University-trained Baltimore composer Dan Deacon makes busy, bombastic electro-classical clatter. He's the EDM Aaron Copland, piling on marimbas, strings, blips, bonks, live percussion and operatic vocals on pieces like this LP's four-part suite, "USA." Yet the most enjoyable bits here are the least grandiose, like the zippy, pastoral "True Thrush."

Listen to "True Thrush":

“Satisfied”

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.