Black City is the devil leering over Asa Breed's shoulder, a seedy, dirty place--but a fascinating one, too.
An album to make you happy feeling sad, Scratch My Back gets better with each play; it might just turn out to be the best surprise present of the year.
True Love Cast Out All Evil is a genuine triumph of the spirit and heart. Other 62-year-old surviviors have released comeback albums as good, but none better or more uplifting.
More muscular, less ethereal than 2007's ...Are The Dark Horse, it is no less exciting.
The Brewis brothers opt for distinctive texture of sampled acoustic guitar. Measure--a sprawling gem of album-- is full of such inspired decisions.
The music that wraps around the concept is never boring and much of it is excellent ... What's lacking is the nailed-on megatune--a "Clint Eastwood" or "Feel Good Inc"--that we've come to expect from a Gorillaz album.
Have One on Me is a very mature work indeed, even its resonant, discursive themes are underpinned by Newsom's usual playfulness.
With Halycon Digest, Deerhunter are dealing in an altogether different kind of tension.
For all its intimations of rootless drift, The Suburbs finds Arcade Fire back home, and so much happier for it.