Tom Taylor
In some ways, the apex of the album is that it reminds you of what a great band Broken Social Scene were ... with plenty of hope, humanity, and upbeat horns, Remember the Humans certainly offers a warm hug.
4w
Amid the microtonal menagerie is searing originality that deserves to be applauded in an age where human ingenuity is supposedly under threat. Vol II knocks that notion to the moon with startling silliness and laughable virtuosity.
2mo
The story of Tinariwen is a vital one in the modern age, and this record reaffirms that with all the forcefulness of a summer breeze at sunset. It’s mellowed desert rock, with the twilight touch of stardust in the production.
2mo
The album might be messy, but there are certainly still moments that make it a welcome addition to the back catalogue of a modern great. And it is rich with meaning to boot.
3mo
Thrilling noir and full of ideas about the nature of time, technology, and even modern medicine, there’s no doubting that Take Me Back to Nowhere is a full-on album. But it’s an onslaught that usually proves thrilling, often feels vital, and in the moments in between, it is merely catching its breath.
3mo
Amid a hectic year, this lulling album has been a beautiful antidote. It’s literary ways capture the Sheffield saudade with an assortment of the sweetest songs to ever prove catchy. Should Studio Electrophonique ever go by another name, then Soft Touch might be apt.
5mo
The writing is sublime as the show tunes musing on the mortality of man unspool with a jaunty spirit. Raindrops might keep falling on the head of this heavy record, but there’s more than enough Burt Bacharach charm to ensure Rainy Sunday Afternoon dances in the puddles.
8mo
Byrne’s buoyant, human inverse of this is a far better approach: to meet in the middle and explore our views and differences with empathy and respect. From the straight pop mingled with avant-gardism to the acoustic guitar somehow leading an entire orchestra, every aspect of this strange, delightful record speaks to that manically harmonious vision.
9mo
There’s no doubt that it doesn’t reinvent any wheels. In fact, it quite happily gets pretty close to repurposing the indie wheels of circa 2014, but it’s unpretentious enough to celebrate that fact proudly and picnic upon the lesser-known alternative patch of being delightfully pleasant.
9mo
The album is a sepia-toned serving of smooth nostalgia, arguably at its best when it leans into the reverie with a riff that calls upon a relaxed stroll.
9mo
Each song is infused with the joy of creation, and that makes it a boon that feels as refreshing as rain to a desert in the hectic modern age.
10mo
‘Everybody Laughs’ is buoyantly wholesome and bluntly simple, serving as the perfect tonic to troubling times that are all too often 180 degrees different to the track’s message.
11mo
Stereolab create the soundtrack for the life you dream of.
1y
The album remains an unpolished time capsule—welcoming you into a get-together with Jeff in the late 1970s, where you find a man of supreme talent and charisma, brimming with ideas about monkeys, William Burroughs-like prose, an odd fascination with the Hindenburg disaster, and his very own Wreckin’ Crew ready to groove to the sound of downtown LA.
1y
I’ll Be Around finds the Native American star at his most personal, and it is both crushing and captivating.
1y
This material is designed to be danced along with.
1y
There’s an ’80s feel to ‘Smart World’, like a Kraftwerk track on ketamine trying to imagine what the future might be like. It makes for an odd world to explore, but not one filled with surprises at this stage of the album.
1y
The title is a pretty good indicator of the sodden darkness of the track. It’s more down in the dumps than a waterlogged football, and it feels like a sister incarnation of Mazzy Star.
1y
It’s boldly powerful rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s beautiful—severing our psyche from the worries of the future with a rapt assegai of the present in full pomp.
1y
Szmierek rattles off poetry with a quirkiness and a sense of that quirkinesses importance. Alongisde catchy beats with propolsive rhythms, his words earnestly paint pictures of today with wry brushstrokes.
1y
Glitching, pulsing and partying—the record opens in a propulsive and bold fashion as a scratchy sequencer gets things moving in an ominous manner. Death is set to be the mainstay of the album.
1y