Caribou – Our Love (City Slang)
Why you should listen: We haven’t heard from Dan Snaith as Caribou since 2010’s Odessa, and he returns here with another album of ambitious and textured electronica.
It might not be for you if … You’re not sure you’re quite ready for a Caribou album influenced by what Snaith described as “mind-numbingly simple” dance music.
What we said: “For all his perfect grasp of the kind of dynamic shifts that cause pandemonium on dancefloors … there’s something spellbindingly ambiguous about the music on Our Love,” wrote Alexis Petridis in his five-star lead review for the Guardian. Click here for Killian Fox’s four-star review in the Observer.
Score: 5/5
Flying Lotus – You’re Dead! (Warp)
Why you should listen: Flying Lotus has built a career as a genre-bending producer who draws from a vast sonic palette. This latest offering is no different, calling on collaborations with jazz legend Herbie Hancock, rapper Kendrick Lamar and others.
It might not be for you if … His sprawling bleeps and bloops are a little too complex.
What we said: “Flying Lotus (real name Steven Ellison), the musical polymath who flits so lightly between jazz, electronica, hip-hop and funk as to render the boundaries indeterminable, has cast his net even wider on his fourth album, taking in influences from eastern religions, too,” wrote Paul MacInnes, in the Guardian. Read Theo Leanse’s five-star review from the Observer.
Score: 5/5
Jessie Ware – Tough Love (PMR/Island)
Why you should listen: Ware can sing. And though she’s moving in a defiantly poppier direction on Tough Love, her emotive songwriting and expressive vocals are as enticing here as on her 2012 debut.
It might not be for you if … You wish she’d return to her dancefloor-ready, SBTRKT-tinged days. Ed Sheeran and Miguel co-writes? Nope.
What we said: “Tough Love is full of breathy, grownup songs about romantic yearning, sung in a modulated, understated coo that once again takes Sade as its alpha and omega,” wrote Kitty Empire in the Observer.
Score: 3/5
Bill Frisell – Guitar in the Space Age (Okeh)
Why you should listen: Bill Frisell, an electric guitar jazz artist who’s played with the likes of Brian Eno, Elvis Costello and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, continues his prolific run on this ode to a spread of quintessentially American genres.
It might not be for you if … jazz guitar noodling just isn’t your bag.
What we said: “[Guitar in the Space Age] is a fine display of bluegrass and rock-inspired contemporary music, in which Frisell’s intelligent, jazz-informed sensibility is applied to 1950s and 60s classics by Duane Eddy, the Beach Boys, the Kinks and more,” wrote John Fordham in the Guardian.
Score: 4/5
Hozier – Hozier (Island)
Why you should listen: Andrew Hozier-Byrne’s debut album follows two EPs released last year, and swells with achingly sung indie blues and tales of personal turmoil.
It might not be for you if … You’re not in the mood for male singer-songwriter angst, however beautifully sung it might be.
What we said: “He’s a believable storyteller, a subtle guitarist and a composer of haunting melodies, making this album eminently worth exploring,” wrote Caroline Sullivan in the Guardian.
Score: 4/5
Prince and Thom Yorke’s new releases both dominated recent music news, but our commenters below the line also flagged up their interest in new work from the Vaselines, Gerard Way and the Twilight Sad. Which albums are you keen to hear this week? Comment away, and let us know.
