The sad truth is that staggeringly few out, gay artists are making music worth adding to your iPod. Enter Guy B., the Israel-born immigrant whose debut album Within Me marries muscular grooves to romantic lyrics, and gives birth to a baby called change. Exploding with the brand of bravado common to Brian McKnight or Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Guy’s combo of talent, tenderness and touches of R&B blended with Middle Eastern influences show off the 30-year-old North Hollywood transplant as an up-and-comer who knows others’ audio instincts as well as his own. On the title track, the non-nostalgic beat takes cues from established artists like J. Tim, while songs like “Wandering Eyes” slow things down a bit, a la Ben Harper. Just how does that differ from the Jason & deMarco’s of the world? For starters, this Guy’s got it goin’ on.

Growing up in Lawrenceville, Penn. – population 600 – wasn’t easy for singer-songwriter Jana Losey. But what didn’t kill her made her stronger, as evidenced through the seven tracks on her debut release, Bittersweet. An album that toggles between the oft-confusing contrasts of high and low, Bittersweet dramatically details the simplicities of small-town life while delving into the intricacies of half-living a lie. Losey croons like a sweet, folky fawn on the title track, then changes her tune on “London Holiday” as she waspishly wonders what life might be like outside the confines of her own private Pennsylvanian prison. Adding more instability is that despite invoking the spirit of Sarah McLachlan on “(S)he Loves Me” wherein Losey calls into question her own sexuality, the out and proud artist abruptly does an about-face to offer wise-beyond-her-years advice on “Little Sister.” While Bittersweet lives up to its title, Confusing serves as a more appropriate substitute.

What do you do when you’ve produced some of the biggest acts on the “out” music scene? If you’re producer-turned-singer-songwriter Alan Lett, you steal their thunder with an album of your own. Released exclusively on iTunes, Lett’s A Moment Away delves into the questionably adult realm of love, heartbreak, clubbing, money and, yes, even karaoke. Written, produced, recorded and sequenced at the emerging artist’s Houston, Texas, home studio, A Moment Away features campy lyrics to catchy songs such as “Rich” and “Do U Miss UR gf?” Purely for fun, assures Lett, his debut release bears Top 40-laden DNA, the composition of which has the potential to spawn neo-queer classics, such as “Unpredictable,” about his own discovery of the dance floor. Says the southerner about his freshman offering: “I can’t deny my love of pop music, and today’s Top 40 is filled with lyrics about things that really don’t even make sense. I wanted to capture that.”

One of Rolling Stone magazine’s “Top 10 Artists to Watch,” acclaimed singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins makes her full-length debut with Neptune City, a modern integration of vaudevillian and psychedelic-era influences, draped with twangs of country, folk, rock and blues. With her band The Sea, Atkins has created a far-reaching record that distinguishes itself from the New Jersey shore from whence it came, revealing 10 songs drenched in the sort of climbing whimsy that girls her age typically know nothing about. Years beyond accepted range and capability, Atkins elegantly captures the essence of the late Freddie Mercury’s Queen on the track “Brooklyn’s on Fire,” while calling on anti-doo wop female icons of the 1960s and ’70s to lend inspiration to the sweeping sounds of songs like “War Torn.” The new Janis Joplin she’s not, but Atkins can likely hold her own in a Billboard brawl.