There’s not much new on the sophomore effort from indie band Two Door Cinema Club, who hail from Northern Ireland. (Erika Goldring/WireImage)
Albums of the Week
CAT POWER
“Sun”
★★★ 1/2
THERE was a time when listening to an album by Cat Power (a k a Chan Marshall) was something best done out of the reach of any sharp objects. But the emotional desolation of Marshall’s past output is largely absent from her first album of original music in six years. Instead, with a lush combination of a synthesizer, electronics and drum machines, songs such as the title track and “Real Life” radiate an unusual sense of warmth and hope.
It’s not all rainbows and butterflies — the Georgian’s husky voice still carries an inherent sadness. But there’s no doubt that Marshall appears to be walking toward the light for once, and “Sun” captures the journey beautifully.
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
“Centipede Hz”
★★★
FOR all their hipster credentials and music-blog props, it’s strange that Animal Collective’s modern psychedelia doesn’t attract a larger following among the Woodstock generation. “Centipede Hz,” their ninth album in 12 years, might be the one to finally bring the white-haired demographic out of the woodwork, thanks to its flower-power influences.
The Baltimore quartet are masters of multilayered noise and textures, but beneath that hubbub, it’s not difficult to hear numerous echoes of Donovan or Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd in “Wide Eyed” and the offbeat euphoria of “Applesauce.” As with any Animal Collective collection, repeat listens are a must, but “Centipede Hz” gives up the band’s kaleidoscopic brilliance a little more willingly.
Downloads of the Week
MATCHBOX Twenty
“Put Your Hands Up”
★★
THE ’90s are making a comeback, but judging by their new album “North,” it’s a decade that never really went away for Matchbox Twenty. On this track, however, Rob Thomas and his fellow Floridians push themselves out of their alternative-rock comfort zone and channel a surprising four-on-the-floor influence, making “Put Your Hands Up” sound like a distant (and slightly more vanilla) cousin to “Moves Like Jagger.”
BOB MOULD
“The Descent”
★★★
MOULD’S longtime fans will be delighted to hear him rekindle the spirit of his influential punk/alternative bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar on his new album, “Silver Age.” This steamrolling pins a typically catchy melody to a blur of bright guitars, and the result is more urgent and invigorating than anything Mould has done for years.
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB
“Sleep Alone”
★ 1/2
IF it worked the first time, why bother fixing it? That’s the mantra Northern Ireland’s Two Door Cinema Club appear to have followed for “Beacon,” the follow-up to 2010’s sleeper hit “Tourist History,” Sure, this jittery dance-punk number benefits from a polished production and singer Alex Trimble’s newly developed vocal slickness. But for all the added touches, it’s hard not to feel like the band is resting on its laurels.
MELISSA ETHERIDGE
“Be Real”
★
TRY as Melissa Etheridge might, no amount of sincerity can disguise a badly written song, and her new album, “4th Street Feeling,” is full of them. This weak blues jam is a particular low point that captures the singer railing against fake rockers in her limp growl, with laughably simplistic lyrics such as “You can’t manufacture me/Because I like it naturally.”
DEERHOOF
“Bad Kids to the Front”
★★★
FOR the better part of two decades, this San Francisco band’s scatterbrain pop has perplexed the underground. Confusion still reigns with their 11th album, “Breakup Song,” but as this track shows, the outcome remains a peculiar delight. A skittering beat switches off with what sounds like a sample of R2-D2 from “Star Wars” having a nervous breakdown, and singer Satomi Matsuzaki’s casually throws in childlike refrains through the chaos. Brilliant and baffling in equal measures.
BEN GIBBARD
“Teardrop Windows”
★ 1/2
WUSSES of the world, rejoice: Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard is set to release a debut album next month, and “Teardrop Windows” marks a clear intent to move into the vacancy created by REM’s demise. Guitars jangle gently and a banjo gives the track a countrified feel. The Seattle singer still knows how to write a tune, but the suffocating niceness of it quickly becomes difficult to bear.