Philadelphia’s Hop Along has always been a notoriously difficult band to pin down. Even from Frances Quinlan’s first solo record under the extended name Hop Along, Queen Ansleis, she was vaguely recognized as the short-lived freak-folk movement.

Kate Nash charmed us on her first three releases with her blithe indie pop by introducing bits and pieces from various standard rock genres and merging them with a saucy attitude and recapitulating it in an altered form. Often resulting in something new and fresh, but just as often resulting in a hot mess.

To paraphrase a former British Prime Minister, Hinds were the future once. The infectiously enjoyable garage rockers from Madrid came with a compelling story and blisteringly delightful debut record, 2016’s Leave Me Alone.

Since Beautiful Freak debuted in 1996, Mark Oliver Everett (aka Eels, aka E) has been crafting quirkily moody pop songs enabling him to hone Eels’ eclectic sound into a unique hybrid style that is less a composite of multiple genres and more of an unclassifiable, singular genre unto itself.

Julian Casablancas is the living embodiment of making the most of what you have. Although he’s been blessed with a pretty limited vocal range, he seems to be making the best of it and at times, its that voice which is the only consistent factor on Virtue. The good news is, he’s sounding great.

Greta Kline’s musical persona Frankie Cosmos represents the friend you go to for comfort and reassurance; you know she empathizes with all of your highs and lows and has this way of drawing from them the basic existential observations that make you smile and exhale.

Upon the release of their debut album in 2016, there didn’t appear to be a lot to shout about in regard to Sunflower Bean. Hyped up, as with many a modern day band, their stylings felt neat and measured—hardly words you’d want associated with a first impression, especially as a band made up of three, all of whom were barely scraping twenty.

It must be tough to keep everything fresh when it’s your 26th album. Guided By Voices sidestep this onerous task by making the same one over again, bringing out different facets and refining it, until it’s time to have a rethink.

Portlander Haley Heynderickx came to international attention through last year’s wondrous NPR Tiny Desk concert set. With just one EP to her name (2016’s promising Fish Eyes) Hendrickx has built a head of steam prior to the release of her debut proper, the brief, brilliant I Need to Start a Garden, drawing comparisons with the likes of Cat Power, Sharon Van Etten, and Jeff Buckley along the way.