The xx are three 20-year-olds from South London who make predominantly slow, furtive pop music, mostly about sex. They are also one of the stranger recipients of UK hype in recent memory. Working without a live drummer, the xx manipulate airy, lingering negative space as well as any band going. Initially hospital-tile sterile, xx rewards volume and repetition like few other albums this year. xx is so fully formed and thoughtful that it feels like three or four lesser, noisier records should have preceded it. The xx didn't need a gestation period, though xx is nuanced, quiet, and surprising enough that you might.

Another mysterious outfit from Sweden making the kind of warm, sunny Balearic pop the region has become known for, but jj do it much better than most. While jj have earned a place among the current wave of pop globalization, sharing both the island sounds and sticky-fingered irreverence of their labelmates the Tough Alliance, Air France, and the Honeydrips, they also carry traces of iconic twee label Sarah Records, but they celebrate a broader definition of "pop." And when jj drift closer to early-90s ambient-house, they still allow emotion to flood through the textures, and they never start repeating themselves.

Hailing from the intensely fertile LA beat scene, Nosaj Thing aka Jason Chung is the latest in a line to spin a new angle on sun drenched hiphop electronics. He shares a fascination for hiphop tempos and electronic production methods with many of his peers, but what sets Nosaj out on his own is the filigree attention to detail paid to his work, combining a level of intricate melodic and harmonic complexity generally associated with UK artists like Aphex, whom Nosaj cites as a major influence.