Look out Amy Winehouse — Irish chanteuse Imelda May is coming for your retro stardom. Not that Amy would notice, consumed as she is with drug problems, divorces, and other personal drama. But Imelda May, all rockabilly fashion and vampy vocals, would knock Winehouse right off her pedestal anyway — how could she not, with the rollicking boogie-woogie, sexy cabaret jazz, and punk-inflected blues available for consumption on Love Tattoo? May’s success has steamrolled from her native Ireland to adopted hometown London and now across the pond, where retro stylings merged with contemporary sass should be enough to drive any music fan crazy. Love Tattoo kicks off with the gutbucket rockabilly of “Johnny Got A Boom Boom,” allowing the stellar band behind May to display their organic chops before the frontwoman flexes her formidable pipes. “Feel Me” follows a similar path, with winding piano and a bluesy guitar riff providing lustrous atmospherics.

Love Tattoo’s spare ballads, like “Knock 123” and “Meet You At The Moon,” would surely dazzle in live settings, but teamed up with concurrent songs “Big Bad Handsome Man” and the rocking title track, those quieter moments tend to fall flat. The titillating “Smokers’ Song” demonstrates May’s ability to seamlessly mesh jazz, blues, and rockabilly, while the lounge-heavy “It’s Your Voodoo Working” will surely inspire many an intimate dance and “Watcha Gonna Do” finds May channeling her inner Gwen Stefani. Most impressive about Love Tattoo is that Imelda May wrote 12 of the album’s 14 tracks — and she even plays the bodhran, an antique Irish instrument, on several of them. A sexy songstress with talent, allure, and ambition? I’d get that Love Tattoo inked into my skin any day. By Nick McGregor

Memphis punk rock A-list member Greg Cartwright, formerly of The Oblivians, Compulsive Gamblers and ‘68 Comeback, has all the vocal charge one might find in a nighttime suicide wing. Cartwright along with bassist Jeremy Scott, percussionist Greg Roberson, and organist/guitarist Alex Greene complete the new roster of established Asheville, NC, supergroup Reigning Sound, and their album Love And Curses features layercake oration that’s a step away from 2004 release Too Much Guitar. Appropriately named, their previous work emphasized Cartwright’s vocal abilities as a supporting act to the stringed Amazon of his axe. Yet the frontman is at ease in a dark well filled with emotional liquid on tracks like “Trash Talk,” which warns against the outcome of gossip, and “Call Me,” a 1950s throwback that marries the gruff delivery of Bruce Springsteen to the angst of a mid-century 16-year-old harmonizing atop Makeout Ridge.

Yet Reigning Sound also ties in controlled power on “Debris,” spouting their declaration of intent with a feverish “Hail, hail rock ’n’ roll/And fuck your prefab garage” yelp. In short, Love And Curses is true punk/blues/classic rock variety. Cartwright’s ability to move and shake around the album’s dividing lines also pays homage to stages shared with many Memphis artistic amphibians such as Jay Reatard and Alicja Trout. In between his many other musical acts, Cartwright also found time to write nine of 14 songs for Mary Weiss of The Shangri-Las fame, who released her first album in four decades in 2007, while Reigning Sound provided the backing instrumentals. An opening slot with The Hives in 2004 helped to establish the group, and Reigning Sound have been firing at full force ever since. By Will Tunstall

Female-helmed San Francisco quartet The Dry Spells end their debut album Too Soon For Flowers with a stirring cover of Fleetwood Mac classic “Rhiannon,” and that stylistic touchstone says a lot about this group of former Bard College roommates. Folksy with a touch of rock, enchanting with a hint of complexity, and sexy with a dash of intelligent danger, The Dry Spells also do more than just mimic pop lightweights of the past — in fact, if you stopped after the album’s opening track, “Lost Daughter,” you’d think there were many more indie rock twists to come, given the song’s interlocking guitar-and-bass stride, eclectic percussion, and breathy harmonics from lead vocalists Tahlia Harbour and April Hayley.

After that, Too Soon For Flowers does get a bit bewitching, with New Age-y chants and swooning, nearly Celtic violins from Hayley emerging on “Black Is The Color,” while “Sruti’s” slow-building intro and seven-minute running time don’t do The Dry Spells any favors. “The Golden Vanity” makes a turn for the better with sparkling and urgent riffage from Adria Otte, while “Evangeline” utilizes a strutting melodica and reggae-fied guitars to update a seemingly traditional folk ballad. Haunting violins mix with groovy drums and guitar on the title track, highlighting the excellent job The Dry Spells do with their unlikely marriage of pastoral folk and indie rock. Fans of The Dry Spells have dubbed their sound “tapestry rock,” but no matter what you call it, it’s intriguing, beguiling, and yes, reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac. Can’t go wrong there. –NM

West coast rap has experienced its up and downs, peaking commercially with the Dr. Dre-led G-Funk phenomenon in the early ‘90s and creatively with the 2000s underground L.A. movement centered around Jurassic 5. Although most people think L.A./Long Beach/Compton when they think west coast rap, the Bay Area has boasted its own long lineage of hip-hop innovators, with top-shelf talent like Too Short, E-40, and Hieroglyphics dominating the scene. Things never remain the same though, and new Bay Area talent like Barnone have tested the waters to see if they can get in where they fit in.

The Daly City, CA-bred Barnone came up with fellow battle rappers Dego, hitting the cipher-and-mixtape circuit hard before dropping his debut album Never Turn Back in August. The album opens with the syrupy flow of “Still Don’t Know,” which lays the groundwork for Barnone’s attack while relying on a smooth and subtle G-Funk beat. “Get Like Me” has a tepid R&B chorus and marble-mouthed guest spot from Big Rich that takes the track strictly into party territory, while “Mobbed Out’s” ‘80s computer beats and fast-flowing hyphy hooks almost hit their mark. The playful yet shallow beats continue on “Keep It True” and “Take A Look,” while “You Know” and “Da Gig” get in your face with more braggadocio than any new artist should really be slinging. Luckily, Barnone gets reflective on the melodramatic “Ride Wit Me,” earning Never Turn Back enough solid marks to point in the direction of a promising future. –NM