Contributor: Adam R. Holz

The guys behind 2011’s dreamily disturbing hit “Pumped Up Kicks” are back with a second album, one that’s significantly more positive—not to mention culturally prophetic.

EDM maestro Skrillex has finally added more words to his latest pulsating, rave-ready, synthesizers-gone-wild effort. Unfortunately, a lot of them are swear words.

Liam Neeson is a fiercely protective retired CIA agent whose daughter is kidnapped by sex traffickers. He does nothing less than everything to get her back.

Love, as previously reported, is a many-splendored thing when it’s true. When it’s a lie, though, well, not so much. And then there’s just plain ol’ lust, which is what this song’s video sinks into.

Need for Speed is not a movie about the subtle nuances of character transformation. It’s a souped-up, turbocharged melodrama.

Toys rescuing toys is once again the dominant theme in this delightful, visually stunning sequel.

Pharrell Williams tells us on one song, “Half of me is good, the other half is nasty.” But the balance on this album isn’t so evenly divided.

Australia-born rapper Iggy Azalea fuses rap clichés with a fancy video send-up of the movie Clueless in a No. 1 hit that’s long on style and braggadocio but shamefully short on depth and substance.

Beck’s reflective, Grammy-winning Morning Phase walks a paradoxical tightrope between melancholic despair and hopeful determination.

The Fray’s fourth effort delivers another dose of earnest, anthemic alt-rock. But it (mostly) trades the band’s trademark melancholy for a surprisingly upbeat shot of optimism.

This Canadian reggae fusion band belts out a magical song that is anything but rude to the cherished yet currently beleaguered institution of marriage.

In another Japanese horror retread—that’s more than a little reminiscent of ‘The Ring,’ ‘The Grudge’ and ‘Dark Water’—cell phone voice mails portend certain doom.

RoboCop’s violence and other content concerns may be dialed down a bit compared to the original. But that relatively positive divergence shouldn’t be confused with any sort of energetic endorsement.

Florida Georgia Line’s bombastic song and over-the-top video feels like a country caricature that’s been turned up to 11.

Vampire Academy’s trailer makes it look like a mash-up of Twilight and Harry Potter. And it is. But the movie’s bloodthirsty headmaster also lobs in Gossip Girl and, weirdly, Juno.