La Foret (2005)

Unquestionably unconventional, these indie darlings from San Jose, Calif., Xiu Xiu, once again bring an uncanny poignancy to their chorus of chaos on their fourth full-length, La Forêt. ''Pox'' and ''Muppet Face'' set Jamie Stewart's plaintive whisper and delicate acoustic strums to a cacophony of lo-fi synths, kitchenware clangs, and otherworldly blips and whirls for an experience that's at times quaintly dreamy, at others spastically nightmarish. Imagine Bright Eyes fed through a meat grinder — but in a good way.