Editor’s Note: Longtime reader Remi VL is a regular guest contributor to our Release Day Roundup posts! He submitted several of the albums listed below. Join his Facebook group for more recommendations.
Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our Editors’ Picks column: Friday release days open the floodgates and unleash a seemingly endless stream of quality new music. But while some of our Editors and Contributors sit down gleefully each week to dive into this newly stocked treasure trove, others find themselves drawing a blank at the end of the month due to the breakneck pace needed to keep up to date with what’s been released. Which brings us to this Heavy Blog PSA: a weekly roundup of new albums which pares down the week’s releases to only our highest recommendations. Here you’ll find full album/single streams, pre-order links and, most importantly, a collection of albums that could very well earn a spot on your year-end list. Enjoy!
Top Picks
Mogwai – As the Love Continues (post-rock)
Mogwai’s output has been a bit contradictory over the last several years; they’ve been prolific despite only releasing a few studio albums in the 2010s. Since striking gold with their Les revenants (2013) soundtrack, the band have fully embraced their talents for composing TV and film scores, penning more soundtracks (5) than albums (3) during the last decade. The band’s studio output has remained consistent yet exploratory during that time, with more traditional post-rock on Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. (2011) and Every Country’s Sun (2017), and the underrated (over-hated?) electronic explorations on Rave Tapes (2014).
On their tenth studio album, Mogwai prove that their career trajectory might make more sense than it appears on paper. Post-rock as a soundtrack is hardly a new concept; just ask Explosions In the Sky. But on As the Love Continues, Mogwai continues to craft compositions in a way that fit both molds. Since Les revenants, the band’s output has consistently served dual purposes, serving as “a movie without pictures” as well as individual, worthwhile songs. That tradition very much continues on As the Love Continues.
Last Week’s Best Discovery: NaKhArA – The Procession (progressive death metal, avant-garde metal)
–Scott