Cloud Nothings - Last Building Burning

Score: 7.1 

The latest release from emo band Cloud Nothings finds the members more mature and life-reflective than ever. Most of the tracks would fall onto all the categories, characteristics and stereotypes of what indie rock/miwest emo music should sound like, but there are a couple of details here and there that make us think that the band is finally reaching new corners in their musicality and artistry.

Tracks I like the most: Dissolution, Leave Him Now, In Shame

Tracks I like the least: The Echo Of The World

Artist: Cloud Nothings

Country: United States

Album: Last Building Burning

Released: 19/10/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Emo, Screamo, Post-Hardcore, Noise Rock, Punk Rock

Connan Mockasin - Jassbusters

Score: 7.7 

The eccentric New Zealand artist Connan Mockasin delivers a gorgeous, regurgitant fourth record fulled with romantic-at-the-verge-of-morbid lyrics and smooth, sometimes twitchy instrumentation that follows a coherent, levitating concept and script. All the tracks on Jassbusters are sweetly related and intermingled and, as bizarre as it sometimes gets, it's also a pleasant, navigating experience to enjoy wholeheartedly.

Tracks I like the most: Momo's, Charlotte's Thong, B'nd

Tracks I like the least: You Can Do Anything

Artist: Connan Mockasin

Country: New Zealand

Album: Jassbusters

Released: 12/10/2018

Genres: Soft Rock, Indie Rock, Psychedelic Soul, Psychedelic Pop, Alternative R&B

Length: 34:42

High On Fire - Electric Messiah

Score: 6.6 

The eighth album from American thrash metal band High On Fire is unadventurous and excessively predictable in both formula and execution. There's nothing particularly wrong with it; it's just the commotion of the tracks that feels as mechanic as polished all throughout. Kudos on the album art but, for the rest, Electric Messiah will surely please fans and metalheads alike, and that might just be it.

Tracks I like the most: Electric Messiah, Spewn From The Earth

Tracks I like the least: The Witch And The Christ

Artist: High On Fire

Country: United States

Album: Electric Messiah

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Stoner Metal, Sludge Metal, Thrash Metal, Doom Metal

Length: 56:57

Nao - Saturn

Score: 7.3 

The second full-length album from British singer-songwriter Nao is a galactic concept record that finds her embracing her recent 30 years of existence into a set of wholly reflective, open-hearted soul ballads and urban disco-fillers. The artist's excepcional vocal range and emotion are the centerpiece that holds it all together, though more often than not one is left wishing that the production team would have taken more risks to propel her inherent oddity and idiosyncracy at storytelling.

Tracks I like the most: If You Ever, Gabriel, Orbit, Love Supreme

Tracks I like the least: A Life Like This

Artist: Nao

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Saturn

Released: 26/10/2018

Genres: Alternative R&B, Neo Soul, Synth-Funk, Synth-Pop, Electropop, Future Bass

Length: 47:01

Hinds - I Don't Run

Score: 7.2 

The sophomore release from the Madrid quartet Hinds is a continuation of their lo-fi, erratically heartfelt sound. They had firmly decided not to reinvent the wheel on these tracks, using the same formulas that made them so applauded and respected with their debut, but this time with a more mature, diverse take on their palette. Most of the songs are strong and menacingly substantial, but the off-kilter joy seen of the ones on Leave Me Alone are sometimes lost in the midst of the raucous waves of sounds the girls portray.

Tracks I like the most: Linda, New For You, Rookie

Tracks I like the least: Finally Floating

Artist: Hinds

Country: Spain

Album: I Don't Run

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Garage Rock. Indie Pop, Twee Pop

Length: 39:47

How To Dress Well - The Anteroom

Score: 8.0 

The fifth album from singer-songwriter and electronic producer Tom Krell seems to be the perfect combination of all the elements with he's been working on and that made him known throughout his career: impressionistic, quiet-at-the-edge-muted mood and pace, rattling electronics, glitchy R&B, moving vocals and a constant sense of calm-before-the-storm. The tracks in The Anteroom work better if seen as semi-chapters in a tumultuous and heart-wrenching story about doomed love and life. How To Dress Well manages to conjure up experience and amateur peppy fire to create a record that mutates as many times as it surpasses time, place and roles. One of the nicest surprises of the year.

Tracks I like the most: Body Fat, The Anteroom, Hunger

Tracks I like the least: A Memory, The Spinning Of A Body | Nonkilling 2

Artist: How To Dress Well

Country: United States

Album: The Anteroom

Released: 19/10/2018

Genres: Art Pop, Indie Pop, Electronic, Experimental, Alternative R&B, Glitch Pop, Ambient

Length: 69:06

Christine And The Queens - Chris

Score: 7.0 

Score (English Version): 7.0 

Score (French Version): 6.9 

The sophomore release from French singer-songwriter and producer under the name Christine And The Queens is a double disc that contains the same set of songs in English and French, though some Spanish phrases can be heard here and there. Héloïse Letissier continues to showcase her sympathetic, widely enjoyable pop persona throughout the tracks, though some work much better than others. And where one song is propelled by one language rather than the other, quite the opposite happens in some other parts. At the end, it's a refreshing indie pop record that's both inviting and disarmingly unaffected/ing.

Tracks I like the most: Damn (what must a woman do), Follarse, Comme si on s'aimait, The Walker, 5 dols

Tracks I like the least: Machin-chose, 5 dollars

Artist: Christine And The Queens

Country: France

Album: Chris

Released: 21/09/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth-Pop, Art Pop, Alternative R&B, Synth-Funk, Electropop

Length: 92:54 (44:33 [English Version]; 48:21 [French Version])

Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want

Score: 9.0 

After eight years, the American noise rock band Daughters return with what might be their most astounding and masterfully crafted record. There's just so much to tackle in throughout the album: the pulsating, effervescent, gargantuan instrumentation and mood, the cutting-edge, story-telling-like lyrics, and the immaculate performance of the members, to name just a few. There's also an irritable sense of catastrophe lurking around You Won't Get What You Want and, besides that, it still manages to sound both curiously optimistic and conceptually diverse. Finally, it's not only a knockout to 2018 music, but a grotesquely giant step forward for a band that's every time surer about their peerlessness.

Tracks I like the most: City Song, The Flammable Man, Long Road, No Turns, The Lords Song

Tracks I like the least: Satan In The Wait

Artist: Daughters

Country: United States

Album: You Won't Get What You Want

Released: 26/10/2018

Genres: Noise Rock, Industrial Rock, Experimental Rock, No Wave, Art Punk, Post-Hardcore

Length: 48:45

Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics

Score: 7.7 

The fifth album from Swedish contra-culture pop artist Neneh Cherry is deliciously settled and levitating. The tracks are wonderfully produced by Four Tet, blending ambient with tribal touches and deep dub and trip hop in the middle; plus, the revelatory, almost chamanistic lyrics and vocal delivery of the singer make up for an experience that's as moody as gravitational. Broken Politics grows on and inside you, each listening the more revealing and blossoming.

Tracks I like the most: Kong, Natural Skin Deep, Slow Release

Tracks I like the least: Cheap Breakfast Special

Artist: Neneh Cherry

Country: Sweden

Album: Broken Politics

Released: 19/10/2018

Genres: Art Pop, Ambient Pop, Tribal Pop, Electronic, Trip Hop, Dub

Length: 46:01

Peter Bjorn And John - Darker Days

Score: 7.4 

The eighth album from Swedish trio Peter Bjorn & John seems to follow the band's lamentous thorn: getting stuck onto one single-step gravitational force. The first four tracks on it function sweetly well, making up for some of the most levitating and fulfilling indie pop of the year; sadly, the rest of the record cannot live up to their standard, and end up feeling weakened and pale in comparison. Darker Days goes back to basics, which is not necessarily a bad thing; the thing is, it's just not that able to maintain the euphoria for long.

Tracks I like the most: One For The Team, Every Other Night, Gut Feeling

Tracks I like the least: Velvet Sky

Artist: Peter Bjorn And John

Country: Sweden

Album: Darker Days

Released: 19/10/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth-Pop, New Wave

Length: 42:10

☆.A/NAOITO - ☆.A

Score: 7.2 

The full-length album from former Kingdom Afrocks front man ☆.A/NAOITO dwelves in a weird space between chamber-crazy jazz and bubbly afrobeat. The percussion, the changes of mood and the continuous motion of the eight tracks that compose it make up for a roller-coaster experience rather than a unified whole serving a clear purpose, but it's (at the end of the day) a pretty interesting take on what fusion music can state to be.

Tracks I like the most: dotA, 4th Of Joy, interlude part 1&2

Tracks I like the least: Sonsbeek

Artist: ☆.A/NAOITO

Country: Japan

Album: ☆.A

Released: 31/08/2018

Genres: Jazz, Afrobeat, Electronic, World Music

Length: 60:18

Cursive - Vitriola

Score: 6.1 

The latest release from American emo band Cursive is obfuscated in void from beginning to end. The strings try to add up to the whole sound, and are usually the most interesting element in the songs, but they aren't enough to propel the tracks strong. At the end, Vitriola is too messy and pessimistic to be enjoyed or appreciated fully.

Tracks I like the most: It's Gonna Hurt, Noble Soldier / Dystopian Lament

Tracks I like the least: Ghost Writer

Artist: Cursive

Country: United States

Album: Vitriola

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Emo, Post-Hardcore

Length: 44:27

Ambrose Akinmusire - Origami Harvest

Score: 7.6 

The latest release from jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is a joyous, intrepid journey through the most emotional veins of America regarding culture, racism and violence. Rap guests dial up the tracks and give them a story to follow, but it's the cinematic, almost-catastrophic instrumentation what elevates the record to moving heights. Origami Harvest is proud, sensitive and shamelessly laconic in both words and interplay.

Tracks I like the most: a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie, Free, White and 21

Tracks I like the least: particle /spectra

Artist: Ambrose Akinmusire

Country: United States

Album: Origami Harvest

Released: 12/10/2018

Genres: Jazz, Bop, Chamber Pop, Spoken Word

Length: 59:46

MØ - Forever Neverland

Score: 5.8 

The second album from Danish former-altpop artist MØ decides to go fully commercial, EDM-infused like unashamedly. The tracks feel frustratingly desperate for the top of the chart and are usually minimised to cheesy, wasted feelings that are as un-believable as conventional. Rarely does the record come off as shiny and/or impressive, the rest of Forever Neverland being proof of another artist with moderate potential letting her artistry and music qualities down.

Tracks I like the most: Nostalgia, Mercy, If It's Over

Tracks I like the least: I Want You

Artist: MØ

Country: Denmark

Album: Forever Neverland

Released: 19/10/2018

Genres: Electropop, Dance Pop, Future Bass, Alternative R&B, Synth-Pop

Length: 44:48

Empress Of - Us

Score: 8.4 

Three years and a several months of releases and snippets later, the second album from Hondurian-American singer-songwriter and producer Lorely Rodriguez sees the light. After her ground-breaking breakthrough debut Me, where reckless and disarmingly personal lyricism combined with raw, experimental instrumentation paved the way for an artist at the peek of her game, one cannot help but be left thirsty after listening to the more sweety, laid-back approach on the songs on Us. And maybe that's our mistake: thinking that we're the ones deciding how an artist this talented should (continue to) sound like. But Lorelita states it clear: she's the only boss running her artistry and career. Besides, let's look at the positive aspect of it: while remaining as universally accessible and down-to-earth as she consciously exists in here, she still delivers the freshest, most prolifically cutting-edge synth-pop music we'll hear this year.

Tracks I like the most: When I'm With Him, Trust Me Baby, I Don't Even Smoke Weed

Tracks I like the least: Everything To Me

Artist: Empress Of

Country: United States

Album: Us

Released: 19/10/2018

Genres: Art Pop, Dance Pop, Indie Pop, Electronic, Synth-Pop, Alternative R&B

Length: 32:35

Lil Baby & Gunna - Drip Harder

Score: 4.7 

The collaborative album between American rappers Lil Baby and Gunna is every bit of what generic trap-hip hop sounds like. The tracks are frustratingly forgettable, and some of them are even unnerving and irritable. There's almost no chemistry nor flow within the two of them, and the timid production can do almost nothing to redeem that. Drip Harder barely entertains, and it surely disappoints.

Tracks I like the most: World Is Yours, Close Friends

Tracks I like the least: Seals Pills

Artist: Lil Baby & Gunna

Country: United States

Album: Drip Harder

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Trap Rap, Hip Hop

Length: 38:52

Horrendous - Idol

Score: 7.1 

The fourth release from American death metal band Horrendous continues to display great skill, force and magnetic stories about lost lands, hidden promises and an impeding doom. Some tracks, though, feel too trapped in their own formulas to leave a substantial impression. As a whole, Idol works neatly; as a set of individual parts, not so much.

Tracks I like the most: Soothsayer, Obulus

Tracks I like the least: The Idolater

Artist: Horrendous

Country: United States

Album: Idol

Released: 28/09/2018

Genres: Death Metal, Progressive Metal

Length: 40:05

Buck Meek - Buck Meek

Score: 6.4 

The album released by Big Thief member Buck Meek is a short, concise and ambivalent record about self-reflection, self-critique and self-love. The tracks have some quirky twists and rhythm shifts, but are generally inoffensive and unaltered, leaving you just right after they end. One is left to expect a bolder, more ambitious album from such a capable mind, though.

Tracks I like the most: Joe By The Book, Cannonball!

Tracks I like the least: Maybe

Artist: Buck Meek

Country: United States

Album: Buck Meek

Released: 18/05/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Length: 23:54

Colter Wall - Songs Of The Plains

Score: 7.5 

The second album from Canadian singer-songwriter and somehow curator Colter Wall is a less-personal approach to his graspy singing and bittersweet lyrics. This time around, he tends to focus on imaginary tales and speculations, restored ancient covers and wry ballads that conjure up past and present, energy and calm, and company and solitude. It's a tender, embracing record that cements the artist's particular take on the genre.

Tracks I like the most: Plain To See Plainsman, Wild Dogs, Night Herding Song

Tracks I like the least: John Beyers (Camaro Song)

Artist: Colter Wall

Country: Canada

Album: Songs Of The Plains

Released: 12/10/2018

Genres: Country, Folk, Americana, Blues

Length: 34:14

St. Vincent - MassEducation

Score: 8.4 

The stripped-back, piano version of St. Vincent's latest album Masseduction is an amazing recomposition of her work and artistry for a lot of reasons, but it mainly succeeds because it lets listeners fully realize just how vocally capable the singer is, with variation of tones, moods and symbolisms to cope with her messages. Also, the more restrained approach to song delivery here lets us understand just how beautifully and thoughtfully created the tracks are, behind those glossy art rock instrumentals and savage electronic twists from the last year's version. At best, MassEducation feels like a bulk of fresh air after a maniac storm; fresh air that's just as engrossing and magnetic.

Tracks I like the most: Slow Disco - piano version, Sugarboy - piano version, Los Ageless - piano version, Pills - piano version

Tracks I like the least: New York - piano version

Artist: St. Vincent

Country: United States

Album: MassEducation

Released: 12/10/2018

Genres: Acoustic, Piano Music, Art Pop

Length: 45:03

Petite Noir - La Maison Noir / The Black House

Score: 7.6 

The latest extended play by Euro-African producer Petite Noir is an exhilarating mixture of indietronica and conga-like instrumentals. The tracks here play with hip hop, soul, R&B, pop and electronica with delicacy and power, maintaining the energy while giving enough substance to chew on and rhythm to dance along. It's also a refreshing take on what it means to create world music.

Tracks I like the most: Blame Fire, R E S P E C T, Blowing Up The Congo

Tracks I like the least: Hanoii

Artist: Petite Noir

Country: Belgium/South Africa

Album: La Maison Noir / The Black House

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Indietronica, Alternative R&B, Art Pop, Hip Hop, Soul, World Music

Length: 26:38

Akitsa - Credo

Score: 7.4 

The newest release from French Canadian band Akitsa is a surprisingly diverse, vibrant black metal record that's obfuscated in atonal guitar riffs, weird interplays and cerebrally cryptic lyrics. The members seem totally attached and commited to their work, and that's why Credo flows unquestionably well - it's another respectable addition to the artists' already vast catalogue in their 20 years of career.

Tracks I like the most: Siècle Pastoral, Vestiges Fortifiés

Tracks I like the least: Le Monde Et Ma Bile

Artist: Akitsa

Country: Canada

Album: Credo

Released: 12/10/2018

Genres: Black Metal, Death Industrial, Doom Metal

Length: 41:50

Puce Mary - The Drought

Score: 8.0 

The latest release from Danish electronic producer under the name Puce Mary is a magnetic, irritating death industrial record that's as pulsating as unbreakable. The nine tracks that form it are savagely executed, not to say that they all have some sort of restrain that makes them the more infuriating and cavernous. The powerful beats and percussion serve to give the songs both gut and light, as if the artist is constantly challenging her intuition and primal talents, while succeeding in creating soul-crunching, jaw-dropping soundscapes.

Tracks I like the most: To Possess Is To Be In Control, Fragments Of A Lily, A Feast Before The Drought

Tracks I like the least: Dissolve

Artist: Puce Mary

Country: Denmark

Album: The Drought

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Death Industrial, Power Electronics, Noise, Drone, Dark Ambient, Spoken Word

Length: 44:16

Adrianne Lenker - Abysskiss

Score: 7.3 

The fourth release from Big Thief frontwoman Adrianne Lenker is a furiously introspective record about inner thoughts and deep reflections on life, love and nature. The singer exploits and explores her intricate, sweet voice and delivers some sharp, beautiful lyrics to make the album a coherent, floaty and serene experience that's worth the pace.

Tracks I like the most: terminal paradise, cradle, abyss kiss

Tracks I like the least: womb

Artist: Adrianne Lenker

Country: United States

Album: Abysskiss

Released: 05/10/2018

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

Length: 33:42

Auntie Flo - Radio Highlife

Score: 7.2 

The newest release from Indian/British DJ and electronic producer Auntie Flo mixes the most common and predictable features of the genre with some quirky tribal ambient and east-African instrumentals to create something with flow, cohesion and sense. The record is packed up with a lot of interludes and passages (maybe too much), but on the proper tracks the artist lets himself get immersed into sound, rhythm and syncopation to fly free and unbothered. Radio Highlife doesn't awe as much as it pleases and sort of relaxes; and maybe that was its main purpose all along.

Tracks I like the most: Nobody Said It Would Be Easy, Kampala, Cape Town Jam

Tracks I like the least: Havana Rhythm Dance

Artist: Auntie Flo

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Radio Highlife

Released: 12/10/2018

Genres: Electronic, Tribal Ambient, Deep House, UK Funky, Tribal House, World Music

Length: 44:13

GABI - Empty Me

Score: 7.3 

The second release from American opera pop singer Gabrielle Herbst is angelic and whimsically lush in its mixture of triumphant vocals and dreamy ambient tracks. Her voices expands and dwelves in impossible spaces, and gives the record a sense of purpose and direction, no matter how wandered some of the songs can feel in comparison with others. Like a galactic sci-fi melodrama, Empty Me emerges and swims into wondrous, almost escapist territories, and does that with both finesse and communion.

Tracks I like the most: Wild Sunflowers, Let's Not Exist, Ahhh

Tracks I like the least: Naked

Artist: GABI

Country: United States

Album: Empty Me

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Ambient Pop, Art Pop, Indie Pop, Opera Pop

Length: 42:52

Swearin' - Fall Into The Sun

Score: 6.7 

The third release from indie rock band Swearin', and their first in five years, is a breezy, sympathetic record about life, love and paths chosen that's as moving as messy in its execution. The tracks that have singer Alison Crutchfield on the lead are the shinier ones, but it's this constant change of positions and viewpoints on the members what makes Fall Into The Sun lose its focus and impact. It's not a bad album, but it's rarely a one one would love to return to.

Tracks I like the most: Big Change, Grow Into A Ghost, Oil And Water

Tracks I like the least: Margaret

Artist: Swearin'

Country: United States

Album: Fall Into The Sun

Released: 05/10/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Pop Punk

Length: 33:18

Jeremy Dutcher - Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa

Score: 8.1 

Just like last year's biggest revelation Rosalía, the Canadian operatic tenor Jeremy Dutcher mixes traditional recordings and chants from his ancestors and mix them with classical crossover strings and percussion to form a new kind of revisit to Aborigin American music as well as what it truly means to create folk music. It's a wonderful, awe-inspiring project that leads him to hidden corners of the mind and spirit, while painting unknown, delicately precious soundscapes. It doesn't matter if you aren't able to understand what he is saying; when emotions are this pristinely transmitted, music and art elevate and go beyond words and melodies.

Tracks I like the most: Essuwonike, Mehcinut, Ultestakon, Pomok Naka Poktoinskwes

Tracks I like the least: Oqiton

Artist: Jeremy Dutcher

Country: Canada

Album: Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Folk, Native American Music, Chamber Pop, Art Pop, Avant-Garde

Length: 41:20

Metric - Art Of Doubt

Score: 7.4 

The seventh album by the Canadian indie rock band is a sweet, ever-moving statement about middle-aged people realizing their life so far and what they think life has to offer to them for the rest of their existence. In its 58 minutes, some tracks flourish and transmit energy and enough vibe to make the messages pass through, while others fall short in comparison. With Art Of Doubt, Metric delivers and showcases; not much, but sufficient.

Tracks I like the most: Love You Back, Dark Saturday, No Lights On The Horizon

Tracks I like the least: Risk

Artist: Metric

Country: Canada

Album: Art Of Doubt

Released: 21/09/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Synth-Pop

Length: 58:23