Bands like Black Mountain seem very rare, ably and willingly carrying on those wayward sons still in love with arena swagger and hit-making persuasion. Queens of the Stone Age aided in filling that void for a while, celebrating avant-garde manipulations of the 70s rock paradigm, but with Black Mountain the Sabbath-inspired edge gleams so brightly it’s blinding, at least this time around.
The more tastefully formulated tracks just can’t offset the profusion of soppy lyricism and the tedium of weaker songs. Ultimately, Odd Blood reads as a well-informed but poorly executed homage to the ‘80s.
The album is incredibly smoothly constructed, and as I said before, the songs almost never disagree or sound messy.
Even if an abundance of programming tools are on hand, all the delectable qualities that defined the band since their beginnings are still intact.
The Fool flows like a dramatic mood piece – it sustains a homogeneous sound from beginning to end, casually changing course when it begins to drain itself out.
Being interesting, unique, fun and damn good is near impossible to pull off. Sleigh Bells has done it on Treats, and goddamn is it good.
What I find so satisfying with this album, is how Four Tet envisions the lushness of a song, and sonically creates a buoyant, lighthearted blend – a complete album for the lively and lighthearted.
Measure can be described as being the metamorphosis that translates Field Music’s born again status. Ambitious as it sounds, it locks itself into a pop compendium, which has always been a strong suit in the past.
Write About Love may not be a great leap forward for Belle and Sebastian, but it’s such an enjoyable record it’s difficult to hold it against them.
Part mind numbing, part infuriating, part stimulating and always worth discussion, Swans remain a significant force in underground and independent music and this new album sees the No Wave merge with the compositionally avant-garde.
Have One On Me is so enrapturing, so imaginative and so delicate, that it feels safe to say that in five or ten years time, you’ll go back to it and discover brand new things - whether they be the meaning of a song you’d never fathomed before or a simple amuse-bouche of a beautifully constructed oboe phrase.
Even if there’s that wistful, pastoral-like imagery to their sound, much of the tracks stray to their own beats, in desperate search of distinction. Instead of modest waltzes and looped drum machines, there’s an evident maturity in the way the production unveils itself as richer and far more multifaceted.
They’ve evolved in a completely logical direction in ways that are pleasantly surprising but never jarring.
The Wild Hunt’s stumbles are too little to mask what could be Matsson’s finest hour. He may act as if he’s the tallest man on earth, but he may very well literally be a talent of Goliath proportions.
For a first album, The ArchAndroid is astoundingly accomplished.
Halcyon Digest goes by like a breeze, and when it’s finished there’s nothing better to do than play it again.
The National’s latest is easily up there with the very best indie-rock records of the year.
Kanye West’s Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a sprawling, ambitious, orchestral fuck-you of an album, and he wants you to know it.
They’ve spent most of the decade shouting to be heard, but now they are content to let the music and the message flower and take root. You might think they are just tired, but their nervous energy survives intact.
Wearing his love for Bowie on his sleeve for all to see serves him well - this album is the most lyrically focused LCD outing and the most uncompromising, with most songs breaking the six minute mark and a few breaking nine. It’s not just a great dance album; it’s a great pop album.