She was a sultry blues singer. He was an internationally admired beat-maker. They said it couldn’t work. They were right.

How quickly they grow up. On their sophomore full-length, Fullerton, CA band Cold War Kids embraced their dance-rock side, shrieking for all who would hear, “something is not right with me.” Now, two years later, the wrongs have been righted and the “kids” are busy making their bid for VH1 immortality.

A timeless pop song never goes out of fashion. From The Beatles, to R.E.M., to The Shins, a simple three-chord track that raises goose bumps is perhaps the most alchemical device in music. Florida’s Surfer Blood are acutely aware of these possibilities, and on their debut Astro Coast, they shimmy and sway through 10 tracks copiously laden with chill-inducing hooks.

If Los Campesinos!’ first album, Hold on Now, Youngster, was the sound of worked-up adolescents pining for easy sex, and its rush-released follow up, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the sound of crushed young adults learning there’s no such thing, the group’s latest, Romance is Boring, is the inevitable realization that even stable relationships don’t make sex any less elusive.

As an actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg has made a career by placing herself in the hands of collaborators. In 2006, she took that theory into the studio for the first time in 20 years, working with Air, Jarvis Cocker, and Neil Hannon to create dreamy sophomore album 5:55. Now, four years later, Gainsbourg is back with a little help from a friend—this time, Beck.

What an incredible year for Animal Collective! First they release their monumental Merriweather Post Pavilion to near universal critical acclaim. It charts in the Billboard Top 20, a feat nearly unimaginable 10 years ago when the band began releasing albums.

How much faith can one have in a band that breaks up in the wake of the release of their third album? Shame really as The Rakes’ third-time-is-a-charm effort, Klang sounds like the British quartet is sticking to what it knows best: Taut and punchy energy that defined them since their debut, Capture/Release.

Stephen Wilkinson aka Bibio ruled 2009 with three full-length releases. Vignetting the Compost came out in February on Mush and was more of Bibio’s Boards of Canada-without-the-beat pastiche that his fans have come to expect. He then put out his Warp Records debut, Ambivalence Avenue, in June, and branched out into more beat-oriented and vocal material to great effect.

Portishead’s Geoff Barrow joined with fellow Bristol musicians Billy Fuller and Matt Williams in January 2009 to create a disciplined soundscape called Beak>.