Artist: The Constantines (www.constantines.ca)

Album: “Kensington Heights” (Arts & Crafts)

As expected, there are walls of grungy guitars on The Constantines’ latest offering. But this noted Toronto indie band also offers up plenty of food for the mind.

Beginning with the quirky, pounding opener, “Hard Feelings,” which opens with a Phillip Glass-like mantra between keyboards, guitar and drums, the songs are, by turns, dense (a curtain of caterwauling sound that lands somewhere between Ministry and Swervedriver) and eerily — and wisely — full of space.

Make no mistake, this is not lighthearted fare. On “Trans Canada,” the band explores the dark, ethereal territory of Nick Cave, but with noticeably more warmth and melody.

In fact, as you listen deeper into the disc, the material only gets more intriguing. “Our Age” is a powerful Springsteen-meets-Black 47 anthem, with singer Bry Webb’s voice mixed front and center and bassist Dallas Wehrle carrying the melody. The mellow “I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song” and “New King” evidence thoughtful songwriting. Meditatively, the nearly five-minute closer, “Do What You Can Do,” slowly builds from just Webb’s voice (which tips its hat to Col. Bruce Hampton) and guitar into a forceful, swirling sonic attack.

Artist: Interstate Cowboy (www.interstatecowboy.com)

Album: “There’s a Road” (Ranch Ruckus Records)

The second release from Colorado’s Interstate Cowboy, known as a Western swing/Americana group, is a rich amalgam of American music that touches on almost all facets of country rock as well as Tex-Mex.

On the opening “I Got Nothin’,” a smooth, understated, in-the-pocket rocker, the group sounds like a countrified-by-way-of-L.A. version of Dire Straits. Boasting stellar playing all around, the standouts are steel player Dick Meis (who, legend has it, inspired Junior Brown to create his double-neck “git-steel”), versatile guitarist Grant Gordy and singer/songwriter Tim Champlin. In addition, Subdude John Magnie sits in on Hammond and accordion, adding depth and richness and effectively steering the band away from its swing roots.

The recipe doesn’t need to change much. A few variations on the mellow, Eagles-styled country-rock work just fine. But when the group gets stylized, as on the contrived and affected “No Place Like Home,” the Elvis-(Costello)-does-country sounding “Just for Some” and the syrupy ballad “They Always Go for the Heart,” it’s not pretty.

And, despite the cowboy hats, the Western Swing offerings are tucked toward the end of the disc and seem to be an afterthought: a giddy-up-and-go version of the Gershwins’ “Lady Be Good,” and covers of “Frankie & Johnny” and (longtime New Yorker) Johnny Mercer’s classic “Old Cowhand.”

— By Michael Lipton