Tim Kinsella is a figurehead of genuinely progressive music, and Make Believe’s first long-player proves worthy of your should-be high expectations. Immediate comparisons to Joan of Arc are in order since, well, they’re composed of the same members, but what two JofA records sound alike, anyway?

After the breakout success of 2003’s It Still Moves, My Morning Jacket have returned with a major label release that is nothing short of amazing. Their dreary, reverb-laden style of songwriting is stronger than ever and features catchy hooks and vocal melodies that the band hinted at in early recordings, but had never before demonstrated with such strength until now.

Mt. Egypt are the best kept secret in indie music right now. Much as Cass McCombs’ 2003 release A was the sleeper hit of last year, people will be latching onto Perspectives in a few years and proclaiming its brilliance at the top of their blogging lungs. In fact, the comparisons between the McCombs and Mt. Egypt songwriter Travis Graves are many.

Throughout the course of this summer I have been wrestling with a demon. I just can’t shake this sort of sonic-crush on The Strokes. I don’t know when it started, and it’s most certainly embarrassing, but now that I’ve come clean about it perhaps we can deal with it.

Pure metal bands usually leave me feeling less than enamored, but God Forbid is one of the few that I can legitimately say that I enjoy. Sure, there are quite a few uncouth vocal moments, but they’re more than satisfactory at the whole chug, thrash, speed-picking, dueling-high-pitched-harmonies thing.

I’m not sure that anybody can accurately describe the OOIOO sound. Started by Boredoms drummer Yoshimi, OOIOO is a highly talented, experimental four-piece that specializes in polyrhythms and genre destroying.

XBXRX are closer to being performance art than being a band. Yes, they play songs, but those are really just ancillary to their modus operandi. If you’ve ever seen these pseudo-androgynous spazz rockers live, you likely know what I mean.

Best known, to me anyway, as the stellar producer of The Mountain Goats’ releases Tallahassee, We Shall All Be Healed, and The Sunset Tree, John Vanderslice also steps out on his own once in a while, and this is one of the better results.

Joel Peterson, a.k.a. Broken Spindles, is probably always going to be somewhat left of center, even in an industry where center chases left of center. Inside/Absent is no exception. This is not his surprise cowboy pop record.

The third New Pornographers record is actually a time machine. No, not because it sounds like any particular band from the 60s, 70s, or any other decade, but because it reminds you of a time when indie music was first getting big in the mid-90s.

Is it acceptable, nay responsible, for a record reviewer to describe an album as beyond description? Crap, I should start over then. Giving Up the Ghost moves through moods as easily as said spirit slips through the walls of an old house.

Freedom and Weep is all fine enough, cleanly executed and moderately compelling, drifting between straight country and indie pop. But it’s got no bite.