From the opening notes of debut Silent Alarm, Bloc Party has given the impression of a band that’s in it for the long haul. Silent Alarm contained a perfect balance of adventurousness and safety, the latter in the form of tightly constructed pop songs.

They’ve always flirted with dance music, with the best moments of their first two releases often driven by barbed guitars and angular hooks that were often underscored by a remarkably propulsive rhythm section that locked down airtight grooves.

In one form or another, nearly the entire history of rock ’n’ roll has been devoted to rebelling against society. But on the followup to Love Is All’s crush-worthy 2005 debut, Nine Times the Same Song, singer Josephine Olausson devotes nearly every song to simply avoiding society.

These guys are getting a lot of Klaxons comparisons, appropriate enough given their youth and the club-readiness of their songs. They’re launching from that same nu-rave and dancepunk postmodern platform, for sure, but they’ve got an ear to the past and a complete unwillingness to filter their work.

Considering Sun Kil Moon just came out with an album earlier this year, Mark Kozelek titling another of his forays into the world of covers “Finally” is an odd choice.

The rock video for “Humans” visually checks off all The Killers’ typical glitzy signifiers (see the prowling white tiger amongst the crimson mesas). After Brandon Flowers and Co. plunked down their version of The Boss’s Americana, they now reinvent(!) themselves with Tropicália-Western songs (“I Can’t Stay” and “Joy Ride”).

As a successful politically incensed band, The (International) Noise Conspiracy walk a thin line between delivering a valid message and coming off as hypocrites.

Michael Nau returns with Paranoid Cocoon, his first full-length as Cotton Jones (formerly The Cotton Jones Basket Ride for a few shorter releases on Quite Scientific and St. Ives).