The Lacking Details

The source material is brilliant, but the interpretations are so uneven that it’s more like “Juliana Hatfield’s Wax Museum of Songs by The Police”.

Another solo pop genius wunderkind, blasting it out of the water with a summery mix of rock and psychedelia.

A strange confluence of influences, with a lot of dynamic arrangements and plenty of weird hooks that shouldn’t work but are lethally effective.

Hot and bothered garage psychedelia, squeezing every last erg out of frantic guitars, galloping bass, pounding drums, and desperate vocals… not exactly ground-breaking, but certainly ass-shaking.

Psychedelic surf music from Portland, impossibly catchy and off-the-cuff, built on riffs that bludgeon you like a deliciously dense spongecake.

You might expect rowdy blues, or thrash-worthy hardcore from the name, but this is some very creative indie rock, using your standard ingredients yet somehow wringing out a distinctive texture and taste.

A simmering stew of cross-cultural influences, as the African and Creole sounds of Haiti blend with New Orleans’ own unique funk. The results are as energetic and danceable as you’d expect

A disparate assemblage of New Zealand musicians yielding a disparate assemblage of styles, from dusty ballads to reggae whimsy to downright funk.

Analog synthesizers still sound like the shiny plastic future, even if they’re likely older than the young man fiddling with them in the California sunshine.

Sounding a lot like the heyday of 1990s indie dream pop, Walrus keeps it a little spicy if not very distinctive.