The Year's Best National Albums (A Wholly Objective and Statistically Sound List)

Propped against the wall at an awkward angle, an animal-hide satchel holds a tiny plastic skeleton

A melancholic Beck waxes fatalistic on 'Sea Change'

S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S.: R.I.P.

Eating dog, serving man: Signal to Trust's northern mythology

Filmmaker Benno Nelson parlays his trippy 'method' into a retrospective

Lard swimming and bear-wrasslin' with the Microphones' Phil Elvrum

Making a lot of noise over a few quiet moments

Desaparecidos watch malaise overrun America's heartland

The Stratford 4's lyrics prove the virtues of the instrumental

The music of Lightning Bolt and Erase Errata speaks volumes

You won't believe what Quintron and Miss Pussycat can do with a marionette

A band called !!! plays music from the other eighties

An open zine collects the manifestoes of street poets, single dads, and itinerant academicians

Postpunk rallies against Giuliani's legacy

Polara's Ed Ackerson launches the Susstones multimedia collective

Spiritualized's noisy bombast vs. Pan American's soft sound

This is the sound of Brit hip hop. Or is it hip Britpop? Sometimes with Hood, it's hard to tell

Road-tripping to Texas for South by Southwest

The Ashtray Hearts find music in a Minneapolis apartment

Talking love and death with the Psychedelicates

Abstinence makes the Hartnett grow fonder in 40 Days and 40 Nights

Anti-folk avatars the Moldy Peaches give lessons in good touch and bad touch.

Offspring of Spacek and Hanks Bring 'Orange County' to Harvest