Kaki King, 'Junior' (Rounder)
Listening to Junior, it's apparent that if Kaki King hates her ex this much now, she really must have loved her then. The instrumental virtuoso claims a backing band on her fifth album, and the new rhythm section adds aggression to tangles of guitar and post-domestic disgust.
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She & Him, 'Volume Two' (Merge)
If Zooey Deschanel didn't exist, indie rock would've invented her. A life-size Kewpie doll in a vintage granny dress who belted out Christmas carols in Elf, she
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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, 'Beat the Devil's Tattoo' (Abstract Dragon/Vagrant)
Six albums in, BRMC still seemingly pick their songwriting styles by throwing darts at a rock'n'roll genre chart. Tattoo offers deeply committed re-creations of bleary balladry ("Long Way Down"), stoned Americana ("The Toll"), distorto-pop ("Bad Blood"), and spacey trips into wah-wah oblivion (the ten-minute "Half-State").
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Laura Marling, 'I Speak Because I Can' (Astralwerks)
Laura Marling is just 20 years old, but unlike another singing 20-year-old (say, one with blonde ringlets, a sparkly acoustic guitar, and several Grammys), Marling doesn't write about fairy tales and cute boys.
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Love Is All, 'Two Thousand and Ten Injuries' (Polyvinyl)
With her piercing squawk, Love Is All frontwoman Josephine Olausson could be a disruptive preteen deserving of serious medication, or a stretch in after-school detention. But her aim is true on the Swedish quintet's third full-length, a fizzy, exhilarating hybrid of bubblegum pop and bratty punk.


