No order.
THE WAR ON DRUGS - SLAVE AMBIENT
Come To The City (MP3) | Secretly Canadian | Buy
Slave Ambient is defined by an exhilarating sense of urgency, propulsive classic rock songs chugging through a swirling nebula of endlessly layered ambience. The tension between the two makes for a thrilling listen, with Adam Granduciel’s confident vocal swagger fighting to not be overpowered by his surroundings. It’s the perfect soundtrack to the rush of modern life.
The feeling of a journey permeates the album and The War On Drugs’ output as a whole - there’s a sense that each record is a waymarker on a long trip, withGranduciel and his cohorts one step ahead of us. I can’t wait to see where they end up next.
BILL CALLAHAN - APOCALYPSE
America (MP3) | Drag City | Buy
Apocalypse’s seven tracks are as dense and loaded as the country it chronicles - as soon as I feel I’ve grasped it, it slips away from me. Ostensibly a Western narrative, the album is an exploration of the tension between an individual and their nation.
Despite declaring that ‘everyone’s allowed a past they don’t care to mention’ on America!, Apocalypse feels like the kind of record Callahan would have made under his former Smog moniker. The rich production and burnished strings of Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle are gone, as if in writing these songs about leaving and ‘riding for the feeling’ Callahan was the Drover of the first song, grabbing the essentials before heading out for the frontier.
BON IVER - BON IVER
Calgary (MP3) | Jagjaguwar | Buy
Hype isn’t always a bad thing - since Bon Iver was announced in April there’s been a palpable sense of excitement leading up to its release a fortnight ago. There was also a feeling of expectation: it was clear that For Emma, Forever Ago knocked a lot of people for six and they wanted more. Bon Iver satisfies on both counts while also asserting Justin Vernon as much more than the backwoods folksinger many had him pegged as (nowhere more than on ‘controversial’ ’80s-channelling opus Beth/Rest).
Critically, the album retains its predecessor’s visceral, emotionally raw nature while expanding into a fully formed record. For Emma’s feeling of isolation came in part from a sense of space but here there’s an opening out and an embrace of landscape that runs deeper than song titles.
EPIC45 - WEATHERING
Summer Message (MP3) | Make Mine Music | Buy
Weathering feels like a long time in the making, a distillation of the signature elements of Staffordshire duo epic45’s sound, simultaneously unifying what’s gone before and deconstructing it in order to explore new ground. There’s also a feeling of finality to proceedings, as if by uniting elements from their past output - field recordings of rural England, fingerpicked guitar and immersive soundscapes - and then layering, degrading and even destroying them, they’ve pushed them to their limit.
REAL ESTATE - DAYS
Easy (Youtube) | Domino | Buy
One of the criticisms leveled at much contemporary indie is its referential nature, a revisionist magpie-eye for the past, layered, vague and worst of all, inoffensive. Real Estate’s debut LP was indebted to lo-fi ’90s indie rock and made hazy reference to days at the beach and endless, wasted suburban summers but there was an honesty to it: suburban kids writing great pop songs about the everyday. At no point does their music feel like a retro exercise.
Nostalgia creeps in on Days, that late twenties feeling of having just enough history to wonder if your best days are behind you, adding emotional depth to their songs. It succeeds largely because they don’t deviate too much from what made them great in the first place, cutting through the haze so the hooks shine brighter.
KURT VILE - SMOKE RING FOR MY HALO
Jesus Fever (MP3) | Matador | Buy
Since signing to Matador, Vile has gradually emerged from the lo-fi fug that previously obscured his music. Smoke Ring For My Halo shimmers with seemingly endless layers of detail and it’s easy to get lost in the mesmerising looped guitars. He may describe himself as being lazy on In My Time but with repeated listening Vile transcends his slacker’s drawl, equally capable of assured, Replacements-esque rocking (Puppet To The Man) as delicate, fingerpicked sensitivity (Baby’s Arms). A record to get lost in on headphones for a while.
A. A. BONDY - BELIEVERS
The Heart Is Willing (Youtube) | Fat Possum | Buy
The atmosphere of Auguste Arthur’s Believers is set out by its cover, a cinematic late night dazzled stagger. If his previous record was a lonesome wind through the trees, Believers is charged as electricity coming through the wires. There’s a quietly insistent drama to opener ‘The Heart Is Willing’, Bondy’s resigned voice carrying an edge of menace - just what is his weary heart willing to do? The drums beat like blood, the guitars echo into the ether, recalling Nebraska.
JULIAN LYNCH - TERRA
Terra (MP3) | Underwater Peoples | Buy
It’s rare for albums to come to life as Terra does with its opening title track. After an Angelo Badalamenti-channelling introduction, the song bursts open with sitar and bongos, finding some middle ground between Paul Simon and Atlas Sound.
Terra is highly textured and melodically complex; an intensely abstract and at times claustrophobic world. The momentum of the opening song quickly dissipates, leading into an album that’s a little like bike ride gone awry, where going off road and map is when things get really interesting.
JULIANNA BARWICK - THE MAGIC PLACE
The Magic Place (MP3) |Asthmatic Kitty | Buy
Writing much about The Magic Place would be obscene, almost like a betrayal of trust. Barwick has invited us into a world that’s intimate and intensely personal - we witness her losing herself in layers of near-wordless vocals, which are unaccompanied for much of the record. When the music does emerge it feels like an act of tentative re-engagement with reality. A captivating example of the purity and power of the human voice.
GRUFF RHYS - HOTEL SHAMPOO
Sensations In the Dark (Youtube) | Turnstile | Buy
Hotel Shampoo comes frontloaded with a triple bill of glorious pop songs that act as a honey trap, luring you in with spy themes, tropicalia and a playful way with words. This leaves you prone to the lovelorn, melancholy sentiments that permeate just below the surface. What distinguishes Gruff’s solo work from Super Furry Animals is the focusing of his magpie-like eclecticism into the idiom of the singer-songwriter, with a greater focus on his words. Most of all, it was a Summer album delivered early, which is always something to be grateful for in February.
KING CREOSOTE AND JON HOPKINS - DIAMOND MINE
John Taylor’s Month Away (Youtube) | Domino | Buy
I find myself increasingly interested in psychogeography - the effect of landscape on our mental state and outlook - and its various manifestations in music. One obvious way is through the use of field recordings, which are used to stunningly evocative effect on Diamond Mine. A collaboration between seasoned Scottish songwriter King Creosote (Kenny Anderson) and producer Jon Hopkins, recordings of Fife underpin Anderson’s words and Hopkin’s understated compositions in making this a “soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a scottish coastal village” (Anderson). Pints in pubs, bicycles, rain on windowpanes…
THE SEA AND CAKE - THE MOONLIGHT BUTTERFLY
Up On The North Shore (MP3 via Epitonic) | Thrill Jockey | Buy
When you listen to music constantly, you occasionally have moments of burnout, where nothing hits the spot. This happened to me back in the Autumn and this was the album to get me out of this funk. Sam Prekop and co. have a way with production that makes their work effortless to immerse yourself in. ‘Covers’ and ‘Up On The North Shore’ initially feel like indie rock easy listening but reveal their complexities with repeated listens. Krautrock rhythms, arpeggioed electronics and jazz influences are all worked into the bands signature quietude, proving that experimental music can also be beautiful; soothing even.
STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS - MIRROR TRAFFIC
Tigers (MP3) | Matador | Buy
It’s back to business for SM after Pavement’s perfunctory reunion tour. Despite being a huge fan of that band, seeing them play All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2010 was a little disappointing, in part because Malkmus seemed frequently bored during their set, as if he was reluctant to revisit these songs. He’s now recorded as many albums solo as Pavement did, but will always have the stigma of being their frontman. Which is a shame because his work with and without The Jicks over the last decade has been consistently great.
Mirror Traffic forgoes the spiralling guitar workouts of its predecessor Real Emotional Trash, instead favouring the directness of 2003’s Pig Lib. This approach, aided by production from Beck Hansen (which recalls Nigel Godrich’s production on Beck’s Mutations and Pavement’s Terror Twilight), put Malkmus’s undiminished lyrical prowess front and centre.
MEGAFAUN - MEGAFAUN
Get Right (MP3 via Pitchfork) | Hometapes | Buy
Made up of former members of DeYarmond Edison, Justin Vernon’s old band, Megafaun is an eclectic record, with cosmic jams (‘Real Slow’) and winding eight minute rockers (‘Get Right’) sitting comfortably alongside samples, improvised passages and field recordings - the beginning of ‘Isadora’ sounds like a brass band playing the nation anthem while falling down stairs. This playfulness with well worn Americana archetypes feels truer to the spirit of the genre than many of the stereotypes that dominate country music.
Saying this, Megafaun recognise that traditions are powerful - when they pare down for sentimental piano ballad (!) ‘Hope You Know’ it’s genuinely affecting.
CASS MCCOMBS - WIT’S END
County Line (MP3 via Epitonic) | Domino |Buy
WIT’S END, McCombs’ first of 2 LPs this year, saw him focus intensely on one aspect of a musical personality that had previously embraced many different songwriting façades, instead putting down eight unadorned songs that shirked almost all adornment. It felt like a man turning on his craft, kicking away the musical crutches of the singer-songwriter, leaving bare a thoroughly bleak worldview and a black sense of humour, encased in a hermetic atmosphere.
DIRTY BEACHES - BADLANDS | Lord Knows Best
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - REPLICA | Replica
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - ALL ETERNALS DECK | Damn These Vampires
CENTRO-MATIC - CANDIDATE WALTZ | Only In My Double Mind
MOUNT MORIAH - MOUNT MORIAH
WOODS - SUN AND SHADE | Pushing Onlys
THURSTON MOORE - DEMOLISHED THOUGHTS | Benediction
CASS MCCOMBS - HUMOR RISK | The Same Thing
WYE OAK - CIVILIAN | Dog’s Eyes
WILCO - THE WHOLE LOVE | Art of Almost
