Bruce Warren

It's audacious to declare the end of an entire musical subculture, and downright outrageous to do so when it's your musical subculture. With "Hip Hop Is Dead," Nas attempts to steer the genre in new directions while reasserting his status as one of its foremost personalities.

The tone of The Twilight Singers' "Live with Me" moves beyond that of a simple lover's plea: Over an ominous slide guitar, washes of electric guitars and a pulsing backbeat, the vibe gets pushed into ever more unnerving territory, thanks to two great singers who know their way around it.

Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner, who perform as Ghostland Observatory, play electronica with the ferocity of great rock 'n' roll. The Austin duo's music presents a beguiling synthesis of new-wave-influenced bands like The Rapture and the progressive dance-floor musings of Daft Punk.

A concert favorite of Deadheads, "Stella Blue" doesn't seem like natural turf for Willie Nelson and producer Ryan Adams, but the cover plays out as a guitar-soaked country power ballad, with Nelson digging into the vocal with longing and resignation as Adams lays down guitar feedback.

Years after breaking through as one of the most innovative and musically gifted acts in hip-hop, The Roots' members return with Game Theory, another groundbreaking collection of stellar and often political material.

A highlight of Peter, Bjorn and John's forthcoming Writer's Block — a concept album about the trials and tribulations of relationships — "Young Folks" is a breezy, melancholic slice of infectious pop.

For all its slowly gyrating seductiveness, "Gotta Be With You" serves as the hot centerpiece of an album that delivers on the promise and premise of its title. Sultry and soulful, Ronald Isley's falsetto remains commandingly rich and intoxicating.

Hot Chip is clearly made up of geeky music obsessives, each far-reaching in his musical ideas. A quirky, intelligent collection of songs, the band's new album The Warning owes as much to Prince and Aphex Twin as it does to The Beach Boys, New Order and Beck.

"Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken," from the Glasgow chamber-pop sextet Camera Obscura's recent album Let's Get Out of This Country, serves as a gloriously bubbly answer to Lloyd Cole's "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken," one of the all-time great breakup songs.

British singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch doesn't exactly rewrite the classic folk songbook on his first full-length studio album. But with his rich, hypnotic ballads and tender acoustic guitar work, he's created a timeless folk-pop record that's likely to endure.