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Congratulations. You've survived another wild week. Allow us to reward you with some exciting new treats for your ears.
Julio Bashmore – ‘Knockin’ Boots’
Album of the Week
★★★★★
We feared that the Great British Dance Album was extinct. Who’d have thought that a beardy producer with a penchant for Panama hats could be the one to resurrect it?
Read our full review of Julio Bashmore’s ‘Knockin’ Boots’.
Mac DeMarco – ‘Another One’
★★★☆☆
You might think of Mac DeMarco as a wacky dude, always with the beer and the jokes. But on his fourth record he’s totally bummed out. As great as these new songs are, they’re also incredibly repetitive: the same riff, the same mood, the same shimmery guitar and the same words: ‘heart’, ‘her’, ‘love’, ‘me’, ‘other’, ‘another’. It’s like someone telling you how much they miss their ex, over and over again.
Eddy Frankel
Ultimate Painting – ‘Green Lanes’
★★★☆☆
Nine months after their debut, the London indie duo have already birthed a second album in Harringay. ‘Green Lanes’ repeats the low-key Velvets-meet-Beatles-meet-Kinks trick, with zero innovation but lots of charm: just what you’d expect from two moonlighting members of Veronica Falls and Mazes. Though it’s a shame they couldn’t manage even one song about the joys of Turkish food.
James Manning
Gwenno – ‘Y Dydd Olaf’
★★★★☆
If you usually look to Cold War-era Europe for icy synth soundscapes and expect Welsh pop to be all twanging guitars and quirky romance, Gwenno Saunders is here to set you right. The Welsh-language debut by the former Pipettes frontwoman pairs luscious, breathy vocals and sci-fi themes with funky electronica and industrial clanks – the sound of the M4 meeting the autobahn.
Laura Lee Davies
Public Enemy – ‘Man Plans God Laughs’
★★★☆☆
In an age of hip hop God complexes, it’s weirdly refreshing to hear the familiar, stripped-back style of Chuck D’s old-school crew. Public Enemy’s thirteenth album contains a few futuristic flourishes, but generally it’s more short, sharp, angry and engaging rap, as scathing of The System as ever: no longer groundbreaking, but in no danger of denting their incredible legacy.
Tristan Parker
Fancy hearing something new? Read more of the latest Time Out album reviews.