Pitchfork

Microcastle and its bonus disc, Weird Era Cont., sidestep much of the art-damaged squall of previous Deerhunter records, but they don't embrace 1950s and 60s pop as dramatically as lead singer Bradford Cox had intimated in early interviews. Instead, this 2xCD set captures urgent and imaginative songs that reorganize 4AD haze, off-kilter indie pop, crashing garage-punk, forward-leaning krautrock, and hypnotic Kranky ambience into a singular-sounding call-to-arms, or at least call-to-guitars. Black Lips' Cole Alexander guests.

Jace Clayton, aka DJ/rupture, returns with another outstanding mix. While Uproot feels every bit as purposeful as minor classics Gold Teeth Thief and Minesweeper Suite, it's far more subdued and spacious. Combining dubstep, pulsing ambience, and orchestral flourishes on tracks from Ghislain Poirier, Shackleton, and Ekkehard Ehlers, Rupture doesn't just wade through music, he constructs an alternate history.

From the first listen, the new post-hardcore album from Fucked Up-- their first for Matador-- is a pummeling, almost exhausting listen. Yet it's also incredibly inclusive and uplifting, an ambitious hard rock record born out of a sense of community and the hope of creating something huge. Vivian Girls and Sebastian Grainger (formerly from Death From Above 1979) guest.

Phil Elverum finds a perfect foil and vessel for his songs in Julie Doiron on this mini-album, which marries to great effect his meditations on life's Big Questions with her quiet revelations about the everyday. To hear Elverum sing of his existential quandaries in isolation is frequently compelling, but with these songs often cast as duets, we're presented with the notion that Phil's struggles are universal.