eMusic Editors' Picks: 5 Records We Like This Week

PROMOTIONAL

Our friends at eMusic share some of their favorite albums with us each week.

Voyageur
Kathleen Edwards

A divorce record produced by her new beau, Bon Iver

Voyageur was produced by Edwards’s new beau Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) in the wake of her marital split from her longtime guitarist Colin Cripps, making it her “indie rock” record and her “divorce” record. That may be true, but only to a point, and neither gets to the heart of Edwards’s voyage. With a little help, she finds a new companion, and herself as well.

Cyrk
Cate Le Bon

Living on the edge

On Cyrk, unsettling sounds turn up in unexpected places, contrasting with the high-register prettiness of Cate Le Bon’s voice and the sweet whimsy of her melodies. Le Bon can write beautiful, conventional pop songs with mood, as on the many songs that are represented by changing seasons and the nearness or distance of the sea. But she is most comfortable at the edge.

Further Explorations
Chick Corea

An imaginative celebration of the late Bill Evans

Further Explorations plumbs the vast and influential legacy of the late modal pianist Bill Evans, performed by Chick Corea and two longtime Evans sidemen, bassist Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian on drums. Motian’s subsequent passing in November 2011 makes his advanced and typically distinctive interpretations of Evans’s catalogue that much more precious.

Cycles of Light
Everything Went Black

A comforting slap across the head

St. Louis-based metalcore outfit Everything Went Black play down-tuned, watery dirges smeared with greasepaint. Occasionally, they kick up into barreling high gear, and the scorched-glottis wretching of their lead vocalist keeps things in extreme territory. But Cycles of Light is just bludgeoning enough to be comforting.

Dial M For Murder
Phil Pratt

A sinister dance party

Recorded in 1980 at Jamaica’s legendary Channel One studio, Dial M for Murder finds producer Phil Pratt diving deep into dub, turning out stark, spooky versions, where organs rattle like skeletons and guitars stab quickly then recede into the shadows. Bolstered by an all-star cast of players, including Sly and Robbie on drums and bass and Tommy McCook on horns, Dial M is a lost dub classic, a sinister dance party in a haunted mansion.