Getting ahead of the glut of Christmas albums and gift-oriented boxsets just around the corner, October’s release schedule boasts quality and quantity, headlined by much anticipated albums to suit just about every taste. At the top of the list would have to be Arcade Fire‘s Reflektor, the follow-up to the Grammy-winning The Suburbs, which should find the sweet spot between art and commerce if what’s previewed so far is any indication. On the pop end of the spectrum, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, and Justin Timberlake will no doubt be overexposed on the airwaves and magazine covers the next few weeks, while new efforts by Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, and the Avett Brothers should reign supreme over a Starbuck’s counter near you this month. October also features plenty of intriguing work by in-their-prime artists and new voices from various genres, notably Darkside’s canny experimentalism, a long-awaited Pusha-T album, and the high-concept noise art of Yamantaka//Sonic Titan. And, yeah, there are a few holiday records jumping the gun too, from likely suspects like Kelly Clarkson and, you know, Bad Religion.
Album: Shade Perennial
Label: Comedy Minus One
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US Release Date: 2013-10-29
UK Release Date: 2013-10-29
Bottomless Pit
Shade Perennial
Bottomless Pit has a history, rooted in bands like Silkworm and Seam, but at this point the foursome of Tim Midyett, Andy Cohen, Chris Manfrin, and Brian Orchard has created its own singular sound, built from the past perhaps but not beholden to it. Over two previous albums and an EP, the band has taken small spaces and writ them large. Shade Perennial is the latest and perhaps best version of this expansive precision. Over 32 minutes and eight songs, the band rips through moody atmosphere, like the slice and chug of “Fleece”, the punchy shuffle of “Bare Feet”, and the bittersweet space of “Full of Life”. All through, the rhythm section rumbles, nimble but muscled, while the songs tangle together, unravel, and propel forward, upward, any which way they please. These songs are long on mood — the shadows cast are long, especially when Midyett’s voice breaks on “Full of Life” or when the guitars get scuffed up on epic closer “Felt a Little Left — but they never forget the hooks, the pure rock ‘n’ roll inertia of chugging ahead. Shade Perennial is an album full of hidden treasures to unpack over many listens, but it won’t feel that way when it hooks you, deep under your skin, at the sound of the first notes. Matthew Fiander
Album: Static
Label: Columbia
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US Release Date: 2013-10-15
UK Release Date: 2013-10-14
Cults
Static
When Cults first emerged a couple of years ago, they came on the scene as the latest, greatest version of the girl-group/indie-pop hybrid that was all the craze at the time. But as their contemporaries have moved on to chase after other trends, Cults have stayed their original course and become the leader of their own pack, further honing and perfecting their craft on Static. While the group’s self-titled debut was impressive enough in serving up stuck-in-your-head melodies, Static is a more confident, more fleshed-out follow-up, heaping even more sweetness onto Cults’ syrupy sound to bulk it up. That unabashed embrace by Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion of what they do best comes through right at the beginning, with Static kicking off with its catchiest tracks, like the almost maudlin wall-of-noise opener “I Know” and revamped ’60s melodies of the single “I Can Hardly Make You Mine”. Yet even though they work with familiar pop signifiers, that’s not to say there isn’t something novel about Cults, because there is, as you couldn’t exactly call what they do retro when it feels as fresh and current as it does. “Were Before” recalls the Jesus and Mary Chain and its warped take on sugary noise-pop, but has something more on the low end to emphasize its rhythmic elements, while “So Far” combines heavier beats and a bolder use of strings to make Cults more dancefloor-ready than ever. And when everything comes together with reverb-y synths, luxuriant snippets of strings, and Follin’s voice at its crooniest on “We’ve Got It”, the title has it exactly right — Cults definitely have “it”. Arnold Pan
Album: Event II
Label: Bulk
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US Release Date: 2013-10-01
UK Release Date: 2013-09-27
Deltron 3030
Event II
When Del the Funky Homosapien teamed with Kid Koala and Dan the Automator on Deltron 3030, the results were an underground hip-hop classic. So now we’re back for Event II and expectations are high. Luckily, the trio succeeds on all fronts here, mostly by leaving the aesthetic of the last record behind. Deltron is still rapping about his planet, but the sci-fi conceits are played down on songs like “City Rising from the Ashes” or “Melding of the Minds” for a more present-day feel. The catastrophes he hits on here feel particularly current and not as shrouded in future paranoia as the last record. Sure, he still shrouds, say, his worries about hip-hop and music in future-corporate terms on “The Agony”, but there’s something more upfront about Del’s raps here that rings true, and his word play is volatile as ever. Behind him, Koala and Dan the Automator craft beats that feel brighter than the first Deltron but no less cinematic. They seem to scrape funky shards of glass out from the rubble of these tracks, and include little details that reflect just enough sun to keep things from getting dour. This is the other side of the Deltron coin, where the truth is a little less hidden in allegory, where the beats are a little cleaner, but the answers are still far off. It’s how Del asks his questions that will keep you coming back. Matthew Fiander
Album: Uncanney Valley
Label: Partisan
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US Release Date: 2013-10-15
UK Release Date: 2013-10-14
The Dismemberment Plan
Uncanney Valley
Twelve years after its last full-length, the Dismemberment Plan proves you don’t have to grow out of an uncensored, unfiltered earnestness even when you’re older and — supposedly — wiser. With their comeback album Uncanney Valley, the by-product of jamming in anticipation of the Plan’s 2011 reunion tour, Travis Morrison and company have moved on to a post-emo stage in life when you still care, but have too much else going on to get hung up on what you once did. The Plan has adapted well to the reality that no one’s got the exact same anxieties, preoccupations, and priorities in their thirties and forties as they did in their twenties, most poignantly suggested on “Daddy Was a Real Good Dancer”, where Morrison has come to appreciate with how his father changed and what he gave up to raise him. The bristling, herky-jerky tones and Morrison’s chatterbox vocals are still present and accounted for this time around, but there’s an undeniably grown-up feel to Uncanney Valley, especially on the retrospectively introspective “Lookin'” and “White Collar White Trash”, which comes off like half-satire, half-cry-for-help about whiling your life away in the suburbs. But this being the Dismemberment Plan, maturing doesn’t exactly equate with growing old gracefully, what with the bite and edge to “Go and Get It” and the traces of hand-wringing angst still palpable on “Invisible”. It’s a fitting sentiment for an album like Uncanney Valley to remind you that, no matter how far you’ve come, who you once were is still part of who you now are, which happens to be a good enough way to describe the Dismemberment Plan too. Arnold Pan
Album: Big Wheel and Others
Label: Domino
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US Release Date: 2013-10-15
UK Release Date: 2013-10-14
Cass McCombs
Big Wheel and Others
Cass McCombs has long been a captivating, if enigmatic artist, and his latest effort Big Wheel and Others is his most complex and challenging work yet. And why wouldn’t it be, considering that Big Wheel and Others is an expansive two-LP, 22-track experience, rambling through a plethora of subgenres within the folk/roots aesthetic that McCombs works in to explore religion, morality, philosophy, and politics in thought-provoking, yet cryptic ways? A free-associating, stream-of-consciousness affair that’s at once intimate and sprawling, homespun and artsy, Big Wheel and Others draws you into McCombs’ absorbing first-person musical perspective only to give you an unexpected jolt once you do, be it musically, like when the dusty crime ballad “Joe Murder” gets shaken up with bursts of atonal skronk, or lyrically, as he waxes metaphysically and fatalistically on “Names Written in Water”. So don’t let that traditionalist sound fool you and lull you into a state of complacency, though neither the densely packed vocals nor the subtly ominous tone of the music ever lets you settle into a comfort zone. That’s not gonna happen here, not when McCombs shifts abruptly from the straight-up Americana of “Sooner Cheat Death Than Love”, with its folk wisdom and pedal steel, to the heavy boogie-rock blast of “Satan Is My Toy”. How it all fits together as well as it does might be chalked up to some grand unified theory knocking around in Cass McCombs’ imagination, which offers up an album built to last because there’s so much to unpack, both musically and intellectually speaking. Arnold Pan
Album: Julia with Blue Jeans On
Label: Jagjaguwar
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US Release Date: 2013-10-29
UK Release Date: 2013-10-28
Moonface
Julia with Blue Jeans On
You sure can’t call Spencer Krug boring. After leaving behind Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown (both at the right time, it should be noted), he’s spent his time as Moonface trying on all manner of costume. He’s made an album based on marimba, one comprised solely of organs and vocals, and one with the band Siinai. His latest, Julia with Blue Jeans On, is both his boldest and most direct record yet. It features only Krug on piano and vocals, and the results are oddly stunning. From the thundering, dramatic opener “Barbarian” to the slow-build intensity of “November 2011” to the epic eight minutes of “Dreamy Summer”, Krug takes basic elements and surprises at every turn. These songs rarely have choruses — instead they rely on labyrinthine melodies and echoing refrains — but they still manage to catch your ear and keep your attention. They also bend and break their structures, toeing the line between more classical piano pieces and a pop sensibility. The resulting album can be both spacious and crowded with noise, both stone serious and slyly playful. It’s an album that may at first seem melodramatic until you realize it’s just being honest. These songs have no sonic layers, no postures, no irony to hide behind. And neither does Krug’s howl. The biggest risk, then, of this piano album, is how much he lets us in. And the rewards are many and lasting. Matthew Fiander
Album: Last Night on Earth
Label: Matador
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US Release Date: 2013-10-08
UK Release Date: 2013-10-07
Lee Ranaldo and the Dust
Last Night on Earth
Since the unceremonious end of Sonic Youth, we’ve seen plenty of other work from all the players. Thurston Moore has, most recently, attempted to find a fountain of rock youth in Chelsea Light Moving. Lee Ranaldo spent last year’s Between the Times and Tides knocking out air-tight power-pop. But now, with backing band the Dust (including SY drummer Steve Shelley), Ranaldo has made the excellent Last Night on Earth. The record still deals in tight songcraft and Ranaldo’s disarmingly sweet vocals, but there’s an unraveling at the edges here. Songs get scuffed up and stretched out. “Lecce, Leaving” starts with smooth fills but erupts in crashing drums and slashing hooks. “The Rising Tide” is nine minutes of tension-cum-controlled-chaos. Closer “Blackt Out” is the most unruly tune here, starting with shouted refrains that ease into dreamy verses that stretch out into haunting, sometimes growling, space. The songs are big but never overdone here, the explorations effortless even joyful in their experimentation. It’s more song-based than Kim Gordon’s Body/Head, but it’s pushing at borders is just as convincing and fresh. Sonic Youth was already rehashing the old on its final few records. Free of it, like Gordon, Ranaldo sounds re-energized here, and Last Night on Earth is a fascinating, resonant rock record as a result. Matthew Fiander
Album: Kid Is Gone
Label: Numero Group
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US Release Date: 2013-10-01
UK Release Date: 2013-10-01
Unwound
Kid Is Gone
With the whole catalogs of our forgotten favorites available for streaming in our Spotify era, there’s been a tradeoff between convenience and the sense of mystique and mystery that cult bands once engendered. But that’s not the case with Olympia experimental punk pioneers Unwound, whose earliest work — including an untitled debut before the band became what it would become — has remained mostly siloed away in the archives. Until now, as the Numero Group begins a four-set reissue of Unwound’s work with the three-disc collection Kid Is Gone, which explores the prehistory of the group. Not surprisingly, what you hear of Unwound, circa the early 1990s, finds it sounding its most primeval, with a lineup of guitarist Justin Trosper, bassist Vern Rumsey, and original drummer Brandt Sandeno before Sara Lund came on board. But the traces of what Unwound would develop into are here on the 1991 cassette, the band’s origin myth being that it started to figure itself out with the big bang instance of “Crab Nebula”. Indeed, you hear how Unwound started to meld seemingly opposite musical strands to come up with unprecedented results, combining the ferocity of hardcore punk and the meditative explorations of art-rock to create beautifully off-kilter melodies. The essence of later, more ambitious works is there on early pieces like the pummeling but shimmery “Bionic” and heavy yet light “LD-50”. And the more advanced studies from 1992 like the sprawling “Kandy Korn Rituals” and the robotic waltz of “Sugarfit” (unreleased until now) are more than tantalizing hints of what was to come, but seem pretty complete in their own right. With this 33-track vinyl reissue of Unwound’s nascent period, the group’s legacy can only grow. Arnold Pan
Selected Releases for October 2013
(Release dates subject to change)
September 30/October 1
A Breach of Silence, Dead or Alive (Eclipse)
Advance Base, The World Is a Bad Fix Everywhere (Caldo Verde)
Bailter Space, Trinine (Fire)
Josh Berwanger (The Anniversary), Strange Stains (Good Land
The Blind Boys of Alabama, I’ll Find a Way (Sony Masterworks)
Blitzen Trapper, VII (Vagrant)
The Blow, The Blow (Kanine)
The Bongos, Phantom Train (JEM)
Boogarins, As Plantas Que Curam (Other Music)
Danny Brown, Old (Fool’s Gold)
Basia Bulat, Tall Tall Shadow (Secret City)
Brendan Canning, You Gots 2 Chill (SQE)
The Claudettes, Infernal Piano Plot…Hatched! (Yellow Dog)
Como Brothers Band, Baby Steps
Connections, Body Language (Anyway)
The Deep Dark Woods, Jubilee (Sugar Hill)
Dr. Dog, B-Room (Anti-)
Elf Power, Sunlight on the Moon (Darla)
The Field, Cupid’s Head (Kompakt)
FUZZ, FUZZ (In the Red)
Gambles, Trust (GMBLS)
Grails, Black Tar Prophecies, Vol. 4, 5, 6 (Temporary Residence)
HAIM, Days Are Gone (Columbia)
Arve Henriksen, Places of Worship (Rune Grammofon)
In Solitude, Sister (Metal Blade)
Trevor Jackson, Metal Dance 2 (Strut)
Sarah Jarosz, Build Me Up from Bones (Sugar Hill)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Unvarnished (Blackheart)
Land of Kush, The Big Mango (Constellation)
Leverage Models, Leverage Models (Hometapes)
Lorde, Pure Heroine (Republic)
Gary Lucas, Cinefantatique (Northern Spy)
Machinedrum, Vapor City (Ninja Tune)
Matt and Kim, Lightning Remixes (Fader)
Melt-Banana, Fetch (A-Zap)
Moby, Innocents (Mute)
Lala Njava, Malagasy Blues Song (Riverboat/World Music Network)
Van Morrison, Moondance Deluxe Edition (4 CDs/1 Blu-Ray Audio Box Set) (Warner Bros.)
Oneohtrix Point Never, R Plus Seven (Warp)
Ivo Perelman/Joe Morris/Balazs Pandi, One (RareNoise)
Phèdre, Golden Age (Daps)
Sandra Phillips, Too Many People in One Bed reissue (Alive Naturalsound)
Noam Pikelny, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe (Compass)
Poets of Rhythm, Anthology: 1992-2003 (Daptone)
Polvo, Siberia (Merge)
Quasi, Mole City (Kill Rock Stars)
The Red Paintings, The Revolution Is Never Coming (The End)
Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile (Constellation)
Charlie Robison, High Life (Thirty Tigers)
Rush, Vapor Trails (Remixed) (Atlantic)
The Sadies, Internal Sounds (Yep Roc)
Saint Rich, Beyond the Drone (Merge)
Those Darlins, Blur The Line (Oh Wow Dang)
Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience, 2 of 2 (RCA)
Various Artists, Trevor Jackson Presents Metal Dance 2: Industrial, New Wave, & EBM Classics & Rarities 1981-1988 (Strut)
Wolfmoon, Wolfmoon reissue (Alive Naturalsound)
Yuck, Glow & Behold (Fat Possum)
October 8
V V Brown, Samson & Delilah (YOY)
Cage the Elephant, Melophobia (RCA)
Anna Calvi, One Breath (Domino)
Carnivores, Second Impulse (Army of Bad Luck)
Alex Chilton, Electricity by Candlelight, NYC 2/13/97 (Bar/None)
Miley Cyrus, Bangerz (RCA)
Darkside, Darkside (Other People/Matador)
Dead Meadow, Warble Womb (Xemu)
Deap Vally, Sistronix (Interscope)
Jason Derulo, Tattoos (Warner Bros.)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., The Speed of Things (Warner Bros.)
Earthless, From the Ages (Tee Pee)
The Fast Romantics, Afterlife Blues (Pipe & Hat/Fontana North)
Flagship, Flagship (Bright Antenna)
Frog Eyes, Carey’s Cold Spring
Ezra Furman, The Day of the Dog (Bar/None)
Ghost Avenue, Ghost Avenue (Pitch Black)
Glasser, Interiors (True Panther)
Patty Griffin, Silver Bell (Universal)
Gypsy Chief Goliath, New Machines of the Night (Pitch Black)
Albert Hammond, Jr., AHJ EP (Cult)
Emily Hearn, Promises EP
His Clancyness, Vicious (FatCat)
Tim Kasher, Adult Film (Saddle Creek)
Korn, The Paradigm Shift (Prospect Park)
Amos Lee, Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song (Blue Note)
Misty Conditions, D’zzzz (Planet Mu)
of Montreal, lousy with sylvianbriar (Polyvinyl)
Lindi Ortega, Tin Star (Last Gang)
Anders Osborne, Peace (Alligator)
Panic! at the Disco, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die (Fueled by Ramen)
Papa, Tender Madness (Loma Vista)
Parquet Courts, Tally All The Things That You Broke EP (What’s Your Rupture?)
PUP, PUP (Royal Mountain)
Pusha-T, My Name Is My Name (G.O.O.D.)
Red Hot, Red Hot + Fela (Knitting Factory)
RJD2, More Is Than Isn’t (Electrical Connections)
Kenny Rogers, You Can’t Make Old Friends (Warner Bros.)
Mathew Sawyer, Sleep Dreamt a Brother (Fire)
Seasick Steve, Hubcap Music (Third Man)
Sleigh Bells, Bitter Rvials (Mom+Pop)
St. Lucia, When the Night (Neon Gold/Sony)
Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, I Go Humble (Zoho)
Tezeo, Tezeo
Turin Brakes, We Were Here (Cooking Vinyl/Red River Entertainment)
Diego Urcola, Mates (Sunnyside)
Various Artists, CBGB Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Omnivore)
Wild Child, The Runaround (The Noise Company)
October 15
Avett Brothers, Magpie and the Dandelion (Republic)
Courtney Barnett, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (House Anxiety/Marathon)
Black Books, Black Books (Believe)
Black Milk, No Poison No Paradise (Fat Beats)
The Body, Christs, Redeemers (Thrill Jockey)
Breathe Owl Breathe, Passage of Pegasus
Barton Carroll, Avery County, I’m Bound to You (Skybucket)
CAVE, Threace (Drag City)
The Chills, Somehwere Beautiful (Fire)
Eric Clapton, Unplugged Deluxe Edition (Rhino)
Craven Idol, Towards Eschaton (Dark Descent)
Crystal Antlers, Nothing Is Real (Innovative Leisure)
Mike Donovan (Sic Alps), Wot (Drag City)
James Ferraro, Hell, NYC 3:00 AM (Hippo in Tanks)
Fink & the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Live in Concert (Ninja Tune)
Forgotten Birds, Sahara (Karaoke Kalk)
Group Rhoda, 12th House Out (100% Silk)
Brian Haas, Frames (The Royal Potato Family)
Happy Jawbone Family, Happy Jawbone Family (Mexican Summer)
The Head and the Heart, Lets Be Still (Sub Pop)
Heavenly Beat, Prominence (Captured Tracks)
Tim Hecker, Virgins (Kranky)
Kwes, ilp (Warp)
La Luz, It’s Alive (Hardly Art)
Lucius, Wildewoman (Mom+Pop)
Marijuana Deathsquads, Oh My Sexy Lord (Totally Gross National Product)
Paul McCartney, New (Hear Music)
Cameron McGill, Gallows Etiquette (Post-Important)
The Men, Campfire Songs EP (Sacred Bones)
Wymond Miles, Cut Yourself Free (Sacred Bones)
Olan Mill, Hiraeth (Preservation)
Misner & Smith, Seven Hour Storm (Scribble on the Wall)
Elizabeth Mitchell, The Sounding Joy (Smithsonian Folkways)
Morcheeba, Head Up High (PIAS America)
Neo Boys, Sooner or Later (K)
John Newman, Love Me Again EP (Republic)
Gary Numan, Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) (Machine Music)
Oozing Wound, Retrash (Thrill Jockey)
Pearl Jam, Lightning Bolt (Monkeywrench/Republic)
Pelican, Forever Becoming (Southern Lord)
Red Fang, Whales and Leeches (Relapse)
School of Night (The Antlers’ Darby Cicci), School of Night EP (Minus Green)
Shine, Our Nation (Cascine/Modular)
Tancred, Tancred (Topshelf)
Luke Temple, Good Mood Fool (Secretly Canadian)
Linda Thompson, Won’t Be Long Now (Pettifer)
Toad the Wet Sprocket, New Constellation (Abe’s Records)
Tristen, Caves (Pupsnake)
Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy, A Tell All (Sweet Nectar/Red Eye)
Various Artists, Bang the Box! The (Lost) Story of AKA Dance Music in Chicago, 1987-88 (Still)
Wayo, Trance Percussion Masters of South Sudan (Riverboat/World Music Network)
We Are Scientists, Business Casual EP (100%)
Jonathan Wilson, Fanfare (Downtown)
The Young Tradition, Oberlin 1968 (Fledg’ling)
October 22
AFI, Burials (Republic)
Alter Bridge, Fortress (Alter Bridge/Universal)
Best Coast, Fade Away mini-album (Jewel City/Kobalt)
Black Hearted Brother, Stars Are Our Home (Slumberland)
The Black Hollies, Somewhere Between Here and Nowhere (Ernest Jenning)
Billy Bragg, Life’s a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy 30th anniversary edition (Cooking Vinyl)
The Can’t Tells, No Television (Medical)
Dan Casey, Empty City (Ceremony)
Damon, Song of a Gypsy (Now-Again)
Dead Gaze, Brain Holiday (Palmist/FatCat)
DJ Rashad, Double Cup (Hyperdub)
Ducktails, Wish Hotel EP (Domino)
Duologue, Song and Dance (Killing Moon)
Fights, Music for Villains
Gringo Star, Floating Out to Sea (My Anxious Mouth Inc.)
Woodie Guthrie, American Radical Patriot (6 CD + 1 DVD boxset) (Rounder)
Jungles, The Heat EP (B3SCI)
Lynx, Light Up Your Lantern
Miracle, Mercury (Planet Mu)
The Mission UK, Silver 25th anniversary live CD+DVD (Slimstyle)
Katy Perry, Prism (Interscope)
Poliça, Shulamith (Mom+Pop)
Sat. Nite Duets, Electric Manland (Uninhabitable Mansions)
Sepultura, The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart (Nuclear Blast)
Omar Souleyman, Wenu Wenu (Ribbon)
Sparks, Sparks: New Music for Amnesiacs, the Ultimate Collection (Lil Beethoven)
Spids Nogenhat, Kommer Med Fred (Bad Afro)
Spindrift, Spindrift: Ghost of the West (Tee Pee)
Tears For Fears, The Hurting’ 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Ume)
October 29
Arcade Fire, Reflektor (Merge)
Bad Religion, Christmas Songs (Epitaph)
Bardo Pond, Peace On Venus (Fire)
Body Parts, Fire Dream (Father/Daughter)
Botany, Lava Diviner (Truestory) (Western Vinyl)
Kelly Clarkson, Wrapped in Red (RCA)
John Davis, Spare Parts (Shrimper)
The Devil Makes Three, I’m a Stranger Here (New West)
Diane Coffee (Foxygen’s Shaun Fleming), My Friend Fish (Western Vinyl)
Erra, Augment (Tragic Hero)
Far-Out Fangtooth, Borrowed Time (Siltbreeze)
Sky Ferreira, Night Time, My Time (Capitol)
Chris Forsyth, Solar Motel (Paradise of Bachelors)
Gardland, Syndrome Syndrome (RVNG Intl)
Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio 2 (Blue Note)
Laurel Halo, Chances of Rain (Hyperdub)
Clara Hill, Walk the Distance (Tapete)
Ed Kowalczyk, The Flood and the Mercy (Soul Whisper/Harbour/Caroline)
Loves It, All We Are (Team Austin)
Mi and l’Ai, H2O (Alter-K)
Minor Alps (Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws), Get There (Barsuk)
Juana Molina, Wed 21 (Crammed Discs)
Neo Geo, Digital DNA (Hardline Entertainment)
Necrophobic, Womb of Lilithu (Season of Mist)
Pompeya, Tropical (No Shame)
Russian Circles, Memorial (Sargent House)
Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters, Tomorrow Is Another Day (Bureau B)
Son Lux, Lanterns (Joyful Noise)
Toxic Holocaust, Chemistry of Consciousness (Relapse)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Blue Record EP (Jagjaguwar)
Upset, She’s Gone (Don Giovanni)
Dave Van Ronk, Down in Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection 3-CD set (Smithsonian Folkways)
Various Artists, Haiti Direct: Big Band, Mini-Jazz & Twoubadou Sounds 1960-1978 (Strut)
Various Artists, In the Dark: Detroit Is Back (Still)
Victory and Associates, Better Luck Next Life (Sesimic Wave)
Widowspeak, The Swamps EP (Captured Tracks)
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, UZU (Suicide Squeeze)
Yuna, Nocturnal (Verve)
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