Vampire Weekend

Their name come from one of wrestler Jeff Hardy's dangerous moves, this band couldn't really look or sound any less pugilistic. Skinny and befringed, and with brittle and wordy songs like Sorrysayer and Shock, the Londoners are making a role for themselves as something like a British Vampire Weekend. Formed around the core duo of Dominic McGuinness and Brendan Heaney, their early shows apparently showcased a rowdier and more abstract version of themselves, which should serve them well as they venture out with the heavier Threatmantics and Video Nasties.

Steve Lacy snapped on this one. The guitarist/bassist of The Internet (and acclaimed producer for Solange and J. Cole, as well as featured collaborator on Vampire Weekend's Father of the Bride) presents a kaleidoscopic tour of funk and R&B styles on his debut solo album Apollo XXI. The sound and drive heard on the album are deeply indebted to the freaky early days of Prince Rogers Nelson, from the way Lacy stylizes song titles (“Love 2 Fast,” “N Side,” “4ever”) to his voice, which ranges from growly lows to pleading, teasing falsetto.

Maneuvering between grandiose retro motifs and a surprising sincerity, Michelle Gurevich’s songs are tragicomic, melody-driven, sentimental and suspended in shadowy glamour. Having released 3 albums under the moniker of Chinawoman, she now continues as Michelle Gurevich. She combines dark realism with humour in smoky and intimate ballads delivered with cutting and fatalistic lyrics. Her story began when her bedroom-produced debut album Party Girl, by some fateful unknown hand was delivered to the land of her forefathers, and soon made its way blaring from the yachts of Russian billionaires and as the ringtones of mothers all over the Ukraine. Her music has drawn comparisons to Nico and Leonard Cohen, with a voice akin to Tanita Tikaram. Decadent, dramatic and earnest, vintage keyboards and synth strings offer the solitary rendition of a grand experience, and a voice always upfront delivers motifs familiar yet impossible to pinpoint from the great soup of European chanson.