AROOJ AFTAB – Vulture Prince
NY-based Pakistani artist creates one of the most stunning sets of music in recent memory by merging her country’s musical tradition with jazz. This will give you chills. (8)
THE BLACK KEYS – Delta Kream
Going back to their Delta blues roots and stripping it down on covers album, paying tribute to their heroes (John Lee Hooker, Junior Kimbrough, R.L Burnside etc.). I loved it. (8)
HOLLY COLE – Montreal (Live)
Look, I’ve had a respectful little crush on Holly for the past 25+ years, and I think she’s a fantastic jazz singer, and I love her albums with the original Holly Cole Trio, and an intimate Holly Cole Trio Xmas gig in NYC back in the mid-90’s is one of the 10 best concerts I’ve ever attended, and this is a live reunion of that trio, so: (10)
ADRIAN CROWLEY – The Watchful Eye Of The Stars
Good album by the Irishman with some help from John Parish and members of Portishead, but Leonard Cohen comparisons are impossible to avoid. (7)
DROPKICK MURPHYS – Turn Up That Dial
The kings of the beer-soaked singalong are back with another batch of working-class Celtic punk anthems. (8)
MARIANNE FAITHFULL WITH WARREN ELLIS – She Walks In Beauty
Faithfull recites poems of the Romantics (Keats, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, Wordsworth) over ambient soundscapes created by Nick Cave’s right hand. A labor of love. (7)
FUCKED UP – Year of the Horse
This is a fucked up masterpiece. A Fucked Up masterpiece. Fucked Up’s masterpiece. Whatever. (10)
GOJIRA – Fortitude
Definitely the metal album of the year, possibly the metal album of the decade. (10)
JACK INGRAM, MIRANDA LAMBERT, JON RANDALL – The Marfa Tapes
Desert session live, one-take, acoustic, recorded outside lo-fi with one mic and a guitar or two. A beautiful country album with great songwriting and a bold move from Lambert, a bona fide superstar of the genre. (8)
TOM JONES – Surrounded By Time
At 80 years old he releases his most experimental album ever. Ethan Johns produces for the fourth time and does a great job again on a bunch of very interesting covers, ranging from Michel Legrand to Todd Snider. (8)
ASHLEY MONROE – Rosegold
Subversive country artist and 1/3 of the Pistol Annies skips country altogether this time and goes for a pop/trip-hop vibe, with mixed results. (7)
ROSALI – No Medium
Country rock like prime Linda Ronstadt fronting Crazy Horse, and yes, it sounds as awesome as it looks. (8)
ST VINCENT – Daddy’s Home
Not her best album, but an entertaining and rather shticky early-70’s pastiche. (7)
TODD SNIDER – First Agnostic Church Of Hope And Wonder
Funky hippie country blues from veteran singer/songwriter trying to get over the recent loss of close friends and musical heroes. (7)
SONS OF KEMET – Black To the Future
Shabaka Hutchings is already a star on London’s jazz scene and this riotous party of an album will make him a mainstream household name. (8)
SQUID – Bright Green Field
Yet another interesting young English post-punk band with a vocalist who can’t (or won’t) sing to add to the whole Black Country, New Road / Dry Cleaning thing, so it’s officially a trend now. These guys are more like early Talking Heads/Gang Of Four gone krautrock. (8)
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