Month In Music: July

July is a distant memory and hard to believe that we’re half way through the year, August approaches and it’s sure to be as high paced as the past few weeks this month has seen. We’ve had one of the biggest debut projects in recent memory receive high praise, we got reacquainted with familiar acts, and an emphatic return from one of the best lyricist in the game. As usual, in case you missed out we’ve got it all here for you including a playlist at the bottom, so catch up on and reminisce on the month that was.

Lianne La Havas scintillating debut

The singer-songwriter brightened up the month with her warm & delightful intro project Is Your Love Big Enough, full of promise and cuts to take you into the rest of your year with. “Au Cinema,” “Age,” & “Teas Me” are all standouts. Read our review [here.]

Bat For Lashes “Laura” was quite spellbinding

Natasha Khan gave us a first taste from her forthcoming Haunted Man with the enchanting new single “Laura.” A beautiful piano led ballad that we couldn’t get enough of.

Dirty Projectors “Swing Low Magellan” hit all the right grooves

Dirty Projectors raised the bar with their new album that clearly will be on many year end lists. Album number six was “an innovating star that shines bright on the horizon, turning us all into sailors and settlers confronting a new exciting musical world.” Read our review [here.]

The Killers returned with the triumphant “Runaways”

Now that we can get back to business and forget that Flamingo ever happened, the Killers returned with a massive new single from their upcoming project Battle Born. Sounding less Day & Age and more Sam’s Town we certainly had no issues with that. A pretty awesome comeback track that gets better with each listen.

Purity Ring’s debut “Shrines” was sci-fi pop at its best 

 Purity Ring’s anticipated debut was pretty stellar and if we could find a better or bigger word then we would. To sum it up, those cool Summer nights are going to need a soundtrack. Shrines could fill that void quite well. A staggering first entry from a duo whose stock is certainly on the rise. Read our review [here.]

Frank Ocean brought his A+ game with channel ORANGE

We were all thrown back a little by Frank’s coming out on his sexuality but that has nothing to do with his music, and channel ORANGE lived up to every single bit of hype thrown around it….. blindsiding us all as such a debut project of this quality only could. Haven’t heard such an album like this in a very very long time. Well done Mr. Ocean…. well done!

The xx gave us their opener from Coexist

Three years later the trio that is The xx brought forth their first single from the highly anticipated forthcoming album Coexist. “Angels” was far from groundbreaking and a bit snoozy but after such a long hiatus we welcomed them back with open arms.

Nas returned with Life Is Good

Nasir Jones will never be able to get out of the shadow that was Illmatic but he returned to true and focused form with his latest project Life Is Good. The LP didn’t disappoint and was one of his best over the past few years. Life was truly good for Nas as his tenth album debuted at number one.