On their third album, Skying, The Horrors have completely shed all the goth trappings that originally defined them. While their sophomore album, Primary Colours, was a bold step out of the gloom with its shoegaze textures and Krautrock rhythms, Skying sounds like an entirely different band.

Little Dragon has never suffered from a lack of confidence. For their last two albums the Swedish trio has felt like a representative of dangerous soul, slipping through slinky space-aged R&B, topped by singer Yukimi Nagano’s seductive whisper.

For all the reductive adjectives typically used to describe They Might Be Giants—“quirky,” “weird,” etc.—their songs are always rooted in their own realities. A drum-playing worm sounds perfectly normal when described by John Linnell, and why wouldn’t The Replacements have a song called “We’re The Replacements?”

Crystal Antlers are capable of amping up the volume without losing focus, which is displayed on their sophomore full-length, Two-Way Mirror.

Breaking away from her full-time gig as singer of the experimental art-pop band The Fiery Furnaces, with sibling and bandmate, Matthew Friedberger, Eleanor Friedberger proves herself a worthy artist in her own right throughout Last Summer, her solo debut.

I love the pun-tastic title of Bodies of Water’s third full-length.

Beyoncé Knowles has always kept excellent company and on her fittingly-titled fourth album, 4, it seems she’s learned that consistent company makes for a consistent album. The-Dream (Terius Nash)—the man responsible for “Single Ladies” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella”—co-wrote approximately half the album.

In their pursuit of something more minimal, Sons and Daughters infuse their wry, gothic leanings with some new flair.

Originally released as a free mixtape in the fall of 2010, Hodgy Beats and Left Brain’s second full-length release as MellowHype proves that there’s no shortage of talent in the Odd Future family