Three might be the magic number, but in music, as you may have heard, it takes two to make a thing go right — and make an album that’s out of sight. Here are some of this year’s winning pairs:
TINNITIST’S PICK
Royal Trux
White Stuff
Jennifer Herrema hasn’t forgotten how to get the party started. Or how to act like a damn rock star. “This is the way it’s supposed to be / Push me on a cart through the duty free / Hangin’ out and playin’ all across the land / Tellin’ everybody we’re the greatest band,” the Royal Trux frontwoman enthusiastically yowls on White Stuff’s opening title cut. As first lines go, it’s not bad. Especially when you consider that this is Herrema’s first album of new studio material with guitarist and former creative/life partner Neil Hagerty in nearly 20 years. And while they might not have earned the right to reclaim that ‘greatest band’ title yet, there’s no denying White Stuff is a helluva start. Not because Herrema and Hagerty sound as good as they used to, but because they sound just as cruddy, weird, and completely bereft of fucks to give as they’ve always been.
READ THE FULL REVIEW AND HEAR THE ALBUM HERE
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Bad Juice | Stack-O-Lee And Ten Other American Tales
Bedouin Soundclash | Mass
Better Oblivion Community Center | Better Oblivion Community Center
Binary Canary | iterative system
The Bird & The Bee | Interpreting The Masters Volume 2: A Tribute to Van Halen
The Black Keys | ‘Let’s Rock’
Black Mountain | Destroyer
The Blue Butter Pot | Let Them Talk
Bones UK | Bones UK
The Chemical Brothers | No Geography
Claypool Lennon Delirium | South of Reality
Gang Starr | One Of The Best Yet
GA-20 | Lonely Soul
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib | Bandana
Gum Takes Tooth | Arrow
Kacy & Clayton | Carrying On
Lightning Dust | Spectre
Buddy & Julie Miller | Breakdown On 20th Ave. South
Niggght | Violent Delicacy
Parlor Snakes | Disaster Serenades
Scattered Clouds | Take Away Your Summer
Tegan & Sara | Hey, I’m Just Like You
Those Pretty Wrongs | Zed For Zulu
White Collar Sideshow | I Didn’t Come Here to Die
Whitehorse | The Northern South Vol. 2
TO FIND REVIEWS OF THESE ALBUMS, PLEASE USE THE SEARCH WINDOW AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE
