5 Albums You Should Probably Go Out and Purchase Right Now
by Joshua Britton

Bright Eyes
Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
(Saddle Creek Records)

WHY: Though Bright Eyes is not a new band (they’ve been around since 1995, and their cult following has been grabbing the wrists of more listeners and shaking sorrow into their hearts across the country), the new album delivers more than just the usual sadness and apathy associated with front man Conor Oberst -- it offers hope. Through beautiful songs of misguided emotion and lack of sense (notables include "Bowl of Oranges," "Waste of Paint," and "From a Balance Beam"), the end of the album is reached with a whirlwind of screams and cathartic insight -- "Let’s Not Shit Ourselves" proclaims "How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery/to love and to be loved./Let’s just hope that is enough." It might be enough if you own this album and nothing else.

The Flaming Lips
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
(Warner Bros. Records)

WHY: Because this is not a concept album (at least Wayne Coyne, the band’s lead vocalist and central songwriter, swears it isn’t), but it plays like one. Taken through a futuristic world overrun by "evil-natured robots," Coyne and Co. tell the story of a Japanese girl who is the world’s only hope of destroying the robots. Symphonic electricity and Coyne’s hazy growl turn this ludicrous tale into a gorgeous romp through an undeniable sound only the Lips can create. Standout tracks like "Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell" and "Do You Realize??" ooze with sweet melodies and an aura unmatched by any modern musicians, and the Lips’s unique use of drum tracks gives each song a permanent place in the air you’re breathing. Certainly their best effort to date.

Wilco
Being There
(Reprise Records)

WHY: Because while Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the newest album by Wilco, is getting many wonderful reviews (and rightfully so), many people are neglecting the band’s previous efforts. Because Being There is the pre-broken tiles of Foxtrot and more emotionally seductive than Foxtrot’s predecessor, summerteeth. Because on Being There, Jeff Tweedy and his band try to move away from alt-country/folk and look more for the rock in the grass. Listen to "misunderstood" or "sunken treasure," the first tracks on discs one and two (respectively), and find yourself immediately trapped into listening to the rest of the album. Pianos and lap steels, fiddles and violins, accordions and mandolins all find room on this double-album to create an everyday/everyman feel to almost every song: heartbreak, happiness and hallucinations merge in Tweedy’s cigarette-ridden voice, eternally branding the sounds in your head.

Sparklehorse
It’s a Wonderful Life
(Capitol Records)

WHY: If anything, because they’re mentioned by bands like Radiohead and Belle & Sebastian in interviews, an immediate indication of their unique sound. Produced by heavy-hitters Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips) and John Parish (Eels) and with guest-musicians Nina Persson, PJ Harvey, and Tom Waits, Sparklehorse’s debut album is a colossal attack on music and emotion. Mark Linkous, who is Sparklehorse, has written thirteen songs that pierce through the ephemeral with allusions to reincarnation and with animalistic symbolism; he does not hesitate to make you cry or get angry. Linkous is a songwriter looking to rouse the listener without necessarily telling him anything -- you could easily fall asleep to the album’s first four songs, only to be awakened into a bad dream with the next three, while the last five allow you to float around the room looking for a place in which to hide forever. Beautiful moments are included in "Apple Bed" and "Little fat baby."

The Microphones
The Glow Pt. 2
(K Records)

WHY: Because an arsenal of wonderful, unknown musicians is assembled to record some of the most beautiful music to ever hit my ears. Striking from Olympia, Phil Elvrum sat down with a shitload of guitars, some keyboards, horns, and a simple drum set (plus a few friends) and wrote twenty amazing songs about traveling, sleeping, girlfriends, and sunbathing. The guitars are incongruous, the horns are suddenly sporadic, and Phil’s voice retreats in and out of a place you feel you know but can’t remember. Mostly an experiment with recording, The Glow works its magic fingers into your ears: tempos change throughout songs, and though there are many fast-paced tracks, the album plays like a coffee-house rendezvous at four in the morning -- you can’t help but keep quiet, just listening, waiting for the sun to rise. Some of the best songs include the title track, "Headless Horseman," "The Mansion," and "I Want to be Cold."