Au/Palais: Tender Mercy

The deep bass line of "Tender Mercy" drones on much like an Austra track, but that's where the similarities end with AU PALAIS. The chimes that cascade softly blow through the song like a cool breeze, and words are sung in a effortless waft, sounding nonchalant over rushes of synth crescendoes between verses. By not using the vocals to indicate intensity, AU PALAIS lets the rest of the band do the talking.

I Wrote In Blood

The London-based, Still Corners, is not just another shimmery, 60's-pop revival group. The often bare compositions of their debut LP, Creatures of an Hour, can seem slow or inane to impatient ears, but the good is in the detail. It's not just the breathy ooh-and-ahh vocal of Tessa Murray that makes listeners think of Broadcast because the spaced drumming also shows the influence. Still Corners isn't very loud and the vocals seem entirely devoid of emotion, yet they can somehow completely consume you if you let them.

St Vincent: Live at Webster Hall

In May, St Vincent covered Big Black and all of a sudden some 66,000 viewers got to see something they hadn't seen before. New fans might have skipped the dense layerings of Marry Me and Actor to get to the pretty pop songs of Strange Mercy, but what no one really knew was how hard Annie Clark could be. St Vincent is more than one person; for each of her albums she is a different musician, evolving from layer and harmony towards texture and melody. If the new St Vincent weren't so radio-ready, MTV wouldn't be filming her shows.