"Where'd all the time go?" asks a fuzz-guitar-strafed ballad on Dr. Dog's latest. The Philadelphia quintet have spent much of their career looking back to the pop of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, and the woodsy Americana of the Band. But on their fourth studio album, retro flavors are scattered smartly and sparingly: a George Harrison-like lead guitar here, a swooning Brian Wilson-style chorale there. With co-producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith) at the helm, Dr. Dog don't sound like mere imitators — they sound like an unusually hook-savvy indie band whose taut, touching songs about friendship ("Jackie Wants a Black Eye") and life on the road ("Station") begin as straight pop rock and take thrilling turns into psychedelia.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"