Canada’s premiere Noh-Wave prog act has never been accused of making simplistic music. Their latest record was conceived as the “soundtrack for an unreleased [Iroquois] and Buddhist themed Anime produced in 1987,” and to fully appreciate the album you must be of the right mind to accept that.

Jack White was once the antithesis to rock ‘n’ roll excess. With The White Stripes, he produced sharp, minimalist rock songs that laughed in the face of the genre’s extravagances. Even on his more lavish solo albums, White’s writing was still taut and efficient. Which makes this new album an extraordinary departure, as it is a record that seems to ignore traditional songcraft completely.

Stereolab pushed the envelope of electro-pop niceties, and, years later, Cavern of Anti-Matter is pushing it further. With co-singer/songwriters Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier at the helm, Stereolab released a handful of seminal albums in the 1990s and early 2000s—attracting such big names in music as Damon Albarn from Blur and the band Tortoise.

With their membership spread across multiple continents, it makes sense that Superorganism would draw from a wide range of influences. Their sound is every bit a brightly-colored collage as their video aesthetic: a blend of modern meme imagery and Windows 95-era nostalgia.

Baby’s come back. Although the band have been performing sporadic (and excellent) shows since reuniting in 2011, the Hot Snakes-sized hole in our heart has been pining for a proper album for 14 years.

Much like when Sly & The Family Stone first proclaimed the same message, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, in 1971 in response to Marvin Gaye, Yo La Tengo find themselves relaying the same message 47 years plus later.

Under his Mount Eerie guise, Phil Elverum released one of the most powerful albums of recent times, A Crow Looked at Me, laying bare unmanageable grief following the loss of his wife Geneviève to cancer.

The Decemberists’ allure has always been their ability to sweep the listener away from the doldrums of everyday life into an enchanting universe where old-world characters merged with new-world musical motifs.

The individual members of the French duo Air make good use of their time in between albums. Jean-Benoît “JB” Dunckel, in particular, has spread his talents extensively including the collaborative albums Tomorrow’s World and Starwalker as well as scoring a few soundtracks. H+ is his second solo album under his own name, following his solo debut, Darkel, over a decade after the fact.