Music

Kelly Hogan is a professional backup singer who spends a lot of time on the road with her friends Neko Case, Jakob Dylan, Andrew Bird, Robyn Hitchcock and many others.

When Lydia Hoglund sings, her words convey the ache of an old soul. She unspools her melodies in big, booming somersaults that sound both effortless and ageless, her elastic delivery recalling emotive singers like Jeff Buckley and Sharon Van Etten. Yet Hoglund is only 17 — just beginning her senior year at Central High in St. Paul, Minn., and just beginning her journey into music.

Just a year after releasing the full-length album Raven in the Grave, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo — the Danish musicians behind The Raveonettes — are back with yet another shimmering noise-pop record. Observator is out today, and includes the gorgeous cut "The Enemy."

The basic overlays and spectral effects used in '80s music videos are so rough and out-of-place, they now seem cutting edge. The prolific, endlessly inspired lo-fi garage-rock musician Ty Segall re-creates that psychedelic vibe on his latest video, "The Hill."

For 25 years, the London synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys have done one thing better than any other duo in the UK: sell records.

In fact, they've sold 50 million records worldwide since Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met at an electronics shop in 1981.

Many people were reminded of the Pet Shop Boys when they helped close out the 2012 Olympic Games in London with their biggest hit, "West End Girls." The duo, however, continues to make new music and has just released their 11th studio album, Elysium.

For more than a decade, The Raveonettes' members have been making albums filled with fuzz-guitar feedback and tight girl-group harmonies. The duo's latest album, Observator, takes on a different sound, thanks in part to its embrace of a new instrument.