It’s hard to say anything clever about Turn Back O Man, Phoenix’s premier gothic-Americana combo, when the guys have  said it all themselves. Their bio boasts comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Nick Cave, labels the band “a group of sexy, dangerous, incredibly intriguing men,” and name-drops a laundry list of acts the members have shared the stage with, including M. Ward, Giant Sand, the New Pornographers, Calexico, Magnolia Electric Company, American Music Club, Neko Case, Califone, Devotchka, Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Smog, Pernice Brothers, My Morning Jacket, and “other artists too impressive to even mention.”
But none of that would mean squat if the band, lead by singer/songwriter Daryl Scariot, didn’t have the songs to back such bravado up. “Devil Like Me,” taken from their debut EP, should make clear that the rogues and scoundrels facade works wonders for the band on record, a sinister, hilarious murder ballad, showcasing not only Scariot’s ensnaring wordplay, but the skill of his crack band-drummer Shane Kennedy, Matt Wiser on pedal steel and, on this recording, playing a particularly mean bass, Dario Miranda.
As our friends over at Electric Mustache said, Turn Back O Man are one of the best bands in Phoenix, as “Devil Like Me” will attest to.
Yours Truly, the Commuter
So maybe it sounds a lot like a Grandaddy album … is anyone going to complain about that? Lytle stays true to his old band’s spaced-out sound, prominently declaring his return in the first line of the album opener: “Last thing I heard I was left for dead. I could give two shits about what they said.â€
Every year, I need an album like this: a bundle of expertly crafted indie-pop that crawls into and lives inside my brain. Michael Benjamin Lerner possesses a keen sense of melody that is airtight. You won’t find a weak song in the bunch.
After experimenting — but misfiring badly — on two albums following his seminal debut Black on Both Sides (1999), Mos Def rediscovered the touch that made him a force 10 years ago. Sharp production from supreme beatmakers like Oh No (Supermagic) and Madlib (Auditorium) appear to have put Mos back on the path to greatness.
It just seems like a given any more that when Neko Case puts out an album it’ll end up on my top 10 list. Hers is a voice I never get tired of hearing. (It’s also hard to think of a better album cover for the year.)
For an album I almost entirely overlooked, Post-Nothing (whose title cleverly mocks genre labeling) may stick with me as long as any other release from 2009. Brian King and David Prowse strike a nerve here with an energetic mess of rock songs about dysfunctional love (Crazy/Forever) and fading youth (Young Hearts Spark Fire).
A brilliant return to form for Boise’s finest, led by Doug Martsch, the everyman’s rock hero. It’s not hard to imagine the highlights here — Aisle 13, Oh Yeah, Done — ranking among some of the band’s best tracks from a storied catalog.
Based on logistics alone, this two-CD benefit compilation deserves hearty recognition. Recruiting some of the brightest names in indie rock — Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Dirty Projectors, Spoon, My Morning Jacket and so on — to contribute can be no easy feat. But instead of a ragtag collection of B-sides and throwaways, we get all-star original material.
Mayer Hawthorne’s falsetto-heavy soul owes an obvious debt to the Motown Sound, his sweet-sounding vocals recalling the best of the 1960s R&B movement.
On the strength of the undeniably catchy 
If The Twilight Sad’s debut Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters was a cathartic gut punch, Forget the Night Ahead is the emotional comedown. There are fewer drastic swells, both in the music and James Graham’s vocals, but it’s no less powerful with the songs wrapped in dark tones and Graham’s thick Scottish accent, making for another dramatic — and sometimes emotionally draining — effort.