[ ROCK/POP ]

A leisurely 11 years on from the exquisite Ruby Series, sometime artist/curator/activist (and ex-Spinane) Rebecca Gates drifts back into musical view with The Float (Parcematone), an aptly relaxed collection of elegant and mannered songcraft. The album picks right up from the diverse, post-rock-inflected textures of its predecessor, with Gates’ placid alto as lulling as ever, and boasts notably deft musicianship from The Consortium, a subset of whom join her tomorrow night at Milkboy Philly (July 20, milkboyphilly.com). It’s enchanting enough to make a decade gone by feel like a day. —K. Ross Hoffman

[ COMEDY ]

Todd Barry’s so skilled at being an everyman, he almost comes off like an alien. On Super Crazy (Comedy Central), the New York City standup’s latest album, there’s an air of dry, low-energy Spockness to his awkward run-ins with the human race (in the form of friends, tourists, customer-service reps, et al.). Logical, but also sarcastic and playfully derisive, Barry brings to mind fellow laconic smooth-headed comics Bob Newhart and Jonathan Katz, but just long enough to make it funny when he’s feeling mean. —Patrick Rapa

[ BLUES ]

Etta Britt has been getting a lot of late-bloomer love lately, but there’s no need to award any atta-girl points for Out of the Shadows (Wrinkled). The woman has made a career of backing some of the best — Marty Stuart, Al Kooper and Delbert McClinton — and the last joins Britt in a fierce duet on “Leap of Faith.” In calm, wistful contrast to those lush, driving blues comes “Quiet House,” where only piano and cello support her voice as it cracks with emotion: “This is nothing like I thought it would be …” Empty nests suck, unless they set you free to tour and make music. —Mary Armstrong

[ R&B ]

Frank Ocean can write, and that’s why we need to pay attention. Yes, that he-ain’t-trying falsetto sounds the way fresh linens on the line smell. Yes, his Tumblr coming-out has his name on the lips of every sexually progressive/socially stunted pundit. And yes, he somehow makes flag headbands look cool. But Ocean’s R&B-skewering quill demands our most astute attention. His channel ORANGE (Def Jam) is sagaciously personal, a collection of carnal liqueform images linked by the common thread of uncommonality. His July 25 Union Transfer show is sold out, and you already know why. —Drew Lazor