This Week's Releases
YAK — Alas Salvation (Kobalt)
Given the band "truly belong onstage", the songs on YAK's debut "exhilarate because they're completely unpredictable". We're delighted by album highlight Curtain Twitches "during which Burslem actually sounds deranged" and Take It, which "explores a more delicate side to frontman Oli Burslem's vocal". Alas Salvation will leave you "with a smile on your dial akin to a first-time crowd-surfer returning to the mosh". We gave it four-and-a-half stars.
Paul Dempsey — Strange Loop (EMI)
In short, Strange Loop is "captivating", centred on "Dempsey's folksier persona compared to his sometimes violent frontman status with SFK". The album proves through songs like Idiot Oracle that "when armed with an acoustic guitar, Dempsey can be as powerful as any electrified SFK moment", especially when "his raw, emotive voice" is involved. We gave it four-and-a-half stars.
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L-FRESH The LION — Become (Elefant Traks/Inertia)
A look into "everyday racism", tracks like Get Mine and Never Alone are political and "calmly didactic rather than preachy", as L-FRESH posits "self-affirmations that are likely to resonate with people from all walks of life". Coming across "as a human first and a Sikh-Australian second", Become "walks us through the lives of important figures in his people's history". We gave it three-and-a-half stars.
and the rest of the releases…
3OH!3 — Night Sports (Fueled By Ramen)
Arbor Labor Union — I Hear You (Sub Pop/Inertia)
Avatar — Feathers & Flesh (Another Century/Sony)
Bayonne — Primitives (Spunk/Caroline)
Brodka — Clashes ([PIAS] Australia)
Corinne Bailey Rae — The Heart Speaks In Whispers (Virgin/EMI)
Destruction — Under Attack (Nuclear Blast/Caroline)
DevilDriver — Trust No One (Roadrunner/Warner)
Digitalism — Mirage (Magnetism Recordings/[PIAS] Australia)
Foy Vance — The Wild Swan (Gingerbread Man Records/Warner)
From Oslo — From Oslo (Habit Music Company)
Ganz — Gao (The Hard Headed)
Gordi — Clever Disguise (Hey Alfalfa/Liberation)
Gorguts — Pleiades' Dust (Season Of Mist/Rocket)
Grand Magus — Sword Songs (Nuclear Blast/Caroline)
Hatebreed — The Concrete Confessional (Nuclear Blast/Caroline)
Jameszoo — Fool (Brainfeeder/Inertia)
Japam — How's My EP? (Independent)
Jennifer Nettles — Playing With Fire (Big Machine/Universal)
Jessy Lanza — Oh No (Hyperdub/Rocket)
Karl Blau — Introducing Karl Blau (Bella Union/[PIAS] Australia)
Kvelertak — Nattesferd (Roadrunner/Warner)
Kygo — Cloud Nine (Ultra Recordings/Sony)
Linda Ronstadt — Frenesi (Rhino/Warner)
Mark Pritchard — Under The Sun (Warp/Inertia)
Meghan Trainor — Thank You (Sony)
Modern Baseball — Holy Ghost (Run For Cover Records/Cooking Vinyl)
Mossy — Mossy (I OH YOU)
Nothing — Tired Of Tomorrow (Relapse/Rocket)
Ocean Alley — Lost Tropics (Independent)
Oscar — Cut And Paste (Wichita Recordings/[PIAS] Australia)
Pierce The Veil — Misadventures (Fearless/Caroline)
Sweet Jean — Monday To Friday (ABC/Universal)
The Living End — Shift (Dew Process/Universal)
Twin Peaks — Down In Heaven (Community Music/Caroline)
Vera Blue — Fingertips (Universal)
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