New Order, Gwen Stefani, Tuka and more
Violent Soho — WACO (I OH YOU)
The band have "ramped up their commitment to both the creative process and the band as an entity" to create a record with "slightly reined-in recording" but "sounds well-drilled and precise without sacrificing character or spark". Highlights include Low which "tarts as a beautiful world-weary shrug" and Viceroy which "sounds like it's carved out of granite". We gave WACO four-and-a-half stars and our Album Of The Week.
Milwaukee Banks — Deep Into The Night (Dot Dash/Remote Control)
Deep Into The Night is "a hypnotic combination of introspective hip hop, post-R&B and electro-soul", all the while "exploiting a minimalist palette to maximum effect". While other skip hop records "try to win you over with brute force via heavy production or over-instrumentation, Milwaukee Banks steps back and invites you in". A record on "the cooler, shadier side of the spectrum" — we gave it four-and-a-half stars.
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Iggy Pop — Post Pop Depression (Caroline)
A supergroup effort even though it's labelled an Iggy Pop record, Pop lets members of QoTSA and Arctic Monkeys "take him in plenty of unexpected directions, and it pays off a lot more often than not". Pop's voice is "the most consistent and most surprising sound of Post Pop Depression", bringing the record "into a coherent whole". We gave it three-and-a-half stars.
A-Ha — Time And Again: The Ultimate (Rhino/Warner)
Almanac — Tsar (Nuclear Blast)
B Boys — No Worry No Mind (Captured Tracks/Remote Control)
Baauer — Aa (Warp/Inertia)
Big White — Teenage Dreams (Caroline)
Boris With Merzbow — Gensho (Relapse/Rocket)
Clark — The Last Panthers (Warp/Inertia)
Cullen Omori — New Misery (Sub Pop/Inertia)
Damien Jurado — Visions Of Us On The Land (Secretly Canadian/Inertia)
Gentleforce — Refuge From The Great Sadness (Independent)
Gwen Stefani — This Is What The Truth Feels Like (Universal)
Haelos — Full Circle (Matador/Remote Control)
Hans Zimmer & Junkie XL — Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (Original Movie Soundtrack) (Sony)
Hundred Handed — ...Like It's Saturday (Universal)
Infernal Outcry — Mass Extinction Requiem 1 (Independent)
James — Girl At The End Of The World (BMG/Liberator)
Kim Salmon — My Script (Guilt Free Records/Rocket)
Koi Child — Koi Child (Pilerat Records/Warner)
Liima — ii (4AD/Remote Control)
Meilyr Jones — 2013 (Moshi Moshi/[PIAS] Australia)
New Order — Singularity (Remixes) (Create Control)
Primal Scream — Chaosmosis (First International/Warner)
Sam Alone & The Gravediggers — Tougher Than Leather (Sony)
Sinead Burgess — Wolf (Island/Universal)
Solar Bears — Advancement (Sunday Best/[PIAS] Australia)
Spiritual Beggars — Sunrise To Sundown (Inside Out/Sony)
St Paul & The Broken Bones — Half The City (Single Lock/Cooking Vinyl)
The Drones — Feelin Kinda Free (TFS Records/MGM)
The Murlocs — Young Blindness (Flightless/Remote Control)
Tuka — Alive Death Time Eternal EP (EMI)
Underworld — Barbara Barbara We Face A Shining Future (Caroline)
UV boi — L-UV (Valve Sounds)
Various Artists — Southern Family (Low Country Sound/Warner)
Wax Witches — Memory Painting (Burger Records)
William Crighton — William Crighton (ABC/Universal)