Vince Gill, Guitar Slinger
Gill follows 2006's four-disc These Days with a concise set of soul-kissed tunes on which low-key highlights abound, including ''Threaten Me With Heaven,'' possibly the prettiest song about death you'll hear this year. A —Mikael Wood
Patrick Stump, Soul Punk
The former Fall Out Boy frontman has dramatically altered both his look and his sonic approach since going solo, a shape-shift that serves him best on Michael Jacksonesque rock&B workouts like ''Run Dry.'' But he loses himself among all the references here, leaving an emptiness at Soul Punk's otherwise vibrant center. B- —Kyle Anderson
Real Estate, Days
Drifting along on surf-garage guitars and lazy daydream harmonies, these Brooklyn indie-rockers would aspire to be the Beach Boys — if they didn't sound too blissfully stoned to make it to the beach. B+ —Melissa Maerz
Chris Isaak, Beyond the Sun
It's hard to bring new ideas to stone-cold classics like ''Can't Help Falling in Love'' and ''I Walk the Line,'' so Isaak spends his homage to pioneering label Sun Records lighting his firecracker of a backing band and getting out of the way. B —KA
M83, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
On his shimmering sixth release, M83 mastermind and gauze-pop aficionado Anthony Gonzalez wraps both hooks (''Steve McQueen'') and hallucinations (''Year One, One UFO'') in bubbly melodies only occasionally bogged down by murky sprawl. B+ —KA
Michael Feinstein, The Sinatra Project Vol. II: The Good Life
The musical-theater maestro's 2008 ode to Sinatra's late-'50s phase was a ring-a-ding delight. Toasting Ol' Blue Eyes as a '60s-era hepcat, though, Feinstein offers swing with little swagger. C+ —MW
