Editor's Pick of New Releases, August 2010
Post categories: 6 Music, Radio 1, Radio 2, Rock & Indie, album reviews, experimental, folk, jazz & blues
|15:44 UK time, Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Don't know what to do with those left-over pesos from your summer holiday? Why not splash the freshly re-exchanged cash on one of these little beauties. A selection of August's best new album releases, below...
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(Mercury, released 2 August)
Recommended by Zane Lowe, Victoria Derbyshire, Nick Grimshaw, Fearne Cotton, Radcliffe & Maconie, 6 Music Album of the Day 2 August
"The Suburbs is their most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter. You could call it their OK Computer. But it's arguably better than that."
Read the full review and listen to previews
The Count & Sinden - Mega Mega Mega
(Domino, released 16 August)
Recommended by Rob da Bank
"Innovative, intelligent dance music that is as entertaining as it is enterprising, combining some of the most successful elements of the genre's varied past with the bang-up-to-date influences of today's urban and RnB artists."
Read the full review and listen to previews
(Polydor, released 30 August)
Recommended by Zane Lowe, Nick Grimshaw, Vic Galloway, Huw Stephens, Marc Riley, Bethan Elfyn, 6 Music Album of the Day 31 August
"Whether they're talking a load of gibber, spewing poetic profundities or playing auditory jokes, it doesn't really matter; it merely adds to their quirky brilliance. And it is brilliance. EE are wilfully eccentric, and endlessly entertaining, but they know more than most how to craft a song, how to make an album."
Sleigh Bells - Treats
(Columbia, released 9 August)
Recommended by Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne, Nick Grimshaw, Zane Lowe, Vic Galloway, 6 Music Album of the Day 9 August
"Electronic beats drop like cartoon anvils, guitars and synths are slathered in distortion, and the mix appears to have been plotted to introduce your ears to the concept of whiplash. It's their sonic mayhem that'll get them noticed, but Sleigh Bells have content beyond the chaos."
Read the full review and listen to previews
Read our Album Reviews Q&A with Sleigh Bells
Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
(Souterrain Transmissions, released 23 August)
Recommended by Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Rob da Bank
"Over dark wave synth sweeps that owe everything to the 80s and a martial bass drum throb that'd make These New Puritans proud, Nika Roza Danilova intones in a spooked-up siren call equal parts Siouxsie Sioux (an undoubted influence) and Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser."
Read the full review and listen to previews
Jason Moran - Ten
(Blue Note, released 23 August)
Recommended by Jazz on 3
"A typically bold expression of Moran's multifaceted personality and the chemistry between the pianist and his accompanists, both of whom have mastered that elusive skill of bringing sufficient detail to a piece without overshadowing its essential character."
Read the full review and listen to previews
Vijay Iyer - Solo
(ACT Music, released 23 August)
Recommended by Jazz on 3
"The original compositions on Solo reflect Iyer's immersion in the improvised music of his adopted New York. The energy of his attack, the variety of material presented and the fluidity of form combine to establish his place in, as he puts it, 'the stream of history'."
Read the full review and listen to previews
The Burns Unit - Side Show
(Proper, released 2 August)
Recommended by Lauren Laverne, Marc Riley, 6 Music Album of the Day 12 August
"Excellently conceived, brilliantly executed and splendidly presented, Side Show is a little wonder that's considerably more than the sum of its admittedly excellent parts. Fingers crossed that its makers turn their occasional live performances into a proper tour, soon."
Read the full review and listen to previews
Baths - Cerulean
(Anticon, released 9 August)
"At its most intoxicating, Cerulean is wonderfully escapist fare, and even at its most perfunctory - Maximalist and Aminals echo Clark and Bibio respectively - it's never dull. What Baths must do next is take the language he has mastered, his accent impeccable, and use it to say something truly unexpected."
Read the full review and listen to previews
Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier
(EMI, released 16 August)
Recommended by Rock Show with Daniel P Carter
"This is Iron Maiden truly living their purpose. No compromises, just complexities and challenges and more moments of brilliance than perhaps even they thought they still had left in them. A remarkable achievement."
Read the full review and listen to previews
Watch the director's cut video for The Final Frontier on YouTube
Of course, there were many more great albums released in August, by the likes of Skream, Best Coast and The Sword, to name but three. Check the BBC reviews from week to week by clicking HERE, and follow the Album Reviews service on Twitter.
Comment number 1.
At 11:30 20th Sep 2010, Treborner wrote:I was in a London spa during a very relaxing treatment which was complimented by Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs' playing in the background - an excellent track, I had never heard of the band before that but the music was so relaxing, that I bought the album :)
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Comment number 2.
At 08:25 21st Oct 2010, hari anderson wrote:I really enjoyed this post. You describe this topic very well. I really enjoy reading your blog and I will definetly bookmark it! Keep up the interesting posts!
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Comment number 3.
At 08:38 21st Oct 2010, hari anderson wrote:I really loved this post. You write about this topic very well. I really enjoy reading your blog and I will definetly bookmark it! Keep up the interesting posts
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)