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Ok, so due to a conglomeration of factors this week is going to be short and sweet. It’s also going to be about music. New music though, so there’s that. Here are a few of the albums that have come out in the past few weeks that I’ve been listening to a lot. There’s something geeky about listening to music that isn’t really on the radio, and I think I’ve covered some pretty great new albums for you to enjoy this summer. Bam.

Hot Chip – Why Make Sense?

Hot Chip is one of those bands that for some reason I’m always a little amazed are still together. I started listening to them when I was getting out of punk and ska and into more electronic music. Due to the unpredictable nature of most of the bands I got into at the time (DFA 1979 broke up for nearly a decade, LCD Soundsystem broke up, Crystal Castles broke up, Does it Offend You, Yeah? broke up, MGMT made a garbage second release) I always sort of thought that Hot Chip had stopped making music. I couldn’t be more wrong and I’m always happily surprised when a new album gets released. In fact, they’ve brought out 6 full length albums since 2004, so basically every 2 years they bring out a new album. They’re also more or less the original lineup. This makes me think that they’re just a good group of dudes who like making bleepy-bloopy music.

Why Make Sense? plays to suit. It is bleepy-bloopy. Chill chiptune inspired beats with Alexis Taylor’s signature high pitched soft vocals come together the way they always do to make that Hot Chip sound. I would say there’s a little bit more of a backbeat on Why Make Sense? that is just a hint of hip hop driving a lot of the tracks more so than other releases. I mean, hip hop is what the kids are into these days, right?

In conclusion, if you like Hot Chip, this album is good. It’s nothing really new from them, but it’s well executed and fun.

Rating: Bleepy-bloop.

Faith No More – Sol Invictus

I’ve always been a big Faith No More fan. More than that, I’ve been a fan of Mike Patton. I’ve seen Mr. Bungle and Fantomas live in the past and I always sort of figured I would never get to see the insanity of Faith No More in my lifetime. I was pretty sure they were done for good and they were too weird and artsy to ever go back to that crazy band they were in the late 80s and early 90s. When they played some reunion shows I thought it was cool, but also didn’t make too much of it. Then they went to work on a new album. Now, when a band gets back together after nearly 20 years of being apart, you’ve got to be a little apprehensive. I mean, what if they were lightning in a bottle? What if the difference of being in your 30s insted of your 50s is too much?

Well, good news jerks, Sol Invictus is a triumph. All the hallmarks of Faith No More: marching band drum lines, cacaphonic pianos, Patton’s insane vocal range, heavy bassline driven music with that off the wall weirdness of classic Faith No More. If anything, it sounds a little more put together than most of their past releases, possibly as a by-product of Patton’s time with other bands and running his own label. The polish doesn’t diminish anything though, it only seems to enhance it.

I would recommend this album to just about anybody who doesn’t mind stuff on the heavier side. It’s honestly a lot more approachable than lots of their older work. The first single that came off Sol Invictus in the spring was called “Motherfucker” and was a slow heavy jam about getting the motherfucker on the phone. I dug it, but it was undeniably weird. It’s almost as though they chose that to be a single to just be like “yeah motherfuckers, we’re Faith No More”. Like to put people off on purpose? I don’t know, I wouldn’t put it past them.

Rating: A house trained Rottweiler.

STS x RJD2

You know RJD2. Even if you don’t you do. Yeah, you do. He does the theme song for Mad Men. I’ve always thought of him as a slightly more pop-sensible DJ Shadow, with a lot more range (not to imply that Shadow doesn’t have range, he just doesn’t often demonstrate it, where RJD2 releases sound wildly different from album to album). Where am I going with this? I have no idea. Let’s start a new paragraph.

This album is fantastic. If you like hip hop of the old school variety you should listen to this. If you like a little old timey rag-time sound in your hip hop you should listen to this. If you like a quick tongued rapper with clever raps you should listen to this. This is probably my favorite hip hop release of the last decade or something. Just watch this video and see that whole badass band come together and know that the entire albums is this good.

I’m not the biggest hip-hop fan in all fairness, and it’s rare thing that there’s a full album that I will listen to from start to finish again and again, but this is one of those albums. And just who the hell is STS (Sugar Tongue Slim)? He doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page and before this album the only song I had ever heard from him was that song they used as an introduction for the Prime Time Players in WWE.

The fact that RJD2 made the beats for his album blows my mind and this kid must feel like he hit the fucking lottery jackpot.

Rating: A delicious mint julep on a summer afternoon.

That’s it for today. Listen to these albums. Go out in the sun. It’s my birthday, sing to me.

All album images belong to their respective copyright holders.

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.