Sub-Editor’s 2013 Round-Up pt. 2: Releases Of The Year
Part two of my annual round-up 2013 is what I consider to have been the best releases of the year – those albums, EPs, re-releases and compilations that have stood out most from that which I’ve listened to. As usual, there’s been plenty of good-to-downright-great releases, each and every one of the below worth recommending in their own way though, in the main, it would seem I’ve either liked it dark and loud this year or simple and stripped back.
In either case, particular credit must go to the Sacred Bones label who have managed seven entries in my top 100 this year, up from last year’s already impressive four. Equal dues must go to Matador from whom five artists also feature and special mentions also go out to the Sub Pop , Agitated , 4AD , Dead Oceans and Kranky imprints for each managing three entries apiece too.
Other statistical analysis interestingly shows that, while I consider myself an intrepid, open-minded globetrotter when it comes to music, 95% of the artists in this top 100 call either the US, UK or Canada home. A lone compilation, Denmark, Chile and Sweden take the remaining few places. Note to self: cast your net even wider next year. Gulp.
It must be said though that I have only one pair of ears, a set amount of hours in the day and a bank balance that is far from inexhaustible, so there are, perhaps, certain notable omissions from the list below. In any case, who knows what may have been, but here is what definitely was:
1. The Flaming Lips – The Terror (Experimental/Psychedelia) [ Bella Union ]
Lay your cards down early. Those seeking or wanting The Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi mark II will, again, and at best, be disappointed for The Terror runs with Embryonic ‘s weirder and more experimental elements and then some. That’s not to say that fans of those records won’t enjoy The Terror , but they may have to work to do so for there are no commercial takeaways, little respite from Commander Coyne’s intergalactic vision.
As one hand repulses though so does the second beckon you forward. Amidst bubbling melancholy, multi-masking effects and dreary drones lie snippets of fragile beauty erupting like the first beams of daybreak. Coyne is on mute form too, perhaps the product of his recent marital failing, but musically he still makes the most of it, floating on lush synth-play while simultaneously being tormented by fizzy static and harsh, almost kraut-like drive.
Dark, its tracks largely segueing into to one another to form an uncompromising stream of demanding psychedelia, but with a lightness of touch that allows it to breathe, The Terror – the band’s 13th album of course – is terrifying stuff indeed, but so too is it hugely rewarding.
2. Gabriel Bruce – Love In Arms (Singer-Songwriter/Rock) [ Mercury ]
In late 2012 [sic] tipped former Loverman Gabriel Bruce for greatness as part of its predicative feature for 2013. Then we called him a “louche and gravelly singer-songwriter with a predilection for the grandiose and absurd” and now that the end of 2013 is upon us we happily have no reason to change our story for, in the very compliant Love In Arms , Bruce has landed one of the year’s best albums and make no mistake.
Far from hiding his influences, Bruce wears them loud and proud, his sleeve duly emblazoned with some of the greats. The opening one-two, for example, undoubtedly owes a huge debt to pomp-era Nick Cave . The literary “Dark Lights Shine Loud” confirms his reverence too for all things Springsteen . And so to Love In Arms ‘ last unavoidable touchstone as heard during the stunning “Sleep Paralysis”, no other than Leonard Cohen and his cabaret disco of the 80s – solemn baritone and all. First impressions count, and this “grandiose and absurd” collection could have been just that. In reality, it turned out to be so much more.
3. Emptyset – Material EP (Doom Techno) [ Subtext ]
It is said the silence that follows Mozart is still Mozart. By the same extension the silence that abounds through 50% of the Material EP is still very much Emptyset even though the atmospheric weight of its recording locations adds a cavernous reverence way beyond the supply of traditional meta data. Realised in the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, at Ambika P3 (the concrete bunker known for extreme testing of sections of the Channel Tunnel) and deep within the 22-mile tunnel network of the medieval Chislehurst chalk mine, and used, in part, as a soundtrack to a film installation for Tate Britain, the Material EP sounds almost unbelievably evil, its power drawn from the belly of the earth and from simple contrast, the aching punctuation of silence against extreme bass and creaking tone generators. Isolated rattles are lost to pregnant echo while the hint of a beat thrums from a malfunctioning substation. Super-low frequencies vibrate ever cell and synapse, lurching into fragments of decayed techno. These recordings, like the wakening of some Tesla-fired titan, explore the infinite relationship between space and sound, architecture and industry, pure art and music.
4. Chelsea Wolfe – Pain Is Beauty (Singer-Songwriter/Goth) [ Sargent House ]
In 2011, on her Apokalypsis album, foremost goth-folkstress Chelsea Wolfe struck dramatic gold with “Pale on Pale”. The rest of the album was more difficult to penetrate however and since then all we’ve been offered is a collection of dusty attic-core acoustics. Hell be praised then that Pain Is Beauty is now here because it’s packed with wonderfully atmospheric melancholy and Wolfe’s blend of hushed folk, ominous melody and witchy coldwave has never been more consistent, striking nor appealing.
5. Hausu – Total (Post-Hardcore/Alt-Rock) [ Hardly Art ]
Many sounds belong most prominently to a specific time and place. And one listen to Total is all it takes to confirm Hausu’s place within the brackets of the Pacific Northwest’s mid-80s-to-early-90s noise-cum-post-hardcore framework. The band’s wide blend of general alt-rock themes and pained slacking however is more than sufficiently appealing to snare those that didn’t catch the movement first time around, as well as to catch at the heartstrings and memories of those that did.
6. The Haxan Cloak – Excavation (Beats/Bass/Doom) [ Tri Angle ]
One does not simply listen to Excavation . You feel and sense it. Bobby Krlic opens with exactly the same note as closed his sinister debut, instantly taking his bleak narrative to a place beyond death. This is a plane of tense horror, processed percussion and powerful sub-bass. Evil growls and shudders eke out from his resonators, chilling atmospherics breaking into super-minimal beat palettes. He leaves hell’s gate open as he closes, message unclear, yet inviting interpretation like the best of high art.
7. Gnod – Chaudelande (Psyche-Rock/Industrial) [ Rocket ]
You never quite know which Gnod you’re gonna get. The meandering dub Gnod, the brutal techno Gnod or – my personal favourite – the industrial psyche-rock behemoth Gnod. Chaudelande is tail-loaded with absolute ear-bleeders in this vein and it is glorious. They sound dangerous, urgent and vital. Adjectives that only muscular, thrilling and life-affirming will top. It’s convenient then that these apply too.
8. Grouper – The Man Who Died In His Boat (Dream-Pop/Ambient) [ Kranky ]
It’s almost criminal it’s taken five years for this record to come to fruition. Initially recorded as a companion to 2008’s stunning Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill , this similarly evocative title is just as knock-out. Liz Harris , like contemporary Julianna Barwick, has angelic ambiance all but sewn up. While the latter heads further into celestial, Scandinavian sounds, Harris falls back on her minimalist experiments and drone upbringing, here bubbling up into the conscious like Eureka lightbulbs.
9. Psychic Ills – One Track Mind (Psyche-Rock) [ Sacred Bones ]
Psyche is so hot right now and I’ve listened to an awful lot of it this year and there have been fewer finer moments from anyone than “See You There”. The hypnotic groove this track cruises echoes deeply throughout One Track Mind as a whole, scanning round its druggy chug like a search light on some police helicopter exposing the seedy underbelly of the wrong side of town. There’s madness in the eyes of those the light picks up too, long having lost their own one-track minds to Psychic Ills.
10. DJ Rashad – Double Cup (Footwork) [ Hyperdub ]
Those lamenting a lack of ideas on the scene today need to clock Double Cup and fast. At its heart it may be a footwork LP – often one of the more basic of beat movements – but genre figurehead Rashad keeps it all so fresh, pulling off the most difficult of tricks in the process. As he drops Bass, house, techno, classic West Coast hip-hop, trap rips, cut-and-paste R&B, jungle pulses and D&B grooves into the mix so too is he exiting a niche, becoming accessible without diluting the intent.
11. Pissed Jeans – Honeys (Sludgecore) [ Sub Pop ]
Pissed Jeans are not evolving in so much as they’re experimenting, tinkering with their sound whilst being intelligent enough to leave their most dangerous edges ever-present in order to gouge the unwary. On paper, a punk band has rarely looked so unassuming, but theirs is a spark that ignites on record and downright explodes on stage. Honeys more than continues this enviable trend.
12. Iceage – You’re Nothing (Punk) [ Matador ]
Certain fires burn themselves out while others go on to rage with nuclear intensity; the one at the blackened heart of Danish four-piece Iceage is clearly borne of the latter type, having grown immeasurably in size and stability since their splintered post-punk debut in 2011. You’re Nothing is the result and it is nothing short of unstoppable fury channelled into thirty breath-taking minutes.
13. Gambles – Trust (Singer-Songwriter) [ GMBLS ]
Well, doesn’t this sound like The Tallest Man on Earth ? Well, yes, but he sound like Dylan so … Imitation. Appropriation. Influence. Blah, blah, blah. Whatever, Trust is a great little album that seemed to arrive with zero fanfare despite Matthew Siskin ‘s amazingly strong voice. This guy needs to ride some hobo trains across the Great Plains stat and we’d likely have a new icon on our hands.
14. Still Corners – Strange Pleasures (Dream-Pop) [ Sub Pop ]
It’s here. The album I’ve been wanting ever since I saw the then unsigned Still Corners mesmerise on a tiny London stage. To these ears, previous efforts didn’t manage to capture the magic of that evening and I’d tentatively written off the experience as a simple exercise in the stars having been aligned. So happy to now be proved both right and wrong as Strange Pleasures is gorgeous stuff.
15. Throwing Up – Over You (Indie-Punk/Rock) [ O Genesis ]
Where’s the fun in being grown up? Life needs some smash-and-grab thrills and these London girls are here to oblige with 11 short, sloppy blasts of essential indie-punk. Sure, it’s the ready hooks that grab you, but it’s the no-frills production and rough-and-ready attitude that keep you on board. Oh, and there’s one absolutely killer track called “Sarah” too which you should listen to immediately.
16. Deap Vally – Sistrionix (Blues-Rock) [ Island ]
Don’t let the girls’ stage wear force you into stereotyping this primitive blues-rock duo, for they are most definitely for real. Every track on Sistrionix is attacked like they’re having the times of their lives and, despite being rather eye-catching indeed, the pair let their songs do most of the talking. Either way, if there’s more fun to be had this year than Sistrionix then count yourself very lucky indeed.
17. Savages – Silence Yourself (Post-Punk) [ Matador ]
It’s not the greatest British album since Unknown Pleasures (or whatever). Neither is it just facsimile Siouxsie stylings. In any case though, damn, is it easy to get carried away by it all because these post-punkette throwbacks live their sound so completely. The Savages experience is total immersion. Q: At what point does music become a study in historic exactitude? A: Silence Yourself .
18. Merchandise – Totale Night (Indie/Rock) [ Night People ]
Finally, here’s the album to prove the hype, though it’s not the album we were expecting. Hardcore upstarts aren’t supposed to make superior 80s indie-rock that echoes to the sound of Morrissey and the Bunnymen , but maybe that’s why it works so well. This is not tepid hero worship. These are dark DIY kids making every move they make count and you’d be wise to follow wherever they go next.
19. The Knife – Shaking The Habitual (Electronica/Experimental) [ Brille ]
It’s been seven years since the fun-loving Silent Shout and to say Shaking The Habitual is an unexpected turn after all this time is quite the understatement. A two-disk marathon, including a 19-minute unvarying drone, straight-up techno and passages of otherwise aggressive aggro-electro, it has its lighter moments too, though even they function like Sirens beckoning you onto the rocks.
20. The National – Trouble Will Find Me (Indie-Rock) [ 4AD ]
With each release by The National comes a certain weight of expectation that, with patience, what initially seems simple will give way to complex currents capable of engulfing you entirely. Now on their sixth LP of intelligent indie-rock, Trouble Will Find Me is no different in this regard, offering spectacular reward in proportion to time invested once more.
[sic] Review: Trouble Will Find Me
21. Destruction Unit – The Deep Trip (Sludgecore/Psychobilly-Punk) [ Sacred Bones ]
Remember this: The Deep Trip is the precise moment when space-rock got nasty, embracing sludgecore and demented punk, for such is the power on display here that it may be game changing. It would not be a surprise to see many a repeato-rock outfit follow suit next year.
22. Mudhoney – Vanishing Point (Rock) [ Sub Pop ]
Playing join-the-dots with hard rock, hardcore, noise, stoner rock, nostalgic proto-punk, sludgecore and, of course, fuzzy grunge – not to mention stints of bloodcurdling profanity – Vanishing Point is brash, loud and fun, as deeply mired in Mudhoney’s own history as that of all underground rock.
23. Deerhunter – Monomania (Ambient Punk) [ 4AD ]
When you’ve got a template that works, you’re sometimes best to stick to it. Deerhunter have a deft one and it always lands a product more than the sum of its parts. Monomania is almost subliminally sublime, the sort of inconspicuous indie that outsiders will just not get, making it all that more special.
24. Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt (Singer-Songwriter) [ Wichita ]
You can just tell Katie Crutchfield is the sort of songwriter for whom lyrics are scribbled under lock and key. Cerulean Salt is almost voyeuristic at times and while you watch Crutchfield you’ll realise you’re transfixed, totally in love with the hometown girl that sits cross-legged at the foot of her bed.
25. The Icarus Line – Slave Vows (Rock/Noise) [ Agitated ]
Ever wished last year’s massive Swans opus The Seer was somewhat more pocket-sized? Joe Cardamone has and, in part, has created just that here – albeit delivered with a touch of Hollywood flare. Frankly, it’s all one great kick to the crotch. Let’s not leave it so long next time, eh Joe?
26. Spacin’ – Deep Thuds (Psyche-Rock) [ Agitated ]
Of the fine Philly trinity that otherwise comprises of Birds Of Maya and Purling Hiss , Spacin’ have had the best year, Deep Thuds taking the parent band’s brand of super-crude shred and blending it seamlessly with hooky melodies borrowed from their sibling outfit. Keeping it in the family.
27. Fuzz – Fuzz (Garage-Psyche/Rock) [ In The Red ]
While garage master Ty Segall ‘s straightforward solo LP Sleeper disappointed this year, his new band Fuzz did anything but. These are eight no-messin’, riff-heavy tunes tackled with typically sloppy, sludgy abandon. They’ve even got Thee Oh Sees ‘ producer on board – obvious win.
28. Night Beds – Country Sleep (Alt-Country/Singer-Songwriter) [ Dead Oceans ]
Sometimes minimal to the point of a cappella, Winston Yellen ‘s debut LP really sounds as authentic as it should coming from a man recently job- and girlfriendless and, fresh from moving out of his car, living under the roof of a house in the woods previously owned by Johnny Cash and June Carter .
29. Austra – Olympia (Electronica/Pop) [ Domino ]
You don’t like synth-pop. Stop buying synth-pop. I’ve been telling myself this all year and then along comes Olympia . And it works because it doesn’t rely on any one element to convey its message and, moreover, because it’s more than a bit miserable. That operatic vocal too. <3 30. Wooden Shjips – Back To Land (Psyche-Rock) [ Thrill Jockey ]
Back To Land may just be the best Wooden Shjips LP to date – no mean feat in itself. It finds the arch-psychonauts in a playful mood, augmenting their trademark chug-cum-groove with some West Coast sunshine and it seems to have done these pale-face longhairs the world of good.
31. Torres – Torres (Singer-Songwriter) [ S/R ]
This year’s self-released, word-of-mouth smash, Torres is a singer-songwriter of vision even though she may not realise it herself. The way she switches her tales from angst-ridden to hometown humble is something to behold, though it’s her magnetic delivery that steals the show. Very impressive.
32. Talk Normal – Sunshine (Post-Punk/Noise-Rock) [ Joyful Noise ]
The problem with releasing at the end of the year is you get caught between lists. Happily the UK release of Sunshine just crept into contention with an early 2013 arrival, and, wow, it is intense, sheets of guitar almost obliterating the Brooklyn duo’s ragged repeats.
33. Dirty Beaches – Drifters / Love Is The Devil (Electronica/Experimental) [ Zoo ]
Globe-drifting soul Alex Zhang Hungtai is just looking for a place to lay down some roots, his music becoming increasingly dangerous all the while he doesn’t. Drifters / Love Is The Devil demonstrates the two sides of heartbreak rather accurately, uncovering both a vulnerability and viciousness.
[sic] Review: Drifters / Love Is The Devil
34. Carlton Melton – Always Even (Psyche-Rock/Drone) [ Agitated ]
Instead of ploughing exactly the same furrow as on last year’s lab-grade bong-athon, this Californian trio have switched fields … to one on Mars, where chugging kraut exposes phaser battles, righteous shred and thick streams of dark paranoia. The darkside always was more appealing.
35. White Manna – Dune Worship (Psyche/Space-Rock) [ Holy Mountain ]
This leg of the White Manna voyage gradually fades to black, its frequency-scanning majesty seemingly a space-odyssey recruitment drive to seek out new dimensions of space, time and rock. Sign up quick. There’ll already be a long line of red-eyed volunteers for its continuing mission.
36. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol.3: To See More Light (Prog-Country) [ Constellation ]
Well, ain’t this quite something?! Prog saxophonist Stetson more than lives up to his billing, pushing the instrument way beyond its normal boundaries and into locales marked Avant and Noise. Then you get trademark Justin Vernon vocals to smooth the waters and, weirdly, the two are the best of friends.
37. Wet Nuns – Wet Nuns (Stoner Rock/Blues Rock) [ Throng Of Knobs ]
You can either limp to a close or go out with a bang. Sheffield’s foremost stoners chose the latter and their snarling self-titled debut is also their last. But what a statement to leave behind! Sure, it’s all a little bit budget Kyuss meets the most stomping parts of the early White Stripes canon but who cares.
38. Pharmakon – Abandon (Electronica/Experimental/Noise) [ Sacred Bones ]
There’s noise and there’s NOISE. Abandon is the latter, opening with blunt screams and searing static while kitchen-sink samples chatter away at the edge of sanity. Somehow Margaret Chardiet then manages to drag it altogether for some of the bleakest beats ever. Not for beginners.
39. Forest Swords – Engravings (Electronica/Experimental/Dub) [ Tri Angle ]
The Morricone of dub returns with the Engravings LP, the super smart follow-up to 2010’s jaw-dropping Dagger Paths EP. And the way Matthew Barnes plays those ultra-reverbed guitar chimes off against his unique, sponge-like beat palette is just as striking as it was then.
40. G/L/A/S/S/C/A/N/D/Y – After Dark 2 (Italo-Disco/Compilation) [ Italians Do It Better ]
He knew it. We knew it. And now, thanks to that Drive soundtrack, so does everybody else. Italo-Disco enthusiasts Italians Do It Better’s taste is flawless and their second effortlessly cool After Dark compilation proves it time and time again. Swoon.
41. Comanechi – You Owe Me Nothing But Love (Punk/Pop/Garage-Rock) [ Tigertrap ]
It’s taken four years to get here since the killer debut, but You Owe Me Nothing But Love was worth the wait. Now a three piece, the band smash their way through breakneck garage-pop, disturbing punk and heavy riffs, frontwoman Akiko Matsuura as sexy as she is wildly unhinged.
42. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II (Garage-Funk) [ Jagjaguwar ]
If UMO is any sort of yardstick then the reality of scruffy, garage-band funk is more appealing than it is in theory, for what ought to be highly suspect is instead tackled with charm. Ruban Nielson ‘s strong melodies certainly help and, with less guitar noodling, II would have fared even better on this list.
43. Thought Forms – Ghost Mountain (Noise-Rock/Shoegaze) [ Invada ]
Ghost Mountain is all over the map when it comes to things bleak and anti-social, but so too it really difficult to dislike. Where some might only see the scorched fields of the apocalypse, others might find the green tips of untapped emotion, poetry and, tellingly, of possibility.
44. Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe (Ambient/Neo-Classical) [ Dead Oceans ]
Personally invited to record in Iceland by team Sigur Rós and featuring strings from Amiina , as well as a teenage choir that seem trapped on an ice-floe between dream and sleep, ambient maestro Barwick is in her element on Nepenthe , her layered vocal a chorus of angels all by itself.
45. John Murry – The Graceless Age (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [ Rubyworks ]
Impossible to separate by any great distance, Murry and Fullbright (below) are two of the best around when it comes to acing heavy-hearted singer-songwriting. The Graceless Age is timeless is the sense that it sounds like a classic now and if had been released thirty years ago it already would be.
[sic] Review: The Graceless Age
46. John Fullbright – From The Ground Up (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [ Thirty Tigers ]
John Fullbright comes from exactly the same part of Oklahoma as Woody Guthrie and, boy, does it show – in other words his roots are for real and the re-release of From The Ground Up is more than deserved, Fullbright’s Southwestern tongue tackling all types of biblical matters with real bite.
47. Honeyslide – Drippin / Deep Architecture EP (Shoegaze) [ Critical Heights ]
London layabouts Honeyslide may have just written one of the best shoegaze tracks of all time in “Drippin” and for that reason alone this EP deserves its place on this list. Just as well then that the remainder of this debut is super solid too. Expect big things.
48. Implodes – Recurring Dream (Krautrock/Drone) [ Kranky ]
Building on their pretty rad 2011 debut, Recurring Dream cranks up the kraut and smothers it simultaneously with a cloak of heavy reverb and effects. If Robert Smith ever fancied a stab at covering the blackest the shoegaze community has yet mustered it might sound a bit like this.
49. Clipd Beaks – Lost Offerings EP (Psyche-Noise/Drone) [ Moon Glyph ]
This Oakland five-piece are a decade into their fractured psyche-noise nightmare and their latest EP is a spectacular exercise in paranoid, post-hardcore inflections. Quiet-loud-quiet specialists, these four cuts drift between dream and tasty, Steve Albini -style assault.
[sic] Review: Lost Offerings EP
50. Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Garage-Psyche) [ Castle Face ]
Another year another fine John Dwyer record, this time on his own Castle Face imprint, but it could be the last for some time according to recent developments. If that’s the way it has to be then so be it as Floating Coffin is one hell of a sign-off, as high-octane and single-minded as ever.
The best of the rest (no particular order):
Hookworms – Pearl Mystic (Psyche-Rock) [ Gringo ]
Moonface – Julia With Blue Jeans On (Singer-Songwriter) [ Jagjaguwar ]
Yo La Tengo – Fade (Indie) [ Matador ]
The History Of Apple Pie – Out Of View (Indie/Rock) [ Marshall Teller ]
Adam Green – Adam Green & Binki Shapiro (60s Pop/Singer-Songwriter) [ Decca ]
Chelsea Light Moving – Chelsea Light Moving (Noise-Rock) [ Matador ]
Suuns – Images Du Futur (Krautrock/Ambient) [ Secretly Canadian ]
Blue Hawaii – Untogether (Electronica/R&B/Ambient) [ Arbutus ]
Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Singer-Songwriter/Heartland Rock) [ Matador ]
Iron & Wine – Ghost On Ghost (Singer-Songwriter) [ 4AD ]
Mazes – Ores & Minerals (Garage-Rock/Indie) [ Fat Cat ]
Fair Ohs – Jungle Cats (Worldbeat-Punk) [ Dream Beach ]
Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (Punk-Rock) [ What’s Your Rupture? ]
Cloud Boat – Book Of Hours (Post-Dubstep) [ Apollo ]
Wax Idols – Discipline & Desire (Post-Punk/Goth) [ Slumberland ]
Case Studies – This Is Another Life (Singer-Songwriter) [ Sacred Bones ]
The Non-Travellin’ Band – Never Prayed Once (Garage-Psyche) [ Moon Glyph ]
Pure X – Crawling Up The Stairs (Singer-Songwriter/Noise) [ Acéphale ]
Wooden Wand – Blood Oaths Of The New Blues (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [ Fire ]
A Grave With No Name – Whirlpool (Singer-Songwriter/Slacker-Rock) [ Stare ]
Bleached – Ride Your Heart (Punk-Surf/Garage-Pop) [ Dead Oceans ]
Pony Time – Go Find Your Own (Garage-Punk/Rock) [ Per Se ]
Bestial Mouths – Bestial Mouths (Post-Punk) [ Clan Destine ]
Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety (Electronica/R&B/Pop) [ Software ]
Föllakzoid – II (Psyche-Rock) [ Sacred Bones ]
Milk Music – Cruise Your Illusion (Punk-Rock) [ Fat Possum ]
The Thermals – Desperate Ground (Punk-Rock) [ Saddle Creek ]
Cayucas – Bigfoot (Indie/Pop) [ Secretly Canadian ]
Deafheaven – Sunbather (Post-Metal) [ Deathwish ]
Dolfinz – Pagan Dating EP (Grunge/Punk/Lo-fi) [ Tie Dye Tapes ]
Joanna Gruesome – Weird Sister (Noise-Pop) [ Fortuna Pop! ]
Vision Fortune – Mas Fiestas Con El Grupo Vision Fortune (Kraut/Drone) [ Gringo / Faux ]
Weekend – Jinx (Shoegaze/Post-Punk) [ Slumberland ]
Terror Bird – All This Time (Synthwave/Goth-Pop) [ Night School ]
Alex Bleeker & The Freaks – How Far Away (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [ Woodsist ]
Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (Tech-Noise/Pop) [ ATP ]
Smith Westerns – Soft Will (Indie/Pop) [ Mom + Pop ]
Disappears – Era (Kraut-Noise/Post-Punk) [ Kranky ]
Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana (College Rock/90s Indie) [ Carpark ]
White Hills – So You Are … So You’ll Be (Psyche-Metal) [ Thrill Jockey ]
Bill Callahan – Dream River (Singer-Songwriter) [ Drag City ]
Crystal Stilts – Nature Noir (Garage-Rock) [ Sacred Bones ]
Georgiana Starlington – Paper Moon (Alt-Country) [ HoZac ]
Vår – No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers (Post-Punk) [ Sacred Bones ]
Diarrhea Planet – I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams (Garage Rock) [ Infinity Cat ]
Frankie Rose – Herein Wild (Dream-Pop/Singer-Songwriter) [ Fat Possum ]
La Luz – It’s Alive (Surf/50s Rock ‘n’ Roll) [ Hardly Art ]
Potty Mouth – Hell Bent (Pop-Punk) [ Old Flame ]
Factory Floor – Factory Floor (Techno) [ DFA ]
Trwbador – Trwbador (Alt-Pop) [ Owlet / The Great Pop Supplement ]