Animal Collective – Time Skiffs
The band’s fourth post-MPP release is easy-going and even a little boring.
Ambient / Experimental
Darkside – Spiral
Darkside’s triumphant return after an eight-year hiatus is an alchemical concoction of beats, textures, sonic flourishes, and melodies that sound like they were recorded in a world that had no precedent.
Owen Pallett – Island
Considering the avant-garde associations suggested by Island’s sonics, it makes sense to weigh the lyrics according to the same, progressive metrics, allowing that the words exist not as prose narrative but as poetic abstractions standing in for more universal meanings.
Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Tumor’s latest works on the issues of Safe in the Hands of Love, while reaching for new genres and ideas.
Burial – Tunes 2011-2019
Tunes is a monumental snapshot of the “second act” of Burial’s career, and should be on all electronic music connoisseurs’ Christmas wish lists
Richard Dawson – 2020
Dawson reminds us that, in spite of our own difficulties navigating the Sisyphean tasks of daily life, there’s always someone worse off.
Helado Negro – This Is How You Smile
The sixth Helado Negro album blends intimate glimpses of life growing up in an immigrant household with the struggle of preserving familial identity and fitting in as an outsider.