Atlas Sound - Logos

For all the controversy that Atlas Sound's second album, Logos, has gone through, it's hard to believe that it hasn't even been officially released yet. Now that Bradford Cox's completed version of the album has finally surfaced, it's clear that the hype for Logos was worth it all along, because it's truly a flawless album. Each tracks flows into the next, making for a more fluid-sounding album than 2008's Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel. "An Orchid" is an early highlight, with its chiming guitars that weave and crash into each other. Of course, everyone's favorite song, "Walkabout," which features vocals from Noah Lennox of Animal Collective, is still as awesome as you remember it to be (that is, if you were able to stop listening to it for more than several days, I certainly wasn't). Elsewhere, the woozy melodic pop of "Sheila" culminates in the eerie refrain, "We'll die alone together," Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab lends her hypnotic vocals to the almost nine-minute shoegaze epic, "Quick Canal," and echoed xylophone gives "Washington School" an interesting nursery rhyme-esque quality. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Bradford has given us a new album of the year contender. Logos is an exceptional piece of work and further proof that Bradford is one of the most creative musicians out there today.

DOWNLOAD: Atlas Sound - Logos [Kranky]
Recommended Tracks: "An Orchid," "Walkabout," "Sheila," "Quick Canal," "Logos."