Phil Elverum’s ninth LP ‘Now Only’ is a record with more questions than answers, but which develops superbly on what was a decade-defining album.
The Decemberists’ eighth album ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’, branching out into electronic textures to complement their established indie-rock sensitivity, is only partly successful.
‘All That Must Be’ is by no means a perfect record but is a record which continues to show the promise of George FitzGerald.
Gengahr’s second album ‘Where Wildness Grows’ shows some progression on their pleasant, shoegaze-inflected indie-pop formula.
Too much of ‘American Utopia’, the first solo album from David Byrne in 14 years, sounds hopelessly outdated for it to pass as anything other than okay.
The 15th of Montreal album ‘White Is Relic / Irrealis Mood’ might be the long-awaited re-affirmation for fans that Kevin Barnes is still capable of constructing something that resonates with more people than just himself.
Young Fathers’ third album ‘Cocoa Sugar’ sees a resolutely left-field and undefinable band venture slightly over the border into pop territory.
All the ingredients are there for Nap Eyes’ third album ‘I’m Bad Now’ to be a triumph, but it falls short of the cerebral thrills of its predecessors.
‘Clean’, Sophie Allison’s second Soccer Mommy album proper, will connect to an even wider audience using sweet melancholy sounds combined with lyrics of trauma, weakness, self-destruction and heartache.
Following up a highly promising debut with a mature and accomplished second effort, Lucy Dacus’ ‘Historian’ is one of the musical triumphs of 2018.
