Take a breather from holiday commercialism with Why You Runnin’, the new, wrenchingly sincere EP from Illinois singer/songwriter Lissie.

Cleveland duo Mr. Gnome boasts a sound that's an impressive balancing act between soft and hard, masculine and feminine, ethereal and earthbound.

With seven years, several Grammys, and one Wong Kar-wai movie under her belt since her ubiquitous debut (Come Away With Me), Norah Jones releases her fourth record to a musical landscape dominated by panty-flashing, futuristic electro, which makes her laid-back, jazzy pop seem a little bit tame.

She donned the mile-high beehive ages before Amy Winehouse and flaunted her sex appeal years before Madonna.

It's impossible to look at the debut from Them Crooked Vultures with clear eyes.