With Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, Franz Ferdinand are back and — for late August — have made your perfect summer record, so soak it up.

The best indie rock album of the year comes from a band with a career spanning over two decades.

Jake Bugg is a breath of fresh air in this world full of manufactured pop music and television singing competitions, and he's often armed only with little more than a guitar and a song.

Sean Tillmann, aka Har Mar Superstar, has always had a penchant for soulful and funkier sounds. On Bye Bye 17, he seems to delve even deeper into the soul pantheon of his influences.

Leading up to the release of Savages' debut "Silence Yourself," the London quartet posted a simple philosophy online: their intention was to "create a sound -- indestructible -- musically solid, written for the stage and designed with enough nuances to provide a wide range of emotions."

Can Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros break free from the shadow of the behemoth success of their single "Home"? In their latest self-titled album, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros may have found something a little bit better: an album that can take the live essence of the band and feature it in a way that feels entirely sincere, experimental, and fun.

Mayer Hawthorne is known for delivering Motown and even Barry White influenced vintage R&B, but his 5th studio album Where Does This Door Go is a little different. He seems to have ditched the retro-soul influenced sound in favor of something a little more modern.

It's weird to say, but That's It!, the new album from Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is about 100 years in the making. Not that the songs are 100 years old, or the musicians, but the spirit and roots of this music harkens back to the earliest days of 20th Century New Orleans jazz, while at the same time taking a cherished institution and pointing it to the future.

On 'Desire Lines,' Camera Obscura have delivered a well-produced, well-sequenced blend of pop songs intertwined with subtle heartstring-pullers.

At this point in her career, Dessa has little left to prove. In Minnesota, she's achieved total media saturation. Nationally, her profile has steadily risen with vocal support from flagship critics like Robert Christgau and media outlets like Elle Magazine and MTV. And all signs point to Parts of Speech serving as her biggest push toward a mainstream audience yet.