Album Log

The Voidz embrace the weirdness, worn out and paranoid.

Great 2018 glam pop record.

Sakamoto contemplates mortality, finiteness and the existential strangement as he makes the soundtrack for an imaginary Tarkovsky film. That’s something special.

The much anticipated full length album by Sumney keeps up with the expectations. Aromanticism is a intellectual journey to the self, minimalist in its music mysterious and magical in its ambiance.

After the introspective, recluse Morning Phase, Beck comes back with the exact opposite: a collection of shining pop songs. Colors is an exercise on contemporary pop, a successful one: we’ve never seen Beck so openly appealing to the masses.

Big Fish Theory is completely immersed into techno, which separates Vince Staples from the majority of rappers today. Consequently the beats sound super fresh and the whole album has an innovative urban and futuristic ambiance.

This Old Dog suggests DeMarco is taking his time after years of success following 2014′s Salad Days. Between the electric-acoustic sound of Salad Days and the electric piano romantism of 2015′s Another One, DeMarco doesn’t bring anything musically new, but he’s surely more focused into retrospective lyrics. Nevertheless there are great tracks such as For the First Time, One More Love Song and On the Level.  We’ll soon see if he’s taking his breath or reaching his creative peak.

Once you get used to Migo’s trademark chopped rapping you’re good to enjoy Culture: its minimal beats shows it’s obviously focused on the trio’s rapping. The album has two distinct halfs: the first one is upbeat and natural, the second half is more downbeat and melodic with lots of autotune vocals, which may wears you out to the point of suffering.

Algiers outdone themselves,The Underside of Power is pure burning rage. Musically they add contemporary electronics to 70s soul, guided by the powerful vocals of James Fisher Franklin. The production is big to epic proportions. The Underside of Power is war chant for social revolution.

Phoenix escapes the dark age of 2017 to italian coasts. In its homage to italo disco they end up sounding like Daft Punk, without losing their essence. Ti Amo is gentle, innocent and refreshing - first track kicks off with a sprite ad-like “ahhhhhhh”. With a handful of great hits that can’t decide between missing the 80s or fantasizing it, Ti Amo definetely marks the 2017 summer.

Cut Copy return with a sequence of of synth rock disco hits. It’s one of their most solid albums ever, despite there’s no surprises.

Superclean Vol.1 is a strong EP, polished mid-tempo pop with a psychedelic rock edge. All tracks are good.

Plunge explores elementary emotional and physical stimuli in social life, often related to cultural taboos. Karin Dreijer plays with sexual and bizarre sadomasochist aesthetics. The album seems part adventure, part psychoanalytical and anthropological analysis. The music is synthetic, cold, less mysterious than Fever Ray’s previous album, contrasting with Dreijer’s intense, feverish posture.

Archy Marshall challenges the listener with left-field rock ‘n roll and hip hop infused in cool jazz. One can clearly listen to Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Pixies, J Dilla, Madlib, Miles Davis. But King Krule’s got his own contemporary touch, so The OOZ goes telling fragmentary tales of decadence. The album is not easy, not inviting, but it pays off the effort, or better, it pays off letting yourself go with the music through Marshall’s paranoia.

Pond was always shadow of other bands (Tame Impala, MGMT) and aesthetics (60′s psychedelia and 70′s glam rock). Despite they’re being good, Pond is essentially artificial. So, in The Weather, in addition to sound like the usual glam psychedelic immitation, Pond adds Tame Impala’s Currents-class pop on Sweep Me Off My Feet and Paint me Silver - the album’s hit, a hello to fellow aussie King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on A/B, and the Jay Watson’s Gum-like cut Colder than Ice. At this point we know Pond is not about authenticity, it seems they’re about sounding good. And they’re ok at that.

Solid record by the canadian duo. Morning After does no innovation or revolution, but it’s strong, polished, comprehensive R&B. There are no fillers, only distilled tracks.

Musically irreproachable, Lamar reflects on isolation and human relations.