Real Estate – Atlas
On Atlas, their basic sound hasn’t changed—frontman Martin Courtney’s clean-strummed open chords, Matt Mondanile’s bright leads, and a light-stepping rhythm section all squish together comfortably like college housemates sprawled on a sectional sofa—but the mood has. “I’m just trying to make some sense of this before I lose another year,” shrugs Courtney on “The Bend”. On “Crime”, he sings “Toss and turn all night, don’t know how to make this right/ Crippling anxiety.” The once-ideal pool party band, in other words, has turned to soundtracking the cleanup: Everyone’s gone, the sky’s threatening rain, there are cigarette butts floating in the pool, and we’ve all gotta work tomorrow. Read the full review on Pitchfork
Drive By Truckers – English Oceans
What distinguishes the Truckers’ 12th album from the rest of their excellent recent pack is two-fold: 1) The band came out firing hot, the batch of lean rock songs presented in their visceral, unadorned rawness, and 2) More than ever before, this is a Cooley album, with six of his compositions shaping the overall tone of the record.
Cooley’s “Shit Shots Count” kicks off the album with the sort of sly, weary wisdom of someone who’s long since dropped all idealism: “Friday night rich is all you’re ever gonna be until the fight in you on Monday’s gone.” Go to work and have your weekends and forget about measuring your life in terms of pride or shame, advises Cooley, adopting a resigned barfly honesty: “Don’t act so surprised, and try not to look so lost.” Read the full review on Paste
Nick Waterhouse – Holly
Nick Waterhouse looks like Elvis Costello and sings like a smoother Dan Auerbach. He writes tight, short songs that would make Bert Bern of Twist And Shout fame proud. You can imagine that he and Van Morrison have a similar record collection, including the Irish bard’s own classics. Unlike other genre-resurging acts like The Allah-las, Tame Impala, Ty Segall or Foxygen, Waterhouse’s main well of inspiration is not classic ’60s rock and roll, but R&B and soul, the kind you listened to in the ’50s on a Chess Records LP. Read the full review on Music OHM