The Body/Full of Hell: Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light
The second collaboration between the two experimental metal bands feels necessary. They bands flood the gap between doom and grindcore with all kinds of stunts, risks, and tricks.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-body-and-full-of-hell-ascending-a-mountain-of-heavy-light
Martin Carr: New Shapes of Life
The Boo Radleys mastermind returns with a suave, sophisticated, rhythmically robust pop record whose swagger belies deep-seated feelings of disillusionment, self-doubt, and paranoia.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/martin-carr-new-shapes-of-life
Why Khaliq: The Mustard Seed
The St. Paul rapper’s latest album is a study in faith and focus. His acrobatic rapping, rich hooks, and warm textures create a soulful record full of high stakes and interior depth.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/why-khaliq-the-mustard-seed
Mavis Staples: If All I Was Was Black
Mavis Staples presents her signature hope on the taut and lively If All I Was Was Black, another collaboration with Jeff Tweedy. But it doesn’t come as naturally as it once did, as she makes clear.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mavis-staples-if-all-i-was-was-black
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
Source: https://pitchfork.com/feed-album-reviews