Phoenix – Bankrupt!
If it sometimes seems that Bankrupt! is bursting at the seams, it’s because it is. A song like album highlight “SOS in Bel Air” has no less than three different hooks running rampant through its breathless structure, while “Trying To Be Cool” pokes fun at itself and the band with a breezy, gleaming bit of ‘80s trifle that is decidedly uncool for 2013 – and that’s before the R&B breakdown that ends things without a hint of embarrassment. Read the full review on Sputnik Music

Flaming Lips – The Terror
After resisting for so long the miniaturization of rock—the entry in Continuum’s 33 1/3 series on Zaireeka aptly describes that album’s synced-up, four-disc experience as “the anti-MP3”—The Terror is The Flaming Lips record that fits in your pocket. Not that this detracts from its potency: This is a lonely record, epic in length and intimate in scope. Read the full review on The AV Club

Iron & Wine – Ghost on Ghost
Ghost On Ghost is the fifth Iron & Wine full-length, viewed by Beam as “a reward to myself after the way I went about making the last few.” This is a curious statement, as the record doesn’t initially feel or sound too far-removed from 2011’s Kiss Each Other Clean, nor The Shepherd’s Dog. The instrumentation is lush and expansive, song titles like ‘Grace for Saints And Ramblers’ are quintessentially Iron & Wine, and the sinners, naked boys, morning birds and country fairs that appear on the opening ‘Caught in the Briars’ are lyrical staples for Beam at this point – ones he has contemplated plenty across his discography. Read the full review on The Quietus