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"Bottom of the River" has already become one of Arcuragi's most beloved live songs, and it's easy to hear why. An ode to embracing your misfortune and letting it wash over you, the track finds Arcuragi deciding to plop himself down atop the rocks of a running stream and commiserate with the fishes.

With its dance-happy, sing-along sensibilities, fun's brilliantly catchy "All the Pretty Girls" is the definition of pop, complete with rousing percussion, gorgeous strings and Nate Ruess' slick vocals. All the youthful angst in the world can't hide the song's dramatic arrangement.

Landlubbers beware: Peg-legged shipmates may invade your beer halls and cubicles soon. Sept. 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Alestorm is at the ready.

Each layer of Nurses' "Man at Arms" — the toy piano, the acoustic guitar, the vocals and multilayered percussion — sounds like a natural companion to the rough sound around it. That ambient space becomes a primary instrument, in a sense, along with voices that seem more focused on pitch-bending tones than on filling the recording with rich, vivid words.

If you bring cheap libations, secured in steel and bathed in a tub of ice, the masses will come. For the metalhead, a kegger means it's time to get brew-tal.

For those who can't wait to hear songs from Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's follow-up to Once, the pair played six new songs before performing the first-ever Tiny Desk Concert encore.

Fight the Big Bull sounds like the brainchild of a young composer who grew up with rock on the radio, jazz canons in the conservatory and everything else at his disposal on the Internet. The orchestration of "Dying Will Be Easy" has the fullness and audacity of a Mingus or Ellington.

Containing elements of pop-punk, garage-rock and early-'60s radio rock, Gentleman Jesse and His Men's music doesn't blow people's minds so much as permanently lodge itself therein. "All I Need Tonight" is a highlight of the group's eponymous debut, and as with so many great pop songs, it feels immediately familiar.

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Vanderslice has earned a reputation for writing smart, adventurous, appealing pop music that fiddles with form and structure. Now, nearly a decade into his career, Vanderslice is about to release his best record yet: Romanian Names. Hear the entire album on NPR Music as part of our Exclusive First Listen series.