E-Mail This Article to a Friend DOWNLOAD The (premature) year in indie BY CARLY CARIOLI

FRANZ FERDINAND

"Do You Want To"

Epic

On the iTunes-only teaser from their upcoming You Could Have It So Much Better, FF have kept the fake-intro idea of "Take Me Out" but updated its homoerotic sass with keyboard brass until it’s arena-pop crass. Only people who hate Robert Palmer’s "Addicted to Love" and the Knack’s "My Sharona" will resist, and so long as they don’t, it won’t matter if you do.

FIERY FURNACES

"SEVEN SILVER CURSES"

Rough Trade

Practically begging to be filed in the audio-book queue, FF’s forthcoming Rehearsing My Choir is a work of oral history: on this nine-minute "song," Matt and Eleanor Friedberger help their 83-year-old grandmom spin an enchanting, sepia-toned yarn of love, suspicion, and sorcery. Even more than on Blueberry Boat, the music is there to serve the narrative. But stick around for the blistering punk snippet that kicks in around the seventh minute.

ORENDA FINK

"NO EVOLUTION"

SADDLE CREEK

Now we know exactly who’s responsible for each half of Azure Ray’s goth-to-the-power-of-folk equation. Maria Taylor’s recent solo disc outed her as the dreamy one. And Fink’s new Invisible Ones is darker, sexier — and occasionally louder, though not by much on this wispy, bewitching campfire jam.

ALEC OUNSWORTH

"DETAILS OF THE WAR (EARLY VERSION)"

Flashypython.com

Reasonable skeptics have questions. Like, what are people gonna say about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in a couple of months, after "the singer sounds like David Byrne" has gotten old? Maybe this: the singer’s also a pretty good songwriter. His half-dozen solo tunes, including this early version of a CYHSY song, are in Neutral Milk Hotel’s league. And probably in the Decemberists’ iPod.