The second installment of Italians Do It Better's After Dark compilation features muscular updates on their buzzy neon template by the likes of Chromatics, Glass Candy, and Mirage. Its assembly line nature also reminds us that while some strains of classic dance music were meticulous and expert, many were cheap and quick.

Tricky's newest collection returns to the ethereal, almost fragile intensity that marked his well-loved 1995 debut Maxinquaye, but with the more solemn perspective of a grown man who's felt like he's lost his way.

While Classixx have made a name for themselves as internet remixers du jour, that by no means guaranteed a strong original debut album. But Hanging Gardens shows the duo to be great producers and songwriters. It's bright, warm, and breezy, making its early summer release perfectly timed.

Sean Nicholas Savage's latest album for Arbutus is an unvarnished, honest set of avant-pop meditations on love and identity. His love of adult-contemporary instrumentation rendered tinny and toy-like recalls Dan Bejar's Destroyer, while his unflinching narratives mean he shares more than just a label with Majical Cloudz.

Norway's Jenny Hval makes a breakthrough on Innocence Is Kinky, her second album for Rune Grammofon. In the past, her music has tended toward subdued art-pop; as this title suggests, her new album is more direct, more brazen, more aggressive, and more provocative, both conceptually and musically.

Since their inception, Kylesa have translated instability into energy, outlasting membership changes and tragedies to create strange and compelling stylistic welds. But on their darker sixth album, the Savannah band sometimes let this genre pillaging overtake their songcraft.

Weezer's Rivers Cuomo hooked up with Scott Murphy, frontman for pop-punk band Allister, for this Japanese-language album. Released on Universal’s Japanese imprint, Scott & Rivers splits most of its time between ruthlessly utilitarian power pop and midtempo, jangly acoustic alt-rock.

Eluvium's commanding new double LP was supposed to be the immediate successor to the drone artist's 2007 album Copia. Although there's been five years of mixed successes in between, it's Copia's contemporary at least in terms of quality, providing an alternately delicate and deluging take on Matthew Cooper's penchant for elegant piano and dreamy electronics.

Rites of Separation is Agrimonia's first album since 2010's Host of the Winged, and their debut for Southern Lord. It recalls the work of Downfall of Gaia and Tragedy, embracing their crust punk foundations, but constantly branching out in search of more.

Underground rock'n'roll kingpin Timmy Vulgar has recorded some of his most boisterous work over the past two years, releasing scummy, blown-out rock as Timmy's Organism, and sci-fi psych as Human Eye-- whose wild fourth album backs away from the muscle of 2011's They Came From the Sky.

Terius Nash's fourth solo album as The-Dream is packed with guest stars including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and 2 Chainz. In one sense, it feels like a bold grab at the pop stardom that has eluded him in his solo career. But for the first time, it feels like he’s trying to keep up with everyone else. 

After building their career on provocation and repulsion, the Casady sisters' fifth album feels remarkably straightforward. Grass Widow highlights CocoRosie's most practical songwriting, with refreshingly natural vocals and themes that tend toward the soapy and sentimental rather than disturbing.

Burger Records reissue King Tuff's incredibly sought-after 2008 LP, which rebooted the project after several years of playing with Feathers, and J Mascis collaboration Witch. It cemented Kyle Thomas as a grade-A purveyor of power pop-inclined rock'n'roll: Was Dead features one exhilarating hook after another.

The second album by the London dream-pop duo sees them establishing a presence more than a personality, offering miniature motorik jams and nebular atmospheres of ethereal gauze and smooth alabaster.

On the London duo's second album, and first for Warp, they alter course from the manicured electronics of their debut, taking more risks-- especially with their vocals, and those of unexpected collaborator King Krule. And refreshingly, there's no nostalgia, dubby decay or wistfulness here.

After an illness, Will Wiesenfeld channeled his pent-up frustrations and desires-- for escape, for artistic growth, for transformation, for death, for self-actualization-- into Obsidian, a significantly darker record than Cerulean.

The Pastels' first proper release in 16 years is typically intimate, marrying the rough naïveté of indie pop with soft, jazzy music influenced by the likes of Burt Bacharach. Chicago studio wizard and multi-instrumentalist John McEntire captures each sigh and flourish in vivid clarity.

Few producers have made the recent transition from underground bass music enigma to pop-adjacent craftsman as seamlessly and effectively as Brooklyn's Kingdom. On his new Vertical XL EP, he's closer than ever to perfectly balancing the two things in his music that've always stood out: heavy pulses and airy spaces. 

This Danish quartet doesn't just embrace electronics, it surrenders to them. The band’s previous two releases inspired no lack of synth-pop descriptors, but for them, the synthesizer is a literal concept-- an interface that allows them to fuse the human and the artificial, and translate emotions into digital frequencies and vice versa. 

Forward-thinking avant jazz drummer Gerald Cleaver proves a formidable bandleader on the fourth album by Black Host, where he's joined by saxist Darius Jones, guitarist Brandon Seabrook, and pianist Cooper-Moore. Spanning crunchy, choppy jazz rock to hazy psychedelic ambiance, Life... exudes a raw, otherworldly beauty.

For listeners who knew Kieran Hebden from his days in instrumental post-rock outfit Fridge and who might have considered his early recordings under the name of Four Tet as more of a side attraction, his 2003 album Rounds announced the arrival of one of electronic music’s vanguard producers. This reissue adds an excellent live set from the period.

Where this Austin outfit's debut album unfurled like a drop of ink in a glass of water, its follow-up has a plan, and was meticulously constructed in the wake of a tough time for the band. They did away with the reverb, lending the album a crystalline clarity, and allowing the wild vocal performances to shine through.

When East Michigan's premier indie-poppers released Fill Up the Room over five years ago, many, founder Fred Thomas included, thought it would be their last. Yet they return with the warm, wistful One Kiss Ends It All, which plays like a mixtape of lonesome teenage classics.

The latest from the one-time member of shadowy experimental outfit Hype Williams veers in the direction of proper song and sounds heartbroken, boasting sad horn solos, sweeping strings, and harp flurries, along with ominous clock chimes and distraught voicemail messages. 

This Brooklyn-dwelling singer-songwriter's music is marked by her electric, smoky voice and overdriven keyboards, and a syncopation-happy rhythm section that leans toward funk.