Dead Oceans US 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Durand Jones & The Indications earned lavish praise for their eponymous 2016 debut album, with critics comparing it favourably to conscious soul sets of the 1970s from the likes of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. This belated follow up is, if anything, even better, with the group's core offering - tight instrumentation and super-smooth vocals from the hugely talented Jones and drummer Aaron Frazer - being complemented by silky string arrangements, warm brass and lyrics that flit between social commentary and glassy-eyed, loved-up bliss. Highlights include "Morning In America" - a kind of 2019 update to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" - the super-sweet vocal harmonies of "Don't You Know" and "Long Way Home", a lilting look at homesickness blessed with the twin attractions of swooping strings and a killer bassline.

Review: 'Mordechai is another blissed-out record from Texan party-chill-psyche trio Khruangbin. It's also among the outfit's most defined and driven, a smooth, sticky hot funk odyssey made for hazy afternoon soirees. Leader Laura Lee is, as ever, unfathomably siren-like on vocals, her bass grooves aiding the process of seduction no end. Even at the most upbeat and anthemic, 'Time (You and I)', it's hard not to feel woozy and intoxicated by the pared-back breaks and guitar lick combination. Dance floor ammo for sure, as is Pelota. Overall, though, it's an album best savoured slowly, allowing you to fully appreciate every lackadaisical moment of opiate goodness, with tracks such as 'Father Bird, Mother Bird', 'One To Remember' and 'Shida' summoning stunning sticky, heavy, deep atmospheres.

Review: If you've caught either Khruangbin or Leon Bridges live before, or indeed listened to anything by either band or producer-singer-songwriter, you'll know where this 20-minute EP is heading. The sleeve art, which gives more than a nod to the 1960s hippy movement, also offers a major clue.

Tripped out, smoked out, lackadaisical, bliss-infused overtures, honied and syrupy, easing you in so far that you don't quite realise how hard it is to crawl back out of the sugar-coated opiate haze. A collection of heady, hallucinogenic work for 21st Century high plains drifters, it's jazzy, psychy, lush soulful fare you'll be wanting to hear again and again, capturing the heat and slow pace of America's southern states with heartfelt songwriting from genuine masters. The result is something very special indeed.

Review: Japanese-American indie-rocker Mitski was once a cult favourite, but in recent times her audience has grown exponentially, helped by the critical praise heaped on her fourth album, 2016's Puberty 2. Two years on, Be The Cowboy arrives amongst a blizzard of publicity and many more positive reviews. It's certainly a hugely impressive set, with each of the 14 songs dealing with romantic and interpersonal relationships in some way. There's much heartache, of course, expressed both lyrically and in Mitski's distinctive, emotion-rich vocal delivery. Musically, the album never sits still, either, darting between grandiose slabs of poignant moodiness and the kind of jaunty, disco-tinged goodtime grooves that belie their melancholic inspirations.

Review: The return of Slowdive has been one of the minor miracles of the 21st century thus far - having originally split up in a mist of disinterest and press opprobrium in the Britpop-damaged mid-'90s, the band have watched their profile and reputation slowly rise to the extent of them now being regarded as scene pioneers and innovators. True to its eponymous name, this album is the sound of these Thames Valley charmers re-asserting everything that made them magical in the first place a full quarter century on, not to mention a dizzying collision of ethereal harmonies, heavenly guitar cascades and opiated dreamstates possessed of a timeless allure.

Review: The self-titled comeback LP from Reading based shoegaze pioneers Slowdive proved one of the most mercurial and delicate dream-pop projects of 2017, while owing testament to their singular, highly influential vision. While a follow up has been teased since 2020, lockdown delays as well as personal loss has hindered the work to the point of monolithic proportions. Promising a more introspective, minimal electronic based backdrop in order to process the passing of both vocalist/guitarist Rachel Goswell's mother and drummer Simon Scott's father, Everything Is Alive serves as a muted, nuanced return to form, from a collective of artists still driven by their passion, ability and endlessly attentive focus to their ethereal craft.