This week’s best albums
– Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse unveils an epic new LP of symphonic, operatic death metal.
– Garage-rock wunderkind Ty Segall (mostly) unplugs for a ballad-prone full-length (his only of 2013).
– After seven years without a solo LP, producer/rapper Jeffrey “Jel” Logan makes an idiosyncratic return.
– Looped-vocal songstress Julianna Barwick releases her third LP, the first to feature guest musicians, and reflects on an Icelandic journey.
– “Electro-goth” singer-songwriter Zola Jesus reinterprets her material with the chamber renditions of JG Thirlwell and the Mivos Quartet.
Honorable mentions
Born of Osiris: Tomorrow We Die Alive (Sumerian)
Braids: Flourish//Perish (Arbutus)
Kurt Braunohler: How Do I Land? (Kill Rock Stars)
Carousel: Jeweler’s Daughter (Tee Pee)
Free the Robots: The Balance
Julia Holter: Loud City Song (Domino)
Horseback: A Plague of Knowing (Relapse)
Kandodo: K2O (Thrill Jockey)
Mountains: Mountains Mountains Mountains (Thrill Jockey)
Native: Orthodox (Sargent House)
Oathbreaker: Eros|Anteros (Deathwish)
Shigeto: No Better Time Than Now (Ghostly International)
Watain: The Wild Hunt (Century Media)
White Hills: So You Are…So You’ll Be (Thrill Jockey)