RSSConsumer Guide by Review Date: 2013-01-18
2013-01-18
Animal Collective: Centipede Hz (Domino, 2012) All too theoretically fun-loving communards nice up the hilarity, whereupon their base tells them to stop being such goofs already ("Moonjock," "Applesauce") ***
Cat Power: Sun (Matador, 2012) Chanteuse realizes she can say no to peace without giving love the fish-eye, lowering her tristesse quotient beaucoup ("Peace and Love," "3.6.9") **
El-P: Cancer4Cure (Fat Possum, 2012) Loathing this fearsome gets kitschy fast unless it cops to caricature or abjures surreal overstatment--which latter his least austere album does sometimes ("The Jig Is Up," "Drones Over Bklyn") ***
Future: Pluto (Epic, 2012) The truth is, his Auto-Tuned flow has more future in it than his intermittently interplanetary rhymes ("Turn on the Light," "Permanent Scar") **
Hot Chip: In Our Heads (Domino, 2012) Possibly the world's most thoughtful and loving dance band--virtues that, tragically as usual, often aren't as exciting as one might hope ("How Do You Do," "Don't Deny Your Heart") **
Purity Ring: Shrines (4AD, 2012) Displaced soprano asks musical question: is this home or exile? ("Ungirthed," "Lofticries") *
Andy Stott: Luxury Problems (Modern Love, 2012) Electronics more human than sopranos! ("Sleepless," "Luxury Problems") *
Tame Impala: Lonerism (Modular, 2012) You have to respect a nuevo-psychedelic sage whose message to the world is "Nothing ever changes/No matter how long you do your hair/It looks the same to everyone else"--well, at least I do ("Apocalypse Dreams," "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards") **