Sources: AMG, Bloodshot, Insound

Elvis Costello & the Imposters “Momofuku” (Lost Highway)

Originally planned as just a vinyl and digital download but now seeing release as a CD, Momofuku stands apart from all recent Elvis Costello by not being a conceptual project but rather a collection of songs. Written and recorded quickly at the start of the year, the album benefits from its speedy conception as it has energy and its songs aren’t fussy, two things that help make this one of Costello’s stronger latter-day records.

Neil Diamond “Home Before Dark” (Columbia)

Neil Diamond’s Home Before Dark is his second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin. He is accompanied by Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell from the Heartbreakers, and session aces Smokey Hormel (Tom Waits and Joe Henry), and Matt Sweeney (Chavez). There are no drums, just Diamond’s old-school, percussive, acoustic guitar banging. Lyrically, Diamond offers direct, searing honesty combined with hook-drenched tunes that he’s not offered since the late 1970s. It’s a lean, hungry, and wildly inspired.

Gentleman Auction House ‘The Book of Matches’ (Emergency Umbrella)

This is the companion EP to the band’s first full-length, “Alphabet Graveyard” (street June 3), and the follow-up to the STL band’s well received self-released debut EP “The Rules Were Handed Down”. “Matches” retains the emotive melodies and tasteful arrangements that have been the most endearing components in the band’s sound, but marriages of big rock drums and lurching organs to start-stop rhythms and jangly Motown guitars underpin a diverse new direction.

Firewater “The Golden Hour” (Bloodshot)

In 2005, Firewater’s Tod A embarked on what would become a three year sabbatical through the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia. He had recently split with his wife; George W. Bush had just been re-elected; New York, his home for the last 20 years, had become a cold and foreign place. Recording with a single microphone and a laptop in his pack, he captured performances with a vast array of musicians across India and Pakistan–and eventually Turkey and Israel. Bhangra and sufi percussion would form the basis for the songs he wrote along the way–songs about the world he left behind.

No Age ‘Nouns’ (Sub Pop)

This is the Sub Pop debut for No Age, an explosively experimental duo out of LA. These two dudes rock a wonderful weird hybrid of shoegaze and punk surrounded by a cacophony of furious lo-fi noises. It’s messy, muddied and mighty addictive.

Also released:

Clay Aiken “On My Way Here” (RCA)

Adult Contemporary

Carney “Nothing Without You” (Interscope) (Plays STL 5/13)

Alternative Pop/Rock

Tim Fite “Fair Ain’t Fair” (Anti)

Indie Pop, Alternative Country-Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock

The Long Blondes “Couples” (Rough Trade)

New Wave/Post-Punk Revival, Indie Rock

Edith Piaf “La Vie en Rose 1935-1951” (Sunnyside)

French Pop, Cabaret, Vocal Pop, Torch Songs, Nostalgia

Steve Turre “Rainbow People” (Highnote)

Afro-Cuban Jazz, Post-Bop, Latin Jazz

Various Artists “Ayombe!: The Heart of Colombia’s Musica Vallenata” (Smithsonian/Folkways)

Vallenato, Son, Traditional, Merengue

The Last Shadow Puppets “Age of the Understatement” (Domino)

Indie rock (Arctic Monkeys side project)

Frightened Rabbit ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ (Fat Cat Records)

Scottish indie pop