The Tribune

She & Him’s Volume 2 makes a slight departure from 2008’s Volume 1. Actress Zooey Deschanel and singer-songwriter M. Ward’s second album is full of Beach Boys-inspired harmonies and twangy California guitar, maintaining the duo’s penchant for a retro sound.

Montreal-based Plants and Animals’ newest release La La Land is a fun, upbeat record that showcases why the band has been gaining recognition in the indie music scene for a few years now. Their first full-length album, Parc Avenue, was nominated for two JUNO awards in 2009 and was short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize in 2008.

Björk and Sigur Rós may have put Iceland on the musical map. But Seabear – the seven-person collective that just released their sophomore album and made their North American debut at South by Southwest – have proved themselves to be the most promising new Icelandic indie export.

In 1980, when Dr. Hy Goldman first brought Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band to Montreal, not many people believed that the near-forgotten musical tradition of Klezmer could be revived. Roughly defined as the music of Eastern European Jewry, Klezmer had all but disappeared after the Second World War.

After their EP In Streetlight Communion was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2007, it’s no wonder that The Fugitives’ first full-length album Eccentrically We Love pushes the boundaries once again with their storytelling and instrumental fusing talents.

Members of the music community are positing Montreal as the next Seattle or Greenwich Village. While Toronto is well known for its festivals lined with big-name artists, such as the Virgin Music Festival, which hosted both Gnarles Barkley and The Strokes this year, the sounds that are challenging and changing the face of North America’s oversaturated music industry are being produced in our own backyard.

Mobile. Tales From the City. Local 514-ers Mobile have just released Tales From the City, their second full-length album. Formally known as Moonraker, Mobile has risen to critical success in the past couple of years with their first album, Tomorrow Starts Today, which helped the band win a Juno Award for New Group of the Year.

Until now, if the name Aidan Knight sounded familiar, it’s likely because of his numerous backing contributions to bands in the Victoria/Vancouver music scene. But take a few listens to his debut Versicolour and it’s hard to imagine Knight backing up any musician other than himself.

I’m not one to judge a book by it’s cover, but I will decide what to read based on what the back cover says; a song called “Oprah, God Wants You To Have A Private Jet” was more than enough to entice me to listen to Scott Lanaway’s Mergers and Acquistions. The album is full of spacey electro-folk, one of those new, hard-to-classify sounds your iTunes gives up on and calls “alternative and punk.

Gorillaz’s highly anticipated third album Plastic Beach definitely sounds like a Gorillaz album, but it lacks the flare of their sophomore release, Demon Days. Plastic Beach feels like a concept album, but it’s difficult to tell what the concept is (but it’s certainly not a pinball wizard).