Now this is a warm surprise. After roughly a 15-year hiatus, Dave Pearce has revived Flying Saucer Attack from the ashes—or the clouds—with an album of 15 solo pieces.

Girls Names aren’t exactly a band that shy away from reinvention. They wrote off their debut album of rackety surf pop as a disaster before it had even been released, calling it Dead to Me and moving swiftly on to the hypnotic,

LA Priest is all over the place. Thank goodness. Sam Dust, the 28-year-old behind the moniker, split with Late of the Pier in 2010 and hopped around the globe playing guitar in Connan Mockasin’s band.

In his debut book, Aziz Ansari teams with NYU sociologist Eric Klineberg for a sociological overview/research project on how technology is changing the way we seek out love and communicate with potential/current partners. And of course, it is humorous.

In 1971, Stanford psychology professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo embarked on a controversial study of the psychological effects of imprisonment.

Who is Brandon Flowers, exactly? If the desired effect of his second solo album is to keep us from getting any idea whatsoever, then mission accomplished.

On first hearing The Darkness’ fourth album, this reviewer had to check that Justin Hawkins was still a part of the band.

Returning after five years out of the game, Ratatat‘s Mike Stroud and Evan Mast have a lot of catching up to do. Since the release of their fourth full-length, LP4, electronic music has evolved as a multifarious beast swallowing up pop, indie, and rock.

At first glance, Mwng seems like an odd choice for a 15th anniversary rerelease from the newly reformed Super Furry Animals. Sung entirely in Welsh, with an unpronounceable title, it’s probably fair to say that this isn’t their most beloved album.