With so much good music coming through thick and fast, it’s easy for new music to drop online and go unnoticed. To help prevent this, we’ve picked 5 new releases you don’t want to miss. Stream music from Lapalux, Sufjan Stevens, Ryley Walker, Young Fathers and Nadine Shah.
If you like what you hear support the artist.
Lapalux – Lustmore
Brainfeeder’s sole British representative Lapalux follows up on 2013’s ‘Nostalchic’ with his second longplayer ‘Lustmore’, an album loosely based on the experience of hypnogogia (a transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep). His infectious rhythms, enveloping textures and unfamiliarly familiar melodies conjure that territory perfectly. ‘Lustmore’ sees the young producer take another stride forward.
7/10
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
The album—named for Stevens’ mother and stepfather—is a return to Stevens’ folk roots. Thematically the 11 songs address life and death, love and loss, and the artist’s struggle to make sense of the beauty and ugliness of love. It’s not an easy listen, by any means, but it is very beautiful.
8/10
Ryley Walker – Primrose Green
Primrose Green begins near where All Kinds of You, his last record, leaves off but quickly pushes far afield. The title sounds pastoral and quaint, but the titular green has dark hallucinogenic qualities, as does much of the LP. The band is a mixture of new and old Chicago talent, blending both jaded veterans of the post-rock and jazz mini-circuits together with a few eager, open-eared youths. This album is absolutely astounding and will easily feature in my year end list.
8/10
Young Fathers – Black Men Are White Men Too
The Edinburgh trio return with the follow-up to their Mercury Prize winning debut album, ‘Dead’. The album is trippy and disorientating and yet always maddeningly catchy. This is one of the most unique and innovative albums I’ve heard this year.
8/10
Nadine Shah – Fast Food
The inimitable Nadine Shah releases her second album, ‘Fast Food’ via Apollo Records. It’s an intense, brooding and mournful album. If you thought debut album ‘Love Your Dum and Mad’ was dark – then ‘Fast Food’ pushes it to even darker places.
7/10
