Stereogum’s 50 Best New Bands Of 2015

Stereogum's Best New Bands list is back! After taking off last year, today we return with a rundown of the artists that have spent the past year getting us excited about the future of music. As ever, some explanation is in order. Because "new" is almost as subjective as "best," the list ranges from DIY rock bands still preparing their first EP to ascendant rap stars that have been ruling the radio since last fall. Along the way you'll also encounter woodsy folk singers, shadowy black metal projects, jittery post-punk combos, artful pop auteurs, and bands of many other sizes, shapes, and sounds. The idea was to honor acts that rose to a new level of attention since the final months of last year; maybe they've existed for a while, maybe not, but we'll forever associate them with 2015. This has been a huge year for all of these artists, and the world is better for it. If you're interested, here are the lists from 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. Now allow us to introduce Stereogum's 50 Best New Bands Of 2015, presented in alphabetical order... American Wrestlers LOCATION: St. Louis, MO Scottish expat Gary McClure sings with a fragile-but-hopeful tenor like a beam of light from a discount flashlight, and as American Wrestlers, he's stumbled upon a scrappy underdog lo-fi sound that lets his songs shine properly. McClure recorded his band's brisk, tender self-titled debut album on an eight-track in his adopted hometown of St. Louis, and even though it's new, discovering it feels like finding a favorite dubbed cassette from childhood in a box of old mementos. —Chris Antarctigo Vespucci LOCATION: Naples, FL/Brooklyn, NY Antarctigo Vespucci is made up of Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock, both of whom are storied musicians of the indie underground; Farren fronted Fake Problems and Rosenstock is a member of the Bomb The Music Industry! Though they live in different states, the two started collaborating as Antarctigo Vespucci in 2014, and have been fairly prolific over a short period of time. The band has three releases to its name, including this year's Leavin' La Vida Loca, an album that contemplates anything and everything under the sun that's hard to talk about, with a steadfast sense of humor. —Gabriela Bandit LOCATION: Nashville, TN Angela Plake deals exclusively in grandeur. The Bandit singer and her bandmates craft planet-sized rock songs laced with orchestral instruments and high drama, and the results split the difference between the emotional eruptions of early Paramore and the whale-call post-rock of Sigur Rós. And has anyone written a more casually devastating lyric this year than "I don't feel any different since laying beside you"? —Chris Beach Slang LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA After releasing two of last year's most propulsive and promising EPs, Beach Slang -- led by punk veteran James Alex -- bottle up all their angst, energy, and youthful disposition into their firecracker of a debut album, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. The urgency of that title speaks to the band's all-or-nothing temperament, which shuffles between bold declarations and nostalgic self-affirmations, and tracks like "Young & Alive" and "Noisy Heaven" provide the proper ammunition to prove that these guys burn bright. —James Bully LOCATION: Nashville, TN Alicia Bognanno doesn't just sing and play guitar for this Nashville band. She also writes all the songs and records and engineers them; she taped their triumphant debut Feels Like at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio, where she was once an intern. So it's fitting that Bognanno's voice is what defines this band. It's a huge, ragged, vulnerable roar, the type of thing that conveys complicated things about being young and fucked-up and helps elevate her band's revved-up fuzz-rock above just about all their '90s-indie-rocking peers. --Tom Car Seat Headrest LOCATION: Seattle, WA This smeary one-man-band has been around for years now, so declaring Car Seat Headrest one of the best new bands of 2015 is more symbolic of the music industry's co-sign than anything else. Matador Records signed Will Toledo and his tongue-tied bedroom anthems, which will turn him into a full-fledged indie rock star with a fan base that extends far outside of preexisting circles. What's not to love? Toledo splits the difference between Brian Wilson and the Killers, injecting sunlit harmonies into anxious dark melodies. His prolific past points toward an even brighter future, even when he's writing about the dark. Also worth noting: These songs emerge like they were constructed by a full band, not a single guy operating on his own. There's not a hint of singer-songwriter scarcity in the heavy machinery that is Car Seat Headrest. —Caitlin Teens Of Style by Car Seat Headrest Communions LOCATION: Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen's Communions are inextricably tangled up with the Danish scene that spawned bands like Iceage, Lower, Vår, and Lust For Youth: Communions share a rehearsal space with the former two bands (among others), and they have released music on Posh Isolation, the label owned by Loke Rahbek, who is a member of the latter two bands. But Communions do not sound anything like any of those bands. For my money, they are so much better! When I listen to Communions, I can hear some early Real Estate, some La's, some Go-Betweens, but it reminds me of nothing so much as the Stone Roses' 1989 debut -- which is about the highest praise I can think of. The band's self-titled debut EP (following a pair of 7" singles) is full of warm gusts of spindly, spider-y guitars and heavy-lidded, heavenly vocals, all soaked in good LSD and set to bubbling, effortless, joyous rhythms. —Michael Crypt Sermon LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia doom band Crypt Sermon are often described as a product of their influences: Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Candlemass, etc. And no doubt, if you like that stuff, you'll love Crypt Sermon. But the young doom outfit aren't retro fetishists -- they're playing this music with absolute commitment, writing and recording it with tremendous attention to detail, and approaching it with an omnivorous understanding of metal's rich history as well as the genre's place in music today. The band's Dark Descent debut, Out Of The Garden, could be played alongside Pallbearer's Foundations Of Burden or Yob's Clearing The Path To Ascend just as comfortably as Master Of Reality or Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, which is a testament not only to its vitality and seemingly timeless quality, but its craft: Those are all fucking gigantic records, and Out Of The Garden stands tall right next to them. —Michael Out of the Garden by Crypt Sermon DeJ Loaf LOCATION: Detroit, MI Detroit spitfire DeJ Loaf came out guns blazing with certified banger "Try Me," then proceeded to holster her weapons, ink a deal with Columbia Records, and release a string of velvety ballads alongside the initial gritty street raps. More importantly, though, she held her own against every big name feature who's come her way since. Female rappers are supposed to be simultaneously vulnerable and bulletproof, an impossibly fine line that Loaf finesses with grace and swagger. Her lead single issued a challenge not only to the rap world at large, but to herself as well. After all the shots were fired, DeJ Loaf is still standing. —Caitlin Diet Cig LOCATION: New Paltz, NY Diet Cig let it all hang out: The good, the bad, the ugly parts of Alex Luciano’s personality are unabashedly displayed on their debut EP Over Easy. That, paired with their ability to craft narrative pop songs using only a guitar, drums, and an unapologetic emotional overload is what makes Diet Cig's music such a joyful thing to experience for the first time. It's hard not to fall for a band that is so completely unafraid of giving all of themselves over to you. —Gabriela >> NEXT PAGE Dilly Dally LOCATION: Toronto, ON Sore's a good word to describe how you might feel after spinning through Dilly Dally's debut album of the same name. Katie Monks' scratchy, full-blooded howl will reel you in, and their whip-smart lyrics and pulverizing intensity will keep you coming back time and time again for another cathartic fix. Their loud, brash, toweringly epic style of rock feels is a front for the more vulnerable feelings underneath, and that only adds to their might. —James Fetty Wap LOCATION: Paterson, NJ One mark of a truly transformative artist is that they sound like absolute garbage at first, and gradually they reorder your brain until you skip past acceptance and straight to embrace. Even many of us who initially recoiled from "Trap Queen" eventually surrendered to Fetty Wap's jubilant honk because underneath all that off-key ugliness were hooks and humanity in seemingly endless supply. His exuberance and/or inspiration may well run out someday, but for now everything Paterson's one-eyed underdog rap hero records elicits that "Yeeeeeaahh baby!" feeling. —Chris Florist LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY Emily Sprague has been performing under the Florist moniker for a bit now, but the project's broadly intimate ambitions are solidified on Holdly, the 5-song collection of sun-speckled folk that serves as a precursor to their debut LP due out next year. But what an introduction it is, full of brightly-realized and wrenching music that's as innately appealing as it is emotionally devastating. —James Girl Band LOCATION: Dublin, Ireland If you hold to the increasingly reasonable opinion that indie rock has become too nice, too soft, too precious, too upwardly mobile and obsessed with pop, Girl Band are one of today's finest antidotes for your woes. And even if you like nice, soft, precious, poppy music, you might find yourself bowled over by the Dublin combo's relentless abrasion anyway. Like early Liars, their songs mostly just bombard you with aggressive repetition topped off with snarling rants and raves. The pummeling will only amplify your bad vibes, but you'll come out the other side feeling like a supervillain. —Chris Girlpool LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad, the two members of this band, are products of LA's still-teeming DIY punk scene, but they don't have to play loud to be heard. And they've since relocated to recent DIY mecca Philadelphia, but while they're nearly as tuneful as their big-sister band Waxahatchee, they haven't lost any of their basement-hardcore urgency. Instead, they sing songs about feminism and friendship and fucking assholes, their voices in nyah-nyah close harmony over their minimal guitar-and-bass backdrops. They don't have a drummer because they're too punk to need a drummer. —Tom G.L.O.S.S. LOCATION: Olympia, WA The moniker stands for "Girls Living Outside Society's Shit," and that's barely enough to give you the slightest idea what you're in for when you click play on their demo. They're a trans-feminist punk band from Olympia, Washington, and they play with all the feral urgency of people who feel, quite justifiably, that the world is out to get them. Their sound is raw and serrated but steeped in old-school hardcore intensity. It's what might've happened if Black Flag or Born Against had somehow possessed the power to make you rethink all your gender assumptions. —Tom DEMO by G.L.O.S.S. Haybaby LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY Leslie Hong kicks off the band's debut album with frustration over a lack of connection: "I don't give a fuck if you don't have the internet!" she screams with scorn. That feeling of festering anger threads through Sleepy Kids, and the result is a prickly, uncompromising record that captures both the energy of their weathered live show and forges a new, exciting path. —James Johanna Warren LOCATION: Portland, OR All of Johanna Warren's songs feel like they're flying -- it's a sensation she explored on her 2013 debut, Fates, and perfected with n?m?n, the immensely satisfying sophomore effort that brought her widespread attention this year. In addition to her engaging talk of dualities and astrology and New Age rituals, Warren is lifted up by her voice, which takes the form of a majestic and wonderful flutter. —James Julien Baker LOCATION: Murfreesboro, TN When you stumble upon a songwriter as tender as Julien Baker, the initial urge is to keep her all to yourself. The Tennessee native has been working as part of Memphis' Forrister for a while now, but her solo debut Sprained Ankle sounds effortless, a wellspring of wisdom and weariness from an impossibly astute 20-year-old. Baker recorded her debut at Matthew E. White's Spacebomb Studios, which is why every note and lyric sounds clear and clean like polished silver. Baker's spare, magnificent songs gleam and shimmer, fractured precursors of things to come. —Caitlin Katie Dey LOCATION: Melbourne, Australia There are no photographs of Katie Dey online, an impressive feat given how much modern music has come to be centered around cultivating an image. That alone says a lot about the unknowable nature of the project. Even with only a single EP to her name so far, the young Melbourne musician has created her own ungraspable language. This is some of the most progressive electroacoustic experimentation to come along in years, and it feels like it comes to Dey so naturally. The bare bones of her songs would be akin to folk, but they're distorted and pulled apart through digital means so that they end up sounding unlike anything you've heard before. Typically, music this heady and experiential keeps itself at a distance, allowing you to marvel at its construction, but all of asdfasdf pulls you in close, refusing to let go until you're basking in its warmth. —James >> NEXT PAGE Kero Kero Bonito LOCATION: London, UK Listening to Kero Kero Bonito is a joyous, extrasensory experience -- a sugar rush followed up by a brain freeze. The trio navigates its already clearly defined brand of no-nonsense pop without missing a beat, and they touch on everything from gender norms to what video game they're playing with a sly smile and a winking nod. On their debut mixtape, Intro Bonito, and the string of flawless one-offs that followed, they milk their brilliant meld of J-pop and dance music for all it's worth, and it feels like there's still more to go. —James Leon Bridges LOCATION: Fort Worth, TX Leon Bridges went from washing dishes in a Texas hole-in-the-wall to the forefront of soul revivalism. Straight-laced and classic in every aspect of the word, Bridges favors tailored '50s suits in restrained colors and scooped doo-wop beats to frame his truly spectacular crooning. His debut album for Columbia, Coming Home, contains one barn-burner, though: Final track "River" taps into deep, fiery spiritualism. Neo-soul can be bent in many shapes, and it will be even more telling to see where Bridges heads when he outgrows home. —Caitlin Long Beard LOCATION: New Brunswick, NJ Sleepwalker is a fitting title for Long Beard's new album; Leslie Bear's songs often sound like the space between the dream world and waking consciousness. It's a hushed, declarative collection of tracks that focus on small facets of our day-to-day routine, and the seemingly insignificant thoughts it produces. Bear's voice wafts in and out of spindly guitar motifs, but its delicate nature doesn't hinder any of her precocious observations. They're humbly rendered, huge revelations. —Gabriela Lydia Ainsworth LOCATION: Toronto, ON In college, this Toronto singer and producer studied to become a film-score composer. And in her debut album Right From Real, you can hear how good she'd be at the job. There is a very real sense of tension and dread in Ainsworth's music; every music-box chime or Kate Bush yelp seems to speak of some impending doom. But there's beauty in the music, too. She layers bleeps and pings and her own voice into the sort of soundworld that you can disappear into. End result: Ideal mood music for when you're walking through a dark forest or an abandoned industrial-neighborhood sidewalk, alone, vaguely terrified. —Tom Malportado Kids LOCATION: Providence, RI Malportado Kids comprises Victoria Ruiz and Joey La Neve DeFrancesco of the punk band Downtown Boys, who blew the fuck up this year when they dropped their Don Giovanni debut, Full Communism. The two bands have a lot in common, delivering political, punchy sermons in Spanglish, but Malportado Kids is a dance project. Inspired in part by music heard in dancehalls throughout Latin America, Total Cultura ends with a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire," presenting a much-needed portrait of what a different brand of American identity sounds like in the 21st century. —Gabriela Mothers LOCATION: Athens, GA The bristly "No Crying In Baseball" is just one mode of many for this young Athens-based band. The project has its roots in Kristine Leschper's powerful voice and hard-line lyricism, and the rest of the group supports that weight with a considered and compelling restraint. Their songs toe the line between free-falling folk and embittered punk, somewhere between baring your soul and baring your teeth. —James Mourn LOCATION: Barcelona, Spain When talking about these teenage Barcelona punks, PJ Harvey's name is always going to be the first one that comes up. That owes to frontwoman Jazz Rodriguez Bueno's strident, gut-ripping howl, one of the few voices on the indie rock landscape that could merit such a comparison. But while Mourn may challenge Ms. Harvey's elemental ferocity, they also play with a sloppily simple basement-hardcore urgency that's just overwhelmingly endearing. That voice, combined with the band's juvenile bash-it-out force, makes for a potent combination. —Tom Murg LOCATION: Bergslagen, Sweden The anonymous Swedish black metal duo Murg dropped out of nowhere earlier this year to release a debut album, Varg & Björn ("Wolf & Bear"), that instantly felt like a classic: not just because it was (and is) so goddamn great, but because it deals in a very traditional style spawned decades ago by the likes of Gorgoroth, Taake, and Immortal. Like those bands, Murg blend violent chaos with insanely high-impact hooks, creating an effect in the listener that mirrors a dangerous dose of pure adrenaline. There are lots of bands who fashion fine careers out of little more than replicating the music of their primary influences, but on Varg & Björn, Murg have done something extraordinary: They've limited their palette to a single color -- raven black -- and have somehow come up with something worthy of their progenitors, something that makes those old sounds feel urgent, essential, even new. —Michael Varg & Björn by Murg MUNA LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA The worst '80s revivalism -- read: most '80s revivalism -- is the musical equivalent of a chewed-up wad of gum, hardened and sapped of its flavor and stuck to the bottom of some Johnny-come-lately A&R executive's desk. The best '80s revivalism hits like a gust of winterfresh breath, sweet and chilly and vibrantly alive. MUNA are the latter kind of band; the good feeling they elicit is so potent that you might not notice what a biting aftertaste Katie Gavin's incisive lyrics leave behind. —Chris Myrkur LOCATION: Copenhagen, Denmark Amalie Bruun, the woman behind Myrkur, has been making music for a while via numerous projects, most notably the indie-pop duo Ex Cops. But as Myrkur, Bruun has released two records over the past year -- a 2014 EP and a 2015 full-length -- that suggest an artist with a vast reach and unique vision. Bruun is deeply indebted to genre greats Ulver (whose frontman Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg co-produced the LP), but she takes the soft/hard elements of Ulver's sound to far greater extremes, at times sounding like Enya, at other times sounding like Bathory, and every now and then, finding a perfect center between the two. Myrkur has been met with some contention among purists, but she's steadily steamrolled over any opposition simply by making great, groundbreaking music. In 10 years, no one will remember any of the irrelevant noise that came from the sidelines; they'll only know the music, and the name, and both will be discussed with reverence. —Michael >> NEXT PAGE Naps LOCATION: Tallahassee, FL The kind of muffled bedroom punk that Naps practice in is well-worn, but the Tallahassee four-piece have such a good and naturalistic handle on it that their debut EP, You Will Live In A Cool Box, come across like a soft punch to the gut. You can still tell they're figuring themselves out, but they have an easy-to-embrace sincerity about them, and tracks like "Jean Skirt Mystique," personal-song-of-the-year contender "Sandspurs," and their charming Sky Ferreira cover demonstrate that this band has already tapped into something great. —James Natalie Prass LOCATION: Nashville, TN Prass, from Nashville, recorded her sparkling self-titled debut at Matthew E. White's Spacebomb studio in Richmond, taking full advantage of the lush arrangements that thrive in that space. Her music has touches of the expansive, orchestral soul and country music of the '70s, as well as things like Broadway songs and even showstopping Disney-movie ballads. But while many voices might be overwhelmed with all that finery around them, Prass has a disarming, lively chirp that shines straight through all of it. It's been a long time since we've heard a debut album this joyously lovely. —Tom Outfit LOCATION: Liverpool, UK Psychedelia is the lived-in moment between spiritual and physical existence; a rift in the logic of the universe and its internal colors. Outfit are a band that live inside that rift, plummeting through pop, noise, blues, funk and arriving always at nostalgia, or the longing for something that will never return. Their second album, Slowness, swims through pop sludge and sorrow, facing down the mounting darkness with flickering grooves and ambient conviction. Sometimes these songs sound ready for a warehouse rave, other times, a grand ballroom. Outfit make mutated psych-pop for those in the midst of grief -- which is all of us, really. —Caitlin Palm LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA When we named Palm a Band To Watch this year, I compared their music to fractals -- unending sets of patterns that radiate out from a song's basic structure to create limitless iterations of its initial sound. Trading Basics is as inventive and daring as a debut can be, somehow managing to syphon a small fragment of Palm's often improvisational, mathy live shows into something cohesive and inviting for first-time listeners. —Gabriela PWR BTTM LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY PWR BTTM smoothed the rough edges of their debut EP and turned out a polished and powerful debut album, Ugly Cherries, that's as heavy on the riffs as it is on the message. Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce switch off instruments and vocals on practically every song, and the whole project has a similarly communal, anything-goes feel. That energy transfers over to their high-energy live performances and, with such a strong start under their belts, they could even end up ushering in a whole new generation of queer punks. —James Rae Sremmurd LOCATION: Tupelo, MS "No Flex Zone" was popping last summer, and "No Type" surpassed its success last fall, but not until SremmLife dropped at the dawn of 2015 did it become clear Rae Sremmurd were the most consistently great pop-rap group in recent memory. These guys make pure party music, and they're really fucking good at it, splattering maniacal grunts and ping-pong singsong all over the beat with a rhythmic and melodic intuition most songwriters can't even approach. It doesn't hurt to have Atlanta superproducer Mike Will Made It behind them, smartly evolving the hulking, cavernous production he made his name on into something fizzy and fun. It's one of the most potent instances of rapper-producer chemistry; their energy is so contagious that it's no wonder other rappers are already scoring hits by ripping them off. —Chris Shamir LOCATION: Las Vegas, NV Shamir Bailey's voice is a euphoric chiffon swoop, and it sounds like freedom. As a young teenager, Bailely dreamed of becoming a country singer, and there's every chance that he'll do that someday, and do it well. (If you've ever watched Bailey cover a country song on YouTube, you already know.) But before he was out of his teens, he hit on the musical genre that fit that voice the best, at least for now: Old-school, body-jacking disco-house, the sort of thing that would've annihilated a Chicago nightclub in 1986. Ratchet, Bailey's debut album, is hard and urgent and raw and pretty, and it might just be the year's best debut. —Tom Shelf Life LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA Scotty Leitch stepped out of Alex G's ever-broadening shadow to record as Shelf Life, moving from behind the sound board to bring his jagged slowcore into the spotlight. Leitch's solo debut, Everyone Make Happy, grapples with all the forces that seek to keep us dwelling in the dark and dismal places. By beaming his attention toward these nooks and crannies, Leitch's music helps excavate depression, giving us a shoulder to lean on in the process. Shelf Life melts down shambolic references with fuzzed-out static, psych-folk, and incisive, personal songwriting to tell the story of those waiting in the wings. The result is an album that doesn't feel like the work of a supporting actor, but a star in his own right. —Caitlin Shopping LOCATION: London, UK It's one thing to play post-punk. It's another thing to play post-punk with all the nervous, jittery, excited energy that made the late-'70s and early-'80s originators of the genre resonate so deeply. It's hard to talk about this trio without mentioning the Raincoats or the Slits or the Delta 5, and while that might not say great things about their originality, it's a great thing regardless. On their big-leap sophomore album Why Choose, Shopping play with a raw urgency that the past few generations of revivalists have mostly lacked, and their mocking hopscotch melodies just sing. —Tom Shura LOCATION: London, UK Alexandra Denton has spent her young career tantalizing us, letting a new single trickle out every few months. And although she's only about five tracks deep, her aesthetic feels both broadly inclusive and unmistakably her. In an era so saturated with '80s and '90s pop pastiche that those sounds have almost become the audio equivalent of artistic bankruptcy, Shura's music brims with life. Denton and company work wonders with soft synths, electronic drums, and words that could double as diary pages. The ballads hit like jams, and the jams are gentle enough to be ballads. If we're truly entering the age of the introverted pop star as The New York Times purports, this woman is the best we've got. —Chris Slonk Donkerson LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY Yes, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but if they called those things "shitweeds," the floral industry would look a whole lot different than it does today. So you gotta get over the fact that this Brooklyn trio has chosen the moniker Slonk Donkerson. I'm not issuing a command, mind you, just stating a fact of life. It's an obstacle! But once you've cleared it, there's a wealth of musical riches to be experienced. Slonk Donkerson play aggressive, guitar-heavy power pop that feels like part of a lineage including bands like the Replacements, Guided By Voices, and the Strokes, although it shares DNA with a whole world of other stuff, too, like ELO, Rush, Thin Lizzy ... Ultimately, though, it's all about the hooks, and on Slonk's new LP, The Lunar Martini Motorbike Club And Their Respective Destinies, the hooks are everywhere. Like thorns, really, in a veritable rose garden of songs. —Michael >> NEXT PAGE Spencer Radcliffe LOCATION: Chicago, IL Spencer Radcliffe's career can be traced from sometime around 2008 on when he first started recording under the moniker Blithe Field, but his Run For Cover release Looking In is technically his debut full-length. Radcliffe's songs evoke a sense of warmth despite their lonely aesthetic, the hiss of a tape pulling you into a claustrophobic soundscape of unspecified emotion. Radcliffe's music is evocative without inciting a crisis, and though it may cradle you in your darkest hours, it could also soundtrack the best day of your life. —Gabriela Sports LOCATION: Gambier, OH Sports aren't even a band anymore -- All Of Something is their second and last album -- but they're the kind of act whose impact will be cited by similarly-inclined underground bands. Their two records are perfect slices of adolescent punk, full of clever and biting songs with catchy hooks and a whole lot to say. Sports feel like a jumping off point for a bunch of promising careers and, in a few years time, it feels like we'll look back on them with the kind of reverence we have for acts like P. S. Eliot. —James Tobias Jesso Jr. LOCATION: Vancouver, BC There's crooning and then there are crooners. With a voice designed to communicate pain, Tobias Jesso Jr. falls into the latter category; he stretches out languorous lyrics until they sound beautiful while simultaneously breaking your heart. Jesso traces the lineage of other great lounge singers on Goon, a debut album with a purposefully goofy name and at least three moonlit heartache ballads worth venerating for decades to come. Misty, decadent, and soulful, Jesso's broken heart just might have earned him a spot in the canon. For everyone's sake, let's hope he can replicate that soon with a batch of love songs. —Caitlin Tove Lo LOCATION: Stockholm, Sweden Killer synthpop from Sweden is nothing new, but on Queen Of The Clouds, Tove Lo made it feel like the first time we'd heard the stuff. She writes music that ventures under the skin, past the glitz and the booze, past our icy exteriors, back toward the still-beating heart of what makes a pop song tick: breakup as death, sex as eternity, love as a drug. These over-the-top, thundering declarations about physical and emotional intimacy almost uniformly center around loss, and they hinge on the space between expectation and reality. In that way Queen Of The Clouds was the perfect pop prism, a hologram of love's sky-high possibilities delivered from the depths of despair. She distilled the bleakness until it was uplifting. Long may she reign. —Caitlin Trust Fund LOCATION: Bristol, UK Bristol has traditionally been known for post-punk, trip-hop, and various forms of vaguely dark, electronic music -- chipper lo-fi rock, not so much. But Ellis Jones is the city's best sonic export in recent memory, and he specializes in the kind of scrappy indie-pop that's been experiencing a renaissance all over the Western world. His songs as Trust Fund are typically short and sweet, but they're delivered with just enough of a skew to keep them interesting. To wit: When he really hits his stride, as on genius single "Cut Me Out," Jones sounds like a precocious child doing his best imitation of '90s rock radio. —Chris Vanum LOCATION: Seattle, WA/Brooklyn, NY When people talk about USBM (i.e. United States Black Metal, in case that wasn't clear), they're talking less about region than about a particular style of composition and sound: buzzing, roaring, haunting, ambient, slow-build, high-dynamic marathon-length epics that can be either meditative or assaultive, depending on how you approach them. M. Rekevics and K. Morgan already play in two of the subgenre's best bands -- Fell Voices and Ash Borer, respectively -- but their new collaborative project, Vanum, might represent the best work of either of their illustrious careers. Vanum's Profound Lore debut, Realm Of Sacrifice, is both a perfect embodiment of the style and an apotheosis of sorts, maybe even a new standard. When people talk about USBM, this is what they're talking about. —Michael Viet Cong LOCATION: Calgary, AB Soon we'll be referring to these four Canadian white guys by a different name, so let's focus on the music. It's fantastic music: raw and scraping, delivered with a brute-force primitivism that makes it feel less like the work of men than hyper-intelligent beasts who discovered fire and turned it into post-punk. But this band's appeal is not all about visceral impact; their self-titled debut album boasts rich harmonic density, haunting vocals, and high-register guitar parts with a neon glint. In a world where Wolf Parade broke up and the once-mighty Interpol have became a shadow of a parody, we needed a band like this. —Chris Violent Reaction LOCATION: Merseyside, UK Boots-and-bottles British working-class street-punk has been an influence on hoodies-and-sneakers American straight-edge hardcore pretty much since it came into existence. And now here come these hairless hardasses smashing the two genres into each other hard enough that it's impossible to tell where one starts and the other ends. Violent Reaction play fast and loud and simple and brutish music about kicking your fucking head in, and there are moments when that is exactly what you need out of life. They have no off-switch, and every song sounds like every other song. But since every song is an anthem, that's a good thing. —Tom Marching On LP (2015) by Violent Reaction Woozy LOCATION: New Orleans, LA Don't let the name fool you: There's nothing on this trio's debut album that even sounds close to that tired old adjective. Instead, Woozy are splintered and sharp, and the band members play off each other like they've been performing together their entire lives. That interplay allows the band to pull off some truly memorable and captivating musical twists and turns, and their tight relationship bodes well for the future. —James Yung LOCATION: Aarhus, Denmark Ferocious post-punk from barely-adult Danes should have no other name but Yung. Fronted by 21-year-old Mikkel Holm Silkjær, these songs ooze angst, aggression, joy, and delight. Built around tornados of guitar noise and existential-leaning lyrics, Yung manage to sound like veterans even as they embark on some of their first-ever shows. These songs hum with delicacy even as they mount to world-destroying crescendos, intricate, lush explorations of just how loud the feelings of youth can be. —Caitlin