SiR - November

Score: 7.8

The debut album from the Californian R&B/hip hop singer feels smooth, levitative and indulging, but it's nice to see the creamy foundations and the sepia-like memories unfold into sweetly confident verses that whisper so confidently it gets almost and mostly irresistible not to get lost in their own universes and spaces.

Tracks I like the most: Something Foreign, D'Evils, Something New, Better, Summer In November
Tracks I like the least: War

Artist: SiR

Country: United States

Album: November

Released: 12/01/2019

Genres: Hip Hop, Soul, R&B, Jazz

Length: 32:49

Profligate - Somewhere Else

Score: 7.4

The new duo finds a satisfying balance in and between harsh electronics and lucid ambient, esoteric rhythms and nihilist poetry, sordidly crispy noise and comfortingly sour lullabies, and most importantly, menacing chaos, debauchery and firm control.

Tracks I like the most: Somewhere Else, Black Plate
Tracks I like the least: Lose A Little

Artist: Profligate

Country: United States

Album: Somewhere Else

Released: 05/01/2018

Genres: Experimental Electronic, Noise, Synthwave, Dark Wave

Length: 38:48

Camila Cabello - Camila

Score: 7.2

Camila, both the album and the artist, work best when they're stripped off of all the seemingly tasteless millenial-pop additions that the production crew may want to take on the songs, and they instead take a mellower, straighter and more acoustic approach to unveil how it feels to be young, talented and beautiful but lonely, alienated and far away from everything truly worthy.

Tracks I like the most: Never Be The Same, Havana, Consequences, Real Friends, In The Dark
Tracks I like the least: Inside Out, Into It

Artist: Camila Cabello

Country: Cuba/United States

Album: Camila

Released: 12/01/2018

Genres: Pop

Length: 36:59

Shame - Songs Of Praise

Score: 8.0

Just thirty-eight minutes are enough to demonstrate that the British newcomers named Shame are between the most exciting, urgent and necessary bands oscillating the post-punk stratosphere lately. Ten heavy, dirty, cohesively attached and wittily crafted songs make up for an album that asks for a lot, but gives much more in reward.

Tracks I like the most: One Rizla, The Lick, Gold Hole, Lampoon
Tracks I like the least: Tasteless, Angie

Artist: Shame

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Songs Of Praise

Released: 12/01/2018

Genres: Post-Punk, Indie Rock

Length: 38:31

Johnny Jewel - Digital Rain

Score: 7.7

Pristine but shattered and equally meditative and reflective, the newest sound composition by analogue multi-instrumentalist Johnny Jewel finds its place in an ever-present, otherwordly aura that gets smaller and grows bigger in admirably effortless ways. It's the sound of our restless weather and tectonic plates, as well as our close nostalgic feelings and biological reactions every time it's about to rain. It's as much organic as it is electronic; as human as, well, digital.

Tracks I like the most: The City Of Roses, The Runner, Monsoon, Aerosol, Ship Of Theseus
Tracks I like the least: Seven Corners, Cellophane

Artist: Johnny Jewel

Country: United States

Album: Digital Rain

Released: 26/01/2018

Genres: Ambient, Electronic

Length: 41:02

Porches - The House

Score: 6.4

There are a few tracks over there that have potential but are still a bit undercooked or just wrongly adjusted to fully brighten. For the rest, these are a collection of weirdly attached songs that are more often than not trapped and lost in their own airiness and reverie to move something on the listener. Basically, The House is too numb to be substantial.

Tracks I like the most: Find Me, By My Side, Wobble, Goodbye, Ono
Tracks I like the least: Country, Swimmer

Artist: Porches

Country: United States

Album: The House

Released: 19/01/2018

Genres: Synth Pop, Indie Pop

Length: 37:21

First Aid Kit - Ruins

Score: 7.9

The Söderberg sisters return to roots and simplistic song-writing on their fourth record, Ruins. Sometimes the production and pristine details are enough to make some songs wonderfully inspiring, and sometimes the minimalistic approach taken to other ones restrain the album to achieve its full potential. That being said, it's an overall confident step into the right direction.

Tracks I like the most: It's A Shame, Fireworks, Postcard, Hem Of Her Dress, Nothing Has To Be True
Tracks I like the least: To Live A Life, My Wild Sweet Love, Ruins

Artist: First Aid Kit

Country: Sweden

Album: Ruins

Released: 19/01/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Country, Americana, Folk Pop

Length: 39:34

тпсб - Sekundenschlaf

Score: 8.1

There's something eerily comforting and disturbingly cozy about Sekundenschlaf, a record that bears an overwhelming mystery and symbolism to the state where one is about to fall asleep while driving. Whoever crafted this little gem of ambient techno/jungle should be more than proud, as much as we should be thankful to the one(s) who found it and made it public in the first place.

Tracks I like the most: Catching Rare Birds, Walking Distances, Matted Feathers
Tracks I like the least: Pacifier Habits

Artist: тпсб

Country: United Kingdom/Russia

Album: Sekundenschlaf

Released: 12/01/2018

Genres: Experimental, Abstract, Jungle, Ambient Techno, Drone

Length: 31:53

MGMT - Little Dark Age

Score: 8.0

After five years of complete silence and a serious existential crisis, the neo-psychedelia boys return with their most mature, aesthetically consistent and thoroughly cohesive set of songs in a long time. The combination of murkily sympathetic sounds and morbidly cynic lyrics make most of the songs self-affirming and enjoyable, but the ever-growing little details and production twists make them grow to even memorable heights.

Tracks I like the most: Little Dark Age, When You Die, Days That Got Away, When You're Small, Hand It Over
Tracks I like the least: Me And Michael, TSLAMP

Artist: MGMT

Country: United States

Album: Little Dark Age

Released: 09/02/2018

Genres: Synth Pop, Dark Pop, Gothic Pop, Psychedelic Pop

Length: 44:25

Tune-Yards - I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life

Score: 7.1

In their fourth album, the Merrill Garbus' project follows an iconoclastically electronic path and by purposefully subduing the more tribal aspects of their core sound, the results show up as surprisingly engaging as disappointingly lackluster, sometimes in equal levels and at same times.

Tracks I like the most: Heart Attack, ABC 123, Colonizer, Look At Your Hands, Honesty
Tracks I like the least: Coast To Coast, Hammer

Artist: Tune-Yards

Country: United States

Album: I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life

Released: 19/01/2018

Genres: Art Pop, Indie Pop, Alternative Dance, Techno, Afrobeat

Length: 44:18