"Better on the Other Side (Tribute to MJ)"

by the Game ft. Chris Brown, Diddy, Polow Da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, Boyz II Men<
(MP3)

"This the type of song that make the angels cry"—you know, guys, I'm actually going to dispute this one. "You were the one that made us all realize that we are the world"—must you? "Somebody tell Usher/I seen the moonwalk/I guess the young thriller touched him/Like he touched me/Like he touched you"—um...

"Treat Me Like Your Mother"

by the Dead Weather
(Third Man)

Am I the only one who thinks it's absolutely hilarious that Jack White's new band features him (a) chant-rapping like some nu-metal doofus and (b) playing drums better than anyone else in the group plays his/her instrument, voice included? Song's professional but nothing special, alas.

"First Snow"

by DJ Koze
(Mule Electronic)

Someday, DJ Koze will stop making records that stop me in my tracks, and then I will stop writing about them. Until then, here's another compilation standout (My Favorite Things Vol. 2) in the semi-ambient vein: a wash of organ that starts out like a wide-open yet cozy Field track, ends with the keyboards daubing pastels in the dark, and picks up a by-now-requisite "surprise" klonk! a couple minutes in, as well as some snugly scratchy percussion.

"Lost at Sea"

by the Fiery Furnaces
(Thrill Jockey)

I'm Going Away, from which this is the track that won't let go, is the most immediate, song-oriented album they've made since 2003's Gallowsbird's Bark, but they haven't so much gone back to normal as reinvented themselves again, this time as something approaching a simple rock band. "Lost at Sea" is the simplest song, with the simplest chorus, but it won't stop nagging you: "Baby, I'm... maybe I'm not me."

Dark Energy EP

by Altair Nouveau
(eMusic.com)

Five songs, 30 minutes, zero new ideas on this loving mock-late-disco tribute to synthesizers in the age of Tron. The title tune is a leaner (in every way) version of a Lindstrøm epic, "Cosmos" layers keyboard squiggles with an easy lightness, and if the video-game-noise quasi-symphony "Street Thunder II" is a bit tinny, tonality has nothing to do with warmth.

"Best I Ever Had Freestyle"

by Jahdan Blakkamoore and 77Klash
(DuttyArtz.com)

Brooklyn dancehall vocalist Blakkamoore "freestyles" by crooning a good new song over Drake's summer-jam earworm, with a verse borrowed from Radiohead's "Climbing up the Walls." It's every bit as lovely as the earworm. recommended