HONORABLE MENTIONS

Fire Engines
"Hungry Beat" (Acute)
O.P.G. -- Original Postpunk Glaswegians indulge unnatural sense of rhythm ("Meat Whiplash," "Discord").

Shelby Lynne
"Just a Little Lovin'" (Lost Highway)
She sings some of these Dusty Springfield covers so torchy and tasteful you'd think they were on "Dusty in Memphis" to begin with ("Just a Little Lovin'," "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me").

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
"Is Is" (Interscope)
Sex and groove and icy hot ("10 X 10," "Rockers to Swallow").

Life Without Buildings
"Live at the Annandale Hotel" (Absolutely Kosher)
Glasgow art girl ends punk fling in Sydney, five years ago now ("The Leanover," "New Town").

Bob Frank & John Murry
"World Without End" (Bowstring)
Nicely unexistential murder ballads, including several garden-horror lynchings, a Reconstruction MD mob-killed for healing all races, and righteous Mexican revenge ("Jesse Washington, 1916," "Joaquin Murietta, 1853").

Herbie Hancock
"River: The Joni Letters" (Verve)
Follow up with either no singers at all and more Wayne Shorter (plus Roy Hargrove maybe?), or all Joni all the time doing as many early classics as will bear the harmonic burden ("Tea Leaf Prophecy," "River").

The Sirens
"More Is More" (Musick)
If only glam had actually liked girls -- if only the Runaways had written better songs -- if only all-covers CDs didn't fall a little flat -- if only revivalists didn't overrate Girlschool ("High School," "Tumble With Me").

Mike Doughty
"Golden Delicious" (ATO)
Lower East Side vet makes jam-band folk-rock cool ("Fort Hood," "More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle").

Bob Frank
"Red Neck Blue Collar" (Memphis International)
Hard-drinking ditch digger chronicles many pipeliners, one heroic truck driver, and a hash-smoking Jesus unwisely adored ("Judas Iscariot," "One Big Family").

Willie Nelson
"Moment of Forever" (Lost Highway)
More songs for an old man, though as ever he's sly about it ("Gravedigger," "The Bob Song").

Pharoahe Monch
"Desire" (SRC/Universal Motown)
Keeping the conscious faith for seven years in the corporate wilderness, he remained relevant by leapfrogging bling and ringtone imperatives altogether ("Push," "Hold On").

Joy of Cooking
"Back to Your Heart" (Njoy)
Outtake keepsakes and cooking jams from the Berkeley hippies who invented a "women's music" that was never so fast, smart, or soulful again ("Brownsville/Mockingbird," "Bad Luck").

Parts & Labor
"Mapmaker" (Jagjaguwar)
Speed-freek noiseniks kick it into gear behind mad new drummer ("Vision of Repair," "The Gold We're Digging").

Tab the Band
"Pulling Out Just Enough to Win" (North St.)
Aerosmith: The New Generation ("Secretary's Day," "CYT").

CHOICE CUTS

Billy Joe Shaver
"Played the Game Too Long"
"If You Don't Love Jesus"
("Everybody's Brother" [Compadre])

Little Big Town
"Evangeline"
("A Place to Land" [Equity])

Melissa Etheridge
"Threesome"
("The Awakening" [Island])

Kid Rock
"So Hott"
"All Summer Long"
("Rock N Roll Jesus" [Atlantic])

Watch "So Hott" | More Kid Rock videos

Barry Louis Polisar
"All I Want Is You"
("Music From the Motion Picture Juno" [Fox Music/Fox Searchlight
Pictures/Rhino])