‘About The Light’ doesn’t radiate sunny optimism exactly, but there’s definitely a certain generosity and stability of spirit, the sense that Steve Mason is finally at peace with his place in the world.
‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ completed Animal Collective’s narrative arc and made them the most important American indie band of the Noughties.
Chan Marshall’s first Cat Power album in six years, ‘Wanderer’, is a succinct re-statement of all the musical values that make her such a cult icon.
Conor O’Brien oversees another gentle expansion of the sonic terms of Villagers with the project’s beguiling fifth album ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’.
While it’s probably her least absolutely brilliant effort in purely musical terms, Anna Calvi’s third album ‘Hunter’ is nevertheless an eloquent and compelling statement on gender.
Dev Hynes paints a beguiling portrait of horror and beauty, reflecting 2018 back on itself with his fourth Blood Orange album ‘Negro Swan’.
Without Panda Bear for this latest audio-visual project with Coral Morphologic, Animal Collective produce a curious yet compelling suite of watery psychedelia in ‘Tangerine Reef’.
After the harrowing self-doubt and heartbreak of ‘Dirty Projectors’, David Longstreth emerges into the light of hope and new love on ‘Lamp Lit Prose’.
Melody Prochet uses ‘Bon Voyage’ to showcase a quite different Melody’s Echo Chamber than the one we remembered from six years ago.
Tying up the loose ends from 2017’s ‘Relatives In Descent’ and throwing in a couple of brilliant collaborations with Kelley Deal, Protomartyr’s ‘Consolation’ EP is another triumph.
