Cox may have tagged Atlas Sound as just another side-project, but ‘Logos’ is a clear indication that his solo creative output is just as richly rewarding as what came before.
‘Grey Britain’ has important things to say, but due to the lack of any direction or mission, it allows itself to be eaten up by the anger that fuels it.
Both cerebral and corporeal, sacred and profane, ‘The Eternal’ sees this band approach the level of The Velvet Underground, where chaos and beauty ravish each other within the same song. Clever old sods.
Despite bringing in all these names to make it an event album, ‘The Blueprint 3’ delivers because of hefty beats and quality rapsmanship, nothing else.
‘My Maudlin Career’ is the kind of record that exists to reward those both mad, and sad, in love.
[Greg Kurstin] helped deliver everything both artist and mercenary label boss could wish for. Songs that are ultra-modern and instantly accessible, fun but never cheesy, experimental but rarely try-hard.
Whatever way you look at ‘Kingdom Of Rust’ it’s a magnificent rock record, one which will delight the faithful and also surely see them pick up new devotees.
As ’80s revivalism hits its self-fellating peak, it’s a pleasure to hear an album that knows escapism isn’t dressing up like a fucking unicorn – it’s shutting your eyes and screaming until your throat burns.
‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ is an outstanding album in its own right and is not ‘The Holy Bible’. But then again, what is?
Beneath the dissonance, the artful posturing and the pop hooks is something far more enduring: these guys have got a soul and they’re not afraid to bare it.
‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ is a crate-digging, blog-reading, lost treasure-unearthing music nerd’s world of influences distilled into something that anyone, people who don’t even know what a blog is, can get immediately, and keep on getting at different levels.
It’s no revolution, but It’s Blitz!’s heartfelt love letter to the transcendent possibilities of the dancefloor is an unexpectedly emphatic reassertion of why Yeah Yeah Yeahs are one of the most exciting bands of this decade.
It’s strange that such a traditional set-up (drums, bass, keys, guitars, voices) has resulted in one of 2009’s most unique debuts.
Time will tell how ‘Primary Colours’ stands up to the likes of ‘Loveless’ or ‘Psychocandy’, but right now, this feels like the British art-rock album we’ve all been waiting for.