With select bands, especially in the arena of indie pop, you always know what you’re going to get. And with these bands, you know that what you get will be good. They’re trustworthy in that manner – you see it with artists that have longevity on their side; ten, possibly even fifteen years. The Bats beat them all out, spanning close to three decades.

Mixing the psychedelic pop of the 60s with a more orchestrated baroque sound, The Soft Skin is four sunny tracks by Philadelphia’s most promising pop band in quite a while. Brown Recluse began as duo Timothy Meskers and Mark Saddlemire, and ultimately grew to six individuals. Within The Soft Skin, you’ll hear the plush instrumentation, from a focus on keys and jangle guitars in opener “Rotten Tangerines” to the trumpet feature in closer “Contour And Context”.

Downbeat pop is often a dangerous realm in which to work. Yet Pants Yell! begins their latest album, Received Pronunciation, in this area with the catchy tune “Frank And Sandy”, and they continue it off and on throughout the album. It actually works very well. These songs are simple and, despite being recorded/performed using electric guitars, they often have the subtle traits common in acoustic pop. Even a hard-hitting song like “Rue de la Paix” has that open, personal sound. And despite three members, the …

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart is definitely one of this year’s biggest hype bands, and it’s obvious why: their fuzzy pop is undeniably catchy and not overly drowned in the forced underproduction that can often plague the sub-genre. After a wildly successful self-titled debut LP, they return with Higher Than The Stars, an EP whose title track matches the best tunes in the TPOBPAH library thus far.

Summer Cats‘ new LP, Songs For Tuesday, is backed with lovable indie pop gems like “Lonely Planet”, “Hey You” and “Super”. After dropping a video last year for “Lonely Planet”, Summer Cats now do the same for “Super”, one of the more infectious songs off the Australian pop band’s latest. Where “Lonely Planet” merely featured people dancing around, this one has more of a storyline. There’s plenty to love here, from people with cat faces (just paint), to the exquisite French car, to the adorable kitten at the …