ALDOUS HARDING Train on the Island (4AD / Flying Nun) — Aldous Harding makes magic out of contradictions. She is a warm, inviting creator, and yet she ushers listeners into her realm only to dart around like an elusive spirit once they’re in her presence. Catch her if you can. On her latest, Train on the Island, The New Zealand artist once again works with John Parish, who obviously finds her to be a kindred in much the same way as his other most frequent sonic partner, PJ Harvey. There’s a pleasurable unpredictability to the album, in part because Harding has an uncanny way of making a song feel like it’s being discovered in real time. None of that means the album is all divergent oddities. Harding has a sound. Consider the cool slink of “What Am I Gonna Do?” and the sly, soulful “One Stop” as close to a default mode. She does occasionally call to mind iconoclastic antecedents — “I Ate the Most” is built around the sort of spectral rhythms that Peter Gabriel routinely played with after So gave him do-whatever-I-want money — but even then the familiarity is more of a fake out as she careens into dazzling invention. There are the fascinating sonic textures of “Coats” and the tingly folk-rock of “Venus in the Zinnia,” the latter featuring guest vocals from H. Hawkline. Giving in to her spell is the wisest course of action. Choo-choo-choose the following: the title cut, “Worms,” “San Francisco,” and “Riding That Symbol.”

MUNA Dancing on the Wall (Dead Oceans) — When shadows are falling, sometimes the fiercest, truest instinct is to dance through the dread. On their second album since their profile was raised dramatically by joining the Phoebe Bridgers galaxy of stars as part of the sub-label she helps run under the Dead Oceans banner, Muna makes pop songs to match their mood. They’ve acknowledged that their songwriting process was colored by the feeling that comes with seeing a lifelong criminal get invited for an encore of destroying lives from a perch in the White House, and there’s definitely a darker tone to the music on Dancing on the Wall than was heard on their previous full-length. There’s defiance, too. The lyrics are explicitly, unapologetically from a queer perspective. “Girl’s Girl,” for example, is a throbbing anthem of queer heartache: “Bet you’re a real girl’s girl, but the girl ain’t me/ Thought of stealing your love, but you give it for free.” No amount of worry is going to stop the groove. The title cut throws back to nineteen-eighties pop, and “So What” is a loose, loping techno jam (“And there’s a lot of people here tonight/ With their best shoes on, drinkin’ for free/ There’s a lot of people here tonight/ And most of them would want to go home with me”). The beat might not come to the rescue, but it’s a nice balm in troubled times. Give these cuts a spin: “Eastside Girls,” “Mary Jane,” and “Why Do I Get a Good Feeling.”

TOUCH GIRL APPLE BLOSSOM Graceful (K Records/Perennial) — Sweet and lo-fi, Graceful reasserts the charm in heartfelt music-making. The Austin-based band Touch Girl Apple Blossom laid down their debut EP straight to an eight-track recorder, and slightly leveling up for their first full-length hasn’t dramatically shifted their sensibility. Working with producer Max Deems, who also oversaw the earlier EP, the quartet deliver economical songs that jangle and glimmer. They call to mind Beat Happening, the La’s, and any number of early two-thousands artists who made their big ideas sound as small as possible. Deviations from the fundamental sound are slight: a tough of twang on “The Springtime Reminds Me Of…” or a little extra pop gleam, akin to Big Star or Fountains of Wayne, to “Moon Was Gone.” Mostly, the variations don’t travel much beyond the small spectrum between chipper (“Back ‘N’ Forth”) and wistful (“I’m Lucky I Found You”). There’s no real cause for restless reinvention when the base approach has so much appeal. Graceful, indeed. Admire these blooms: “Tell,” “Vacation,” “Dustin’s Song,” and “Big Star Shinin’.”