Indie Rock music

Cranking up the indie rock dial: Rural France's SLOTHS is their jangliest, most baroque album yet — organ, horns, mellotron and all — while still honouring their "Pavement playing Teenage Fanclub" mission statement. Publicity Department's S. Michael Brook And The Steam-Powered Trains delivers half an hour of crunchy guitars and two-part vocal harmonies, power-pop influences distorted through 90s alt-rock sensibilities. Ben Auld's Loserdom channels Teenage Fanclub and Weezer into blown-out power-pop, with Bach-inspired solos and layered harmonies capturing life's rocky transitions with tongue-in-cheek drama. Tim Woodruff's Lifelines rounds things out with emotionally honest alt-rock drawing from R.E.M. and Tom Petty — a heartfelt soundtrack for the beautiful, imperfect journey of being human.