Owen Maxwell

Sparks – The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte (Los Angeles) Continuously unapologetic in their unique style after all these years, Sparks latest album ramps up the distortion and strings for their loudest record in a while. Mixing some of their newest sounds with a bit of 70s Sparks, this record [...]

Lael Neale – Star Eaters Delight (Virginia/Los Angeles) Though Lael Neale’s last album felt like a lo-fi and drone-driven venture through retro hooks, it felt like it always appealed to those wanting something a little slower. Calling to music by the Drums and PJ Harvey at times, all [...]

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – V (Auckland, New Zealand) Sound and a knack for strong rhythms have driven UMO for the last few records, turning what could be another psych-rock revival band into a distinct voice in the genre. Drenching their acoustics in a heavy wash of effects and slowing [...]

Olivia Jean – Raving Ghost (Detroit, MI/Nashville, TN) Serving as a kind of hard rock (and very Third Man Records-appropriate) counterpart to artists like Holly Golightly and April March, Olivia Jean continues to drip out her strange mix of retro with modern grime. We leave the pastiche [...]

Altin Gün – Aşk (Amsterdam, Netherlands/Turkey) Maintaining their steady kick of writing over the last few years, the Dutch/Turkish psych rock outfit Altin Gün continue to expand their overall sonic range as a band. A bit more of a mix of their different ideas and a harder lean [...]

Feist – Multitudes (Amherst, Nova Scotia/Calgary, Alberta) Leslie Feist has continuously morphed her craft through pop, rustic and more unhinged arrangements, resulting in a body of work that feels like a constant evolution through sound. While some acoustic tracks on her latest album [...]

Kali Uchis – Red Moon In Venus (Alexandria, VA/Colombia) Kali Uchis has made a craft of balancing indie tones, intoxicating delivery and songs that lean more towards her Colombian roots, and turned it all into a sound that defies pigeonholing again and again. Expanding on the core of her [...]

Gorillaz – Cracker Island (London, U.K/World) While Damon Albarn and his entire Gorillaz project has shifted notably to a more one-off pop direction as of late, there’s a lot of gems to take in from his explorative process. Though a lack of particularly strong singles weaken this album [...]

Paramore — This is Why (Franklin, TN) While they would be the first to argue for better times, the turbulent past few years seem to have been the kind of frustrating times that Paramore writes best in. While it steps back away from the great neon pop of After Laughter, this is Paramore returning [...]

Mac DeMarco – Five Easy Hot Dogs (Duncan, British Columbia/Edmonton, Alberta/Montreal) Just when it seemed like Mac DeMarco was bordering on a living parody of himself, he turned his whole energy around and released an instrumental record. While this does feel a tad out of place as [...]