The Jayhawks - Music from the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology
Of the musicians who rose to prominence in the 1990s during the alternative country scene’s 15 minutes of media prominence, the Jayhawks were at once the band that best exemplified what was satisfying about the new country rock scene, and a group that avoided the twangy clichés that became so large a part of what their less gifted peers were doing. The high lonesome melodies and evocative wordplay of Gary Louris and Mark Olson’s fine songs suggested a country influence without forcing the particulars into the arrangements (a mandolin here and a fiddle there was enough), and though Louris’ guitar work made it clear he’d listened to a few Neil Young albums, the Jayhawks’ musical vision made as much room for pure pop and ’70s West Coast sounds as rocked-up country. In 2008, Louris dropped hints to fans and writers of a “Herculean project” of remastering and expanding the Jayhawks’ albums, and Music from the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology is presumably the first salvo in these efforts, a career-spanning compilation that offers highlights from their five albums for American Recordings as well as one track each from their first two independent efforts.

Maxwell - BLACKsummers’night
Maxwell spent part of the eight years between his third and fourth studio albums walking the Earth, attempting to experience a life resembling that of a human. One of neo-soul’s most visible faces, along with Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo, he had been on the music industry’s hamster wheel for most of his twenties and needed some tangible inspiration. At some point he got down to scheming and quite a lot of recording; BLACKsummers’night is the first release of a trilogy, with BlackSUMMERS’night (rooted in gospel, with a twist, apparently) and Blacksummers’NIGHT (promised as a disc of slow jams) to follow. Just as he arrived in 1996, offering an alternate option to the exaggerated masculinity that was dominating contemporary R&B, he returns as the airwaves are stuffed with raging hormones expressed through Auto-Tune. He has made no concessions to them.

The Minus 5 - Killingsworth
Scott McCaughey is a man who has worn plenty of musical hats over the years, but he has a funny way of bringing his own personality to whatever project he’s working on, even as his collaborators lend their distinct colors to the music. The eighth album from McCaughey’s the Minus 5 is a fine example; for Killingsworth, McCaughey and his usual musical partner, Peter Buck, are joined by several members of the Decemberists, and when McCaughey’s smart, slightly bent pop sensibilities meet Colin Meloy’s arty grand-scale folk-rock, you get a curious but thoroughly compelling country rock album that sounds casual and epochal at once.

Son Volt - American Central Dust
Jay Farrar resurrected Son Volt in 2005 after his solo career seemingly ran out of gas, and the two albums that followed — Okemah and the Melody of Riot and The Search — were the best and most compelling music he’d made since Son Volt’s masterful debut Trace in 1995. However, the new albums didn’t connect with an especially large audience, and the band was dropped by Sony/BMG; 2009’s American Central Dust, the third set from Son Volt 2.0, has been released by the venerable independent roots music label Rounder Records, and while there’s little telling if it was dictated by finance or esthetics, the album sounds austere in a way its immediate predecessors did not.

Tiny Vipers - Life on Earth
Seattle-based singer/songwriter Jesy Fortino’s second full-length outing under her Tiny Vipers pseudonym utilizes the same sparse algebra that she established on her ghostly 2007 debut. Possessing a voice caught somewhere between Harvest-era Neil Young and Zooey Deschanel of silver screen and She & Him fame, Fortino’s vague, semi-conscious lyrics and soft fingerpicking fit right in with the current crop of late-’60s British folk-obsessed singer/songwriters like Jana Hunter, Joanna Newsom, Jesse Sykes, and Faun Fables’ Dawn McCarthy.

As You Drown - Reflection
Benni Hemm Hemm - Murta St. Calunga
Billy Boy on Poison - Drama Junkie Queen
Bowerbirds - Upper Air
Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
Carl Carlton - Everlasting: The Best of Carl Carlton
CéU - Vagarosa
Joe Cocker - Joe Cocker! (Hip-O)
Death by Stereo - Death Is My Only Friend
Discovery - LP
The Donnas - Greatest Hits, Vol. 16
Drive-By Truckers - Live from Austin TX
The Fools - Sold Out/Heavy Metal
Forever the Sickest Kids - Underdog Alma Mater (Deluxe Edition) (CD/DVD)
Jeff Garlin - Young & Handsome: A Night with Jeff Garlin
Teddi King - Mr. Wonderful: The Complete RCA Singles (1956-1958)
Kris Kristofferson - Border Lord/Jesus Was a Capricorn
Kris Kristofferson - Spooky Lady’s Sideshow/Shake Hands with the Devil
Kris Kristofferson - Surreal Thing/Easter Island
Kris Kristofferson - Who’s to Bless and Who’s to Blame/To the Bone
LMFAO - Party Rock
Marcy Playground - Leaving Wonderland…In a Fit of Rage
Cass McCombs - Catacombs
Hannah Montana - Hannah Montana 3 (CD/DVD)
Nurse with Wound - Surveillance Lounge
Barack Obama - Days of Hope
Oneida - Rated O
The Pine Hill Haints - To Win or to Lose
The Pointer Sisters - Priority (Bonus Track)
The Pointer Sisters - Energy (Bonus Tracks)
The Pointer Sisters - Black & White (Bonus Track)
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Silk Flowers - Silk Flowers
Sleepy Sun - Embrace
stellastarr* - Civilized
UUVVWWZ - UUVVWWZ
We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
Matt Wilson Quartet - That’s Gonna Leave a Mark
The Young Fresh Fellows - I Think This Is
Various Artists - Black Rio, Vol. 2: Original Samba Soul 1968-1981
Original Broadway Cast - Rock of Ages (Broadway Cast)
Various Artists - Speaking My Mind: New Rubbles, Vol. 2
Various Artists - Surf Wax: Songs of the Beach