In essence, core songwriting can rightly elevate a record, with an equal power to decimate. Pale Green Ghosts, the second solo album by John Grant (formerly of The Czars) is an interesting case study in that it’s the type of hit-or-miss record experiencing gentrification, with prime architecture neighboring decrepit lots-by-default. Ultimately, the filet of the block facilitates the ’hood’s population, but it’s a shame that Grant wasn’t more meticulous in his tracklist editing. The star here is clearly the creator’s voice, suitably palatable to represent a name like John Grant, but possessed of a healthy ego. The supporting cast pits synth-fueled backdrops against piano ballads. All is...

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Much like a passed-down string of pearls or dusted-off pair of Wayfarers, Kisses’ version of electro-pop is unabashedly vintage. The Los Angeles–based duo’s endearing 2010 debut, The Heart of the Nightlife, set the time warp in motion with its relaxed yet upbeat tempos. But Zinzi Edmundson and Jesse Kivel’s follow-up, Kids in L.A., really jump-starts the DeLorean ride. While dreamy opener “Up All Night” could’ve fit nicely into a John Hughes classic, distinct freestyle touches are also strewn about the record. Airy synths, drum machines and lyrical repetition on single “Huddle” conjure up late ’80s and early ’90s acts like Debbie Deb, instilling the album with a subtle sense of movement...

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It was just six years ago that a friend sent me a .ZIP file innocuously entitled Blue CD-R. It turned out to be the demos for the then-unknown Vampire Weekend. There was a freshness to the NYC four-piece, which irresistibly blended African rhythms, punctual guitar licks, memorable melodies and popped-collar pop. It was the kind of music that you felt compelled to share. I must have forwarded those songs on to at least a couple dozen friends; almost all of them admitted to becoming instant converts.

The ensuing 2008 eponymous debut—which included slightly slicked-up versions of the demo tracks as well as a couple extra tunes—didn’t disappoint. In fact, it turned these darlings of the...

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Wampire’s freshly minted sound doesn’t submit so easily to single genres as it does overarching sentiments. Their influences are held close, but they draw from so many seemingly distant places on their full-length debut that it’s a wonder it emerged as focused as it did. Produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jake Portrait, Curiosity is both retro-grabbing and forward-minded. It’s a crackling, macabre rocker indebted to both The Strokes and Joy Division while still synth-prone and undeniably poppy—contradictions that make for wide tonal and stylistic palettes. Playfully askew vocal melodies weave through phased-out guitar and electronic organ swells, and styles vary from the...

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If there is one thing The Flaming Lips do better than most—even more so than the hallucinogenic sound quality of their records, more than the jubilant sonic surprises generating synaptic fireworks in your skull—it is album composition. The Terror, the Lips’ 13th album, is sequenced so beautifully, the tones and dreadful cadences escalate so calmly and surely, that one is lulled along gently, but with a sustaining, horrific heartbeat that never flags. The Terror is not an album of pop-space-funk gems, nor is it even rock music; it has the gauze-wrapped, nighttime quality of Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children, but even slower, more minimal and yet more intense. The songs are...

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