Conrad Sewell- Life: Ah, this is the debut LP of the guy who sang on Kygo’s “Firestone”. Love that track, and his voice is just as big here. That said, the intense spirituality at play was a real turnoff for me. I’m just not into soul. It’s otherwise a fairly average pop album, not particularly noteworthy and definitely too long. 4.5/10
Avicii- TIM: I’m pleased to see from Wikipedia that proceeds from this album are being used to raise awareness of mental health problems, though. This is a fantastic collection of dance tunes featuring some really great collaborators, some, like Aloe Blacc, something like a greatest hits world tour. This is just one of the best albums of last year, I’m sorry to say. Listening to Avicii does not get easier with time. 8.5/10
Flying Lotus- Flamagra: Boy, do I not know what to make of this. The songs are generally fairly short, there’s a lot of them, and they run the gamut from fairly normal hip-hop to weird, experimental bleeping and blooping. And a spoken word piece with David Lynch? Not something you see everyday. The overall effect is something like a mixtape or B-sides collection. I did at least like something, or I’d have probably skipped reviewing it altogether. 5.5/10
Biffy Clyro- Balance, Not Symmetry: Time for some raucous Scottish alt-rock. Not only do they go all-in in everything they do, but this has a lot of surprises, like the soft colored-themed instrumentals. This was a fun and exciting release, and I can’t wait to see what else they do. 7.5/10
Bambara- Stray: The litany of genre tags at the bottom of this page is both staggering and confusing. What is “cowpunk”, I mean, really? The one that actually stands out is “deathrock”, which I suspect explains why this sounds like someone moaning in pain at the bottom of a well. It’s languid and mopey and not completely awful, but definitely not to my taste. I mean, songs like “Sing Me to the Street” and “Serafina” reminds me of some of the proto-emo stuff coming out of the 80’s, but it’s not the 80’s anymore and emo is dead[citation needed]. So I guess if you want to get sad and think about death and stuff, give this a listen? I’ll pass. 4/10
Present Perfect 