‘Plays the Songs of Bible Birds’ by Elephant Micah

label: Time-Lag Records

genre: laying low

suitable for: nights outdoors

Visit www.elephantmicah.com

Joe O’Connell, aka Elephant Micah, is a singer-songwriter from Indiana who wears thick-rimmed glasses and has a self-professed Joni problem. Well, I’ve got a self-professed Joe O’Connell problem.

This album, recorded somewhat on a whim several years ago, discarded and now resurrected this year, is beautifully lo-fi, but not in a contrived way. It just seems like O’Connell prefers the immediacy of playing to a handheld cassette recorder; the background tape hiss and the on and off click of the recorder only increase the intimacy of the recordings.

In any case, O’Connell’s expressive voice, descendent from the melancholy country singing of Townes Van Zandt, would sound good recorded into a blender. Beth Remis adds perfect harmonies, and there are some other instruments buried in the mix, but mostly this is O’Connell laid bare. Sparse acoustic guitar and a classic voice, songs so good they seem to stop time—“I never thought that a bird would have been so perfect in death / but the cuckoo who lay in the dew / was as free as the freest of the ones who still flew” he sings on “Free As the Freest.” Simple and true music that is woefully under-heard.

‘Special Moves’ by Mogwai

label: Rock Action Records

genre: Scottish bombs

suitable for: out-of-body experiences

Visit www.mogwai.co.uk.

Recorded in 2009 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, “Special Moves” is the first live album by Glasgow’s legendary instrumental rock monsters and also includes a DVD. Both offer a great retrospective of the band’s 15-year career and also a recap of their last two albums, “Mr. Beast” and “The Hawk Is Howling.” Live versions of the super-heavy “Glasgow Megasnake” (reminiscent of a film I recently saw on the SyFy channel called “Sharktopus”) from the former and “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” from the latter are signs that the band is more in the zone than ever.

The real gem here is the film, entitled “Burning.” It’s essentially a live DVD but feels like much more, almost like a documentary, as filmmakers Vincent Moon and Nat Le Scouarnec intersperse art shots of New York City with multi-angle black and white live footage. It’s inspiring to watch the crowd simply losing it for some of the band’s fiercest crescendos, particularly in the highs and lows of “Mogwai Fear Satan, ” during which it is obvious there is something going on between the band and the crowd that transcends words, notes, space and time.

‘Shoals’ by Taylor Deupree

label: 12k

genre: data soul

suitable for: walks on the rocks

Visit www.12k.com

The window is open right now and it is hard to distinguish between the beautifully random sounds on “Shoals” and the sounds of the outdoors coming in. That seems to be Deupree’s intent—to blur all lines between composition and natural occurrence until it is all one song.

Deupree’s main instrument is the computer, but this album feels the least digital of anything he has done before. Using a long list of gamelan instruments, he recorded and edited the escaping sounds into beautiful wisps that crackle and bang, scrape and vibrate randomly and without obvious form. Some sounds captured are those of the instruments while others are those of the room and the movements of sound and people within.

Most likely, there was an incredible amount of effort put into these tones, but the way each one unfurls unexpectedly from some distant point and lingers out in the open air gives this music a quality that is effortless and organic. It’s as natural as the wind blowing, and just as mysterious.

‘Your Future Our Clutter’ by The Fall

label: Domino Recording Company

genre: curmudgeon rock

suitable for: walks in the rubble

Visit www.visi.com

There has been a great deal of light and breezy music in 2010. I don’t really understand it. Have our times become so hopeless that most bands have simply given up on commenting on them altogether? Why is The Fall, 30-plus years into their career, the only band putting out a record that captures the ennui and discontent so many are feeling?

One answer is that Mark E. Smith, vocalist and only constant member of the UK punks, is a rare sor t of genius—a toothless, wrinkled, ornery genius whose boozy drawl and sardonic spitfire is better than ever. “Bury Pts. 1+3” is as rowdy and relevant as the best Fall songs. Here is what Smith says about it: “The thing about that was, I started the song when I was in a wheelchair and I’d just broken my leg. I was on these bloody German painkillers, so the track moves from me being in a wheelchair, to semi-standing, to standing.” Glad to know Smith and The Fall will be around for much longer, wheelchair or no wheelchair.