FAYE WEBSTER Underdressed at the Symphony (Secretly Canadian) — The title Underdressed at the Symphony, which Faye Webster bestowed on her fifth album, is inspired by spontaneous excursions to witness performances by the symphony orchestra in her home base of Atlanta. Webster notes that the doses of culture were part of the process in healing a heart wounded by a breakup, and it’s clear her songwriting helped her along, too. Luckily for listeners, the latter strategy makes for a dandy record. Evan as there’s a melancholy to many of the songs here, Webster’s keen musicality prevents the proceedings from getting dour or glum. Instead, a track such as “Thinking About You” is mesmerizing through Webster’s finely wrought delivery of lyrics that become almost like an incantation through repetition. Elsewhere, a comic sensibility sidles in, as on “eBay Purchase History” (“You should see my eBay purchase history/ You could learn a lot about me/ I could build and paint all day/ But then there’s no one here for me to play”) and the masterfully unsettled “Lego Ring,” which finds Webster getting quavery-voiced help from Lil Yachty. The minimalism that’s typified some of Webster’s past releases gets a upgrade with occasional flourishes, lounge cool that saunters in at the close of “Wanna Quit All the Time” and the vibrancy of “He Loves You Yeah!,” which suggests Sly and the Family Stone and the Bangles teaming up to form a modern indie pop act. Webster’s making little opuses of her own. Get gussied up for “But Not Kiss,” “Feeling Good Today,” the title track, and “Tttttime.”

YARD ACT Where’s My Utopia? (Island) — Yard Act says they wanted to make a party album. Presumably bolstered by the acclaim that greeted their debut LP, The Overload, the act from Leeds felt they had a mandate to expand their range of sonic motion. The flattened lead vocals of James Smith are always going to keep Yard Act’s music within a certain zone where a wry disaffectedness reigns — “We Make Hits” is in the grand tradition of Cake and Art Brut — but that doesn’t mean they can’t invite the masses to boogie down. “Dream Job” adopts a deadpan groove that recalls LCD Soundystem, as does the cynicism of the lyrics, which were inspired by the dose of sudden success Yard Act experienced (“So lay waste to your superiors to lighten the mood/ Or kowtow to your inferiors for fear you’ll look rude”). Where’s My Utopia? is produced by Remi Kabaka Jr., best known for his work with Gorillaz, and he accentuates the band’s exuberance and inventiveness. That approach draws Yard act closer to some esteemed predecessors: “The Undertow” is in a Thomas Dolby vein, and “Petroleum” is downright Beck-like. It really is the band’s own pointy personality that keeps these proceedings popping, though. Seek out the following cuts: “”An Illusion,” “When the Laughter Stops,” and “A Vineyard for the North.”