Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be
Setting aside the grand orchestrations of Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, Devendra Banhart’s What Will We Be is everything its predecessor was not: straight-forward, cleanly produced, consistently laid-back (to nearly Jack Johnson proportions), and free of ambition. Banhart enlists the same band as last time (Noah Georgeson, Greg Rogove, Luckey Remington, and Rodrigo Amarante), but hired production whiz Paul Butler, whose records with A Band of Bees are some of the most striking productions of the 2000s.

Broadcast & the Focus Group – Broadcast & the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
Broadcast’s music has always been a little unearthly, so Broadcast & the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age isn’t so much a departure as it is an inspired homage to their influences. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders and its alternately innocent and menacing soundtrack inspired the band years before the movie was rediscovered. The whimsy and strangely familiar feel of ’60s and ’70s library music could also be heard in their music from the beginning, but never more clearly than on this mini-album.

Creed – Full Circle
Getting right back to where they started from, Creed reunites for Full Circle, putting all tensions — including whatever unpleasantry existed with their long-departed original bassist Brian Marshall — to rest and cutting their first album in eight years. Full Circle is a none-too-subtle allusion to how they’re getting back to their beginnings, but a cynic could say they never got much past it, toiling the same weathered ground on each of their albums, but this bears some subtle differences, particularly in how Creed sounds heavier yet more open than they did in the past.

Dolly Parton – Dolly (RCA/Legacy)
Dolly Parton’s story is mighty but it’s never properly been told on record until this 2009 Legacy box set. Spanning 99 tracks over four discs, beginning with the early-’60s demo “Gonna Hurry (As Slow as I Can)” and running until the end of her stay with Columbia in the early ’90s, Dolly may miss her bluegrass comeback of the new millennium but this is the only gap in the narrative, and it’s not greatly missed, because this captures her prime.

The Swell Season – Strict Joy
When Once hit theaters in 2007, Glen Hansard had already pursued international acclaim for more than 15 years with the Frames. Although popular in Ireland, the singer’s music wasn’t nearly as omnipresent in other countries until the movie’s release, which catapulted former Frames tunes like “Falling Slowly” into the spotlight. The Once soundtrack was also a big hit, turning Hansard’s side project with simpatico songwriter Markéta Irglová into a full-fledged, award-winning, globetrotting band. While playing international venues and attending industry award shows, the two attracted additional attention for their real-life relationship, which effectively replaced Once’s semi-tearful conclusion with a storybook ending. Released two years after the film’s release, however, Strict Joy finds Hansard and Irglová going their separate ways, choosing to end their relationship while remaining in the same band.

3 – Revisions
Matias Aguayo – Ay Ay Ay
Tony Allen/Jimi Tenor – Inspiration Information, Vol. 4
Atreyu – Congregation of the Damned
Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect
Boat – Setting the Paces
James Brown – Live at the Garden (Expanded Edition)
A Day to Remember – Homesick
Dave Douglas – A Single Sky
Melissa Etheridge – A New Thought for Christmas (Deluxe Edition) (CD/DVD)
The Blind Boys of Alabama – Enlightenment
The Blind Boys of Alabama – Duets
Rosie Flores – Girl of the Century
Garage a Trois – Power Patriot
Egberto Gismonti – Saudacoes
Gov’t Mule – By a Thread
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family – Go Waggaloo
Everette Harp – First Love
Heavy Trash – Midnight Soul Serenade
Hem – Twelfth Night
Hudson Mohawke – Butter
Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Jay Dee – Dillanthology 3: Dilla’s Productions
Jack Johnson – En Concert
Fela Kuti – The Best of the Black President (Deluxe)
Los Lobos – Los Lobos Goes Disney
Nils Lofgren – Cry Tough
Del McCoury – Family Circle
Brian McKnight – Evolution of a Man
Lorrie Morgan – A Moment in Time
Morningwood – Diamonds & Studs
Mother Hips – Pacific Dust
Joe Nichols – Old Things New
Orianthi – Believe
Emily Osment – All the Right Wrongs
Pelican – What We All Come to Need
Pink Martini – Splendor in the Grass
R.E.M. – Live at the Olympia (2CD/1DVD)
Kenny Rogers – Kenny Rogers: The Greatest Duets
Carly Simon – Never Been Gone
Spirit – The Best of 1968-1977: Fresh from the Time Coast
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Lost At Sea
Rod Stewart – Soulbook
Stephen Stills – Live at Shepherd’s Bush
Sting – If on a Winter’s Night…
The String Cheese Incident – Trick or Treat: Best of the String Cheese Incident
Taylor Swift – Fearless (Platinum Edition) (Bonus Tracks) (CD/DVD)
Talk Normal – Sugarland
Chip Taylor – Yonkers, NY
Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
Train – Save Me, San Francisco
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Night Castle
Triple C’s – Custom Cars & Cycles
U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (Super Deluxe Edition)
Barry White – Unlimited
Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg
Weird Al Yankovic – The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic
Various Artists – Panama! 3: Calypso Panameno, Guajira Jazz and Cumbia Tipica on Theisthmus 1
Various Artists – Rainy Day Mind: Ember Pop 1969- 1974