Mercy – Active Child – Relentlessly beautiful, highly arranged electronica, which reaches a zenith of back-front ground melodic glory on song after song, too ephemeral to be a masterpiece, it still skirts greatness – A-
Live At Red Rocks With The Colorado Symphony – Amos Lee – One song is called “El Camino” -this dreadful singer songwriter has that sort of second hand soul, the sort not helped by an orchestra – D+
Battles – Beautiful Bodies – Brutally average hard rockers – C
Turns – Ben Browning – The Cut Copy guy has nothing much to add on his solo album – C+
Super Future – Calvin Love – From the scene that brought us Mac Demarco and won’t let us return him, a lo fi singer songwriter, just quirky enough to stop you from falling to sleep – C+
Lo – Crosss – Sludge metal with a melodic bent, and about as good as that suggest – B-
DJ Mix – DJ Koze – Who remixes Freddie Gibbs and makes it… an instrumental? This old school German DJ does, only one of many pretty excellent remixes, including Daniel Lanois. As a disbeliever in heavy sampling, it has put me off DJ Shadow for years, this has its moments even for me – B
Deja Vu – Giorgio Moroder – The innovative disco maestro has released an album steeped in the moment, so if you love the moment you’ll love it. I like the moment and I like it fine – B+
Restless Ones – The Heartless Bastards – Sure Erikka Wennerstrom has a voice as strong as her name, and “Hi-Line” is a good song, but over an album the roots rockers tend to plod and plod – B-
Breath In. Breathe Out – Hilary Duff – Hilary goes EDM but from the first whistle it is entirely received dance – C
Lantern – Hudson Mohawke – The third best Scottish DJ, after Rustie and the one that is dating Taylor Swift, this is a surprisingly excellent collection of electronic sounds, which seems to balance between mainstream EDM and the stronger stuff. The title track is a doozy and wait around for Anthony’s appearance and Miguel adding a pop opportunity late – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Alternative Light Source – Leftfield – If you can get past Tunde Adebimpe and, ha ha, Sleaford Mods, what you get is as strong an electronic experimental sound album though not as progressive sounding as it once was. While Paul Daley has gone his own way, we still have Neil Barnes and he still has the gift – A-
Grand Romantic – Nate Ruess – Closer to fun. than Bleachers were, this is a very crafty pop rock album with a slew of pretty good songs though nothing as remarkable as “We Are Young” – B-
Covered – Robert Glasper – Live album recorded with his trio in 2014, the pianist moves from style to style but is best at jazz.His “Stella By Starlight” is perfection – B+
Red Kit – Sarah Cracknell – The former Saint Etienne lead singer’s first solo album since 1997 is a perfectly modulated quiet storming singer songwriter achievement, especially the one with Nicky Wire – B
Dopamine – Third Eye Blind – This adult oriented pop rock is what they do, if you don’t like it don’t listen. Nobody else is – C-
