November 30, 2017
Here are QRO’s top-rated album reviews of the year:
Ryan Adams – Prisoner By his own standards, it’s actually been a little while since we’ve heard from Ryan Adams. Read more… |
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The Afghan Whigs – In Spades The new In Spades is directly in Dulli’s thrusting emotional push. Read more… |
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David Bowie – No Plan EP David Bowie gives a bonus swan song. Read more… |
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Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder The Scene is back with Hug of Thunder, a revival and celebration of all that the band means. Read more… |
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Buzzcocks – Time’s Up & Spiral Scratch reissues Where did underground success go? Read more… |
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – The Tourist A continuation of great psychedelic indie, with some awesome alternative rock instrumentation and their trademark energy. Read more… |
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Cloud Nothings – Life Without Sound Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings have been both raised by, and limited by, their clear influences. Read more… |
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The Dears – Times Infinity Volume Two The Dears are very alternative oriented typically, and somehow seem like a rarity these days in their fast pace, despite all the alternative bands out there right now. Read more… |
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Delicate Steve – This Is Steve This Is Steve, while not completely different from previous material of Delicate Steve’s, is really good, exceptional even in the guitar, maybe better than ever before. Read more… |
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Elbow – Little Fictions Elbow are an excellent band making sad, excellent music. Read more… |
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Father John Misty – Pure Comedy Father John Misty is very well known for all serious music fans, which is just to say people have heard of him. Read more… |
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Feist – Pleasure Leslie Feist has always had a conflicted relationship with her success. Read more… |
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Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up Folk bands tend to rise and disappear more quickly than others, but after a hiatus, Fleet Foxes has their first release in six years. Read more… |
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Jen Gloeckner – Vine The upcoming singer-songwriter, Jen Gloeckner, certainly has a striking voice, and is a capable musician. Read more… |
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Gogol Bordello – Seekers and Finders It’s key that Gogol Bordello is releasing Seekers and Finders now. Read more… |
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Gorillaz – Humanz Even among all of Damon Albarn’s work, Gorillaz stands out. Read more… |
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Grandaddy – Last Place Checks across the board, Grandaddy. Read more… |
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Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins In the annals of Brooklyn indie & hipsterdom, Grizzly Bear hold a special place. Read more… |
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Ha Ha Tonka – Heart-Shaped Mountain The country music field can be fickle when it comes to big hit success. Read more… |
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Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton – Choir of the Mind You already love Emily Haines. We all already love Emily Haines. Read more… |
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Hüsker Dü – Savage Young Dü The term ‘underappreciated’ is overused, but Hüsker Dü truly were, being one of the greatest punk acts of the eighties (or any decade). Read more… |
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Japandroids – Near To the Wild Heart of Life When people say, “Rock is dead,” they’ve never heard Japandroids. Read more… |
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The Jesus and Mary Chain – Damage and Joy The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Damage and Joy is not only reminiscent of their previous material, but a re-invention of their sound. Read more… |
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Alex Lahey – I Love You Like a Brothers Remember when indie-rock could be fun and catchy, not just sad and artistic? Read more… |
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Mark Lanegan – Still Life With Roses EP Mark Lanegan has a unique, emotional voice, and that pretty much always stays the same, but he has also pretty much always stayed the same. Read more… |
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Land of Talk – Life After Youth We’re all getting older – if we only could age like Land of Talk… Read more… |
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LCD Soundsystem – American Dream Before someone got the brilliant idea to shorten ‘electronic dance music’ to ‘EDM’, teaching the hipsters how to dance was only LCD Soundsystem. Read more… |
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Lorde – Pure Heroine How could Lorde possibly follow-up Pure Heroine? Read more… |
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Los Campesinos! – Sick Scenes Los Campesinos! are years removed from their exuberant breakthrough debut, shifting members and focusing more on loss, less on energy. Read more… |
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Mastodon – Emperor of Sand Mastodon started out as a hard rock/heavy metal band and despite consistently evolving musically, they continue to be pigeonholed as metal even though they have done a great job differentiating themselves from that genre. Read more… |
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Melvins – A Walk With Love and Death The Melvins are a lot like their namesake, well known and yet not well known at all. Read more… |
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Mew – Visuals Nothing about Mew feels rushed. Read more… |
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The National – Sleep Well Beast For their first record in four years, The National bring in electronic effects while retaining their tragic power. Read more… |
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Conor Oberst – Salutations Conor Oberst is familiar to most indie music fans at this point, and he is also one of the more original composers. Read more… |
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Old 97’s – Graveyard Whistling Alt-country artists like Old 97’s always run the risk of becoming merely another straightforward country band, which has a somewhat alt audience. Read more… |
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The Orwells – Terrible Human Beings The Orwells sound, look, and publish their image like Nirvana, but it is clear with Terrible Human Beings and previous records that they are more in some ways very melodically based. Read more… |
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Echo of Pleasure A decade or so ago, Kip Berman’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were a hype-buzz Brooklyn breakout, channeling neo-eighties fuzz and indie-pop. Read more… |
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Protomartyr – Relatives In Descent ‘Post-punk’ has always been hard to pin down. Read more… |
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R.E.M. – Automatic For the People (25th Anniversary Edition) It’s been easy to forget how important Automatic For the People was – and is. Read more… |
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Rise Against – Wolves Agit-punk has often gotten a bad reputation in music critic circles. Read more… |
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Slowdive – Slowdive Thankfully for shoegaze pioneers Slowdive, Slowdive goes right. Read more… |
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Shout Out Louds – Ease My Mind Emotional indie-pop was all the rage a decade or so ago, but fell out of fashion – only to more recently fall back into fashion. Read more… |
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SNST – Turn Out the Lights Turn Out The Lights is dark techno in the best, most exciting, and listenable sense. Read more… |
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Son Volt – Notes of Blue Son Volt just do the old very well on the country-blues Notes of Blue. Read more… |
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Spoon – Hot Thoughts Spoon are a confident and cool band. Read more… |
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Stars – There Is No Love In Fluorescent Light Stars have long been a giant, romantic alt-rock band. Read more… |
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St. Vincent – MASSEDUCTION While Annie Clark began in alt-rock circles, as St. Vincent she has grown into a profound, artistic musical force. Read more… |
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Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds Stereophonics are great at riding the line between mainstream and indie, and do so with overly, in-your-face catchy guitar with harmony based choruses. Read more… |
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Strand of Oaks – Hard Love Timothy Showalter returns as Strand of Oaks. Read more… |
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Tycho – Epoch Tycho are an interesting, solid, slow-jam, techno, and beats machine. Read more… |
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UNKLE – The Road: Part 1 UNKLE always begins with eccentric electronica but meets pop halfway through. Read more… |
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Wand – Plum Plum is as strange as the title is weird, but this is a good thing for Wand. Read more… |
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Wire – Silver/Lead On Silver/Lead, the sixteenth Wire release since they began the innovative art-rock journey in 1977, they seem somewhat emboldened. Read more… |
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Wolf Parade – Cry Cry Cry Yet Wolf Parade returned in 2016, with a new album the following year, and we’re all the better for it. Read more… |
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The xx – I See You The xx occupy a very cool sweet spot. Read more… |