Caveman, Sigur Ros, Childish Gambino [week's Top Releases]

This week’s best releases represent almost every genre — and then some. Childish Gambino released one of the most anticipated indie hip-hop records of the year and Sigur Ros finally has a live CD/DVD available this week. In addition to those anticipated records, Los Campesinos!, Petrodactyl, and Caveman are each spinning their own versions of indie rock from art noise to post punk — all of them are worth a listen.

Old Friend – Caveman // Buy

The digital copy may have been available for more than a month, but for analog fans, the spectacular CoCo Beware from Caveman (@cavemanband) is finally available for consumption. It’s a dreamy, complicated, moody and wonderfully textured album that should have a place on everyone’s heavy rotation.

Heartbeat (Radio) – Childish Gambino // Buy

In addition to starring in one of the best TV comedies currently on the air, Community, Donald Glover is also a rapper — and a really good one at that. Since Camp has already been streaming on NPR, most of you probably know how truly amazing the album is. Childish Gambino spits like Andre 3000 and has backing tracks with the funkiness to match. Glover isn’t the only comedian to try a career at hip hop too (ok, Eddie Murphy did more pop), but Camp certainly certifies that he’s one of the best.

By Your Hand – Los Campesinos! // Buy

These British indie-rockers have grown a lot since their first up-beat, indie pop release, channeling their earlier sound into something a little more deep and interesting. That’s not to say they still aren’t fun post Brit indie rockers. Even though Los Campesinos! say that they feel older and like different people on this record, something tells me the angry peppiness will still be there in spades.

School Glue – Pterodactyl // Buy

Pterodactyl is a band that prefers their music to be loud, so if you would rather a quick melody than frenetic screeching, you should probably look elsewhere. If you, on the other hand, love loud, frenetic screeching, there probably isn’t a record you are looking more forward to than the newest release from this Brooklyn band. It promises to be loud, large, complex and just really noisy, which is awesome.

While it isn’t an album of new material, Inni is still an exciting release chronicling the extraordinary live show’s of Iceland’s Sigur Ros. The CD/DVD is the product of two nights at Alexandra Palace in London with just the band (no extra musicians), and spans the entire career of the much loved post-rockers. It’s epic in scope and vision and sure to be epic in everything else as well.