The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
The musical tale of three shipwrecked souls makes for an unusually linear Mountain Goats record, full of powerful moments that not even the eternally moving John Darnielle can scrape into the whole it deserves
Pitchfork
The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
As disaster mounts for these ill-prepared moderns, the soft '70s New Orleans brass of "Through This Night" is among the musical balms. Print edition only
Uncut
The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
Derived from a dream, the Mountain Goats’ new musical tells the intimate and vivid tale of the lone survivors from a shipwrecked crew
PopMatters
The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan plays more like a concept album than the Original Cast album from some unproduced musical waiting for its moment on Broadway, but this music confirms the Mountain Goats have talent that's on par with their ambitions, and this album is a thoughtful, dramatically satisfying experience
All Music
The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
John Darnielle trades the lo-fi confessional for high tragedy, finding transcendence—albeit a touch of distance—in the performance of survival.
Paste Magazine
The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
The latest themed album from John Darnielle’s band – with some help from Lin-Manuel Miranda – takes them on a sumptuously crafted and surprisingly upbeat voyage to a desert island
The Guardian
The Mountain Goats
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
The story is compelling, the songs exquisite, the lyrics diamond sharp, and the melodies so catchy they get lodged in your head long after the album has finished. Let’s hope Darnielle’s next dream yields something as wonderful as this
Under The Radar
FKA Twigs
EUSEXUA Afterglow
The chaotic EUSEXUA universe is expanding and contracting with a brand new album and a reimagined version of her album from earlier in the year. But twigs sounds like she’s having a blast, so let’s roll with it
Pitchfork
Oneohtrix Point Never
Tranquilizer
Drawing on a cache of commercial sample CDs, Daniel Lopatin assembles an impossibly dense and transportive electronic album that takes impermanence as its inspiration
Pitchfork
The Lemonheads
Love Chant
Not everything works in Love Chant. He tries to sound self-serious with his stream-of-consciousness rambling on “Marauders,” but instead, comes across as artfully silly. Still, it’s just one of the many fun detours that Dando takes throughout the album, one whose existence — given his history of substance dependency — feels like a small miracle in itself
No Ripcord
Picture Parlour
The Parlour
A commendable debut, demonstrating conceptual richness and hinting at immense potential
DIY
Picture Parlour
The Parlour
Every song is packed with vision as Katherine Parlour dives into her own pool of references and emerges as a powerful lyricis
Far Out