Paralytic Stalks is its own album, and is simultaneously frustrating, self-loathing, insecure, thrilling, deranged, and always completely honest.
TLOBF Recommended
Pepe Deluxe – Queen of the Wave
An absolute smorgasbord of aural delights: impeccably produced and meticulously assembled, with a sheer audacity and verve that borders on – but crucially never become – the ridiculous.
Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral
Mark Lanegan clearly hasn’t turned into a bucket of chuckles since 2004’s Bubblegum. Despite sticking doggedly to the un-sunny side, the former Screaming Trees vocalist avoids slipping into self-parody by unveiling the most convincing evidence yet of his singular blues-bingeing rock ‘n’ roll survivor talents.
Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur
While any Edwards release warrants celebration, the Canadian songstress has outdone herself on her latest – a showpiece in a catalogue filled with gems.
Hysterical Injury – Dead Wolf Situation
Warped by otherworldly vocals, Hysterical Injury’s debut album showcases a crisp, volatile finish that is at the same time hypnotic, menacing and enchanting.
Errors – Have Some Faith In Magic
Errors encourage us to Have Some Faith In Magic. So we do. And we love it.
The Line of Best Fit Recommended Album.
First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar
This resolute new batch of songs remains intensely personal and intimate, like the whispered longings and frustrations of two siblings talking candidly to each other long after the lights have been shut off and everyone else has gone to bed.
Porcelain Raft – Strange Weekend
These spiralling songs succeed because they are both intensely personal but also quite epic and grandiose, rising majestically out of the various bedrooms and basements in which they were created for the whole world to hear.
Mirel Wagner – Mirel Wagner
Bleak yet very, very beautiful, Wagner’s record feels like the spiritual, elongated personification of Billie Holliday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ and channels that chilling vision throughout the ten sparse, slight (in length, never in content) songs spread across this mortality-obsessed debut.
Bleeding Heart Narrative – Bison
Bleeding Heart Narrative display a new level of personal innovation with their latest five-track EP.
Atlas Sound – Parallax
Apparently conceived in the midst of trying personal relationships, in an environment of dank European hotel rooms and soul-snapping depression, Parallax stands out as a tribute to mixed feelings, isolation, and feeling perennially displaced – even more so than, you know, other Atlas Sound records.
Can – Tago Mago (40th Anniversary edition)
Radiohead. Sonic Youth. The Fall. John Lydon. Fuck Buttons. Julian Cope. Just a few chosen bands and artists who’ve been known to sing the praises of Can. This 40th anniversary reissue of their seminal 1971 epic invites newcomers to bow down to the majesty of Can by proving that the band’s uniquely European, highly influential avant-funk remains every bit as fresh as it is was during their early ’70s heyday.
Drake – Take Care
Take Care succeeds as a complex and sincere portrait of a man trying to hold onto some semblance of genuine relationships in a world of sycophants and groupies.
R.E.M. – Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011
The first all-encompassing Best Of, from being unable to hear the words to being unable to see at the back, by the little Georgian band that could, and did.
A.A. Bondy – Believers
Automobile Association Bondy? Alcoholics Anonymous Bondy? Sad but far from despondent, downbeat yet dripping with tension and drama, the atmospheric brilliance of Believers should make any questions about the identity of the hitherto obscure A.A. Bondy redundant with immediate effect.
High Highs – High Highs EP
From the opening crackle and chime of ‘Flowers Bloom’ to the mellifluous refrain of the EP’s closing track, these are shaded, sumptuous and soothing songs.
