Beautifully shot, complicated, smart, and undeniably intense, Omar is unique and well-deserving of its place as the Palestinian nominee for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film.

Voices is Phantogram‘s full-length follow up to 2009’s Eyelid Movies (EPs have been released in the interim), and the Saratoga Springs duo stays true to its layered, beat-driven, ambient method. This time around, however, the songs are tighter, and with their signature multi-tracking and moody approach, the album benefits enormously from the added structure.

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.