FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: VALERIO BERDINI/SHUTTERSTOCK, 2; BROADIMAGE/SHUTTERSTOCK; JASON SHELDON/SHUTTERSTOCK; ANDREW BENGE/GETTY IMAGES; TIM MOSENFELDER/GETTY IMAGES

EMO DIVA The stunning third album from

goth-pop master Jillian Banks, full of men-

acing bass distortion, suspended silences,

and digitally abraded vocals. She creates

an eerie sense of dark lust.

4

Banks

III

Harvest

INDIE HITS A best-of LP from one of the

sharpest rock bands of the past 20 years.

Every song is a concise gem, including

their new, perfectly taut expression of

existential anguish, “No Bullets Spent.”

4

Spoon

Everything Hits

at Once

Matador

MOODY METAL The sixth LP from the Iowan

crew of misfit clowns is ripe with head-

banging nu-metal fury, but the scariest

numbers are the more serene ones, like

the New Wave-y “Not Long for This World.”

STEADY AS EVER Brooklyn rockers get

back to basics, with huge riffs and front-

man Craig Finn dropping lines like “I got

caught in a mosh/With this dude who

said he used to play with Peter Tosh.”

SYNTH-Y SWEETS With nods to Nineties

R&B and Eighties pop, Aleksandra Denton

intimately explores the intricacies of de-

sire on lush, private-feeling tunes like the

cross-Atlantic hookup epic “BKLYNLDN.”

PASSIONATE POP Clairo is a post-teen who

treats indie rock and pop as one musical

language, confessing queer attraction

and a My Bloody Valentine obsession over

beguiling R&B groove sketches.

ISLAND TRIP American blues, soul, and

R&B chestnuts get remade by Jamaican

legends. The best moment is Toots Hibbert

giving Fleetwood Mac’s early ballad “Man

of the World” a tasty rub-a-dub makeover.

NEW TOWN ROADS Lil Nas X proves he’s

more than a one-hit wonder, flipping from

country rap to rap rock. Nothing is as

good as “Old Town Road,” but the Nirvana-

indebted “Panini” is a fun detour.

FLAT LIPS The venerable psych-rock icons’

15th album is a less-than-fully-baked

concept LP with meandering spoken-word

bits from the Clash’s Mick Jones and some

nice ethereal moments lost in the fog.

# # # 3 3

MAD BEATS Elusive producer Madlib and

rapper Gibbs’ second LP is one of the

year’s most striking hip-hop albums, with

Gibbs’ crime rhymes cutting through

Madlib’s transportingly gritty haze.

4

Freddie Gibbs

and Madlib

Bandana

RCA

Slipknot

We Are Not

of Your Kind

Roadrunner

The Hold Steady

Thrashing Through

the Passions

Frenchkiss

Shura

Forevher

Secretly Canadian

Clairo

Immunity

Fader

Various Artists

Red Gold

Green & Blue

Trojan Jamaica

Lil Nas X

7

Columbia

The Flaming Lips

King’s Mouth

Warner

CONTRIBUTORS: JONATHAN BERNSTEIN, JON DOLAN, KORY GROW, WILL HERMES, DANIEL SCHWARTZ, BRITTANY SPANOS

Ronnie

Lane’s

Long Ride

When the English singer- bassist

Ronnie Lane died in 1997 at 51

after a long battle with multiple

sclerosis, he was rightly eulo-

gized for his impish spark and

the depth of his songwriting for

Sixties mods the Small Faces

and their rowdy Seventies

resurrection, the Faces. A new

box set, Just for a Moment:

Music 1973-1997, picks up the

lesser-known story of Lane’s

creatively rich years leading his

own band — dryly named Slim

Chance — with a unique brand

of spiritually questioning country

rock grounded in early rock &

roll values and village-pub vibes.

Good friends abound on the

six CDs, including Eric Clapton,

Faces mate Ron Wood, and the

Who’s Pete Townshend. But the

constant revelations are the

warm beauty and sturdy comfort

in Lane’s songs — the mix of

classical poise and dirt-road

stride in 1974’s “The Poacher,”

the gather-round smile beaming

through 1979’s “Kuschty Rye” —

and his eternally boyish singing.

The final CD focuses on his last

years in America as the inevita-

ble wear on his voice is poign-

antly countered by his natural

fiber and defiant cheer.

One of rock’s true

bar-band heroes

gets a must-hear,

deep-dive box set

DAVID FRICKE

FRICKE’S PICKS

Banks

Rolling Stone | 85