As fun as it is to complain about “music these days,” and how it’s all been downhill since The Chronic came out, it’s even MORE fun to listen to — wait for it — good music. Every Tuesday, a.k.a. Music Release Day, we’ll highlight five albums worth (legally) downloading or driving to the local Best Buy (lolz) for.
Today, we’ve got selections from the Mountain Goats, Miguel, and more.
Transcendental Youth by the Mountain Goats
All the shiny production in the world can’t mask the darkness that fills every one of John Darnielle’s you-either-get-them-or-you-don’t (I do) odes to misspent youth and weary adults. “The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you’re never going to see again” is bleak, no matter how the package is presented, yet that weariness never owns the album. It’s Darnielle’s lyrical attention to detail that redeems Transcendental Youth, a much welcome addition to the Mountain Goats canon.
A Dream Deferred by Skyzoo
Smooth beats, careful rhymes from the Brooklyn rapper, with special guests Jill Scott, Talib Kweli, Freeway, Raheem Devaughn, and Jared Evan.
Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood by John Cale
The Velvet Undergrounder returns with another sardonic art rock album, this time with producer Danger Mouse to add a hint of distorted R&B to the proceedings.
Kaleidoscope Dream by Miguel
Like Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, right down to the falsetto, but sexier, more dripping with swear — where Ocean wants to make love, Miguel wants to f*ck.
The Connection by Papa Roach
Haha, no. The music’s pain-soaked garbage, but frontman Jacoby Shaddix seems like a cool dude.
