Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell
(Asthmatic Kitty)
Always a genius songwriter and instrumentalist, the potency of Stevens’ compositions have never been met with such raw, fertile grounds for teary devastation as they do on Carrie & Lowell. Recorded partially at Norman’s Blackwatch Studios and inspired by the 2012 passing of his mother, it lies at the intersection of bottomed-out grief and faint glint of a light at the end of the tunnel, met with equal parts relief and guilt that manifest themselves in airy pockets sewn between darker, sparser ones.
Title Fight
Hyperview
(Anti-)
It takes some guts to transform the way Title Fight did with Hyperview. A leading commander in the latest emo revival, the Kingston-bred band applies the same angst (“Chlorine”) and sentiment (“Your Pain Is Mine Now”) into a shoegaze-meets-New Wave-indebted collection of songs. They play well with the back catalog (Floral Green, Shed, The Last Thing You Forget) but evolve in a way that will last through whatever changing of the guard happens in the years ahead.
Tobias Jesso Jr.
Goon
(True Panther)
A no-frills piano crooner born out of the Paul McCartney/Randy Newman mold, Tobias Jesso Jr. constructs Goon with songs that sound like they’ve been floating around in the ether since the ’60s. But a song like “Without You” never goes out of style, and these faithful tributes feel more alive than zombified. Jesso’s confident lyrics, lovely piano hooks and affecting voice make for a powerful stride forward.
Turnover
Peripheral Vision
(Run for Cover)
Title Fight wasn’t the only band to grow up this year. Turnover arguably does an even better job of pivoting from the pop-punk wallows that mark their output up to the present. Cranking down the energy to the level of their more lo-fi, indie-rock peers, Turnover lets the armor fall and opens itself up to more vulnerable (and impressive) returns in the process.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Multi-Love
(Jagjaguwar)
Polyamory is at the center of UMO’s third LP, written in the midst of a love triangle songwriter and frontman Ruban Nielson found himself in on the heels of II. That undercurrent of confusion and apprehension — even in the face of happiness — drives Multi-Love. The Portland-based project is at its most sultry and steamy in songs like the title track and disco-spawned “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone,” fully embracing flirty funk and forlorn R&B in their ever-evolving relationship with all things psychedelic.
Viet Cong
Viet Cong
(Jagjaguwar)
Electrocuted just short of a death sentence, the implosive, spilling debut from ex-Women soldiers Viet Cong is as charged as its oft-controversial name, ripping through barbed percussion wires and spiked guitar prongs and emerging with one of the best post-punk albums of the past decade or so. “Silhouettes” and “Continental Shelf” show just how adept at a hook they can be when they want, but the primal aggression at the center of something like “Death” is where the shock meets awe.
Waxahatchee
Ivy Tripp
(Merge)
The fray and fuzz that marked the early cuts from 2012’s American Weekend and 2013’s Cerulean Salt are shaved down to their most essential strands in Ivy Tripp, Alabama native Katie Crutchfield’s third studio effort. Instead, Crutchfield hedges more towards the dusty, delicately punk ends of her scrappy take on American folk in songs like “La Loose” and “Air,” where the Alabama native has never sounded more poised for a breakout moment.
Yumi Zouma
EP II
(Cascine)
The sophomore EP from intercontinental dream-pop project Yumi Zouma is every bit as sophisticated and alluring as its predecessor, breezily dancing through subtle ’80s anthems (“Song for Zoe & Gwen”) and saucy, R&B-affixed jams (“Dodi”) that interject a sharp edge to its otherwise soft-spoken spirit.
