Now in his fifties, Stephen Malkmus’s appetite for casually experimenting with his mellifluous indie-rock sound is only getting more voracious, as ‘Sparkle Hard’ demonstrates.
Parquet Courts’ fifth album ‘Wide Awake!’ is the boldest record they’ve made so far, both musically bold and unambiguously political.
‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ sees Courtney Barnett aim for a richer, darker and more harrowing sound for her sophomore effort, and it feels like a natural and successful musical evolution.
Seventh album ‘Islands’ finds Ash in dynamic but uneven form, with the slower tracks and ballads edging out their regular pop-punk glories for the first time ever.
Given almost total control of his artistic vision, Charlie Puth comes up with a well-produced but ultimately weightless sophomore album in ‘Voicenotes’.
Simian Mobile Disco’s sixth album ‘Murmurations’ is yet another strong addition to an inventive and evolving body of work.
On ‘7’, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally make their most dramatic alterations yet to the tried-and-tested Beach House formula, and it’s a creative risk that pays off handsomely.
Alex Turner has certainly split the Arctic Monkeys fanbase with ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’, one of the strangest and most divisive albums to come from a major artist in a very long time.
Skating Polly’s fifth album ‘The Make It All Show’ is loud, dynamic and graceful, and the kind of record a band makes when its at the peak of its imperial phase.
On his seventh album ‘Be More Kind’, a collection of highly polished pop-rock anthems, Frank Turner’s idealistic political venting finally becomes tiresome and grating.
