Deftones — Gore (Reprise/Warner)
Gore is worthy of all sorts of adjectives — it "instrumentally, lyrically, sonically, visually" pushes contrasts and boundaries, and is "menacing, ragged, aggressive, tender, emotive and soothing" in its style. Though the album is "Deftones alright", songs like Phantom Bride and Hearts/Wires depart from what we know, but are still "outstanding". Each member "knows precisely which channel of space to occupy, and it's a magical sonic dance". We gave it four stars.
M83 — Junk (Pod/Inertia)
Anthony Gonzalez celebrates the "disposable culture" on this album and it's "destined for short term consumption". Feeling like a "humid Californian motel: a blinking cathode ray tube channel surfing the marvellous and the monotonous into one glorious yet flawed soundtrack", we gave it three stars.
Parquet Courts — Human Performance (Rough Trade/Remote Control)
Spawning from a full year of writing and recording, Human Performance is "the band's most concerted creative effort" and is "far from conventional". Frontman Andrew Savage's "pained quest seems deeper than existential" and it drives his tortured lyrics. Highlights include Dust, One Man No City and "melancholic closer" It's Gonna Happen, offering an album of "deceptive depth and considerable charm". We gave it four stars.
and the rest of the releases...
All Saints — Red Flag (London Recordings/Universal)
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals — Call It What It Is (Stax/Caroline)
Ben Watt — Fever Dream (Unmade Road)
Desaster — The Oath Of An Iron Ritual (Metal Blade Records)
Filter — Crazy Eyes (Wind-Up Records/Caroline)
Frightened Rabbit — Painting Of A Panic Attack (Atlantic/Warner)
Future Of The Left — to failed states and forest clearings (Prescriptions/Remote Control)
Future Of The Left — the peace and truce of future of the left (Prescriptions/Remote Control)
Gumboot — Cut Off Jeans (Independent)
Halfway — The Golden Halfway Record (ABC/Universal)
Hayes Carll — Lovers And Leavers (Thirty Tigers/Cooking Vinyl)
Joeys Coop — Service Station Flowers (Citadel)
Mayer Hawthorne — Man About Town (Vagrant/Cooking Vinyl)
Miles Davis — Miles Ahead Soundtrack (Sony)
Night Moves — Pennied Days (Domino/EMI)
Nina Las Vegas — EZY Or Never (NLV Records)
Nosaj Thing — No Reality (Innovative Leisure/Inertia)
Sleeping With Sirens — Live And Unplugged (Epitaph/Warner)
Sonny Rollins — Holding The Stage — Road Shows Volume 4 (Sony)
Sourvein — Aquatic Occult (Metal Blade Records)
Summer Flake — Hello Friends (Rice Is Nice)
Tax The Heat — Fed To The Lions (Nuclear Blast)
Teleman — Brilliant Sanity (Moshi Moshi/[PIAS] Australia)
The Baker Suite — Still Life (Independent)
The Dandy Warhols — Distortland (Dine Alone/Cooking Vinyl)
The Lumineers — Cleopatra (Dualtone/Universal)
The Ready Set — I Will Be Nothing Without Your Love (Hopeless Records/Unified)
Tim Hecker — Love Streams (4AD/Remote Control)
Tinpan Orange — Love Is A Dog (Independent)
Various Artists — Metal Massacre 14 (Metal Blade Records)
Various Artists — Michelle Bridges: Booty Blitz Trax (Sony)
Various Artists — Balance presents Patrice Baumel (Balance Music/Universal)
Zakk Wylde — Book Of Shadows II (eOne Music)
