Owen Pallett has had a good year—he helped Arcade Fire compose the score to the film Her, and he’s embarked with the band on a globe-trotting arena tour for Reflektor. That output would be extraordinary enough, but somewhere along the line he’s found the time to record a brand new album, In Conflict, his first since 2010’s excellent Heartland.

It may be temporarily impossible to erase the grin from your face while watching Lukas Moodysson’s We Are the Best, because it very thankfully lives up to its lofty title.

Tensnake is the guise of German producer/DJ Marco Niemerski. Having been around for the last decade, Tensnake became an established dance entity in 2010 with his deep disco smash “Coma Cat.”

Dee Dee Penny and Brandon Welchez are not here to churn out archetypal love songs. The husband-and-wife duo, who front the respective bands Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles, formed Haunted Hearts two years ago.

One of the biggest crossover titles of DC’s New 52 (apparently it’s still “new,” even after two and a half years), Batman/Superman brings the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel together near the beginning of their careers.

On Sharon Van Etten‘s latest, we find the 33-year old Brooklynite grappling even further with the complexities and rewards of love. It’s a skill predicated on an articulate presentation of the emotionally wrought—one that’s been gradually developed across three LPs and a career spanning upwards of a decade.

Wolf follows Majid (Marwan Kenzari) through his glum Netherlands neighborhood as he transitions from a purse-snatching street thug to a mafia-entangled hired gun

In their latest release, indie dance-rock pioneers The Faint embrace their industrial post-punk spirit. Their music has always been on the “noisy” end of the spectrum, and Doom Abuse is no exception.

Gang Related has the necessary brutality of mob shows—albeit within the limits of broadcast networks—but it doesn’t have the grittiness or the complicated character development that is their signature.