It was hard to read anything about Alvvays’ 2014 debut and not see a reference to the legendary C86 mixtape. The shorthand reference for twee Britpop will probably continue during the Antisocialites press cycle, too, even though frontwoman Molly Rankin has said she never heard the cassette while growing up on a remote island off Nova Scotia.

Just when you think Shaun Ryder, he of Happy Mondays and Black Grape fame, has finally retreated into permanent music retirement, he audaciously turns up with new material. Twenty years since the last offering from Black Grape—arguably a more musically realized project than the Mondays—comes the Youth-produced Pop Voodoo.

Fewer and fewer living artists today can claim to be songwriting men-of-all-seasons like brothers Ron and Russell Mael, the creative force behind Sparks. With a career spanning 46 years and almost two dozen genre-bending studio albums, you’d have to turn to the likes of David Bowie to find a musical approach more chameleon-like.

From husband and wife collaborating team Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim, Poppies of Iraq is a deeply touching original graphic novel, simultaneously intimate and universal.

“Does it make you uncomfortable?”

OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) have the amazing knack for releasing new music and having it always sound like it can only be OMD. And very good OMD at that.

Much has happened in Mogwai‘s self made sphere since their last proper studio album, the sub rosa assault Rave Tapes, three years ago. Guitarist John Cummings bid farewell in 2015 and the four remaining dark knights of Scotland have turned their music to cause of late, having composed scores for conscience leveling documentaries Atomic and Before the Flood.

After The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s self-titled 2009 debut album, leader, vocalist, and only constant band member Kip Berman has moved further away from the fuzzy indie-pop sound that brought him and his band well-deserved attention.

The sixth LP by this San Francisco band doesn’t break any new ground as much as it encapsulates the churning, off-beat guitar rock they’ve nurtured since 2009’s Grey-Eyed Girls.