Try it before you buy it! Every week a lot of new albums hit the interwebs as full album streams before their record release dates. We comb the Web and our emails, and listen to each of the albums and pluck only the most promising records for your listening enjoyment. Stream below, this week’s Friday round-up of recommended new album streams.
1. Xiu Xiu — Angel Guts: Red Classroom: With its namesake a Japanese erotic noir film, Xiu Xiu’x new record bleeds with dramatic misery, beauty, the ultra humanity and uncertainty. It’s a seductively dangerous work, and at times unsettling. Trust that it will send pleasurable shivers down your spine in true Xiu Xiu fashion. Click here to stream the album.
2. Marissa Nadler — July: Hauntingly beautiful with 11 lulling songs of love and loss. Boston-based singer Marissa Nadler delivers a striking blend of dark songs with eerie guitar lines and mysterious wonder. It’s a sullen ethereal album that would go well with a glass of wine and a full moon.
Click here to stream the album.
3. Cymbals — The Age of Fracture: No doubt about it, this album will make you move and groove with its sonic electronic dance beats accented with the European sophistication of the end-of-the-century French house. Similar to the sounds of New Order, classic Factory Records, and Hot Chip — watch out, Cymbals just might become your new favorite band from the UK. Click here to stream the album.
4. Gardens & Villa — Dunes: After receiving some huge indie blog love in 2011, Santa Barbara’s Gardens & Villa return with their sophomore album. With addictive melodies, cunning bass lines and those charming vocals the handsome boys are known for — Gardens & Villa are sure to win hearts with this bright and sunny album that was produced in the snowy tundra of Michigan. Click here to stream the album.
5. CEO — Wonderland: Was that a sample from 2010’s Feathered Cocaine documentary you just heard? Yep. CEO has created yet another weird, deep and bubbly assortment of eccentric electronic pop music. It coos with childlike melodies, bursts with drill rap synths and has bold lyrics that have layers and layers of deep meaning. Click here to stream the album.
