drums are there?" says Tyler, who initially sang the tune over piano before the band added their parts. "That's magic in songs. So when I heard that, I knew it was just weird enough for us to pull off." Listen to "We All Fall Down":

Das Racist Dance to Impress in 'Girl'

Das Racist Dance to Impress in 'Girl' Dancing dude with mullet gets psyched for his crush in new clip By In Das Racist's new video for their Relax track "Girl," a dude with a mullet shows off sharp dance moves in his attempt to catch his crush's eye. However, despite following her across town and even fighting off some bad guys who take him by surprise, he just can't grab her attention. He swags hard on the outside, but his supreme confidence is just in his mind. We all know the feeling.

Behind the Scenes with Borgore and Miley Cyrus in 'Decisions' – Premiere

Behind the Scenes with Borgore and Miley Cyrus in 'Decisions' – Premiere An inside look into the dubstep DJ's messy, cake-filled clip By Borgore gets quite messy in his new video for "Decisions," taking on his collaborator Miley Cyrus in a cake-filled food fight. Filmed at Beacher's Madhouse in Los Angeles, "Decisions" is about, according to Borgore, "How much bitches love cake." But it's also about interpreting "becoming successful, or... the way you look, or because you've got money" as having "cake." "During the cake fight, Miley asked me to cake her anywhere but her face," Borgore tells Rolling Stone. "It's clearly not part of my agenda but she's pretty, so I cut her some slack." Borgore's Decisions EP is out now.

Led Zeppelin Blast Off With 'Kashmir' at London Reunion

Led Zeppelin Blast Off With 'Kashmir' at London Reunion Clip comes from 'Celebration Day' film capturing 2007 show By Back in 2007, Led Zeppelin reunited for bombastic a two-hour set at London's O2 Arena as part of a tribute concert for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. The film documenting that legendary one-off, Celebration Day, is slated for home release on November 19th, and with the band insisting that another reunion isn't coming, you can take solace in this exclusive clip of the rock icons blasting their way through the Physical Graffiti classic "Kashmir."

Nirvana's Smashed 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' Bass Up for Auction

1960s Japanese instrument was destroyed in music video Courtesy of Christie's The bass that Krist Novoselic played and Kurt Cobain smashed in the video for Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" will be up for auction by Christie's in London on November 29th. The seller of the 1960s Japanese Zen-On bass was a teenager at the time of the video's shoot; he had applied to be an extra, and grabbed the bass from the set. Knowing the bass would be destroyed, Novoselic sought an inexpensive piece of gear, and purchased the bass at a local pawn shop. The instrument is expected to fetch between $24,000 and more than $40,000.

On the Charts: Taylor Swift Hits a Million Without Sales Tricks

Plus, Kendrick Lamar debuts in second Taylor Swift performs on 'Good Morning America' in New York. Kevin Mazur/WireImage WINNER OF THE WEEK: Taylor Swift. Duh. Red is not only the best-selling album of this week, it's the best-selling album of any week since 2002, when Eminem's The Eminem Show made its debut with 1.322 million in sales. Red actually beat expectations, selling 1.208 million copies, without any sales tricks such as Lady Gaga's 99-cent Amazon deal or Madonna's bundling of albums and concert tickets. My theory is that today's record industry contains exactly two stars who can sell millions of albums at a time – Taylor Swift and Adele. Which may be the ultimate legacy of the crippling MP3 revolution – that the world can have only a couple of Britney-circa-2000 stars at a time. My alternate theory is that for all the whining about the Internet, maybe there just haven't been that many great, culture-dominating, giant-pop-star records over the past decade. LOSER OF THE WEEK: Everybody else in the Top 10 who had the misfortune of coming out during Taylor Week. Kendrick Lamar's brilliantly profane Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, the rapper's first major-label album after a robust indie career, has to settle for Number Two with a respectable 241,000 sales. Also growing up on the pop charts is bluesman Gary Clark Jr., whose Blak & Blu sells 35,000 and hits Number Six, his first bona fide major-label studio album after an excellent EP last year. I bet pop stars who waited to release albums until the holiday season will wind up bummed out, destined perhaps beyond the end of this year to settle for Number Two to Swift's undead Red. A GOLDEN AGE OF INDIES?: Remember the good old days, in the Fifties and Sixties, when mom-and-pop record labels such as Sun, Motown, Stax and Chess regularly put out the best music despite competition with megacorporations such as Columbia and RCA? Could we be in another age like that? The chart statistics would certainly suggest it – the American Association of Independent Music reports the last five Number One albums have been Mumford and Sons' Babel (on tiny Glassnote Records, for three weeks this month), Jason Aldean's Night Train (on Broken Bow) and Swift's Red (on Big Machine, although that's a bit misleading since it has a distribution deal with giant Universal). A2IM calls this a "thrilling moment" and "just the beginning," which may be true, given major-label defections from Madonna to the Eagles in recent years – and don't forget that Adele's 21, the biggest album of the last few years, arrived on indie XL (through Sony). LAST WEEK: Taylor Swift's 'Red' Set to Blow Up

Tame Impala - Live At O2 Academy, Brixton

When a young band makes the leap up to venues the size of the O2 Academy, Brixton, there's always a disquieting feeling the place might swallow them up and they will end up sounding a little tame (pun utterly intended). But there is certainly no such concern for tonight's sell-out crowd, all gathered to witness Australia's most exciting export since Steve Irwin. In fact, it wouldn't matter which venue Tame Impala played, their sound is so huge it's on another planet. The band's synth-soaked space rock has been swelling in acclaim since the release of their second album 'Lonerism', basking in the praises of both critics and fans alike, and their performance tonight cements them as one of the most innovative and exciting groups around. They open with drifty cosmic intro 'Be Above It' lulling in a hazy half-dream of looping vocals and tribal drums, before launching into the colossal 'Solitude is Bliss'. The crowd go insane and from that moment on Tame have them eating out of their hands. The first half of the show is built up mainly of tracks from the band's storming 2010 debut album 'Innerspeaker', many of which are delightfully blended together with jammy little interludes, at times verging on dance music. Stand-out tracks from the new release are certainly 'Music to Walk Home By' and the sorrow tinged 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards'. These tracks sparkle with groove and maturity, but to look at the band you'd think a couple of the boys were barely old enough to buy fags! As the packed crowd leap and sway to the storming 'Apocalypse Dreams' and foot-stomping anthem 'Elephant', it's easy to see why the thirsty masses are lapping up Tame's psychedelic rock milk. One of the most beautiful aspects of the band is the way they give their music space to breathe. No spoon-feeding the same riff over and over, no clambering to get to the first chorus in the first thirty seconds – the guitars can go wandering and the honey-licked vocals can creep and swoop without being suffocated. Even the drums get a couple of solos, meaning you have time to stand back and fully absorb every inch of what the band is creating. Parker seems genuinely moved by the reaction of the London mob, shaking his head in between songs and murmuring, "Amazing, you guys, just amazing." And as the band leave the stage his grinning band mates come fist pumping to the front of the stage, clearly trying to get their longhaired hippy heads around the adoration they receive. But there's one more twist in the tale of the Tame. The boys re-emerge for an extended version of old favourite 'Half Full Glass of Wine' a driving, twisted monster of a tune, before finally releasing the feverous crowd from their jaws, leaving them to stumble out dazed into the biting Halloween freeze. Words by Luke Holloway Photos by Rachel Lipsitz

High and Tight: The Great Cy Young Debate

Ken Casey, George Thorogood, Handsome Dick Manitoba and more weigh in on our national pastime R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets and David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays. Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images; Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Two weeks from now, this year's Cy Young Award winners will be announced. Introduced in 1956 and named after the only pitcher in MLB history to win over 500 games, the Cy Young Award was originally given annually to the best pitcher in baseball; it wasn't until 1967 that the award was doled out to the best pitcher in each league. While ERA, strikeouts and winning percentage usually came into play for the voters, it usually all came down to the Wins column, with the 20-win plateau being the primary prerequisite for Cy-worthiness. That criteria has changed somewhat in recent years. Though it's been hard to break the stranglehold of Triple Crown stats (batting average, home runs and RBI) on the MVP discussion, evolving statistical methods of determining a pitcher's worth have gradually come to be accepted in the Cy Young arena, as evidenced by Felix Hernandez winning the award in 2010 despite posting a 13-12 record (which would have been shorthand for "mediocre season" just a decade ago). Which is not to say everyone embraces the notion that pitching wins don't mean as much as they used to – former New York Times sportswriter Murray Chass apparently still goes into a foaming, apoplectic rage every time the subject of King Felix's Cy Young is raised. But this year's Cy Young debate certainly isn't splitting people into armed encampments, a la the Miggy-Trout AL MVP argument. Yet there are no clear-cut winners this year, either. New York Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA, a miniscule 1.05 WHIP (i.e., walks plus hits per innings pitched ratio) and 230 strikeouts in 233.2 starts, may be the sentimental favorite in the National League due to his sudden late-career success – and the fact that he comes across as just a really swell guy. But he's got stiff competition from Washington Nationals lefty Gio Gonzalez (21-8, 2.89 ERA, 1.129 WHIP, 207 Ks in 199.1 IP) and Cincinnati Reds righty Johnny Cueto (19-9, 2.78 ERA, 1.171 WHIP, 170 Ks in 217 IP), and maybe even reliever Craig Kimbrel, who posted a 1.01 ERA in 62.2 innings while saving 42 games for the Atlanta Braves. Over in the American League, Justin Verlander still has a chance of repeating as Cy Young winner, thanks to a 17-8 campaign for the Detroit Tigers in which he posted a 2.64 ERA, a 1.057 WHIP, and led the league in strikeouts (239), innings pitched (238.1) and complete games (6). But Tampa Bay Rays lefty David Price (who went 20-5 with a league-leading 2.56 ERA and posted a 1.10 WHIP while fanning 205 batters in 211 innings) and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim lefty Jered Weaver (who went 20-5 with a 2.81 ERA, a league-leading 1.018 WHIP, 142 Ks in 188.2 innings, and tossed a no-hitter to boot) are arguably more deserving. Ditto for Price's swivel-brimmed teammate Fernando Rodney, who enjoyed the most phenomenal season of his life at age 35, posting a 0.60 ERA, a 0.777 WHIP and 76 Ks in 74.2 innings while nailing down 48 saves for the Rays. Me? I'd vote for Dickey and Price. But our esteemed panel of rock & roll seamheads may have some different idea. Name: Pete Yorn Position: Vocals, Guitar Give the NL to Dickey. It's like a Hollywood film. If he was on the Yankees, he might have pulled a Guidry. AL – I would give it to Weaver. I watched him pitch a bunch this year. Ironically, it was a few losses that I watched him pitch; he pitched brilliantly, but just didn't get the run support. Name: George Thorogood Band: George Thorogood and the Destroyers Position: Vocals, Guitar Well, I've got R.A. Dickey for the Mets. It's just unheard-of to have a knuckleball pitcher with that kind of record. In all the years I've been following baseball, as good as Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood or Phil Niekro were, I've never heard of a knuckleballer with that kind of record.  It's usually 21-18 or 20-19, but Dickey's performance is phenomenal, and – as much as I like the Mets – not with a very good team. And for the American League, I've gotta like Weaver with the Angels. His team was in the hunt until the last few days of the season, and he had his best year and threw a no-hitter. Name: Steve Wynn Band: The Baseball Project Position: Vocals, Guitar There's no question that R.A. Dickey will (and should) win the Cy Young Award in the NL, but I'd like to see him win it unanimously. I'm still waiting for someone to reveal that he was a complete hoax, a la Sidd Finch – his story is just too good to be true. Over in the AL, it's a tougher call. But I think that David Price will eke out a win over Jered, King Felix and Verlander. Name: Scott McCaughey Band: The Baseball Project, The Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows Position: Guitar, Vocals R.A. Dickey's 20 wins for a lousy team should deservedly rule over Clayton Kershaw's only marginally better peripherals. An amazing year and an amazing story. In the AL, I give the nod to David Price, with Justin Verlander a close second. Again, 20 wins stands out in this day and age, and though Jered Weaver matched that total, overall Price had a better year. Name: Ken Casey Band: Dropkick Murphys Position: Bass guitar, Vocals Gio Gonzalez is the hands-down Cy winner in the NL: 21-8 with a 2.89 ERA on a team picked for 4th in its division. In the AL, Jim Johnson's 51 saves for the underdog Orioles earns him the Cy. Name: Scott Ian Band: Anthrax Position: Guitar AL Cy Young: David Price. 20-game winner and lowest ERA. NL Cy Young: R.A. Dickey. He won 20 games for the Mets. For that alone, he deserves it. Name: Vinnie Paul Band: Hellyeah, Pantera Position: Drums I'm goin' with Yu Darvish in the AL, because I'm a homer and he had a hell of a year in Texas. In the NL, I'm goin' with R.A. Dickey. He's just nasty and a true badass! Name: Handsome Dick Manitoba Band: Manitoba Position: Vocals NL: The Met guy Dickey . . . unbelievable consistency, great baseball story, and I feel sorry for my Met friends. AL: Probably Price, maybe Weaver, both sooo close, so let's go for Tampa's 48-save guy, Rodney. ERA 0.60 . . . oy vey! Dan Epstein's book, Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s, is now available in paperback.

Axl Rose Promises New Guns N' Roses Album 'Sooner' Than 'Chinese Democracy'

'There wasn't anyone to work with or trust,' frontman says of previous release Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses at the 26th Annual Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Steve Jennings/WireImage Axl Rose said in an interview with USA Today that the next Guns N' Roses album won't take as long as the delay-plagued Chinese Democracy. When asked about the long wait for the band's 2008 album, Rose pointed to complications with personnel. "I had to deal with so many other things that don't have to do with music but have to do with the industry. There's such a loss of time," he said. "It was more about survival. There wasn't anyone to work with or trust. Someone would come in to help produce and the reality was they just wanted to mix it and get it out the door. They had a different agenda. [The next album] will come out sooner." Rose also had harsh words for ex-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour and former bandmates Slash and Duff McKagan, saying the trio damaged his ability as a writer. "To those three, it was all crap. It beat me down so much," he said. "At the time of the [Use Your Illusion] tours, Slash and Duff said, 'You're an idiot, you're a loser.' I didn't write for years. I felt I was hindered for a very long time. I was also trying to figure out what I wanted to say, when it's right to be venting and when you're digging a bigger hole. Lyrics on Chinese took a long time." The singer also played down a possible Guns N' Roses truce. "I feel that ball's not in my court," said Rose. "I'm surviving this war, not the one who created this war."

Cat Power Says European Tour Is in Jeopardy

Chan Marshall considers canceling over money, health woes Cat Power performs in Washington, DC. Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, has posted a photo on Instagram along with a note explaing that she is considering canceling her European tour due to bankruptcy and health concerns. Full text of the post follows: I may have to cancel my European tour due to bankruptcy & my health struggle with angioedema. I have not thrown in any towel, I am trying ot figure out what best I can do. Heart broken. Worked so hard. Got sick day after Sun came out & been struggling to keep all points of me in equilibrium: mind, spirit, body healthy, centered & grounded. I am doing the best I can. I fucking love this planet. I refuse to give up. Though I may need to restrategize for my security & health. Cat Power will wrap up her North American tour on November 8th at Los Angeles' Hollywood Palladium. Her European tour is scheduled to start on November 26th in Amsterdam.

Avett Brothers Jam at Voodoo Experience

Avett Brothers Jam at Voodoo Experience Folk-rock band tackles old and new at New Orleans festival By Among the highlights of last weekend's Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans was the Avett Brothers' nighttime set, capped by recent tracks from The Carpenter, including "February Seven" and "Live and Die," along with older cuts like "Kick Drum Heart." Don't miss "Murder in the City," on which the band steps out, leaving just Seth and Scott Avett to duet with intimate fraternal energy. It's just as spellbinding as voodoo can be.

Psychedelic Pill

Neil Young and Crazy Horse For Neil Young, the Sixties never ended. The music, memories and changes haunt his best songs and records like bittersweet perfume: vital, endlessly renewing inspirations that are also constant, enraging reminders of promises broken and ideals betrayed. In "Twisted Road," one of eight new songs sprawled across this turbulent two-CD set, Young recalls, in a brilliantly mixed metaphor, the first time he heard Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone": "Poetry rolling offhis tongue/Like Hank Williams chewing bubble gum." And Young tells you what he did with the impact. "I felt that magic and took it home/Gave it a twist and made it mine," he sings over Crazy Horse's rough-country swagger, as if the marvel of that time and his dreams are still close enough to touch. So are the mess and his dismay. Psychedelic Pill is Young's second album of 2012 with the Horse, his perfectly unpolished garage band of 43 years, and it has the roiling honesty and brutal exuberance of their best records together. This one opens with a special perversity: the thumping 27-minute fuzz-box trance of "Driftin' Back." Young, on lead guitar, spits feedback and throttles his whammy bar for long, mad stretches over rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro's trusty two-chord support and the rock-infantry march of bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. Every six or so minutes, Young's cracked yelp cuts through the tumult, spiking the flashback in the dreamy chorus with a contemporary disgust for tech-giant greed and the lousy sound of MP3s, whose shitty fidelity is "blockin' out my anger/Blockin' out my thoughts." There is, in fact, no mistaking Young's mood. For most of its near-90 minutes, Psychedelic Pill is an infuriated trip: long tracks of barbed-guitar jamming and often surrealistic ire ("Gonna get me a hip-hop haircut," he sneers, to no apparent sense, in "Driftin' Back") interrupted by short bursts of warming bliss. It is a weirdly compelling seesaw. "Psychedelic Pill" is a Day-Glo-angel twist on "Cinnamon Girl" coated, in the first of two versions here, with jet-engine-like phasing. But then comes "Ramada Inn," 17 minutes of broiling guitars and stressed a ection in which Young examines a love that has somehow stayed alive long after the high times turned into routine and basic daily needs. Even the sweet stuff is spiked. In the cheerful country funk of "Born in Ontario," Young admits he writes songs "to make sense of my inner rage." Yet he keeps finding hope in there. "Me and some of my friends/We were going to save the world. . . . But then the weather changed . . . and it breaks my heart," Young confesses through black clouds of distortion in "Walk Like a Giant," dogged by the mocking whistle of the Horse. A big closing chunk of the song's 16 minutes is Young's idea of a giant marching through ruin: thunderclap drums and hacking-cough chords. But the real end hints at rebirth: a cleansing coda of wordless acid-choir sunshine. Young may feel like the last hippie standing, but he still sounds like a guy who believes the dreaming is not done. Listen to "Walk Like a Giant":

Psychedelic Pill

For Neil Young the Sixties never ended The music memories and changes haunt his best songs and records like bittersweet perfume vital endlessly renewing inspirations that are also constant enraging reminders of promises broken and ideals betrayed In "Twisted Road" one of eight new songs sprawled across this turbulent two-CD...

Sorry To Bother You

The Coup You will not hear a finer accordion solo on a rap record this year than the one in the Coup's "We've Got a Lot to Teach You, Cassius Green." The song also has 2012's most furious washboard solo, and its most wild-eyed indictment of corporate oligarchy: "The assistant crouched at the monster's feet . . . in a puddle of urine and meat." The Coup's sixth LP is stuffed to the gills: with Boots Riley's radical politics and conceptual lyrics; with unexpected guests (Jolie Holland, Japanther); with punk beats. It's an admirably ambitious mix, often a bit too unruly. But when Riley gets it right – "The Magic Clap," a buzzy mix of Motown, punk clamor and "Hey Ya!" – it's novelty music in the best sense. Listen to "The Magic Clap":

Sorry To Bother You

You will not hear a finer accordion solo on a rap record this year than the one in the Coup's "We've Got a Lot to Teach You Cassius Green" The song also has 2012's most furious washboard solo and its most wild-eyed indictment of corporate oligarchy "The assistant crouched at...

Blak and Blu

Gary Clark Jr. How can a serious bluesman thrive in the age of Auto-Tune? That's the question Gary Clark Jr. grapples with on his major label debut. Since his teens, Clark has been the young titan of Texas blues, coming out of Austin in the early 2000s with a smoothly long-suffering voice and one hell of a mean guitar tone, playing solos that claw and scream their stories with ornery splendor. He's a full-fledged guitar hero of the classic school. And that's all he would need to be, if he only wanted to spend his career playing for roots-music die-hards and recording for his own Hotwire Unlimited, the Austin label that released his albums from 2004 to 2010. But Clark, 28, has a different trajectory and a much larger goal: to reach his own generation, the one that grew up on hip-hop and R&B. Clark spreads his musical bets on Blak and Blu. Instead of having one signature sound, he tries a dozen, delving into modern R&B, retro soul, psychedelia and garage rock. A handful of the album's songs are cherry-picked from Clark's Hotwire catalog, remade in studios that make everything sound bigger and tougher. Abetted by producers Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Fiona Apple) and Rob Cavallo (Green Day), Clark is clearly aware that young listeners have heard the Black Keys, Prince and the Roots. Although most songs have a live, hand-played flavor, a few of them – including the title track – tilt toward the static, looplike grooves of hip-hop. The album's core is still the blues. Clark dips into the historical timeline, sampling a juke joint's worth of 20th-century styles: from the rural slide-guitar picking of "Next Door Neighbor Blues" to the desolate tidings and incendiary lead guitar of "When My Train Pulls In" to the Cream-y riffing and layering of "Glitter Ain't Gold." But Clark won't be genre-bound. "Ain't Messin' 'Round" is pushy, updated Stax-Volt soul with Clark's fuzztone leading the charge of a horn section. "Things Are Changin'" makes another Memphis move with a fat Al Green-style backbeat.  As an album, Blak and Blu makes for a bumpy ride. The roaring, distortion-soaked blues of "Numb" – which sounds something like Stevie Ray Vaughan tackling "Come Together" – upstages the falsetto croon and string arrangement of "Please Come Home." The souped-up Chuck Berry boogie of "Travis County" collides with "The Life," which has Clark ruminating over woozy, echoey keyboards: "Can't go on like this/Knowing that I'm just getting high." Clark and Warner Bros. clearly expect listeners to carve their own playlists from the album's 13 tracks. Outside the structures of the blues, Clark is still a journey-man songwriter, sometimes settling for easy rhymes and singsong melodies, as he does in "Blak and Blu," which aspires to the thoughtfulness of Marvin Gaye, wondering, "How do we get lifted/How do we not go insane?" Give Clark credit for striving to be something more than a blues-rock throwback and singing from a troubled heart. And hope that he gets through the narrow portals of pop radio. But on this album, it's still his blues that cut deepest. Listen to Blak and Blu:

Blak and Blu

How can a serious bluesman thrive in the age of Auto-Tune? That's the question Gary Clark Jr grapples with on his major label debut Since his teens Clark has been the young titan of Texas blues coming out of Austin in the early 2000s with a smoothly long-suffering voice and...

The Haunted Man

Bat For Lashes Natasha Khan's sexiest, spookiest LP starts with its cover: the naked singer shouldering a crumpled, naked man. The emotional metaphor seems familiar to her. "From inside his mouth, I lick the scars," she murmurs on "A Wall," amid shivering synths. On the title track, a male choir reps for a dude "scorched" by a kiss, before an orchestral march and Khan's Joan of Arc vocals send him packing. On "Laura" and "Marilyn," the girls are no less damaged. There are cameos by Dave Sitek and Beck. But the visions here seem all her own. And they're pretty awesome. Listen to The Haunted Man:

The Haunted Man

Natasha Khan's sexiest spookiest LP starts with its cover the naked singer shouldering a crumpled naked man The emotional metaphor seems familiar to her "From inside his mouth I lick the scars" she murmurs on "A Wall" amid shivering synths On the title track a male choir reps for a...

Local Business

Titus Andronicus Glen Rock, New Jersey's Titus Andronicus may be the most ambitious punk band in America. On 2010's The Monitor, they wrapped an epic breakup record around a Civil War conceit. Their third disc is a hilarious gut-wrenching mess that relocates the Replacements and Thin Lizzy at their most bracing and bighearted to the suburban skate-park diaspora – all centered around Patrick Stickles' glass-half-smashed existentialism. This is a band that titles its big anthem "Still Life With Hot Deuce on Silver Platter" and drops a nine-minute swaying-drunk processional called "Tried to Quit Smoking," where Stickles sings, "But I made my bed/Now we're fucking in it." It's a big bed. Listen to Local Business:

Local Business

Glen Rock New Jersey's Titus Andronicus may be the most ambitious punk band in America On 2010's The Monitor they wrapped an epic breakup record around a Civil War conceit Their third disc is a hilarious gut-wrenching mess that relocates the Replacements and Thin Lizzy at their most bracing and...

The Man With the Iron Fists: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Various Artists The martial-arts epic The Man With the Iron Fists is the RZA's directorial debut – although, figuratively speaking, the beat wizard has been making kung-fu movies for as long as the Wu-Tang Clan existed. The soundtrack is not as evocatively cinematic as the Wu's greatest songs, but it's a tasty mixtape – a blend of vintage R&B, neosoul and hip-hop, featuring Kanye West, Pusha T and many Wu members. The Black Keys bring scuzz funk to "The Baddest Man Alive," setting a grainy-film-stock 1970s vibe that's sustained throughout – even when Kanye is bragging about jet-setting and name-dropping Kurt Cobain. Listen to 'The Man With the Iron Fists: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack':

The Man With the Iron Fists: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The martial-arts epic The Man With the Iron Fists is the RZA's directorial debut – although figuratively speaking the beat wizard has been making kung-fu movies for as long as the Wu-Tang Clan existed The soundtrack is not as evocatively cinematic as the Wu's greatest songs but it's a tasty...

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Kendrick Lamar The title "Next Big Rapper" has been a curse as often as a blessing. But on the major-label debut by Dr. Dre protégé Kendrick Lamar, the Compton, California, MC wears it lightly, like a favorite hoodie. The album opens as if in midsentence, in brisk conversational mode – "I met her at the house party on El Segundo and Central" – and never slows, gusting through dense narratives and thickets of internal rhymes. Lamar is an unlikely star: a storyteller, not a braggart or punch-line rapper, setting spiritual yearnings and moral dilemmas against a backdrop of gang violence and police brutality. The plush production of tracks like the Neptunes-produced centerpiece "good kid" hearkens back to Seventies blaxploitation soundtracks and Nineties gangsta-rap blaxploitation revivals, and good kid warrants a place in that storied lineage. Every so often, Lamar lets loose a wild boast – "I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower/So I can fuck the world for 72 hours" – but the triumphalism feels warranted. Listen to 'good kid, m.A.A.d city':

good kid, m.A.A.d city

The title "Next Big Rapper" has been a curse as often as a blessing But on the major-label debut by Dr Dre protégé Kendrick Lamar the Compton California MC wears it lightly like a favorite hoodie The album opens as if in midsentence in brisk conversational mode – "I met...

Monster

Kiss "Out in the streets/Takin' all the heat/Dancin' in the sheets," Kiss sing, describing either public sex or a funky Klan rally. They didn't spend much time thinking about it, and neither should you. Kiss' 20th LP draws from their bottomlessly shallow cesspool of comfortably dumb cowbell-glam wham-bam – with stewardess sex, married groupies and "The Devil Is Me," where Gene Simmons lowtalks like the smoothest used-car salesman in hell. Listen to Monster:

Monster

"Out in the streets/Takin' all the heat/Dancin' in the sheets" Kiss sing describing either public sex or a funky Klan rally They didn't spend much time thinking about it and neither should you Kiss' 20th LP draws from their bottomlessly shallow cesspool of comfortably dumb cowbell-glam wham-bam – with stewardess...

Ultraista

You'd expect an album involving Nigel Godrich, the Radiohead collaborator-superproducer, and Joey Waronker, drummer for Beck, R.E.M. and many others, to be full of dazzling arrangements and killer beats. And so it is. Memorable songs? Not so much. But Laura Bettinson's vocals bounce around prettily, another cool ingredient in a krautrock-Afrobeat stew that sounds better each time you notch up the volume. Listen to "Bad Insect":

Ultraista

You'd expect an album involving Nigel Godrich the Radiohead collaborator-superproducer and Joey Waronker drummer for Beck REM and many others to be full of dazzling arrangements and killer beats And so it is Memorable songs? Not so much But Laura Bettinson's vocals bounce around prettily another cool ingredient in a...

Sing The Delta

Iris DeMent Iris DeMent's voice has mellowed in the 20 years since her gorgeous debut, Infamous Angel, but it remains a wonder of genuine country music, with a vibrato-infused twang that purrs and bucks. Centered mainly on piano chords that conjure family rooms and little white churches, these artisanal songs of love and doubt wear their homeliness proudly; the effect is like finding a bountiful farm stand in the middle of nowhere. Listen to Sing the Delta

Sing The Delta

Iris DeMent's voice has mellowed in the 20 years since her gorgeous debut Infamous Angel but it remains a wonder of genuine country music with a vibrato-infused twang that purrs and bucks Centered mainly on piano chords that conjure family rooms and little white churches these artisanal songs of love...

Red

Like Kanye West Taylor Swift is a turbine of artistic ambition and superstar drama So it's no surprise she manages to make her fourth album both her Joni Mitchell-influenced maturity binge and her Max Martin-abetted pop move – and have it seem not just inevitable but natural Red is a...

The Black Bar Mitzvah

The Black Bar Mitzvah is a perfect title for a Rick Ross mixtape his vision of playalistic splendor has always been the stuff of thirteen year-old boy fantasy "My new home look like it’s Al Capone/My new bitch look like she in En Vogue" he raps over swirling strings and...

Perfectly Imperfect

This confident and catchy major-label debut from 23-year-old singer-songwriter Elle Varner is made even stronger by its smart musical details – a subtle ESG sample on the slinky J Cole duet "Only Want To Give It To You" a rolling baseline on "Sound Proof Room" that sounds like desire pushing...

Sunken Condos

On "Memorabilia" a polished-up nugget of jazzy Sanford & Son funk Donald Fagen calls the title trappings "souvenirs of perfect doom" And if this Steely Dan-style set is proudly retro in sound nostalgia remains suspect at best to the 64-year-old "Slinky Thing" snarks at "a burned-out hippie clown" and a...

Livin' for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran

Hank Cochran who died at age 74 in 2010 wrote country ballads so perfectly shaped and cadenced you hardly believe they were written at all Jamey Johnson's tribute record enlists an amazing intergenerational all-star team (Willie Nelson Alison Krauss Elvis Costello) who join Johnson in traditionalist renditions of 16 Cochran...

Former Lives

What do you do when the world's most flawless bangs walk out on you? Ben Gibbard – the former Mr Zooey Deschanel and chief of Death Cab for Cutie – mourned with a solo set of Beatles-nuzzling ballads so pretty they'd make any actress jealous As always it's fascinating how...

Traveler

The jam-band swami tries atmospheric pop with members of the National and Mates of State on this solo joint The arrangements full of spacious production and abstract beats can be gorgeous and the cover of Gorillaz's "Clint Eastwood" is spot on even if its potent hooks point to a shortage...

Live From Harlem

Tim Vocals an R&B singer from Harlem has emerged as an internet sensation with a novel shtick crooning gritty profane tales of thug life and drug-peddling in a lilting feather-light soul man’s tenor His debut mixtape collects a dozen of Vocals' "goon-mixes" with beats repurposed from hip-hop and R&B hits...

Halcyon

Ellie Goulding emerged in 2010 with a one-two punch first her (still-rising) helium-voiced hit "Lights" then an elegant read of Elton John's "Your Song" that led to a gig at Prince William's wedding As Cinderella stories go it's a good one But as a 25-year-old adept who dresses rave-y hooks...

Lonesome Dreams

"Oh there's a river that winds on forever/I'm gonna see where it leads" begins Lord Huron's debut LP campfire strumming and robust vocal harmonies ghosted by tuneful howls somewhere between cowboy yodels and coyote bays Ben Schneider's soaring folk-rock project conjures a life unfettered and outside of time – roads...

Twins

On his third LP of 2012 the garage-rock prodigy and burgeoning cult hero rearranges Nuggets and Nirvana echoes into moderately memorable tunes with scant help from other musicians He obscures weedily muffled lyric snatches under waterlogged guitar fuzz that builds into a thick wash and varies the formula with hippie-commune...

Bad: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Twenty-five years on Bad sounds less like Thriller's underachieving follow-up than a masterpiece of pure pop The deep cuts rule from the clamorous electro-soul of "Speed Demon" to the harrowing "Leave Me Alone" whose thump can't disguise the song's core loneliness The treat here is the rarities disc with demos...

YOKOKIMTHURSTON

Near the start of this abstract collaboration Yoko Ono seems to cackle "mwah-ha-ha!" amid groans chants improvised poetry and impressionistic sex noises Humor was part of the pioneering sound art she explored with John Lennon – alongside joy fury lust and glossolalia craziness And so it is here Recorded before...

Transcendental Youth

An album full of characters struggling against dead-end jobs drug addiction and depression doesn't exactly sound inviting but in the hands of John Darnielle it's magic Darnielle is a former psychiatric nurse; his catchy gracefully appointed chamber-pop songs paint portraits of dread and paranoia with empathy and precision "Harlem Roulette"...

Kaleidoscope Dream

Just when you thought there were no new ways to say "I love you" here comes Miguel Pimentel "I'm gonna do you like drugs tonight" With this pledge Miguel proves that he is easily uninhibited enough to inherit the tradition of eccentric R&B freakiness handed down from Marvin Gaye to...