Grum
Heartbeats (Ultra)
With its dead-simple four-on-the-floor beat, 8-bit squiggles, and impossibly anthemic one-word chorus, "Heartbeats" is the bee’s knees for anyone looking for the perfect strobe-swirled jam to dance out the summer.

Villagers
Becoming a Jackal (Domino)
The song’s title practically screams ’80s- vintage underground metal, but Ireland’s Villagers actually come on like a more sedate version of U.K. D.I.Y. sensations Los Campesinos! Happily, that’s not nearly as disappointing as it sounds.

The War on Drugs
Comin’ Through (Secretly Canadian)
If Bob Dylan had fronted a shoegazing new-wave lounge-country folk-pop band back when he could still almost sing, it might have come up with something as hazily wonderful as "Comin’ Through".

Jenny and Johnny
My Pet Snakes (Warner Brothers)
Moonlighting Rilo Kiley frontgal Jenny Lewis and Scottish songsmith Johnathan Rice find the sweet spot between ’60s pop and ’90s indie rock. In the process, they display almost enough chemistry to convince you they’d make a good couple.

Grinderman
Bellringer Blues (Anti-)
The scariest—and hairiest—band in alternative rock gets its serious freak on. Think bombastic blues made for a David Lynch film set in a grimy strip club that smells like cheap sex and dirty orange-shag carpeting.

Kanye West
Monster (Roc-A-Fella)
Kanye West recruited Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and Nicki Minaj for this hook-free jawn, and he must be counting on you really, really liking it, because it goes on for almost seven minutes. It’s aight.

Jenny Omnichord
All Our Little Bones (Fantastico)
Kind of like Kimya Dawson, if Kimya Dawson spent more time in tiny rural churches writing shimmering chamber-folk songs on the omnichord and less time writing about farting gorillas.

Abe Vigoda
To Tears (Bella Union)
We’re guessing Abe Vigoda listened to every song posted on Stereogum in the past 12 months and said ”˜Let’s do that,’ with the results proving that chillwave synth burbles and postpunk singing can coexist with Afrobeat guitar licks.

NeverShoutNever
This Shit Getz Old (Warner)
Sunsplashed and perma-cute don’t even begin to describe this wide-eyed wonder from NeverShoutNever. Shit might be old, but that doesn’t matter when it sounds as fresh as this.

The Black Angels
Bad Vibrations (Blue Horizon)
Dark-hearted Texas psych vets lighten up, but not enough that anyone’s going to confuse "Bad Vibrations" with a Beach Boys outtake. In other words, you can drop acid to this without worrying about freaking the fuck out.

Bodhi Jones
Wake Up!
Bodhi Jones is one painfully earnest dude, but he sure can write a nicely uplifting guitar-pop ditty. Case in point: "Wake Up!", which is almost as good as that Akon song he used to play while busking on West 4th Avenue.