Little Dragon are placed in a bit of a conundrum with their fourth studio album Nabuma Rubberband. When the band first emerged in 2007 with their self-titled debut, the electronic music movement wasn’t yet filtered, funneled and repackaged as EDM. Nabuma finds them looking to expand by experimenting with various styles—from the bossa nova undertones of opener “Mirror” to the zippy electro-guitar licks of “Klapp Klapp.” Things smooth out toward the middle but suffer from over-diversification, with “Pretty Girls’” ’80s synth vibe giving way to trance-y trip-hoppy cuts like “Underbart” and “Cat Rider” that ultimately transform into electro-pop in “Paris.” The title track marks a movement to...

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Much like the rugged, yet refined quality he brought to The Walkmen, Peter Matthew Bauer’s debut solo album has that sort of grit you want to plunge your hands into. Brushed drums and colorful spreads of reverb paint Liberation!, modestly complimenting trills of Petty-esque vocals. The lyricism, according to Bauer, aims to confront that paradox of finding light within seemingly endless darkness. While the album spawned from Bauer’s Hinduism and his childhood growing up in various ashrams, the spiritual influence on Liberation! is still rather light. A dash of otherworldly sounds give the otherwise good album that extra oomph on tracks like “Istanbul Field” and “Philadelphia Raga,” but the...

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The title of Sharon Van Etten’s fourth record is missing a critical punctuation mark on purpose. Are We There is the sound of an iterant career musician in the middle of an emotionally trying period. Thankfully, Van Etten’s introspective rock tunes are still sifted through the ’70s singer-songwriter roots of previous recordings. (Trivia note: Some of the instruments on this album were used by John Lennon and Patti Smith.) Are We There’s best track by a long shot is “Your Love Is Killing Me.” The raw-nerve lyrics are pretty clear-cut: “Break my leg so I can’t walk to you/Cut my tongue so I can’t talk to you/Burn my skin so I can’t feel you/Stab my eyes so I can’t see.” All the verbs...

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