Sean Bones

During downtime from his band Sam Champion, Sean Bones did what any Brooklyn indie musician might do with a little time on his hands: he ventured into a studio and recorded a reggae album. The dominant sonic touchstone is rocksteady, with its chugging, offbeat guitars and summery outlook, but Bones plays fast and loose with arrangements and genre, making this set original, refreshing and a boon from out of left field. "Easy Street" kicks off the album at a jogger's pace, throwing in the album's signature guitar sound - riffing that sort of replicates ska horn lines - with the light-hearted "Coco" sitting somewhere between Violent Femmes and a surf-y luau. Bones finds heavier grooves on the Ruts-inspired "Smoke Rings" and "Dancehall," a track that Beck might have written had he found himself stranded in Kingston or Crown Heights, and gets dub-y on "Instigator." Rings will be remembered as that reggae album that no one saw coming but we all loved.