Dark romantic legends Echo & the Bunnymen are set to headline SPIN's annual Friday afternoon soiree at Stubb's BBQ during next month's South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas.

It's official. Music really does bring people together. Usually, collaborations occur between the sonically likeminded, but recently a whole spree of batshit-crazy partnerships have popped up. So hold onto your hats and glasses folks, as we look at the latest odd couples to step inside the studio:

James Allan didn't grow up dreaming of being a rock star. The Glasvegas frontman had a more modest goal: becoming a professional soccer player. "At school, anybody who played guitar was just weird," he says. "In the east end of Glasgow, nobody played music. It was all gambling, going to the pub, going to football matches."

The vibe inside New York City's Bowery Ballroom for a sold-out show by U.K. chart-topping quartet Glasvegas wasn't any less bleak and frigid than the freezing rain outside: Dressed all in black, the band unfurled depressing tales, dreary, pint-swilling Scot pride, and football-arena-filling anthems on the day their self-titled debut dropped stateside.

Here's a rundown of the essential albums available online and in record stores today: