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. (Banner via)
Today, we’ve got selections from Tyler, the Creator, Rilo Kiley, and more.
Shaking the Habitual by the Knife
Earlier this morning, Pitchfork announced that the Knife’s first album in seven years, Shaking the Habitual, is available via their streaming service, Advance. To review the 98-minute album from the mysterious Swedish electronic duo after only three hours and only one listen would be unfair (all I’ve got so far is, “I’m both turned on and terrified”), but so would not alerting you to its existence. Give it a listen.
Wolf by Tyler, the Creator
For more on the third album from Odd Future’s most outspoken member, check out the Smoking Section.
RKives by Rilo Kiley
Rilo Kiley ended silently, yet ugly. There was no singular “Malkmus handcuffing himself to a mic stand” moment, but by 2007, Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett could barely contain their dislike of one another, and it showed, especially on their last album, the disappointingly messy Under the Blacklight. In the years since, Jenny has launched a successful solo career, while Blake has three albums with a band of his own, the Elected. There’s no real reason why the world needs RKives, made up of unreleased tracks and B-sides (think a great-ish hits-ish collection), but on tracks like the back porch country-pop of “Let Me Back In” and cute would-be dance sensation “The Frug,” you’re reminded why we’re still talking about Rilo Kiley, even if they’re not around anymore.
Indigo Heart by the Black Angels
Like Jack White on acid, Indigo Heart furthers the Black Angels’ hold on the modern-day ambassadors of rumbling, fuzzed-out psych-rock title.
Dormarion by Telekinesis
On his third album, Telekinesis auteur Michael Benjamin Lerner teams his previous power pop leanings with a recently discovered interest in shiny-sounding keyboards and drum machines, like if the Death Cab for Cutie of “The Sound of Settling” covered the Postal Service. (It helps that Lerner’s nasally voice sounds a lot like Ben Gibbard’s.) For the most part, the new sound works, and the slick, Jim Eno-aided compositions are impressive, but Lerner occasionally sounds like he’s grasping for what’s popular in music right now, rather than what he wants to do. He pulls it off on Dormarion; the same may not be true of album number four.
