GLADIE No Need to Be Lonely (Get Better) — No Need to Be Lonely, the third album by the Philadelphia-based band Gladie, dishes up terrific indie rock, plain and simple. Led by Augusta Koch, the Philadelphia-based band presses these grooves with a master class in getting the most of a straightforward songcraft imbued with a scruffy, D.I.Y. spirit. The track “Poison” might sound bouncy enough to be the theme song for a cool sitcom from the nineteen-nineties, but the general vibe is a scuffed-shoe soulfulness as Koch’s writing burrows into a romantic dissatisfaction with this modern age. She’s a splendid storyteller of the weary soul with a particular gift for smart, telling details. Take the finely wrought “Brace Yoursefl” as a fine example (“But it really makes me wonder/ About every sunset I squandered/ Focused on work and money/ When we could’ve been watching”). Then, add “Talk Past Each Other” as another (“When I stopped people-pleasing/ I started to bloom for no reason/ You said you liked my hair long/ I cut it off”). Gladie might add a little grit here (“Lucky for Another”) or a tang of country there (“I Will If You Will”). Through it all, they work with clearly simpatico producer Jeff Rosenstock to make every bit of the material land with resounding certainty of purpose. Make friends with the following tracks: “Car Alarm,” “I Want That for You,” “Future Spring,” and “Unfolding.”

GRACE IVES Girlfriend (True Panther) — Girlfriend is confession as a lifeline. Ives worked up the songs for her third album while righting her personal life after determining that self-medicating and escape had become problematically pronounced strategies for her. The album took around two years of on-and-off work to complete, and, buoyant as it often is, the final product has some evident sweat and toil in it. The album opens with “Now I’m,” a desperately fragile pop song that also has a vein of steel running through it, properly setting a standard of contradiction and unpredictability. The very next track, “Avalanche,” is like a Robyn song turned inside out and twisted together with one of Anna Calvi’s sonic exercises in tightening intensity. Ives made the space to work with significant collaborators for the first time, most notably Ariel Rechtshaid and John DeBold. Ironically, that approach has only made the fierceness of Ives’s dominant self all the stronger. She’s creative and exploratory, baring different part of herself with “Neither You Nor I,” which suggests Siouxsie Sioux as a current indie-folk artist, and “My Mans,” which is luxuriant and majestic. Ives’s voice is raised, and it is strong. Go steady with these cuts: “Fire 2,” “Dance with Me,” and “What If.”