Jagjaguwar US レコード& CD

Review: When it comes to plugging in mega stacks of amplified prog-rock, Vancouver-area band Black Mountain deliver a retro-futuristic sound that's as large as any Godzilla soundtrack. With Destroyer presenting a fifth LP on Bloomington label Jagjaguwar, Black Mountain go someway in delivering a bold cross reference of only the best and most legendary points of 60s, 70s and 90s rock n roll regalia. With keys and piano mixed with guitars, distortion and vocoders giving the band a futuristic, krautrock (Deutsche elektronik musik) edge, British psychedelic and raw but atmospheric arrangements give the band their own undeniable identity. With songs passing the bottle from slow dancing rock, flashy hair metal, to synthy guitars and cosmic arpeggios, the best metal of today is still way up there, on Black Mountain.

Review: The evolution of Justin Vernon from the broken-hearted, falsetto-voiced troubadour who emerged from his cabin to deliver his debut eight years ago to the here and now may seem downright implausible, yet the facts of the matter are this - '22, A Million' is proof positive that he is one of the most multi-faceted and enigmatic and inscrutable artists we have at our disposal, still capable of delivering heart-rending beauty in song form yet also of marrying it to wilful abstraction in a way that not only offers emotional resonance yet reflects and refracts its surrounding era to offer succour and salvation. Sing it from the rooftops, this is little short of a complicated modern masterpiece.

Review: Justin Vernon's voice has always been the people's main attraction to Bon Iver, and the fact his pseudonym even exists is certainly no coincidence. As fragile and heartbroken as it is forthright and experienced, when you're wearing a shredded heart on sleeve and confessing to all your deepest insecurities using a pen name can help immensely. Album number four perhaps proves this more than any of its predecessors. While the three previous chapters have all made his thoughts, feelings, insecurities and fears clear, this one takes honesty to new heights. Combining the frail electronics that have gradually slipped their way into his back catalogue with the acoustics of his earliest, rocket-to-fame efforts, it's a culmination of all that's been in the truest sense. Perhaps even more intimate than the breathtakingly personal "For Emma, Forever Ago", "i,i" is a striking work to say the least.

Review: Some 36 years after making an instant impact with their fuzzy debut album, alt rock originals Dinosaur Jr. are still going strong. Sweep It Into Space, the band's first studio album since 2016, is testament to their continued mastery of an art form that they helped to define and refine. All the usual staples of their sound are present and correct - think punchy, tom-heavy drums, alternately scuzzy and attractive guitars and J Masics' instantly identifiable vocals - alongside a seemingly new-found love of indie-pop melancholy and wistful musical arrangements (the latter almost certainly influenced by producer Kurt Vile). In other words, it's a grown-up Dinosaur Jr. album that ticks all of the right boxes.

Review: If you felt Angel Olsen's 'All Mirrors' album would benefit from a stripped down, pared back interpretation this is your lucky day. Far from some rushed attempt to release anything into the music industry's COVID-19 infested waters, the intimate, often hushed and delicate versions here are actually the original recordings of the tracks, which were then elevated to the scale we heard on that LP of last year.

The plan was always to release these as a counterpoint to the bigger sounding takes, and there will be few reasonably minded people who won't delight in that decision. It's as if we've watched her sepia-hued show-stopping performance in the main ballroom and then retired for intimate drinks in the dressing room. A staggering sibling to what was already one of our favourite records from recent years.

Review: Unsurprisingly, Aromanticism - meaning to have little or no romantic attraction to others - is exactly the idea Moses Sumney explores on this stunning debut. Having written the majority of this album's lyrics in the solitude of remote north American cabins, Sumney's songs about loneliness and distance feel natural and sincere. Throughout 'Aromanticism' Sumney shows off his affinity with vocal acrobatics, leaping from his rasping lower register to achingly dulcet falsetto. Both in his instrumentation and as a vocalist, Sumney strikes a pitch-perfect balance between acoustic and digital, exhibiting his ability to blend the two. Sumney blends passages of spoken word, neo-soul, broken-beat, and the vocal harmonies and movements, cascading with gospel precision, that shone on his 2016 EP 'Lamentations'. 'Aromanticism' is a powerful and heartfelt opening statement from an artist well worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Review: The New Zealand-born, Portland-based Ruban Nielson initially made a name for himself by marrying psych rock and lo-fi styles in a messy, Beefheartian manner, with jam-band wig-outs vying for attention with expressive songcraft. On 'Multi Love', however, he's both reined in the excesses of yore and sharpened up his songwriting, and the result is a veritable tour de force. Pop-tinged melody and emotional candour make for impressive bedfellows on these nine expansive and inventive ditties, which take as much inspiration from Prince or Janelle Monae as they do The Grateful Dead or Zappa. 'Multi Love' marks the place where Nielson genuinely makes his presence felt as a modern-day psychedelic visionary.

Review: New Zealand-born, Portland-based Ruban Nielson is well known for mixing up lo-fi, indie rock, psychedelic sounds and plenty of trippiness into unique and beguiling sound worlds. V is said to be the band's most definitive album yet and it was written between the dry freeways of Palm Springs in California and the much more lush coastlines of Hawai'i. As such it is drawn from a world of West Coast AOR, classic hits, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. This is the first double album in the artist's discography and it is well worth the extra playtime.

Review: Few songwriters have the ability to pen a melody that welcomingly sticks in your head for years after you hear it only once but Sharon Van Etten has that. It's especially prominent on the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter's track from her fourth album, originally released in 2014, 'Every Time The Sun Comes Up'. Fast forward ten years past two more acclaimed solo albums and Van Etten has reached a new phase where she's been writing more collaboratively with her band, hence why The Attachment Theory are named on the record. "For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam. Words that have never come out of my mouthiever! But I loved all the sounds we were getting. I was curiousiwhat would happen?" she says in a press release. And the result of that different approach is staggering. The first single 'Afterlife' shoots like a dagger to the heart and the gloom pop melds swagger and sadness into an atmospheric triumph. This record is likely going to be in many best of 2025 album lists.