5 CDs You Should Not Miss

SHOUT OUT LOUDS

HOWL HOWL GAFF GAFF Telling everyone you're a sucker for love without being extremely irritating is a tough trick, yet this emotional Stockholm band finds a way to pull it off. Singer Adam Olenius has a gift for melodies and an earnestness that recalls the Cure's Robert Smith, but he's also got enough self-respect to know when he's on the verge of bathos and is smart enough to avoid it, as on the soaring Very Loud: "I wanna build buildings high for you/ But the costs, my God, the costs I can't afford you."

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH

This Brooklyn band released its debut without money--or tinkering--from a record label, and you can hear the absence of both. From Alec Ounsworth's thin, David Byrne-like vocals to the miles of ether between the pop hooks, the album is not exactly market friendly, but abstraction has its rewards. They include the floating ecstasy of the break-up song Over and Over Again (Lost and Found) ("Now where's the woolen sweater/ You mentioned in the letter?/ Imply/ The other guy") and the partial fingerprints of Joy Division and R.E.M. on Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood, which, title notwithstanding, offers nuanced anger about the war in you know where.

THE GO! TEAM

THUNDER, LIGHTNING, STRIKE

It takes a minute to give in to this bizarre, joyful record because at first it sounds like music from Battle of the Network Stars. The mix of blaring late-'70s soul samples, hand claps and exuberant rhymes by female MC Ninja would be tough to take if there were any winking involved, but such touches as the wistful harmonica on Everyone's a VIP to Someone and the double-Dutch rhythm of We Just Won't Be Defeated betray no other desire than to be the sound track to adventures in your head.

CHRIS BROWN

CHRIS BROWN

At 16, Brown sounds as though he has already spent time under the covers, but it will be a few years before he can say how it makes him feel with any honesty. Instead he makes like a mini-Usher and sings as if entertainment were the only thing in the world that matters. On the bona fide radio hits--Run It!, Yo (Excuse Me Miss), Gimme That--he has enough discipline to let the hooks do their work, while on the remaining tracks his charm and clean voice rise above a synthesizer that comes on stronger than Colt 45--era Billy Dee Williams.

LADY SOVEREIGN

VERTICALLY CHALLENGED

This tiny London 19-year-old was personally signed by Jay-Z, and it's easy to imagine the chips on their respective shoulders getting along great. Lady Sov turns disses from boys (The Battle) and slights from hip-hop stars (Random) who couldn't have known she existed when she wrote them into combustible energy that flows perfectly over tracks that owe more to house music than to rap.

With reporting by Josh Tyrangiel