Well it ain't exactly "new" and neither are they unknown. But this album was new to me. Then I saw that it had reached 6xPlatinum in the US etc...

A fantastic blend of Jason Mraz, The Killers, Muse and Mumford & Sons.

Imagine Dragons - Night Visions

Favourite track: Demons

and now the second disc...

This one is definitely new to most. Swedish hip-hop vs. swing vs. electronic group Movits! released their newest album a couple of weeks ago. Brings some freshness into the whole bling-blingie world of hip-hop.

Movits! - Huvudet bland molnen

Favourite track(s): Limousin / Nitroglycerin

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Polica - Shulamith

Wow... this is a really compelling release for me. Spygame-esque downtempo grooves set to vintage synthesizers, weary female vocals, propulsive indie lounge rock. Love it.

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I'm a sucker for this shit. Spotifying it now. Good stuff. 

Sorry for not adding pretty album covers to these posts, but I'm on a phone right now, so I'll go back and add them later.

Most of my recent citations in this thread have been for indie rock, dream pop, electronica, and hip hop. So it's time for more METAL. Gaaaaaaarrrrhh!!!

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Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was :: A re-release of one of their rarer vinyls. From one of their best periods in my opinion

The Body - Christ, Redeemers :: Really filthy, raw doom. Shitty recording quality. Haven't dug into this much just because it's so poorly recorded. Really best left for blasting on old speakers rather than headphones.

Carcass - Surgical Steel :: It's the year of metal reunions. Sabbath, Monster Magnet, Gorguts... and now Carcass! These guys were always one of the best grind bands ever, and they eventually morphed into this really catchy death metal hybrid. It seems they've still got it.

Gorguts - coloured Sands :: Finally! The long awaited new album from these tech death geniuses. This stuff is just so amazingly dense and atmospheric. Discordant, yet very propulsive and even catchy. One of my favorite metal releases this year, for sure.

Hail of Bullets - The Rommel Chronicles :: Really brutal death metal. Heavy, plodding, war-march type stuff. The perfect stuff for banging yer head, and maybe some loose women too.


Inquisition - Obscure Verses For The Multiverse :: Creepy black metal from these old stalwarts. Nothing new here, but then that's kind of the point. Great atmosphere on this stuff.

Monster Magnet - Last Patrol :: I've always liked the brand of doom slash heavy metal these guys conjured. Less earthy and more spacey. Less weed or opiates and more LSD. Like a heavier Hawkwind. Or the grand pappy of Ufomammut. This album is a great return to form. They don't make 'em like this much anymore.

Pelican - Forever Becoming :: Both pretty and pretty heavy. I like this more than their last few releases. A bit more interesting to me than the usual post-metal stuff.

Skeletonwitch - Serpents Unleashed :: Great blackened thrash. Was never really into these guys despite having their first album. I find these tracks really catchy though, so that seems to be changing.

Toxic Holocaust - Chemistry of Consciousness :: More blacked thrash. Also great. I've followed this band since the beginning of their career, and they've only gotten better. Probably my favorite thrash band right now.

Ulcerate - Vermis :: Really well done technical death metal. This one isn't hitting it out of the park for me like their previous albums, at least not yet. However I'm enjoying it, and maybe it'll grow on me even more.

Watain - Wild Hunt :: Angry black metal, thick with swarths of hellfire smoke.

Windhand - Soma :: Groovy stoner sludge. Like trying to swim in mollasses. Not quite up to the level of, say, YOB. However it has its own unique sort of vibe going on, evoking a sense of desolate natural landscapes rather than volcanos and thunderclouds.


Also here's some rock:

Bardo Pond - Peace On Venus :: One of *the* drug addled fuzz rock bands, like a more disturbed Spaceman 3 that traded blues in for grunge. This release is just great. Hippy dippy flutes, disembodied and strung out female vocals, soaring guitars and walls of feedback. Pretty much par for the course for these guys.

Earthless - From The Ages :: Earthless is one of the best guitar-centric psych rock bands around these days. You like long Hendrix-worshipping guitar solos? Earthless. Part of the current heavy psych rock elite along with Psychic Paramount, Major Stars, and Acid Mothers.

Fuzz - Fuzz :: Great blown-out garage rock from Ty Segall. This stuff is heavier and more stoner-groove laden than his usual stuff, like Ty Segall covering Cactus. Also has some w icked cover art.

Jesu - Everyday I Get Closer To The Light :: Better than his last release in my opinion. Lots of heavy guitar riffs chugging along to pretty minor-key ballads. Less dense than his former more shoegazer-y stuff, but still really atmospheric and warm and enveloping. Kind of like the city streets after a sudden mid-summer rainstorm.

Katatonia - Dethroned & Uncrowned :: Really sappy, overwrought ballady goth rock. Still I love it. Basically, this is an acoustic version of their album from last year, Dead End Kings.

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Got some feedback on my recommendation of Polica. Glad some of you guys liked it. I think you'd also like the Son Lux album, Lanterns.

Kind of hard to describe this one, but it's exceedingly beautiful in its categorical defiance. Angelic vocals, including a weary lead singer who is backed by a full on choir. The instrumentation is quite varied, with found-object percussion and strings and piano. All of this is set to some rather unusual electronic effects and synth lines. It all comes together into this cohesive whole despite the chaotic underpinnings, a lovely soundtrack to dawn hour drives through rural backroads during these colder months.

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I'm also really digging the new Of Montreal. I've never been that big a fan of their past work, and some of it is downright irritating to me in its pageantry and forced playfulness, like someone trying way too hard to be quirky. The more recent stuff however has been better in my opinion. False Priest was kind of a big F U to the fans who liked their faux Sargent Pepper albums, and Paralytic Stalks added some much needed honesty to their sound. Their latest album Lousy With Sylvianbriar goes further to that end. This sounds the most "real" of any of their stuff to me since the four track demo recordings. It's relaxed, less overtly self-aware, and so there's not that sense of desperately trying to be clever.

MF. An interesting list. I have a third of the albums there. I like your descriptions (I can't wax lyrical like that) and shall check out the rest.

I'm just listening to The Battle Of Chamdo from the Gorguts album. I wasn't expecting the string arrangement. My favourite track on the album.

Okay, I take it back. "A Dancing Shell" is still the most amazingly catchy damn single for me this year. The music video also just takes it over the top in 80s nostalgia. It's like someone turned a portion of my inner world into a YouTube video.