Travis Scott - Astroworld

Score: 6.8 

The third studio album from star rapper Travis Scott aims at exploding the charts with his newly-found techniques of psychedelic, tumultuous hip hop. While he suceeds in some parts, blending guests with great bars and solid production, the vast majority of the record feels excessive and tiresome. Though the album is not the longest he's ever released (less than an hour), the record could have benefited if it were at least 10 minutes shorter.

Tracks I like the most: Carousel, Sicko Mode, Stop Trying To Be God, Stargazing

Tracks I like the least: Wake Up

Artist: Travis Scott

Country: United States

Album: Astroworld

Released: 03/08/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Trap Rap, Pop Rap, Alternative R&B, Psychedelia

Length: 58:33

Perras On The Beach - Flow De Cuyo

Score: 7.5 

The second collection of songs by Mendoza, Argentina trendy indie band Perras On The Beach finds the boys growing both in maturity and musical production. Some topics (drugs, laziness, existential crisis, wasted youth and simple lives) remain, but the addition of politics and social injustices plus some uplifting guests is what makes this album rawer and angrier than its predecessor. Flow De Cuyo manages to sound modern and classic, ethereal and rooted, and wandering yet focused.

Tracks I like the most: Municipálida, Sangucci, Pesadilla

Tracks I like the least: Las Ideas

Artist: Perras On The Beach

Country: Argentina

Album: Flow De Cuyo

Released: 10/05/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Neo-Psychedelia, Rap Rock

Length: 36:28

Los Siquicos Litoraleños - Radio Siquica

Score: 8.4 

After a couple of compilations and EPs, the Argentinian band Los Siquicos Litoraleños releases a fascinating experiment where they decide to take old tapes from an exctinct radio from Curuzú Cuatiá, Corrientes and mix them into two separate sides. They stretch and blend the sounds in absurdly amorphous ways and, besides the excessive outlandishness, the results come as entertaining (funny at times, moving at others) but constantly challenging and jaw-dropping. It's outré sound-collage art by and for the poor; it's one of the first attempts at creating psychedelic chamamé and, for all its courage and sassy playfulness, it widely succeeds.

Tracks I like the most: A: Capitulo 14 "Mas música, menos exabruptos"

Tracks I like the least: B: Capitulo 11 "Problemas tecnicos"

Artist: Los Siquicos Litoraleños

Country: Argentina

Album: Radio Siquica

Released: 24/08/2018

Genres: Pop, Folk, Cumbia, Chamamé, Psychedelia, Experimental, Avant-Garde, World Music, Abstract, Field Recording, Sound Collage

Length: 32:43

Wooden Shjips - V.

Score: 7.4 

The newest release from the Portland-based psychedelic rock band is another solid statement of their formula: slow-burned songs that build up to emotive scales with their use of heavy layers of guitar passages, synthesizers and vocal overloads. It's an interesting tour through the members' minds; nothing spectacular, just seven well-created and mildly-executed tracks that'll appeal fans and dreamers alike.

Tracks I like the most: Eclipse, Staring At The Sun

Tracks I like the least: Golden Flower

Artist: Wooden Shjips

Country: United States

Album: V.

Released: 25/05/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Synth-Rock, Space Rock

Length: 42:19

Judas Priest - Firepower

Score: 8.8 

The eighteenth album from heavy metal legends Judas Priest is a wonderful collection of excellenty-executed tracks that bring power, euphoria, hope and companion to the listeners. The lyrics and the boiling instrumentation are crystal clear but bearing tremendous existential meanings, greatly connected into one another to form a unified piece that's more than the sum of its parts. After almost 50 years together, the band has rarely sounded this connected, this inspired and this provocative. It's a prolific testament and an invaluable addition to the metal archives.

Tracks I like the most: Firepower, Lightning Strike, Necromancer, Rising From Ruins, Flame Thrower, Traitors Gate, Sea Of Red

Tracks I like the least: Lone Wolf

Artist: Judas Priest

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Firepower

Released: 09/03/2018

Genres: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock

Length: 58:10

Rival Consoles - Persona

Score: 7.9 

The amazingly personal approach that English electronic producer Rival Consoles takes on ambient tech-house is moving and worth-(re)visiting for its enormous sense of detail, passion and humanity. For the majority of the tracks being positioned above 120 bpm, Persona keeps you sedated in its webs and lulled in its tender obscurantism for almost an hour. It's a great addition to the artist's already admirable catalogue, as well as an interesting one for the definition of what it means to breathe in electronic music.

Tracks I like the most: Dreamer's Wake, Hidden, Unfolding

Tracks I like the least: Phantom Grip, Untravel

Artist: Rival Consoles

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Persona

Released: 13/04/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Microhouse, IDM, Ambient Techno, Tech House

Length: 58:46

Panchasila - Panchasila

Score: 8.1 

The Argentinian duo Panchasila submerges into wild, unknown territories and brings back a mixture between South Asian, South American, Andine and jungly soundscapes to create a piece of extensively, holly-sampled, inducing and heavy dub clouds. It's a wondrous record that, for all the darkness and invisibility it tends to offer, feels as primal as moving and (why not?) charming.

Tracks I like the most: Patpong, Dalang, Sembiyan

Tracks I like the least: Runapayka

Artist: Panchasila

Country: Argentina

Album: Panchasila

Released: 24/08/2018

Genres: Electronic, Dub, Experimental, Ambient, Tribal, Cumbia, Andine Music

Length: 38:21

Jean Grae x Quelle Chris - Everything's Fine

Score: 8.5 

The collaborative album between engaged rappers Jean Grae and Quelle Chris is a cinematic, adventurous and quirky experience that delves into dark humour, satire and double-entendres to capitalize the demise and bittersweetness of our everyday's psyches as human beings living in Post-Modernism. The duo has an undeniable chemistry that is palpable in the flow, verses and robotic beats that form and shape the fifteen tracks on the record. Lots of guests appear, too, and help to make us understand that Everything's Fine knows we're doomed, but also that it's much better when we cope with life in communion, with wit and with perspicacity.

Tracks I like the most: Doing Better Than Ever, The Smoking Man, River, My Contribution To This Scam

Tracks I like the least: Breakfast Of Champions

Artist: Jean Grae x Quelle Chris

Country: United States

Album: Everything's Fine

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop, Conscious Hip Hop, Rap, Jazz Rap

Length: 55:22

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Score: 7.9 

The fourth release from genre-bending blackgaze band Deafheaven finds them in an almost buddhist-like self-reflection, with cathartic and sharp lyrics, ephemeral-yet-grand passages and inscrutably voidy instrumentation that mixes black metal with post-rock, shoegaze and epic chants. Far from sounding uninspired, the guys dare to delve into unexplored territories; may the results not being as gargantuan as with their previous records, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love still maintains the euphoria, the desperation and the quality all around.

Tracks I like the most: Honeycomb, Canary Yellow, Night People

Tracks I like the least: Near

Artist: Deafheaven

Country: United States

Album: Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Released: 13/07/2018

Genres: Blackgaze, Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Experimental

Length: 61:36

Kamasi Washington - Heaven And Earth

Score: 7.6 

The newest album from American saxophonist Kamasi Washington is another incredible extension of his masterful skills as an instrumentalist, lyricst, composer and curator. But on Heaven And Earth, he seems to abandon the euphoria and schizophrenia that characterized and popularized him on his previous magnum opus The Epic for a more mature, stationary and mellow side. There's a constant sense of control all throughout, every piece in self-assuring position and every emotion stilthily calculated.

Tracks I like the most: Fists Of Fury, Can You Hear Him, Hub-Tones, Testify

Tracks I like the least: The Invincible Youth, Song For The Fallen

Artist: Kamasi Washington

Country: United States

Album: Heaven And Earth

Released: 22/06/2018

Genres: Contemporary Jazz, Afrobeat

Length: 144:32

Young Thug & Young Stoner Life Records - Slime Language

Score: 5.2 

The compilation album by rapper Young Thug and his label Young Stoner Life Records is an underwhelming collection of over-repetitive songs about luxury and bombastic lifestyles. Except for a few tracks (curiously, the ones where there's prominent female roles), Slime Language proves to be an example of how generic, unambitious hip hop can sometimes sound like.

Tracks I like the most: U Ain't Slime Enough, Expensive, Gain Clout, Oh Yeah

Tracks I like the least: January 1st, Chains Choking Me

Artist: Young Thug & Young Stoner Life Records

Country: United States

Album: Slime Language

Released: 17/08/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 50:43

Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

Score: 7.8 

The sixth record from indie folk band Wye Oak is their most maximalist, ambitious and diverse of them all. Packed up with jarring guitar passages, tuneful pop, airily suffocated folk and even glossy electronics, The Louder... feels like a meditation on life and its ephemerality, both at somber and lighty perspectives. It's a mature record that feels as a culmination of years of quietness, solitude, reflection and experimentation. 

Tracks I like the most: The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, Lifer, The Instrument, Join

Tracks I like the least: Say Hello

Artist: Wye Oak

Country: United States

Album: The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Electronic

Length: 38:28

Czarface & MF DOOM - Czarface Meets Metal Face

Score: 8.1 

The collaborative album by hip hop supergroup Czarface and rapper MF Doom is a fantastic impersonation of blending old-school underground rap and the absurdly theatrical in form of sixteen songs that feel more like sketches fueled by distorted samples, eerie beats and thrilling verses. The fusion between the members of the record is palpable, and the flow and energy make us believe this is one of those records that were meant to be, with every single piece of it in its right position, and every bit of it in whimsically propelling potential.

Tracks I like the most: Phantoms, Meddle With Metal, Forever People, Stun Gun

Tracks I like the least: Captain Crunch, Astral Travelling

Artist: Czarface & MF Doom

Country: United States/United Kingdom

Album: Czarface Meets Metal Face

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Abstract Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 43:37

Titus Andronicus - A Productive Cough

Score: 6.8 

The fifth album from the Patrick Stickles'-lead collective Titus Andronicus is excessively focused on performing as a bar band; so excessively that you can actually see them losing their identity in the process. The songs aim for epicness and grandiosity, but most of the times they end up feeling exhausted and exhausting.

Tracks I like the most: Real Talk

Tracks I like the least: Home Alone

Artist: Titus Andronicus

Country: United States

Album: A Productive Cough

Released: 02/03/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Heartland Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Length: 46:43

Gorillaz - The Now Now

Score: 7.4 

The Now Now, the latest release from the British animated band Gorillaz, is a huge step forward compared to their previous record. It is a compilation of relatively uplifting synth-pop songs that nonetheless carry a tremendous heavy weight of melancholy and longing. The album takes off when it allows itself to be more varied, instrumentally complete and dance-floor oriented, but the union between these parts and the slower ones comes out as a mixbag. This is the closest we can get to an acoustic version of the band, and it's not that bad after all.

Tracks I like the most: Souk Eye, Tranz, Lake Zurich, Humility

Tracks I like the least: Magic City

Artist: Gorillaz

Country: United Kingdom

Album: The Now Now

Released: 29/06/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth-Pop, Funk, R&B, Electronic

Length: 40:49

Death Grips - Year Of The Snitch

Score: 8.5 

The latest full-length album from the experimental hip hop band Death Grips fulfils every single condition for another successful record of them: chaotic at the verge of schizophrenia, playful at the edge of delirium and prolific at the stake of excellence. Minimal at times, exploded with details at others, Year Of The Snitch feels urgent, depressing, desperate and helpless; but must of all, addictive.

Tracks I like the most: Streaky, Flies, Black Paint, Linda's In Custody, Shitshow, Disappointed

Tracks I like the least: Dilemma

Artist: Death Grips

Country: United States

Album: Year Of The Snitch

Released: 22/06/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Synth-Punk, Noise Rock, Glitch Hop, Electro-Industrial, Digital Hardcore

Length: 37:13

Vive La Void - Vive La Void

Score: 8.1 

Vive La Void is a side-project from Moon Duo's Sanae Yamada, and her debut full-length album was recorded while on tour, constantly moving out and changing perspectives. Despite how it was built, the record itself feels tremendously cohesive and uniform in its own thickness and claustrophobia. Fulled with banger electronics, humming drums and drones and spacey atmospherics, Vive La Void is engrossing and embracing all at once.

Tracks I like the most: Matter, Death Money, Blacktop

Tracks I like the least: Smoke, Atlantis

Artist: Vive La Void

Country: United States

Album: Vive La Void

Released: 04/05/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Drone, Psychedelic Rock, Synth-Pop, Krautrock

Length: 37:20

Ginger Root - Mahjong Room

Score: 7.8 

After a couple of promising singles, the artist Cameron Lew under the name of Ginger Root delivers his debut album packed with synthy, bubbly and lo-fiy songs about love, loss and melancholy. Though the sepa-like atmosphere is perfectly visible all throughout, there's a sense of euphoria and energy going on; youth at its finest peak.

Tracks I like the most: Call It Home, Jeanie, Shmoopie, Hazel Street

Tracks I like the least: Ohio

Artist: Ginger Root

Country: United States

Album: Mahjong Room

Released: 29/06/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth-Pop

Length: 34:36

Cullen Omori - The Diet

Score: 6.6 

The second full-length studio album from singer-songwriter Cullen Omori is lackluster in its attempt at creating/recreating indie rock/pop/folk ballads. His knack for easy-candy melancholic lyricism, his psychedelic touches and his jammy personal guitar riffs aren't enough to propel the album, unfortunately. Some tracks shine more than others, but it's a generally forgetable experience.

Tracks I like the most: Four Years, Quiet Girl, Natural Woman

Tracks I like the least: Master Eyes, Queen

Artist: Cullen Omori

Country: United States

Album: The Diet

Released: 17/08/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Folk, Psychedelic Rock

Length: 38:21

Mildlife - Phase

Score: 7.5 

The debut full-length album from the Melbourne-based quartet is a pretty captivating mixture of improvisational jazz, disco, funk, soul and futuristic psychedelia. Some songs are wonderfully intertwined and composed; some others fall a bit too redundant or over-repetitive. Far from being a mixbag, though, Mildlife emerges as a powerful voice from far Australasia to bear in mind while talking about cutting-edge, heatseeker contemporary instrumental music.

Tracks I like the most: The Magnificent Moon, Zwango Zop

Tracks I like the least: Phase

Artist: Mildlife

Country: Australia

Album: Phase

Released: 23/02/2018

Genres: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Funk, Soul, Disco, Psychedelia, Experimental

Length: 40:01

Ariana Grande - Sweetener

Score: 7.4 

The fourth record from massive pop star Ariana Grande might be her most fully realized material yet. With production cooperation from Pharrell Williams and a bunch of recognised sound mixers, the Top 40-aspiring songs that compose it feel sweet and easy on the ears but also a bit challenging and surprisingly elevated with some micro-twists and winks for the more demanding listeners. The artist feels emotional, vulnerable but, most of all, in complete sense of her powers and enforcements. It's a giant step into a technically interesting direction.

Tracks I like the most: the light is coming, sweetener, no tears left to cry, God is a woman

Tracks I like the least: everytime, borderline

Artist: Ariana Grande

Country: United States

Album: Sweetener

Released: 17/08/2018

Genres: Pop, Electronic, R&B, Trap, Vocal, Synth-Pop

Length: 47:25

We Out Here - We Out Here

Score: 7.7 

The collective formed by the most arresting and talked-about new voices of London contemporary jazz scene known as We Out Here delivers its first full-length project. It surely demonstrates a community of genre-pushing, rhythm-addicted and flow-mesmerised performers that mix what makes the best of both the old times and the new. Syncopated and perched at delirium as it usually is and stands for, the exquisiteness and psychedelia submerge but never dive too deep in the songs, and maybe that's why the majority of them succeeds in showcasing their first and most prominent aim: to express how 21st-century England music tends to be and seems it will continue to be.

Tracks I like the most: Pure Shade, Once, Brockley, Walls

Tracks I like the least: Black Skin, Black Masks

Artist: We Out Here

Country: United Kingdom

Album: We Out Here

Released: 09/02/2018

Genres: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Instrumental

Length: 54:38

Izaak Opatz - Mariachi Static

Score: 7.6 

The newest release from folk singer-songwriter Izaak Opatz is an enduring, enhancing collection of trepidations and misfortunes retold in the shape of cantics and whiskey-driven anecdotes about a past loved one, one that possibly failed to commute or connect with the artist. For the most part of its almost 40 minutes, the pace of the record is calmly maintained by stiff, raw and pastoral instrumentation, playful lyricism and a strange bittersweet relief at the venerations of solitude and loneliness. 

Tracks I like the most: Not Yet, Read Between Your Lines, Got To Me Since

Tracks I like the least: One Way Or Another

Artist: Izaak Opatz

Country: United States

Album: Mariachi Static

Released: 27/07/2018

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

Length: 37:56 

Roy Of The Ravers - Who Are Ya??

Score: 8.4 

The newest release from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne dj and electronic producer working under the name Roy Of The Ravers is a continuation of his masterful approach to alien, hyperkinetic and frenetic acid house. In an hour-long record and throughout ten songs, he's able to portray insanely savage tunes as well as otherworldly ambient tracks, all concocted with a severe need to experiment and play with structures and rhythms. It's music as architecture that'll please hardcore fans as well as wild-music lovers.

Tracks I like the most: Supremacy Royale, All Aboard!!!, PTP9

Tracks I like the least: Who Are Ya??

Artist: Roy Of The Ravers

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Who Are Ya??

Released: 05/09/2018

Genres: Acid House, Techno, Ambient, Experimental

Length: 59:18

Hermit And The Recluse - Orpheus vs. The Sirens

Score: 8.0 

Hermit and the Recluse is a collaborative project between producer Animoss and retired underground rap legend Ka, and it surely stands on its own in the plethora of contemporary hip hop. The ten short tracks that build it are based on Greek mythology euphemisms and metaphors, all sleepily retold by the rapper's amazing sense of flow and narrative and carved up with relentlessly lo-fi and low-key beats, arrangements and samples. Orpheus vs. The Sirens is an admirable rap construction, as well as a hidden gem in today's music.

Tracks I like the most: Argo, Golden Fleece, Oedipus

Tracks I like the least: Orpheus

Artist: Hermit And The Recluse

Country: United States

Album: Orpheus vs. The Sirens

Released: 18/08/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Experimental, Lo-Fi, Abstract Hip Hop

Length: 32:49

Matt Dorrien - In The Key Of Grey

Score: 6.8 

The newest album from singer-songwriter Matt Dorrien is an attempt at mixing indie pop with ragtime. While the songs flow cohesively, all tighted up by strong instrumental performances and a swaggy rhythm, the lyrics and the vocal artistry on the whole record may rely too much on the influences up on its sleeve. In The Key Of Grey is enjoyable on its sorrow and melancholy, but it cannot escape falling as pastiche.

Tracks I like the most: Baby I'm So Lost, The Discontented Rag

Tracks I like the least: Maybe This Time

Artist: Matt Dorrien

Country: United States

Album: In The Key Of Grey

Released: 18/05/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Indie Pop, Ragtime, Singer-Songwriter

Length: 32:53

Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour

Score: 8.2 

The fourth album from country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves is her least americana-oriented record she's put out so far; instead, she indulges into pop and even electronic nuances to carry on her messages. It's a great one, that dares to try new things and mostly succeeds primarily because of the artist's warm and powerful voice and her sharp-eyed lyricism. There's hope on Golden Hour, and a lot of ideals, but the best part of it is that it never leaves the grounds of reality.

Tracks I like the most: Oh, What A World, Happy & Sad, Velvet Elvis, High Horse, Rainbow

Tracks I like the least: Butterflies

Artist: Kacey Musgraves

Country: United States

Album: Golden Hour

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Country Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Soft Rock, Dream Pop, Electronic

Length: 45:44

Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain

Score: 8.5 

The latest release from singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews is a group of fantastic expeditions through the tribulations and reflections of road life as well as city life. There's a huge sense of nostalgia, but the hope and tenderness that the hard-headed lyrics and the instrumentals offer add up to create a much more colourful palette. May Your Kindness Remain contains several micro-hits and is exemplary on the "less-is-more" theory.

Tracks I like the most: Kindness Of Strangers, May Your Kindness Remain, Rough Around The Edges, This House, Long Road Back To You

Tracks I like the least: Took You Up

Artist: Courtney Marie Andrews

Country: United States

Album: May Your Kindness Remain

Released: 23/03/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Country, Americana, Rock Folk

Length: 43:03

Faustina Masigat - Faustina Masigat

Score: 7.6 

The debut full-length album by singer-songwriter and producer Faustina Masigat is everything you could wish for in an indie folk  record: a couple of profound, tranquil songs about love, life and its complications and shines. Her voice manifests as a meandering force that melts into the gorgeous string arrangements and the relentlessly acoustic pace. Sweet but nostalgic, Faustina Masigat indulges you into a looped lullaby.

Tracks I like the most: Done Thinking About It, Different Ways

Tracks I like the least: Intervention, Poverty

Artist: Faustina Masigat

Country: United States

Album: Faustina Masigat

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Acoustic, Chamber Pop, Americana

Length: 41:02