STRFKR has always been a constantly evolving entity, growing over the years from rambunctious beginnings into the manicured electro-pop perfection they exhibited on their last studio album, 2016’s pristine Being No One, Going Nowhere. New album Future Past Life breaks new ground, dialing back some of the high-gloss production they’re known for to craft songs that are stripped down, spaced out and somehow as visceral as they are dream-like. STRFKR goes deeper into these songs by breaking them down to their essential elements, finding a new immediacy when working with raw materials.

The Weather Station - project of Tamara Lindeman - releases her new album, Ignorance, on Fat Possum. Through Ignorance, Lindeman has remade what The Weather Station sounds like, using the occasion of a new record to create a novel sonic landscape, tailor-made to express an emotional idea. Ignorance is sensuous, ravishing, as hi-fi a record as Lindeman has ever made, breaking into pure pop at moments, at others a dense wilderness of notes; a deeply rhythmic and painful record that feels more urgent and clear than her work ever has.

One of Australia’s greatest self-made successes, Tash Sultana is a one-person powerhouse who commands multiple instruments and gear, whether on-stage or in-studio. A globe-trotting sensation with a live show that needs to be seen to be believed, the 25-year-old’s second album Terra Firma is a natural evolution of their multi-dimensional jams. The follow-up to 2016’s ARIA-winning Flow State was recorded in a custom-built studio over nearly a year.

Like their West Coast contemporaries in Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley steadily gained traction in indie pop circles throughout the late '90s and early 2000s before the record industry (and public at large) officially took note. Led by former child actors Jenny Lewis (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Blake Sennett (guitar, vocals), the L.A.-based quartet held its first practice in 1998. Bassist Pierre de Reeder and drummer Dave Brock (later replaced by ex-Foundation Lassie member Jason Boesel) completed the lineup, and a weekly residency at the Spaceland nightclub in Silverlake allowed Rilo Kiley to hone its mix of classic pop, country, torch song, and folk. Collection includes: Take Offs and Landings (2001); The Execution of All Things (2002); More Adventurous (2004); Under the Blacklight (2007).

Never one for easy categorisation, the on-going adventures of David Longstreth’s Dirty Projectors project are especially genre-agnostic on the 5 EPs released throughout 2020. The neatly-titled 5EPs collates these songs into a mammoth compilation. Each set of songs sees a different band-member taking over lead vocal duties, and indeed the flavours of these tracks stretch the breadth and width of the musical spectrum. The likes of ‘Self Design’ and ‘Empty Vessel’ deal in funk and house-inspired rhythms, while ‘Moon, If Ever’ and ‘I Get Carried Away’ are staunchly minimal in instrumentation, but undeniably 1960s pop in melodic sophistication.

In the early 2010s, the members of Yumi Zouma spent time together on a New Zealand street that gave its name to their first single, “The Brae.” After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake destroyed that street and much of the city, its members took off for other parts of the globe and soon began writing their first songs over email.

After the debut album Places in 2012 (platinum double-disc - Victoire de la Musique Female Artist) entrusted to the care of Etienne Daho, then Lay Low (gold record), produced by the Canadian Taylor Kirk (Timbre Stamp), Lou Doillon returns with a third studio album. A turn for the artist who abandons guitar follk for the electric, and builds the songs on beats mixing organic sounds. Sensual, hot, bewitching, intense but also dance orientated. With Benjamin Lebeau, half of The Shoes, she works on four songs including the fantastic first single Burn which growls with post-punk guitars and industrial friction behind the voice of Lou. Lou Doillon also entrusted another part of the production to Dan Levy (The D) for 3 tracks, and teamed up with Nicolas Subrchicot, for the rest of the album. A soliloquy gives a voice to inner thoughts. With her new album, Lou Doillon reveals more of herself than ever.

Echo & the Bunnymen made a dignified return in 1997 with Evergreen, but that record displayed some hints of rustiness and a desire to stay hip – two things notably absent from its superb sequel, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? Trimmed to just the duo of Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, Echo has succeeded where many of their peers have failed – they have matured without getting stodgy, they have deepened their signature sound without appearing self-conscious. Indeed, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? feels of a piece with their earlier albums, not only sonically, but in terms of quality. Clocking in at just 38 minutes, the record is concise and dense with detail, finding the precise tone between the floating grandeur of early Echo and the timeless romanticism of classic torch songs. It's melancholy without ever being self-pitying and it never once sounds gloomy or depressing. The key is that McCulloch and Sergeant never push too hard. They never force themselves to play up-tempo, nor do they try to recapture their "edge" – they settle into a sad groove and find all the possible variations in the sound, both sonically and emotionally.