This Week's Releases
Leonard Cohen, Ben Lee, Katy Steele, Korn, Lady Gaga and more
Leonard Cohen — You Want It Darker (Columbia/Sony)
Reportedly Cohen's "final artistic statement", the album has an "overwhelming mood" of "the curtains closing on a storied career, a life of adventures - physical, romantic and spiritual". There are "both subtle and overt spiritual references", "numerous allusions to mortality and the acceptance of fate" and his voice is "deep, inimitable and half-sung". We gave it four-and-a-half stars and our Album Of The Week.
Ben Lee — Freedom, Love & The Recuperation Of The Human Mind (ABC/Universal)
In the past he has created "ramshackle indie-rock to tripped-out soundscapes", but this time it's "(merely?) a solid collection of pretty folk songs". They're musically "relatively simple", but the album "grows more endearing and evocative with each subsequent listen". All in all, Lee should be "very proud of this little piece of beauty". We gave it four stars.
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
Katy Steele — Human (Create/Control)
Human features "the combination of analogue and electronic instruments" as well as "Katy Steele's ambitious, aggressive approach to songwriting". It's a "cool, contemporary" record, but "doesn't offer anything unique", seeming like "Steele has overshot the mark" with "trying to fit too many layers into each track". We gave it three stars.
and the rest of the releases…
Agnes Obel — Citizen Of Glass ([PIAS] Australia)
Amaranthe — Maximalism (Spinefarm/Caroline)
American Football — American Football (Wichita Recordings/[PIAS] Australia)
Courteeners — Mapping The Rendezvous (Ignition Records/[PIAS] Australia)
Crystal Fighters — Everything Is My Family ([PIAS] Australia)
DRAM — Big Baby DRAM (Atlantic/Warner)
Destrage — A Means To No End (Metal Blade Records/Rocket)
Graves — Monster (Greyscale Records)
Haley Bonar — Impossible Dream (Thirty Tigers/Cooking Vinyl)
Hooton Tennis Club — Big Box Of Chocolates (Heavenly Recordings/[PIAS] Australia)
I Prevail — Lifelines (Fearless/Caroline)
Jimmy Eat World — Integrity Blues (Sony)
John K Samson — Winter Wheat (Epitaph/Warner)
Kadhja Bonet — The Visitor (Fat Possum/Inertia)
Korn — The Serenity Of Suffering (Roadrunner/Warner)
Lady Gaga — Joanne (Universal)
Leisure — Leisure (Independent)
Lost Animal — You Yang (Dot Dash/Remote Control)
Meniscus — Refractions (Bird's Robe/MGM)
Mr Little Jeans — F E V E R S (Nettwerk)
Nekromantix — A Symphony Of Wolf Tones And Ghost Notes (Hellcat Records/Epitaph)
Nico Muhly & Teitur — Confessions (Nonesuch/Warner)
NxWorries — Lyk Dis (Stones Throw/Inertia)
Obituary — Ten Thousand Ways To Die (Relapse)
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez — Infinity Drops (Ipecac/[PIAS] Australia)
Pantera — The Great Southern Trendkill: 20th Anniversary (Rhino)
Pelander — Time (Nuclear Blast)
Pesky Bones — Pesky Bones Volume One (Independent)
Pretenders — Alone (BMG/Liberator)
R Kelly — 12 Nights Of Christmas (Sony)
Rumer — This Girl's In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook (Warner)
Sarah McLachlan — Wonderland (Verve/Universal)
Sia — This Is Acting (Deluxe Edition) (Inertia)
Some Jerks — Strange Ways (Pig City Records)
Syd Arthur — Apricity (Communion/Caroline)
The Koi Boys — Meant To Be (Universal)
The Pretty Reckless — Who You Selling For (Razor & Tie/Cooking Vinyl)
Various Artists — Lazarus (Sony)
Various Artists — Boys In The Trees Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Liberation)
Weyes Blood — Front Row Seat To Earth (Mexican Summer/Rocket)
Wovenwar — Honor Is Dead (Metal Blade Records/Rocket)
More From Our Network
