Writers’ Choices – February 2013

**toe** – _New Sentimentality EP_

**toe**’s EP distills, combines and develops highlights of previous albums into a twenty-minute aural dreamscape. It starts drowsily with a dainty marriage of birdsong, guitar and uncertain finger snapping before the record lucidly blossoms into life with a pillar of bass, occasional Rhodes piano, and the masterful drumming that takes centre stage throughout. With characteristically clean, focused sound it is technical without pedantry, and, while a mesmerizing lesson in minimalism, has a sporadic peppering of abrupt changes that engender constant anticipation.

**Similar To:** miaou, 3nd

**Amel Mukhtar**

**Burial** – _Untrue_

**Burial**’s second LP pulses with an emotional depth rarely seen in electronic scenes, yet remains rhythmically uncompromising. Upon its release in 2007, _Untrue_ served as an elegy to the fading garage movement – compressed beats, broken vocals, and echoes of London flicker like memories of the dying scene. Yet out of these ashes, **Burial**’s influence has spawned a new generation of artists and re-energised UK dance music. _Untrue_ was a game-changer, and it will change your life.

**Similar To:** Disclosure, El-B

**George Kafka**

**LCD Soundsystem** – _Sound Of Silver_

The second record from James Murphy’s brainchild showed the musical world exactly how to inject life into the flagging genre of ‘indie’, whilst simultaneously illustrating just how intelligent and insightful a dance record could be. Devoid of a weak track, the album moves from the tongue-in-cheek ‘North American Scum’ through to the almost painful poignancy of ‘New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’ with such effortlessness that the result is an irresistibly inviting, relatable, and downright brilliant record.

**Similar To:** Hot Chip, Caribou

**Flora Havelock**

**Don Broco** – _Priorities_

_Priorities_ is an album about mates, dates and all the good and bad they bring. The Bedford quartet lived up to their hype in spectacular fashion with a release that never lulls: instead, it explores a few different styles, and nails all of them. The vocals are both enunciated and painfully stylish, backed by a rowdy rhythm section and riffs aplenty. If the guitar band is coming back, **Don Broco** is personally seeing to it.

**Similar To:** Mallory Knox, Lower Than Atlantis

**Charlie Sammonds**

**The Cure** – _Disintegration_

Robert Smith’s long-haired gaggle of not-so-merry men reached above and beyond for their eighth studio album. _Disintegration_ is a strange elixir: sprawling, yet strikingly insular. It pulses with a dark, heart-rending sense of despair as Smith attempts to wrestle his demons at every turn, only to fail each time. All of the group’s staple sounds –spidery guitars, heart-on-sleeve lyrics, anchoring rhythms – are woven into a drone and funnelled into this: the band’s magnificent, definitive statement.

**Similar To:** Bauhaus, The Smiths

**Michael Perry**

**Prince & The Revolution** – _Purple Rain_

I shouldn’t have to tell you to go listen to this nine-track masterpiece. However, not enough people know all the words to ‘When Doves Cry’ for my liking. It’s not often that a soundtrack album makes it into my affections, but this is different: from the steamy ‘Darling Nikki’ to the painful outpouring of ‘Purple Rain’, this is a tour-de-force of funk, rock, and soul. Every track is beautiful and independent, yet they flow so easily from one to the other. Go listen. Now.

**Similar To:** The Time, The Family

**Francesca Peak**