Album: David Byrne & St. Vincent Love This Giant (4AD)

There's a danger of art-rock overload in this alliance of two cerebral music talents, but Love This Giant succeeds remarkably well, partly due to the strategy of using punchy, New Orleans-style brass arrangements as the lead instrument.

The brass's warmth helps thaw the duo's more icily artful tendencies, whether through infectious ebullience – as on the charming "The One Who Broke Your Heart" – or subtler tonalities on "Ice Age". Best of all is "I Am An Ape", Byrne's comment on the primacy of primates, where woodwind and brass are tinged with a tango dynamic.

Download: Who; I Am An Ape; Ice Age; The One Who Broke Your Heart