This Week's Releases

High Tension — Bully (Double Cross/Cooking Vinyl)

Our cover stars and Album Of The Week, Bully is "a militaristic march, a diseased pulse in the neck, a lurking menace, Utomo’s vocals a low slur as she snarls". Guillotine is "a tightly-coiled serrated spring, tensioned for the next strike", while Lapindo "takes a Kyuss riff into the abyss, offering eternal damnation where the roars inexplicably alleviate the stress and strain". An all-over assaul of "aural anxiety and feverish fanaticism", we gave the album four stars.

Tuka — Life Death Time Eternal (EMI)

Tuka has "honed his freestyle skills", "focused on his melody patterns and his flow" — he is "consciously working out where he wants his legacy to fit amongst other rappers, sculptors, painters, whatever". Tunes like Ill Tronic and Right By You are "swoons", Everything is "gripping" and My Star is "a neat reflective piece". Giving Tuka three-and-a-half stars, our reviewer writes "this is the album of an artist approaching his peak". 

Day Ravies — Liminal Zones (Sonic Masala Records/Strange Pursuits)

In one album, Day Ravies has combined the "lo-fi pop of Dick Diver and Twerps, the lyrically-driven rock of Courtney Barnett and Jen Cloher" and "the fuzzed-out psychedelia of Pond and Tame Impala". The group mentality with which all songs were written "doesn't lessen any song's appeal", instead it shows "cohesion and focus". Scoring four stars from us, the record is "one of the feel-good stories of the year". 

Years & Years — Communion (Universal)

Many records "borrow ideas from the past that sounds like the future" — but Communion, not so much. It "sounds too much like everything else and not enough like itself", with everything too safe and airbrushed "into unrecognisable radio sheen, and it's hard not to be blinded by its sheer sameness". We gave it two-and-a-half stars.