This week's latest and greatest…
Jake Bugg - Hearts That Strain (EMI)
Just 23 and now with four records under his belt, the Englishman has checked the swagger that accompanied him on his earliest releases at the door, instead channelling Paul Simon and Donovan to brilliant effect on Hearts That Strain. Once the listener comes to terms with the fact that there's nary a distorted guitar to be heard, it quickly becomes evident that Bugg is an excellent songwriter.
"Jake Bugg has completed his transformation to mature songwriter for mature listeners." Dylan Stewart - Album Of The Week. Four and a half stars. Read more…
Mogwai - Every Country's Sun (Spunk/Caroline)
AKA 47 could've been a collaboration with Boards Of Canada, with its warped edges and woozy key patterns, and Battered At A Scramble is a giddy, down-tuned Smashing Pumpkins B-side. This is Mogwai's most thoroughly enjoyable release in a long time.
"... The sound of a band consciously detached from their high-browed rock-oriented past and simply enjoying themselves." Matt MacMaster. Four stars. Read more…
Cloud Control - Zone (Ivy League)
If you try hard enough you get a sense of nostalgia and longing for the past, which is all the rage right now, but as has been the case in albums past, the Cloud Controllers never feel as if they deliberately push this theme. Rather it's something that occurs naturally, which maintains album three's charm.
"'Zone' reveals a band that have grown up." Adam Wilding. Three and a half stars. Read more…
And the rest of the releases…
Ben Salter - Back Yourself (ABC/Universal)
Bicep - Bicep (Ninja Tune/Inertia)
Billy Davis - A Family Portrait (Good Manners)
Contrive - Slow Dissolve (Independent)
Dälek - Endangered Philosophies (Ipecac)
Duncan Saige - I'm Saved (Independent)
Eddie Berman - Before The Bridge (Nettwerk)
Gretta Ziller - Queen Of Boomtown (Social Family Records)
Hercules & Love Affair - Omnion (BMG/ADA)
Inheaven - Inheaven ([PIAS]/Inertia)
Jake Bugg - Hearts That Strain (EMI)
Joan Osborne - Songs Of Bob Dylan (Thirty Tigers/Cooking Vinyl)
Kelly Brouhaha - Mama Didn’t Raise A Quitter (Independent)
King Social - In Colour (Independent)
Lavidius - Helisma (Independent)
LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (DFA/Sony)
Marksman Lloyd - Portals (Firestarter)
Mary Epworth - Elytral Sunday Best ([PIAS]/Inertia)
Melody Moko - The Wreckage (Independent)
Motorhead - Under Cover (UDR/BMG)
Neil Finn - Out Of Silence (EMI)
Paradise Lost - Medusa (Nuclear Blast)
SAATSUMA - Overflow (Independent)
Starsailor - All This Life (Cooking Vinyl)
Tender - Modern Addiction (Sub Pop/Inertia)
The Script - Freedom Child (Columbia/Sony)
TOKiMONSTA - Lune Rouge (Young Art Records)
Tony Buck - Unearth (Room40)
Troldhaugen - IDIO+SYNCRASIES (Bird's Robe)
Walter Trout - We're All In This Together (Provogue Mascot Label Group)
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