Rainbow Chan, Just A Gent, Plini and more
Mike Noga — King (Cooking Vinyl)
One is not prepared "for the sprawl and density" of King, a concept album that "touches on modern issues such as post-traumatic stress and medical experimentation, along with more timeless themes like jealousy-provoked murder". Songs like All My Friends Are Alcoholics are a "wry, resigned shrug" while Nobody Leads Me To Flames gets "close to a ragged edge'. We gave it four stars and our Album Of The Week.
Rainbow Chan — Spacings (Silo Arts & Records)
Emerging as "a fresh new voice in Australian music", Spacings features "mellow, pastel coloured vibes with a light whimsical touch". They're "adult pop songs" with "twitchy, glitched up electronic arrangements that provide a contemporary setting", "cleverly pulled together into coherence". We gave it three-and-a-half stars.
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Glass Animals — How To Be A Human Being (Wolf Tone/Caroline)
The indie rockers "push the indie pop-rock envelope" with songs like Pork Soda and Youth, but in the second half, "the interesting and the avant garde kick in". Songs like the "sinister" Mama's Gun, "whimsical motifs and crunchy buzz" of Take A Slice keep the second half more interesting, though one is left with "the desire to hear more". We gave it three-and-a-half stars.
Ausmuteants — Band Of The Future (Rocket)
Banks & Steelz — Anything But Words (Warner)
Barba Streisand — Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway (Sony)
Britney Spears — Glory (RCA/Sony)
Casey Barnes — Live As One (Social Family Records)
Cass McCombs — Mangy Love (Anti-/Warner)
Cassius — Ibifornia (Universal)
Celine Dion — Encore Un Soir (Sony)
Columbus — Spring Forever (UNFD)
De La Soul — And The Anonymous Nobody (AOI Records/Kobalt)
Delain — Moonbathers (Napalm Records/Rocket)
Dub FX — Thinking Clear (Convoy Unltd)
Florida Georgia Line — Dig Your Roots (Big Machine/Universal)
Georgia Fields — Astral Debris (MGM)
Hoops — Hoops (Fat Possum/Inertia)
Joseph — I'm Alone, No You're Not (ATO/[PIAS] Australia)
Josh Rennie-Hynes — Furthermore (MGM)
Just A Gent — Stories To Tell (Casablanca Records Australia/Universal)
Kasey Chambers — Ain't No Little Girl (Warner)
Kna'an — Kna'an (Century Media/Sony)
Kuren — Tesseract (Independent)
L.A. Salami — Dancing With Bad Grammar (Sunday Best/[PIAS] Australia)
Mild High Club — Skiptracing (Stones Throw/Inertia)
Morgan Delt — Phase Zero (Sub Pop/Inertia)
Motion Graphics — Motion Graphics (Domino)
Motorowl — Om Generator (Century Media/Sony)
Nucleust — Resistivity (Rockpit Records)
Ol' 55 — Time To Rock'n'Roll: The Anthology (Festival/Warner)
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez — Aranas en La Sombra (Ipecac/[PIAS] Australia)
Plini — Handmade Cities (Independent)
Promises Ltd — Promises Ltd (Majestic Casual)
Residual — Haunt (Independent)
Sylar — Help! (Hopeless Records/Unified)
Synapson — Convergence (Warner)
Taasha Coates — Taasha Coates And Her Melancholy Sweethearts (ABC/Universal)
The Delta Riggs — Active Galactic (Inertia)
The Dirty Nil — Higher Power (Australian Version) (Dine Alone)
The Parrots — Los Ninos Sin Miedo (Heavenly Recordings/[PIAS] Australia)
The Stiffys — Art Rock Two (Independent)
The Veils — Total Depravity (Nettwerk)
The Viper Creek Band — Just Press Play (Independent)
The Wilson Pickers — You Can't Catch Fish From A Train (ABC/Universal)
Troy Cassar-Daley — Things I Carry Around (Liberation)
Twelve Foot Ninja — Outlier (Volkanik)
Twilight Force — Heroes Of Mighty Magic (Nuclear Blast)
Twisted Sister — The Best Of The Atlantic Years (Rhino/Warner)
Vaudeville Smash — The Gift (Independent)