Artist: Powderfinger Review: "I was bored listening to the same chords," Powderfinger's Bernard Fanning sings in "Lost and Running." He doesn't mean it. The Australian band, together since the mid-Nineties, spiritually hails from an older intersection: mid-Eighties U2 and (no shock, given Powderfinger's name) the fuzz-toned Seventies of Neil Young's Crazy Horse. The best songs here do not stray far. Dirty-guitar shriek and burnt jangle fortify Fanning's earnest romanticism in "Head Up in the Clouds" and "Long Way to Go."... Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: School Of Seven Bells Review: This New York trio of ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza is the sum of hip contradictions: om-drone modernism coated with the Dehezas' antique vocal blur of Gentle Giant's prog-choir counterpoint and the harmonies of a medieval Shangri-Las. The effect is warm goth — New Order with more eros. "Chain" veers close to electro-candy Madonna, but the Neu-like zoom and robot-nun chanting in "Sempiternal/Amaranth" are more beguiling, like an evening... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Anya Marina Review: Anya Marina's childlike voice doesn't jibe with her randy album title. But that doesn't stop the San Diego singer from growling come-ons on "Afterparty at Jimmy's" ("You got soul onstage, boy/How about soul in the sack?") or purring like Jessica Rabbit on the cabaret-style "All the Same to Me." She dials it back on "Vertigo," a sweet ode to a dizzying dude. With blippy drum loops, it sounds like a play date with a Casio — proof that Marina still has G-rated fun. Rating: 3 Stars

Artist: Tobacco Review: Tobacco's Tom Fec just made one of the year's best stoner-rock records — only it's powered by synths, hip-hop beats and vocoders instead of guitars. Moonlighting from his electronic psych-rock band Black Moth Super Rainbow, Fec crafts spectacular, Air-style instrumentals ("Pink Goo") and expertly spins reedy Mellotrons into indelible hooks ("Hawker Boat"). Bonus points for lyrics that get lost in pot-smoke profundity: "Honey Bunches of Oats is the greatest cereal ever." Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Death Cab For Cutie Review: A strange and beautiful thing happens on this reissue's bonus live disc. During the first song of their maiden Seattle show, in 1998, Death Cab play "Your Bruise" with the melancholy precision that later became their hallmark. Not every cut on their debut is that assured: Guitarist-producer Chris Walla hadn't yet mastered the studio, and singer Ben Gibbard's articulate moodiness isn't consistently memorable. But on the lovely, cello-adorned "Bend to Squares," the band creeps along with deliberat... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Artist: Various Artists Review: Founded in 1971 by local R & B writer-producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Philadelphia International Records was designed to be a hit factory — a Motown with East Coast swagger, a Stax with silken swing — and this four-CD history tells the tale as they intended. Opening with a smash — the Soul Survivors' "Expressway (To Your Heart)," a 1967 blast of psychedelic funk from Gamble and Huff's freelance years — Love Train keeps on giving with dozens of top R&B and pop... Rating: 4.5 Stars