12. VEGA INTL. Night School – Neon Indian

With 16-bit synths and iridescent funk, Neon Indian welcomes you to the VEGA INTL. Night School for a middle-of-the-night celestial trip to interstellar sound. Whether exploring glitzy character-driven romance (“Annie”) or struggling with finding his place in the world (“Slumlord”), lead singer Alan Palomo pairs techno-tinged electro-pop with a vivid array of enchanting vocal samples to create fluorescent psychedelia. At times, the more lyric-heavy tracks come across similar to alt-pop group the 1975, but with better vocals and much cleaner production value. Along the spirited tracks, Palomo keeps a not-too-deep approach to his lyrics singing obscure verses that make the album all the more charming. “Heads will roll at the start of the sound/The creep show, the loudest in town,” Palomo chants on “C’est la vie (Say the Casualties!)”. VEGA INTL. Night School is an amusement park of an album with hypnotic vocals that spin like Ferris wheels and stellar beats that ch-ching like slot machines.