Best Albums: Pixies, The Dead Weather, Sax Ruins, Silent Lions, Grass Is Green

This week’s best albums

– After an unenthusiastic response to its first new material in years, the reunited Pixies put out a second EP — this time getting the hang of how to play to its strengths again.

The Dead Weather releases two new tracks that exist in a musical netherworld between classic rock, raw experimentalism, and sultry grooves.

– For its second release with saxophonist Ryoko Ono, Sax Ruins re-works more classic Ruins material while adding playful improvisations.

– With an almost demented sense of genre-bending freedom, Silent Lions draws fresh connections between new wave, lo-fi indie rock, dance music, Detroit glam punk, and G funk.

– On its third LP, “post-dick wave” rock quartet Grass Is Green hits a sweet spot between catchy songwriting and jagged sonics.