Culture Jamming

TOP PICK

(Real World)

Available as both a single disc and as a box set, this reissue of what has to be Peter Gabriel’s most commercially successful album has been re-mastered to show the sonically dense structures of songs such as “Red Rain,” “Sledgehammer,” “In Your Eyes” and “Big Time,” all of which are some of Gabriel’s biggest hits.

Music

(Warner Bros.)

This young blues player “ain’t messin’ around” as he puts it on the vibrant opening track on this, his major label full-length debut. The album alternates between gritty numbers like “When My Train Pulls In” and soulful tunes like the piano ballad “The Life.”

Music

(Astralwerks)

This synth-pop act out of Toronto has a decidedly retro, Pet Shop Boys-inspired sound. And like the Pet Shop Boys, Diamond Rings has some sharp songwriting skills, too. “Put Me On” and “All the Time” venture into Goth territory but “Runaway Love” is a celebratory pop song.

This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2012.