Nashville indie rocker Soccer Mommy’s story might sound familiar: Just as now-prominent artists such as (Sandy) Alex G, Car Seat Headrest, and Frankie Cosmos grew their intense Bandcamp followings into deals with leading indie labels, so too did she.

It’s one thing to believe in magic, quite another to believe in the death of it. On Anna von Hausswolff’s fourth album, her gothic, bewitched art turns toward grand doom. Dead Magic is a five song, 47-minute record that her career has been building towards, amounting to her most majestic and complete work to date.

Language carries a living record. Sunken cities, forgotten legends, communal values lost in the shuffle of the individual age—every tongue unlocks stores of secrets.

It’s just a hunch, but Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt, a concept album set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where even God has turned his back on the world, may be somewhat allegorical.

Produced by Ewan Pearson, Tracey Thorn’s first album of new original material in seven years is largely mid-tempo synth-pop. Opening track “Queen” is very good, though while the nature of the song is one of an anthem, the production and delivery are restrained.

Richmond, Virginia-based musician Lucy Dacus is painfully aware of the end. On “Pillar of Truth,” an arresting and dirgeful augur to Dacus’ late grandmother, she holistically reflects on accepting mortality with dignity.

Over the years a new record from The Men has become a tantalizing proposition. For the main part, their continued appeal has been driven by their restless evolution from noisy punks to intrepid explorers of rock’s canon. What they proved with 2012’s Open Your Heart was that they were capable of a successful growth beyond their noise rock origins, on Drift that gift eludes them.

On Screaming Females’ seventh album, Marissa Paternoster’s howling vocals and dazzling guitar work again take center stage, barely anchored by bassist Mike Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty. More sprawling and expansive than their previous record, All At Once still struggles to contain the myriad charms of this archetype power trio.

Returning with their first album in a decade, and this time boasting the classic Last Splash lineup of Kelley and Kim Deal, Josephine Wiggs, and Jim Macpherson for the first recordings since that 1993 album, The Breedersmay be laden with the expectations of 40-something, plaid shirted devotees but they approach these 11 songs with both poise and confidence.