November: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Month's listening sorted
Flunk 'Chemistry And Math' (Beatservice)
Younger readers may be new to Flunk, but anyone with Balearic heritage will remember their brilliant lo-fi cover of ‘Blue Monday’. And while there’s been a whole lotta history (and five albums) since then, their new record continues to demonstrate a love of bleak and windswept melodies, and sounds like a more delicate response to Portishead’s ‘Sour Times’. “I wrote a book about you,” sings Ulf Nygaard, who shares vocal duties with Anja Øyen Vister. “And when it’s over, it’s over.” Of course, the other band who perhaps owe the group a musical debt are The xx, although Flunk’s hushed soundscapes are more aligned to Nordic whizz kid Erlend Øye than the Wandsworth trio. If you can get past the heartache, it’s bliss. R Moore
7/10