AFI

Since 2006's electro-tinged Decemberunderground, Davey Havok and Jade Puget formed Blaqk Audio. The move apparently exorcised their knob-twiddling jones, leaving them to focus on AFI's hardcore roots on Crash Love. Havok's melodramatics ("I'd tear out my eyes for you, my dear") prove he's yet to find a needle to mend that Robert Smith heart, and like the Cure frontman, he's yet to let go of the '80s ("Veronica Sawyer Smokes"). Puget's guitar work adds the much-needed sugar to Havok's salt, with shimmying arpeggios that at times reach Mars Volta-like propulsion.