Flavorwire

After a bumper month in September, the good news is that there’s a heap more good albums due in October — especially tomorrow, which is shaping up as one of the busiest/best release dates of the year. Hurrah! As we do every month, we’ve devoted ourselves to poring over the release schedule and separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff and all such things. After the jump you’ll find our tips on the 15 albums we reckon you absolutely need to hear this month. There’s also a roundup of everything else that’s out, encompassing the good, the bad, and the Barbra Streisand.

John Cale — Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood (October 2)

A couple of weeks back we discussed how Auto-Tune isn’t necessarily the spawn of the devil, but it’s still a surprise to hear it getting its robotic clutches on John Cale’s voice. The effect surfaces several times over the course of Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, and it’s just one of many surprises on Cale’s strongest record in years — the more we listen to this, in fact, the more we’re growing to love it. It’s got perhaps the year’s worst title, and it’s not quite as good as late-career stroke of genius HoboSapiens, but it’s still a thoroughly good piece of work from one of music’s most enduringly fascinating characters. (And it’s a shitload better than Lulu, too.)