When I first heard “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People, it didn’t win me over. In fact, I thought they would be a one hit wonder. But, when I saw them perform last April, I realized there was something worth checking out here.

Thankfully, that lead single isn’t inditicative of the rest of their album, Torches. It is a fun, genre-bending album of rock music for the 21^st century.

For a debut album, it’s got very slick production. It seems lead singer and primary songwriter Mark Foster has a knack for creating percussion heavy songs that you can shake your hips to, while singing lyrics that borderline on emo and esoteric.

The great thing about this album’s claim to fame is that it didn’t involve any PR stunts or theatrical gimmicks. The songs are just great songs. And the band performed their asses off, building a solid fanbase the good ol’ fashioned way.

Plus, it helps that they’re easy on the eyes.

While Trent Reznor is busy being a married dad and becoming an Oscar-winning composer, AWOLNATION has stepped in to fill the void of a one-man electronic music act.

Aaron Bruno’s debut album, Megalithic Symphony, under his all-caps moniker, is a frenetic album that swings from the sweet (“All I Need”) to the defiant “(Kill Your Heroes”), with an undercurrent of X-Files style paranoia (“Sail”).

This album had me hooked from the first listen and, upon every listen, it was one that would somehow still sound new and exciting. If that’s not the sign of a great album, I don’t know what is.

Love her or hate her, Björk is always innovating and experimenting with music, which makes her part musical composer, part mad scientist. And I worship her for that. Vespertine was a project with choirs. Medúlla was an experiement in creating music using only voices. Volta was a meditation on music and nature.

And, this year’s album Biophilia, examines the relationship between music, art and technology. In addition to creating all new instruments to record the album, Björk also partially recorded the album on a tablet computer, and released the album with a series of iPad apps that feature games that further enhance the experience of the song by allowing the listener to actually interact with each track.

Gimmicks aside, the album is solid and classic Björk. Musically, it fuses the choral elements of Medúlla and the hard electronica found on Homogenic. While it might be a hard album to get into, it’s an easy one to get lost in once you surrender yourself to the Icelandic wizard and allow yourself to be her musical guinea pig. 

I think the reason I took a while to get into Florence + the Machine’s debut album Lungs is because I didn’t really like the singles “Dog Days Are Over” and “You Got The Love”. It was too stage show for me.

However, I ignored those songs and found that the bulk of her songs have a more darker, tribal sound that’s more to my liking.

Thankfully, she continues to delve into her dark side even more for her new album Ceremonials. Florence even coined the term “chamber soul” – a fusion of chamber pop and soul music – to describe the bigger and darker sound.

Ceremonials is haunting, violent, scary and hopeful, a careful examination on the negative outcomes of love and romance. 

Sidebar: I was very late on the Florence + the Machine train. I'm not sure why. Despite everyone telling me to check them out, the snippets I would hear on car stereos sounded noisy.

Then, "Cosmic Love" came along and opened my ears. I was converted and haven't looked back since.

Anyway, still riding high on the slow-building success of Lungs, Florence Welch and company are prepping their second album for its November release. The first single and video has dropped for "What The Water Gave Me" and it is amazing!

It's got a more of a raw, 70s rock feeling to it, in my opinion, while still sounding like definate Machine material.

And to match the stripped down production, we have a video that is shot in studio and it looks like it was a pretty rockin' time.

I can't wait for this album!

OK Go have become renowned for their music videos. And just when you think they can't come up with a new gimmick, they do, and it rocks.

I mean, kaleidescopic effects are one thing. Tightly chorographed dance sequences are another. But, when you meld the two together, it becomes something incredible. 

Honestly, the video is just plain mesmerizing. And, just when you think there's nothing more to it, they start spelling messages with their feet. 

Sure, it looks a little Human Centipede at times, but it's definitely worth watching. Also, play with the fun interactive version here!