Melanie Martinez – Crybaby CD (Atlantic)
Melanie Martinez is an unforgettable 20-year-old artist from Long Island, New York — a stunning and provocative singer/songwriter and visual presence. She wants to tell you a story. It’s fictional, but it’s also about her, in a way that’s somewhat exaggerated and darker than reality. The tale traces through Melanie’s debut album Cry Baby, a collection of pop songs that draw inspiration from singer/songwriter folk and hip-hop and follow a character who learns to be more comfortable with who she is. The journey of the character, who Melanie dubbed Cry Baby, mirrors the musician’s own.

Grace Potter – Midnight CD/2xLP (Hollywood)
Midnight was recorded and mixed at Barefoot Studios in Hollywood with producer Eric Valentine, whose own diverse discography from Queens Of The Stone Age to Nickel Creek evidences a similarly adventurous spirit and openness to possibility. If Valentine’s studio work has a distinguishing characteristic, it’s his hard-hitting sonic signature, which is on display throughout Midnight‘s dozen tracks. The core studio band consisted of Potter and Valentine on most of the instruments, with Burr on drums and percussion. In addition, members of Potter’s longtime band The Nocturnals: guitarists Scott Tournet and Benny Yurco and bassist Michael Libramento contributed to the sessions, as well as former tour-mates and friends including singer/songwriter Rayland Baxter, Audra Mae, Noelle Skaggs of Fitz & The Tantrums, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, and Nick Oliveri of Queens Of The Stone Age.

The Good Life – Everybody’s Coming Down CD/LP+MP3 (Saddle Creek)
Call it a soundtrack to Man’s 21st century existential angst, Everybody’s Coming Down poses cosmic queries, contemplates regrets, questions self-worth, and examines the possibility of living in the moment, when memories are all that we truly take with us. And in some ways, that’s the sweet spot front man and lyricist Tim Kasher inhabits: trying to make sense of this world of ours, and how and why we navigate it the way we do. The band’s first album in eight years moves in a new direction musically and, in contrast to The Good Life’s earlier releases, is very much a rock record.

Lower Dens – Twin Hand Movement [Reissue/2010] CD/LP+MP3 (Ribbon Music)
Swarming guitar fuzz, bass waves, insistent drum throbs and Jana Hunter’s redolent, charred voice are the core components of Lower Dens. Hunter, sometimes known for intimate, ghost-heavy weird-fi, now writes and plays with a group that might get filed under new wave, or drone pop, or post-punk.

Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips – Mistress America [OST] CD (Milan)
As Noah Baumbach’s second film of 2015, “Mistress America” shows a director hitting his stride. A screwball comedy about the relationship between two young women in New York, “Mistress America” is stuffed with outlandishly funny moments grounded in the fatuousness of self-absorbed people. The score to the film was composed by the duo of Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (The Squid And The Whale, Tenure), former members of the dream pop band Luna and longtime collaborators of Noah Baumbach.

Beth Orton – Daybreaker [Reissue/2002] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)
Like Beth Orton’s previous offerings, her third album makes a slight first impression. Sure, the jangly acoustic guitars, drifting melodies, and robust voice are pleasant enough, but it is only after a while that the true potency of the songs becomes apparent. Despite the occasional electronic flourishes at the hands of collaborators such as the Chemical Brothers and Everything but the Girl’s Ben Watt, and the beaming West Coast harmonies she shares with pal Ryan Adams, Daybreaker is a supremely personal record.

Pavement – The Secret History Vol. 1 2xLP+MP3 (Matador)
Pavement made five proper album-as-albums: Slanted And Enchanted (1992), Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994), Wowee Zowee (1995), Brighten The Corners (1997) and Terror Twilight (1999). Each has its own sound. Each has its own legend. But each of their official albums has a shadow album—and it’s usually as strong as the album that actually *did* come out. The Secret History Vol. 1, collects the songs that got away during the era of Slanted And Enchanted, which Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg and Gary Young recorded on the cheaper-than-cheap in January 1991. Secret Slanted History collects gems from Peel Sessions (“Kentucky Cocktail,” “Circa 1762”) and seven-inches (“Baptist Blacktick”) as well as live stop from the first European tours, with Mark Ibold and Bob Nastanovich in the fold.

Red House Painters – Down Colorful Hill [Reissue/1992] LP+MP3 (4AD)
Red House Painters – Red House Painters (Roller-Coaster) [Reissue/1993] LP+MP3 (4AD)
Red House Painters – Red House Painters (Bridge) [Reissue/1993] LP+MP3 (4AD)
Red House Painters – Ocean Beach/Shock Me [Reissue/1994/1995] 2xLP+MP3 (4AD)
Reissued and collected on color vinyl in a box set for RSD 2015 – each title is now available separately on standard black vinyl.

The Replacements – The Twin/Tone Years 4xLP (Rhino)
New limited-edition, numbered box set which collects The Replacements’ Twin/Tone discography: Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (1981), the Stink EP (1982), Hootenanny (1983) and Let It Be (1984).