As the adage goes, "everything old is new again" for The Cricket's Orchestra, a sparkling debut from Halifax, Nova Scotia singer/songwriter Meaghan Smith finally arriving February 9 via Sire. Deftly taking her songs and reimagining them in the sepia-shaded tones of the 20's, 30's and 40's musical styles, Smith and producer Les Cooper reach into a veritable grab bag of quirky, campy sounds and vintage instruments. Mellotrons bump up against clarinets and dixieland rhythms. Sweeping orchestrations summon chic Broadway musicals while string quartets, jitterbug rhythms and scratchy needles on vinyl add to the snug retro fit.

"I wanted the album to be an inspiring musical experience that makes you feel like you're leaving one world and entering another," she reflects, "a colorful, whimsical and imaginative place where you can reflect on your past and look forward to your future. I am greatly moved by...the times when things were pure and simple so I wanted the music to recall those eras, but I wanted to put a my own spin on it." She sums up: "The result is an ideal blend of old and new."

Thanks to Smith's polished songwriting, what might have come off as simply a heady, esoteric experiment instead becomes a delightful and unpredictable excursion. Songs like the purely precocious "I Know" with whistling melody, lazy piano and brushed ballroom rhythms never dip into overly precious territory. Smith's unaffected, straightforward singing gives the songs a casual, almost hip atmosphere. The nimble and sly "Drifted Apart" practically aches for a moonlight waltz, all summer breezes and starched dresses, as Smith sings softly of a friendship lost. Recommended. (A new holiday-themed EP Wish Upon A Star is at digital outlets December 8...preview after the jump).

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Meaghan Smith - "Soft Touch" (from the album The Cricket's Orchestra)

Meaghan Smith - "Drifted Apart" (from the album The Cricket's Orchestra)

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Even if ALO keyboardist Zach Gill hadn't gone to college with Jack Johnson, the band's improvisational jam/pop would be a comfortable fit on Johnson's own laidback Brushfire label -- an overview that comes into even tighter focus with the forthcoming Johnson-produced ALO project Man of the World (February 9). Building on a sound that is part Dead-ish doodling atmospherics, part center-line groove driven, melodic pop/rock, ALO (or Animal Liberation Orchestra) decided to go for what they call "their most natural, their most organic and their most pure" collection of songs yet. The easy camaraderie and skilled intuitive interplay of the band's excellent players may serve as their internal nerve system but, as Johnson points out, "they've got these songs that really stick in your head as well."

 To capture the band's live prowess on disc, ALO headed to the balmy confines of Johnson's Oahu, Hawaii studio and laid down World's tracks in what guitarist Dan Lebowitz calls a "workshop" environment: building and then tearing down arrangements and then rebuilding them again. "In a really great way, Jack shook things up for us," he adds. "(He) got us to rethink how we do things." The end product is an album that is both sophisticated and basic with a range of styles and moods that easily drift from rambunctious, hip-shaking rock (the galloping title track) to dreamy, stretched out improv passages that seem to have an ever-evolving direction (the mindbending, aptly titled "Suspended." Notes Gill: "You actually get to hear the sound of people in a room making something together. Not an artificial simulation. This was really amazing for all of us."

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ALO - "Man of the World" (from the album Man of the World)

ALO - "Suspended" (from the album Man of the World)

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Brooklyn three-piece Yeasayer cite a collective acid trip in New Zealand as the catalyzing inspiration for sophomore full-length Odd Blood, which is notable since their music is often - and aptly - described as psychedelic. Much-buzzed debut All Hour Cymbals was a digital/analog/accoustic melange of dreamy pop that was frequently likened to CSNY for its three-part vocal harmonies, psychedelic in a corduroy pants and two doobies sort of way but not really mind-bending. However, on Odd Blood's first track "The Children," replete with a industrial percussion and heavily processed vocals, it's clear that the band has - at least sonically - moved onto the harder stuff, crazy club drugs with numbers for names.

There's an undeniable dance music influence on Odd Blood, part New Wave, part tribal stomp, part future rave. Doing away with their drummer, as well as much of the harmonizing and guitar arpeggios that defined the laid-back sound of ...Cymbals, Odd Blood favors programmed electronics in dizzyingly dense arrangements that invite chin scratching and hip-shaking, sometimes simultaneously. This electron-cloud of texture and timbre sometimes obscures but never erases the fact that at its nucleus, Odd Blood is a very accomplished pop album, one that hooks immediately but engages through repeat listenings. “When it comes to our aesthetic," says singer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Keating, "we ask ourselves ‘What will music sound like in 20 years? ‘” This album answers that question pretty convincingly, but if they're wrong and 2030 sucks worse than 1980 at least we'll have Yeasayer on the classic rock station.

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Yeasayer - O.N.E. (From Odd Blood)

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Young Chicago singer/songwriter Daphne Willis brings a nimble soulfulness and lithe, laid-back vibe to her rhythmic Jack Johnson-styled jam pop debut What To Say, hitting February 9 via Vanguard. Fronting a well-oiled band that clearly knows its way around a tight, jazzy/reggae-tinged beat, the 22-year-old Willis keeps her approach fresh and brisk with a smokey vocal style that is all perceptive sass and tumbling, tongue-twisted verbal wit. With an unpretentious attitude, Willis and band deliver sharply etched, emotional and lyrical portraits that go down even easier when tacked on to a loose and limber instrumental backing.

While Willis and band had developed a solid and growing touring base in Chicago and midwest campuses, it wasn't until the head of Vanguard happened to catch a few Willis tracks on an airline in-flight, ear-bud serenade that the wheels really began to turn. Tracked down, signed and given studio support (especially a "revved up" sonic kick from producer Tim Lauer), Willis and her tight-knit band finished fleshing out versions of songs honed on the club stage and emerged with What To Say. The swaying, shimmering, tropic-heated single "Bluff", folk-pop confessional "Still Tryin'" and funky shuffle "Everybody Else" highlight a promising, sure-footed album that's already garnering solid advance buzz. Recommended.

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Daphne Willis - "Bluff" (from the album What To Say)

Daphne Willis - "Love and Hate" (from the album What To Say)

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We've always felt a little guilty about Meg Hutchinson's music. We probably should have been tugging on the sleeve of everyone we knew and telling them about what an incredible find each of her albums have been. But, with an artist like this, someone whose effortlessly beautiful songs can speak to the listener on a profoundly personal level, it's also tempting to just keep it to yourself. We were reminded of that fact today as we listened to Hutchinson's new album The Living Side, due February 9 via Red House, tempted to just close the door, turn the phone off, ignore the email and just, well, listen.

At 31 and with more than a decade's worth of touring and releases, Hutchinson will never be mistaken for some young "next big thing." But perhaps it is this adult perspective along with her undeniable skill as a songwriter that makes The Living Side so extraordinary. It is clear that on every level the Boston-based singer is performing at the top of her game: the melodies are subtle but rich, the airy voice tender but resilient, the lyrics knowing and provocative. And when Hutchinson sets the socio-political stage for pointed observations on the lost American Dream in the deceptively lovely "Hard To Change" or probes emotional will in the whispered intimacy of "Gatekeeper" you know you're in the presence of something truly special. Highly recommended.

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Meg Hutchinson - "Gatekeeper" (from the album The Living Side)

Meg Hutchinson - "Hard To Change" (from the album The Living Side)

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As easy as it is to acknowledge U.K. trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack as one of the leading influences in contemporary music over the last 20 years, it's equally as easy to imagine that Heligoland, arriving February 9 from Grant 'Daddy G’ Marshall and Robert '3D’ Del Naja, would never have been made. Rancor and disharmony over musical direction have plagued Massive Attack throughout their career and it has, after all, been seven years since 2003's "100 Windows", a well-received project that nonetheless led Marshall and Del Naja to pretty much call it quits. "Luckily, we came through it," reflects Marshall, "because it turned out that the bond was stronger than that moment in time."

Even more than usual, inspired collaborations are a critical M.A. component on Heligoland. Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, amazing singer Martina Topley-Bird, Blur's Damon Albarn, veteran vocalist Horace Andy, Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley all guest and the results are remarkably diverse and definitively accomplished. There's simply nothing else quite like the sound of the darkly erotic "Paradise Circus", where Sandoval's seductive vocals straddle an ascending keyboard riff, a percussive bed of beats and handclaps and finally a slinky dub bass line.  Or the disorienting layers of blips and bleeps behind Garvey's rambling, off-beat (literally) vocals on "The Flat of the Blade", an adventurous track that finds the delicate tightrope balance between dangling melody and gorgeously messy electronic rhythms. Brilliant, challenging and ultimately redemptive, Heligoland is a magnificent return to form. Highly recommended.

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Massive Attack - "Paradise Circus" (featuring Hope Sandoval) (from Heligoland)

Massive Attack - "Pray for Rain" (featuring Tunde Adebimpe) (from Heligoland)

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Irish songcraftsman Fionn Regan's soft-spoken 2006 debut album The End of History (Lost Highway) was a remarkably assured and literate collection of lo-fi, self-produced modern folk/rock with a sound that one critic described as "a more sunny sounding Nick Drake." With a beguiling mix of smarts and lack of pretense, History was a lesson in brilliant, often darkly hued writing and superbly rendered, stark production that still managed a warm embrace. Every note seemed included with a purpose but the sound was never mannered or overly structured. Not surprisingly, Regan found a welcoming critical base and the then 26-year-old was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize in the U.K.

Forthcoming February 9 album Shadow of An Empire (Heavenly/Import) moves Regan from the acoustic bedroom-recording intimacy of his initial offering to a brisk, street-busking energy level that reflects his larger, wider musical world view -- the “seeing the world, the bone structure, the pulp” of what he encountered on his internationl tour travels. “There were no airs or graces about it, we cut live in the room, live vocals", says Regan. "As far a production goes…I’m very much into keeping mistakes, a crack in the voice, the natural ebb and flow of live drums, so that there’s a sort of evidence of the process… I think it’s that atmosphere which makes me want to revisit my favorite albums again and again.” Lead track "Protection Racket" is a wirey, lithe jumble of electric twang and Dylanesque verbal ramble, a driving, ragged-edged mix of Waterboys thrust and scathing folk/punk social comment.

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Fionn Regan - "Protection Racket" (from the album Shadow Of An Empire)

Fionn Regan - "Snowy Atlas Mountains" (from the album The End Of History)

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At some point after they fell in love, started a band, released their debut album and got engaged, Dallas-based folk/art-pop duo Smile Smile hit the wall hard -- a point, owing to infidelity, that would normally doom any sort of future relationship together. But rather than simply split and walk away from the wreckage, Ryan Hamilton and Jencey Hirunrusme decided to continue their musical connection and create the haunting Truth On Tape or what Hamilton succinctly describes as their "break up record". Somehow "lovesick punch", a term one critic used to describe the band's debut album, takes on a whole new meaning with this unapologetically naked new album (right down to the cover).

"You fill me with lies" sings Hamilton on the deceptively sweet-sounding title track with Hirunrusme answering "and I refuse to change anything". "What went wrong?" they ask in harmony, giving the listener a taste of the bleakly bittersweet observations to come. Still, even after songs such as "Cancer" and "Beg You To Stay" take their emotional toll, the clarity of their remarkable bloodletting makes Truth On Tape, due February 9, akin to trying to look away from a disastrous collision -- albeit one composed of sublime melodic pop. "I feel like these songs are hopeful, devastating and so personal to us," says Hirunrusme. "I hope that it can reach out and speak to anyone who has had their heart broken…” Recommended.

Myspace  Kirtland Label Site

Smile Smile - "Truth On Tape" (from the album Truth On Tape)

Smile Smile - "Beg You to Stay" (from the album Truth On Tape)

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The ascendant arc of The Watson Twins, Chandra and Leigh, really began in 2006 when the pair joined up with Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis for the remarkable - and remarkably successful - Rabbit Fur Coat. The Watsons toured behind Lewis and Rabbit, winning accolades for the layers of sweet vocal harmonies they added to Lewis' modern alt/country songs. Building upon that early success, the pair released a well received EP in 2006 and then began work with producers Russell Pollard and J. Soda on tracks that would become their debut album Fire Songs, released in the summer of 2008. An uncanny blend of classic retro pop and jangly So-Cal and Americana folk/rock, Fire Songs established The Watsons as compelling artists - and songwriters - in their own right.

Sophomore album Talking To You, Talking To Me, due February 9 on Vanguard, promises to expand on the themes and styles of their debut, adding a pronounced classic soul influence and bright, rhythmic energy to the more subdued adult pop leanings that were the core of Fire Songs. The Watsons also reevaluated the intricate harmonies that graced their earlier songs, going more for a singular voice on each track and then trading places as each other's backup. Says Leigh: "I feel we've honed how to work together and I think our singing style on this album strengthened the idea of the two of us being one voice. What people expect from us is very different from what this record is." Lead track "U-N-Me" reflects that shift in attitude where a driving backbeat, two chords of ragged guitar and pounding piano form the backdrop for a two-minute vibrant 60's retro-pop vocal sprint.

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The Watson Twins - "U-N-Me" (from the album Talking To You, Talking To Me)

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Best known as a "go-to" studio producer, Seattle's Aaron Sprinkle steps to center stage for a second time as the creative mastermind of Fair, an impressive, unpretentious band whose sophomore album Disappearing World arrives February 9 (Tooth and Nail). With a boyish voice and sumptuous, surprisingly deep grab bag of punchy, melody-packed songs, Sprinkle inhabits his World with gloriously rendered styles that straddle old-school bright, jangling "new wave" and modern indie/pop smarts. It's a rare delight when an album sheds its stylistic inhibitions with such unabashed verve and confidence.

“Musically I wanted to really tap into my influences, which are mostly ‘60s and ‘70s and lot of ‘80s too,” says Sprinkle. “And that’s really the feel of this record -- a lot of very retro moments wearing those influences on our sleeve.” There's much to like here, but we're particularly fond of the lavish, gorgeously hooky title track and propulsive kick of "One Last Time", both near-perfect examples of the past gracefully and forcefully bumping up against the present. Recommended.

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Fair - "Disappearing World" (from the album Disappearing World)

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The reclusive Sade, absent from the studio for a decade, makes a long awaited return with Soldier Of Love for her original label home Epic/Sony and her first since 2000's Lovers Rock. Details are scant, but we do have a cover along with the title and word that, predictably, she's been working with longtime associate Stuart Matthewman and her bandmates on the new collection of songs. The album is produced by the band along with engineer Mike Pena.

The Brit singer of Nigerian descent, who turned 50 this past January, broke into the mainstream in a massive way in the mid-80's with a succession of hugely successful albums of international appeal. Sade - as both singer and band - fashioned slinky, sensuous pop and R+B meshed with a jazzy world music rhythms for a sound that was distinctly her own. Following the release of 1992's multi-platinum Love Deluxe, the singer pretty much dropped out of sight, releasing only Lovers Rock in a nearly two decade time span.

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Sade - "Soldier of Love" (from the album Soldier of Love)

As always, our streams are for sampling purposes only. Please support the artist and buy the music.

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Heartache, loneliness and desperation have never sounded as captivatingly lovely as they do in the gifted hands of the consummate Canadian singer/songwriter Lynn Miles. With a style that recalls the likes of Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin with just a touch of a more introspective Lucinda Williams, Miles, over the course of six studio albums since the mid-90's, has been one of the most consistently brilliant if sinfully unheralded performers of our time. Ranging from the stripped and dark Unravel to the more mainstream folk/pop of the Larry Klein-produced Night In A Strange Town, Miles, as the NY Times observed, "makes being forlorn sound like a state of grace."

Black Flowers I and II, releasing February 9 is an ongoing series of albums that revisits Miles' impressive collection of songs and presents new versions of some of her best works (and some previously unrecorded ones as well) in a simple guitar/piano/voice setting. Not surprisingly, this back-to-basics process is perfect for her music as the heartfelt lyrics, whether coming from pain, loss or redemption, take on an even more directly resonant and personal tone. After the recording of a new, fully produced studio album early this year, look for a third volume of Black Flowers in May and then, according to Miles, a new volume every six months. Highly recommended.

Lynn Miles - "Map of My Heart" (from the album Black Flowers I and II)

Lynn Miles - "The People You Love" (from the album Black Flowers I and II)

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Allison Moorer has decided to mix things up a bit for her new album Crows (Rykodisc). Shifting to the left of her usual "new country" style, Moorer and producer R.S. Field have fashioned an album that emphasizes piano-based writing, personal and poetic lyricism and what is being termed a "sophisticated, pop flavored" style favoring "intricate arrangements and delicate dynamics." Lead track "The Broken Girl" reflects an album that she says "surprised me every step of the way": punchy rhythm backing, guitarist Joe McMahan's rough-edged riffs and a memorable melodic hooks meld into a song that burns brightly from start to finish. “I felt like I was being the most open I’d ever been. I don’t know if that’s age or confidence or what, but after all this time, I’m starting to feel like I know what I’m doing as a singer. Songwriting is very mysterious to me. I know how songs work but I don’t always understand how they come to be.”

"I really just set myself free and just threw all the rules out the window," Moorer tells Billboard. "Y'know, I've never been that concerned with fitting in anywhere, and I've always been sort of a square peg in whatever hole anybody would put me in. This time I just said I'm gonna do what I want to do and let this be as me as I want to." Crows is Moorer's seventh album since her 1998 debut and her first since Mockingbird, her fine (and criminally overlooked) '08 album of eclectic and diffuse covers (Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone) made with producer/guitarist Buddy Miller. Highly recommended.

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Allison Moorer - "Broken Girl" (from the album Crows)

Allison Moorer - "Both Sides Now" (from the album Mockingbird)

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k.d. lang's upcoming retrospective anthology -- Recollection, arriving February 2 -- fortunately will not be just your run-of-the-mill collection of various hits and assorted album tracks. This 2-CD set (and 3-CD, 1-DVD box set) will feature the expected songs such as "Constant Craving", "Smoke Rings" and her definitive version the Leonard Cohen standard "Hallelujah" (video after the jump) culled from her 25 years of recordings leading up to '08's fine Watershed album. But it will also pull together tracks that lang has recorded over the years as duets and one-offs for soundtracks but which have never before appeared on a one of her own studio albums. There will also be a previously unreleased version of "Hallelujah".

Disc One - Primarily a "best of" 11-track collection from her studio albums. Disc Two - Eleven tracks culled from her many soundtrack projects and tribute albums. Disc Three (from the box set) - Eleven rarities including eight tracks recorded live at KCRW. Disc Four (from the box set)- Eleven music videos, two of which were recorded live in 2005 at the Juno awards.

See the full track listing after the jump...

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* = DC recommends a listen...

Abbey Lincoln - Through the Years (3-CD Box Set) (Jazz/Vocal)*

Allison Moorer - Crows (Pop/Folk/Alt)*

AM - Future Sons and Daughters (Pop/Alt)*

Angelique Kidjo - Oyo (Afrobeat/Pop/R+B)*

Broken Consort - Crow Autumn (Experimental/Folk/Alt/Classical)

Celtic Thunder - It's Entertainment! (Celtic/Folk/Vocal)

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - Live in Las Vegas (Pop/Rock)

Empirical - Out 'n' In (Jazz)

Fair - Disappearing World (Rock/Pop)*

Fanshaw - Dark Eyes (Pop/Alt)

Galactic - Ya-Ka-May (New Orleans/Funk/Rock/Jazz/R+B)

Georgia Anne Muldrow - Kings Ballad (R+B/Soul)

Gil Scott- Heron - I'm New Here (Alt/R+B/Jazz/Rap)

Hot Chip - One Life Stand (Pop/Electronica/Dance)*

Jaheim - Another Round (Ne-Soul/R+B)

Josh Turner - Haywire (Country)

Julie Thompson - Feeling the Corners (Pop/Electronica/Dance)

Kath Bloom - Thin Thin Line (Folk/Pop)

Laura Gibson and Ethan Rose - Bridge Carols (Pop/Alt/Ambient)*

Lisbeth Quartett - Grow (Jazz)

Luther Allison - Songs From the Road (Blues)

Lynn Miles - Black Flowers I + II (Folk/Pop)*

Mark David Ashworth - Bright Is The Ring of Words (Folk/Progressive/Ambient)

Massive Attack - Heligoland (Electronic/Dance/Ambient/R+B)*

Meg Hutchinson - The Living Side (Folk/Pop)*

Neil Diamond - Hot August Night NYC From Madison Square Garden (Pop/Adult)

Olivier Manchon - Ochestre De Chambre Miniature 1 (Neo-Classical/Pop/Jazz/Experimental)

Phantogram - Eyelid Movies (Alt/Electronica/Pop)

Reckless Kelly - Somewhere In Time (Country/Roots/Rock)

Sad Day for Puppets - Unknown Colors (Pop/Rock/Alt/Indie)

Sade - Soldier of Love (Pop/Soul/Jazz)*

Shannon Curfman - What You're Getting Into (Blues/Rock)

Smile Smile - Truth on Tape (Pop/Folk/Indie)*

Theodore - Hold You Like A Lover (Americana/Country/Folk)

The Chapmans - Grown Up (Bluegrass/Acoustic)

The Cottars - Feast (Celtic/Folk)*

The Pretenders - Live In London (CD/DVD) (Rock/Pop/Classic)

The Watson Twins - Talking to You, Talking to Me (Pop/Folk/Rock/Americana)

Tord Gustavsen Ensemble - Restored, Returned (Acoustic/Jazz/Piano)*

Trio Ivoire - Across the Oceans (Jazz)

Undersea Poem - Undersea Poem (Pop/Alt/Bossa Nova)*

Valentine's Day (Soundtrack) (featuring new music from Jewel, Taylor Swift)

Yeasayer - Odd Blood (Indie/Pop/Alt/Rock)