The Syndicate

it's been a great week in album releases, these are all fantastic
Big Red Machine - s/t (project by Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner, solidly excellent)
Hozier - Nina Cried Power EP (been waiting for new music from him for a while and he delivered)
the Mountain Goats - Hex of Infinite Binding EP (surprise ep drop! and it's really good, some cool clarinet and stuff and holy shit that second track is devastatingly sad)
Paul Simon - In the Blue Light (new arrangements of various pre-existing songs and they're absolutely stunning, and involve collaborators including yMusic and Bryce Dessner hell yeaahhh)

god the dessner bros are everywhere i love them so much

obligatory Sleep Well Beast hell yeaaaaaaahhhh post

love it <3

Alright, on second listen I think Planetarium is an AOTY candidate. Goooooood shit.

Recent new albums!

alt-J - RELAXER - Pretty good, though imo they could never really top An Awesome Wave. This one grew on me though, on first listen I only really enjoyed ~2 of the 8 tracks but I appreciated the others more on second listen. Somewhat odd rendition of "House of the Rising Sun", again I didn't like it at first but got a little bit more out of it the second time around. Standout tracks are "In Cold Blood", "Deadcrush", and "Pleader".

Fleet Foxes - Crack-up - Hell yeah hell yeah. Finally we get more sweet, sweet Fleet Foxes content. Nice, gentle, understated, at points even a little boring on the surface/at first, but beautiful and complex underneath. Again, appreciated more on second listen, but not quite convinced I like it quite as much as their previous material. But it's a lovely, well-balanced album.

James McAlister, Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly - Planetarium - Have to give this one a mention because it's a great collaboration and a cool concept. Haven't gotten around to a second listen yet, but first impressions were that it was really nice listening and musically diverse, except that I rather too easily get tired of Sufjan's voice. But put a Dessner bro on anything and I'll check it out.

Speaking of which, stay tuned for The National's new release later this year! I've already gotten pretty hooked on the lead single, "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness." I'm such a sucker though... to me, Matt Berninger's voice is like coming home and wrapping a soft warm blanket around my ears.

Have you heard their newest album, that came out a couple months ago? I need to give it another listen, but I really enjoyed it, and I love the single "Make You Better"

Nah, they don't have a worst one. I guess I wouldn't really say it's their best though. I think Crane Wife is #1.

The King Is Dead is probably one of the albums I have listened to the most times. I have it memorized. Definitely get into the Decemberists' other stuff too, all their albums are amazing.