If the last moments of the previous episode (“After”) ended at an uncharacteristically optimistic place—Rick and Carl being reunited with Michonne after each learns that they can’t hope to survive alone—the beginning of “Inmates” represents the exact opposite sentiment.

Star-Crossed starts with an alien species, called the Atrians, crash landing in a small town. In the melee, with scared armed humans fighting the aliens, one of the young Atrian boys, Roman, runs away, ending up in a human family’s garage where the daughter, Emery, looks after him until they are caught.

No knocks to Emile Zola—who wrote the 1867 French novel which serves as In Secret’s source material—but the story is stretched excruciatingly thin in this adaptation.

Lost in the Trees’ last album, A Church That Fits Our Needs, was a somber and lush reflection on singer/songwriter Ari Picker’s mother’s death. It carved out an expansive space to explore emotions and depth, and they filled that space beautifully. It’s kind of a hard album to follow—so rich in substance and personal meaning. With Past Life, Picker’s response was apparently to peel back the musical layers and see what remains.

One of the most striking things about Angel Olsen‘s solo work to date might be the fact that she initially made her bones utilizing her enviable pipes harmonizing with Will Oldham and as one of Emmett Kelly’s Cairo Gang. On her own, her songs and delivery are so cocksure that it’s no small wonder how she was ever able to comparatively keep her vocal and compositional lights under bushels.

This solo outing from White Fence member Jack Name is a concept record: a “sci-fi novella” about a world torn apart by gang wars, packed with things like oracles and “psychological warlords.”

Friday night was the grand opening of the Ace Hotel Theater. Formerly United Artists Theatre, the space was rechristened with the first of two sold-out Spiritualized shows. Lead by frontman Jason Pierce, the band was in town to perform their landmark 1997 album; Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

Cibo Matto break their 15-year hiatus following Stereo Type A with this return album on former member Sean Lennon’s Chimera label. Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda have kept themselves busy in myriad projects during the time apart, from jazz and bossa nova to collaborations with Gorillaz, Yoko Ono, Petra Haden, and Handsome Boy Modeling School.

Having skirted the periphery of the music scene for a few years, British duo John Hamson Jr. and Marcus Pepperell—who first found fame as two thirds of disbanded also-rans Push Tiger Tail—found themselves at a dead end. In an effort to turn things around the pair began collaborating on new songs which took musical cues from Hamson’s expansive approach to drumming and took lyrical inspiration from their lifelong friendship, the results of which form their hugely self-assured debut Galore.