Relaxer by Alt J

Relaxer, Alt-J's third album, slipped out on 2 June 2017 through Infectious and Atlantic's Canvasback imprint, a week earlier than planned, and it's the band at their most restless and least eager to please. They made it in London with Charlie Andrew, the producer behind their first two records, mixing songs written on the spot with ones dating back to their student days at the University of Leeds.

It's only eight tracks long, and six of them come draped in strings the band arranged for the London Metropolitan Orchestra, with Joe Newman's strange, pinched voice drifting over Thom Green's drums and Gus Unger-Hamilton's keys like smoke. Wolf Alice's Ellie Rowsell turns up on "3WW" and "Deadcrush", Marika Hackman on "Last Year", and "House of the Rising Sun" gets pulled apart and handed new verses. Even the cover is odd: a screenshot from a game Japanese artist Osamu Sato built for the campaign. It earned a Mercury Prize nomination.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.