Music Album Review: alt-j - Relaxer (9/10)

Following up on 2014’s Grammy-nominated This Is All Yours, Britain’s laudable lads raise their penchant for mellifluous, molasses-drenched beats, vivid flourishes and electronic pizazz into a philosopher’s stew of mixed emotion. Part alt-rock, part abstract flight of fantasy, the lofty trio delights by persistently confounding expectations. Take, for instance, their radical interpretation of “House of the Rising Sun,” or “3WW,” which gradually transmogrifies from chill meditation into achingly beautiful interstellar voyage of sadness. Identity crises normally don’t feel this good.

Released by: Canvasback Music
Producer: Charlie Andrew