From the soulful gospel of “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me” to the cherubic synth-pop of “True Affection,” this kaleidoscope of a release is brimming with ideas both batty and inspired.
The enormous visceral power of Vulnicura lies perhaps in its utter lack of pity play; rather, Björk transforms every emotion into a monumental sonic peak or valley.
With Sometimes I Sit, Barnett sidesteps any quaint expectations and delivers a true debut album that can surprise listeners with its depth and universality.
With Have You in My Wilderness, Holter’s musical worlds continue to engross.
Carrie & Lowell is a miracle of aesthetic balance—a calm and considered confession. It is the roaring in your ears as you look out to sea with the entirety of the known world behind you.
Vile’s twenty-first century post-folk formula was already gestating long before 2011’s enchantingly moody Smoke Ring for My Halo cut through the distortion, and it’s a testament to the madness of the artist that his method continues to ring true on b’lieve i’m goin down….
An album with such an emphasis on bricolage could have easily become lifeless, but Parker’s tweaks to the Tame Impala formula all grant Currents a deeper sense of humanity.
Every genius idea is accompanied by a terrible one, and for that To Pimp a Butterfly is Kendrick Lamar’s masterpiece—fascinating, upsetting, and somehow totally wrong.