#1 by Trevor Larkin A local discovery. I was hooked from the very first song. Don't let the cover art scare you off; there's some magic ingredient here that raises this stuff way above typical singer-songwriter fare. Standout track: "Seattle Winter Day." SO good.

Our Own Ghost City by Helen Earth Band. (Helen Earth. Get it?) Tight math-rock stuff from San Diego. Also, nice to hear prog songs that clock in at pop song lengths; no full-album-side pieces here. The single "(We All) Talk With Knives" is killer.

Love It to Life by Jesse Malin & St. Marks Social. This one frustrates me 'cause I'm a big Jesse Malin fan but this just hasn't grown on me yet. I miss the wider range of his first two records, before he started channeling Cheap Trick.

Dance Rush Project on MySpace Music. Rush music reinterpreted as club mixes. No, really. Swords.