Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer – Child Ballads
Harvard professor Francis James Child gathered more than 300 folk songs from England and Scotland during the late 19th century. Known as the “Child Ballads”, these songs form the canon of the modern folk music repertoire; everyone from Joan Baez to Fleet Foxes has recorded them. These tales of witchery and honor, curses and transformations, were old when Child first collected them. Mitchell and Hamer perform seven of them on their new disc. Read the full review on Pop Matters

The Strokes – Comedown Machine
On “Welcome to Japan” the band finally sounds like they are enjoying the music they are playing. Casablancas sings “I didn’t want to notice/ I didn’t know that God was loaded/ I didn’t really know this/ what kind of asshole drives a Lotus.” Comedown Machine has too few of these loose, innately enjoyable moments. “Partners in Crime” gives the latter part of the album a much needed injection of bouncy guitar riffs. The album’s emphasis on New Wave synths and 80′s aesthetic (probably a holdover from Casablancas’ solo work) is fine at times, but tunes like “Partners In Crime” and “All the Time” are simply more fun. The Strokes are a rock band from New York; the songs on Comedown Machine that embrace that are the standouts. Read the full review on Pretty Much Amazing

Wavves – Afraid Of Heights
Afraid Of Heights sounds bigger and more ambitious than anything Nathan Williams’ former backyard solo project has ever recorded. The big-name producer and studio certainly help; so does the three-year break between Afraid Of Heights and 2010’s breakthrough King Of The Beach. But unlike Wavves’ previous records (including two simply titled Wavves), Afraid Of Heights doesn’t sound like it’s filled with first-take toss-offs. Read the full review on the AV Club

David Bowie – The Next Day
A career spent courting otherworldliness, followed by a decade out of the public eye (and a 2004 heart attack), does tend to fuel morbid rumors. Fortunately, Bowie, at the age of 66, is perfectly healthy—or at least healthy enough to work, as only two days after I was assured he was drawing his last breath, his label announced he’d soon debut his first album of new songs in 10 years. The Next Day finally arrives this week, after a couple of videos and a pre-release stream on iTunes, and it’s quite good, too, although you should be wary of critics—even trustworthy me! Read the full review on Vanity Fair

Rhye – Woman
Even without a face to attach it to, Rhye’s music itself feels deeply intimate. Much of this comes from Hannibal and Milosh’s deft arrangements– each of Woman’s 10 songs makes its point with a bare minimum of moving parts. Beats, basslines, and Milosh’s voice are at the center of nearly all of them; although a majority of the tracks boast arrangements for horns and strings, most of these are so subtle that you might not even realize they’re there until you read the liner notes afterward. The lean production leaves little space between the listener and the songs, and they feel almost touchably close. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Devendra Banhart – Mala
[Devendra Banhard] has managed to keep his sound unique without coming across as trying too hard. Eccentric instrumentation, recurring thoughts, and otherworldly concepts just seem to find their way into his special brand of off-kilter, folksy freak-flamenco. His eighth studio album, Mala, although softer and a touch more dour than some of his previous offerings, proves that Banhart is still a strange fella leaving his mark on the world of popular music. Read the full review on consequence of sound

Josh Ritter – Beast in it’s Tracks
Masterful break-up albums are nothing new in music (personal favorites include Blood on the Tracks, Sea Change, Noah and The Whale’s The First Days of Spring). However, with The Beast in Its Tracks, the Moscow, Idaho native has crafted both the newest addition into the annals of the true greats, and he has crafted a personal journey of recorded heartbreak that is unlike any break-up album that came before it. The differentiation rests in Ritter’s heroic ability to turn pain and anger into intimate songs of nearly unthinkable empathy, kindness and, ultimately, optimism. Read the full review on No Depression

Robyn Hitchcock – Love from London
His capacity to surprise is in full effect on Love From London. Although the album’s psychedelic moments are quintessential Hitchcock—the jagged electric-pop jams “Fix You” and “I Love You,” the cosmic oceanic coda of “End Of Time”—the record overall is quite subdued. (The major exception to this rule is the album’s rowdiest moment: “Devil On A String,” a Bowie-circa-Aladdin Sane glam-blues pastiche.) Read the full review on The AV Club

Jimi Hendrix – People, Hell & Angels
The gifts continue to arrive, this time with the release of People, Hell & Angels. For Hendrix fanatics, each new installment signifies an event and is to be celebrated accordingly. Of course the aficionados will know in advance how much of this material has appeared, in various forms, on previous releases – both sanctioned and not. For the merely curious, or anyone who has not yet properly experienced Hendrix (are you experienced?), this is not the place to start. For anyone else, this disc, like the aforementioned Valleys of Neptune affords the chance to get caught up on a dozen tracks all in one spot as opposed to the aforementioned bootlegs. Put another way, this is hardly essential unless anything Hendrix did is essential and you want to hear everything he did. Read the full review on Pop Matters

Iceage – You’re Nothing
Iceage’s self-produced second album is even better than their debut. It’s the quartet’s first offering for the larger label Matador (the album’s still being released by Escho in Denmark) and they come off even wilder and more chaotic than they did in 2011, but also more experienced and nuanced. They’ve honed the uncanny sense of classic punk songwriting– the guitar sound’s huge, the hooks more present, the charisma of dead-eyed, out-of-breath vocalist Elias Bender Rønnenfelt even greater. When you listen to the two records in tandem, you realize how brittle New Brigade was: “brittle” in an excellently fuzzed, rancid way, but You’re Nothing is a heftier experience. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside – Untamed Beast
I’m sure Sallie Ford is a lovely and polite woman but on record she comes across as brash, crude and not the least bit unapologetic for her actions. She’ll sex you up as easy as she’ll kick your ass, and is comfortable with every action. For someone who loves a little bit of dirt and grime with their music, Untamed Beast, really hits the spot. Read the full review on Hear Ya

Mount Mariah – Miracle Temple
Mount Moriah is also a surprising bit of beauty considering its genesis. Heather McEntire was the singer for the excellently brash rock band Bellafea, while guitar Jenks Miller is best known in North Carolina for his Southern-gothic-psych-metal outfit Horseback. But two years ago the two teamed up—for the second time, their first a pop act called Un Deux Trois—and released Mount Moriah, a soulful, bittersweet breath of fresh air. That album was lush and melted at the edges and pensive, Miller’s guitar lines circling around the honeyed vulnerability of McEntire’s voice. Read the full review on Pop Matters

unknown mortal orchestra – II
If their self-titled debut was any indication of an experiment in funk and garage, UMO’s II delves deeper into the jazz-tinged psychedelia end as guitarist Ruban Nielson’s riffs become a more prominent character alongside his strange, otherworldly vocals. Diverging a long way from The Mint Chicks, his previous power-punk outfit that indulged in two-minute hits of adrenaline, Nielson’s UMO has developed even further with this new collection of personal cuts that explore themes of loneliness and isolation. Read the full review on Pretty Much Amazing

Jim James – Regions of Light and Sound of God
If My Morning Jacket’s albums have mostly come together like a revival meeting– a group playing live, working together to create something larger than its members– James’ first solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, emerges from something closer to meditation. James holed himself away in his Louisville home studio, writing and piecing together songs, playing most of the parts himself. It’s process-based music, and he admits it in the album’s first seconds. On “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)”, James breaks his creative process down to its primordial elements– vowels, nursery rhymes– like he’s leading a workshop on discovering one’s inner poet. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Richard Thompson – Electric
When Thompson isn’t working in peak form, this recurring theme can become tiresome. But this time around, working with producer Buddy Miller — who mostly favors spare settings for Thompson’s guitar and voice — the songs on the new Electric have a crisp clarity that wrings out most of the self-righteousness. Two songs stand out in particular. The first is “Stony Ground,” in which the 63-year-old Thompson imagines a codger older than himself, still feeling goatish and erotically greedy, and still getting poked in the nose for his urges. The result is what might happen if Philip Roth wrote the words for a song with roots in British folk music. Read the full review on NPR

Toro Y Moi – Anything in Return
The album contains an array of aesthetic flavors that are both interesting and accessible. Some, like “Touch,” simply create a sonic room, just to “fill it with stone.” And while the filling in of an emotional hole/space created by unsuccessful love doesn’t seem all that interesting or accessible, its lounge feel and Nicolas Jaar-like sparsity give it depth far beyond what you might expect from a pop song that essentially communicates the message, “I’m hurt.” The next song, “Cola,” makes brief use of a James Blake-ian synthesizer sound, and then, following it, “Studies” makes use of something which immediately reminds me of Delicate Steve’s distinct, screechy guitars. Read the full Review on Pretty Much Amazing

Bad Religion – True North
Some of the band’s most potent moments have been its most melodic, intricate, and progressive. True North leaves little breathing room for such luxuries, but there are bright flashes in songs like “Past Is Dead,” which begins with a brief passage of bleak, jangling folk, the kind that often underlies even the most blistering and distorted Bad Religion song. Accordingly, “Past Is Dead” carries a deeper, darker weight, as does “Robin Hood In Reverse,” a screed that attacks plutocracy and Graffin’s old punching bag, Christianity, while launching majestic rock solos and lifting a line from punk legend Sham 69. Read the full review on The AV Club

Joy Formidable – Wolf’s Law
Wolf’s Law comes out strong with “This Ladder Is Ours,” which begins with a swell of strings before bringing in Rhydian Dafydd’s fat bass and Bryan’s chiming guitar and voice, creating a feeling of precarious-but-thrilling ascent; and the album ends well with the title track, which starts as a plaintive piano ballad and then gets loud and stormy, like the climax of a blockbuster fantasy movie. The songs in between are just as evocative, with standout tracks “Maw Maw Song,” “Forest Serenade,” and “The Hurdle” sounding grand and ancient, as though they’ve come roaring out of the mystic wilds of Olde Europe. But the most important trick that The Joy Formidable finesses is to take that sense of grandeur and apply it to today’s world, to ordinary people trying to cope with stress and loneliness. Read the full Review on The AV Club

Brian Eno – Lux
It’s easy to forget that Eno’s ambient work doesn’t always fit his strict definition. Music for Films sounds like it– it’s very suggestive of particular feeling– and the brilliant Ambient 4: On Land conjures an entire landscape, one filled with swamps and strange creatures. But Lux is squarely in the tradition of music that can be ignored but holds up (sometimes just barely) to closer scrutiny. It turns any living room into an art installation where interesting things may or may not happen, and its lack of direction and specificity is in its own way brave. Sometimes it’s hard to not say anything; Brian Eno is doing just that, once again, and beautifully. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Emeralds – Just to Feel Anything
Cleveland ambient wizards Emeralds have spent the last six years building a reputation that doesn’t exactly hinge on the concept of accessibility. Through countless CD-R releases, cassettes, collaborations, singles and side projects, the trio of John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt and Mark McGuire has amassed a staggering amount of hypnotic and enchanting music, but for many casual listeners the group’s 2010 LP, Does It Look Like I’m Here?, was the big coming-out party: a sprawling yet cohesive journey into the depths of a carefully cultivated psychedelic, Kraut-drone universe. After two years the band has released a follow-up, Just To Feel Anything, and it’s an even bigger gamble for the group but in a surprising way. Instead of continuing to explore the blacklight-friendly star-map of their comfy aesthetic planetarium, Emeralds have made a warp-drive leap into the experimental-pop realm. Read the full review on CMJ

Bad Brains – Into the Future
“Into the Future” present brutal songs that often travel on meandering paths. “Youth of Today” starts hard and ends dubby, and “Come Down” is as ferocious a hard-core wind sprint as anything the band’s ever done. As always, singer H.R. is as much a preacher as a singer, and the constant proselytizing about Jah gets a little old, but complaining about it is like knocking Kirk Franklin for singing about Jesus. It’s best to sit back and let the power of visionary punk rock wash over you. Read the full review on LA Times

Neil Young – Psychedelic Pill
“The king of the left turn” is how Stephen Stills recently described Neil Young. Stills ought to know. As Young’s bandmate in Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and The Stills-Young Band, he’s been a party to many of Young’s various incarnations: folkie, hippie, rocker, superstar. But what makes Young compelling isn’t just the fact he evolves—it’s that his leaps happen sharply, erratically, and often perversely. In an industry that traditionally tries to cage and tame artists, Young has routinely chewed his own leg off to escape expectation—some notable examples being the futuristic Trans, the retro Everybody’s Rockin’, and the noisy Arc. “King” is a weighted word to use when discussing Young; this is the same guy who wrote the line, “The king is gone, but he’s not forgotten,” turning Johnny Rotten from punk villain to folk hero with the stroke of a pen and a pick. Read the full review on AV Club

Andrew Bird – Hands of Glory
Hands of Glory possesses an almost academic quality, as though Bird and his cohorts were presenting a musical essay about endtimes imagery in country music. The album begins with “Three White Horses”, which, thanks to Bird’s bowing, sounds like it’s coming from an old acetate. That song is followed by a cover of the Handsome Family’s “When That Helicopter Comes”, an oddball gospel that deploys Alan Hampton’s bouncy bass and Bird’s otherworldly bow as a soundtrack to separatist paranoia: “There’ll be power in the blood, when the helicopters come.” Bird switches theologies for “Orpheo”, an austere reimagining of the spry “Orpheo Looks Back” from Break It Yourself, which thrives on the empty spaces between the strums and plucks, such that his gentle falsetto at the end has a beseeching effect. Only “Railroad Bill”, with its aw-shucks lyrics hoots and hollers, sounds out of place. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Neurosis – Honor Found in Decay
Surely, at some point in their long, storied careers Neurosis have felt an intense pressure or moment of weakness. After all, it only makes sense. A band can only perform for so long at such quality before things start to get trying. Yet for the last two decades the metal titans have made it all seem so effortless. High quality, genre defining records and releases are simply the band going through the motions. At this point, it is not only likely, but expected that Neurosis will provide a fresh and incredible experience with each new release. And as typical fashion, the Oakland post-metal outfit does not disappoint. Their latest, Honor Found in Decay, is as challenging and engrossing a record as they have ever produced and an incredible celebration of the band’s legendary career as well. Read the full review on Sputnik Music

Titus Andronicus – Local Business
On the band’s third outing, we find lead singer/principle songwriter Patrick Stickles delivering some of his most self-reflective and honest lyrics. While the album’s overall concept seems to be dedicated to the dying businesses of its namesake, the record’s lyrics reflect a much more personal and emotional message– the desire to find some truth in this lonesome, bankrupt world. Local Business manages to sum itself up well within its first few stanzas. “Ok, I think, by now, we’ve established that everything is inherently worthless / And there is nothing in the universe with any kind of objective purpose,” Stickles screams with conviction. Some may view this as an incredibly depressing statement to start off an album, but Stickles delivers the line with such fervor that it almost seems liberating– a cleansing moment for the listener. Read the full review on No Ripcord

Gary Clark Jr. – Blak and Blu
Whether the deepest Muddy Waters cut or the Black Keys in some Home Depot ad, the blues has to have The Ache. It’s that un-fake-able sense that the voice you’re hearing has seen the ugliest parts of the world and is bearing every inch of their emotional wounds. For his part, Clark’s attempts at portraying The Ache result in the oh-so-close “Numb” and “Next Door Neighbor Blues”. Read the full review on Consequence of Sound

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist
Author Malcolm Gladwell laid out the theory in his book Outliers: The Story of Success that regardless of God-given talent, an individual who strives for an ideal proficiency in their respective craft must first spend at least ten years honing their skills. Better known as the “10,000-Hour Rule” it can be applied to any industry – whether it is science, sports or the arts. Fittingly, it’s also a theory that Seattle rapper Macklemore stands by, as evidenced by his climb from earlier years of artistic stagnation and personal struggles to an underground sensation that has built his own success without the assistance of a record label. This culmination of an independent and willful demeanor is undoubtedly present on his debut full-length The Heist with producer Ryan Lewis. Read the full review on Hip Hop DX

Godspeed You Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
It’s tempting to look at Allelujah! through the lens of politics, especially since Godspeed themselves have so often encouraged this viewpoint. When we last heard from them on record, it was a year after 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan was well underway, and the war in Iraq was just around the corner. We were settling into a decade that was, from an American perspective, defined by two wars started by an increasingly unpopular president and an inflating economic bubble that would pop just as he was leaving office. Their music and presentation drew some of its energy from this anxiety. So listening to new music from Godspeed now– during an election season, when the wars and the aftermath of that economy are still being argued every day by two presidential candidates grappling with the legacy of the early 2000s– you can’t help but allow the political moment to shape how it’s heard. Read the full review on Pitchfork
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP6-wlhviKw

Donald Fagen – Sunken Condos
“Sunken Condos” begins with a familiar lyrical dilemma: perils of dating young women when, like Wooderson in “Dazed and Confused,” Fagen gets older and they stay the same age. “Slinky Thing” posits that everyone at a party is wondering “what she’s doing with that burned-out hippie clown.” This has been Fagen’s default position since he was in his 20s, and it always works, because there’s something compelling about someone who can be both a dirty old man and a practitioner of immaculate music. But elsewhere, as he did on 2006’s “Morph the Cat,” Fagen is dealing with new pressures buried in his timeless grooves. “They may fix the weather in the world, just like Mr. Gore said/ Tell me what’s to be done about the weather in my head,” Fagen sings in “Weather in My Head,” one of his best songs in years, against a crystalline modified blues progression.
Read the full review on NewsOK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKFBx_DzcY8

Benjamin Gibbard – Former Lives
Gibbard knows he has a good thing going for him, and after more than 15 years in the indie trenches, he knows how to play to his strengths. On his first proper solo album, Former Lives, Gibbard once again showcases the nuanced, nice-guy indie rock that has made him a central figure of the genre’s new wave. His tepid, sweet vocal delivery is intact, while musically the album continues to chip away at the pleasantly emotive indie pop the singer has long made his bread and butter. He might be going it alone this time out, but fans should be pleased to find he hasn’t strayed too far from home. Read the full review on Consequence of Sound