Little Joy - Little Joy

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Little Joy - Little Joy

“A new Los Angeles-based trio featuring Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, Little Joy plays a laid-back brand of indie pop that reflects the outfit’s easygoing West Coast environment in the same way that the Strokes’ caffeinated jangle depicts the hustle-and-bustle of Manhattan. Moretti’s bandmates here are his girlfriend Binki Shapiro and Rodrigo Amarante of Brazilian group Los Hermanos, whom Moretti befriended when the Strokes and Los Hermanos played a Portuguese festival together. In the studio with producer Noah Georgeson the three traded off instruments, and that evidently established an appealingly freewheeling vibe heard throughout “Little Joy.” Nothing on the album is as catchy or as memorable as the Strokes’ sharpest material, but several cuts sport a sweet Latin lilt, which helps distinguish the music from work by any number of similarly situated acts.—Mikael Wood”

Astronautalis - Pomegranate

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Astronautalis - Pomegranate

“Jacksonville, Fla., is Skynyrd country first and foremost, but it’s also produced Astronautalis, easily the city’s best Chris Martin-resembling avant-garde white battle MC who has rhymed about visiting doughnut shops with Tupac and his aspirations to be “the Van Morrison of this rap shit.” Astronautalis dribbles out syrupy, folky monologues over dreamily melodic beats that couldn’t be further from traditional hip-hop if he was actually a Van Zant. His third record, “Pomegranate,” is full of minimalist epics like “Secrets of the Undersea Bell” that would be way closer to indie rock if it wasn’t for the splashy sounds being uncorked behind Astronautalis’ often hypnotic drone (augmented by producer Congleton, late of Modest Mouse and Polyphonic Spree). A surprisingly strong, melodic curio from one of the last places you might look for it. —Jeff Vrabel”