(FORTUNE Magazine) – Lovage Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By 75 Ark

Now there's a title to make Barry White never want to get out of his revolving, heart-shaped bed. But instead of come-hither ballads, Lovage (the latest alias of DJ Dan "the Auto-mator" Nakamura) is a funky goof: part sultry slow-jams, part boudoir comedy club with a beat. It's the sexiest record "Weird Al" Yankovic never made.

The Mooney Suzuki Electric Sweat Gammon Records

So far in this column we've hailed the Greenhornes and the Hives. And we will continue our unwavering advocacy until garage rock gets the respect and airplay it deserves. This time we spotlight New York's Mooney Suzuki--the whipsaw bastard children of the Cramps and Iggy Pop. First up, the pages of FORTUNE. Next stop, world domination.

Big Country The Crossing Mercury

The Scottish band's leader, Stuart Adamson, died in December. The best eulogy we can think of is cranking up its 1983 debut--now reissued with five extra tracks--as high as the neighbors will allow. Well, maybe a tad louder for the timber, lightning-crack assault of "In a Big Country." It's as big as the Big '80s sound would ever get.

Super Furry Animals Rings Around the World XL Recordings

It may have taken 36 years, but we finally have Wales' response to Pet Sounds. These Welshmen (singing in English this time around!) have conjured a disk as sonically byzantine and lysergically far-out as anything in Brian Wilson's bag of tricks. It sounds like a car crash between Burt Bacharach and a VW Bug full of circus clowns.

Various Artists This Is Where I Belong: The Songs of Ray Davies & The Kinks Ryko

Nothing's more maddening than a tribute record in which the bands try to outshine the honoree. Hell, it would be folly to try to one-up the Kinks, England's greatest power-pop posse. (Ever! Period.) The highlight: Fountains of Wayne's high-speed "Better Things."