Manufacturer: EMI / Virgin Music

It's hard to imagine someone even younger than 19-year-old Laura Marling making a splash on the music scene, but 16-year-old Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi is doing a pretty good job. Having smashed apart stereotypes of innocence with her killer single "(There's Nothing) Sweet About Me", Cilmi (pronounced "Chill Me") now offers a debut that's not only lyrically and emotionally mature, but ...

Manufacturer: Universal

Manufacturer: Asylum

Manufacturer: EMI

Manufacturer: Eagle

It's hard to believe that For Emma, Forever Ago is the work of one man. But when Justin Vernon's old band split he hauled himself (and presumably plenty of instruments and recording equipment) to his dad's hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for the coldest season and worked through his issues in musical form. (The name comes from the French for "good winter"--"bon hiver"). By the start ...

Manufacturer: 4AD

Snow Patrol are frequently compared to Coldplay in the press, which seems strange as they write far better songs and do not appear to be quite so self-hating, nor as rich. Their delightfully dour little pop songs do touch on the melancholic side of things, but the lyrics are wonderfully slice-of-life descriptions. Singer/lyricist Gary Lightbody gives a shout-out to Sufjan Stevens when on the ...

Manufacturer: Polydor

Manufacturer: RCA

For a few years now Brooklyn's TV on the Radio's obtuse but powerful art-rock has been consistently acclaimed by critics and peers without quite entering mainstream consciousness, a state of affairs the release of Dear Science is about to change for good. On their third studio set, their best and most cohesive album to date, the five mad scientists that make up TVOTR (no exaggeration--the ...

Manufacturer: 4ad

Manufacturer: Mercury Records Ltd (London)