I’d like to say that I get incredibly bored with receiving only press kits from whitebread indie rock bands in my mailbox, but I can’t complain too much with these three recent releases.

There is a moment about halfway through “Sinister Six,” the opening cut on The Mugs‘ Here Tomorrow (2007), when vocalist Jeremy Gough shouts a curt “Pick it up!” just before the downbeat. It’s one of those little quirks that give a record its uniqueness, and this second full-length from the Brooklyn quartet has plenty of them. I almost couldn’t believe how good this was during my first sit-through with it, an album whose intelligence and execution belie its self-produced nature. Descriptors for the music are on a song-by-song basis, as The Mugs move from organic electronic mood pieces (”Asleep All Day”) to pastoral pop (”Clovers & Wine”) to dazzling instrumental soundscapes (”Hindsight 2012″) to straightforward Brit-pop (”Grey Cat Row”) to spacious acoustic dirges (the Neil Young-ish “Indian God”). It’s pretty heady stuff, but here’s the thing: miraculously, there isn’t a misstep to be found. There are no tired forays into trendy garage rock, no overextended instrumental showcases, no excessive overdubs of “exotic” instruments; just eleven songs that cohere naturally into a singular, glorious statement. By the time I got to the folksy sing-along of the closing title track, I was ecstatic. And as if to keep my heart swooning, and the band is releasing Here Tomorrow on vinyl as well. Most definitely a band to watch for, and well-deserving of all praise heaped upon them as a result of this album’s success.

“Sinister Six” – The Mugs 2:44 (Here Tomorrow, Skinny Fat 2007)

It’s not often that I get the opportunity to describe a band as “what Lush would have sounded like had they originated from the mid-’90s Chapel Hill, NC scene,” but Polynya, all current residents of that town, are qualified to receive that description. And this is a very good thing. Polynya (2007) is one of the better discs I’ve received in the mail this year, thirteen gorgeous pop confections that sound like they were discovered in a time capsule circa 1993. Breathy female vocals (with the occasional male counterlead) float atop layers of rich guitar arpeggiations, touches of piano and organ, and a rhythm section that’s loose but not sloppy. Although the disc is a little top-heavy, each selection eases by naturally and weightlessly, a far cry from the undeniable self-importance that slithers through most bands’ debuts nowadays. Even the digipak’s artwork is simple and hand-designed, devoid of page after page of thank-yous and posed “candids” of the band; Polynya’s utter lack of pretension is almost disarming. Listening to Polynya is akin to stepping outside on an autumn morning and seeing your breath for the first time of the season, and if you find that sensation as exhilarating as I do, chances are you’ll like this record.

“Old West” – Polynya 2:57 (Polynya, Childhood Pet 2007)

Had I been in one of my more cynical moods, I would have panned Murder Mystery’s Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here It Comes (2007) based on title alone. About halfway through the disc I realized that the title is meant to be taken literally, as each of these twelve selections mire in the same frustrated-relationship territory as thousands of bands before them. Not exactly groundbreaking, but the content suits the music well, a brief collection of snappy ’60s guitar pop that culls from The Kinks, those early The Who records, you get the idea. In other words, you’ve heard the entirety of this record before, although to their credit, NYC’s Murder Mystery inject it with enough charm and quirkiness to make it work – but just barely. Vocalist Jeremy Coleman’s monotone delivery takes some getting used to, but other than some spicy XTC-like guitar work from Kevin Jaszek, the rest of the band is pretty flavorless. Still, one could do a lot worse these days, and at a little over a half-hour in length, Are You Ready hardly qualifies as offensive. Tellingly, the most excitement I could muster over this record was concentrated into a mid-morning yawn.

“Think of Me” – Murder Mystery 2:52 (Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here It Comes, self-released 2007)