By reaching every-damn-where he could, ASAP Rocky both sidesteps this pitfall and becomes one of the year’s most exciting voices.
This is a really banging collection by a poet honing his craft, still experimenting and learning and having fun.
Only In Dreams is rich enough that it is not hard to imagine people bickering about the standouts.
It’s an imaginative album of contrasts loaded with subtleties and potentially alienating nuances that necessitate a long-term commitment.
Her voice is the best it has ever been. Her music is the best it has ever been.
There are no real weak spots, just slow spots, and lots of high points that will have you skipping back to listen again.
They’re not reinventing the wheel, hell they’re barely even reinventing themselves, but that’s a good thing on this occasion
Sure Zonoscope is splattered with stumbled-upon gems, but a little more editing and maybe some more focused songwriting sessions could have really brought Zonoscope into focus.
Smother may lack the proper drive of Two Dancers, but it succeeds in whittling down what has become Wild Beasts’ motif.
Wander / Wonder is the sound of a producer whose talent exceeds his skill.
It is a rare album that can cause a genuine swirl of emotions, sometimes within the same moment, but in the heat of August, The Rip Tide demands to be celebrated.
Parallax can’t help but feel like a win for this cause because it symbolizes growth more than out-and-out excellence.
Most rapper’s putting out as much material would have lost energy by now, or at the least compromised, but Spitta only seems all the more himself with each record.
Any apprehensions about whether or not Cults could turn “Go Outside” into a successful full-length should be hastily put to rest.
Father, Son, Holy Ghost seems like a step backward from their previous work.
Suck It And See is an almost seamless step forward, reaffirming the notion that the band’s shelf life is probably much longer than initially estimated.
Hopefully Slave Ambient will do for The War On Drugs what Smoke Ring For My Halo did for Kurt Vile and place Adam Granduciel as one of the musicians with serious talent and songwriting acumen in modern indie rock.
Biophilia is Björk, the sum total, and this album is her continued claim to the throne as the monarch of avant-pop.
The material here is as strong as we’ve come to expect from this band, but its pleasures aren’t nearly as surface-level as even Kid A’s. The best way to judge The King of Limbs in the long run may simply be to hope someone spurs Radiohead on in this direction.
Past Life Martyred Saints is an album that captivates, provokes, and pleases.
These tracks are sparse but airtight, haunting but unrelentingly gorgeous
Though the album now comes with studio polish and masterful songwriting, W H O K I L L still feels like an underground tape, challenging the listeners with oddball melodic choices.
It’s a rich and intricate collage that shows restraint in its cascade of ideas as well as Vernon’s maturity as a songwriter.
Both Ways Open Jaws will strike you as both new sounding and classic, as both fresh and rooted in tradition.
Unlike so many elder statesmen who reach a point of clear decline, Waits has seemingly yet to come anywhere near that point.
David Comes To Life is a liberating album that represents a giant step forward in every genre that it tackles and incorporates.
He achieves a lot with a little. He never gives us filler. He continues to innovate. He has provided us with a great album, one that is a sure sign his velocity has not been slowed.
It’s all about the moment, and Section.80 is about as relevant as it gets.
It shows an artist at the top of his songwriting game, but perhaps without the thick and palatable sense of cohesion definitive and prevalent on past releases.
It is able to deftly blend the vividness and conviction of a protest album with all of the yearning of what just has to be a genuine patriotic outcry.
The album serves as a bit of a soundtrack for anyone who’s managed to retain a romantic outlook past the age where such a thing is likely realistic, and the bitter struggle of rediscovery that follows.
It takes a few listens for all its subtle nuances to emerge; repeat visits draw attention to just how well-constructed these songs are
This focus on musicality over atmosphere allows for a solid set of pop-rock songs that succeeds on its own melodic merits.
It’s still the work of a band firing on all cylinders.
Each track has a moment where it hits anthem-status and a chorus of Roberts’ voice embody it with some abstracted notion of us-ness.
Shabazz Palaces have pushed the music forward, so that it once again can be raw, real, and unconventional.
Burst Apart is much more complex than its predecessor, both emotionally and musically.
Fleet Foxes have become a band who will not stop pushing, who will challenge themselves to avoid stagnancy, who will work with both their instruments and their minds.
An explosive debut unlike most of whatever is on Hot 97 or whatever your city uses to listen to Drake.
Clark is more divulgent of her true personal feelings than we’ve come to expect, and she’s created a dense collection of songs to reflect this atmosphere.