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