by Julian Casablancas

(RCA)

Forget the misguided Television comparisons: The Strokes always sounded a hell of a lot more like the Cars, and on his first solo single, frontman Julian Casablancas proves why. The Lite-Brite synth riff that pops the thing out of the speakers is as rudimentary as the downstrokes of his old bandmates, and about as resistible, especially when the bridge comes in half-quoting Shannon's "Let the Music Play." He still sings like he's five sheets to the wind, trying to get everyone over to the next bar, an it's-all-one-word slur as forthright as a good job interview. As for the words, lines like "You don't have to be smart all of the time/I've got a mind full of blanks... No one really cares who's right anymore" would be more objectionably know-nothing if Casablancas didn't sing them, as he sings everything, as if he's worried about it.

by LCD Soundsystem

(DFA)

Speaking of '70s New York throwbacks, three weeks ago, after this cover of Suicide singer Alan Vega's old album cut leaked online, James Murphy threw his hands up and gave the MP3 away for free to the first 20,000 people who signed up. It sounds nothing like the serrated electro-rockabilly original and more like an earlier stage of LCD—medium tempo, agreeable but not especially eventful—than the hyper-assuredness that made Sound of Silver a capital-E Event. "Bayou" isn't on the next album, which is both frustrating (dying to hear it, guys) and good, since this doesn't so much represent a step back as it does a holding pattern.

by Darkstar

(Hyperdub)

Having pushed dubstep into a dozen other areas it might not have gotten to quite so quickly otherwise, the London label Hyperdub now steps into the place that can really use it: IDM gone twee. No, this isn't another Owl City: just a vocal (if that's what you can call it) that comes in spurts and is treated to within an inch of its life, a series of digital sighs as offhandedly pretty as the shivering synth line. The B-side of the 12-inch features a remix from Detroit house phenom Kyle Hall that's equally low-key gorgeous, with Hall sluicing it with a neon-glow ostinato as lonesome as the original.