This is one band that is very skilled in using musical powers of suggestion to create a plateau of unbelievably intricate textures and fiery passages.

This sophomore release from Baltimore’s Beach House builds upon the dreamy, fairy tale cabaret sound of their eponymous debut.

Their sound is one that captures the mood of later summer nights reminiscing by candlelight away from any city or making beautiful new memories by moonlight that scarcely seem real even as they’re happening. There is something decidedly sentimental about this band’s music but it never waxes into self-parody.

The latest record from Denver’s Bad Luck City dares to provide the kind of music you would hear in a classic film noir written by someone who took up where Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler left off.

Yes, it contains moments of sweeping dramatics and emotional catharsis but all of those theatrics are aimed to heighten tense atmospheres that resolve into dark reflections on the underbelly of society and the forbidden places of the human heart.

Even though David Kilgour will get you puzzled looks from most people in America, even those well versed in “indie” and “alternative” rock, he is the legendary singer and guitarist of New Zealand’s The Clean.