Albums of the week

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Release Name: Modern Vampires of the City
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Vampire Weekend
Price: £7.99
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Review: For a band who’ve enjoyed sizeable success thus far with afro-beat-influenced indie-pop, Vampire Weekend are showing an impressive lack of respect for their back catalogue on album number three. Maybe it’s the influence of producer Ariel Rechtshaid, or perhaps simply the consequence of the boys having itchy feet creatively, but Modern Vampires of The City is a very different prospect sonically to Contra. Take lead single ‘Diane Young’: combining skittish synths, hyperactive percussion and pitch-shifted vocals, the final effect is akin to Buddy Holly doing ‘Footloose’. And whether they’re pairing galloping rhythms with tongue-twisters on ‘Worship You’, or a subdued, piano-groove with chipmunk-style BVs on ‘Ya Hey’, there are enough twists and turns here to keep us constantly enthralled.

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Release Name: More Light
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Primal Scream
Price: £7.99
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Review: National treasures they may be, but we’re the first to admit that Primal Scream have dropped some duds in their time. So why do we still care about them? Well, because every time we accept the idea that their glory days are behind them, they go and redeem themselves by unveiling a record like this. Produced by long-time collaborator David Holmes, and featuring MBV guitar legend Kevin Shields, More Light is probably the ‘Scream’s finest – and most highly politicised – album since 2000’s XTRMNTR. And while Bobby’s getting his kicks lambasting the social injustice rife in Cameron’s Britain, the rest of the band are busy exploring psych-rock, blues rock, Krautrock and free jazz with glorious results.

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Release Name: Silence Yourself
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Savages
Price: £7.99
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Review: Formed little more than 18 months ago by Jehnny Beth and Gemma Thompson, this London-based quartet are already acclaimed as one of the most exhilarating live acts about. The question is, will Savages’ minimalistic post-punk be as arresting if they’re not on hand to give you an eyeballing? It’s credit to Daughter-producer Rodaidh McDonald and Beth’s former-bandmate Johnny Hostile that the answer is a resounding yes: the pair of them have captured the rumbling bass lines, punishing percussion, chugging guitars and Beth’s Siouxsie Sioux-meets-Ian Curtis vocals in all their ferocity, resulting in a debut album that’s economic, confident and intense. Or, as Thompson put it in a recent interview, “It’s music to break sh*t and f*ck on the floor to.” Quite.

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Release Name: The Child of Lov
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by The Child of Lov
Price: £7.99
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Review: In this age of over-sharing, maintaining an air of mystery can prove a smart move. Take The Child Of Lov, for example: when he dropped his debut single ‘Heal’ last October with no explanation as to who he was, the speculation surrounding his identity probably generated more column inches than blowing thousands on PR ever would’ve. We now know that falsetto belonged to Amsterdam’s Cole Williams, a life-long D’Angelo-obsessive, and this year’s recipient of the NME Philip Hall Radar Award. His eponymous debut vindicates all the fuss: ranging from syrupy slow-jams like ‘Call Me Up’ to flute-flecked funk like ‘To The People’, and offering up guest spots from Damon Albarn and DOOM, the album’s like some superb, sonic three-way between TV On The Radio, Outkast and J Dilla.

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Release Name: Thr!!!er
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by !!!
Price: £7.99
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Review: Boasting bangers like ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Beat It’ and ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’, Thriller wasn’t just the highlight of Michael Jackson’s musical career, it was – and still is – the apex of pop perfection. Three decades on, those eight letters have become shorthand for “the one with all the hits”, and it’s this universal truth that inspired the name of !!!’s third studio album. Arrogant? Not really. From the laidback groove of ‘Even When The Water’s Cold’ to the cacophonous disco/punk hybrid of ‘Station’ – via a slew of club-friendly cuts like ‘Slyd’ – the Sacrimento-formed six-piece have produced an album that’s all thr!!!er no f!!!er. So what if it won’t match Jacko’s effort for sales; it’s still the high-point of their career to date.

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Release Name: Home
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Rudimental
Price: £7.99
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Review: The Olympics might have put Hackney on the map as a centre of sporting excellence, but it’s been punching above its weight in terms of homegrown musical talent for years. Following in the footsteps of Maverick Sabre, Labrinth and Pro Green, family-friendly DnB collective Rudimental are the latest local act to make the leap from pirate radio circulation to Official Charts domination, and have already scored number ones with ‘Waiting All Night’ and ‘Feel The Love’. Naturally, both are included on this, their first full-length offering, alongside a plethora of hits-in-waiting featuring guest spots from acclaimed emerging vocalists like Angel Haze, Syron and Foxes. And because no modern album’s complete without the Sandé seal of approval, Emeli stops by twice too.

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Release Name: Bankrupt!
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Phoenix
Price: £7.99
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Review: Having broken through big-style with their last LP, this is probably the first time our French friends Phoenix have ever felt the weight of expectation. Fans have demanded Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Part Two and, in a way, they’ve got it: despite all Thomas Mars’ talk of creating something “more experimental”, Bankrupt! isn’t exactly short in the massive tune-stakes. Picking up where ‘Lisztomania’ left off, lead single ‘Entertainment’ is a good measure of the treats in store, boasting a soaring chorus and a lovely, oriental-flavoured synth-lick redolent of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ‘Hong Kong Garden’. If there’s one real difference between Bankrupt! and its predecessor, it’s that this one’s infused with the confidence of a band who’ve already arrived.

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Release Name: Mosquito
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Price: £8.99
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Review: Well, well, well: look who’s back. Actually, don’t look. Providing proof that you should never judge a record by its cover, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have hidden a gem of an album behind some pretty garish, Garbage Pail Kids-style artwork. Following the electro-heavy It’s Blitz, Mosquito finds the art-rock trio drawing on more diverse influences, bringing in a gospel choir for ‘Sacrilege’, and Doctor Octagon and James Murphy for ‘Buried Alive’, plus giving us their take on roots reggae on ‘Under The Earth’ (spoiler alert: it doesn’t really sound like roots reggae). So, please: put on shades, close your eyes, do whatever it takes to move past the eyesore of an album cover and sample the music, because if you don’t you’re missing out on a treat.

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Release Name: True Romance
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Charli XCX
Price: £6.99
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Review: Alongside Solange Knowles and Sky Ferreira, Charli XCX is one of a new breed of pop artists winning over indie-kids with a lethal combo of lo-fi tunes and looks. But where Solange exudes a breezy, girl-next-door charm and Sky oozes aloof, model/actress cool, Charli’s a lot more fun, coming over like the naughty girl in school who bunks off class to hang out behind the bike sheds. A good-time girl she may be, but the 20 year-old’s no pop puppet: she picked out Blood Diamonds, Ariel ‘Climax’ Rechtshaid and Patrik ‘Dancing On My Own’ Berger to produce True Romance, personally selected the Gold Panda sample for ‘You (Ha Ha Ha)’ and can claim song-writing credits on every single track. The upshot is a very strong debut, with the woozy, synth-pop of ‘Nuclear Seasons’ and dark electro of ‘You’re The One’ emerging as stand-outs.

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Release Name: Overgrown
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by James Blake
Price: £8.99
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Review: Credited with inventing a “new musical language”, James Blake’s debut was widely rated as one of the best of 2011, and won the 22 year-old nominations for the Mercury Prize and The Guardian’s inaugural ‘First Album Award’. Two years on, Blake’s sub-heavy, electro-soul doesn’t have the shock factor it once did, but that doesn’t make it any less affecting. Lead single ‘Retrograde’ is a case in point: underpinned by a sparse electronic rhythm and topped with just swooning synths and soulful vocals, it’s a masterclass in minimalism that hits you deep in the pit of your stomach. Elsewhere on Overgrown, the Eno-produced twitch of ‘Digital Lion’ and dubby album-closer ‘Our Love Comes Back’ are just two examples that Blake’s found a way to incorporate his bass-music background more sensitively into his sound.

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Release Name: Shaking The Habitual
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by The Knife
Price: £10.99
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Review: Brilliantly ahead of the curve, quite possibly round the bend or totally beyond the pale? Whatever your take on The Knife, there’s never a “meh” moment in their company. Their long-awaited fourth long player looks like eliciting the most extreme response yet: it’s unquestionably their most challenging work to date. Featuring sprawling, ambient compositions, pitch-black drone tracks and their own demented take on tech-house, Karin and Olof delight in disorientating with experimental electronics. Whether the world reciprocates their enjoyment is another matter, but there’s no denying that Shaking The Habitual lives up to its billing.

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Release Name: Machineries of Joy
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by British Sea Power
Price: £7.99
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Review: We’ll come clean right now: we’re big British Sea Power fans. Had Machineries of Joy been a dud, we’d probably have kept schtum in the hope it’d turn out to be a grower. Happily, our moral compass isn’t being compromised at all when we state that their fifth album-proper might well be their finest hour to date. Highlights are plentiful: the anthemic, string-swept title-track, a glorious, SFA-esque romp called ‘K-Hole’ and the horn-flecked barn-stormer ‘Monsters of Sunderland’, to name but three. Lyrically, it’s as weird and wonderful as we could have hoped for too, finding Yan and Hamilton yelping about Franciscan monks, ketamine and French female bodybuilders-turned-erotic movie stars. Best indie band in Britain? Maybe, just maybe…

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Release Name: The Terror
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by The Flaming Lips
Price: £7.99
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Review: In the midst of recording the uplifting, musical love-in that was The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Wayne Coyne and co were secretly retreating into a second studio in the wee small hours to commit their thirteenth studio album to tape. The Terror is the product of those nocturnal sessions and, as you can probably glean from the title, it’s not quite in keeping with their famously balloon-strewn, glitter cannon-powered live shows. Reportedly recorded in a “sleep walker’s dimension”, there’s an ominous atmosphere throughout, its dark, electronic soundscapes punctuated by lyrics detailing paranoia and fear. If that all sounds a little too bleak for you, you’ll be pleased to hear that it actually makes for strangely calming listening. Our standout track? The spaced-out melancholia of ‘Be Free, A Way’ is particularly beautiful.

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Release Name: Comedown Machine
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by The Strokes
Price: £7.99
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Review: Julian Casablancas and co were once officially the hippest band on the block, but just how cool are they now, 15 years into their career? Well, cool enough that a new Strokes album is still treated as “A Big Deal” by the underground indie press. Certainly cool enough that Casablancas can still pull off sounding fatally bored without being branded contrived. And definitely way too cool to do tours, interviews or press releases. Indeed, it’s because of those final three points that the only knowledge we can share on Comedown Machine is that it was recorded in Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Electric Lady Studios. What we can tell you, however, is that it sounds a) good and b) like The Strokes (choppy guitars, motorik rhythms, nostalgic synth sounds; you know the drill). So we can’t really blame them for letting the music do the talking, can we?

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Release Name: In Love
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Peace
Price: £6.99
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Review: These four boys from Birmingham have been tipped for big things by the BBC and the NME, and it hardly takes a genius to see why. Boasting melodies that are a hybrid of the best bits of the Britpop and Baggy movements, and enough hopelessly romantic lines to woo themselves a devoted female following, their debut is a marketing man’s dream. Were we more cynical, we could take issue with how derivative In Love is, but it seems churlish to complain when the source material is so superb: ‘Waste of Paint’ combines wonky, Graham Coxon-style guitars with Reni-esque rhythms, ‘Wraith’ is hot-wired off a Foals-style hook, ‘Higher Than The Sun’ is reminiscent of The Horrors’ later, psychedelic period. And for an album named In Love by a band called Peace, we should all be mightily grateful there’s not a vague whiff of patchouli about proceedings.

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Release Name: The 20/20 Experience
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Justin Timberlake
Price: £8.99
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Review: In Chinese culture, 2013 is the year of the snake. It is also the year the man affectionately known to many as “The Trousersnake” returned. Coincidence? We think not: as a bona fide überstar, Justin’s surely above any label pressures, affording him the flexibility to plot the timing of his return. Judging by the track times on The 20/20 Experience, he’s intent on enjoying his big comeback too: the shortest song here clocks in at just shy of 5 minutes. Not that we’re complaining, you understand. Once again, him and Timbaland have proved they’re more than capable of bringing the tunes, most notably on second single ‘Mirrors’, which easily rivals anything off FutureSex/LoveSounds or Justified. Good to have you back, sir.

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Release Name: If You Leave
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Daughter
Price: £7.99
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Review: Already responsible for a superb run of singles and EPs, this London-based trio were widely earmarked as something special a long time ago. On the strength of their debut LP, it still seems we all vastly underestimated them. Thanks, in part, to some supremely skillful production, Elena Tonra’s bewitching indie-folk is now simultaneously intimate and expansive, offering up a sorrowful world of suffocation, death and lost love that’s swathed in atmospheric reverb. True, with its mere 10 tracks weighing in at a pretty hefty 45 minutes, if you’re looking for a quick, feel-good fix, this probably isn’t the record for you. But if you want an album to luxuriate in – to get lost in – If You Leave is there for the taking. And it will astound you time after time.

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Release Name: The Next Day
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by David Bowie
Price: £8.99
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Review: While legends like Macca and Elton John can always be relied upon to wheel out the hits for birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs, public sightings of Bowie in the past decade have been rarer than rocking horse poo. It’s not surprising, then, that when his Tony Visconti-produced single 'Where Are We Now?' surfaced on his 66th birthday, it was welcomed as the industry-equivalent of the Second Coming; nor that the full-length is already being proclaimed "the greatest comeback album in rock 'n' roll history." Let’s leave hyperbole at the door, shall we? The Next Day is very good. Perhaps even good enough to be placed in the "classic Bowie" pile. Indeed, if the trade off for another album of this calibre is 10 more years of mass ‘Hey Jude’ sing-alongs, we’re prepared to take it on the chin.

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Release Name: Exile
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Hurts
Price: £6.99
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Review: “Dirtier. Fuzzier. Wilder.” That’s how Manc synth-pop duo Hurts are billing their latest long player. Informed by two years of self-imposed “exile”, touring debut record Happiness, their second studio effort is certainly a darker affair than its predecessor, offering up songs inspired by laugh-a-minute tomes like Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ and ‘Crash’ by J. G. Ballard. Sonically, they’re drawing on the dark side too, with tracks like ‘Mercy’ encroaching on industrial rock’s patch, and ‘Exile’ sounding how Japan’s ‘Ghosts’ might, were it originally written by Muse’s Matt Bellamy. There’s plenty of punch-the-air stuff here too though; most notably the dry ice-drenched epic ‘Miracle’, which features a riff redolent of Coldplay’s on ‘Princess of China’.

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Release Name: Pale Green Ghosts
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by John Grant
Price: £7.99
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Review: Boasting a deadly combination of soaring melodies and astonishingly candid lyrics, John Grant’s debut was pretty hard to fault. In fact, it was so damn good that we feared he’d set himself an insurmountable task topping it. We needn’t have worried. Not content to retread old ground, Grant decamped to Reykjavik to record Pale Green Ghosts with Biggi “Gusgus” Veira and, together they’ve swapped the 70s-sensibility of Queen Of Denmark for more synthetic sounds, influenced by contemporary electronica and New Wave/New Romantic pop. Lyrically, Grant’s as bewitching as ever, sifting through the debris of dysfunctional relationships with a variety of toe-curling and touching lines, and bravely tackling his recent diagnosis with HIV, on the superb, sax-flecked shimmer of ‘Ernest Borgnine’.

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Release Name: Bad Blood
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Bastille
Price: £7.99
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Review: A bunch of David Lynch-obsessives with a weakness for early 90s euro-pop: doesn’t exactly sound like a recipe for commercial success, does it? Still, with top 40 singles, a string of sell-out tours, and two blog-dominating mix-tapes to their name already, Bastille have been happily proving the naysayers wrong for three years now and, if all goes to plan, they’ll be silencing the cynics for good with their full-length debut. Will they do it? Well, Dan Smith’s certainly plucked enough hooks from his kaleidoscopic mind to ensure Bad Blood heavy radio-rotation for the foreseeable future. And there’s real variety here too: offering up reggae rhythms on the title track, soaring, cinematic, electro-pop on ‘Pompeii’, and understated, string-driven balladry on ‘Oblivion’.

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Release Name: Sing To The Moon
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Laura Mvula
Price: £6.99
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Review: Having been hyped to high heaven at the beginning of the year, now’s the time for the Class of 2013 to deliver on their promise. Step forward BRIT Critics’ Choice/BBC Sound Of nominee Laura Mvula, and the first of the bunch to do just that. If her 2011 EP ‘She’ hinted at a star in the making, debut album Sing To The Moon confirms it beyond all doubt. A beautiful blend of baroque pop and soul, Sing To The Moon finds the 26 year old singer-songwriter drawing on her classical training, offering up unusual arrangements, complex instrumentation, and a voice which falls blissfully between Billie Holiday’s and Amy Winehouse’s. It’s seriously accomplished stuff, and if it doesn’t win Mvula a Mercury Prize nomination later in the year, we’ll be amazed.

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Release Name: AMOK
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Atoms For Peace
Price: £7.99
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Review: Self-indulgent solos, preposterous concepts: in our experience, super-groups generally turn out to be decidedly less than the sum of their parts. Atoms For Peace are a rare exception. Formed in LA back in 2009, their all-star line-up includes Thom Yorke, Flea, Beck-drummer Joey Waronker and Radiohead’s right-hand man Nigel Godrich. You certainly get the feeling the former’s calling the shots on AMOK; serial slap-bass botherer Flea has been kept in check, and sonically, the twitching electronics on show wouldn’t have seemed totally incongruous on Yorke’s first solo effort. There is, however, a warmth here – and a pervading groove – that was perhaps lacking on The Eraser, thanks in part to a more even distribution of analogue sounds. Highly recommended.

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Release Name: 180
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Palma Violets
Price: £7.99
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Review: As the dawn broke on 2013, industry tastemakers got together to predict the main musical trends in the next 12 months. Ladies and gentlemen, these are their findings: 2013 was decreed to be the “Year of the Guitar” and this Lambeth-formed four-piece were duly elected as the ringleaders of the resurgence. Factor in their recent BBC Sound of 2013 nomination, and the NME award they bagged with their very first single, and you’ll see why poor Palma Violets have a lot to live up to with their debut album. Cynics might sneer that they’re not reinventing the wheel with this knowingly-retro, reverb-laden set, but that’s the whole point: 180 is good, old-fashioned, rock ‘n’ roll fun, and continues the legacy of label mates The Libertines and The Strokes nicely.

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Release Name: Push the Sky Away
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Price: £7.49
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Review: Alongside David Bowie and Scott Walker, Nick Cave is one of a mere handful of artists still capable of surprising listeners 40 years into their career. Last seen exploring gutter-rock with Grinderman, he’s now back with the Bad Seeds and has readied a 15th studio album that’s a world away again from the rousing rock ‘n’ roll of last long-player Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Whether sprinkled with strings, embellished with choirs, or stripped back to guitar, piano and Warren Ellis’ atmospheric synth loops, these beautifully-brooding missives make for intoxicating listening. Lyrically, Cave’s on fire too, delivering a plethora of melancholic metaphors about love, and all manner of menacing pen portraits of sad and seedy individuals in even sadder and seedier circumstances. Superb stuff.

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Release Name: Jamie Lidell
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Jamie Lidell
Price: £7.99
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Review: Ever wondered what Prince might have sounded like had he signed with Warp? Well, wonder no more: Jamie Lidell’s second studio album provides a pretty conclusive answer. For the follow-up to his acclaimed debut Compass, Cambridge-born Lidell’s offering up an orgy of squelching, cyber-funk and neo-soul slow jams that flirt outrageously with the 80s but contain enough innovative touches to avoid being branded a pastiche. We suggest you slip into something more comfortable and try lead single ‘What A Shame’ for starters: it’s a filthy, glitch-laden grind that ought to have the Purple One shaking in his pixie boots.

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Release Name: Holy Fire
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Foals
Price: £5.99
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Review: If the chaotic math-rock of Antidotes was Foals finding their feet, and Total Life Forever was them zoning in on melody, Holy Fire is the sound of the five-piece seeking something meatier; something with brawn; something that will sound majestic in stadiums. Enter Smashing Pumpkins-producers Flood and Alan Moulder, who’ve put in sterling work super-sizing Foals’ sound. First track leaked ‘Inhaler’ is an absolute brute of a tune, raising a filthy groove from baggy beats, before strapping on a colossal chorus built from ferocious riffage and Yannis Philippakis’ screams. Elsewhere, ‘My Number’ is ‘Total Life Forever’ with muscle, and ‘Late Night’ sounds how ‘Spanish Sahara’ might have, were the colour-contrast sharpened. Who knows, maybe a slick set like this will help them usurp Radiohead as Oxford’s biggest band.

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Release Name: Heartthrob
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Tegan And Sara
Price: £4.99
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Review: They might have a plethora of Grammy, Juno and Polaris Prize nominations to their name, but for Calgary’s Tegan and Sara Quin, turning 30 proved the true watershed moment in their careers. For the first time ever, the twins began writing collaboratively, decided to trade guitars for synths, and enlisted the services of Kelly Clarkson/Lily Allen-producer Greg Kurstin. The results are showcased on Heartthrob, an impressively hook-heavy and unapologetically accessible seventh studio album that may cause long-time fans to double-take. However, the faithful needn’t worry: there’s no shortage of beautifully-bittersweet love stories here, it’s just that this time round they’re cleverly concealed in an irresistibly-sugary pop shell.

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Release Name: Pedestrian Verse
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Frightened Rabbit
Price: £5.49
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Review: “Pedestrian Verse”? Talk about a gift to critics: had Frightened Rabbits’ fourth studio offering been a dud, the headlines could have practically written themselves. Well, unlucky cynics: Selkirk’s finest appear to have effortlessly dodged the bullet by delivering an album that’s currently sending critics scrabbling for superlatives. Kicking off with a dusty piano lick and a killer couplet, opener ‘Acts Of Man’ builds into an epic, lighters-aloft, slow-burner, driven by cacophonous percussion, distorted guitars and swooning vocal harmonies, and sets the bar high for the rest of the record. Elsewhere there’s a bit of Biffy about the rousing chug of ‘The Woodpile’, and a smidgeon of Final Straw-era Snow Patrol in the spidery synth arpeggios of ‘Backyard Skulls’. All told, it’s a major label debut with “crossover success” written all over it.

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Release Name: News From Nowhere
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Darkstar
Price: £7.99
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Review: If you reckon you’ve already got Darkstar sussed, it’s time to think again. Following their groundbreaking tenure at Hyperdub, Darkstar are now part of Warp Records’ illustrious roster, singer James Buttery is a permanent member of the song-writing team, and sonically they’re on a different tip entirely. News From Nowhere sees the trio swap the digitised, bass-driven melancholia of acclaimed debut North for an esoteric mixture of techno, hip-hop and prog-rock influences, and warm, analogue electronics. The result is an album that’s uplifting, intricate and as appealing to indie aficionados as it is to electronica obsessives. For our money, the Animal Collective-esque ‘Amplified Ease’ is a standout, featuring fluid, Feels-era synth sounds and bouncing, multi-tracked vocals that are spookily similar to Panda Bear’s.

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Release Name: Opposites
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Biffy Clyro
Price: £7.99
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Review: Though they’ve always had a notoriously-loyal fan base, it took 10 years lingering on the periphery of success for Biffy Clyro to hit pay-dirt. Of course, now they can command the attention of the nation, the trio are intent on world domination, and have unleashed this 56-minute-long opus to prove it. Moving between the thematically-bleak and moments of unabashed optimism, their sixth studio album combines the stadium-friendly choruses that Only Revolutions fans demand, with enough artistic progression to keep the hardcore engaged, including the addition of bagpipes, choirs and a mariachi band. Without question, Opposites is their most ambitious outing to date.

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Release Name: Hummingbird
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Local Natives
Price: £6.99
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Review: Three years on the road can take its toll on any band, but LA’s Local Natives had to contend with bereavement as well as in-band friction in the period following their debut album. Against the odds, they’ve weathered the storm, returning with a slightly reshuffled line-up and a sophomore album that not only draws on those difficult times, but transmutes them into a message of hope. Produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, Hummingbird finds the quartet eschewing the Afro-beat inflections of Gorilla Manor, for lush, widescreen dream-pop that swoons and soars. And while we’re struggling to single out highlights from an album of this calibre, the slow-burning beauty of ‘You and I’ and the beatific whirl of ‘Breakers’ provide a great route in to one of the first great records of 2013.

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Release Name: Let It All In
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by I Am Kloot
Price: £7.99
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Review: It took more than a decade for the masses to fall for John Bramwell’s songs of “drinking and disaster”, but thanks to a nod from the Mercury panel in 2010, I Am Kloot are no longer the most criminally underrated band in Manchester. Featuring Guy Garvey and Craig Potter of Elbow driving the desk, the line-up for Let It All In hasn’t changed since Sky At Night, but – bar the sweeping string motif on psychedelic lead single ‘These Days Are Mine’ – they’ve inched away from the lush orchestration of their last outing, towards the subtle production values of their superb debut, Natural History. As ever, the lads offset melancholy, kitchen-sink contemplation with an innate gift for melody, resulting in another embarrassment of riches for fans of indie-folk.

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Release Name: Wash the Sins Not Only the Face
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Esben and the Witch
Price: £7.99
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Review: This Brighton-based coven first piqued our interest in 2010, when they unleashed the reverb-drenched malevolence of ‘Marching Song’ on our lugholes. A year on they found themselves in the unlikely position of being pitted against Jessie J in the BBC’s Sound Of shortlist and, having subsequently lost out, shrugged off disappointment and vindicated the hype anyway, with a gloriously doom-laden debut LP. So here comes Wash The Sins Not Only The Face: a shape-shifting follow-up that was inspired by a cerebral brew of Salvador Dali, Sylvia Plath, T S Eliot and Ancient Greek palindromes, and finds the trio out to enchant with an irresistible combination of goth-tinged post-rock and whirling dream-pop. Suffice to say, it’s worked on us.

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Release Name: Arc
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Everything Everything
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Review: Ricocheting rhythms, frenetic synth licks, Jonathan Higgs’ indicipherable, 600 words-per-minute falsetto: taken as we were with Everything Everything’s debut, man alive was it exhausting. Experience hasn’t mellowed the Manc lads much but the watchword for Arc appears to be “melody”, making prolonged listening signficantly less mentally-punishing. Earworms abound, in fact: ‘Kemosabe’ offers up staccato, digital funk and an excellent, shout-along “Hey!” chorus; ‘Don’t Try’ deploys cut-and-paste disco strings and choppy guitars with devastating results; ‘Cough Cough’ is little short of schizophrenic, electro-pop perfection. We still have no clue what Higgs is harping on about half the time, but we doubt that’ll deter those stadium-sized audiences from singing along.

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Release Name: {Awayland}
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by VILLAGERS
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Review: Lauded as Dun Laoghaire’s answer to Elliott Smith when he first emerged in 2008, Conor “Villagers” O’Brien went on to make the sleeper hit of 2010, winning an Ivor Novello and bagging Mercury/Choice Music Prize nominations for his efforts. Three years on, the follow up to the brilliantly-brooding Becoming A Jackal has arrived, and if second albums are meant to be a tricky business, O’Brien clearly missed the memo. Inspired by the soundscapes of Jean-Claude Vannier and the glitch-laden opuses of Flying Lotus, {Awayland} is more panoramic in scope than its predecessor, variously pairing stuttering, synthetic rhythms with lush strings on ‘The Waves’, and digital bleeps with meandering mellotron on ‘Judgement Call’. Lyrically, he’s on top form too, tackling the macabre and the melancholy with trademark poeticism.

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Release Name: Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Big Boi
Price: £7.99
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Review: Besieged with prattle about the bad-blood allegedly driving Outkast’s hiatus, Antwan “Big Boi” Patton might be addressing the gossip-mongers with the aggressively-titled Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. Now far be it from us to fan the flames, but we still can’t help noticing that Andre 3000’s nowhere to be seen on what is an exceedingly collaboration-heavy follow-up to Sir Lucious Left Foot... ASAP Rocky, Killer Mike, Kid Cudi and T.I. drop in to rap, Kelly Rowland and Little Dragon contribute vocals, and there’s even a guest spot from the singer of surf-rock outfit Wavves. And as we can’t see anyone describing his second solo outing as anything but a triumph, if those rumours are true then this success should come as sweet revenge for the big man.

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Release Name: The Deserters
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Rachel Zeffira
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Review: The annals of music history are littered with unusual collaborations, but Rachel Zeffira and Faris Badwan’s Cat’s Eyes project in 2011 proved more intriguing than most. Buoyed by the critical success of that experiment, the Canadian multi-instrumentalist’s since gone solo, and now presents her debut LP. Zeffira’s classical training is evident from the offset: the undulating piano melody of the title track is sensitively embellished with woodwind, strings and Zeffira’s sweet, soprano sighs, and comes out sounding how we imagine Natasha Khan’s songs might were they scored by Ennio Morricone. Elsewhere, members of Toy and The Horrors lend a hand, and throughout there’s a lovely layer of reverb adding a dreamy feel to her expertly-crafted baroque-pop.

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Release Name: Bish Bosch
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Scott Walker
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Review: From those big “wall of sound” numbers with the Walker Brothers, to the baroque pop of solo albums Scott 1-4, and his latter day rebirth as shadowy leader of the alt-rock avant garde, few careers have followed more fascinating trajectories than Scott Walker’s. And despite now pushing 70, with his 14th studio album, he continues to push boundaries. Bish Bosch confirms what his previous two albums have implied: that Walker is now more fascinated by sound design than traditional song craft, and finds him creating unsettling rhythm tracks by scraping machete blades together, and conjuring a sense of claustrophobia by rolling marbles around a dustbin lid. It doesn’t always make for easy listening, but if you persevere the rewards are manifold.

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Release Name: Warrior
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Ke$ha
Price: £4.99
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Review: If you were any doubt that Ke$ha’s a little different from most pop stars, check out her hobbies. In amongst the usual shoe shopping and spa trips, she’s spent the past year variously crafting jewellery from human teeth, rehabilitating lion cubs in Africa and – allegedly – tattooing members of The Flaming Lips at house parties. Professional that she is, she briefly put that extra-curricular craziness to one side to write a sophomore album, reportedly inspired by Iggy Pop’s seminal debut. Now, it’s been a while since we last gave The Idiot a spin, but we’re pretty sure that there wasn’t a great deal of techno-influenced dance-pop involved. Mr Pop does appear on ‘Dirty Love’, though, so maybe the reference isn’t as tenuous as it appears.

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Release Name: Ekstasis
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Julia Holter
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Review: In an industry dominated by attention seekers, an unassuming artist like Julia Holter could have been easy to overlook. Were it not for her sophomore album, that is. Combining twinkling harpsichord, gently pulsating keyboards, sparse drum machines, and layer upon layer of echo-laden vocals, there was a quietly ethereal quality to Ekstasis, redolent of Tender Buttons-era Broadcast, or vintage Laurie Anderson. Utterly bewitching stuff.

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Release Name: Ten
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Girls Aloud
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Review: Time to crack open the bubbly, chaps: Girls Aloud are celebrating 10 years together! Even though, technically, they’ve been apart since 2009, pursuing solo careers, running theme pubs and romancing bad boys. But – like with those couples who break up, make up and carry on counting anniversaries like nothing happened – we don’t begrudge them a birthday blowout. Especially not when we get to revisit perfect pop like ‘Call The Shots’ and ‘The Show’, and hear where their heads are at musically now on four fresh tracks. Though, judging by the subtle-as-a-sledgehammer, club-banger ‘Something New’, the party’s been in full-swing for some time, and we’ve got a fair bit of catching up to do.

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Release Name: Girl On Fire
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Alicia Keys
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Review: Whilst Alicia’s never struggled to win fans on her own, there’s no denying that her collaboration with Jay-Z, on ‘Empire State Of Mind’, brought her soulful tones to a whole new audience. Lesson learned, Ms Keys has organised a load of high-profile hook-ups with the Class of 2012 for her fifth studio album. That includes ubiquitous Brit Emeli Sandé, who co-wrote ‘Brand New Me’, a token rap from crazy Nicki Minaj, on the Inferno remix of the title track, and Frank “The Saviour of R&B” Ocean, who dropped round Alicia’s gaff to compose a few bars for ‘One Thing’. In fact, about the only buzz-name missing here is Monsieur Guetta, but that’s probably no bad thing.

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Release Name: Unapologetic
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Rihanna
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Review: Despite releasing three studio albums in as many years, and promoting the latest by playing seven gigs in seven cities in seven days, Rihanna’s somehow still found time to stir up all kinds of controversy with her personal life. At the time of writing, her on-off relationship with Chris Brown is definitely back on, and to prove it she’s gotten him to duet on a defiantly-titled number named ‘Nobody’s Business’. Whatever your thoughts on her judgment of character, Unapologetic’s testament to the fact you can’t knock Ri-Ri’s way with a tune. Plus, there’s a galaxy of superstars here to distract you from the big, bad Brown, including Labrinth, Eminem and ubiquitous hit-maker Guetta.

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Release Name: Bastards
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Björk
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Review: Remixing is a dark art, and one that’s tripped up many a lazy a producer who believes speeding up a song and banging a donk on it will do. But when Björk decided to have Biophilia reworked for a series of eight EPs, she purposely picked artists that she believed could twist those tracks into surprising new forms. Her faith was repaid in dividends, and Bastards rounds up the highlights. Our favourite moments are a Middle Eastern take on ‘Crystalline’ by Syria’s Omar Souleyman, the two dirty re-rubs from hardcore/rap duo Death Grips, and These New Puritans’ spartan version of ‘Mutual Core’, which renders the original unrecognisable with pared back piano and a choir from the Solomon Islands.

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Release Name: Take Me Home
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by One Direction
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Review: So, last time Harry Styles was “Up All Night” and now he’s inviting us to “Take Me Home”: yeah Harry, we’ve all heard about your libido, but albums aren’t meant to be personal ads... Still, with 12 million records sold worldwide and roughly a billion girls now swooning at their return, appealing to the fairer sex certainly hasn’t done Harry, Zayn and the other three any harm. Those folk who are, admirably, “in it for the music” have cause to celebrate too: One Direction have made the tricky second album seem a synch, thanks to a little help from songwriters Ed Sheeran and Tom “McFly” Fletcher and massive pop bangers like ‘C’mon C’mon’ and ‘Kiss You’.

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Release Name: (III)
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Crystal Castles
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Review: Three consecutive eponymous albums? It’s either some kind of nihilistic statement or Crystal Castles simply have far more pressing matters on their mind than naming records. Sonically, the Canadian duo are fully committed to innovation, reportedly discarding instruments between albums to ensure there’s “a new palette of sounds to work with” and recording songs in one take because it’s “the rawest expression of an idea”. And it’s an approach that’s clearly paying off, because their latest album boasts some of their finest moments yet, including the malevolent, 8-bit flecked synthwave of ‘Kerosene’ and an arrestingly beautiful, pitch-black lullaby called ‘Child I Will Hurt You’.

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Release Name: LUX
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Brian Eno
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Review: Blurring the lines between music and art has always been Brian Eno’s forte, but that boundary has never been so nebulous as it is on his first solo studio album for Warp. For LUX, Eno took his inspiration from a work housed in the Great Gallery of the Palace of Venara, Turin, and subsequently translated that aesthetic into an ambient, 75-minute composition, divided into twelve sections. As with classics Music For Films or Music For Airports, texture is king here, with thoughtfully placed piano notes and strings variously accentuated and obfuscated by reverb, and passages vacillating seamlessly between light and shade. It’s a pleasure to hear the old master at work.

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Release Name: Trilogy
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by The Weeknd
Price: £10.99
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Review: While there’s no denying that Drake and Frank Ocean have played starring roles in the current R&B resurgence, Toronto’s The Weeknd deserves some serious credit too. Blending woozy, bedroom beats with silky vocals – and surprising samples of everyone from Siouxsie Sioux to Aaliyah – Abel Tesfaye’s first mixtape sent the blogosphere into overdrive in 2011, and House of Balloons wound up being voted one of the year’s best albums by Pitchfork and The Guardian. A year on, Tesfaye has two further albums and a pair of Polaris Prize nominations to his name, and this compilation rounds up all his excellent efforts to date with three new songs.

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Release Name: Take The Crown
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Robbie Williams
Price: £8.99
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Review: Robbie Williams might be one of Britain’s biggest stars, but there was a period at the tail-end of the noughties where it looked like he’d mislaid his mojo. And while he was testing his fan’s patience with the rap-heavy Rudebox, or deserting them completely while he hunted UFOs, along came arch-nemesis Gary Barlow and usurped him in the public’s hearts. Fast-forward to 2012 and Robbie’s in rude health and raring to reclaim his title with his aptly-tiled ninth-album, Take The Crown. Judging by this hook-heavy haul, his spell back in Take That has certainly helped him sharpen his pop-focus, and he’s even borrowed BBF Barlow to pen lead-single ‘Candy’.

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Release Name: Bake Haus
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Offshore
Price: £3.99
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Review: After excellent work from fellow countrymen Rustie and Hudson Mohawke, Ewan “Offshore” Robertson’s completes the holy trinity of hot electronic talent reared north of Hadrian’s Wall. Having released an acclaimed EP on Stuff/Numbers, the Aberdeen-born producer now resides on the same roster as Roots Manuva, providing proof – if it were needed – that the A&R men at Big Dada are still on top of their game. His diverse debut LP was shaped by his magpie-like musical tastes, ranging from post-rock to hip hop, and offers up a plethora of off-kilter instrumentation, Hud Mo-esque 8-bit bleeps, and bowel-shaking bass.

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Release Name: Black Music
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Dark Horses
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Review: If you believe their biography, this Brighton-based outfit formed when Swedish singer Lisa Elle found “five drowned leather boys shivering under the pier, nourished them with drones and melodies, and baptised them Dark Horses.” Tall tale or not, the cold, hard truth remains that they’ve already opened for Kasabian and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, recorded with Richard “Death In Vegas” Fearless, and – most importantly – won us over with their hypnotic, shoegaze-rock. And now, with impeccable timing, their darkly hypnotic debut arrives just ahead of Halloween. No classy séance would be complete without it.

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Release Name: 18 Months
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Calvin Harris
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Review: Fair play to Calvin Harris: in a little over five years, he’s gone from Dumfries’ premier purveyor of 80s-influenced synth-pop, to one of the world’s most sought-after producers. Or, to put it in perspective: you know you’re doing something right when the track-listing on your brand new album already reads like a greatest hits. Featuring previous collaborations with Rihanna, Kelis, Example and Florence, 18 Months finds the man with the Midas touch rounding up a year and a half of smash singles, and giving us the heads-up on the floor-friendly, future hits he’s cooked up with high-profile acts like Dizzee Rascal and Ellie Goulding.

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Release Name: Good Don't Sleep
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Egyptian Hip Hop
Price: £7.49
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Review: First touted for success back in 2009 alongside fellow Northerners Everything Everything and Dutch Uncles, Egyptian Hip Hop have been a little slower off the mark at releasing records than their art-pop peers. And while we’d have liked to have heard their debut sooner, we’re relieved to report that this feast of left-of-centre, psych-pop was definitely worth waiting for. Produced by Wild Beasts’ right-hand man Richard Formby, Good Don’t Sleep pays homage to Talking Heads-esque funk and to the twitching, angular rhythms of Foals, while the jazz-tinged ‘Snake Lane West’ suggests that singer Alex Hewett picked up more than just souvenirs on his recent European tour with Connan Mockasin.

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Release Name: Banks
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Paul Banks
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Review: As Interpol fans will tell you, this is not the first solo album that lead singer Paul Banks has released. Nope, that arrived in 2010, under the pseudonym Julian Plenti. And that’s not the moniker he goes by when he’s on the decks, either: oh no, that’s DJ Fancypants. Anyway, it seems Paul’s finally decided that mum and dad knew best, and has stopped mucking about with assumed names for his sophomore effort. As proud Interpol anoraks ourselves, we’ve found a lot to love on album number two, including the claustrophobic indie-rock of ‘I’ll Sue You’ and ‘No Mistakes’. But it’s the newfound playfulness showcased on tracks like ‘The Base’, that ensures Banks is much more than an Interpol stopgap.

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Release Name: Red
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Taylor Swift
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Review: Boasting a gazillion record sales back home, Taylor Swift is now officially one of the biggest breakout stars of America’s buoyant country-rock scene. And while we’re hardly immune to her charms either, the 22 year old now seems intent on making an even bigger splash on our shores, with the decidedly pop-focused follow-up to Speak Now. The omens are good: she’s already scored a top ten hit with ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’, and Red features another collaboration with Max ‘...Baby One More Time’ Martin in the shape of next single ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’. Add to that guest appearances from Ed Sheeran and Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, and suddenly Swift looks unstoppable.

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Release Name: The Haunted Man
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Bat For Lashes
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Review: After three years away, the first musical missive Natasha Khan leaked from the new Bat For Lashes album was ‘Laura’, an understated piano ballad, adorned only by muted horns and Khan’s plaintive vocals. Beautiful as it is, it proves somewhat of a red herring for album number three. Featuring input from Beck and PJ Harvey’s long-standing producer, Rob Ellis, The Haunted Man finds Khan shaking off her emotional baggage, and deftly balancing organic and electronic sounds, across a plethora of lush, baroque-pop. For our money, the highlights come in the stuttering beats and twinkling synths of ‘Marilyn’ and the undulating melody of atmospheric album-closer ‘Deep Sea Diver’.

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Release Name: Jake Bugg
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Jake Bugg
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Review: As career starts go, they don’t get more auspicious than Jake Bugg’s. Selected at the tender age of 17 to perform at Glastonbury 2011, the Nottingham-born singer-songwriter’s subsequently signed a deal with a major label, performed on Jools Holland and been endorsed by musical megastars as diverse as Chris Martin and Elton John. And while he’s currently away touring Europe with Noel Gallagher, the music press back home are raving over his eponymous debut. Sonically, it’s a distinctly 60s-influenced set, inspired by the blues-rock of Donovan and pre-“Judas!” Bob Dylan, and features Bugg delivering Alex Turner-worthy anecdotes in a vocal style redolent of Lee Mathers of The La’s. Impressive.

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Release Name: Halcyon
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Ellie Goulding
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Review: Since serenading guests at last year’s Royal nuptials, Ellie’s split with her long-term fella, upped sticks to LA and, to the horror of many, shacked up with bro-step overlord Skrillex. Fans will be pleased to hear that, bar one ladylike bass wobble on ‘Figure 8’, the only thing of real significance she’s picked up from the Skrill is the his n hers haircut. Halcyon is a hugely melodic affair, albeit significantly darker in tone than the starry-eyed pop of Lights. So while we’re not sure tear-stained balladry like ‘Dead in the Water’ and glimmering electro like ‘Don’t Say A Word’ will suit Wills and Kate’s anniversary celebrations, they’re proof that Goulding’s maturing beautifully as a songwriter.

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Release Name: Lonerism
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Tame Impala
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Review: Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker was an exceedingly busy boy in 2012, playing on Pond’s latest album, producing the debut of Melody’s Echo Chamber and unveiling the follow up to the universally-adored Innerspeaker. Sonically, Lonerism found Perth’s finest improving upon their unique brand of outsider rock n roll, with a hallucinogenic, synth-heavy set pitched somewhere between the sun-warped aesthetics of Animal Collective and the Beatles at their most psychedelic.

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Release Name: The 2nd Law
Release Date: (2013)
Artist Name: by Muse
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Review: Being raised on a diet of Rachmaninoff and RATM, it’s little wonder Muse have always drawn inspiration from a myriad of disparate genres. Even so, they’ve certainly stepped it up a gear on The 2nd Law. The sonic bombast of ‘Supremacy’ pairs Bond theme strings with Bellamy’s vocal histrionics and Morello-esque axe-work. ‘Panic Station’ juxtaposes Faith No More-style slap-bass with programmed horns. ‘Madness’ finds the lads fusing 80s hits ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Faith’, and then whacking on a super-massive, bro-step bass wobble. And as a dozen musical worlds collide violently around them, we like to imagine Muse grinning from ear-to-ear as they conduct the m-m-m-m-madness.

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Release Name: Until The Quiet Comes
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Flying Lotus
Price: £7.99
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Review: Though LA’s Steven Ellison’s been impressing Warp aficionados since 2008, 2010’s Cosmogramma was the release that truly cemented the Flying Lotus legend. Showcasing his long-standing love for Dilla-esque hip-hop, and the jazz influences he doubtless inherited as great nephew of Alice Coltrane, his unanimously-acclaimed third album pioneered a neo-psychedelic take on leftfield electronica. It’s a path he doesn’t deviate radically from for the follow-up. There is, however, a markedly more nocturnal feel to Until The Quiet Comes, and on this latest set of glitch-laden adventures he takes guest stars Erykah Badu, Thom Yorke and Thundercat along for the ride too. Superb.

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Release Name: Babel
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Mumford & Sons
Price: £7.99
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Review: Recorded on borrowed banjos, and drawing on a genre deemed “un-cool” by many, Sigh No More’s runaway success could have confounded even the world’s finest trend-forecasters. It wasn’t just us Brits who went Mumford-crazy either: we could practically hear our American cousins cooing over those close-vocal harmonies from here. Everyone should be delighted to learn that Babel finds the unlikely folk idols sticking firmly to that Brit Award-winning formula. Think rollicking, fiddle-flecked, horn-embellished, stadium anthems and touching, banjo-driven ballads, with the odd cheeky expletive thrown in, ‘Little Lion Man’-style.

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Release Name: Push And Shove
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by No Doubt
Price: £7.99
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Review: Gwen Stefani’s star quality was evident from the offset, and as the years passed by she came precariously close to eclipsing No Doubt’s fame with her own. Wisely, following 2001’s Rock Steady, the lads in the band let the good lady go it alone and, having got the solo thing out of her system, she’s now returned to the fold. The question is, can these 40-somethings cut it against the current crop of embryonic pop princes and princesses? Of course they can! Hell, thanks to the likes of Major Lazer and M.I.A., electro-dancehall mash-ups have never been hotter, making Push and Shove anything but anachronistic.

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Release Name: Battle Born
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by The Killers
Price: £7.99
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Review: The Killers: celebrated creators of one of the noughties’ finest electro-pop debuts and, on the lead single from their last long-player, one of the decade’s most ridiculous lyrics. It’s now been eight years since Hot Fuss, and an entire Olympiad since their last studio effort Day And Age, but the Nevada-formed four-piece are back with their fourth studio effort. Sadly, Battle Born contains no metaphysical quandaries to revival, “Are we human or are we dancer?”, but it does feature Flowers and co steamrollering in for a load more unabashedly bombastic, pop-rock. Imagine a synth-heavy Springsteen and you’re in the right ballpark.

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Release Name: Shields
Release Date: (2012)
Artist Name: by Grizzly Bear
Price: £7.99
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Review: On paper, even attempting to match the genius of Veckatimest looked like an unsurmountable task. Happily, Grizzly Bear made light work of it on their magnificent fourth album. Whether they were showcasing those trademark tricksy time-signatures on ‘Sleeping Ute’, their tumbling guitar licks on ‘Half Gate’ or an aptitude for beatific piano-pop on ‘A Simple Answer’, on Shields the Brooklyn boys delivered melody in spades.

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