The $50 Guide

March

M.I.A.’s “Arular” (XL)

This musical culture clash by London-based, Sri Lanka native Maya Arulpragasam (you can see why she goes by just M.I.A.) feels delightfully carefree, thanks to influences as varied as bright Europop, hip-hop scratching and Hindi film music. But there’s also an underlying level of social observation that gives the music an intriguing edge. Immediately appealing, yet a touch exotic.

M. Ward’s “Transistor Radio” (Merge)

There’s something a bit obvious and even snobbish about a concept album that rejects nearly everything about today’s pop-radio formats as synthetic. Yet Matt Ward delivers a mini-classic in this warm, thoroughly engaging work. The idea was to create 43 minutes of what you might have heard on a good night on a rural radio station decades ago. Ward offers his own folk and country-leaning numbers as well as wistful versions of tunes by the Carter Family and Beach Boys. A genuine pop treat.

Keren Ann’s “Nolita” (Metro Blue)

For all its sophistication and charm, France is usually about as far off the radar of American pop as Israel or Holland, which makes this 31-year-old singer’s success all the more surprising. She was born in Israel and lived a few years in Holland before arriving in Paris when she was 11. She sings in French and English, mostly in a soft, caressing style backed by arrangements so gentle and alluring that they are almost adult lullabies.

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April

The Kills’ “No Wow”

(Rough Trade/RCA)

The Kills’ tales of obsessive relationships are so dark, menacing and yet infectious that they feel tailor-made for Quentin Tarantino. “Love Is a Deserter” and “I Hate the Way You Love” are in the haunting, Jesus & Mary Chain rock noir tradition and would have been marvelous in “Pulp Fiction” or a “Kill Bill.” With luck, Tarantino is sitting down right now writing a screenplay to showcase this terrific music.

50 Cent’s “The Massacre” (Interscope/Aftermath/Shady)

When a rap album sells 1.1 million copies in four days, chances are someone is either aiming for the lowest common denominator or knows how to make pretty darn irresistible pop. 50 Cent is a little guilty of the former but is so good at the latter that it really doesn’t matter. The lyrics are generic in places, but more good-natured than hard-core. 50’s main gift, aside from self-promotion, is mixing delightful beats with catchy choruses and knowing it’s OK to have fun with the music.

Beck’s “Guero” (Interscope)

Though not as fresh and original in its genre-bending as 1996’s “Odelay” or as consistently revealing in the songwriting as 2002’s folk-oriented “Sea Change,” Beck teams again with the Dust Brothers for a CD that mixes music that is sometimes as dazzling as “Odelay” with themes about tensions of modern life that recall the personal terrain of “Sea Change.”