The Dø, A Mouthful (Get Down!) Like a sonic Epcot Center, every song on The Dø’s debut album is performed and arranged in a different genre, with only the blithely strained, sometimes cracking vocals of singer Olivia Merilahti linking them together. A marching band, Scary Spice–style raps and Klezmer beats create a mix of songs both interesting and catchy. Because neither Merilahti nor her partner Dan Levy can claim English as their mother tongue (they’re from Helsinki and Paris, respectively), the lyrics contain some odd metaphors, charming or wooden depending on how you feel about lines like, “White and gray stones/ So and shy like home-baked bread.”--Mimi Luse

Vampire Weekend, Contra (XL) Vampire Weekend is practically asking to be hated. The band’s sophomore effort, Contra, is peppered with the same SAT-tutor lexicon and Brooklyn lit-hipster references (horchata, balaclavas and Richard Serra among them) as their much-heralded debut. But clamp down on the bile: Contra rises above its own precociousness. Consider the Afropunk-bred “California English.” Its Tommy-gun delivery gets goosed with Auto-Tune, a tired and obnoxious ploy—and yet, the execution is wonderful. “Giving Up The Gun” is their U2-sized stab at arena-rock greatness. It works. Here’s a band trying to live up to their hype, instead of disdaining it. We’ll put up with the boat shoes. --Foster Kamer

Final Fantasy Heartland (Domino) Owen Pallett, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist behind the string arrangements for big-time indie acts Arcade Fire and the Mountain Goats, returns with Final Fantasy’s third album. While the heavy-handed vocal delivery and lyrics on his previous two records could be overlooked thanks to some beautifully crafted tracks, the call-and-response reeds, talky vocals and mannered lyrics are harder to overlook this time around. Pallett has his moments—take, for example, the two-note obstinato and warm bass progression in “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”—but the album feels affected, clunky and over-dramatic. --ML

Lindstrom & Christabelle, Real Life Is No Cool (Smalltown Supersound/Feedelity) Groove-pop duo Lindstrom & Christabelle represent the finest disco that Oslo has to offer. Acclaimed European turntablist DJ Aeroplane has been spinning his remix of the band’s “Baby Can’t Stop” throughout the E.U., creating a host of avid L&C followers eager to hear the group’s full-length debut album: they won’t be disappointed. Christabelle slathers her smooth-like-butter, sexed-up vocals over electro-pop veteran Lindstrom’s beats—it’s what might happen if Chromeo teamed up with Cat Power and the ghost of Michael Jackson.--Hunter Fleetwood

Laura Veirs, July Flame (Raven Marching Band) Inspired by peaches from an Oregon farmer’s market (yep, you read that right!), Laura Veirs’ seventh studio album evokes the woodsy musings and late-summer glow typical of straightforward folkies. But July Flame, recorded in a barn behind Veirs’ Portland home, is rustic and weathered, a personal snapshot that transcends the work of most stark singer-songwriters. Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Monsters of Folk lends his voice to several tracks, remarking, “Laura’s like the queen bee and my ear is her hive. She nests and makes honey in the hairs of my cochlea.” Sweet! --Alexandra Vickers