Four Killer Indie Artists I've Discovered This Year

1. Blue Roses: With her glass-shattering soprano and an acoustic guitar that sounds more like a harp, Laura Groves (pictured above) makes utterly formal folk music—it sounds like she learned her craft in a 19th-century British conservatory. I count seven outstanding songs on her new self-titled album, including the rapturous piano ballad “Greatest Thoughts,” which out-Tori Amoses Tori Amos, and “Coast,” a spine-tingling sea chantey.

2. We Were Promised Jetpacks: The next great Scottish rock band is probably Frightened Rabbit, and these guys are in line right after them. They love loud-soft-loud dynamics, and their songs tend to crash from catchy melodies to catchy noise. The Hype Machine will let you hear their epic and aptly named track “It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning,” and several other key tracks are streaming on their MySpace. But you might as well just buy the album. It’s called These Four Walls.

3. Two Fingers: Creeping down the borderline between dubstep and grime, this U.K. act released a wicked self-titled record earlier this year. The music conjures dark alleys, damp nights and urban paranoia, but it’s more bad-ass than sad-sack.

4. Pink Mountaintops: Everyone who writes about this record mentions that bandleader Stephen McBean has another project called Black Mountain, and maybe that means something to you. Regardless, his Pink Mountaintops project stands on its own. The songs sound like fractured Americana played through a blown speaker. They’re sweeping, tuneful and oddly hypnotic. I hear echoes of both Neil Young and Mazzy Star, not exactly a common combination. The entire record is streaming on MySpace.