RSS: Album Reviews
Nico: Chelsea Girl
On her 1967 debut album, Nico’s unmistakable voice sings the songs of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and Jackson Browne. *Chelsea Girl* helps define her as a mercurial aura and a manifold, complicated artist.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nico-chelsea-girl
U-Men: U-Men
The Seattle band U-Men released only one full-length during their eight-year run in the 1980s, but their legend loomed large over a generation. A new Sub Pop reissue collects their crucial catalog.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/u-men-u-men
M.E.S.H.: Hesaitix
With Hesaitix, the Berlin-based DJ and producer has built a strange world that lives and breathes. It’s a catchy, fascinating electronic album that lives in a lucid unreality.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mesh-hesaitix
Young Lean: Stranger
The Swedish rapper’s third album offers glimpses of his full potential, songs that pierce through the detachment that once obscured real emotion.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yung-lean-stranger
Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys: Rot
On the follow-up to their 2013 debut LP, the beer-swilling, self-described former “party band” grows up without slowing down.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bed-wettin-bad-boys-rot
Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid/Jewels of Thought/Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun)
Three invaluable reissues showcase a young bandleader and his top-tier players as they create a powerfully cohesive group sound: elegant, adventurous, warm, and ferocious all at once.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/pharoah-sanders-tauhidjewels-of-thoughtdeaf-dumb-blind-summun-bukmun-umyun
Call Super: Arpo
The second album from producer Joe Seaton offers a rush of effervescence. With a childlike and immersive touch, he pulls apart and rearranges small, twinkling sounds.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/call-super-arpo
Angel Olsen: Phases
This collection of B-sides, demos, and covers is terrific and revelatory in its own right. It's a trail of dropped clues to the creative process of the defiantly mercurial Olsen.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/angel-olsen-phases
Rabit: Les Fleurs Du Mal
Eric Burton’s latest album is a logical extension of his to 2015 album Communion, an experimental world of dissolving certainty where all light is gradually leached out of the landscape.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rabit-les-fleurs-du-mal
Willow: The 1st
With her second album, Willow Smith opts for a more organic and raw sound. It’s a huge leap in the right direction, as she uses her guitar to channel alternative singer-songwriters of the 1990s.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/willow-the-1st
Kllo: Backwater
The Australian duo’s debut full length features warm, pleasing vocal lines and electro-pop beats, but it never coheres to tell the kind of story they want to tell.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kllo-backwater
Sleigh Bells: Kid Kruschev
Like everyone else, Sleigh Bells are feeling the weight of the world in 2017. Their lean new mini-album has more thematic cohesion than their previous releases and also a surprising tenderness.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sleigh-bells-kid-kruschev
Curls: Vante EP
Christopher Owens, formerly of Girls, calls Curls—a trio with drummer Cody Rhodes and bassist Luke Baće—his first “real band.” Their new EP contains some of the most lavish-sounding music he has released.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/curls-vante-ep
Maroon 5: Red Pill Blues
Adam Levine’s band return for their sixth album of smooth, professional, antiseptic soft-rock, which somehow also features Kendrick Lamar, Future, and A$AP Rocky.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/maroon-5-red-pill-blues
Zazou/Bikaye/CY1: Noir et Blanc
Released in 1983, Noir et Blanc still sounds like a broadcast from the future—the influential work of Congolese and French musicians using analog synths, strange effects, and stranger time signatures.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/zazoubikayecy1-noir-et-blanc
James Holden and the Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits
Electronic producer James Holden has remade himself into a bandleader on his new album—a collection of self-described “folk-trance” recorded with improv ensemble the Animal Spirits.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/james-holden-and-the-animal-spirits-the-animal-spirits
Peter Oren: Anthropocene
The restless singer-songwriter’s wanderlust leads him to find poetic beauty in the country’s ugly truths, even as he confronts the idea that there’s more at stake than ever.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/peter-oren-anthropocene
Yaeji: EP2
The music of New York producer Yaeji—part house, part hip-hop—hints at strong feelings with subtle tones. On her second EP, she pushes her sound further to its poles.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yaeji-ep2
DJ Seinfeld: Time Spent Away From U
Behind DJ Seinfeld’s resolutely non-serious façade lies a strikingly wistful take on deep house. His debut LP pushes even further in this direction.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/dj-seinfeld-time-spent-away-from-u
Sam Smith: The Thrill of It All
The second album from the pop crooner uses the same method that made his debut such a commercial success. His spectacular voice doles out feelings in terms everyone can understand.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sam-smith-the-thrill-of-it-all
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