Neko Case – Worse Things get,the Hard I Fight…
Neko the sonnet-puking miracle. There is no end to her grace, even among messy, jagged ephemera that constitutes Case’s lyrics. It’s very much like she’s purged her pretty packages of words to make room for the breathlessly world-weary poetry that clings to every melody for dear life. No time for sonnets when there’s wasp nests in your idyll. And while a line like “I remember the 80s/ I remember its puffy sleeves” honestly comes off a bit trite, that honest detail in the end is there as a dare. She’s not talking about easy things, and she’s blazing toward the sensory, sacrificing simple rock tropes and perhaps “cool” itself. Read the full review on Pretty Much Amazing

Janelle Monae – Electric Lady
With The Electric Lady, [Monae] finds a way to give us more of herself. Together with her tight-knit Wondaland collaborators– Kellindo Parker, a magnificent guitarist who singlehandedly gooses several songs into transcendence; her college friends Nate “Rocket” Wonder and Chuck Lightning, and Roman GianArthur– Monáe supervises and synthesizes a parade of golden touchstones (Sly, Stevie, Marvin) into a show-stopping display of force and talent. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks
The first sound you hear are these little pulses. They’re little beats, that tease. Beats that creep quietly. Beats, made by a man (a sampled first beat of a babies heart? Or the snap-crack of a bone?) and processed by his evil machines. And then, before the prelude reaches any kind of climax, ‘Copy of A’ bursts onto the scene and you find yourself riding these green pixelated horses into battle… Read the full review on Drowned in Sound