Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

“I feel just like an actress up on the stage,” Katherine sings on “Say Goodbye,” a piano ballad about a romantic breakup. In fact, the 25-year-old Los Angeles musician also has a successful acting career, with TV, film and theatre roles to her credit. Katherine’s sophomore CD shows how far the former American Idol runner-up has grown, co-writing with Paula Cole and Rachael Yamagata on what she admits are mostly sad, “slit-your-wrist” songs. The exception is her upbeat take of Melanie’s 1971 hit “Brand New Key.”

These indie rockers got pegged as Ivy League preppies, because they attended Columbia University and sang literate songs about co-ed infatuations and English grammar. But Vampire Weekend created a thrilling hybrid sound, mixing new wave and Afro-pop on songs like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” that garnered rave reviews. Here, singer-guitarist Ezra Koenig and his bandmates keep up the infectious worldbeat mix, resembling Graceland–era Paul Simon on “Diplomat’s Son” and the sweetly cascading “White Sky.”

The Beat Club was a legendary West German TV show that ran from 1965 to 1972 featuring live performances from top American and British rock bands. This two-disc DVD set plays like an oldies visual jukebox, with nuggets like Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and Free’s “All Right Now.” But the oddities include albino Johnny Winter in kaftan and knee-high boots and hairy Nazareth in tight, sleeveless T-shirts. Not pretty. And the far-out psychedelic camera effects are now only irritating and deeply distracting.

It’s hard to say what Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon find more challenging, being the godparents of indie rock or the parents of precocious Coco. Their 11-year-old daughter heard a similarity between new album track “What a Waste” and the theme song of TV’s Friends. She’s right, of course. Other influences on Sonic Youth’s latest include Blue Öyster Cult on the darkly ominous “Rats” and The Rolling Stones on the opening “Stonesy.” With such mainstream ’70s rock sounds, what will the avant-garde think? June 13

Canada’s Michel is a critic’s darling, a fragile-voiced writer of literate, genre-crossing pop songs. In other words, he’s a starving artist living on the margins of society. Which is a shame, because Michel’s unique talent deserves to be rewarded. His fifth album (not counting his fine collection of David Bowie covers, Loving the Alien) may finally provide him with a breakthrough, featuring such memorable songs as the funky “Midnight Train,” the wacky “Into the Flame” and the gently optimistic “It’s Not the End of the World.” June 13

Sinclaire clearly has an affinity for Nat King Cole, having performed in Unforgettable, a musical based on Cole’s life, and toured his own tribute to the American jazz-pop legend. On his second album, the Vancouver singer-pianist covers at least two songs associated with Cole: “Stardust” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” And Sinclaire’s voice does share the same warm, resonant timbre as Cole’s. But the album, produced by trumpeter Brad Turner, lacks Cole’s unmistakable swing. Sinclaire is tasteful, but too laid back by half. Jan. 17    

Polly Jean Harvey is one of those polarizing female artists who confounds as many people as she delights. Her music, often noisy and uncompromising, has challenged listeners with its unsettling explorations of sex, love and religion. Harvey’s latest album is a musical departure, with many songs written primarily on piano rather than guitar. This only serves to accentuate the haunting lyrical content. Tracks like “Dear Darkness” resemble quaint chamber music, but their subject matter remains disturbingly gothic.  Sept. 25

His drug addictions, constant arrests and on-off relationship with Kate Moss have made him tabloid fodder, but Pete Doherty can still mine nuggets from debauchery. On his latest Babyshambles album, the troubled genius sings about the “dirty road to fame” on the jazzy “There She Goes,” about songwriting being a game he’s good “at cheating at” on the Blondie-like “You Talk” and about being “fucked, forlorn, frozen” on the raucous “Delivery,” which crosses The Kinks with The Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man.”

It represents the pinnacle of pop achievement, so it’s no wonder that Sgt. Pepper’s has inspired several tribute albums. The latest, produced by the BBC to mark the recording’s 40th anniversary, is the best yet. It opens with Bryan Adams’s raspy howl, bolstered by blasts of brass, on the title track, and ends with ex-Libertines Pete Doherty and Carl Barât’s faithful take on “A Day in the Life.” In between, there’s Oasis’ trippy cover of “Within Without You” and The Kaiser Chiefs’ joyful rendition of “Getting Better.” Jan. 7        

These American rockers have been embraced by Bruce Springsteen and immortalized in High Fidelity by British author Nick Hornby, who named the group’s 2001 London appearance as one of his “all-time top five gigs” and its song “My Heart is the Bums on the Street” to his “Top 10 songs I can’t live without.” With Marah’s sixth album, it’s easy to see why. Songs like “Coughing Up Blood,” “Wild West Love Song” and the anthemic “Santos de Madera” rock with all the soulful swagger of a glorious E Street Shuffle. Jan. 7