We’re only a few weeks into 2017, and so far, it’s nowhere near as apocalyptic as we’d been told! Even better: We’ve already got a solid assortment of great new tunes to listen to, from riff-roaring sing-alongs to bruising hip-hop anthems to smart-pop slow-burners. Here are some of the albums we’ll be playing until the lights go down on Broadway.
Cloud Nothings, Life Without Sound
Cloud Nothings’s fourth studio album, Life Without Sound, is a deep breath of summer air in the dead of winter. After going heavy, loud, and hard for his past two studio albums, frontman and songwriter Dylan Baldi has dialed back some of the roaring punk energy without losing any of his gift for melody or anthem. “Enter Entirely” is enthrallingly wistful as the wall of guitars soar toward the chorus, and when the sound and fury breaks through on the stomping closer, “Realize My Fate,” it feels like a victory lap well earned. Life Without Sound is a comforting, welcome work from one of the few indie rock outfits left you can get away with calling vital. —Julie Muncy
Credit:
Carpark
Cloud Nothings’s fourth studio album, Life Without Sound, is a deep breath of summer air in the dead of winter. After going heavy, loud, and hard for his past two studio albums, frontman and songwriter Dylan Baldi has dialed back some of the roaring punk energy without losing any of his gift for melody or anthem. “Enter Entirely” is enthrallingly wistful as the wall of guitars soar toward the chorus, and when the sound and fury breaks through on the stomping closer, “Realize My Fate,” it feels like a victory lap well earned. Life Without Sound is a comforting, welcome work from one of the few indie rock outfits left you can get away with calling vital. —Julie Muncy
Japandroids, Near to the Wild Heart of Life
It’s been more than four years since the release of Celebration Rock, the riff-richoeting, woah-woozy guitar-de-force that elevated Japandroids from a scrappy-enough two-man band into anthem-slingers extraordinaire. So fans will be relieved to hear that Near to the Wild Heart of Life finds the group providing the head-nodding necessities, with plenty of shout-it-out-loud lyrics (even if a few of them are woefully bro-is-me humdingers like, “it was bedlam in my bed last night”). And the album also makes it clear that members Brian King and David Prowse used their downtime to learn a few new tricks: The seven-minute “Arc of Bar” is a crashing, blipping bit of Zoo TV soul, complete with choral-like backing vocals, while “True Love and a Free Life of Free Will” is the kind of patient, multi-layered hook-machine that would have been unimaginable in the group’s fast-burning early years. Was Near worth the wait? Woah yeah. —Brian Raftery
Credit:
Anti
It’s been more than four years since the release of Celebration Rock, the riff-richoeting, woah-woozy guitar-de-force that elevated Japandroids from a scrappy-enough two-man band into anthem-slingers extraordinaire. So fans will be relieved to hear that Near to the Wild Heart of Life finds the group providing the head-nodding necessities, with plenty of shout-it-out-loud lyrics (even if a few of them are woefully bro-is-me humdingers like, “it was bedlam in my bed last night”). And the album also makes it clear that members Brian King and David Prowse used their downtime to learn a few new tricks: The seven-minute “Arc of Bar” is a crashing, blipping bit of Zoo TV soul, complete with choral-like backing vocals, while “True Love and a Free Life of Free Will” is the kind of patient, multi-layered hook-machine that would have been unimaginable in the group’s fast-burning early years. Was Near worth the wait? Woah yeah. —Brian Raftery
Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels 3
Run the Jewels’s third album begins with optimism—“I hope, I hope, I hope with the highest of hopes…”—before launching into a track—and record—that boils over with post-election rage and anxiety. And, really, there couldn’t be a better time for Killer Mike and El-P’s latest offering, which sounds like a rap rallying cry for disenfranchised Americans who need a soundtrack for the revolution. From the Danny Brown-assisted “Hey Kids” to the album’s unstoppable closer “A Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters,” if RTJ have one real mission on Run the Jewels 3, it’s to set the tone for hip-hop in President Trump’s America—and their pitch is perfect. —Angela Watercutter
Credit:
Run the Jewels, Inc
Run the Jewels’s third album begins with optimism—“I hope, I hope, I hope with the highest of hopes…”—before launching into a track—and record—that boils over with post-election rage and anxiety. And, really, there couldn’t be a better time for Killer Mike and El-P’s latest offering, which sounds like a rap rallying cry for disenfranchised Americans who need a soundtrack for the revolution. From the Danny Brown-assisted “Hey Kids” to the album’s unstoppable closer “A Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters,” if RTJ have one real mission on Run the Jewels 3, it’s to set the tone for hip-hop in President Trump’s America—and their pitch is perfect. —Angela Watercutter
Ty Segall, Ty Segall
In the last decade, San Francisco fuzz-maestro Segall has released enough albums, singles, and side projects to intimidate even the most Discogs-addicted completist (he had three separate releases in 2012 alone). But Ty Segall makes a perfect entry-point for anyone who’s been put off by his prolificity: The aptly titled “Break a Guitar” is a heavenly bit of heavy metal menace, while the mini-epic “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)” has the sort of six-string attacks (and jutting organ instrumentals) that would make Jimmy Page cock an ear appreciatively and say, “Lovely, innit?” But there’s also room for a tune like “Take Care (To Comb Your Hair),” a sneakily smiley-faced bit of acoustic pop that soon transforms into a blustering, blistering psych-rock concoction. Fiercely tight while also happily loosey-goosey, Ty Segall is easily the best Ty Segall album of the year…at least for now. —Brian Raftery
Credit:
Drag City
In the last decade, San Francisco fuzz-maestro Segall has released enough albums, singles, and side projects to intimidate even the most Discogs-addicted completist (he had three separate releases in 2012 alone). But Ty Segall makes a perfect entry-point for anyone who’s been put off by his prolificity: The aptly titled “Break a Guitar” is a heavenly bit of heavy metal menace, while the mini-epic “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)” has the sort of six-string attacks (and jutting organ instrumentals) that would make Jimmy Page cock an ear appreciatively and say, “Lovely, innit?” But there’s also room for a tune like “Take Care (To Comb Your Hair),” a sneakily smiley-faced bit of acoustic pop that soon transforms into a blustering, blistering psych-rock concoction. Fiercely tight while also happily loosey-goosey, Ty Segall is easily the best Ty Segall album of the year…at least for now. —Brian Raftery
The XX, I See You
Looking for some anguished indie pop? Count on The xx to deliver. With I See You, the band’s third album, the British trio expands on their self-doubting melodies, delivering a fuller sound. On tracks like “Performance,” they stick to their signature sound: emotional accusations and aired insecurities from the melodic voices of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, set against the spare beats of Jamie xx. But the album also shows influences from Jamie xx’s 2015 solo album In Colour, too, like the Hall & Oates sample that fades into “On Hold.” Beautifully plaintive vocals set against a beat? Just the gloomy sound we need to get us through winter’s coldest, longest stretch. —Charley Locke
Credit:
Young Turks
Looking for some anguished indie pop? Count on The xx to deliver. With I See You, the band’s third album, the British trio expands on their self-doubting melodies, delivering a fuller sound. On tracks like “Performance,” they stick to their signature sound: emotional accusations and aired insecurities from the melodic voices of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, set against the spare beats of Jamie xx. But the album also shows influences from Jamie xx’s 2015 solo album In Colour, too, like the Hall & Oates sample that fades into “On Hold.” Beautifully plaintive vocals set against a beat? Just the gloomy sound we need to get us through winter’s coldest, longest stretch. —Charley Locke
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