April is remembered by a hodgepodge of Franco post-rock and indietronic (Cyann & Ben, The Cars are the Stars), British rap (Goldie Lookin' Chain) and chamber pop (Cranebuilders), and Brooklyn old school.

Just a reminder, this is a weekly series that recaps, month-by-month, the songs I liked the most this year. To pick the tracks, I set up a smart playlist in iTunes that selected songs based on my rating and the add date. The order is random.

Bibio - "Bewley in White" (from Fi, 2004, Dirty Loop): From Terminal City: "This is a hiker's album. Stephen Wilkinson (aka Bibio) likes to take his guitar out into the woods and record himself using junk-shop equipment: Dictaphones, cassette tapes, and second-hand samplers, picking up all the ambient natural noise. These drone-songs are so cyclical and idyllic that only natural metaphors seem apt: rivers, streams, growing trees. fi might actually be a little too soothing for anything other than bedtime listening, but it's been giving me sweet dreams all week." Download "Bewley in White" (MP3)

Goldie Lookin' Chain - "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do" (from Greatest Hits, 2004, Record Collection): From the BBC: "For anyone not hopelessly stoned or under the age of 14, Guns Don't Kill People, Rapper Do isn't much funnier than an episode of Mad About Alice. Buy yourself a copy of the excellent The Manifesto from eBay, or look for the GLC's Greatest Hits album instead." I don't know, I'm not stoned, well above the age of 14 and I find this song to be hilarious. Download "The Alchemist" (MP3).

The Cars are the Stars - "True" (from Fragments, 2005, Chez Moi):  "True" hints at a white noise, Sonic Youth boil-over, but instead it simmers, pops and melts down right when you think it will explode. It's a clever bit of minimalist bob and weave. Download "True" (MP3)

The Cranebuilders - "So What Could I Do" (from Sometimes You Hear Through Someone Else, 2005, Skinny Dog): I'm still waiting for this Liverpool band to get some attention over here. How about a U.S. tour?

Cyann & Ben -  "Obsessing and Screaming Voice in a Shell" (from Happy Like an Autumn Tree, 2004, Gooom/Locust): From Stylus: "a stunning nine-minute closer that while evoking bits of American Analog Set perhaps trumps most, if not all, of their recent work."

Damien Jurado - "Big Decision" (from On My Way To Absence, 2005, Secretly Canadian): "Big Decision" captures the bittersweet effects of change. Forward is new hope, possibilities. Behind, beloved memories and people tainted by the damage done simply by living. "Got a lot of problems / think I'll work it out" Jurado mourns over swooning strings and hollowed-out drums. "Made a big decision / Think I left you out".

Fannypack - "Seven One Eight" (from See You Next Tuesday, 2005, Tommy Boy): From the Village Voice's Robert Christgau: "Two albums in, these three young things still aren't rich-not with their "dresser drawer full of broken cellphones" and their homeboy who'll "rob Mickey D's for condiments"-and that still hasn't taken them down. With electroclash a dead delusion, what sells their handlers' beats is the girls' faith in the sacred mission of growing up and having fun at the same time, which in case you've been away is no gimme these days." Listen to "Seven One Eight" on MySpace.

Past lists: January | February | March