The Saturday Knights
45 (Light in the Attic)
Working a bong-blasted groove that’s nothing short of Sublime, the Saturday Knights may claim Washington state, but the scratchtastically old-school “45” smells like L.A. G-funk at its most deadly.

Aspirations
Get Fucked (Underground Operations)
An instantly addictive dance-floor detonator that, improbably, imagines the Bomb Squad riding with Rancid while Quicksand, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and Earth, Wind & Fire battle on the car stereo.

The Popular Front
Pretty Dresser (Bacteria Buffet)
While the idea of Irishmen doing ragged reggae-pop seems about as appealing as being boned by Pete Doherty, “Pretty Dresser” will not only get you skanking, it ends with an indie-’80s guitar freak-out that would give J. Mascis a boner.

Adam & the Amethysts
The Part of Me That’s Evergreen (Pome)
The Poppy Family gets reinvented for the Pitchfork crowd, with Adam & the Amethysts’ soft-focus folk glowing with candy-swirled organs and vocals warmer than Muskoka sunsets.

Dr. Dog
The Breeze (Park the Van)
A ludicrously lush little slice of orch-pop that sounds like Brian Wilson leading Mercury Rev on a magical mystery tour through the chasms of your mind. We especially dig the flutes.

A-Trak
Say Whoa (Nike Sport Music)
If you can’t work up a sweat to this electro floor-pounder—which Kanye West’s DJ created for Nike as part of a 45-minute workout mix—you need a certified medical professional to check you for a pulse.

The Daysleepers
Run (Clairecords)
Shimmery retro dream-pop aimed at anyone with a wistful nostalgia for that oh-so-brief moment in the early 1990s when it seemed like Chapterhouse would wrap the whole world in a blanket of gauzy tones.

Karl Hector & the Malcouns
Nyx (Now-Again)
Hot horn-driven funk that conjures up a ’70s blaxploitation flick set in Cairo and starring Richard Roundtree and Long Dong Silver as jive-talking pimps on the run from an oil-mad sheik and his bewitching-but-deadly daughter.

Doveman
Dancing in the Sheets (Brassland)
The Footloose soundtrack was the nadir of ’80s pop, but New York singer-keyboardist Thomas Bartlett somehow makes it poignant, transforming Shalamar’s lewd come-on into a cry of quiet desperation.

High Places
Vision’s the First (Upset the Rhythm)
Someone seems to have spilled Hawaiian Punch all over High Places’ samplers, as glitched-out static and steel drums spiral atop Mary Pearson’s “Iko Iko”–influenced vocal line.

Rihanna
Disturbia (Def Jam)
Rihanna puts down the umbrella and heads to the discotheque for a weirdly disembodied thumper that, on the bonus-feature front, seems to make the best use of a vocoder since Cher’s “Believe”.