(FORTUNE Magazine) – Jeff Buckley The Grace EPs Columbia

Was Jeff Buckley, before he drowned in 1997, en route to becoming the greatest interpreter of song since Frank Sinatra? Scoff if you want, but the stray covers captured here (Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," Hank Williams's "Lost Highway," Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do") have a power that's almost supernatural.

Lizzie West Lizzie West Warner Bros.

There are only four songs on the EP, but that's enough to give us a taste of this New York singer-songwriter's formidable range. On "Family Christmas," she channels a Kansas choirgirl; on a remake of Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man," she could be Marianne Faithfull impersonating a Weimar Republic harlot.

Los Fakires Los Fakires Deutsche Grammophon

Complicated timing for Los Fakires. They're hitting these shores just as the Buena Vista-spawned vogue for old Cuban guys seems to have petered out. Don't let that sway you: The legendary quintet from Santa Clara can go bongo-to-bongo with any of the Cuban-chic practitioners who beat them to NPR.

Mclusky Mclusky Do Dallas Too Pure

If you locked the Butthole Surfers in a studio with a bulldozer, a flamethrower, ten cases of Jolt, and a box of vintage cheerleader porn, the tapes might come out something like this hopped-up, deafening, vulgar gob of lunatic brilliance from Wales. It makes the Strokes look like poindexters.

RJD2 Deadringer Definitive Jux

Ohio's not known for its ocean views, so this Columbus DJ and producer has compensated by whipping up heaving seas of groove, somewhere between the pop-funk spritz of the Avalanches and the sunken-treasure depths of DJ Shadow. Strap on your headphones and you'll surf one gnarly swell after another.