FLOOD

This album is the work of another new band—Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place—but it still carries Crow’s signature sound, from his vocals to the methodic bass, clockwork tempos, and occasional breaking into heavy guitars.

His music has always had the feeling of a rainy day, but not in a depressing sense.

Four years removed from a well-received debut album, Givers disappointingly return with more of the same.

You might feel like you’ve heard the songs on “Explains” before, but it’s more like turning over an old record and realizing there was a whole other side you missed until now.

The album captures all the energy of seeing the group play live, and echoes Built to Spill’s best tracks from the past.

There may not be anything truly revolutionary on the album, and none of the tracks stand out as destined for TV commercials and film trailers, but for fans who’ve waited for new music from Modest Mouse, this is a solid and satisfying addition to the band’s catalogue.

The latest addition to of Montreal’s prolific oeuvre, “Aureate Gloom” is a carefully constructed mess, and maybe the closest thing to a “rock” record the band will ever make.

With “Individ,” The Dodos continue their arc of refinement as evolution—each album they’ve released isn’t a reinvention of previous albums, nor is it repetition.

The tone of the record becomes all the more poignant in light of Molina’s death in 2013, after a long struggle with depression and alcoholism.

Lewis’s songs have always had a storytelling bent, and this album is full of songs that talk about meaningful moments, and how we arrive at them.