Blue Hawaii – Tenderness

The Braids vocalist dazzles over the lush arrangements on lead single ‘No One Like You’, and again catches the ear on the hedonistic bump of fellow standout ‘Versus Game’, where spacey guitars float sparsely atop a pulsating synth beat. Both are prime fodder for high-flying club mixes, as is the record’s title track, which grows vividly around a bouncing ‘Inspector Norse’ bass line, shuffling drum ticks, and a poignant motto of self-love: “Learning how to be alone without you, and happy to be with me”.(Clash)

Daphni – Joli Mai

Joli Mai mainly contains extended versions of tracks from Snaith’s recent Fabriclive mix. Most of those were made as short two or three-minute tunes specifically for the mix, and have been fleshed-out into full-length tracks for this release. “Vulture,” which appeared on Midland’s Fabriclive 94 CD (as well as Ben UFO’s RA.500 podcast), is also being released for the first time in full. The LP comes via Snaith’s Jiaolong label. (Resident Advisor)

The Weather Station – The Weather Station

There are many singers with skilled voices, but for me what makes for a masterful singer isn’t the quality of the voice, but rather the ability to take lyrics and connect emotions with inflection. That’s what struck me when I heard Tamara Lindeman sing on this, her self-titled and fourth album as The Weather Station. She’s lived these words. They are her being. They are her stories.(NPR)

Weaves – Wide Open

When Jasmyn Burke is on tour with her band Weaves, she meets a lot of young women and women of color who tell her they’ve never seen someone who looks like them represented in a rock band before. That type of iconic status — while flattering — can complicate an artist’s intentions. It might cause someone to focus entirely on personal perspective — to channel an artistic vision distinct from the goals of representation — or to sacrifice individual flair by solely working to push back against expectations and norms.(NPR)

Wolf Parade – Cry Cry Cry

When the Canadian rock band Wolf Parade announced an indefinite hiatus back in 2010, its members hardly retreated into dormancy. Spencer Krug, for example, has since released a long string of albums and EPs under the name Moonface, while Dan Boeckner continued his work with Handsome Furs, started a group called Operators, and got together with Spoon’s Britt Daniel to form Divine Fits. So it’s no surprise that Wolf Parade — which had parted amicably after three grandly sweeping full-length albums — would eventually will its way back.(NPR)