This latest edition of AMR is a four-pack focused on pianos, synths, the boudoir, and all the feels.

St. Vincent – “New York”

This week mark’s the tenth anniversary of St. Vincent’s stunning debut LP Marry Me, which launched Annie Clark as a uniquely compelling creative force in the indie realm, a fuser of cerebral compositional ability with catchy song structures and a visual aesthetic rooted in her wide-eyed porcelain beauty. Did we mention her guitar hero chops? Well, a decade later, St. Vincent sets aside that guitar and releases “New York,” a pretty piano ballad from an established titan of the avant world. Because even avant-titans can be rocked by strained love in the greatest city in the world. This is the first song from her forthcoming album, due to be produced by Jack Antonoff.

Rhye – “Please”

R&B bedroom sensualists Rhye return, five years after releasing their modern-day make-out classic Woman. And they’re still clearly bent on increasing human population because damned if this song doesn’t sound like candles and perfume in the bedroom after midnight. The instruments hang in the air, warmly and truly, while vocalist Milosh’s androgynous vocal pierces the veil with Sade-styled lather. Try it for size tonight. The USA’s fertility rate is low right now, after all.

Cults – “Offering”

Cults are Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, the indie pop duo who launched out of NYC in 2010 to great blogosphere fanfare and have been largely silent since their 2013 LP Static. Their long-awaited return is here with the title track to the forthcoming album Offering, sounding something like if Johnny Jewel’s moody synth-champions Chromatics went and got a little happy. Take this one out on a night drive, when the world feels alive. Welcome back, Cults.

Zola Jesus – “Soak,” “Exhumed” & “Hunger”

Fans of post-industrial cold wave synths and operatic vocals, rejoice, because the queen of the game Zola Jesus is back with an album titled Okovi. It’s a Slavic word for “shackles,” though there’s a sense of liberation in these two first listens we hear Zola (real name Nika Roza Danilova). “Soak” is a new listen as of today, a mid-tempo drama written from the perspective of a serial killer’s victim. There are two other listens from the record, too: “Exhumed” takes the sort of piercing strings we’ve heard in the hands of trap masters like TNGHT and couches them in her trademark dark theatrics, while “Hunger” takes things in a more pop-oriented direction. They’re all here: