Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay’s second album as LUMP is our recommendation of the week. It can be easy to dismiss these songs as scraps from whatever doesn’t find their way into Marling’s “main” albums. But those ideas, coupled with Lindsay’s marvellous synth work, come to have a life of their own here, and “Animal” has some of the best tracks we’ve heard from both musicians in a while.
If you’re immediately sold on a record just by knowing Matthew E. White has put a finger on it, we don’t need to convince you further. If, on top of that, you’re a fan of Jonathan Rado-produced albums (like the most recent Father John Misty, Weyes Blood, Whitney, or Alex Cameron), you’re in for a treat. Fortunately for everyone else, Jackie Cohen’s debut LP is much more than its indie dream team of producers. We’ve been anxiously waiting for it to drop since we first heard (and featured) “FMK” back in March, and now it’s all ours.
Plus: new songs by Pile, Idles, The Dream Syndicate, Black Mountain, Alex Rex, John Southworth, A.A. Bondy, Kelly Finnigan, The Teskey Brothers, Buddy & Julie Miller, Old Man Luedecke, John Prine, Carl Anderson, Johnathan Rice & Courtney Marie Andrews, Kacy & Clayton, Kassi Valazza, Lola Kirke, Carly Rae Jepsen, Alex Cameron, Olympia, Mara Connor & Langhorne Slim, and Joe Kaplow.