Like "Amazing Grace" for hipster Baby Boomers, there's nothing like the lifting strains of Leonard Cohen's poetic "Hallelujah" to make me stop in my tracks and let its words wrap all around me, day or night. A four-star interpretation of this classic opens an amazing new debut, Melody Mountain, from Susanna & the Magical Orchestra, delicately breaking the air like stones tossed upon a still lake. Out this week on the import-only Rune Grammafon Records imprint, the CD is a haunting, candlelit affair - an alternative Norwegian Carpenters of sorts in a slow-motion underwater ballet, perfect for the next David Lynch movie. Vocalist Susanna Karolina Wallumrød and keyboard craftsman Morten Qvenild pitter and patter through 10 perfect - and perfectly incomprehensible - cover selections, including Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence," Prince's "Condition of the Heart," AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top," Sandy Denny's "Fotheringay," and Paul Stanley's "Crazy Crazy Nights" from 1987's Crazy Nights album by KISS.

The Multiple Cat, The Secret of the Secret of the Multiple Cat

During the mid- to late '90s, Pat Stolley's band The Multiple Cat released four albums, a multitude of singles, and a remix album. The Secret of the Secret of the Multiple Cat is a retrospective that makes use of songs from that period.

Retrospectives are made to show what made a band important. Yet often what made a band important was having those songs appear on a particular album at a particular time. Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" wasn't an important song simply because it was great, but because it appeared on the bestselling A Night at the Opera.

By the time the trumpets enter the picture halfway through the opening track of Tenki's new EP, the listener has been enveloped by atmosphere. On top of muted drums and guitar come layers of gentle keyboards - and are those voices harmonizing with the organ? Hints of gull-like string sounds suggest the ocean.

The trumpets turn everything upside down, adding a mariachi flavor. Then the guitar gets agitated and begins to bellow over the trumpet, and the whole thing builds to a climax before eventually calming itself down.

Avast, maties! Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and his star, Johnny Depp, have come together to executive-produce a new high-seas project aimed at us music-loving landlubbers. Built around the notion of contemporary interpretations of the classic seafaring song, the pair shanghaied Hal Willner as the captain of this ship, resulting in this week's release of Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, & Chanteys on the Anti Records imprint. Contributions on this two-CD set include Sting, Nick Cave, Byran Ferry, Lou Reed, Bono, Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Joseph Arthur, Stan Ridgway, Jolie Holland, Jarvis Cocker, Bill Frisell, Baby Gramps, Lucinda Williams, and - dig this - actor John C. Reilly and gonzo artist Ralph Steadman.