Snail Mail - Lush

Score: 6.7 

The debut album from the solo project of the 19-year-old Lindsey Jordan aims at choking and expanding the terrains of bedroom, teenage indie rock. Sadly, what it actually does is to add another record to the already crowded music library of angry, existentially wounded young artists who claim not to know the answers while (at the same time) not putting the right questions in the first place. Lush works better for its aesthetics than for its content, and only shines at sporadic, rare glimpses.

Tracks I like the most: Heat Wave, Golden Dream

Tracks I like the least: Stick

Artist: Snail Mail

Country: United States

Album: Lush

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Bedroom Pop

Length: 38:16

Sleep - The Sciences

Score: 8.6 

The supergroup trio Sleep returns after more than a decade to deliver their most spacious album to date, lingering on five epic songs that lurk on heavy drones and schizophrenic riffs to pull off some of the most intense and interesting stoner metal compositions of the decade. It's a pleasure to have them back, and even better than ever.

Tracks I like the most: The Sciences, Marijuanaut's Theme, Antarcticans Thawed

Tracks I like the least: Sonic Titan

Artist: Sleep

Country: United States

Album: The Sciences

Released: 20/04/2018

Genres: Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Drone Metal

Length: 53:00 

Jorja Smith - Lost & Found

Score: 8.5 

The British rapper, singer-songwriter and producer releases her debut full-length album and overwhelms with charisma, sensuality and passion. Lost & Found feels minimal and quiet in its place, but destroys your feelings with its razor-blade storytelling, bubbly production and stellar compositions. At just 21 years old, it's clear we're in front of one of the most powerful new voices of this generation, and I'm sure this is just the beginning.

Tracks I like the most: Teenage Fantasy, Where Did I Go?, February 3rd, The One, Lifeboats (Freestyle), Goodbyes, Don't Watch Me Cry

Tracks I like the least: Wandering Romance

Artist: Jorja Smith

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Lost & Found

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: R&B, Soul, Trip Hop, Hip Hop, Electronica, Indie Pop

Length: 46:00

Kimbra - Primal Heart

Score: 8.3 

The third album from the New Zealand artist Kimbra is explosive in its etherealness and celestiality. Sometimes hard-pushing, sometimes hauntingly introspective, the attention to the detail and the harmony of instrumental voices keep this record from falling onto identity tramps. Obfuscated between synth-pop and blue-eyed soul, Primal Heart feels authentic in its intentions and vivid in its execution.

Tracks I like the most: Top Of The World, Everybody Knows, Version Of Me, Right Direction, Real Life 

Tracks I like the least: Human

Artist: Kimbra

Country: New Zealand

Album: Primal Heart

Released: 20/04/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth-Pop, R&B, Soul, Electronica

Length: 44:24

Mourn - Sorpresa Familia

Score: 7.2 

The third album from the Barcelona-based indie rock band is raw, young and messy all around. The formula is still intact, and the results surely pay off, but after twelve songs one would be hoping for more diversity for an interesting change. It's still a band to keep an eye on, but the maturity of their sound should them climb high and get them even more attention than what they already have and search for.

Tracks I like the most: Barcelona City Tour, Orange, Doing It Right

Tracks I like the least: Strange Ones, Divorce

Artist: Mourn

Country: Spain

Album: Sorpresa Familia

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Post-Punk

Length: 29:18

Iceage - Beyondless

Score: 7.0 

The fourth album from the Danish post-punk band Iceage delivers a set of songs that intend to mix their already established landmark sounds with some vaudeville, jazz fusion and gothic music. Though the results are some of the most diverse music they've ever done, it's almost impossible to unnotice the lack of passion and sense of entertainment the members are having. It's not a bad record but, for their standards, it usually misses the point more often than it hits it.

Tracks I like the most: Pain Killer, Showtime

Tracks I like the least: Under The Sun, Beyondless

Artist: Iceage

Country: Denmark

Album: Beyondless

Released: 04/05/2018

Genres: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Jazz Fusion, Art Punk, Art Rock

Length: 40:54

Anna Von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

Score: 8.8 

The latest release from the Swedish artist Anna Von Hausswolff is, to say the least, epic. The transcendence of her instrumentals, her vocals and her compositions are only paired up with torturously eerie motifs about loss, escape and rebirth. The composer has never before matched her intuitions and intentions so masterfully, and the sound of her music has never before sounded this decadently exquisite.

Tracks I like the most: The Truth, The Glow, THe Fall, The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra, Ugly And Vengeful

Tracks I like the least: The Marble Eye

Artist: Anna Von Hausswolff

Country: Sweden

Album: Dead Magic

Released: 02/03/2018

Genres: Neoclassical, Darkwave, Electronica, Experimental, Avant-Garde, Noise, Drone, Ambient, Post-Metal

Length: 47:19

Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer

Score: 7.7 

The singer-songwriter Josh Tillman returns with his fourth album as Father John Misty surprisingly after just a couple of months of the release of his odyssey Pure Comedy. Is it okay to wonder if the lack of space between records have left the singer run out of ideas? It is too much to say that, for the first time, FJM feels unpurposefully disorientated? Is it fair to tell he's playing it too safe now? The answers to these questions will determine how much you enjoy the record. Mine are tied.

Tracks I like the most: Hangout At The Gallows, Please Don't Die, Disappointing Diamonds Are The Rarest Of Them All, God's Favorite Customer

Tracks I like the least: Date Night

Artist: Father John Misty

Country: United States

Album: God's Favorite Customer

Released: 01/06/2018

Genres: Folk, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Baroque Pop

Length: 38:34

Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

Score: 8.2 

The supergroup formed by Kanye West and Kid Cudi releases its first short album, the third in a sequence of chapters that Kanye attempted at producing while recoiling in Wyoming for his mental breakdown. In it, both rappers find mutual solice on exorcising their own personal demons while melting into one another, bringing the best of each other and fusing elements of hip hop, rock, psychedelia and electronica. It's a truly spooky record, indeed, one that listeners may find as creepy and stabbing as tender and comforting.

Tracks I like the most: 4th Dimension, Feel The Love, Kids See Ghosts

Tracks I like the least: Reborn

Artist: Kids See Ghosts

Country: United States

Album: Kids See Ghosts

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Experimental, Rock Rap, Psychedelia

Length: 23:53

Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar

Score: 8.6 

The Scottish trio Young Fathers returns with their third album and they feel, for the first time, completely liberated and in full control of their ethereally uncomfortable sound palette. It's as if all their musical decisions, twists and turns have finally found the perfect match to their oddly delirious ideas. Cocoa Sugar, in short, is minimalist in its own chaos, and cathartic in its own slowness. Post-hip hop at its crankiest.

Tracks I like the most: Toy, In My View, Tremolo, Wow, Border Girl, Holy Ghost, Wire

Tracks I like the least: Lord

Artist: Young Fathers

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Cocoa Sugar

Released: 09/03/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Electronica, Experimental, Pop, Rock, Minimalism

Length: 36:45

Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of

Score: 8.4 

The latest release from the avant-garde auteur Daniel Lopatin is his weirdest completion of songs that sound more like sketches and micro-representations of lives and universes that transcend space, time and logic. Anohni, Prurient, James Blake, Astrolith, among others, collaborate in the process and make for an album that more often than not feels as spooky, shivery and menacing as inviting, warming and celestial. Age Of might be the most difficult record of the year, and it's a pleasure to unfold its many edges all throughout.

Tracks I like the most: Age Of, The Station, Black Snow, Warning, RayCats

Tracks I like the least: Babylon, Still Stuff That Doesn't Happen

Artist: Oneohtrix Point Never

Country: United States

Album: Age Of

Released: 01/06/2018

Genres: Electronica, Experimental, Avant-Garde, IDM, Baroque Pop, Noise, Drone, Ambient

Length: 42:32

Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

Score: 8.8 

The latest record from American post-punk band Parquet Courts is another demonstration of how versatile, invigorating and savage they can be at writing lyrics, changing paces, composing melodies and, this time louder than ever, screaming out the injustices of this capitalist modern world. Ian Curtis, Minutemen, The Clash and even Talking Heads are heard all about their thirteen songs, all of them signing their influence to end up blushing the band's most mature and yet most irrationally zestful album to date.

Tracks I like the most: Almost Had To Start A Fight/In And Out Of Patience, Wide Awake, Violence, Back To Earth, Exctinction

Tracks I like the least: Normalization

Artist: Parquet Courts

Country: United States

Album: Wide Awake!

Released: 18/05/2018

Genres: Post-Punk, Punk Rock, Indie Rock, Dance-Punk

Length: 38:37

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer

Score: 8.5 

The third release from the American producer, singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe is her poppiest, most accessible and most sugary record to date and, curiously, it is also the one where she feels the freest, sexiest and rawest. The excellent blends between collaborators, between moods and between genres, as well as her picky eye for societal and intrapersonal matters all make for a hell of an artistic victory. Dirty Computer is not just the realization of what it means to be black, young, female and queer in today's America, but it also is a deep deconstruction of what it feels to be alive and in search for true love and affection in this current turbulent century.

Tracks I like the most: Pynk, Make Me Feel, Americans, I Got The Juice

Tracks I like the least: Dirty Computer

Artist: Janelle Monáe

Country: United States

Album: Dirty Computer

Released: 27/04/2018

Genres: Pop, Funk, Hip Hop, R&B, Soul, Electronic, Experimental

Length: 48:42

King Coya - Tierra De King Coya

Score: 7.4 

The latest release from the Argentinian producer continues to find pleasant spaces in the mixture of traditional Andine music, cumbia, folklore and electronica. Though the nuances are not as discernible, the production slays in energy and vigour, and the record benefits the most when it fully trusts in its own cacophony and sense of (comm)union.

Tracks I like the most: E-Chango, Algo, Pachama

Tracks I like the least: Como Saber, Pa Que Yo Te Cure

Artist: King Coya

Country: Argentina

Album: Tierra De King Coya

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Electronica, Cumbia, Folklore, Andine Music, Experimental, Tribal, World Music

Length: 34:09

serpentwithfeet - soil

Score: 8.4 

After a grandiose EP in 2016, Josiah Wise more than fulfils expectations with his debut full-length album, soil. There's something both terrestrial and otherworldly about his music (this time by the hands of Clams Casino, Mmph, Katie Gately, Paul Epworth, among others), but the highlight is the way in which he morphs and warps his marvelous voice to retell stories about love, vulnerability, redemption and self-centeredness. The record is more than the sum of its parts, and it's another incredible evidence of an artist whose force is as esoteric as ululatingly enthralling.

Tracks I like the most: cherubim, seedless, messy, fragrant, bless ur heart

Tracks I like the least: waft

Artist: serpentwithfeet

Country: United States

Album: soil

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Experimental, R&B, Soul, Electronica, Gospel

Length: 39:47

Soccer Mommy - Clean

Score: 8.1 

Sophie Allison, under the moniker Soccer Mommy, delivers a touching first album called Clean, where she depicts with a hawk-eye prose what it means to be young and confused and altered and in desperate need to be someone accepted. It's a coming-of-age circle in itself, that starts with whimsical social games and ends with a self-realization and a bittersweet vision to the future. The way the singer-songwriter challenges her ego and her search for identity is admiring, not mentioning that it's all accompanied with some glitchy, surprisingly alien production details that make the record more than just a mere folk-rock teen melodrama.

Tracks I like the most: Scorpio Rising, Cool, Last Girl, Blossom (Wasting All My Time)

Tracks I like the least: Flaw

Artist: Soccer Mommy

Country: United States

Album: Clean

Released: 02/03/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Indie Folk, Folk Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Length: 34:43

Superorganism - Superorganism

Score: 8.9 

The debut album from the London-based indietronica band is a huge achievement for contemporary young-adult music. The ten sounds that compose it seem like surreal sculptures that build up and strenghten to monumental heights. The feeling of mutual collaboration makes this a really tender record, and the vast surprises it holds in its hands keep you awake and in constant awe for its short-but-sufficient 33 minutes. The architectural monster they have come to create and show is gorgeously enjoyable and substantial, all at once.

Tracks I like the most: It's All Good, Everybody Wants To Be Famous, Nobody Cares, Something For Your M.I.N.D.

Tracks I like the least: Reflections On The Screen

Artist: Superorganism

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Superorganism

Released: 02/03/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Experimental Pop, Avant-Pop, Indietronica, Psychedelic Pop

Length: 33:04

The Carters - EVERYTHING IS LOVE

Score: 8.2 .

The first collaborative project between Beyoncé and Jay Z, and a seemingly closing part to a trilogy that started with the definitions of an infidelity in Lemonade and a pray for forgiveness in 44:44, finds the couple exploring the ups and downs of fame, glory, matrimony, parenthood, friendship, desire, hopes and, well, life itself and its mortality. The production is stellar, and they seem to be stimulating each other's talents at storytelling and bragging with every single statement and polemic phrase. They succeed in all the aspects that make this album a respectully triumphant one; one that honours and devotes itself to communion and combined forces.

Tracks I like the most: APESH*T, BOSS, NICE, BLACK EFFECT, LOVEHAPPY

Tracks I like the least: SUMMER

Artist: The Carters (Beyoncé / Jay Z)

Country: United States

Album: EVERYTHING IS LOVE

Released: 16/06/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, R&B, Electronica, Pop

Length: 38:17

Here Lies Man - You Will Know Nothing

Score: 7.3 

You Will Know Nothing is not even half as inspired and inspiring than its predecessor, but the American afrometal band still sounds almost like no other in combining what works best in both edges of two apparently dichotomic and contradicting genres. Still, the record is more spacious, though not more engrossing, and more diverse, though not more entertaining.

Artist: Here Lies Man

Country: United States

Album: You Will Know Nothing

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Afrorock, Afrometal, Art Rock, Stoner Rock

Length: 39:51

SOPHIE - OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES

Score: 9.4 

The debut album from the Scottish DJ, producer and now singer-songwriter Sophie Xeon is monumental in all its transcendence. There's an immaculate precision in the songs' elaboration, transition and content, and there's a convulted tenderness behind the thousands of naughty layers of harsh electronica. Mozart's Sister, the owner of the uncredited vocals, does a fantastic job in bringing bittersweet humanity into the cathartic lyrics and musical constructions. And the self-developing, self-triumphant general process is not the less astonishing, standing (maybe even ironically) as a pure humane manifesto. The future is here, and it belongs to Sophie, an artist who's proved to be one of the most sensational and captivating minds in 21st-century music as protest and as art life-form.

Tracks I like the most: It's Okay To Cry, Ponyboy, Faceshopping, Is It Cold In The Water?, Immaterial, Whole New World/Pretend World

Tracks I like the least: Pretending

Artist: SOPHIE

Country: United Kingdom

Album: OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Avant-Pop, Bubblegum Pop, Electronica, Experimental, Drone, Noise

Length: 39:55 

Ainda Dúo - Animal

Score: 8.0 

The Argentinian duo's third album lulls you to sleep with a collection of eight beautifully crafted songs, where there's a tinily precise attention to string arrangements and melting of voices as well as a symbiotic connection in both words, sounds and non-verbal communication between Yago and Esmeralda. Another great step into their right directions.

Tracks I like the most: Animal, Válsamo, Piedra Vegetal, Nunca Quise

Tracks I like the least: Lo Que No Quiero

Artist: Ainda Dúo

Country: Argentina

Album: Animal

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Pop, Rock, Vals

Length: 25:23

Chancha Via Circuito - Bienaventuranza

Score: 8.2 

Argentinian composer, DJ and producer Pedro Canale and his crew return with another musical statement that aims to combine traditional sounds from the South American Altiplano with the likes of reggae, dub, folclore, cumbia and electronica. Once again they seem to trust on their already known formulas, though there's a sense of utter nostalgia and cynicism behind the colourful instrumentation and optimistic lyrics. The claps that we hear on the track "Indios Tilcara" may also give as a clue to start thinking about the possibilites of autoctonous cultures' exploitation and appropiation through the uses of trend, marketing and showbusiness. Chancha has always had a peak at social commentary (on both lyrics and music), and this time around they sound louder than ever, all of them throughout the perch of dichotomies and tropical delirium.

Tracks I like the most: Ilaló, Nadie Lo Riega, La Victoria, Kawa Kawa, Indios Tilcara

Tracks I like the least: Barú

Artist: Chancha Via Circuito

Country: Argentina

Album: Bienaventuranza

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Electronica, Traditional, Andine Music, Cumbia, Dub, Reggae, Folclore, Pop

Length: 42:42

Ghost - Prequelle

Score: 8.4 

Swedish heavy-metal band Ghost returns with their fourth record, Prequelle, dwelling on a concept that centers on Medieval Europe, where the Black Death creeps around, flesh gets rotten and the Devil bounces back inside people's heads. The band manages to sound as welcoming as spooky to the ears; every single step seems to guide you both to the gates of musical heaven and to the inevitable dark confines of the abyss. Ghost sounds inspired and inspiring, playful, sassy and (why not?) romantic. Indeed, the eeriness the record oozes is directly proportional to the amount of epic excellence it sweats.

Tracks I like the most: Ashes, Rats, See The Light, Miasma, Dance Macabre, Life Eternal

Tracks I like the least: Faith

Artist: Ghost

Country: Sweden

Album: Prequelle

Released: 01/06/2018

Genres: Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Pop Rock, Opera Rock, Symphonic Metal, Hard Rock, Doom Metal

Length: 41:43 

J Balvin - Vibras

Score: 7.4 

The fifth album from the Colombian reggaeton singer-songwriter J Balvin aims for international recognition and success, mainly in the US. The reason why the album works is because of its own sense of flow, charisma and sensuality, since it's mainly packed with jams that'll please the genre's lovers and give a warm welcome to the ones who find reggaeton a new, unexplored, or so-far self-imposed rejected territory. Besides the artist's own versatility and imagination, kudos really go to the production team, who managed to endorse and hide some interesting, unorthodox and sensible ideas behind the tracks' obviously catchy rhythms.

Tracks I like the most: Vibras + Mi Gente, Ambiente, Brillo, Machika

Tracks I like the least: Ahora, Peligrosa

Artist: J Balvin

Country: Colombia

Album: Vibras

Released: 25/05/2018

Genres: Reggaeton, Pop

Length: 42:24

Pusha T - Daytona

Score: 8.5 

One wouldn't be innocent to think about and draw coincidences between Daytona and Kanye West's last album, Ye. They both have Kanye's production hands, they were both recorded in isolation, they both carry seven song in less than a quarter of an hour, and they both feel ostentatiously heavy in content and song production. But where Kanye draws parallel lines and alienates himself into his own personal demons and dark twisted fantasies, Pusha T expands and dwells in cacophonous universes that sound as otherworldly as captivating. The record turns out, to say the least, into a small portion of rap indulged in pure maximalism and grandeur. From the album cover to the quarrelsome lyrics, it's clear that the intention here is to shake listeners off of their politically correct comfort zones. Well, mission accomplished.

Tracks I like the most: If You Know You Know, The Games We Play, Come Back Baby, Santeria

Tracks I like the least: Hard Piano

Artist: Pusha T

Country: United States

Album: Daytona

Released: 25/05/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 21:08

Kanye West - Ye

Score: 7.7 

Self-produced and entirely recorded in an isolated place in Wyoming, Kanye West delivers his most abstract and surreal album to date, with collaborations that more-often-than-not help levitate the delirium, and with a songcraftmanship that makes you feel as afraid as empathic with the singer in question. In short twenty-three minutes, the emotional burden Ye carries along its shoulders is admirable, in its own esoteric way. Thus, the results may seem heavy, not without saying that they also are artistically savage and daring.

Tracks I like the most: I Thought About Killing You, All Mine, Wouldn't Leave, Violent Crimes

Tracks I like the least: No Mistakes

Artist: Kanye West

Country: United States

Album: Ye

Released: 01/06/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 23:41