Sigur Ros - Valtari

Confronted by something like this, it is all too easy to resort to hyperbole and worthless clichés in an attempt to describe its impact. But all you really need to know is this: in Valtari, Sigur Ros have fashioned an album as luminous and as achingly beautiful as anything you might hear this, or any other year for that matter.

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Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Some would have us believe that Rock music is in its final death throes, but nobody seems to have told Canadian duo Japandroids. On Celebration Rock, they deliver a blistering set of primal rock, stripping away everything but the core elements that made rock music great in the first place. This is the sound of youth - loud guitars played hard and fast, songs delivered with the minimum of fuss, and energy by the bucket load. When kids dream of being in a band - this is the noise they dream of making - spontaneous, exciting and really LOUD. There are zero frills on this record, no Flood produced extended remixes, just pure, raw filtered electricity - and songs that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

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