Music: Au Revoir Simone, Phoenix, Grizzly Bear

Au Revoir Simone, Still Night, Still Light (Our Secret Record Company) Brooklyn’s answer to Clotho, Atropos and Lachesis replant their hauntingly personal, bittersweet roots on the follow-up to 2007’s creepy-sweet The Bird of Music. Their third album is a symphony of sterilized electronic sounds brought to life by an intimate encounter between these three Fates and their keyboards. Despite the odd bramble of blunt confrontation (“Trace a Line”), Au Revoir Simone skips through the wet grass of ethereal romanticism (“Tell Me”), proving that they are still alright and, yes, still feather-light. -- Garrett Pruter

A-Trak, Infinity+1 (Thrive) On his latest release, Kanye West’s go-to turntablist puts together a mixtape fitted for the highest echelon of the genre. Instead of revisiting previously explored (and exploited) tracks, the album spans everything that will (or should) be post-dance-pop anthems over the next two years, from the likes of Holy Ghost, Gonzalez, Kid Sister and Soundstream. A-Trak’s remix of MSTRKRFT and rapper N.O.R.E.’s “Bounce” is an electro-funk-driven, cowbell-addled banger worthy of the rowdiest of hipster house parties, while the post-disco sheen of a Midnight Juggernauts track (“Shadows”) opens the album’s second half with surprisingly mature pacing and depth that will captivate even the most ADD-riddled mash-up fans.—Foster Kramer

The Horrors, Primary Colours (XL Recordings) The Horrors are no longer masquerading as a riotous assembly of suburban mall goths—heavy on theatrics, light on context or coherence. Emerging from two years of whereabouts unknown, singer Farris Rotter elevates the band to fearful heights with fetching vocals on “Mirror’s Image,” the album opener. His mellifluous, pensive tremor on “I Only Think of You” is flat-out haunting. And with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow as producer, the Horrors finally get the chance to show off their true, evocative colors. —Eiseley Tauginas

Pet Shop Boys, Yes (Astralwerks) If the Pet Shop Boys have spent the second half of their career protesting too much against the “sultans of sardonic” tag they’d been branded with early on, perhaps they no longer care what anyone thinks. Three tracks into their ninth album, vocalist Neil Tennant has already sneered a number of caustic mini-diatribes including, “Too much of everything is never enough,” and, “I want to live like beautiful people.” Both songs exude the weariness of a seasoned cynic. Yes is surprisingly shock-free, a Xenomania–produced masterstroke of glittering, lavish, yet searingly melancholic disco-pop, Tennant’s lyrics fixed on that crazy contretemps called love. Pet Shopaholics, rejoice. —Ken Scrudato

Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest (Warp) If this Brooklyn quartet were made up of writers, they’d be novelists. Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear’s follow up to 2006’s Yellow House, continues their narrative of wintry experimental rock without skipping chapters. The group risks little and takes their art sound to even sparser territory, sticking with the subdued, tone-downed melodies of their earlier recordings. Freeform layered over strong sonic structure prevails throughout, with the exception of “Two Weeks,” the most radio-friendly—and least polarizing—of the bunch. —Stephanie Laemoa

Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career (4AD) Camera Obscura has always produced happy music for depressed people, and on their fourth studio album in nearly 13 years, this wonderful sonic contradiction holds. My Maudlin Career provides the same mellow fare with added wistfulness. On the first single, “French Navy,” Tracyanne Campbell’s delicate vocals combine with brilliant instrumentals for navel-gazing loveliness that deserves every comparison to Belle & Sebastian that it’s bound to get. Even in the face of heartache (“James”), tracks are warmed over by eternal optimism, all in the name of love—and with help from an overworked, tinkling triangle. —Delia Paunescu

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenixs Phoenix (Glassnote) The only thing wrong with the new Phoenix album—and it’s a big deal, trust—is that there aren’t more tracks. Although they’ve been criticized in the past for a lack of cohesion on their earlier albums, this time around, the French four-way soars into outer orbit with an incredible mix of buoyant vocals and Sunday afternoon synth led by clean-cut crooner Thomas Mars. Hey, Beethoven, you might want to roll over—this one is an instant classic from start to finish. —Anam Mansuri


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