Fiona Apple
For the house party that drives the neighbors berserk
Hot Chip, In Our Heads
This British electronic dance group has tongues firmly in cheek and beats firmly tethered to the new-wave era. Remember: you can't spell hipsters without hips. (6/12)
For the houseguests who have overstayed their welcome
Chris Brown, Fortune
Over the past six months, Brown's been turning up as the guest star on R&B singles by pretty much everybody, including Rihanna, the ex-girlfriend he battered so severely she had to be hospitalized. But none of the songs released so far from his sequel to last year's F.A.M.E. suggest that he's got much beyond belligerence to offer these days. (7/3)
For ultimate-frisbee games on college lawns
Dirty Projectors, Swing Lo Magellan
2009's loopy, brainy Bitte Orca sent thrilled shivers through the alternative-rock world, and David Longstreth's songs here are acrobatic battles between creamy harmonies and flourishes of dissonance. (7/10)
For the road trip to the CBGB Festival in New York City
Patti Smith, Banga
National Book Award winner and old-school Downtown NYC rocker Smith is a dedicated memorialist. Here, she pays tribute to Amy Winehouse and the victims of the 2011 Japanese tsunami. (6/5)
For the day you planned to go to the beach, but it hailed
Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
The "Criminal" ingenue is in her mid-30s now, and her onstage previews of material from her long-awaited (and longer-titled) fourth album have had audiences raving. Its subdued but deeply freaked-out opening track "Every Single Night" sounds like a music box hallucinating after 24 straight hours of Tim Burton movies. (6/19)
For a night indoors
Usher, Looking 4 Myself
The seventh album by the reigning emperor of R&B is lighter than air and sexy as hell: it's been previewed with songs called "Scream" and "Climax." (The latter has already hit No. 1 on the R&B chart.) The tormented, confessional tone of Usher's recent albums lingers around the new songs, while his radiant falsetto lets him turn on the come-hither even when he's singing about breaking up. (6/12)
For the Fourth of July BBQ
Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Americana
The veteran Canadian rocker's first album with Crazy Horse since 2003 is a high-concept head scratcher: a set of American folk standards, from a full-throttle electric rendition of Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," concluding with a rewritten version of the British national anthem "God Save the Queen." There's also a children's choir involved. (6/5)
For weather so hot and muggy, you're pretty sure you're hallucinating
Neneh Cherry and the Thing, The Cherry Thing