Rock and blues
Animal Collective, "Sung Tongs" (Fat Cat): An acoustic hootenany reinvented for the electronic era. Exhilarating, innocent of any apparent influence, and completely unlike anything else released this year (or maybe ever). (S.T.)
Bobby Bare Jr.'s Young Criminals Starvation League, "From the End of Your Leash" (Bloodshot Records): Another son of country royalty takes aim at the milieu that raised him, but with a more self-deprecating sense of humor and a surer grasp of the music that made the milieu in the first place. "Welcome to Music City" is the best song ever written about Nashville. (P.B.)
Ray Bonneville, "Roll it Down" (Red House Records): Bonneville's spare, lean guitar licks and rough-hewn voice are roots rock at its finest. This work strips his originals down to the basics, with juicy organ as the only embellishment. The catchy, down-to-earth guitar work sounds deceptively simple, but is as rare and refreshing as someone without a cell-phone in Shibuya. (M.P.)