June: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Joe Goddard 'Electric Lines' (Greco-Roman/Domino)

The words ‘cynical’ and ‘jaded’ aren’t in Joe Goddard’s vocabulary. Whether he’s working with Hot Chip, The 2 Bears or any number of his productions and remixes, he retains a liberating enthusiasm for the power of music to move you. And that shines through on ‘Electric Lines’ with brilliant luminosity. It leaps from swooning, stratospheric pop (‘Ordinary Madness’) to Moby-ish stadium techno (‘Children’), onto music box 2-step (‘Truth Is Light’) and elegiac end-of-the-night electro (the title track, where he’s joined by Hot Chip buddy Alexis Taylor). With ‘Music Is The Answer’, he even reimagines Danny Tenaglia’s finest moment as subtle, dark synth pop. On ‘Electric Lines’, the fine moments are bountiful. Stephen Worthy

9/10