Another cavalcade of brand-new sounds

THE BUILDINGS Heaven is a Long Exhale

IN the opening number of their latest album, Pinoy indie rockers The Buildings appropriate the sound of the Talking Heads to flesh out “Phantom Limbs.” “January 10” adopts a similar groove this time with the guitars going from funky to a revup ending. Elsewhere, the band moves to several power pop-rocking peaks in the likes of “Thorn in the Ankle,” “Caricatures” and the luminous titular track. The guitars insert arty chords to sort of provide a colorful blemish to pretty pop and the vocalist’s monotone singing about tired themes of staying out late, crying at the movies, and cramped spaces. “Heaven is a Long Exhale” starts great but fumbles its way to the finish line.

MASSIAH Lahi

MASSIAH is of half-ghanian and halfFilipino descent who grew up in Dumaguete City. In his album “Lahi,” he goes for honeyed rapping to essay saccharine love notes to his beloved. They’re some bedroom friendly croons to fire up the listener’s senses which are nevertheless undercut by the silky cool jazz/bossa ambience on each track. Massiah raps a mouthful but they slide down easily for every love fool to relish. Picks of the litter: “First Time.” “Frequency” and “Silhouette.”

BACKSPACE Everything is Going to be Alright

THE album title exudes positivity. Still, its tracklist goes by not so positive vibes such as “Lull and “Tired.” Even “Asleep” hints of a certain desolation with these words: “You talk in your sleep/there’s nothing to see, that’s fine with me/i don’t want to be you.” The act’s name Backspace itself suggests erasure, making right an error. Honestly, some kind of perverse joy emanates from Backspace’s unique take on sadcore. He offers a short quick detour to the gloom and blues that’s part of the daily normal grind. Sigh.

BEABADOOBEE Beatopia

BEABADOOBEE, real name Beatrice Lauss, is a Filipina-british singer-songwriter whose debut album “Fake It Flowers” received critical acclaim. “Beatopia,” her sophomore release, expands on the first album’s transplant of ‘90s alt-rock in the here and now. Named after an imaginary world Beatrice dreamed up as a child, her latest album covers both sides of the alt-rock fence to conquer the tastes of fortysomething adult contemporary loving parents and ‘tweens who’re just catching up with the volume of an earlier time. “Beatopia” is partial to the many shades of being in a relationship so it leans more towards the bittersweet in such slow-paced beauties as “Sunny Day,” “See You Soon,” and the bossa-dappled “Perfect Pair.” Yet she can also rock like her primary influences in “Talk” and “Don’t Get the Deal.” “Beatopia” is that rare record with something good for everyone.

PAOLO NUTINI Last Night in the Bittersweet

SCOTTISH blue-eyed soul sensation Paolo Nutini has played around with as many musical genres as his malleable voice allows. Now, he dips his amazing voice into contemporary rock and he delivers fun and pleasure in spades. He’s an amiable doppelganger to Robert Plant circa Led Zep in “Aftermath,” the Cure’s Robert Smith wannabe in “Desperation,” Elvis Costello’s twin bro in “Petrified in Love,” and solo Mccartney double in the gorgeous weeper, “Julianne.” Needless to say, the backing music backs up that sense of musical throwback to an older time. It’s just that remembrance is part of the charm Nutini’s latest album is a keeper. It’s a great ‘karaoke’ album, if you will, fashioned along the unusual vision of an extraordinary singer.

MOMMA Household Name

AN all-girl trio, Momma is a journey of an album that goes through the tough and mostly tender moments of grunge era fuzz. Any way they play it, the harmonies and indelible hooks left every track on “Household Name” from pedestrian hard rock. To be sure, anybody will be turned on by the knockout melodies on “Lucky Music,” “Medicine” and “Rip-off Audio.” But there’s also no mistaking that the ladies can rock like mofos in such loud-soft-louder monsters as “Speeding ’72,” and “Rockstar,” the kind that would make alt-rock maven Billy Corgan proud and joyful. In a fair universe, Momma should be a household name in best new music so far this year. *