Flume — Skin (Future Classic)
Flume's second album is "almost perfection", "full of eclectic beats with a wide range of local and international collaborators" like Vic Mensa, Kai, Raekwon and more. Highlights include Wall Fuck where "he slams repetitive sub bass beats" while Pika "utilise[s] softer, but still playful, hypnotic melodies". The album is "unique, addictive and fun" and will "infect you" if you weren't a fan already. We gave it four stars and Album Of The Week.
Nicholas Allbrook — Pure Gardiya (Spinning Top)
Pure Gardiya boasts "ascading piano lines and sparse, aching strings" that "suggests Allbrook's been subsisting on a strict diet of Sigur Ros and nothing else". Always striving to "operate free of accepted conventions", Allbrook's offering is "a big shift away from the crisp, clear tones of his debut Ganough, Wallis And Fatuna and way looser than his POND output". We gave it two-and-a-half stars.
Catfish & The Bottlemen — The Ride (Island)
Catfish & The Bottlemen are poised to "give Arctic Monkeys a run for their money" and can they walk the walk? Yes. With "seriously good" new axe-man Johnny Bond in tow, the "problem appears to lie in his integration". He "lets rip [and] elevates some of these tracks" but "the songs take major stylistic shifts that jar a wee bit". We gave it three-and-a-half stars.
and the rest of the releases...
Architects — All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us (UNFD)
Arthur Beatrice — Keeping The Peace (Open Assembly Recordings/Caroline)
Band Of Skulls — By Default (BMG/Liberator)
Beth Orton — Kidsticks (Anti-/Warner)
Ciaran Lavery — Let Bad In (Believe Recordings)
Clare Maguire — Stranger Things Have Happened (EMI)
Death Angel — The Evil Divide (Nuclear Blast)
Dierks Bentley — Black (EMI)
Eagulls — Ullages (Popfrenzy)
Fifth Harmony — 7/27 (Sony)
Frost* — Falling Satellites (Inside Out/Sony)
Gold Panda — Good Luck And Do Your Best (City Slang/Inertia)
Holy Fuck — Congrats (Innovative Leisure/Inertia)
Honeybone — Spits & Curses (Independent)
Jim Breuer — Songs From The Garage (Metal Blade Records/Rocket)
Kristin Kontrol — X-Communicate (Sub Pop/Inertia)
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu — KPP Best (Warner)
Lacuna Coil — Delirium (Century Media/Sony)
Miles Davis & Robert Glasper — Everything's Beautiful (Sony)
Motorhead— Clear Your Clock (UDR)
Of Mice & Men — Live At Brixton (Rise Records/ADA)
Pacific Heights — The Stillness (Create Control)
PUP — The Dream Is Over (SideOneDummy/Cooking Vinyl)
Rates — Untold (ABK/ADA)
Real Friends — The Home Inside My Head (Fearless/Caroline)
Ro James — Eldorado (Sony)
Six Feet Under — Graveyard Classics IV: The Number Of The Priest (Metal Blade Records/Rocket)
SLOTFACE — Sponge State (Propeller Recordings/Caroline)
Taste — Life On Earth (Independent)
The Goldhearts — The Rise And Fall Of The Goldhearts (The A&R Dept)
The Iron Horses — Stop To Start (Independent)
The Jelly Jam — Profit (Mascot Label Group)
The Monkees — Good Times! (Rhino/Warner)
Winterbourne — Pendulum (Island/Universal)
Yumi Zouma — Yoncalla (Cascine/Arch Hill)
