For the last couple of years, Oxford-via-London quartet Glass Animals has wooed listeners with a steady stream of singles and remixes. “Psylla” and “Black Mambo” exhibited a sound somewhere between the dark, enveloping trip-hop of Massive Attack and weirdo groove-makers Alt-J.

It’s a fun game to ask someone unfamiliar with First Aid Kit where the band hails from. Tennessee is a common guess, as is Georgia, and the fact that the Söderberg sisters are from Sweden always raises eyebrows.

The past few years have seen Bob Mould return to his hard-rockin’ ways. His dalliance with dance music is a thing of a past, and for fans of Hüsker Dü and Sugar, this record is a welcome to return to the heavier periods of both Mould-fronted outfits.

Echo and the Bunnymen have never been the most dynamic of bands. There’s no standout feature that makes them particularly remarkable, aside from their consistency. They’ve stayed modestly relevant in the decades since their post-punk heyday without straying too far from the atmospheric proto-indie foundation they built in the ‘80s.

While Fucked Up may be referred to most often as a punk band, even a hardcore punk band, each of their last few albums poked a few holes in that envelope. Sure, Damian Abraham (Pink Eyes) provides the definition of in-the-red punk vocals on each and every song, but the band has explored a wide range of inventive approaches to their surrounding sonics.

Black Hours, Hamilton Leithauser‘s solo debut, was recorded shortly after The Walkmen announced an “extreme hiatus.”

The best noise rock makes harshness and dissonance seem essential. A cacophony of fuzz and feedback, in the right hands, sounds absolutely vital, and more importantly, substantial. Bleeding Rainbow doesn’t make noise rock, but on Interrupt, they’re pretty noisy. The problem is, precious little of the album is substantial.

With their third full-length, Parquet Courts seemed at a precipice. They’d released a well-received album that had gotten national attention in Light Up Gold, and a blistering EP just a year later.

One thing about Hauschka‘s music is that once you’ve seen it performed live—hell, a YouTube clip will almost suffice—it’s impossible to dissociate the visual from the sounds you’re hearing.