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Like the vague biographical details of its members, this mysterious Swedish dream-pop band's music remains hazy -- mucho echo, blurry harmonies, soft acoustic instrumentation buoyed by generous synth strings, and a bright white ambience suggesting both sunny Balearic beaches and blinding Scandinavian snowstorms. Yet its emotions are conversely vivid.

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Even in the early days of Genesis, this art-rock pioneer possessed the voice of a sage. Applied here to a covers album similarly rich in reflection and experience, he still sounds attractively knowing, but the degree to which Scratch My Back virtually rewrites several decades of unconventional tunes, from Randy Newman to Bon Iver, affirms Gabriel's eternal youth.

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With his 2008 solo debut, this Houston-born, U.K.-raised, and now New York–based singer-songwriter left behind noise-dance trio Test Icicles to become an Anglo-accented Bright Eyes. Here, Devonté Hynes pens an indie-rock passion play that picks up the tempo and spotlights his thespian skills. Overenunciated diction? Check. Scenery-chewing delivery?

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This ex-alt rocker nearly scored a U.K. hit with his 2008 "Umbrella"-beat remake of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize" -- until Biggie's estate nixed its official release. ((Un))'s reworked version, a quasi-mash-up called "Symphonies," epitomizes the downbeat side of Black's knack for recycling divergent styles into cinematic synth pop.

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It takes a weird ingenuity to create something coherent out of hippie vocal arrangements, sprawling six-string heroism, and understated Brian Eno

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OK Go sidestepped fame's figurative treadmill by riding several real ones to YouTube-assisted stardom. The fastidious choreography for the video clips of "A Million Ways" and "Here It Goes Again" exploited the schism between the quartet's indie-geek eccentricity and pop's manufactured synchronicity with such fluency that even fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama professed his admiration.