Chairlift

Chairlift is among the most successful of the bands that have come out of Brooklyn, New York’s “psychedelic revival,” along with acts like MGMT, Akron/Family, and Yeasayer. The female-fronted group—originally from Colorado, hence the ski-worthy moniker—explores sensitive pop, as on the hit single “Bruises,” as often as it does a darker, sultrier kind of disco. (It doesn’t hurt that singer Caroline Polachek sounds a bit like Nico.) The band’s second album, Something, dropped in January 2012. Lead single “Sidewalk Safari” is simultaneously beat-laden and hollow, while the hellishly named “Amanaemonesia” is slightly more optimistic, though still deliriously distant.

Updated 03/21/2012