7 of 10

With Courtney Love the only original member involved, Hole's return is nominal, but Love's resurrection is very real.

6 of 10

Bug-eyed, perma-stoned Devin Copeland splits his sixth album into halves: The first is all slice-of-life raps documenting daily pursuits, party annoyances, and the danger of mistresses leaving hair in the shower.

8 of 10

Dan Snaith's adventurous music, first as Manitoba and now as Caribou, has ranged from serene, defiantly melodic IDM to backward-looking psychedelia and krautrock. Though Swim is less referential, the artist that does come to mind in these sprawling pieces is Arthur Russell, whose outsider disco and house featured warped cello and ghostly vocals.

7 of 10

Throughout the aughts, this crafty Durham, North Carolina group has stubbornly explored working-class black life, but now they're finally calling it quits to focus on other careers.

7 of 10

Apples frontman Robert Schneider established his love for ELO on 2007's New Magnetic Wonder, and this follow-up reveals a further exploration of that sound. Vocodered backup singers (the first of many) counter an emphatic piano line on "Dream About the Future," cascading harpsichord kicks off "No Vacation," and "Dignified Dignitary" feeds off the "Do Ya" riff.

7 of 10

As cofounder of the 13th Floor Elevators, the squirmy outfit that helped define American psych-rock, Roky Erickson has lived a life that sounds like an outtake from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In the late '60s, Erickson was forcibly institutionalized for schizophrenia and treated with electro-convulsive therapy.