Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12   Here we are having already closed the books on January, a month more tied to dearth than plenitude: dearth of sunlight, dearth of warmth, and somehow, usually, a dearth of halfway decent music, as the big consumption season of the holidays spends itself into a kind of productive dormancy. The year […]

Conan – Evidence of Immortality   With the release of their fifth full-length instalment, one thing about Conan is abundantly clear: It exists as a powerhouse of doom metal that embodies a distinct stubbornness. A stubbornness almost equalling the unstoppable forces of geology which created our very existence. Evidence of Immortality exhibits the staunch refusal […]

Chat Pile – God’s Country   A mere three days before the end of July, Chat Pile’s debut release became available to the masses after having been the subject of much hype. After the initial listen, God’s Country leaves one feeling like a corkscrew has been inserted into each ear and violently twisted. What has […]

Artificial Brain – Artificial Brain   Of all the bands I love, Artificial Brain is the one that has taken me the longest to wrap my head around. As someone who prefers the more freewheeling skronkfests of avant-garde death metal, Artificial Brain’s steadier, more nuanced approach to the genre was lost on me. Yet it […]

  Gospel – The Loser   There was never an intense desire for The Moon is a Dead World to finally have a sequel. In the realm of screamo or screamo-adjacent music, one-offs are par for the course, with the genre littered with classics delivered by groups that endured for a handful of years at […]

  Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez, See Your Future    Denzel Curry’s work has always been a bridge between the old and the new, between the precise cuttings inherited from his influences and the exuberant energy of his contemporaries. It resulted in highly conceptual albums that also worked on a purely anthemic level. Now, Curry […]

Musk Ox – Inheritance Is anyone else surprised to see a classically-influenced instrumental album win this month’s AOTM? Granted, the month of July was no fall of ‘91 but this is Sputnik: ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’ has less votes on this site than Asking Alexandria’s 2017 self-titled release (yes, they do still make music.) I don’t know […]

Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend Given that the album offers little in the way of questions — by serving up the same indie-lite standards: trite lyrics, helium vocals and nothing new whatsoever — Blue Weekend still packs a punch where it counts, because the songs themselves still ‘mean’ something to this listener. The rhythm on “Delicious Things”, […]

iosonouncane – IRA   Up-and-coming Brits Black Midi and uber-revered Sweet Trip both release an album. The “Album of the Month” section was all set to celebrate either of these indie juggernauts. No chance that hundred minutes long Italian album snatches the trophy. And yet it did. Despite deserving all jabs thrown at its overreliance […]

Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks of God The Million Masks of God came at the perfect time. Overall, the record’s musicianship is as tight as ever, Andy Hull is at his most ambitious, and the overall songwriting is possibly the best it’s ever been in a Manchester Orchestra album. However, it’s the album’s themes […]

  Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark   Rarely in Sput’s illustrious history has the Album of the Month been this closely contested. While some recent favourites such as Krallice’s supposedly “listenable” Demonic Wealth were blown aside with the weight of a brief fart, albums such as Dvne’s Etemen Ænka stood strong, beat only by […]

Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse   If Sputnikmusic’s “Album Of The Month” series has taught us anything over the course of last year it’s that not all records are created equal. Fairly, a statement like that could easily be considered hyperbolic if not for the sheer vastness which Imperative Imperceptible Impulse commands, surging out […]

August 2020 Album of the Month: Two People – Second Body Second Body could not have come out at a better time. After keeping myself from checking out most of the singles prior to its release, I pressed play on the album for the first time as I started my morning walk through a picturesque […]

When we consider the amount of big releases being pushed back because of the coronavirus, you can scarcely tell there’s a shortage of quality music when you look at the number of albums being put forward for April’s Album of the Month. In spite of this eclectic sprawl of candidates though, in my heart I […]

March was jam-packed with great releases, but one album in particular really captivated music lovers on Sputnikmusic. For even those who aren’t privy to country music, there’s no denying that something feels invigorating about Starmaker and the way it presents its music. Despite a broad range of albums being selected for March’s AOTM, Honey Harper’s Starmaker won by a […]