→ December 16, 2015
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Top 15 albums of 2015.

My ranking of the top fifteen albums of the year is below, and reflects my own personal preferences, with a balance between albums that have a few standout songs and ones that worked better as cohesive units. You can see last year’s top 14 albums list for a comparison. I heard a lot more than I ranked here, but getting to fifteen albums I truly liked and would recommend wasn’t even easy.

Linked album titles go to full reviews. My ranking of the top 100 songs of the year will follow in a few days.

15. Drenge – Undertow. The British duo’s follow-up to one of my favorite albums of 2013 was a bit of a disappointment, because I loved their raw guitar-and-drum sound and wasn’t thrilled with the expansion into bass lines and reverb effects, but the album was a step forward in sound and songcraft – it’s just not more of the same when I actually wanted more of the same.

14. Horrendous – Anareta. (amazon • iTunes) I only found a few extreme-metal releases in 2015 that I liked at all, including Tribulation’s The Children of the Night (Swedish black metal with some classical elements), Krisiun’s Forged in Fury (very dark Brazilian death metal with strong technical riffing), and even Children of Bodom’s I Worship Chaos (highly melodic death metal but the lyrics leave a lot to be desired). Nothing could touch Horrendous’ sophomore album, the followup to 2014’s Ecdysis, itself one of the best metal albums of that year. Horrendous is marketed as death metal, but it’s really highly technical progressive metal with death growls. You get relatively few blast beats, and the heavier turns are more akin to classic thrash than the more extreme corners of death metal. If you remember peak Death (the Chuck Schuldiner band that helped establish the subgenre), Horrendous has picked up where that group left off.

13. Twerps – Range Anxiety. Weird, jangly, lo-fi indie pop from Australia that veers from hooky to annoying and back again.

12. Of Monsters and Men – Beneath the Skin. Much-maligned, as it lacked the big hooks and choruses of their debut, My Head is an Animal, but I found the record more mature in lyrics and music, and appreciated the greater production emphasis on Nanna’s vocals.

11. Jamie xx – In Colour. (amazon • iTunes) Who knew that the real talent in the Mercury Prize-winning trio The xx was producer/keyboard player Jamie xx, whose brilliance came out in this ebullient collection of electronic and dance songs, highlighted by the two singles that feature his sometime bandmate Romy, “See Saw” and “Loud Places.” In a sea of monotony in electronic music, Jamie xx managed to stand out.

10. Belle & Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. The Scottish group’s best record in years may have been uneven, but featured three standout tracks to start the album and Stuart Murdoch’s now-expected lyrical brilliance throughout.

9. Iron Maiden – Book of Souls. Go figure: the lads had one more masterpiece in ’em. I could have done without the eighteen-minute closer or the mortifying “tribute” to Robin Williams, but on an album of this length there are plenty of highlights, enhanced by the stylistic shifts by the multitude of songwriters who contributed.

8. Freddie Gibbs – Shadow of a Doubt. (amazon • iTunes) This is the first true hip-hop record I’ve included on my year-end lists, with Gibbs’ delivery and old-school writing separating him from the hordes of rappers who can’t hold a candle to the kings of the Golden Age. Two highlights: “Extradite,” featuring Black Thought of the Roots; and “Fuckin’ Up the Count,” which samples from and is based on a famous scene from The Wire. But as with most contemporary rap albums, Shadow of a Doubt has some cringeworthy lyrics, especially Gibbs’ free use of the female-dog epithet.

7. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love. Nine years away and the ladies of Sleater-Kinney came back better than ever, with tighter songs and stronger hooks than any of their previous album showcased.

6. Wolf Alice – Our Love is Cool. (amazon • iTunes) One of the few pleasant surprises in the Granny Award nominations was seeing Wolf Alice get a nod for Best Rock Performance for “Moaning Lisa Smile,” although that might be the fifth-best track on their debut album. Ellie Rowsell has one of the sexiest vocal deliveries of the year, particularly when her fierce side comes out on tracks like “You’re a Germ,” while the band seems to channel everything from mid-90s Britpop to late-70s British steel.

5. Superhumanoids – Do You Feel OK?. I really feel fine, thanks, especially after listening to this indie-pop trio, led by singer Sarah Chernoff’s soaring vocals and backed by one strong melody after another.

4. CHVRCHES – Every Open Eye. CHVRCHES’ second top-five album on my lists – and second top-12 album on the Billboard charts – in the last three years was more of the same but better, like a hybrid of their first record and the Purple Rain-era Prince records the band members so revere.

3. The Wombats – Glitterbug. ($5 on amazon • iTunes) I never reviewed this album but included one track from it on each of four straight monthly playlists. Lead singer/guitarist Matthew Murphy is a clever, witty wordsmith who also has a great knack at crafting hooks that sound like ’80s new wave but are still novel. I could easily have put a half-dozen songs from Glitterbug on my top 100, including tracks that I omitted like “Emoticons,” “Give Me a Try,” and the not actually baseball-related “Curveballs.”

2. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. By far the best lyrics of any album I heard this year, as Barnett expanded her range with more rock-heavy tracks and fewer of the folky ballads that dominated her A Sea of Split Peas double EP release. She’s a modern Bob Dylan for her way of telling a story within a four-minute song, setting scenes and working in dialogue without even abandoning her meter or rhyme scheme, and there are so many wry couplets on this album that she might have missed her calling as an existentialist comic.

1. Grimes – Art Angels. Grimes’ fourth record was a quantum leap forward from 2012’s Visions in every way, and was 2015’s best album for its combination of genre-bending sounds, strong melodies, and improved lyrics. Claire Boucher, who records under the nom de mic Grimes, is a chameleon, shedding her skin from one track to the next, changing textures and styles yet still producing a cohesive collection of songs that never lets up and delivers one strong hook after another.

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→ December 2, 2015
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November 2015 music update.

November was a relatively light month for (good) new tracks, although we did get a few singles of note ahead of January/February album releases, including the return of Wild Nothing and a second single from Savages. Not on this list but worth a mention – Mercury Rev released The Light in You, their first new album in seven years, in October. Like much of their work, it’s better enjoyed as a full album, without any huge standout singles, with the first two-thirds filled with spacey soundscapes before they conclude with a run of ebullient pop tracks. I don’t like it as much as I did Deserter’s Songs (which they just remastered a few years ago) or All is Dream, though.

Grimes – California. The first full track off Grimes’ incredible Art Angels album and probably my favorite, although it’s hard to choose given how many outstanding, clever songs this album features. It’s the first year I can remember where the two best albums I’ve heard were both from solo female artists (the other is Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit).

Wild Nothing – To Know You. A welcome return from Jack Tatum, who writes and records Wild Nothing’s albums himself (a la Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker). This first single from Wild Nothing’s third album, due out in February, returns to the psychedelic rock/dream-pop fusion of Nocturne, with over allusions in the music and lyrics to Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life.”

Hinds – Garden. Hinds, formerly known as Deers, will finally put out a proper album in January after a year-plus of hype, one that I hope will dispense with their earliest singles’ production values (where it sounded like they recorded everything inside a phone booth located in a bathroom stall). The Spanish foursome has kept their slightly offkey vocal harmonies and punk-tinged folk style, music that verges on the slightly annoying but keeps you coming back because of the underlying melodies … and maybe because there’s something a bit charming in their entire approach.

Cloves – Everybody’s Son. The Australian teenager who records as Cloves released her debut EP XIII last month, featuring the two impressive singles she dropped over the summer (“Frail Love” and “Don’t You Wait”) as well as two new tracks, including this song, which drops the piano for an acoustic guitar but still has the stripped-down feel of her previous songs.

City Calm Down – Rabbit Run. Another Australian act, this Melbourne quartet appears to have listened to a lot of Echo and the Bunnymen with some New Order thrown in for good measure.

The Gills – Rubberband. Blues-punk from Pensacola by way of Nashville, the Gills have their self-titled debut due out in a few months, but you can grab this song and the single lemonade for free via NoiseTrade.

Daughter – Numbers. Daughter’s second album drops in January, and this single features some wordplay on top of a gothic dream-pop (or perhaps nightmare-pop) track that isn’t so much catchy as it is insinuating.

Savages – T.I.W.Y.G. “This is what you get when you mess with love.” I wouldn’t mess with Jehnny Beth, though. She sounds pissed off.

Ten Fé – In the Air. A London duo whose name means “have faith,” Ten Fé merge some very British sounds (Madchester, the Verve) with a sizable dose of American roots-rock on this five-minute track that grooves along at a much faster pace than you’d expect.

Chairlift – Romeo. I can’t wait for their album to drop next month. “Ch-Ching,” the first single, is one of the best songs of the year. “Romeo” has a similar feel, kind of somewhere west of Sleigh Bells’ overt cacophony, stronger melodically and of course featuring Caroline Polachek’s lovely voice.

Floating Points – Peroration Six. A name drawn from math, with a great vocabulary word in the song’s title? I’m in. (A peroration is the conclusion of a speech, usually the kind used to whip up the crowd.) This is highly experimental music, dispensing with conventional song structures, totally instrumental, but grabbing the listener’s attention repeatedly with sharp changes in direction and the judicious use of silence. It reminds me a bit of These New Puritans, just without the vocals of the latter’s work.

Rare Monk – Warning Pulse. Yes, the intro sounds a bit like the Offspring’s “Self-Esteem,” but I promise it’s not the same song or genre. They describe themselves as “experimental,” but I don’t hear the experimentation – it’s conventional indie rock with some subtle layering in the guitar and keyboard lines, built more around textures than giant hooks.

Sunflower Bean – Wall Watcher. This odd Brooklyn trio – I should probably have a macro for that phrase – deliver music as strange as their personal style, with a sort of hepped-up stoner rock here on this short, almost poppy single that comes two months ahead of their debut album Human Ceremony.

Wolfmother – Victorious. The Aussie trio’s best track since “The Joker and the Thief,” although I know that’s not saying a whole lot. The Sabbath-esque riff at the 2:40 mark elevates this from a good album-rock track to a memorable one.

The Fratellis – Baby Don’t You Lie to Me! The Scotsmen behind “Chelsea Dagger” released their fourth album this summer, and while they’ve had a handful of catchy singles over the years since their signature song came out and became a sports-arena anthem, I think this is their best hook since their debut – both tracks have the feel of a rousing hard-drinking song, but approach it from different directions, with “Baby Don’t You Lie to Me!” like something from a bar scene in a lost episode of Firefly.

Freddie Gibbs, Black Thought – Extradite. The best hip-hop song of the year, off the best hip-hop album of the year, although the lyrics are way over the top (for example, I counted over 40 uses of “bitch” in the first half of the album alone). Gibbs’ delivery is very old-school, with a deep voice like Rakim’s, a bit like Tupac with a head cold, and he rhymes fast and can be very clever when he’s not running over the same tired rap memes.

Krayzie Bone – Cloudy. Speaking of old-school, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony founding member Krayzie Bone – who, per Wikipedia, has eight children, none of them with his wife – is back with his first proper solo album in a decade. I’m including the single primarily out of historical interest; his style and technique are still strong, but the song lacks a good hook to make you come back for a second listen.

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→ November 17, 2015
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Art Angels.

My column on my NL Rookie of the Year ballot is up for Insiders.

Grimes’ Art Angels (buy on amazon or iTunes) is the best album of 2015, and the best album I’ve heard since alt-J’s 2012 debut An Awesome Wave. Canadian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Claire Boucher, who records under the pseudonym Grimes, has created a masterful indie-pop performance that transcends genres and incorporates wildly diverse sounds into a cohesive, intelligent offering that never lets up from the ninety-second opener to the final song’s declaration of independence.

Grimes’ third album, 2012’s Visions, brought her substantial critical acclaim, notably for the singles “Genesis” and “Oblivion,” which received plenty of airplay on alternative radio and led to multiple recommendations from many of you, but I couldn’t get past the juvenile sound of her high-register vocals and the electropop leanings of the music. Grimes has ditched GarageBand, which she used to record much of that last album, for more sophisticated digital audio workstation software, and it is reflected in the worldliness of the music itself. The maturation process from there to Art Angels was, by all accounts, arduous, including an entire album that Grimes scrapped, the one-off single “Go” (rejected by Rihanna’s people, because I guess her people are idiots), and the song “REALiTi,” which survived the trashing of the lost album and reappears here in a more polished form. This is the Grimes album with vision, delivering rather than promising, with marked increases in the sophistication of her music and her lyrics.

After that brief intro track, Grimes delivers the first of many surprises on the album with “California,” a sunny track that gives off the illusion of an acoustic or folk-rock song, but is largely electronic and hides a dark, cynical take on the record industry through a metonymical use of the state to represent the entertainment industry. (Grimes has spoken publicly before about how the mainstream record industry does not, in her view, treat indie artists well.) From that luminous track we downshift into the album’s darkest song, “Scream,” with all lyrics courtesy of the female Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes, who raps entirely in Mandarin with a menacing, breathy delivery that matches the funereal music beneath her. If you’ve survived this hairpin turn, you’ve gotten the hang of Art Angels, which refuses to choose a single direction yet manages to squeeze a panoply of styles into a single tent.

Lead single “Flesh Without Blood” is the most traditional song on the record in both its structure and the melodic nature of the vocals, but would still jar listeners to straight pop stations if it came on after the latest four minutes’ hate from OneRepublic. “Kill v. Maim” and “Venus Fly” both show Grimes asserting her individuality and particular brand of feminism, with the former seeing her voice as high as it gets on the album, which is fine with me as I think she starts to sound very young at the top end of her range, although here it also seems like an allusion to J-pop traditions and is interspersed with the occasional death-metal scream. “Venus Fly” features vocals from Janelle Monáe, who will appear on your album if you just remember to include a self-addressed stamped envelope, in an articulate rant about how women in music are judged on their appearances, with a number of lines that sound like they should end in “boy” if you’ve been reared on vapid, modern pop music.

The title track is a real sleeper, the kind of song Daft Punk tried and failed to craft on their Grammy-winning album Random Access Memories, between the funk-guitar riff and the layered synthesized drum lines, with lyrics that express her love for her adopted home city of Montréal. I might be alone in preferring the raw demo version of “REALiTi” we got back in the spring, where her vocals were more seductive even when she veered on the edge of falsetto; although the current version maintains the basic hook of the original, her vocals are honed to a finer point, excising the demo’s dreamlike quality.

Grimes’ lyrics have improved enormously over the last three years, with greater use of metaphor and new phrasings, with very few lines that clunk enough to detract from the songs as a whole. (“California” does have a line about how certain music “sounds just like my soul;” I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a song lyric using the word “soul” in a secular or metaphorical sense that didn’t sound like something from a teenager’s poetry notebook.) She’s covering a ton of thematic ground here, but they’re all tied together under the banner of the experiences of a woman in a male-dominated industry that is rife with sexism, harassment, and superficial judgments. When the slightly saccharine closer, “Butterfly,” concludes with Grimes’ assertion that she’ll “never be your dream girl,” it’s clear she’s both refusing to bend herself to be what someone else wants and saying that the song’s target isn’t worthy of her time. It’s a compulsive listen without a dud to be found, with so many changes in musical direction that she grabs your attention from the start and holds it, rapt, until she tells you to kiss off in the closing track. It’s an album that demands repeated listening.

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→ November 2, 2015
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October 2015 music update.

After a slew of highly-anticipated albums hit stores from mid-August to early October, I figured we’d get a lull in good new music … only to have lead singles show up from forthcoming records from Savages, Grimes, Chairlift, and St. Lucia in the second half of October. By the way, my MLB free agent rankings will be up for Insiders on Friday.

Zhu with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Trombone Shorty – Hold Up, Wait a Minute. I hadn’t heard of Zhu before this track, but of course I know BTNH from their 1990s heyday and have heard Trombone Shorty before. Zhu’s work is all electronic dance music, but this track draws more heavily from 1970s funk than his previous work, and I don’t mean in the way that Mark Ronson just appropriates stuff and claims it’s his own. It’s great to hear Bone Thugs-N-Harmony active again ahead of their upcoming album E. 1999 Legends, especially as their faster, melodic style of rapping has completely disappeared from the scene. This might be the best pop song of the year for me.

Savages – The Answer. The all-female quartet Savages had my third-favorite album of 2013 with their debut Silence Yourself, and are set to release their follow-up disc in January. This lead single is harder and angrier, teetering on the edge of total collapse for most of its length, and I love it.

Chairlift – Ch-Ching. Chairlift’s “I Belong in Your Arms” is one of my favorite songs of the decade so far, more than their more popular track “Bruises,” and I think “Ch-Ching” – the first single from their album Moth, due in January – is more in the former vein, a song that blends strong hooks with elements designed to put you on edge or even slightly irritate you, like the duo are trying to ensure they have your full attention.

St. Lucia – Dancing On Glass. Jean-Philip Grobler’s debut album as St. Lucia also made that list of my top albums of 2013, and he also just released the lead single from his upcoming sophomore disc, which doesn’t seem to have a release date yet. It’s the same kind of bright 1980s electronic new wave music that populated that first album, and while I preferred some of the tracks with a little hint of darkness (“All Eyes on You,” “September”) Grobler has created another very sunny, catchy hook here.

Grimes – Flesh without Blood. It’s been a tumultuous couple of years since Grimes’ last album, Visions, but her sound has evolved for the better, with two non-album singles in “Go” and “REALiTi” that weren’t similar to each other or her earlier work. Her new album, Art Angels, will be released in digital format this week, and she’s promised yet another change in sound, with most songs recorded with “real instruments” according to a tweet of hers from May. This lead single seems like her most commercially viable song yet, but it’s also still distinctively her in the vocals and biting lyrics.

Moon Taxi – Red Hot Lights. The fourth album from this Tennessee rock act came out in early October, featuring this heavy blues number that would draws from the more progressive side of 1970s classic rock.

Laura Stevenson – Claustrophobe. Stevenson grew up a couple of towns over from me, and it seems like the music that surrounded me in college became her primary influences, as this hazy, slow rocker is very college-rock circa 1994 or so – very Belly, Throwing Muses, Helium, Blake Babies kind of stuff, with a sweet voice singing acerbic lyrics over dissonant guitars.

City and Colour – Runaway. City and Colour is actually Canadian singer/songwriter Dallas Green, who is not the former Phillies manager, and puts out inconsistent, pleasant folk-rock tracks that only sometimes have the kind of biting edge that I think songs in this genre require to separate themselves from the masses of Mumford & Sons clones. The melody here really reminds me of Violent Soho’s “Fur Eyes,” released in April.

A Silent Film – Paralysed. This is a pop song, right? A Silent Film were pretty well under the U.S. radar, with a few songs I liked between their first two albums (especially “You Will Leave a Mark”), but the duo seems to have thrown their alternative sensibilities out the window to record something far more commercial. There’s nothing directly drawn from it but “Paralysed” keeps calling to mind Cause and Effect’s minor 1994 hit “It’s Over Now.”

A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita Applebum (Pharrell Williams Remix). I dislike remixes as a general rule, since most of them render the original song worse and/or unrecognizable … but Pharrell did a pretty good job here with a Tribe hit that isn’t one of my favorites by them.

Martin Courtney – Airport Bar. Real Estate singer/songwriter puts out song that sounds like Real Estate.

Ten Commandos – Staring Down the Dust (feat. Mark Lanegan). Ten Commandos features Soundgarden’s bassist, Pearl Jam’s drummer, QotSA’s other guitarist, and Off!’s guitarist, with Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan contributing vocals here but sounding nothing like himself at all. It’s full of grunge heroes but the song is distinctly stoner or desert rock, reminiscent of peak Masters of Reality.

Porches – Hour. I vaguely knew Porches as singer Aaron Maine’s folk-rock project, but it sounds like he’s been possessed by Vince Clarke here on this gothic synth-pop track.

Co-pilgrim – You Come Over, You Go. This kind of indie-rock seems like it’ll never really catch on in the U.S.; it’s a little too lush, a little too ethereal, not enough of any one thing to fit neatly into a specific bucket like hard rock or folk or whatever the latest term is.

Bloc Party – The Love Within. This sounds more like a Kele solo jam than a classic Bloc Party track, and given how mediocre Four was, I’m okay with this.

Pure Bathing Culture – Palest Pearl. PBC’s solo album is solid but couldn’t live up to the huge promise of its lead single and title track “Pray for Rain.” This is a little poppier, less wistful, my second-favorite song from the album so far.

Deerhunter – Duplex Planet. Never was much of a Deerhunter fan before this latest album, but they’ve expanded their musical palette enough to rope me in; “Snakeskin” is a top 20 or so song for me for the year, and “Duplex Planet” has some of that same frenetic energy and psychedelic vibe.

Panama – Jungle. I loved Panama’s minor 2013 hit “Always,” and this is somewhat in that vein, a more soulful take on classic new wave reinterpreted through current electronic music sounds.

The Creases – Point. The Creases made my top 100 in 2014 with “Static Lines,” an annoyingly-catchy song that was very distinctly Australian in its pop sensibility; there’s a certain sound that’s come from Down Under for about three decades now – I trace it back to the Go-Betweens, who were hugely successful and influential in their home country and nearly unknown here in the U.S. This song is a little catchier and a little less annoying, as if the Creases have maybe decided to lighten up a little bit.

Disciples – Flawless. This London production trio (also written as DISCIPLΞS) had a huge hit in Europe earlier this year with “How Deep Is Your Love,” hitting the top ten in at least sixteen countries (per Wikipedia, which is never wrong), but I like this song more – it’s a darker track, emerging from the depths of late-80s acid house, a sound that originated in the U.S. but really caught fire in the UK.

Lemaitre featuring Jennie A. – Closer. I’ve included Lemaitre on the site before for their 2013 song “Iron Pyrite,” which placed 44th on my list of the top songs of that year. Their sound here is different, with prominent horns and better vocals (I have no idea who Jennie A. is, though), more electronic-jazz than straight electronica and I think a welcome evolution in their sound.

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→ October 8, 2015
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Wavves’ V.

My ALDS notes and predictions are up now for Insiders, and I’ll have a post up on Eddy Julio Martinez and several other Cuban and Dominican prospects I saw this week in Santo Domingo. I also held a chat earlier today.

Wavves first came to my attention with their 2013 album Afraid of Heights, which featured the song “Sail to the Sun” and encapsulated their sort of slightly obnoxious southern California pop-punk style of music, but also showed what I interpreted as a reluctance to become too accessible. Songs with big hooks would often turn dissonant as lead singer X strained his voice to scream a final chorus or verse, which I don’t usually mind but which limits the group’s potential audience for no appreciable reason. (I’ve never understood screaming in pop-oriented music; unless you’re doing extreme metal, what’s the point?)

On V, their fifth album, the band has dispensed with the more obnoxious elements of their music and crafted an album that seems more mature and is certainly more likely to find commercial success, thanks also to a half-dozen short, hook-driven pop-rock songs. Opener “Heavy Metal Detox” is already getting some radio play, sounding almost like the Descendants have come back to their heyday. Wavves also mix in some different guitar tones, leading off “Way Too Much” with a Queens of the Stone Age riff that doesn’t resurface till the chorus. After the album’s first track asks “why does my head hurt?” we get a whole song on that topic with “My Head Hurts,” one of many songs where the lyrics reference alcohol abuse, something lead singer/founder Nathan Williams has fought in the past.

V avoids the monotony that plagues a lot of punk-pop records (coughGreenDaycough) in two ways: the songs are short, and there are a lot of small production changes or different guitar tones that layer a veneer of variety over songs that otherwise might seem too similar. Even something as small as a little distortion on an acoustic guitar in “Redlead,” probably the most complex song on the album, becomes a needed change of pace.

There’s still some of their rougher-edged former selves on the album; closer “Cry Baby” starts out with the kind of off-key shriek that was all over their previous record, leading into a song that’s heavier on the punk and lighter on the pop. The overall result of V works fine without that kind of material, however; it sounds like a band that’s grown up and accepted that its core competence is churning out catchy, short, punk-inflected songs.

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→ September 30, 2015
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September 2015 music update.

Great month for alternative music album releases, with several more to come before the year is out.

Superhumanoids – Touch Me. Their second album, Do You Feel OK?, came out earlier this month, and I’m floored that it’s not getting any attention. The album has a solid half-dozen songs that are worthy of these lists, and Sarah Chernoff’s voice alone sets them apart from many other indie/electro outfits, some of whom are pretty good in their own right.

Potty Mouth – Cherry Picking. This Massachusetts all-girl punk-pop act would have fit in perfectly in the pre-riot grrl era in the early 1990s – you can hear Lush and L7 and even some Velocity Girl in the sugary chorus and simple power-chord hooks.

CHVRCHES – Clearest Blue. Their second album, Every Open Eye, came out last Friday and is just as good as their debut.

The Libertines – Glasgow Coma Scale Blues. The likely lads’ comeback album, Anthems for Doomed Youth, is a solid listen but couldn’t possibly live up to the level of their first two records. Shockingly, many of the songs are about getting wasted even though the band members are apparently sober.

Wavves – My Head Hurts. I’m hoping to have a review of their new album V up on Friday, its release date; I’ve loved the singles I’ve heard so far, which take their usual slightly obnoxious surf-punk sound and pair it with better production and cleaner guitar lines, so Nathan Williams’ pop hooks come through more clearly.

PLGRMS – Pieces. PLGRMS – not to be confused with the Vermont-based alternative act – is an Australian duo whose lush electronic sound reminds me a little of alt-J.

Wild Beasts – The Limit. These guys are just weird; this song is the final track on their three-song EP Life is a Burn, which features these critical darlings going full retro, referring heavily to ’50s garage rock.

Coasts – Tonight. More Bastille/Coldplay-style pop from this Bristol quintet, whose full-length debut appears due for a 2016 release.

The Paper Kites – Revelator Eyes. Soft-rock with a folky influence from this Australian five-piece who channel some early Cranberries as well as a little bit of the War on Drugs’ version of Bob Dylan.

Shy Technology – High Strung. I’ve seen them called “alt-folk” but Shy Technology sounds a lot to me like the piano-and-guitar pop/rock hits of the 1970s, a little bombastic, a little melodramatic, but driven by a very catchy chorus.

Spires – Nothing More. Spires are from Brooklyn, which is just so unusual. I’m a bit of a sucker for any band with a psychedelic sound, and with Tame Impala in vogue right now it’s a good time for Spires’ similar sound.

Library Voices – Oh Donna. It’s been a rough couple of years for this Saskatchewan band, whose latest single kind of sounds like two different songs mashed together, both of which come from the 1960s or early ’70s.

Big Grams – Lights On. Big Grams is a collaboration between Phantogram and Big Boi, who worked together on a few tracks on Big Boi’s last solo album, but the current project is a colossal disappointment largely because Big Boi’s lyrics appear to have been written by a 12-year-old boy.

The Dead Weather – Cop and Go. Jack White’s guitar work here is just so much better than on either of his solo albums; he’s at his best when he just lets himself jam.

New Order – Plastic. Longtime New Order fan here … and I wouldn’t say I love this song. It’s good, but a little more techno than their classic sound, which was obviously electronic but not so much like something The Cheat would put together. Also, seven minutes long? Really?

All Them Witches – Open Passageways. Heavy, bluesy folk rock that manages to simultaneously sound like something you’d hear on the Mississippi Delta and near closing time at an Irish bar.

Diiv – Dopamine. The Brooklyn outfit, led by former Beach Fossils member Zachary Cole Smith, will put out their second album by the end of the year. This lead single sounds a lot like every other song Diiv has released.

Telekinesis – Sylvia. Michael Benjamin Lerner’s newest album as Telekinesis, Ad Infinitum, came out last month on Merge Records and features a totally different sound, heavily influenced by early ’80s new wave, with several radio-worthy singles.

Disclosure featuring Lorde – Magnets. The whole here isn’t quite as high as the sum of the parts, but I still foresee a huge hit because of the names involved and the incredibly catchy chorus.

Dagny – Backbeat. Dagny hails from Norway and might be the next big thing in smarter pop, having revised her sound from her earlier folk-tinged rock to more overtly pop music. My daughter’s two new favorite songs are this and Ellie Goulding’s “On My Mind,” the latter of which I find really annoying.

Rationale – The Mire. The producer known as Rationale sounds a hell of a lot like The The circa “Uncertain Smile” on this track, which comes from his first EP, Fuel to the Fire.

WATERS – Up Up Up. WATERS’ second album, What’s Real, came out in April, but somehow this little pop gem, which first appeared at the end of 2014 as a single, escaped my notice until a few weeks ago.

SEXWITCH – Ha Howa Ha Howa. Natasha Khan was compelling as Bat for Lashes but she’s hypnotic singing traditional folk songs in various Asian languages with SEXWITCH, her collaboration with the band Toy.

Broken Bells – It’s That Talk Again. Broken Bells is pretty much an automatic add to these lists. It’s also a legitimately good song, built around a great walking bass line in the chorus.

Saltwater Sun – Making Eyes. This West London act keeps the guitars out front and Jenn Stearnes’ Lorde-like delivery works particularly well here over the loose-strummed rhythm lines.

Arcade Fire – Get Right. One of six bonus songs on the new deluxe edition of their 2013 album Reflektor, a sort of sinister groove track that, unlike many of the songs on the album proper, ends before it wears out its welcome.

Iron Maiden – Speed Of Light. Maiden’s comeback album, The Book of Souls, was far better than I expected and perhaps their best since the 1980s. If this is it, they ended on a high note.

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→ September 28, 2015
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Every Open Eye.

CHVRCHES’ 2013 debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, was my #2 album of 2013, an upbeat electro-pop album that put five songs on my top 100 for that year and turned singer Lauren Mayberry into a minor star. The singles leading up to their second album Every Open Eye (iTunes), released on Friday, showed tremendous promise that this disc would be more of the same but better, and it is undeniably so; the album is a direct descendant of Prince’s Purple Rain with its layered synthesizers and R&B-influenced rhythms, to say nothing of the album’s unending stream of great pop hooks.

Every Open Eye begins with the two lead singles, “Never Ending Circles” and “Leave a Trace,” both among the best tracks of the year, showcasing the group’s signature sounds while adding more complex production and instrumentation behind Mayberry’s vocals. She sings like a 5’10” power hitter – her voice is strong for its size – and while lyrics aren’t quite a strength they’re also clearly improved from the first album. Indeed, the opening quintet of tracks all seem like they could have been authored by Prince in his synth-R&B heyday, which is unsurprising from a band that once included a cover of “I Would Die 4 U” in its setlists and drew inspiration from the 1980s without quaffing too deeply on the new wave music of that era. When CHVRCHES does put a keyboard line at the front of a track, as on “Make Them Gold,” that line still makes way for Mayberry to provide the primary melody, in this case in the song that most directly reminded me of the Purple Rain soundtrack.

The most remarkable part of Every Open Eye is the sheer variety of melodic lines the trio carve out of what would appear to be a single block of marble: the eight strong tracks (of eleven) are all variations on a central musical motif, yet they’ve crafted distinct tracks with small changes in the layering of their synth lines and with Mayberry shifting registers or altering a few notes in each chorus. I might have thought they’d run out of room for growth within this particular sound after one album, but through two albums they’ve shown no signs whatsoever of doing so. You won’t mistake a CHVRCHES song for anyone else, but the way the group can carve uplifting chanters like “Bury It” and driving angst-filled songs like “Empty Threat” from the same stone is their greatest strength.

The slips on EOE mirror those from the band’s debut: when Mayberry isn’t singing, or when the group slows the tempo. Mayberry only takes one song off from singing, here on the soulful “High Enough to Carry You Over,” but without her vocal power or charisma it falls horribly flat. That charisma is also notably absent on the slowest tracks on the album, “Down Side of Me” and the dismal closer “Afterglow,” which deviate from the formula that has made CHVRCHES cross-over successes even with their inherently British sound (including Mayberry’s Scottish brogue). The deluxe edition of Every Open Eye includes three bonus tracks, including “Get Away” (#46 on my top songs of 2014) from the re-scoring of the film Drive; the forgettable “Follow You,” sung by Martin Doherty; and “Bow Down,” which sounds more like a B-side due to the lack of a strong central melody.

I imagine the first couplet on the album, “Throw me no more bones/and I will tell you no lies,” was a nod to their debut’s title and an indication that they wanted to shift direction with this release, but they truly haven’t done so: EOE is the clear successor to their first record, but an evolution rather than a change in direction, and that’s the best possible outcome for listeners. For the second time in their short careers, CHVRCHES have churned out one of the year’s best albums, a little light on experimentation but incredibly deep in compelling hooks.

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→ September 24, 2015
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Do You Feel OK?

Superhumanoids first crossed my radar last year with their two-song release “Hey Big Bang” and “Come Say Hello,” dreamy electro-pop tracks that showcased lead singer Sarah Chernoff’s potent soprano voice. I’d missed their 2013 album Exhibitionists, which had a similar sound but lacked the stronger hooks from their 2014 EP; the promise of those two songs had me eagerly anticipating their second full-length album, Do You Feel OK?, which more than fulfilled expectations with a half-dozen single-worthy tracks that keep Chernoff front and center without skimping on the underlying melodies.

Superhumanoids’ sound draws on the electro-pop and new wave sounds of the 1980s but avoids sounding retro or derivative with distinctly modern production and more emphasis on layered music tracks below the vocals. The lead single, “Anxious in Venice,” is a glorious introduction to the album, bringing a new intensity that replaces the languorous feel of their previous work, and as a result has garnered some airplay on Sirius XM. Chernoff’s vocals rule the day, as they do on most tracks here, but it’s the throbbing beat behind her vocals that makes the song such a standout, bringing a funk or even disco element to the track that we haven’t heard from Superhumanoids before. Second single “Norwegian Black Metal” has the song title of the year for me, starting with a sample of Chernoff that sounds like she’s doing a bird call, shifting into a mid-tempo track that is more dream-pop than “Anxious,” restoring the ethereal quality that’s more part of their signature, but again with greater intensity and the introduction of a vocal melody that we’ll hear repeated through the rest of the album (on the line “what’s the delay?”).

This style of music – one that crosses a number of subgenres, but ultimately is synth-heavy electronic pop, with a slower tempo than dance music – can become repetitive over an entire album, which was a little true of Exhibitionists but is not the case at all on Do You Feel OK?. Shifting tempos helps, as “Dull Boy” drifts back into that dreamier (or perhaps stoner) territory after the first few songs have all had quicker paces, as does varying electronic drum lines and mixing up melodic elements across the various tracks. “Touch Me” is one of the most upbeat tracks and gets Chernoff soaring; her voice is main separator between Superhumanoids and other similar acts like CHVRCHES, led by another female vocalist whose voice is endearing but less powerful. She’s also very much the driver of the disturbing “Oh Me I,” a sweet-sounding track with the repeated couplet, “Everything implies/that we’re all going to die.” And suddenly I don’t feel OK.

There are experimental moments on the album, including the trip-hop crescendo-filled “Blinking Screens” (very successful) and the vaguely soul-influenced “Death Rattle” (less so), which also helps counteract the potential monotony that I find on so many electronic albums. Do You Feel OK? seems to be slipping under the general radar this month in the torrent of great alternative releases (CHVRCHES, Wavves, Telekinesis, Disclosure, New Order, Beirut, the Libertines, and more), but this album deserves far wider listening than it’s getting.

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→ August 31, 2015
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August 2015 music update.

These playlists are getting longer, but there’s just more good music out there – I even cut a few tracks because I can keep raising the bar with so much great independent music coming out. This month’s playlist has a bunch of familiar artists, but also has more pop or at least non-alternative songs than any list I’ve crafted so far. We’re also headed into a two-month span with a ton of promising albums coming out, many of which are foreshadowed here.

Deerhunter – Snakeskin. Deerhunter have been around for over a decade, and while their sound is really all over the map, I haven’t heard anything from them as cohesive or melodic as “Snakeskin,” the tumbling, funk-soaked lead single from Fading Frontier, due out in October.

Superhumanoids – Norwegian Black Metal. The second track from their sophomore album, Do You Feel OK?, due out September 11th, is just as promising as the first single “Anxious in Venice” was. I first heard the trio’s music last year via their fantastic two-sided single “Come Say Hello”/”Hey Big Bang” last year, with Sarah Chernoff’s vocals a real standout in a field of dream-pop and other indie artists who stick a female singer out front without regard to her range or depth.

CHVRCHES – Never Ending Circles. Another stellar single from their sophomore album, Every Open Eye, due out September 25th.

Pure Bathing Culture – Pray For Rain. The lead single from this Portland, Oregon, indie-pop duo is their best song yet, more modern than the ’70s vibe that permeated their debut album.

Beirut – Gibraltar. Zach Condon’s fourth album as Beirut, No No No, is due out September 11th; there’s a delightful weirdness about this song, which starts out like LCD Soundsystem’s “Dance Yrself Clean” before the piano (real) and handclaps (maybe real) come in.

The Colourist – When I’m Away. I loved the Colourist’s first single, 2013’s “Little Games,” but the rest of their debut album (released the following year) fell short of that song’s strong central hook and shifting sounds and tempos. This title track from their latest EP follows a similar formula, slightly less catchy but with a more upbeat tempo throughout.

Civil Twilight – Holy Dove. This South African quartet just put out their first album in three years, since their second album brought the minor hit “Fire Escape” to alternative radio here. “Holy Dove” isn’t quite as intense, exchanging that for a more mid-American shuffle backing up the vocal hook in the chorus.

BØRNS – The Emotion. Garrett Borns’ first full-length album, Dopamine, is due out in October, featuring a couple of the tracks from his previous EP release, but “The Emotion” is his best song to date, a shimmering, hazy song where Borns gets all the feels into his high-register vocals.

Cœur De Pirate – Carry On. Roses, the third album from Quebecois pop singer Béatrice Martin, features her first original compositions in English, although most of the album is in French like her previous work.

Allison Weiss – Golden Coast. Apparently Weiss is a big deal in indie circles, funding her first album in 2009 with a hugely successful Kickstarter (and you thought Kickstarter was just for boardgames) before that was a thing. Weiss’s indie aesthetic doesn’t really stretch to her music, as “Golden Coast” is a pop song like you’d expect to hear on a top 40 station … it’s just better than most other songs of its type, lighter on production and heavier on songcraft.

Low – Lies. I remember Low from the mid-1990s, when I kind of dismissed them as too slow and dull for my then grunge-influenced tastes, and hadn’t realized they were still around until I came across this lead single from their upcoming album, Ones and Sixes, their eleventh to date, also due out September 11th. “Lies” is slow and mournful, just like most of Low’s music; I’ve probably aged into them more than they’ve changed their sound in any way.

Neon Indian – Slumlord. The second single from Alan Palomo’s upcoming album VEGA INTL. Night School, due October 16th, is unapologetic in its devotion to early 1980s New Wave, probably to its detriment when compared to the more progressive lead single “Annie,” even though the lyrics here are quite a bit darker.

Small Black – No One Wants It to Happen to You. It’s synthpop meets shoegaze – I think Carles would call it “chillwave,” although SB themselves apparently disdain the label – with a dissonant, wailing guitar solo that elevates this song from the background to the fore.

Josh Ritter – Getting Ready to Get Down. It’s catchy, but it also makes me laugh, right down to the line “Jesus hates your high school dances;” Ritter seems to be satirizing America’s leading family of degenerates, the Duggars, in a track about a teenaged girl escaping the moral and sexual repression of her evangelical family and judgmental neighbors.

Little May – Seven Hours. The Sydney trio’s first full-length album, For the Company, is due out October 9th, featuring sweet harmonies and more acoustic-to-electric rhythm guitar lines, music rooted in folk but borrowing more from dream-pop for their melodic inspiration.

Lou Barlow – Wave. Founding member of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, and Folk Implosion, Barlow will release his first solo album in six years on Friday, with this track starring him on vocals and ukulele, giving the song an unmistakable beach-music feel. I do wish it didn’t sound like it was recorded in a closet, though.

Passport to Stockholm – All at Once. This young British quartet includes a cellist among its members, and that’s the distinguishing characteristic of their soaring folk-rock sound, reminiscent of Birds of Tokyo and, yes, the earlier work of Mumford & Sons.

Boy & Bear – Walk the Wire. More great independent music from Australia – I’m starting to think every adult on that continent is a member of at least one indie band.

Mutemath – Monument. I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of Mute Math or this particular song – it’s fine, if unremarkable – but I know from past conversations many of you like the band. I’ve found their lyrics to be very disappointing; if you’re going with a name that includes “math” there’s a higher standard in my book.

Palma Violets – Danger in the Club. The title track from this British trio’s latest album sounds like a big drinking song – and like it was actually recorded in the pub where everyone was getting hammered.

Radkey – Evil Doer. I had higher hopes for this punk-pop trio’s debut album Dark Black Makeup, but it’s very safe and overproduced, emphasizing the pop over the punk. I know that not every African-American punk band can be Bad Brains, but these kids had some of that looser, angrier feel in their earlier releases.

Wavves – Heavy Metal Detox. Their fifth album, V, comes out October 2nd, and this third single from the album (not to be confused with their collaborative album with Cloud Nothings from July) is its most promising yet, hook-filled but uncompromising, probably the closest thing to a post-Nirvana act going today.

The Dead Weather – I Feel Love (Every Million Miles). This supergroup, with Jack White its best-known member, will put out its third album, Dodge and Burn, on September 25th; it includes two tracks released as singles in 2014, as well as this rocker, with White doing Jack White things on the guitar, which is what Jack White should probably spend most of his time doing.

SEXWITCH – Helelyos. SEXWITCH is Natasha Khan, a.k.a. Bat for Lashes, along with the English rock band Toy and producer Dan Carey. They’ve recorded covers of a half-dozen psychedelic tracks from around the world, including this Iranian track about “my dark girls” that takes on quite a different meaning when Khan sings it.

Deaf Wish – Sex Witch. This Aussie post-punk act’s half-hour debut album Pain is decidedly anti-commercial, almost grating, until the sudden arrival of this seventh track, a slower song that marries the anti-tonal vocal style of Kim Gordon with the dissonant math-rock of Polvo.

Battles – The Yabba. Is there a better experimental rock act going right now than Battles? I’d have it down to them and These New Puritans, as both acts produce intelligent, unpredictable, technically proficient music that manages to veer over the line into accessibility too.

Ghost B.C. – From The Pinnacle To The Pit. This bizarre Norwegian black metal act (it all ties together on my playlists) is almost shameless in its borrowing of sounds from British Heavy Metal to late-80s thrash to the Crystal Method-inspired guitar line that opens this track, the second from their most recent album, Meliora. Ghost’s members all appear under pseudonyms, and they maintain a facetious Satanic theme in their lyrics and appearance, something that only detracts from the fact that they’re producing some of the most compelling metal in the market today – it’s heavy yet melodic, eschewing death growls and blast beats but retaining the musical sensibilities of the Gothenburg style or even Finnish acts like Children of Bodom. I think the
Pitchfork review of Melioradoes a great job of summing up the album’s strengths and limitations. These guys are going to have to grow up at some point if they want to have any legacy beyond modest record sales, instead of running over the same old ground of tired black-metal tropes and Halloween costumes.

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→ August 3, 2015
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July 2015 music update.

I think this is my longest playlist to date, at least by number of tracks, and that’s after a handful of deletions that didn’t make the ultimate cut. A lot of these are preview tracks from albums due out in the next two months, so it seems like we’re headed for a great fall of new music.

CHVRCHES – Leave A Trace. They’re back with one of their best songs yet; the new album, Every Open Eye, is due on September 25.

Boxed In – Mystery. Boxed In is the stage name of solo artist Oli Bayston, who used to be in a band called Keith (great name, lads), who were joint winners in a 2006 competition with Bombay Bicycle Club, which is the band I first thought recorded this song because it sure sounds like their work. Turns out Bayston’s self-titled debut has been out for months, but this single, a minimalist, offbeat dance track, is just starting to get some airplay over here.

Prince – Stare. I’ve come to grips with the reality that 1980s/1990s Prince is gone, but “Stare” might be my favorite song from him since The Hits/The B-Sides came out in 1993. Prince at least seems to be trying to recapture the golden era of funk influences that informed his earliest recordings, something that comes through even with the sparse production that’s characterized most of his self-recorded albums from the last ten to fifteen years.

Foals – Mountain At My Gates. When these guys rock, they’re among the most interesting bands out there, but when they drift too far over toward their dance/electronic leanings, I start to fade out. This song rocks.

Superhumanoids – Anxious In Venice. Their song “Come Say Hello” was #62 on my top 100 songs of 2014, but it looks like this new track might be their breakout song – or at least the first to garner some mainstream attention, at least. They’re all about lead singer Sarah Chernoff’s voice for me, as she has tremendous range and can go from seductive to soprano in the space of a measure, but what sets “Anxious in Venice” apart is the throbbing electronic beat behind her, one of their best pop hooks ever.

Wavves/Cloud Nothings – No Life for Me. The title track from the “collaborate album” by Wavves and Dylan Baldi (who records as Cloud Nothings) is … well, actually what you’d expect if you mashed these two artists up, in a really good way. Wavves tend toward a cynical/dissonant sound, while Cloud Nothings can be monotonous, but here the two artists seem to mitigate each other’s worst tendencies for a track that’s a little bit poppy and closes out before the hook starts to wear.

Swimm – All the Time. An indie-pop duo from Florida, Swimm calls their sound “genre-blurred” on their bandcamp page, but I think it’s quite clearly electronic pop music like Grouplove or Tanlines, here boosted by a high-flying chorus.

Atlas Genius – Stockholm. There’s more great music coming out of Australia right now than any other place on earth. The brothers Jeffery (not to be confused with Jeff the Brotherhood) will put out their second album of quirky alt-rock gems later this month.

The Libertines – Gunga Din. Try not to act too surprised, but the Libertines’ big comeback song is all about getting wasted. Enjoy them while you can.

Wilco – You Satellite. Wilco’s unexpected album Star Wars (still free on amazon) also seemed, to me as a non-Wilco fan, one of their most accessible to date, but it’s the sprawling five-minute rocker “You Satellite” that grabbed me rather than the more radio-friendly “Random Name Generator.” This song’s syncopated drum line and mournful guitar lines seem more like something out of Wooden Shjips or Slowdive than classic Wilco, but instead of devolving into stoner-rock nonsense the song completes its orbit (pun intended) with a more majestic finish.

The Sword – High Country. Speaking of stoner-rock, we have The Sword, which sounds like the spiritual descendants of Deep Purple and Rainbow, losing some of their Black Sabbath inclinations here on the title track from their upcoming fifth album, due in late August.

Orchid – Helicopters. Sign of the Witch, the new four-song EP from San Francisco-based Orchid, continues down its own Sabbath-inspired path – they chose their name from an instrumental track off Sabbath’s Master of Reality – starting with this track, sort of like “War Pigs” as reinterpreted by Jim Morrison.

Years & Years – Worship. Years & Years’ debut album, Communion, came out last month and debuted at #1 on the UK charts, even reaching #47 here without a lot of radio support. It’s a safe record, like Hot Chip distilled for broader appeal, with very few moments that stood out as worth replaying. This track was the album’s highlight.

Tove Styrke – … Baby One More Time. Styrke, a Swedish pop artist, takes a pop song (and, if you remove the hypersexualized underage girl from the original’s equation, a good one) and makes it into something new, with a darker twist to the song and a synth line that sounds like a Lo-Fi All-Stars riff. It’s far better than the other cover running around this month, Nekokat’s perfunctory, cash-grabbing cover of the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.”

Passion Pit – Until We Can’t (Let’s Go). These guys seem to be good for one great track per album; this is the one from their April release Kindred.

Metric – Cascades. The third single from their upcoming album isn’t as immediate – ugh, I can’t believe I used that word – as “The Shade,” but it’s a similarly mature track from the Canadian outfit whose early stuff drove me up a wall.

The Helio Sequence – Battle Lines. This Portland duo’s eponymous sixth album came out in late May on Sub Pop but I missed it in all the draft prep I was doing at the time. “Battle Lines” is a dreamlike, textured track that has a hint of melancholy in the reverbed vocals and a tropical underpinning in the drum line, probably a shade too long at 4:20 (heh).

Mimicking Birds – Dead Weight. These guys seem too smart for even the smarter (if more self-important) corners of popular and “alternative” music, especially in the lyrics to this track, which read more like poetry than rock lyrics. It’s mournful and immersive until the odd smooth-jazz outro.

Telegraph Canyon – Why Let It Go. Arcade Fire with a tinge of country? They’re called “Americana” in reviews, but that’s not only a subtle insult, it diminishes the breadth of their sound and the members’ prodigious technical skills.

Houndmouth – Say It. Now this is more Americana, right? Or maybe alt-country or roots-rock. I’ve noticed “Sedona,” which appeared on my April playlist, is getting a little mainstream airplay, so, you know, way to catch up.

Cloves – Don’t You Wait. I can’t quite get my head around Cloves’ bizarre pronunciations (what she does to the word “better” might qualify as vandalism), but her voice is haunting and strong, reminding me of how I felt when I first heard Fiona Apple’s “Shadowboxer” and couldn’t get over that voice coming from an eighteen-year-old.

Chelsea Wolfe – After the Fall. I don’t know what to make of this song, but it creeps me out. She cites lots of dark influences, including black metal acts, but the morbid feel of “After the Fall” comes from atmosphere rather than blast beats or death growls.

Telekinesis – In a Future World. This song from Portland indie rocker Michael Benjamin Lerner is so new his own website doesn’t mention it, but it’s the lead single from his upcoming album Ad Infinitum, due out on September 18th. It’s a departure from his power-pop output to date, instead drawing heavily on early 1980s synth-pop and new wave, and I think the best song I’ve heard from him.

Shura – White Light. Aleksandra Denton has yet to produce a full-length album, with this track coming from her first EP release, itself just three songs long. It’s electro-pop more than “alternative,” with a definite R&B influence underneath her vocals, which are reminiscent of Leanne Macomber’s.

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