With "In Your Eyes", Toronto's premier Michael Jackson cosplayer, the Weeknd, has advanced his visual brand while parking his music in the summer of 1984.
The Weeknd's After Hours naturally weaves together cinematic vignettes of debauched Hollywood and Las Vegas nights, following a new filmic tie to Uncut Gems and a prior decade of character building.
Bizou features former and current members of Light FM, Smashing Pumpkins and Glaare. New single "Crashing Sky" reflects their penchant for pop and darkwave.
Flume and Toro y Moi team up for a tasty slice of electropop on "The Difference". For its brevity, this track has a lot to say.
Austra's "Anywayz" is a musical exploration of the fear associated with leaving someone and the even more frightening realization that life continues. It's also stunningly gorgeous.
Sam Sparro's Boombox Eternal is Jam & Lewis, Nile Rodgers, and Quincy Jones all nodding in unison. It is Day-Glo colors and endless mists of hairspray.
Doctor Fluorescent's debut album is a chill piece of songcraft steeped in vintage synths and other retro electronic sounds.
Creative, existential bondage for the sleep-deprived, Grimes' "Idoru" is better than any hallucination Titanic Sinclair could dream up for Poppy this week.
Cubicolor's meticulously crafted soundscapes morph from plaintive electronic pieces into uplifting dance tracks in the space of a single song. Hardly a Day, Hardly a Night is a richly drawn, triumphant record.
On "Fell Into the Ocean", Baltimore electropop producer Dan Deacon teaches us that you can make anything a fortune cookie if you try hard enough.
Former Robyn producer Kleerup dropped a lovely solo debut in 2008 then largely disappeared before deciding to come back over a decade later. What happened to him in the intervening years? "Actually, I died twice but got sent back," he tells us.
Slight but urgent, Half Waif's "Halogen 2" offers a beautiful build and perfectly-pitched multi-tracked fifth-harmonies.
Reinventing herself as Love You Later, Lexi Aviles is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who came up with the idea after seeing the Japanese House perform. On her new single and music video, she gets to the heart of the matter.
Ironically, you may wind up wishing that Grimes' vision of a scorched Earth was a bit more fun.
Boniface unleash their debut album, a sophisticated coming-of-age statement, full of irresistible pop hooks and rhythms.
La Roux's Supervision is a testament to propelling forward, even if its sounds take you backward, and knowing that good synthpop will never go out of style.
Mystic Familiar keeps Dan Deacon's signature musical appeal while utilizing a few new tools. The album delivers on the camaraderie and musicianship you expect from the Baltimore producer.
Husband and wife duo, Mint Julep take a break from their respective solo projects and release a collection of smart, danceable earworms, Stray Fantasies.
Four decades in the music business is no small feat, and yet the Pet Shop Boys enter the new decade sounding just as current and catchy as the pop landscape they helped construct.
On Deleter, Holy Fuck have enthusiastically thrown themselves into the kaleidoscopic world of the early 1990s house scene while adding a few footnotes using their particular musical vocabulary.
Greek electropop artist Σtella emerges from the underground to share her latest funky pop tune, "The Break". A new album follows for this musician on the rise.
Musically on Seeking Thrills, Georgia distills her various influences, pulling in synthpop, disco, Chicago House, and 1980s Detroit techno with sprinklings of UK garage, dancehall, and even post-punk.
From bubbly, perky synthpop to the deepest of darkwave, electropop in 2019 reflected the general malaise by forging the brightest of pop to forget the bad times on the one hand, and embracing downtempo textures and moods on the other.
Norwegian electropop act, Aiming for Enrike share their latest single, "Flat Beats", loaded with minimalist beats.
Transforming from K-pop girl group member to mainstream pop solo artist, Tiffany Young makes an impressive impression on North America with her first major headlining tour that's leaving fans screaming for more.
Boy Harsher are challenging the divide between band and club music. They're revisiting the early 1980s and not to dwell in nostalgia, but to pick up where bands like Cabaret Voltaire left off.
For their Double Exposure tour, Chromatics travel through their endless gems in a masterful performance in Manchester.
Former Wildcat! Wildcat! founders re-team as Kid Nobody to deliver hazy, electronic-driven sounds that marry the chill of ambient with the drive of rock 'n' roll.
OMD's first three albums were crucial in the development of ambitious, intellectual, art-pop. They also led to the emergence of a whole generation of electronic pop groups that have continually influenced artists up to this day.
Black Marble leaves behind the obscure, lo-fi, and dim essence of the past for the brighter, more melodic, synthpoppy Bigger Than Life.
Private Life, the new album by darkwave duo Tempers, should appeal to both old school and new school synthpop fans.
Scottish composer Anna Meredith makes a busy, joyful noise on her long-awaited second studio album, FIBS.
In Berlin, dance-rock legends New Order prove once again why their music draws attention nearly 40 years on.
British synthpop pioneers, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark mark 40 great years with a singles collection and vault-emptying box set.
Electropop's Shura chats with PopMatters about her latest album forevher in which she infuses soulful grooves into her sound. Shura is currently touring the US and is set to begin her European tour in November.
Ranging in tone and style, Metronomy's Metronomy Forever feels like a spiritual successor to their second album Nights Out.
Eurotrash bargain basement new wave dance pop, with the occasional moody detour, is business as usual for Stereo Total, and business is good on Ah! Quel Cinéma!
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