Tons Of Tunes Comin’ At You

"Wait, which one of you knows where the camera's at?"

Oh look…tunes n’ such.

Alabama Shakes- Boys & Girls (***½): Thank goodness Brittney Howard has come along to disrupt the malaise of Top 40 Adele-like “soul singers.”  Alabama Shakes rumble with some real blues fire, from their gospel-organ swells to their raucous riffing.  There’s power in their chords and in Howard’s vocal chords, the sort of presence that used to punctuate the Grammys way back in the day.  Maybe Alabama Shakes will be the ones to shake that up.

Key Cuts: Hold On, Heartbreaker, I Ain’t The Same

Beach House- Bloom (***½): Chances are if you didn’t hitch your wagon to 2010’s Teen Dream, Bloom isn’t going to do much to change your mind about Beach House.  The music is still wobbling between glacial and celestial, and the choruses tend to rise instead of sporting punchy hooks.  Still, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scully have supped up their keyboards and added a little weight behind their typically chiming guitars, just so to remind you that you’re listening to the new stuff.

Key Cuts: Myth, Lazuli, The Hours

Best Coast- The Only Place (**): Jon Brion works his producer magic and polishes up The Only Place into a shimmering 1950s dreamland, but the results are less than stellar.  Without all that bitterness and lo-fi crunch of her debut, Bethany Cosentino is forced to come to terms with the fact that she’s a flat singer with a fairly limited emotional pallet.  Bummer city, but at least she left us swimming in a handful of drifting ballads and the hope that she’ll bring the fuzz one her next go around.

Key Cuts: My Life, No One Like You, How They Want Me To Be

Blockhead- Interludes After Midnight (***½): Insomnia vibes wash all over Blockhead’s new LP, whether it’s the narcotic trip-hop stomp, the fractured jazz samples, or the flickering electronics that color his music.  Though Blockhead originally broke out making beats for Aesop Rock, Interludes After Midnight’s late night crawl is more indebted to instrumentalists like Fat Jon or DJ Shadow, rather than underground hip-hop.  Tense, claustrophobic, and immersive, Interludes… displays an instrumental alchemist that’s content to experiment well into the night.

Key Cuts: Never Forget Your Token, Meet You At Tower Records, Midnight Blue

Death Grips- The Money Store (****): If you’ve ever wondered about dropping your old SNES into an echo chamber owned by Public Enemy, you should probably pickup The Money Store.  Death Grips’ brand of hip-hop is an assaulting amalgam of noise rock collage, chip tune freak-outs, and Stefan Burnett’s junkyard dog flow.  Though the smashed together, clipped-to-death nature of these tracks isn’t for everyone, there’s an energy about Death Grips that will shock even the most fervent Odd Future supporter.

Key Cuts: Hustle Bones, I’ve Seen The Footage, Hacker

Garbage- Not Your Kind Of People (*****): Butch Vig leads Garbage through a veritable IMAX-sized mix on Not Your Kind Of People, and it makes for perhaps the most thrilling record of the year.  Electronic squeals blast and buzz from every angle, waves of blissed-out fuzz drag listeners into almost spacey dreams, and group’s mechanized rhythms punch alongside Shirley Manson’s timeless presence.  The end result sounds like the biggest rock record of 1999, recorded in the biggest spaceship of 9991.

Key Cuts: Automatic Systematic Habit, Big Bright World, Felt

Hot Water Music- Exister (****): Hearing an old band revitalized on their latest LP is like a breath of fresh air…and a punch to the gut.  Enter Hot Water Music, playing things lean and mean on their seventh album, Exister, which sports charging power chords, beefy bass lines, and a lock-step drummer that’s fast as all Hell.  Vocalist Chuck Regan seems to get angrier and courser as the years go by, reassuring fans that not everyone mellows with age.

Key Cuts: Mainline, Boy, You’re Gonna Hurt Someone, Exister

Jack White- Blunderbuss (***): The world knows how talented Jack White is, but it’s quite a shock hear him so tame on his first solo record.  Blunderbuss draws from the pantheon of White’s past blues travels: 60s pop, rootsy Americana, Paul McCartney rambles, but for some reason the sprawling and eclectic nature of this LP fails to give the songs any bite.  White could have used some restraint to focus his meanderings, and while there’s nothing here that should offend longtime fans, there’s also not a whole lot that will make you pay attention (the exception being Sixteen Saltines).

Key Cuts: Missing Pieces, Sixteen Saltines, Trash Tongue Talker

M. Ward- A Wasteland Companion (***½): M. Ward always has a story to tell, and A Wasteland Companion is no exception.  The characters in A Wasteland Companion’s musical vignettes all struggle-- with being alone, being together, and being themselves.  But no one quite ties it together like Ward with his dry rasp, finger picked acoustic, and jumpy piano making you feel like they’re right in the room with you.

Key Cuts: Clean Slate, Primitive Girl, There’s A Key

Matt Skiba & The Sekrets- Babylon (****): In retooling several cuts from 2010’s Demos alongside Hunter Burgan (A.F.I.) and Jarrod Alexander (My Chemical Romance), Matt Skiba proves yet again that he’s got a thing for gory anthems.  Everything gets butchered on Babylon, Skiba’s mournful memories drowned in soaring choruses, 80s snyths, and buzz saw riffs.  While the album expands to include sounds reminiscent of The Cure and The Chameleons, Skiba taps into a romanticism largely avoided on his previous work with Alkaline Trio, which should please new and old Skiba acolytes alike.

Key Cuts: Voices, All Fall Down, Luciferian Blues

Neon Trees- Picture Show (***½): When they’re not busy kicking it at Sandals, the Neon Trees are adding some technicolor flair to your Internet radio. What’s surprising is the amount of growth the Trees are sporting this go around—The record’s second half is considerably artier than longtime fans have come to expect, exploring an almost layered, robotic sheen. While Picture Show might carry less blockbuster singles than its predecessor, it may ultimately prove to be a more satisfying album overall. 

Key Cuts: Moving In The Dark, Everybody Talks, Trust

Norah Jones- Little Broken Hearts (***½): Though not as consistent as The Fall, Norah Jones’ Little Broken Hearts packs a surprising punch.  Danger Mouse’s production keeps the snare hits snappy and the guitars smoky, but it’s Jones’ velvety voice that continues to age like fine wine.  Maybe she’s a bit far removed from her good-girl Grammy days, but Little Broken Hearts splits the sultry difference between a midnight dream and a distant memory.

Key Cuts: Good Morning, She’s 22, Miriam

oOoOO- Our Love Is Hurting Us E.P. (****): If witch house is officially passé, no one told oOoOO.  Consider this a great big win, for 2012 electronic music and the genre in general.  His latest E.P. continues the set the bar for the witch house scene, adding clarity and crispness to his jerky beats and séance-ready atmospheres.  Spooky, twitchy, and definitively witchy, Our Love Is Hurting features several strong contenders for your future “Halloween” mixes.

Key Cuts: TryTry, Spring, Break Yr Heart

The Shins- Port Of Morrow (***½): When we last cared about The Shins they were blowing up Zach Braff’s iPod, right before their sharp descent into mediocrity.  Port Of Morrow is the sound of the righting their ship, a vibrant, full-band effort that takes their soft folk leanings and blows them up with all manner of twinkling atmospheres and slow burn distortion.  If they keep this up, they just might secure a soundtrack spot in Garden State 2: The Gardening.

Key Cuts: The Rifle’s Spiral, Simple Song, September

Silversun Pickups- Neck Of The Woods (****½): Teaming up with Jacknife Lee was a stroke of genius for the Silversun Pickups.  On Neck Of The Woods, the group scales back their neo-shoegaze plod for a more angular, percussive, and groove-oriented batch of songs.  Electronics play a more pronounced role on ...Woods than on their previous material, but the biggest change seems to be in the Pickups’ willingness to reach for bigger vistas and splashier crescendos, a sound that suits them well.

Key Cuts: Make Believe, Mean Spirits, Simmer