Beginning this month, we're going to start highlighting some of the great new music dropping into rotation. After sitting back and surveying the landscape, it became clear just how much ridiculously great and horrendously bad music comes out each month, making this list more difficult to compile than originally thought.
But the music speaks for itself. Here are 10 of the best new albums released in September - in no real order, though Volcano Choir's latest would probably get my personal nod for the best of the bunch. Leave hearty agreements and vehement dissent in the comments section below. We'll meet again on the back end of October.
Volcano Choir
Repave
The steady dirge that opens the album is a sign of the complexities to come. Comprising the guys from Collections of Colonies of Bees and Bon Iver's own Justin Vernon, Volcano Choir gets super abstract on their sophomore album. "Byegone” remains a highlight of the album, what with its triumphant chord ascension. Cropping up in each song, however, are all sorts of atmospheric ephemera - sonic odds and ends that take the song from being more than just the sum of its verses and chorus.
10 Ft. Ganja Plant
Skycatcher
Widely ranked among the greatest dub reggae bands still in existence, 10 Ft. Ganja Plant has dropped another collection of spirited tunes. The mysterious band, which rarely plays live and offers very little information about who its members are precisely, has cultivated a reputation for on-point reggae albums that are perfect for late-night sessions with your headphones or some friendly glassware.
Arctic Monkeys
AM
The album sounds like a slow-mo disco party stretching out toward the wee hours of a sun-baked Mojave morning. This is Josh Homme-inspired desert rock on quaaludes. The sounds originally parsed out during 2009’s Humbug have matured into something refreshingly danceable here. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the radio hits are among the flattest spots on the album. Take “One for the Road” for a spin; that’s where the album truly opens up.
