Click here to listen to Little Dragon's "Ritual Union" and "Nightlight"

2011 is shaping up as the year of abstract R&B: the Weeknd, James Blake and now the latest by this three-man, one-woman Swedish crew, who count Big Boi, Damon Albarn, Raphael Saadiq and TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek among their fans and collaborators. Their third set hits a sweet spot between the futuristic soul of their debut and the synth pop of 2009's Machine Dreams. "Brush the Heat" sounds like Sheila E. hittin' the bong amid electronic dog whistles. "Precious" begins as dubstep pop, then morphs into an off-kilter house jam. On "Shuffle a Dream," singer Yukimi Nagano seems to empathize with a superstar who — if she keeps this up — just might be her before long.

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“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.