Sounding more than ever like the tougher, world-hardened shadow of that other Baltimore girl-guy duo with a knack for the gorgeous, Beach House, Wye Oak follow their 2009 study of relationship disquietude, The Knot, with Civilian, an album even more saturated in unease and distrust. In a leery warble that swallows key lyrics, Jenn Wasner sings of repressed memories, untold secrets and emotional withdrawal. She seeks to wean herself from intimacy, cursing her need for physical contact on the title track. "I'm perfectly able to hold my own hand but I still can't kiss my own neck," she laments. Elsewhere she warns those close to her she'll betray them before they can do the same to her. "When my last friends should leave me, slow and easy," she glooms on opener "Two Small Deaths," "I'll be creeping around them, picking pockets." The music is similarly guarded, camouflaging its prettiness under a layer of murk or behind blustering guitars. Civilian doesn't cede its secrets easily, but it's a triumph of mood and mystery, one of the most realized records I've heard yet this year.
Also out this week: Collapse Into Now, the first R.E.M. album in 15 years that doesn't make me wish I was listening to an older,better R.E.M. album. Building on the momentum of 2008's brisk but monochromatic rock album Accelerate, Collapse taps a broader palette, touching not just on the spry rockers of Lifes Rich Pageant but also the melancholy dirges of Out of Time and Automatic For the People. Even when it doesn't rock as hard as Accelerate, Collapse feels freer and less calculated than that self-conscious comeback record, joyfully liberated from the burden of trying to defy expectations. It's been ages since this great band has sounded this comfortable in its own skin.
If Philadelphia songwriter Kurt Vile kicked some of the scuzz off his lo-fi rock on his 2009 Matador debut Childish Prodigy, on his new Smoke Ring For My Halo, a mostly mellow set heavy on acoustic tracks, he takes it to the dry cleaner for a proper laundering.
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The experimental noise-rock band Parts & Labor teams with producer Dave Fridmann for Constant Future, their poppiest album yet. It's a blast.
Raekwon continues to position himself as the most classicist Wu-Tang member on his new Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang.
Avril Lavigne releases her fourth album, Goodbye Lullaby.
And on his long-delayed Lasers, Lupe Fiasco splits the difference between the uncompromising political album he'd always dreamed of and the shameless, chart-chasing record his label forced on him. Woof.
