Pitchfork

The laborious title to Marnie Stern's new album weirdly suits her-- like her and her music, it's obsessive, playful, and choppy, and it captures the single-mindedness of this self-taught guitar virtuoso. On her second album, she also displays a new sense of self-assuredness, channeling her energy and learning to relax and record in a real studio without sacrificing the full-bodied qualities of her music.

After a brief hiatus Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen has revived the Department of Eagles project, enlisted some of his bandmates, and created a sprawling pop record (complete with guitars, piano, horns, banjo, and more) that evokes Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Sung Tongs, Van Dyke Parks, and Gene Clark. Ambitious and complex, it's stuffed with cocooning harmonies and shimmering, sunlight-smacking-the-Pacific melodies.

Gular Flutter, Blectum's first album in four years, is indebted to her studies of veterinary science: animal metaphors abound, and the classically trained violinist carefully examines each sound as if it were a bird in a glass cage.

Improving on their debut EP Our Way Is Revenge, the first full-length from this Brooklyn band with goth inclinations cuts back on the gimmicks and showcases a formidable range of songwriting styles and moods. 

Bedroom metal auteur Wrnlrd-- who for years has crafted an intriguing mix of distorted black metal, overloaded riffs, harsh noise, and haunting hints of backwoods acoustics-- makes his debut on Flingco Sound, the new vinyl-and-digital label helmed by ex-Kranky partner Bruce Adams.