SOUND JUDGEMENT

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

RE-ANIMATOR EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

THE follow-up to 2017’s Mercurynominated A Fever Dream, Everything Everything have approached their fifth studio album with the same genre-melding approach that saw them rise to alternative art-rock glory.

Surging beats and stripped-back melodies are the order of the day. Album opener Lost Power builds perfectly, transitioning from the delicate to crashingly powerful. The fuzzy, tangled tones of Birdcage and the pop-infused simplicity of Violent Sun are album high points.

A year of songwriting and demoing has condensed into an album that should satisfy both new converts and fans of their earlier work.

AMERICAN HEAD THE FLAMING LIPS

THE Oklahoman psychedelic rockers serve up more of the same for their 16th studio album, but if it’s to your taste, it’ll be a welcome repast.

American Head is almost a concept album in that the themes of religion, family, and of course mind-enhancing drugs, are interwoven throughout.

The anthemic mid-tempo My Religion Is You is the obvious choice for the single, but there are far more interesting cuts on here, such as You N Me Sellin’ Weed, driven by its sci-fi lyrics and fluctuating tempo changes.

Frontman Wayne Coyne’s voice becomes vulnerable on Assassins Of Youth, punctuated with ear-tingling synth bleeps, which also crop up in the experimental Brother Eye to fascinating effect.

It’s fair to say the album as a whole will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy, but it lacks the ecstatic heights of their earlier work.

GENERATIONS WILL BUTLER

WILL BUTLER likes to keep busy – in the past five years he’s recorded and toured with Arcade Fire, released his debut solo album and a live record, and earned his Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard.

There’s also a lot going on in Generations, his new solo album, a sprawling and at times exhausting collection of disparate songs.

There’s the electronica of opener Outta Here, the new wave of Bethlehem, the Motown-tinged Close My Eyes and the 80s pop of Hard Times, while Fine, about George Washington, sounds like Tom Waits penned a sequel to Hamilton.

The more you listen the more sense it makes, leaving you wondering where Butler will go next.