Spellling - Mazy Fly

8.4

The sophomore release from the American outcast Tia Cabral is a thick impersonation of lovely disdain and exhuberant melodrama in the form of pseudo-industrial hypnagogic pop and a melange of styles, moods and textures that serve for an experience as invigorating as entertainingly engrossing.

Highlights

- Spellling's vocal range and delivery are fantastic.

- The instrumentals are rotten and suffocated at the edge of delicate saturation.

- The cinematic narrative of the album.

Lowlights

- Some songs might be excessively long.

- The instrumental tracks, while good, do not live up to the rest of the record's potential.

Standouts

- Under The Sun

- Haunted Water

- Afterlife

Country: USA

Released: February 22, 2019

Length: 42:37

Ultramarine - Signals Into Space

7.3

The introverted duo returns with another classy, moody ambientronic record that exhumes breathiness, calm and instrumental creativity. Anna Domino turns out to be the gem element, and the piece that saves the record from falling into sea-level outrun.

Highlights

- Anna's voice gives power, mystery and substance to the tracks where she's involved.

- The tropical percussion and the nocturnal saxophones play a heavy role in developing the pace of the album.

- While long, the men never seem to lose their focus and inter-momentum.

Lowlights

- Some songs are too subdued in ambience that they get run out of strength.

- The record is 5-or-10-minute too long.

Standouts

- Arithmetic

- Breathing

- $10 Heel

Country: UK

Released: January 1, 2019

Length: 57:18

White Lies - FIVE

4.2

FIVE is pure pastiche and almost no sentiment; it wears its influences up on its sleeves and doesn't hesitate to embark on levels of cheesiness that even feel disrespectful. Radio-friendly lovers couldn't be happier, I suppose...

Highlights

- On certain tracks, the instrumentals try to save the day.

- Let's face it: a couple of songs are a bit catchy.

- There's a certain naïvety and breathiness the band possesses.

Lowlights

- Most of the takes are trying so hard to be edgy and epic, and they all pretty much fail at it.

- Most of the choruses are ridiculously repetitive and childish.

- The tracks are excessively long, no matter their length.

Standouts

- Kick Me

- Time To Give

Country: USA

Released: February 1, 2019

Length: 42:04

Boy Harsher - Careful

6.5

Where darkwave duo Boy Harsher sounded risky, edgy and pulsatingly menacing, on Careful they feel pensive, restrained and suffocated in their own derivative song structures. Rare glimpses of greatness cannot lift it up afloat, though.

Highlights

- Synth inter and intra plays are still something to get marvelled at.

- When it pulls out, it truly delivers dancy, spookily grand tracks.

- There's a sense of cohesion holding the record together.

Lowlights

- Some tracks are completely unnecessary and underdeveloped.

- All the elements that made them special in the first place are there, except for the energy.

Standouts

- LA

- Fate

- Come Closer

Country: USA

Released: February 1, 2019

Length: 43:05

YMA - Par De Olhos

7.5

Straight up from São Paulo, YMA delivers sharp, minimal but strictly confident synth-pop tunes that not only mix languages and tones, but also feelings and changes of perspective. It's a solid, self-aware and continuously odd reflection on tinged love.

Highlights

- Amazing production and mixing of instruments, that feel furious and settle at the same time.

- YMA's voice is as self-assuring and tender in English and in Portuguese.

- The aesthetic of the tracks match up the visual images portrayed in the cover art.

Lowlights

- Only 26 minutes? Come on! They could have added at least two more songs to make the statement even more concise.

- Some song structures seem basic in comparison to others.

Standouts

- Par De Olhos

- Vampiro

- Shake It

Country: Brazil

Released: January 11, 2019

Length: 26:17

Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow

7.5

Sharon comes back to propel fire into the quietest storm. Her songwriting seems sharper than ever, while producer John Congleton once again demonstrates he's one of the most prolific figures in independent music to collaborate with. Candid and ever-longing.

Highlights

- The precious storytelling, recounted with gut and tender paranoia.

- The beats feel opressed, and the coy noise infiltrates tension to the songs.

- The immense love for life, love and music that the singer portrays all throughout.

Lowlights

- Some tracks are patience-defiers, and the record could have still gone well with 5 minutes less.

- While lyrics are fueled by longing and melancholia, some are heavy to understand.

Standouts

- No One's Easy To Love

- Seventeen

- Comeback Kid

Country: USA

Released: January 18, 2019

Length: 41:17

crushinglove - Malevolent Melancholy

3.0

Above the numerous problems this album has, the quintessential aspect here is that it never ever deciphers what on earth wants to transmit and how on hell wants to sound like; in the meantime, all the efforts it develops are excruciatingly languid and famished.

Highlights

- Lyrics are simple, raw and obtusely mundane.

- There's always praise for trying to high up the bar, right?

Lowlights

- It's messy: the tracks jumble from quiet folk to dischordant electronics in no logic manner.

- The mixing is terrible; neither the voices nor the instruments can be fully enjoyed.

- It's monochromatic in tone and prose while never displaying something actually substantial.

Standouts

- Wooden World

- Kill 4 U

Country: Philippines

Released: January 12, 2019

Length: 31:24

Dan Mason - Hypnagogia

6.0

Yes, vaporwave had its breakthrough and I can't blame fans for their upcoming passion onto the genre, but works like this make me rethink the purpose of lousy melancholia and over-candyed nostalgia for the simple sake of it at the end of the day.

Highlights

- It benefits from itself more when it dares to be backed up with singing and timid noise.

- If ambient stretches its primal conceptions, it pretty much does its job.

- It respects its monochromatic approach at the edge of obsequent coherence.

Lowlights

- It's just 9 songs and 39 minutes, but it still bores at times.

- Rapping through cliché-like plastic demagogy feels cringe-worthy.

- The surprises that appear every now and then underline the rest as even more dull.

Standouts

- Fade

- Shade

- Hopefully Forever

Country: USA

Released: January 11, 2019

Length: 39:56