Ryan Adams just put out the best record of the last two months. Rock N Roll was thrown together in true rock style after Adams killed the original LP, Love is Hell and had to put something out. The joy of this album is its true grit, rock-stomping, tin-can-bangin’ aesthetic.

“Wish You Were Here” is Adams’ laziest writing to date, but sounding like a pissed-off 12-year-old trying to emulate his heroes quickly becomes purely enjoyable camp. Rock N Roll turns out to be all about emulating heroes. Every song is Replacements-era Paul Westerberg injected with Nirvana choruses or T Rex twiddling. If Westerberg’s next album sounds anywhere near as harsh and endearing as Adams’ imitation of him proves to be, we are all in for a treat. Although as a side note, the Westerberg side project/alter ego, Grandpa Boy’s newest release contains a great track: the sick-sad tart, “Vampires & Failures,” which is full of smoky-barroom blues loathing.

Rock N Roll‘s opening track, “This is it,” mimics the similarly named premier cut from the Strokes’ Is This It, an album that Adams once joked about re-recording entirely with banjos as a salute.

But the best track is a Cobain-esque rage match called “Note To Self: Don’t Die.” A great return-to-rock screamer, and Parker Posey sings backup! Not only is it the best grunge song since the grunge movement shattered against corporate pavement in a blaze of jean jacket and plaid, the song is also juxtaposed with the brief title track. A beautiful, melancholy, indie-piano ballad about deserting the scene and ditching the band, with the mantra, “I don’t feel cool at all,” repeating like Adams’ inner monologue on broadcast mode.

If after Rock N Roll you’re still in the mood for some hard-cracking homage rock, check out the Darkness. It’s pretty much Spinal Tap without the jokes, but somehow it works.

Lead singer Justin Hawkins’ falsetto will, at first exposure, probably make you rush to the eject button, but wait it out and a few songs later you’ll be wrapping hot-green headbands around your elbows and basking in the joy of a leopard-skin cod-piece.

The singles, “Growing On Me” and “I believe in a Thing Called Love” are sleaze-glam shots to the forehead. You’ll have a tendency to believe Hawkins when he sings, “We’ll be rocking ’til the sun goes down.”

“Friday Night” chronicles the dorky days of the Darkness, when it “indulged in all the extracurricular activities” of high school instead of the skag it desperately wants to leave behind on “Givin’ Up.”

The band hits its peak with “Get Your Hands Off My Woman,” where Hawkins assaults a touchy drunk (“Octoped, you’ve got six hands too many/And you can’t keep them to yourself”) and the band follows with swaggering libidos in tow.

So forget about waiting another eight years for Axle and his next Guns N’ Whatever abomination to tear down your local stadium, and slam dance your way to the next Darkness show.

For the more chill of you out there, go pick up Lucero’s That Much Further West, a Whiskeytown throwback garnished with rusty pop and emo-boy, alt-country longing. Singer Ben Nichols actually channels a lot of similar Ryan Adams energy and styling when he threatens in sugar-cubed vocal chunks to leave his band for a girl and a steady job on the album’s title track.

And the new release from the Stills, Logic Will Break Your Heart, is the greatest new-wave winter album you could hope to find. It’s brooding and sad (in a melodic-happy sort of way) and can be summed up succinctly within the dynamic reverie of the opening track, “Lola Stars and Stripes.” It’s Joy Division on an IV of molten sugar or maybe a crankier-sounding version of the Cure, but either way the Stills are worth checking out.

So go pick up some new tunes, force them down the ears of others and keep rockin’ til the sun goes down!