YARD ACT You’re Gonna Need a Little Music (Island) — Yard Act is always going to sound a little jagged. Lead singer James Smith’s brash, talky vocals pretty much guarantee that. Even at his most tuneful — and he does swoop through several different modes on the band’s third studio album, You’re Gonna Need a Little Music — he sounds a little like he’s accosting the listener, like he’s the guy at the end of the bar still shouting over jukebox selections that stopped a while ago. The music of his bandmates matches up nicely, hitting the same caroms that made Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand so startling back in the day. In the here and now, Yard Act come across less revolutionary and more firmly in control. New Beginnings” swings and swerves like early Pulp, “Cherophobe Rock” provides a particularly bouncy version of post-punk, and the title cut has a disco groove. No matter where the band goes, the material simply works. On “Talky Talky People,” Smith sings, “When I was young, I was totally wired/ Now I’m getting on, I’m only tired.” On this new album, Yard Act sound awake as can be. You’re gonna need these cuts: “Tall Tales,” “Thrill of the Chase,” and “Over the Barrel.”

THE STROKES Reality Awaits (RCA) — It took a minute for the new album Reality Awaits to arrive. It had already been six years since the Strokes’ previous full-length studio effort, The New Abnormal, and then release date can on the new outing got kicked about a month after an early summer drop was originally announced. It’s up for debate whether the album is worth the wait, but the most faithful fans will likely be satisfied. Working for the second straight album with producer Rick Rubin, the Strokes stick with the elder-statesman version of what’s worked for a quarter century. Album opener “Psycho Shit” does its duty of informing the listener what’s to come: exploratory guitar parts, vocals that slip in and out of Auto-Tune, and a loose, noisy sound. “Going Shopping” was a well-chosen single in that it is the closest to classic Strokes on the album, but be prepared to range a little further than that track promises. “Dine N’Dash” matches a jittery undercurrent with a proper post-punk riff in way that’s familiar enough. By contrast, “The Fruits of Conquest” like the Strokes version of when the Rolling Stones tried out seventies funk. That feels a little new. Well into their career, the Strokes keep trotting along. Accept Reality with these tracks: “Lonely in the Future,” “Going to Babble On,” and “Tyrants of the Mellow Moon.”