Confession time: I’m a serial killer with limited access to, y’know, prospective murder victims. I was hoping that a few of you, dear readers, wouldn’t mind doing a bit of violent mutilation and killing for me: animal torture, disembowelment, scooping a few pretty girls’ eyes out, that kinda thing. What’s that? You’re in? Great!

If you haven’t been keeping up with Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man to this point, it’s basically the story of a family in crisis. Oh, and the avatar of a force called the Red, fighting against the avatar of the Rot, with the help of her father, Animal Man, and a talking cat who is a totem for a spirit of the Red. Yeah, it’s pretty nuts.

Sometimes an album comes along that seems naturally like the right thing at just the right time. Should you need one, FIDLAR is the perfect antidote to 2012.

Andrew Bird will always be the kind of musician that it is necessary to see live multiple times. An adroit improviser, the paint seems to be perpetually wet on his compositions. As a result, depending on his mood, surroundings, or even the way the wind is blowing, Bird is likely to deliver a drastically different performance every single night.

Sam France and Jonathan Rado—the young duo behind Foxygen—have a wealth of ideas running through their heads, and probably two sweet-ass record collections. This was evident in the twists and leaps of their all-over-the-map Take the Kids Off Broadway EP, which not only changed styles and genres across its seven tracks, but regularly did so mid-song.

Philly power-pop quintet Free Energy really loves the ‘70s, and that adoration for a bygone era is apparent on their freewheeling sophomore record, Love Sign.

The premise of The Carrie Diaries is simple: Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City in her teen years. The year is 1984, and 16-year-old Carrie (AnnaSophia Robb), recently motherless, lives in Connecticut with her father and younger sister.

If the hyper-sensitive, self-aware sorrow-pop of Girls wasn’t your thing, then it is strongly advised to stay far, far away from this first solo effort from former frontman Christopher Owens-the dude is wearing his heart on his sleeve here, bigtime.

If Yo La Tengo’s career were human, it would have been granted the right to vote shortly after their 1997 album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. (Feel old yet?) As they approach the end of their second decade together, it seems almost inevitable that the Hoboken, New Jersey band would start ruminating on the deeper stuff—chiefly life and death. Dark?