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Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Wig Out at Jag Bags
The lyrical play, song craft and guitar wizardry is at an all-time high on this his fourth outing with the Jicks. How can one not chuckle with a song title like “Cinnamon and Lesbians”? Aside from Jeff Tweedy, I’d be hard pressed to find someone from the 90s this consistently great.

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Beck – Morning Phase
If Sea Change were heroin on the musical narcotic scale, Morning Phase would be morphine. Does that make me a bad dad for having this album as the going-to-bed music for my son for the past year?

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Mogwai – Rave Tapes
Up until now I hadn’t considered myself a fan of these Scottish post-rock/prog/krautian/math-rockers. Rave Tapes changed that with this their 8th album.

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Ty Segall – Manipulator
I’d been hearing about this kid for a couple of years. Dabbled with 2012 “Twins,” which I was nonplussed about. “Manipulator” is the fully realized Ty Segall which all of his future releases will be measured against.

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Real Estate – Atlas
A subtle yet solid follow-up to 2011’s “Days”, Real Estate now occupies the void left by Luna’s departure.

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The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream
This album could have easily been released as the follow-up to Don Henley’s “End of the Innocence” or Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers”. But since it came out on indie label Secretly Canadian, it somehow makes it cool.

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TWEEDY – Sukierae
Yep, more from the dad rock column. Probably didn’t need to be a double LP but it’s still thoroughly satisfying and the pacing is good. All the getting up and album flipping has left me winded.

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Nude Beach – 77
On New Brunswick NJ’s Don Giovanni Records (go Jersey!), this record completely came as a surprise. Only mildly aware of them through their prior release on NYC’s Other Music in-house label. They’ve steadily digested the catalogs of The Byrds, Big Star, Badfinger and The Replacements and produced a leagues better double LP.

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TV on the Radio – Seeds
After their unremarkable 2011 contract-fulfilling album for Interscope, they return with one less band member, a new label (Harvest) and thoroughly reinvigorated.

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Goat – Commune
If Brian Jones had lived and continued his world music explorations, this might have been where he’d end up.

Ken Beck
Cranford, NJ