If you want to stride fearlessly into 2016, pump Savages' second album through your earbuds-a swagger will ensue. Singer Jehnny Beth is a fierce dervish spinning viscerally inquisitive lyrics. Known for their charging live performances, Adore Life buoys on emphatic basslines and driven guitars building to an obviously overwhelming intimacy.

Based on a true story of a man unable to form short-term memories, Joyce Carol Oates constructs a tale that probes our constructs of identity and love. Using her insightful and evocative style, a trademark of her more than fifty books and novels, a story of amnesia becomes a reminder of what makes us human.

WATCH: Whitney Cummings: I'm Your Girlfriend
The comedienne's well-earned HBO special promises her most raw and vulnerable performance. ("I decided to just go for it even though I'm going to be single forever.") Cummings returns to her comedy club roots with a routine about dating-for which she claims to have studied Tinder laboriously-birth control and her diagnosis as a love addict. Whoa.

SHOP: Karine Sultan Jewelry
Architectural cuffs, chain tassels and hammered surfaces add just the right amount of interesting edge to an office or party outfit.

HEAR: by Chairlift
Pretty pop orchestrations envelop a confused array of love songs. From the heartbreak of "Crying in Public"-and what could be more sad?-to the ebulliently confident "Ch-Ching," Moth expertly traces the fragile, cocky and precious trajectory of romance.

Eleanor Friedberger's latest album features more honeyed indie rock tracks that act like invitations to quiet afternoon conversations. Luckily, Friedberger is as able a writer as she is singer, and New View is an album you'll want to kick back with.