Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz has never been afraid of tackling gender politics within her music. On “Raising the Skate,” from last year’s Foil Deer, Dupuis battled with the accepted narrative of women having to downplay talent for the sake of not being seen as overbearing or bitchy.

The folk song storyteller has become scarce. Songwriting that can carry an album on the back of clear vocal command and narrative, luring you into verses that combine chronicle and parable is a lost art form.

These shreddin’ Scots have cashed out the dreamier guise of their self-titled debut for more jagged edges on this boldly-titled follow-up.

Wow. These ladies sure know their way around a pop song. If you love pop music, I urge you to listen to this record. Immediately. Full of a golden youthfulness, harnessing the whole teenage spectrum—from lost-in-love daydreaming to the enormous energy of its expression, with huge hooks and harmonies ushering along everything in between—streamlining all within into pop gems.

The Lemon Twigs (aka brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario) are looking poignantly backwards while moving gracefully forward on their debut record: a love letter to the past and a signpost towards the future.

On their third album overall and first since 2013’s Join the Dots, which got them more notoriety in the U.S. than their 2012 eponymous debut album did, the British band TOY don’t change around the formula that they’ve worked hard to cultivate since their formation in 2010.

The relationship between Connan Mockasin and Sam Dust began with happenstance and folly. Yet a listen to their years in the making joint effort gives the impression that theirs was an intersection of fate disguised as coincidence.

You likely know his name from production work on albums by mega-artists including U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, and Willie Nelson. You might also know him from his spacious soundscapes with Brian Eno. But did you know Daniel Lanois is also one helluva pedal steel player? I didn’t.

When it was first released in the spring of 2006, Midlake‘s sophomore album was a revelation.