The Fiery Furnaces, 'I'm Going Away' (Thrill Jockey)

Brooklyn's busiest bro and sis chill out for a sec.

How does a year without a new Fiery Furnaces album feel?

Maxwell, 'BLACKsummers’night' (Columbia)

Afro? Completely gone. Mojo? Stronger than ever.

This neo-soul trailblazer hasn’t released a new album since 2001’s Now, but after returning to the stage last fall, Maxwell is coming back with a flourish: Dude says this is the first installment in a planned trilogy. Grittier and less New Age-y than his previous work, BLACKsummers’night suggests that Maxwell spent his sabbatical doing more than yoga.

Dave Matthews Band, 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King' (RCA)

Jam-band kings bulk up, rock through sadness.

The first sound you hear on the new Dave Matthews Band album is the bleat of LeRoi Moore's saxophone -- appropriate for a disc titled in honor of the founding member, who died unexpectedly last August following a freak ATV accident.

The Mars Volta, 'Octahedron' (Warner Bros.)

Duo reinjects soulful noise into interstellar freakouts.

Unless you're the kind of prog-rock nut who plans to buy I Love You, Man on DVD just to relive the scene at the Rush concert, you're probably suffering from an acute case of Mars Volta Fatigue right about now.

Iggy Pop, 'Préliminaires' (Astralwerks)

Stooge trades broken glass for smoking jacket.

Is Iggy Pop aware that Leonard Cohen has returned to the stage?

Tori Amos, 'Abnormally Attracted to Sin' (Universal Republic)

Message? Awesome. Medium? Not so much.

On her tenth studio album, Tori Amos writes no less penetratingly than she did on her first about the way women navigate the intersection between sex and power.

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