Wiz Khalifa: Laugh Now, Fly Later
Across a relatively lean, stakes-free mixtape, Wiz Khalifa riffs on his only meaningful muse, weed, with a level of buy-in that he rarely grants his commercial projects.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/wiz-khalifa-laugh-now-fly-later
Quicksand: Interiors
The first album in 22 years from seminal New York post-hardcore band Quicksand is a structurally-obsessed work where beauty and brutality coexist.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/quicksand-interiors
Gun Outfit: Out of Range
Now relocated to Los Angeles, the five-piece moves comfortably into breezy, slow-going, cosmic country as both an escape and a protest.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/gun-outfit-out-of-range
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Music for Nine Postcards
Inspired by a series of window views, Japanese ambient pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 1982 album Music for Nine Postcards has a disarming presence, cutting sweetly into the listener’s reality.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/hiroshi-yoshimura-music-for-nine-postcards
Golden Teacher: No Luscious Life
The Glasgow sextet brings a healthy dose of dub to its spiky punk-acid-disco fusion, to party-starting (and occasionally political) effect.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/golden-teacher-no-luscious-life
Slaughter Beach, Dog: Birdie
With the second album from his Slaughter Beach, Dog project, Jake Ewald of Modern Baseball has found his voice as a musician, though he’s still searching as a writer.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/slaughter-beach-dog-birdie
Champion: Snapshot
The debut long-player from UK funky pioneer Reiss Hanson, aka Champion, is high-energy bass music as bare-knuckled pointillism. His recordings have rarely sounded more dynamic or more colorful.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/champion-snapshot
R.E.M.: Automatic for the People
In 1992, R.E.M. were the biggest, most important rock band in America. This reissue of their multi-platinum smash, 25 years later, highlights a brooding, transitional album that still resonates.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rem-automatic-for-the-people
Lee Gamble: Mnestic Pressure
Navigating the divide between club culture and conceptual art, the UK producer repurposes the momentum-based language of dance music into a hauntingly frozen inversion.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lee-gamble-mnestic-pressure
Armand Hammer: ROME
Brooklyn emcees Elucid and Billy Woods’ third album as Armand Hammer is a stellar underground hip-hop record. They are radical and full of heart, delivering cocksure homilies from the margins of rap.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/armand-hammer-rome
Kamaiyah: Before I Wake
On the first of two mixtapes to be released before her major label debut, Before I Wake finds the Oakland emcee less relaxed and laidback. It plays out like a reassertion of control.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kamaiyah-before-i-wake
Taylor Swift: Reputation
Taylor Swift’s sixth album is an aggressive, lascivious display of craftsmanship, but her full embrace of modern pop feels sadly conventional.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-reputation
Nico: Chelsea Girl
On her 1967 debut album, Nico’s unmistakable voice sings the songs of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and Jackson Browne. *Chelsea Girl* helps define her as a mercurial aura and a manifold, complicated artist.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nico-chelsea-girl
U-Men: U-Men
The Seattle band U-Men released only one full-length during their eight-year run in the 1980s, but their legend loomed large over a generation. A new Sub Pop reissue collects their crucial catalog.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/u-men-u-men
M.E.S.H.: Hesaitix
With Hesaitix, the Berlin-based DJ and producer has built a strange world that lives and breathes. It’s a catchy, fascinating electronic album that lives in a lucid unreality.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mesh-hesaitix
Young Lean: Stranger
The Swedish rapper’s third album offers glimpses of his full potential, songs that pierce through the detachment that once obscured real emotion.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yung-lean-stranger
Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys: Rot
On the follow-up to their 2013 debut LP, the beer-swilling, self-described former “party band” grows up without slowing down.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bed-wettin-bad-boys-rot
Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid/Jewels of Thought/Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun)
Three invaluable reissues showcase a young bandleader and his top-tier players as they create a powerfully cohesive group sound: elegant, adventurous, warm, and ferocious all at once.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/pharoah-sanders-tauhidjewels-of-thoughtdeaf-dumb-blind-summun-bukmun-umyun
Call Super: Arpo
The second album from producer Joe Seaton offers a rush of effervescence. With a childlike and immersive touch, he pulls apart and rearranges small, twinkling sounds.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/call-super-arpo
Angel Olsen: Phases
This collection of B-sides, demos, and covers is terrific and revelatory in its own right. It's a trail of dropped clues to the creative process of the defiantly mercurial Olsen.Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/angel-olsen-phases
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