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 Woodpigeon
Die Stadt Muzikanten (Boompa)
Loosely inspired by the fable of the Bremen City Musicians, wherein farm animals fend off thieves with song, Woodpigeon’s third consecutive winner finds Calgary’s Mark Andrew Hamilton and co. bursting with ambition. Orchestral pop, stately folk and smooth country rock, dotted with detours into cacophony, are joined under Hamilton’s warm vocals, multi-part harmonies and a melancholy mood offset by hope and wonder. 9/10 Trial Track: “My Denial in Argyle” (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Woodhands
Remorsecapade (Paper Bag)
If the Toronto duo felt any remorse about their unabashedly quirky, electro-funky debut, they certainly don’t sound very apologetic on their even more nerdtastic follow-up. Energetic frontman/synthaholic Dan Werb always seems to have a wacky new synth sound to pound into your skull, and drummer Paul Banwatt is a one-man percussive fracas. An analog dance epic for people who can’t dance but love to anyway. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Coolchazine” (Erik Leijon)
 Citay
Dream Get Together (Dead Oceans/Sonic Unyon)
Sure, flower power has been co-opted by pharmaceutical companies and their nefarious marketing departments, but this San Francisco musical commune’s insouciant, groovy Moody Blues jamming seems to be more in line with the promotion of more illicit, frankly less potent substances. Seven dreamy, head-swelling, never-ending epics, with multiple guitarists and lengthy instrumental denouements. Merrill Garbus (aka tUnE-YaRdS) guests. 6/10 Trial Track: “Secret Breakfast” (Erik Leijon)
 Oh No Ono
Eggs (Friendly Fire)
A pack of Danish dandies hatch hyper sing-alongs, flamboyant funeral marches, psychedelic symphonies and glam rock on ice, shot through with glimmers of the Go-gos, ABBA, Beatles and Bollywood. Recorded in studios, churches, forests, beaches and abandoned factories, this somewhat schizophrenic but beautifully realized sophomore album makes it easy to envision a rock opera adaptation. 8/10 Trial Track: “Internet Warrior” (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Sean Nicholas Savage
Spread Free Like a Butterfly (Arbutus)
This vinyl-only debut for local label Arbutus is sure to prick up some ears. While Savage’s vocals cut their own path, his falsetto tremble and twinge does recall Roy Orbison and the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle, and his barbed pearls harken back to rock ’n’ roll’s first wave of pop, with an underlying feeling of despair, unrequited love and inevitable, crushing heartache. This is the perfect soundtrack to a devastating break-up. 7/10 Trial Track: “My Girl” (Johnson Cummins) Record launch with Cotton Mouth, Fluxus, Montoire at Jupiter Room tonight, Thurs., Jan. 28, 9 p.m., $5
 Creature with the Atom Brain
Transylvania (The End)
Though these lysergic jammers know when to spread their wings, it’s when they keep things grounded and sit in the groove that this trip is really worth taking. CWAAB want to take it to the stratosphere but unlike the rest of the recent rash of heavy-handed drug-o-nauts, these desert rockers choose to sneak behind your frontal lobes and explore rather than obliterate and overwhelm. 7/10 Trial Track: “The Lonesome Whistle” (Johnson Cummins)
 Pantha Du Prince
Black Noise (Rough Trade)
Though endlessly refined, this giddy circus of percussion, bells and twinkling, synthesized nuance seems somewhat pointless. It’s too groovy and mobile to sit still and listen to, too cerebral and subtle to dance to, too intriguing and distracting to converse to. It is perfunctorily beautiful—a gem, if only one can figure out when to listen to it. 8/10 Trial Track: “Lay In a Shimmer” (Jack Oatmon)
 Infected Mushroom
The Legend of the Black Shawarma (Hommega/Justin Time)
Under Paul Oakenfold’s eye, Israel’s big dogs of psy-trance aim to shake things up on their seventh album. Pleasant enough are the latter-day Depeche Mode pastiches like “Smashing the Opponent,” with an unsolicited bonus in Korn’s Jonathan Davis (Perry Farrell pops up elsewhere, for further ’90s kitsch). Less appetizing is the dumkopf groove-metal in a White Zombie vein. Their best stuff is still the jackhammer hyperspace rave-rockets. 5.5/10 Trial Track: “Riders on the Storm” (Infected Mushroom Remix) (Rupert Bottenberg)
 RJD2
The Colossus (RJ’s Electrical Connections)
Ever-inventive Philly DJ/producer Ramble John Krohn unveils his new label with an album that reflects the myriad tacks and tactics he’s used over the last decade, from his days with Def Jux to his recent, attention-grabbing theme for Mad Men. The dude’s hard to top for tough-as-nails, superior grade cinematic funk, deft detours down dark corridors, bits of biting wit and here and there—“The Shining Path,” for instance—a surprisingly tender side. 8/10 Trial Track: “The Stranger” (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Mary J. Blige
Stronger With Each Tear (Geffen/Universal)
Mary’s 10th studio album shows she has no intention of slowing down, even after almost 20 years in the biz. While the set is frontloaded with radio-friendly hip hop like lead single “The One,” she switches it up mid-album and delivers a string of first-rate soul gems, beginning with “I Am,” right through to closing track “Color,” from the movie Precious. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Each Tear” (Gerard Dee)
 Red Baraat
Chaal Baby (Sinj)
The NYC nine-piece serves up a fusion unprecedented yet so obvious—bumping Big Easy marching band brass and Punjabi folk and funk, a blend arguably intended for boisterous weddings, as the band name (baraat = “groom”) and opener “Balle Balle,” a nuptial classic, indicate. The title track’s a brassy bhangra blowout, and a cover of R.D. Burman and Asha Bhosle’s “Dum Maro Dum”—this critic’s Bollywood jam of choice—finds a strange, fierce new flavour here. 8/10 Trial Track: “Chaal Baby” (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Pat Metheny
Orchestrion (Nonesuch/Warner)
Think of the technology of a player piano, applied here to a room full of drums, vibraphone, marimba, bass, guitars and bottles, all automated and accompanying Pat Metheny on guitar. This record must have been fun to make, and the liner notes back up Metheny’s intelligence and integrity in music, but the music sounds… well, automated. Even the better moments are flat, lacking the joy of human interaction. 3/10 Trial Track: “Soul Search” (Gordon Allen)
MINI CD REVIEWS
Lymbyc Systym Shutter Release (Mush/Sonic Unyon) The masterful mix by John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Explosions in the Sky) threatens to overshadow but these densely packed epics remain intact at every decibel-drenched moment. 8.5 (JC)
My Brightest Diamond Shark Remixes (Asthmatic Kitty) Shara “MBD” Worden’s gorgeous voice, among the finest in indie pop, isn’t betrayed by the four far-reaching remixers on this companion to her last album. 7.5 (RB)
Los Campesinos Romance Is Boring (Arts & Crafts) Prolific Wales-based English kids strike fewer Canadian big (indie) band poses and succumb to the Britpop in their blood, with mixed results. 7 (LC)
The Album Leaf A Chorus of Storytellers (Sub Pop) Ambient electrofolk noodling perfectly suited for downbeat CSI evidence-gathering montages. 4 (EL)
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