New This Week: Race Horses, Toy, The Raveonettes & More

Race Horses, Furniture The Welsh band’s second album is an excitable gallop through the best of Britpop. Victoria Segal writes:

“Although the jovial experimentation of “Mates” or “Old And New”’s cosmic balladry bear the marks of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals — and not merely because they are Welsh — Race Horses display a melodramatic touch that those bands never really possessed. On “Sisters”, for instance, they just about manage to cram themselves into Jarvis Cocker’s cords.”

Toy, Toy Toy’s dreamy, krautrock-inflected gothgaze should nail an autumnal sweet spot perfectly. Andrew Perry writes:

“It’s a full-tilt lysergic trip whose repercussions remain with you long after its last deafening chords have died out. In a word: invest!”

The Raveonettes, Observator The Danish duo reunite for an album of exquisitely crafted moody pop songs, inspired by depression and a substance-fuelled sojourn to Venice, California. Bill Murphy writes:

“All the signatures of the Raveonettes are here — cavernous reverbs, jangly guitars and hallucinatory vocal harmonies that recall the Everly Brothers through the haze of a walking dream — but what sets this one apart is the sense that the band, and Wagner in particular, has gone through the fire and grown stronger from the experience.”

Calexico, Algiers For their seventh LP, Calexico relocated to the Algiers district of New Orleans to record a clutch of soulful, stirring songs that brim with their trademark sensual drama. Recommended.

Patterson Hood, Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance The Drive-By Truckers frontman releases a third album of stripped-down country-rock, with the emphasis on rock. Inspired by a troubled period in his twenties, the songs tackle heartbreak, boozing and using.

Mala, Mala in Cuba Dubstep producer Mala relocated to Havana for this inspired album that mixes Latin heat with South London bass and beats and, in doing so, creates music that’s truly off the map. Recommended.

Hugh Cornwell, Totem And Taboo Steve Albini was at the controls for this solo album by Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers who, on the evidence of caustic songs like “Stuck In Daily Mail Land”, has become punk’s answer to Ray Davies.

Amanda Palmer, Theatre Is Evil This album was financed through the funding site Kickstarter by Palmer’s devoted army of fans, who are repaid with an album of fantastically over-the-top pop.

Gallows, Gallows The departure of bloody-nosed frontman Frank Turner hasn’t dented any of Gallows’s hardcore drive. Ian Gittins writes:

“It’s short on nuance and subtlety, sure, but as an adrenalin-drenched example of 21^st-century UK punk, this is nigh on impossible to beat.”

The Helio Sequence, Negotiations The Portland duo’s fifth album mixes glacially pretty guitar parts with acoustic warmth created by using old analogue gear. Michaelangelo Matos writes:

“Negotiations doesn’t have the grooveful rush of 2004′s gorgeous Love and Distance – still their best — but that album’s sweet quality still glimmers on this one’s surface.”