Beach House – Bloom
Beach House’s decision to call this record Bloom is almost too perfect. Over the course of four albums that’s exactly what this band has done. Two people from Baltimore started by making incense-smelling, curtains-drawn bedroom pop. Now, eight years later, they make luminous, sky-sized songs that conjure some alternate universe where Cocteau Twins have headlined every stadium on Atlantis. “Bloom” is also what these 10 songs do, each one starting with the sizzle of a lit fuse and at some fine moment exploding like a firework in slow motion. The word captures the music’s slow sonority: the round, gleaming edges of Alex Scally’s arpeggios and how, in Victoria Legrand’s unhurried mouth, all words seem to have a few extra vowels. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Best Coast – The Only Place
“The Only Place” (Mexican Summer) amps up the production by bringing in Jon Brion, who has worked with Kanye West, Fiona Apple and Spoon, among others. Brion keeps the focus on Cosentino’s sure voice and swooning harmonies. Melody rules, thanks to countless wordless vocal hooks and Bruno’s surf-guitar fills. Excursions into more orchestrated pop evoke the work of Burt Bacharach and Dusty Springfield (“Up All Night”) and a countrypolitan ballad affirms that Cosentino continues to mature and grow as a singer (“No One Like You”). Cool little touches abound, from the chiming percussion that enhances the dusky “Dreaming My Life Away” to the waltz-time vocal coda in “Last Year.” Read the full review on The Chciago Tribune

Squarepusher – Ufabulum
So after the more lived-in adventures of Just A Souvenir, and the really-pushing-it-now slapfunkeries of Solo Electric Bass 1, it’s great to see him get back to Techno Town full-time. Ufabulum is Squarepusher’s stab at a stabby-synth rave album. Its creator has been canny enough to make it not at rave pace, but to realise that glitchtronica in itself already simulates the true pace of a brain on rave-drugs: slowed-down, enveloping you in its big synthy mush, yet simultaneously sped-up and hyper-alert. Ten years since his commercial peak, he’s still hitting new highs. Read the full review on Vice