Keith Urban, Ryan Adams, ShockOne and more
Anohni — Hopelessness (Rough Trade/Remote Control)
The "dark brooding electronic from the laptops of Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke" on this album "takes us on a bleak downward spiral", touching on the "dark and troubled times" most artists avoid. Highlights include Watch Me, the "blue eyes soul of Execution" and Obama, which leaves "Anohni feeling duped and angry". We gave Anohni four-and-a-half stars and our Album Of The Week.
Spookyland — Beauty Already Beautiful (Inertia)
Haunted, self-indulgent yet "incredibly alluring", Beauty Already Beautiful would best be heard while "driving alone in some unnamed desert in the middle of the night, driving hard like someone or something is after you". They "push against the tide" of "fractured multi-faceted" music popular currently, with "an elegant, melancholy, pompous, brash entry in modern guitar music". We gave it four-and-a-half stars.
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RY X — Dawn (Infectious/Liberator)
RY X's much-awaited debut is "meditative, spacious, and rather melancholy". Nothing is "overdone" on the album and "the songs really excel when RY X arranges acoustic guitar, subtle electronics, keyboards, and even strings". Only "could be a distant cousin of any track on Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago" while Dawn "is a lovely, plaintive opener". We gave it four stars.
Andy Black — The Shadow Side (Republic/Universal)
Bad Vision — Turn Out Your Sockets (Adagio 830 Records)
Broken Teeth HC — At Peace Amongst Chaos (Nuclear Blast)
Chris Cohen — As If Apart (Captured Tracks/Remote Control)
Cole Swindell — You Should Be Here (Warner)
Cuong Vu Trio & Pat Metheny — Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny (Nonesuch/Warner)
Cyndi Lauper — Detour (Sire/Warner)
Fear Like Us — Succour (Poison City Records)
Goo Goo Dolls — Boxes (Warner)
Headbore — The Grey (Truth Inc Records/MGM)
Hit The Lights — Just To Get Through To You (Pure Noise/Sony)
Imogen Clark — Love & Lovely Lies (Lost Highway/Universal)
Infestdead — Satanic Serenades (Century Media/Sony)
Jason Owen — Proud (Social Family Records)
Julianna Barwick — Will (Dead Oceans/Inertia)
Kate Ceberano — Anthology (ABC/Universal)
Kaytranada — 99.9% (XL/Remote Control)
Keith Urban — Ripcord (EMI)
LUH — Spiritual Songs For Lovers To Sing (Mute/Create Control)
M.E. Baird — [Baird] (Independent)
Mary Chapin Carpenter — The Things That We Are Made Of (Thirty Tigers/Cooking Vinyl)
Mike Posner — At Night, Alone (Island/Universal)
Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen — After The Flood (The Black Sea Spice, Tea And Music Trading Co/Rocket)
Pat Metheny Unity Group — The Unity Sessions (Nonesuch/Warner)
Pikelet — Tronc (Chapter Music)
Ragdoll — Back To Zero (Firestarter Distributor)
Ryan Adams — Heartbreaker (Paxam Records/Universal)
Seratones — Get Gone (Fat Possum/Inertia)
Shit Robot — What Follows (DFA/[PIAS] Australia)
ShockOne — In This Light (Warner)
Skepta — Konnichiwa (Boy Better Know/Sony)
The Cars — Moving In Stereo: The Best Of The Cars (Rhino/Warner)
The Posies — Solid States (Lojinx/Planet Company)
Thomas Cohen — Bloom Forever (Stolen Recordings/[PIAS] Australia)
Tourist — U (Monday Records)
White Lung — Paradise (Domino/EMI)