Each year pop's major releases swamp some very wonderful smaller titles. We don't want you to have a skewed view of all the action out there, so here is a string of great albums that just didn't seem to get as much hype as their big brothers and sisters. Go ahead, jump in.

Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me
McKay plays the pop game her way. She's an outspoken PETA supporter (dig the swinging "The Dog Song") and thought Teresa Heinz Kerry was cool. The 19-year-old also writes tunes about clones and posers so LOL funny even Norah Jones would crack a smile.

Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
This L.A. outfit stuck its head out of indieville with a disc that boasted thoroughly designed pop tunes marked by an oddball eloquence. "Any idiot can play Greek for a day/join a sorority or write a tragedy," sings Jenny Lewis in a manner both saucy and indicting. Like the Beautiful South or the Mekons, the Rilos have found a balance between waxing mordant and gleeful. Better yet, they do so without locking themselves into one particular style -- their "adventure" includes soul horns, a new wave guitar rave-up, and some boo-hoo countrypolitan twang.

The Concretes - The Concretes
After years of garage racket, Sweden gave us the Concretes, who sounded closer to Ingmar Bergman than the Sonics. With Victoria Bergsman's little girl vocals lost in a swirl of orchestration, the 8-piece proved that misery sure loves company.

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
British rapper Mike Skinner has put together a cinematic story that relies on hip-hop's fragmented aesthetic, yet has a beginning, middle, and end. A post-Trainspotting Birmingham teen interacts with his family, tries to make it with a bird or two, downs a few pints, and loses a bunch of cash that, as the title indicates, has to be paid back. Along the way he frets over his own hardheadedness and the fact that his damn cell fone keeps losing its charge. Call it the triumph of vernacular -- like his pal Dizzee Rascal, Skinner makes British slang resound with a robotic musicality.

Keren Ann - Not Going Anywhere
Several oddball folkies made a dent this year. Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, and Iron & Wine each came into their own. The French singer with the wispy voice, stark instrumentation, and indelible tunes is a cut above, however. If you've just stumbled onto Nick Drake via all the rediscovery hype, here's your next mellow touchstone. Ann's feathery approach can be utterly piercing.

Secret Machines - Now Here is Nowhere
These Texan misfits moved to NYC, but their debut was so out-there they could have come from Mars. Neil Young at his druggiest was playing drums like Bonzo somewhere in a CD-length Krautrock suite. Prog album of the year? Oh yes - and it was a good thing.

Mosquitos - Sunshine Barato
Almost everything is fake these days, so it doesn't really matter that only one of these NYC cutey-pies is really from Brazil. Their lighthearted romp through the bossa and samba styles has an indie rock insouciance guiding it, and there are those who say it beats some of the home grown stuff itself.

Ghostface Killah - The Pretty Toney Album
It might be 2004's rawest release: the beats could have come off a '70s Soul Train episode and Ghost may have recorded his raps from a passing SUV. Somehow it works - the mix of ghetto wit and collie wizardry is as mind-bending as a case of Natural Ice.

Garden State Soundtrack
The right string of songs can explain a filmmaker's view almost as well as the movie itself, and Zach Braff's curatorial chops make this 13-song set an enchanting mixed tape. The vibe at hand is the sentiment surrounding the concepts of home and family. Connecting the dots between Coldplay, Thievery Corporation, and Iron & Wine, Braff offers opinions on how sound can be its own narrative.

Rebecca Martin - People Behave Like Ballads
Martin's debut has more going for it than the wonderful title. Here's a singer who uses Joni Mitchell's Hejira as a template for her finely etched ideas, while letting jazz moods lead her where they may - indeed, it's a jazz ensemble that creates the background here. But the gentle tunes work like pop, with gauzy melodies supporting Martin's romantic ruminations, the clever refrains feeding back into the disc's dreamy aura.

Maggie & Suzzy Roche - Why the Long Face?
The forever insightful NYC sisters have found a way to move forward without their sister Terre in the mix, and their blend of voices is as enchanting as ever. The harmonies are a tad simpler of course, but plush vocals are a Roches trademark, and the intrepid use of dissonance and experimental cadences in the melodies keep their music on both the amusing and elaborate side. High points: "The Warwick Flag," which poetically arranges an array of images taken from collaborators in an upstate New York town, and "A Day in the Life of a Tree," Brian Wilson's 30-year-old and wholly poignant ecology broadside.

The Legendary Shack Shakers - Believe
Dudes who choose roots rock as their native tongue are usually limited by the music's somewhat stringent rules - they can't really go too far to the left or right. Screw that says these Nashville yahoos; they throw caution to the wind by injecting their hard-swinging stomp with all sorts of outside ideas. The opening track has a klezmer feel, instantly recalling the Middle Eastern inroads made by Camper Van Beethoven 20 years ago. Elsewhere, spaghetti western sounds mix with psycho blues, and production textures - fuzzed voice, kettle drum grooves, and wild dynamic shifts - enhance the basic ingredients.

Vinicius Cantuaria - Horse and Fish
Jazz trumpet here, whispered poetry there - the middle-aged Brazilian singer is expert at aligning symbols of sophistication into enticing tidbits of cosmopolitan culture. This is a record of small moves, yet each tune, each with one defining element, sticks in your head. Like his mate Arto Lindsey, he's bending the longstanding rules that guide bossa and samba.

Joseph Arthur - Our Shadows Will Remain
He moved from Manhattan to New Orleans because first and foremost his a sensualist. As these hazy pop ruminations roll by, you get the feeling Arthur's prey to everything out there - the weather, his heart, that open stretch of road. Flirting with disaster is his day job. Accounting for it is just a hobby he happens to be superb at.

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