For her third album under the moniker The Mynabirds, Laura Burhenn once again takes a step in a different direction, with a profoundly powerful result.

When the musician simply known as Jamison turned to his Teen Daze name in the past, he was looking to release electronic tracks, namely those which sweep through downtempo rhythms with grandeur.

The first taste of Abyss was “Iron Moon,” dropped and drop-tuned upon the Internet like the force of a thousand doom-metal bands’ extraneous guitar rigs.

“And we both know/Love’s not in our hearts” sings the trademark detached androgynous voice on “Stonefist” one last time, you gritting your teeth in anticipation of the instrumental refrain, a heavy and pounding electronic assault of synthesized distortion and kick-snare repetition, a metallic taste in the mouth, a melody, then some strangely, specifically identifiable ‘80s Korg keyboard sound suddenly dotting this weird landscape of Los Angeles warehouses and apocalyptic skylines.

The independent music world can at times seem like a snobbish, closed-off community, dangerously close to drowning in its own pretension. It is increasingly important, then, that it have a few jesters to stir up the status quo.

James Hoare (Veronica Falls) and Jack Cooper (Mazes) blend Twerps’ college slacker rock and The Kinks’ sun-kissed melodies on their second Ultimate Painting album, Green Lanes.

Ohio-grown The Lighthouse and the Whaler‘s Mont Royal sounds similar at times to Band of Horses, with hints of Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues.

As The Strokes approach their “heritage period,” where new material is received with a brief smile and an open gateway to touring, Albert Hammond Jr. finally appears to be making his own headway into a genuine solo career.

Considering the pitiful state of arena country, Jason Isbell is a damn messiah. Something More Than Free demonstrates Isbell’s songwriting prowess and the honed power of his band, The 400 Unit.