Will Hermes

Supergroups have a long tradition in popular music. Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson once joined forces as The Highwaymen. There were the Fania All-Stars, The Four Tenors and Audioslave. Now Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, Jim James and M. Ward, calling themselves Monsters of Folk, have released their debut album.

The experimental rock band based in New York draws on early vocal music, modern soul and other sources, defying categorization in the process. According to critic Will Hermes, the band's new album, Bitte Orca, is a breakthrough.

Being a Neil Young fan isn't always easy. There have been lean years, puzzling political stances and quite a few less-than-satisfying concept albums. But most fans are determined to stick it out. In many ways, the gargantuan Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 is payback.

Despite a constant flood of new music, people still like to insist it was all better in times past. But Marianne Faithfull, who has survived a bunch of musical decades, recognizes that right now is a golden era of its own. Her new record, Easy Come, Easy Go, is all covers, but alongside old standards are what might be some new staples.

The Portland-based rock band is known for its anachronistic indie-pop songs featuring "chimbly sweeps" and "barrow boys." Their newest album, The Hazards of Love, is a 1970s-style concept album that some might call a rock opera.

Animal Collective is an experimental pop band that's cultivated an air of mystery over the past few years, as well as a passionate following. Will Hermes reviews the band's new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion.

More than anything Malkmus has done, Real Emotional Trash engages in the sort of shape-shifting that marked Bob Dylan's career. He wears a different mask on virtually every song, and it certainly helps that the band is his strongest post-Pavement outfit yet.

Kathleen Edwards is a 29-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter with a taste for rock 'n' roll, folk and especially country music. Given her country of origin, it's no surprise that her songs find metaphors in hockey skates and border crossings instead of red dirt farms or the Blue Ridge Mountains. On Asking for Flowers, she steps up her game even further.

Zach Condon is a young singer-songwriter who grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., but whose musical interests have looked abroad. His debut, which drew on Balkan gypsy music, was a surprise hit among Internet indie-rock cognescenti last year. His second set with the band Beirut is The Flying Club Cup.

Battles looks like a normal quartet, but it doesn't act like one. Band members play two or three instruments simultaneously and then digitally loop the sounds they've just made. So the group, in essence, becomes five, six or seven members at once.