NAIRBATLTWA.

The acronym above stands for New Albums I Recommend But Am Too Lazy To Write About. So I'll list 'em here with a brief comment and then urge you to check out the links.

Paul Schneider-Forever Debts. It's not often that I make a power pop discovery through Pitchfork, but they did turn me on to this NYC artist who reminds me a lot of Tommy Keene. Sample at CD Baby (although it's temporarily out of stock). It's also available at iTunes. His previous disc, Escape Velocity, is available from eMusic. MySpace.

Ryan Lindsey-White Paper Beds. Lindsey is a touring member of the Starlight Mints, and his solo disc is high quality indie pop. CD Baby | MySpace

Portastatic-Be Still Please. Speaking of indie pop, here's an oustanding disc from the side project of Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, co-founder of Merge Records). "I'm In Love (With Arthur Dove)" and "You Blanks" are two great tunes that will be on a "best songs of 2006" list that I'm toying with producing. It's on eMusic, which is also the best place to sample, although you can hear a few full tracks on MySpace.

Minibar-Desert After Rain. This UK band by way of Santa Monica specializes in a pop americana sound in the vein of The Wallflowers, Del Amitri, Jayhawks, Gin Blossoms etc., and they put out a couple of major label discs earlier in the decade (perhaps you remember the minor hit "Holiday From Myself" - a great track, seek it out) before going it on their own. The new one is outstanding, and can be found on CD Baby. It isn't on eMusic, but is on iTunes. Also make sure you check out their myspace page: in addition to a couple of tracks from the new one, you can also stream their cover of one of Ryan Adams' greatest unreleased tracks (while with Whiskeytown) called "Choked Up".