“I’ve been going through a change/I might never be sure/I’m just walking in a haze,” contemplates Julien Ehrlich as Light Upon the Lake clocks its tone-setting, ornate first minute.

Spencer Krug’s latest record as Moonface ditches the singer/songwriter nakedness of Julia With Blue Jeans On and the City Wrecker EP for a fuller sound. My Best Human Face lands close to the one-off ‘80s spirit of 2011’s Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped, sounding something like a drunken Tangerine Dream soundtrack.

There were no doubt a few fans out there put off by Tegan and Sara‘s nosedive into slickly-produced pop music with 2013’s mainstream breakout, Heartthrob—what with its radio-friendly singles which found the Sisters Quin cracking the Hot 100 for the first time in their two-decade career.

Every record that Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince have produced together as The Kills has been laden with a palpable tension that simmers between the two writing partners; on 2011’s Blood Pressures, that magnetic push-and-pull manifested itself into a superb collection of moody, hair-raising tracks where you can feel Hince and Mosshart feeding off each other’s energy.

eve Gunn‘s virtuosity as a guitarist has made him an in-demand hired hand both in and out of indie rock circles for over a decade, and only in recent years has he defined himself as a raga-influenced singer/songwriter. Eyes on the Lines could be called his first LP as the leader of a straight-up rock-and-roll band, but you’d never guess that from his effortless swagger.

When team-ups form between admiring music contemporaries, there’s a one-time potential that’s tapped into, yielding unexpectedly potent joint efforts that exist ephemerally, and in their own unique vacuum.

Lush ‘60s pop, running almost the full spectrum of all that phrase conjures up. The opening trio of songs really go for the orchestral, baroque side of the era, gliding and swaying through chimerical landscapes.

Fear of Men‘s 2014 debut, Loom, was an alluring blend of lo-fi dream pop, straddling an unusual space between the fuzzy, unpolished appeal of classic K Records singles and the more recent wave of ramshackle indie pop typified by bands such as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Amber Arcades—the thrilling and delectable project of Dutch artist Annelotte de Graaf-—revel in the ability to combine textures, sounds, and colors together to create dream-like sounds and sequences; but forever being driven along by a pop heartbeat.