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GLVES Creates Mesmerizing Dark Folktronica on "Heal Me"

Australian First Nations singer-songwriter GLVES creates dense, deep, and darkish electropop that mesmerizes with its blend of electronics and native sounds on "Heal Me".
Recent
Music

The Naked and Famous Go All-Out Pop on 'Recover'

The Naked and Famous' first album since 2016, Recover, eschews the idea of a rock band. They have gone and hard-boiled their sound into something resembling modern day pop forms.

Music

East India Youth's William Doyle Discusses His New Solo Album and Music

William Doyle speaks to PopMatters about the end of East India Youth, his experience of living in the suburbs, and how his new album, Your Wilderness Revisited, came into being.

Music

Gods in Heat: Tobacco on Celebrating Two Decades of Ghostly International

With a headlining show as part of Ghostly International's 20th anniversary, Tobacco reflects on his own start, why he went with Ghostly, and why his old band Black Moth Super Rainbow is closing up shop.

Evan Sawdey
Music

Metronomy Create Some of Their Best Music on ​​'Metronomy Forever'​​

Ranging in tone and style, Metronomy's Metronomy Forever feels like a spiritual successor to their second album Nights Out.

Music

Friendly Fires Bring Some Necessary Euphoria to Summer with 'Inflorescent'

Friendly Fires' first album in eight years, Inflorescent, brings the band's poppy, vibrant sensibilities to their full blast, a euphoria people definitely need in 2019.

Music

Maps' 'Colours. Reflect. Time. Loss' Is an Expansive, Widescreen Record

Maps' Colours. Reflect. Time. Loss is a triumphantly realized album that finds him taking the concept of Pet Sounds, adding the 1960s folk-pop of the Byrds all while channeling the spaced-out rock of 1990s Spiritualized.

Music

Passion Pit Are Ready to Hit the High Notes Again

Ten years after a medication paralyzed his vocal cords and forced some of his favorite songs out of rotation, Passion Pit's Michael Angelakos can't wait to tour his debut album Manners and perform those songs again.

Max Totsky
Music

Poliça and Stargaze Is a Crossover Worth Your Time

Poliça's collaboration with the Berlin orchestral collective Stargaze is as promising as it is intriguing.

Music

Low Swans Debut Melodic and Richly Layered Electronic Track "No One Was Supposed to Know" (premiere)

Chicago electropop duo Low Swans offer a timely song that examines the way in which we relay and disclose information online.

Music

Keep Dancing Inc Turn a Cult, New Wave Classic Into a Synthpop Gem on "The Most Forgotten French Boy" (premiere)

French indie band Keep Dancing Inc strip a cult new wave song to its very core, uncovering a new way to articulate its meaning and imbuing it with even greater emotional depth.

Music

CHVRCHES' 'Love Is Dead' Is an Energetic but Hollow Step Toward the Mainstream

CHVRCHES' Love Is Dead is an album whose makers are screaming "we're ready for the spotlight", whether or not the sentiment is actually true.

Music

Cut Copy: Haiku from Zero

Haiku from Zero is as rooted in a vintage '80s sound as any album in some time.

Music

Hundred Waters: Communicating

Hundred Waters' third album has many appealing parts, but a core that feels unstable or even nonexistent.

Music

Washed Out: Mister Mellow

Mister Mellow is an album of interludes and abstract experimentations as much as it is a pop record.

Music

Toro y Moi: Boo Boo

Boo Boo is an engaging, immersive album that unfolds itself over repeated listens.

Music

Laurel Halo: Dust

Dust dissects the modes and techniques of commercial advertisement and displaces them in barely recognizable, decidedly non-commercial contexts.

Music

Teengirl Fantasy: 8AM

Teengirl Fantasy gesture plenty at dark, intense, minimal electronic music on 8AM, but too often the duo fails to commit.

Music

Mozart's Sister: Field of Love

If the candied aspect of Field of Love makes for an entertaining listen, the same characteristic at times limits the album's emotional scope and depth.

Music

Sampha: Process

Sampha's gorgeous debut brings physicality and immediacy to internal experiences like memory and fear.

Music

Austra: Future Politics

Austra's third album represents a fuller realization of their self-concept as a queer political band.

Music

Poliça: United Crushers

Poliça's third full-length is an understated take on their singularly dark synthpop sound.

Music

CHVRCHES: Every Open Eye

CHVRCHES hit new heights of confidence on their upbeat, synthpop-laden second album.

Music

Chvrches: The Bones of What You Believe

If their failings are failings in the pursuit of greatness, they are forgivable.

Music

Poliça: Give You the Ghost

On this promising debut, the Minneapolis quartet (with the help of Gayngs producer Ryan Olson) puts singer Channy Leaneagh's emotional turmoil in the spotlight, then artfully blurs it.


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