In the time it’s taken Tony Di Blasi and Robbie Chater to follow up The Avalanches’ sublime 2000 debut Since I Left You (released in 2001 in the U.S.) the world has somersaulted on its axis more than once.

Sometimes, authenticity can trump innovation—and for Glasgow, Scotland trio PAWS—that’s exactly the case. The band’s first two records, Cokefloat! and Youth Culture Forever, were bulging with scrappy, heartfelt, and totally impassioned pop punk dynamics.

Eiichi Yamamoto’s nearly-forgotten 1973 masterwork, Belladonna of Sadness, has to be the weirdest, filthiest feature-length animated film ever made.

The Avett Brothers’ ninth studio album, Tue Sadness, is a 51-minute collection of a dozen beautifully and brilliantly crafted tracks. From the opening chords of “Ain’t No Man” to the final notes of “May It Last,” the record marks the continued progression of a group whose sound has been evolving for 16-years and counting.

In promise, Men Go To Battle is the rare, quasi-oxymoronic low-budget Civil War epic.

The members of Arcade Fire have fed off of one another’s ambitions to spread their wings and try flying solo. Will Butler, brother of Win, took his opportunity to assert his own musical independence with last year’s solo debut, Policy, and has now released a live album of that record, plus a couple of new songs, recorded mainly at a Chicago show last year.

A British survival horror that manages to muster the odd moment of tension in amongst the ridiculous.

A blisteringly bitter, morally murky cautionary tale about the folly of revenge and mob justice.

Though the album’s title bills it as a sequel of sorts to puberty, Mitski’s Puberty 2 would perhaps be better titled as “puberty infinity.” Its explorations of the ways humans love each other, hurt one another and balance soaring happiness with crippling sadness (often brought on by some manifestation of mental illness) suggest the highs and lows of puberty aren’t a one time thing felt by teenagers—or even a second thing felt by confused 20-somethings.