Not Many Experts

There are more albums this month than there are licentious, secretary-lassoing Frenchmen in positions of authority. There is, of course, a potential that this is because I might have forgotten/did not have time to continue this groundbreakingly original feature last month. Maybe. So for the sake of our collective sanity, I’ll keep it brief, but if you’re a real fan of brevity, just do yourself a favour and go and buy/steal them all. Especially Austra and The Antlers. We don’t have an “Album Of The Month” title like everyone else, but if we did, we’d have to share it between those two.

Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See

They got beards, and they sound like it. Their morphosis from cheeky Sheffield chaps being chased by chavs with pool cues to hairy psychedelic rock druids popping pills with Josh Homme was most unlikely, but Alex Turner’s words have never bitten more keenly than on “Suck It And See”. They’re pushed to the fore of the trippy guitars here, and really dig into your brain. They’re no longer the Arctic Monkeys of 2005, and haven’t been for quite some time; they’re muscular and mature and just keep getting better and better.Arctic Monkeys – The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala by Not Many Experts

Bon Iver – Bon Iver

On the subject of beards, Justin Vernon has still got his wiry asset, but that’s about the only thing that hasn’t changed on “Bon Iver”. His newly positioned band take his emotive wanderings and twist them with orchestral crescendos, deafening drums and even, in one troubling moment, 80s inspired keyboards. It’s all quite unsettling, but once past the shock that this is not “For Emma, Forever Ago Continued…”, moments like “Perth” start sounding like some of his most beautiful moments. The poignancy of his debut, though, was never going to be re-created.

Bon Iver – "Calgary"

Cults – Cults

Saccharine pop from the major-label endorsed produce of Gorilla vs Bear’s lo-fi factory. If you thought I was using “major-label” as an insult, as so many do, then you were wrong. It’s just a fact. And quite an irrelevant fact, as it turns out, because “Cults” is an incredibly charming debut album. It’s immediate, but manages to avoid being boringly conventional, and wrapped within their head-grabbing melodies is dark subject matter that will give this album a longevity that confirms that, despite what we said, signing to a major doesn’t seem to have been a mistake at all. Cults – Oh My God

Wu Lyf – Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

It might not re-define the entire nature of man’s existence like so many seemingly expected it to, but amongst Ellery Robert’s haunting screams is a message that’s incredibly astute for such a young band. Wrapped in maudlin organs and punctuated throughout by their own characteristic “heavy pop” sound, “Go Tell Fire To The Mountain” may not incite adoration amongst the cynical sects of the music press, but to those who connect with it, it is a very fine, special and emotive debut.

Wu Lyf – Dirt by Not Many Experts

White Denim – D

The Beatles may well be dead, but White Denim, complete with a new guitarist, seem to be getting closer with each album to recreating the noise that the Scouse quartet may have produced if they’d taken even more drugs and recorded the results. “D” may not be easy on the brain, ears, or speakers, but once the 6 inches between your ears starts sifting its noises out, it starts to sound like the most thrilling racquet.

White Denim – Drug

Black Lips – Arabia Mountain

The trouble with being an uncomplicated rock and roll band is that critics will have no problem with unravelling albums like “Arabia Mountain”. And so, at the time of writing, every review and opinion I have so far read has come to the same conclusion as I have: brilliant in parts, patchy in others. It’s not a truly great album, but it’s a very good attempt at communicating their psychedelic rock and roll with a larger audience.

Black Lips – Modern Art by Not Many Experts

Austra – Feel It Break

“Feel It Break” is a masterful lesson in restraint, subtlety, and all the many, many other qualities that make this a truly great album. Each track is so meticulously built that the end result is dangerously close to perfection, and will have you wishing you were depressed, paranoid and melodramatic just so that you could make music as beautiful as this. Fortunately, Katie Stelmanis does it all so we don’t have to. The least we can do in return is buy her album, surely? You literally can’t regret it.

Austra – Lose It by DominoRecordCo

Austra – Darken Her Horse by Not Many Experts

Wild Beasts – Smother

These Wild Beasts really know how to properly general the alternative media don’t they? I say that as if they’ve tricked every musical-journalism outlet into pouring their declarations of adoration upon “Smother” and previous release “Two Dancers”, but the truth is, it’s either all deserved, or they’ve tricked me too. And if I am just brainwashed by their understated, eccentric, individual pop music, then I’m quite happy to be when it sounds this good.

Wild Beasts – Loop The Loop by DominoRecordCo

The Antlers – Burst Apart

We’re not sure what someone has done to the Antlers, but they’re bloody horrible. This is their second album in, and so far every minute of both has been filled with anguished soul bearing that makes George Osborne’s problems look like a 6 year old’s maths homework. “Burst Apart” sounds completely brilliant, but to be honest, we’re surprised that they’re all still with us after all that’s (allegedly) been inflicted upon them. A new, upbeat dance direction on the third album with a guest appearance from Bez? We hope not, but we’re really feeling for them at this point. Two flawless albums in, they’ve earnt it. And they can definitely afford Bez’s appearance fee.

The Antlers – I Don’t Want Love

The Antlers – Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out

Battles – Gloss Drop

The tale of how Battles came to lose frontman Tondai Braxton is actually rather depressing, but the perfectly unhinged “Ice Cream” proves that 1) Tyondai was simply the mouth that added words all over Battles’ wonderfully confounding melodies 2) you can pay equally-eccentrically named people like Matias Aguayo dollars to put words over your incredible music, so who needs the melodrama of a frontman, anyway? Honestly, I’ve never met Tyondai Braxton, but “Gloss Drop” is so good that it’s forcing me to irrationally hate him based on the fact that all of his delaying of the album could have meant that it would never have been released. Ice Cream (Featuring Matias Aguayo) by BATTLES