Her look might invoke a dentally enhanced Amy Winehouse, but Megan McCauley’s debut release, Better Than Blood, is all her own. Drawing inspiration from the late, great Janis Joplin – who the 19-year-old native Ohioan calls “glamorous and sexy in her own right” – McCauley defies pop-music conventions and challenges tradition on this unapologetic and unabashedly angsty album. From first single “Tap That,” a radio-ready rock-rap that turns the table on who’s hooking up with who, to “Porcelain Doll,” a piano-driven piece about the fragility that we all feel, Better Than Blood is tart, untamed and scissor-sharp. Add this to your iTunes: “I’ll Pay You To Shoot Him.”

Give it up for Angie Stone. Despite a bout with congestive heart failure last year, the bronze beauty returns with her latest album The Art of Love & War, a 14-track tribute to the forefathers (and mothers) of soul. Powerful, playful and coy, Stone attempts to restart her stalled career with this record, which aptly shows off every nuance of her vocal range. While the internationally known artist beams on songs such as “Happy Being Me,” a heavenly, harmonica-hinged spiritual about finding satisfaction, featuring Paulette Washington, she simply radiates on tracks like the Co-T produced single “Baby,” featuring gospel great Betty Wright. Releasing Stone from the plateau that imprisoned her career over the past few years, The Art of Love & War rightfully gives this diva room for rebirth. Add this to your iTunes: “Play With It”

Though faux pas princesses The Pipettes lack creativity when it comes to costuming, they more than make up for the mishap on their debut disc, We Are The Pipettes. Drenched in the sunny sounds of the 1950s, the album takes the beats of the bygone era and updates them with an independent attitude that’s very here-and-now. On “One Night Stand,” RiotBecki, Rosay and Gwenno sing about skipping out after sex while leaving the sad sap “without a stitch to wear.” But that’s nothing compared to the beach blanket bingo-style “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me,” which politely asks a paramour to “get out of my face!” Sure, We Are The Pipettes might have the makings of a wholesome mouseketeer, but Frankie and Annette it’s not. Add this to your iTunes: “Dance and Boogie”

Paying homage to the area of Manhattan where most of its songs were written, Heroes and Thieves – piano prodigy Vanessa Carlton’s third studio album – is a thematic fa iry tale of a record, the songs of which reveal themselves like chapters in a book. Beginning with the syncopated and appropriately titled “Nolita Fairytale,” ironically about the disenchantment of fame, Heroes and Thieves plays through the past few years of Carlton’s life, starting at a point where she says she “nearly lost her faith in music.” But thanks to songwriting godsend Stevie Nicks and a little help from hip-hop producer Irv Gotti, the 26-year-old Grammy winner is finally back to what she does best – putting her all into pensive tracks such as “Hands On Me” and belting out captivating ballads like “Home.” While Heroes and Thieves won’t deliver Carlton a happily ever after, the disc does prove that her talent isn’t once upon a time. Add this to your iTunes: “The One”