10. Menomena - Mines

9. Ty Segall - Melted

8. Frog Eyes - Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph

7. White Denim - Last Day of Summer

6. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

5. Beach House - Teen Dream

4. The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt

3. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Women - Public Strain

Noisy, catchy and challenging, Women’s second album improves on their first in every way possible. Women are fully committed here to their tone, delivery and atmosphere, and as each track delves into more experimentation and feedback, you realize that you have stumbled upon something truly special. The band use screeching guitars and heavy echos to build tension and confinement, creating a mess of the expanse their distant sound originally sets up. Moments of pristine clarity shine through the haze, but only to let us know that Women know damn well how to craft a song, but prefer to hide it behind a confident wall of fuzzed out guitar. Brash, bold and ramshackle, Public Strain is a force to be reckoned with and an album that deserves every spin it gets. 

The Roots - How I Got Over

It’s almost a shame that The Roots are known as Jimmy Fallon’s late night band to more people than for their stellar catalogue of seminal hip-hop albums. How I Got Over is another fantastic release from the big band, once again showing off their penchant for slow grooves and hard-hitting verses. The jumpy piano line of “Walk Alone” anchors Dice Raw’s catchy chorus and Truck North’s aggressive first verse. What The Roots do better than just about any other band is evident on “Walk Alone”; they toe the line between modern and old-school hip-hop, jumping on relevant, deep-cut samples and injecting them with a political and racial fury. They add an existential yearning to the reworking of Monsters of Folk’s “Dear God 2.0,” and Joanna Newsom’s harp and vocal wail from “Book of Right-On” makes for the perfect underscore for Black Daw’s frantic, hungry delivery. As always, Questlove grounds the album with his laid back grooves, building the structure of each song from the ground up. How I Got Over is not only a great introduction for those unfamiliar with The Roots, it’s also a fantastic addition to their already monumental catalogue. 

Wolf Parade - Expo ‘86

Expo ‘86 is Wolf Parade’s best album to date for many different reasons. It deftly balances the frenetic exuberance of Apologies to the Queen Mary with the more spotty prog-rock of At Mount Zoomer, resulting in an album high on ambition that never falls off the rails. Boeckner and Krug practically split the album in half, but without the feeling of division that hindered their previous effort. Boeckner’s “Palm Road” and “Little Golden Age” serve as perfectly constructed contrasts to the wandering time-changes of Krug’s “Cloud Shadow on the Mountain” and “Cave-o-Sapien.” Wolf Parade show they know how to blend dissonant synths with scattered guitar lines and frantic percussion, providing moments of pure unhinged catharsis. This is a BIG album in every sense of the word and feels like the album Wolf Parade have always wanted to make; an honest, sprawling and genre-bending piece of indie-rock.

Wolf Parade - Expo ‘86

Expo ‘86 is Wolf Parade’s best album to date for many different reasons. It deftly balances the frenetic exuberance of Apologies to the Queen Mary with the more spotty prog-rock of At Mount Zoomer, resulting in an album high on ambition that never falls off the rails. Boeckner and Krug practically split the album in half, but without the feeling of division that hindered their previous effort. Boeckner’s “Palm Road” and “Little Golden Age” serve as perfectly constructed contrasts to the wandering time-changes of Krug’s “Cloud Shadow on the Mountain” and “Cave-o-Sapien.” Wolf Parade show they know how to blend dissonant synths with scattered guitar lines and frantic percussion, providing moments of pure unhinged catharsis. This is a BIG album in every sense of the word and feels like the album Wolf Parade have always wanted to make; an honest, sprawling and genre-bending piece of indie-rock.

Sun Araw - “Dimension Alley”

Sun Araw - On Patrol

The latest from Sun Araw (Cameron Stallones) is a monumental, slow-burning fusion of psychedelic and electronic influences. Low, heavy sonics blend in with bubbling synths and distant, near-indistinguishable vocals. 75-minutes is a lot of time to fill, but Stallones uses that time to let his music stew, creating a giant, expansive atmosphere that’s also particular when it comes to its details. Songs like “Deep Cover” and “Ma Holo” revel in their hazy loops, building structures out of what feels like thin air. The reverb, echo heavy and cricket-chirp sampling of “Dimension Alley” proves to be a wonderful culmination of the albums experiments, drenching itself in a distant atmosphere that also feels strikingly personal. This is music to sit down and get involved with, to be captivated by the way each song grows out of one another and forms its own identity.