It's been over four years since the world has heard from Melbourne, Australia-based Cut Copy. But the electro rockers have upped the anty considerably with their new release, In Ghost Colours. In fact, from the sounds of it, they have spent the past four years taking musical steroids this album is so good. I'm willing to even go so far as to say it is the best album released thus far in 2008. 

Like their last album, In Ghost Colours manages to combine the raw energy of a live indie gig, the synth and beeps of house and electronica, and enough 80's influence to make you think shoulderpads. But unlike all the other bands that attempt this combination, Cut Copy is lyrically and emotionally connected and intense. There's no New Wave posturing, no too-cool-for-school attitude here. 

Starting with "Feel The Love," the album immediately gets down to business. "Unforgettable Season" is a straightforward rock song that truly rocks, but "So Haunted" is a wall of guitar that evolves into some amazing synth rock.

 Damn, these guys are good.

Denmark's Junior Senior is half gay, half straight, and 100% zany, crazy, upbeat, and competely redeeming of Denmark's otherwise lacklustre music scene. Masters of catchy, dancefloor pop, Junior Senior churn our catchy turn after catchy tune. In fact, almost every track on their 2007 sophmore album, Hey Hey My My Yo Yo could stand out as a single in its own right. Each song informs the next, although taken individually, each one stands on their own two feet as pop genious.

On the other hand, let's face it. Junior Senior's lyrics are nothing brilliant. In fact, they frequently verge on the meaningless or odd."Hip Hop A Lula" includes a half-hearted attempt at rapping. "Happy Rap's" lyrics are also strangely falsettoed and high. But you know what? It all works.

Plus, the album features one of the best four track stretches on any pop album recently. I dare you to listen to "Itch You Can't Scratch," "We R The Handclaps," "I Like Music (W.O.S.B.)," and "Ur a Girl" without dancing, moving your feet, and singing along.

And yes, the songs are so good that they stand out on their own, but they're even better because they work so damn well together.

Unfortunately better known for its tragic history, Cambodia had quite a developed pop industry before the communit take over. Clubs in the capital, Phnomh Penh, belted out psychadelic-influenced pop tunes that included traditional Cambodian instruments to give the music an entirely unique influence.

The Cambodian pop scene returned to life after the end of communism. It was a vibrant music scene that inspired Los Angeles-based brothers Eric and Zac Holtzman upon their trip to Cambodia to form their own Cambodia-pop band, better known as Dengue Fever. The brothers also lucked out: they found a great lead singer, Chhom Nimol, singing in the Little Phnomh Penh section of Long Beach. Together, they released the album Escape From Dragon House in 2005.

The album is entirely sung in Khmer, the native language of Cambodia. Nimol's voice is unlike anything found in Western Pop: it is both shrill, sweet, and can hit notes only a castrato would dare try. The music is energetic, but heavily influenced by South East Asia.

"We Were Gonna," the opening track, is probably the best example of the band's sound. It's brassy, bold, and intriguing: the framework sounds very western, but the interpretation is anything but.

The epynomious "Escape From Dragon House" is another hit: it's the most disco influenced track on the album, and it has a great bassline.

Escape From Dragon House is a great introduction to an unknwon nation's music.

Before Asobi Seksu (Japanese for "playful sex"), the last Japanese band to come out of New York were the delightfully silly Cibo Matto, whose lyrics were sung in an Engrish babble about camels, sugar water, and palmtrees. But Asobi Seksu are a different kind of band: critics have tended to group them instantly as shoegazers, along with bands such as My Bloody Valentine, due to their extensive use of reverb and ethereal noise.

So, beyond the charming English babble, the two bands have very little in common.

Asobi Seksu's 2006 album, Citrus, is a nugget of intense, mind-bending rock, but it is not a traditional shoegazer album. For one thing, Citrus is far too upbeat. "Strings," a single off the album, is positively cheery — which makes their use of reverb all the more interesting.

Lead singer Yuki Chikudate's voice is brilliantly versatile: one moment it's soft, the next it's a Björk-like screech. There are some other very interesting parings on the album: "Mizu Asobi" manages somehow to combine 80's pop with reverb guitar, while "Thursday" combines some great indie rock guitar work with some very intense drumming.

But Asobi Seksu couldn't completely ignore one of their influences, and "Red Sea" is a fitting tribute to My Bloody Valentine's style, because it's the most hard core track on the album.

The Arctic Monkeys are fast, hard, and strong. The British band's 2007 album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, gets right down to business from the opening chords of their song "Brainstorm." Lead by drummer Matt Helders, a wall of sound comes crashing down upon the uninitiated. But this is no pure noise fest, it is pure rock at its best: sexy and raw.

After the notorious furor over the Arctic Monkeys' début album, the band took a year and a half off to retool and rethink their sound. They added a new bassist, and really honed in on what they do best: fast rock stomps. When you can hear them, their lyrics are quite smart as well. The song "Teddy Picker" finished witht the line "presuming all things are equal / who'd want to be men of the people / when there's people  like you."

The second half of the album takes on a deeper, more nuanced approach, which is best expressed in "Flourescent Adolescent." But should any doubt remain that the Arctic Monkeys' biggest goal is blasting you out of your seats, the album's final track, "505," should do a pretty good job of removing it.