Pitchfork

Phil Elverum finds a perfect foil and vessel for his songs in Julie Doiron on this mini-album, which marries to great effect his meditations on life's Big Questions with her quiet revelations about the everyday. To hear Elverum sing of his existential quandaries in isolation is frequently compelling, but with these songs often cast as duets, we're presented with the notion that Phil's struggles are universal.

The laborious title to Marnie Stern's new album weirdly suits her-- like her and her music, it's obsessive, playful, and choppy, and it captures the single-mindedness of this self-taught guitar virtuoso. On her second album, she also displays a new sense of self-assuredness, channeling her energy and learning to relax and record in a real studio without sacrificing the full-bodied qualities of her music.

After a brief hiatus Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen has revived the Department of Eagles project, enlisted some of his bandmates, and created a sprawling pop record (complete with guitars, piano, horns, banjo, and more) that evokes Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Sung Tongs, Van Dyke Parks, and Gene Clark. Ambitious and complex, it's stuffed with cocooning harmonies and shimmering, sunlight-smacking-the-Pacific melodies.

Vivian Girls, an all-women trio who've become overnight sensations among critics and underground rock fans, deliver a lively, lovable debut album that taps fashionable aesthetic wellsprings from Phil Spector to C86 to Nuggets and, without risking pastiche, turns them into an armful of kick-ass songs.