BULLY Lucky for You (Sub Pop) — Now four albums deep into this boisterous Bully enterprise, Alicia Bognanno sure knows how to put together a crackling, crunchy rock record. For her second outing as as essentially a one-woman band, Bognanno ensconces Nashville-based producer JT Daly in the studio and rips through a set of songs that recall alternative’s nineteen-nineties heyday without ever coming across as a mere retro act. To understand her sonic thesis, head straight to “Days Move Slow,” which sounds like Veruca Salt had they adopted some of the snarling authority of the riot grrrl acts (“I’m no help, lately I know/ But I’m tired of trying to prove my worth/ To be accepted on this earth”). Those might be bygone references, but everything on Lucky for You has a decidedly modern snap. “All I Do” gives the impression that it got crumpled up and smoothed back out again, like a do-you-like-me-check-this-box classroom note that was retrieved from the wastebasket, and “All This Noise” suggests Courtney Barnett when she indulges her punk rock side. Although Bognanno is mostly a kid doing her own thing, she proves to be a fine collaborator, too, notably by welcoming Soccer Mommy as a guest on the crunching “Lose You.” In addition to those already mentioned, you can feel lucky indeed if you check out the following cuts: “Hard to Love,” “A Love Profound,” and “Ms. America.”

JANELLE MONAE The Age of Pleasure (Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic) — After a trio of albums built to different degrees on effectively arch Afrofuturistic storytelling, Janelle Monáe is ready for some good old fashioned hedonism. She was already edging that way on her previously album, the utterly sensational Dirty Computer, but The Age of Pleasure finds her cannonballing buck naked into the deep end of the pool. Judging by the promo that’s accompanied the album’s release, that description can be taken figuratively and literally. Ribald romping has rarely sounded so joyful. Monáe unleashes across the record, whether on “Champagne Shit,” which is braggadocio hip hop with a nineteen-seventies soul, or “Oooh La La,” which brings in Grace Jones to rasp out some French lyrics. As ever, Monáe delivers music of uncommon invention. The inspired sonic manipulations in “Phenomenal” position Monáe as one of the few creators daring enough to fairly raise her hand when someone asks if there are any successors to Laurie Anderson in the house. It’s a party record crafted by a iconoclastic firebrand who knows and accepts no limits. Get ravished by the following cuts: “Float,” “Haute,” “Lipstick Lover,” “Water Slide,” and “Only Have Eyes 42.”