These are some of this year’s albums that I found especially notable. Some were highly anticipated new albums from old bands and others were pleasant surprises from upity new comers.
##Studs
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####Beach House - Bloom They stick with their formula on this one, but it works wonderfully. The first three tracks are absolutely fantastic and the reset kind of follows along. You could fault them for it, but I’m not going to because this album makes love to my ears.
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####CHAPPO - Moonwater I saw their absurd video for Hell No and was hooked, listened to the album and then bought it on iTunes. It’ll make a great soundtrack for the summer, being so light and catchy.
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####Gojira - L’enfant Sauvage Heaviest fucking band on the planet releases new album. I’m not sure it’s up there with their last two albums, but it’s definitely fucking intense. If you’re stressing out, this will make your problems seem insignificant.
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####Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal These dudes came out of nowhere (Iceland) with a great Big Rock sound. If you enjoy bands like Arcade Fire, you might like this.
##Check ‘ems
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####Chromatics - Kill For Love I almost put this in the Studs tier, but it lacks any real singles. You gotta listen to the whole album which is quite the experience at 1.5 hours. If you liked M83’s album and the music in Drive (Chromatics were supposed to do the whole soundtrack but ended up with only one song), you should check it out.
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####fun. - Some Nights Fuck it! Despite being obviously manufactured in the indie-goes-mainstream factory, We Are Young is a fun song. The rest of the album has some good stuff too, though not as grandiose or excessive.
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####Gotye - Making Mirrors
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####Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
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####The Skins - The Skins EP My good friend William recommended these kids to me and they blew my face off. Just some good ass hard bluesy rock music from some teenagers.
##Duds
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####Heartless Bastards - Arrow I fell in love with the Bastards on All This Time and liked The Mountain decently enough, but this just has me somewhat lost. Don’t bother.
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####The Hives - Lex Hives Five years we waited for this? These songs appear to have been custom tuned to rock hard live, but they fall completely flat in the studio. Unfortunately, you have to listen to it so you know what’s coming when they’re in town, which comes with my highest recommendation. The Hives are still the shit.
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####Santigold - Master of My Make-Believe I like a few of these songs, but I wish they were more rock minded. They encompass an enormous range of musical influences, but they don’t cohere into a catchy dance beat (other than the first two songs), which is what I want.
There’s lots of potentially good stuff slated for the rest of the year. Baroness, Fang Island, Frank Ocean, The Killers, Lady Gaga, MGMT, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Ratatat, The Strokes, Wolfmother, The xx, and more!
Looking forward to it!