Sleigh Bells Album Pushed Back
Reign of Terror to be released one week later
The Pitchfork Guide to Upcoming Releases: Winter 2012
Records to look forward to in the new year
- A$AP Rocky's A$AP Mob Announce Tour
- Watch a New Episode of "Portlandia"
- Bon Iver Plan "Towers" Single
- Feist Covers "November Rain" (Sorta)
- Jack White to Appear on TV Show "American Pickers"
- Arcade Fire, Decemberists on Hunger Games Soundtrack
- Video: Iron & Wine: "Godless Brother in Love"
- Swedish Duo Studio Call It Quits
- Listen to the New Mixtape From Das Racist's Kool A.D.
Guided By Voices
Let's Go Eat the Factory
By Paul Thompson
The reformed "classic-era" GBV have produced an album with the collagist careen of Bee Thousand and Propeller and but it ultimately comes up short in the songs department. The best moments come courtesy of Tobin Sprout.
The Internet
Purple Naked Ladies
By Carrie Battan
The debut LP from Odd Future DJ Syd tha Kid and her OFWGKTA cohort Matt Martians mixes neo-soul, experimental jazz, and funk but lacks the collective's usual take-no-prisoners confidence.
Brodinski
Fabriclive 60
By Andrew Gaerig
The French DJ/Justice remixer's fun, freewheeling second commercial mix is a collection of whinnying, vocally oriented dance tracks he meticulously bends to his will.
The Dø
Both Ways Open Jaws
By Marc Hogan
Finnish vocalist Olivia Merilahti and French multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy's sophomore album keeps up the genre-hopscotching whimsicality of their debut.
Vladislav Delay
Vantaa
By Eric Grandy
While Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti's Luomo project has evolved, his other best known alias has remained devoted to a singular vision of ambient techno and cold digital dub. This new collection plays out like a chilly landscape troubled only by the occasional moving figure.
The Weeknd
Echoes of Silence
By Andrew Ryce
Where the Weeknd's House of Balloons was a debut tour-de-force and Thursday an arduous journey into the internal turmoil of a self-loathing narcissist, the rising Toronto star's third release in nine months exudes a brazen, sexy confidence.
Young Jeezy
Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition
By Jayson Greene
Though it's a solid effort, Young Jeezy's long-delayed fourth LP feels both airless and over-inflated, the sound of an artist trying to revisit something gone.
Sunn O))), Nurse With Wound
ØØ VOID / The Iron Soul of Nothing
By Grayson Currin
More than a decade after the release of Sunn O)))'s proper debut ØØ VOID, Southern Lord offers it again, packaged with a disc of remixes by Nurse With Wound. The same material's available via Stephen O'Malley's new imprint as 2xLP set The Iron Soul of Nothing.
Dimlite
Grimm Reality
By Nick Neyland
Moving from Krautrock to funk to candy-coated pop tones and new age, the Swiss producer Dimitri Grimm's third album features an ADD-infused freshness.
Steve Hauschildt
Tragedy & Geometry
By Marc Masters
For his first proper solo release, Emeralds member Steve Hauschildt uses a synthesizer to turn tiny sounds and gradual shifts into something larger.
Amy Winehouse
Lioness: Hidden Treasures
By Andrew Ryce
A collection of odds-and-sods cobbled together over the course of nine years, Lioness: Hidden Treasures presents a picture of a talented singer at her most restrained and polite.
Can
Tago Mago [40th Anniversary Edition]
By Douglas Wolk
Can's 1971 album Tago Mago, freshly reissued in a "40th Anniversary Edition," is a colossus, the product of a band that was thinking huge, pushing itself to its limits, and devoted to breaking open its own understanding of what rock music could be.
Darkside
Darkside EP
By Brian Howe
Nicolas Jaar's tight, three-song EP as Darkside, a collaboration with guitarist and bassist Dave Harrington, is at once sexy and frigid, cavernous and cramped.
The Strange Boys
Live Music
By Stephen M. Deusner
The Austin garage rockers continue tidying up their sound and refining their songwriting on their third LP, a collection that adds piano and politeness to the mix.
Mike G
The Award Tour EP
By Zach Kelly
On his new EP, Odd Future's Mike G creates the rare OF release that feels purposefully removed from the collective.
This Mortal Coil
HDCD Box Set
By Ned Raggett
4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell's This Mortal Coil-- a band that never toured, that never really was a band at all-- is the subject of this comprehensive box set, one that offers remastered versions of their three LPs along with a fourth disc consisting of non-album tracks.
Emika
Emika
By Jeff Weiss
The Thom Yorke-endorsed British-born singer/electronic composer's self-titled debut illustrates her belief that dance music is fatally boring when you stick to a blueprint.
Mac Miller
Blue Slide Park
By Jordan Sargent
Mac Miller's debut is the first independently distributed debut album to go to No. 1 in 16 years, but the Pittsburgh rapper is mostly just a crushingly bland and intolerable version of Wiz Khalifa.
Various Artists
Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974-1979
By Joe Tangari
Analog Africa's first foray into cataloging the music of the landlocked country Burkina Faso features 16 recordings from the 1970s. If you have any interest in West African funk forms, it's essential listening.
Kate Wax
Dust Collision
By Andrew Ryce
On the Swiss artist's second full-length release-- her first for James Holden's Border Community-- she buries herself in a dark, claustrophobic world then tries tunneling back with her elastic voice.
Throbbing Gristle
Second Annual Report / D.O.A. / 20 Jazz Funk Greats / Heathen Earth / Greatest Hits
By Drew Daniel
Five classic Throbbing Gristle albums have been beautifully remastered and lovingly repackaged in gatefolded 2xCD editions.
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Stage Whisper
By Joe Tangari
This 2xCD splits itself between live recordings of songs from the French singer's most recent LPs and unreleased studio tracks, including two songs with Beck.
Keep Shelly in Athens
Campus Martius
By Andrew Ryce
The Greek dream-pop duo opens its first Planet Mu EP with an excellent Solar Bears remix that sets up high expectations for the band's original material.
Wives
The Roy Tapes
By Aaron Leitko
Before No Age, Dean Spunt and Randy Randall played in Wives. Released on the 10th anniversary of Spunt's label, The Roy Tapes are seven songs recorded prior to the trio's first and final European tour.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring
So Many Things
By Evan Minsker
This compilation-- a document of four dudes having a good time over the course of six years-- teases out the Australian punk-loving rock band's trajectory through B-sides and singles.
Pitchfork Music Festival Paris
The Report
Pitchfork Paris
La Blogothèque captures Pitchfork Music Festival Paris, providing an intimate portrait of the weekend.
Staff Lists
2011 Pitchfork Readers Poll
The results of our fourth annual Readers Poll include your picks for Top Albums, Top Tracks, Most Annoying Singles, Best New Artists, Most Underrated and Overrated Albums, Best Musician Twitters, and more.
Staff Lists
The Top 50 Albums of 2011
Our annual list of the LPs that had us coming back time and time again throughout the year, including records by Bon Iver, Liturgy, Real Estate, and Frank Ocean, to name a few.
Staff Lists
My Year in Mixes
From M.I.A. to Blood Diamonds to Elite Gymnastics to Clams Casino, Carrie Battan surveys the free mixes and podcasts that shaped her listening in 2011.
Staff Lists
The Top 100 Tracks of 2011
Our favorite songs from the last 12 months, including tracks from Wild Flag, Fucked Up, M83, Danny Brown, Kurt Vile, James Blake, Jay and Kanye, and many more.
Interviews
?uestlove
Following the release of the Roots' first-ever concept album, undun, we talk with drummer and band leader (and unabashed music geek) Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson about some of his favorite big-picture records.
Staff Lists
The Top Music Videos of 2011
From Kreayshawn's Minnie Mouse headband to Mastodon's psychotic puppets to Tyler, the Creator's appetite for insects, here are our favorite videos of the year.
Staff Lists
You Can Find This on the Internet: Overlooked Mixtapes
David Drake and Jeff Weiss offer a picture of the worthy hip-hop artists and scenes that haven't gotten much coverage over the last 12 months.
Articles
Maximal Nation
Critic Simon Reynolds dissects electronic dance music's recent switch from minimal aesthetics to the more-is-more sounds of digital maximalists like Rustie, Flying Lotus, and Hudson Mohawke.
Poptimist
Take Me to the River
In this final Poptimist, Tom Ewing attempts to shift perspectives on the problematic nature of the online stream, thinking of it as a cultural form in its own right-- one with its own principles, virtues, and thrills.
Show No Mercy
The Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011
Brandon Stosuy breaks down his favorite releases of the year, including Wolves in the Throne Room, Exhumed, Blut Aus Nord, Krallice, Autopsy, and Tombs.