Superorganism - Superorganism

Score: 8.9 

The debut album from the London-based indietronica band is a huge achievement for contemporary young-adult music. The ten sounds that compose it seem like surreal sculptures that build up and strenghten to monumental heights. The feeling of mutual collaboration makes this a really tender record, and the vast surprises it holds in its hands keep you awake and in constant awe for its short-but-sufficient 33 minutes. The architectural monster they have come to create and show is gorgeously enjoyable and substantial, all at once.

Tracks I like the most: It's All Good, Everybody Wants To Be Famous, Nobody Cares, Something For Your M.I.N.D.

Tracks I like the least: Reflections On The Screen

Artist: Superorganism

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Superorganism

Released: 02/03/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Experimental Pop, Avant-Pop, Indietronica, Psychedelic Pop

Length: 33:04

The Carters - EVERYTHING IS LOVE

Score: 8.2 .

The first collaborative project between Beyoncé and Jay Z, and a seemingly closing part to a trilogy that started with the definitions of an infidelity in Lemonade and a pray for forgiveness in 44:44, finds the couple exploring the ups and downs of fame, glory, matrimony, parenthood, friendship, desire, hopes and, well, life itself and its mortality. The production is stellar, and they seem to be stimulating each other's talents at storytelling and bragging with every single statement and polemic phrase. They succeed in all the aspects that make this album a respectully triumphant one; one that honours and devotes itself to communion and combined forces.

Tracks I like the most: APESH*T, BOSS, NICE, BLACK EFFECT, LOVEHAPPY

Tracks I like the least: SUMMER

Artist: The Carters (Beyoncé / Jay Z)

Country: United States

Album: EVERYTHING IS LOVE

Released: 16/06/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, R&B, Electronica, Pop

Length: 38:17

Here Lies Man - You Will Know Nothing

Score: 7.3 

You Will Know Nothing is not even half as inspired and inspiring than its predecessor, but the American afrometal band still sounds almost like no other in combining what works best in both edges of two apparently dichotomic and contradicting genres. Still, the record is more spacious, though not more engrossing, and more diverse, though not more entertaining.

Artist: Here Lies Man

Country: United States

Album: You Will Know Nothing

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Afrorock, Afrometal, Art Rock, Stoner Rock

Length: 39:51

SOPHIE - OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES

Score: 9.4 

The debut album from the Scottish DJ, producer and now singer-songwriter Sophie Xeon is monumental in all its transcendence. There's an immaculate precision in the songs' elaboration, transition and content, and there's a convulted tenderness behind the thousands of naughty layers of harsh electronica. Mozart's Sister, the owner of the uncredited vocals, does a fantastic job in bringing bittersweet humanity into the cathartic lyrics and musical constructions. And the self-developing, self-triumphant general process is not the less astonishing, standing (maybe even ironically) as a pure humane manifesto. The future is here, and it belongs to Sophie, an artist who's proved to be one of the most sensational and captivating minds in 21st-century music as protest and as art life-form.

Tracks I like the most: It's Okay To Cry, Ponyboy, Faceshopping, Is It Cold In The Water?, Immaterial, Whole New World/Pretend World

Tracks I like the least: Pretending

Artist: SOPHIE

Country: United Kingdom

Album: OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Avant-Pop, Bubblegum Pop, Electronica, Experimental, Drone, Noise

Length: 39:55 

Ainda Dúo - Animal

Score: 8.0 

The Argentinian duo's third album lulls you to sleep with a collection of eight beautifully crafted songs, where there's a tinily precise attention to string arrangements and melting of voices as well as a symbiotic connection in both words, sounds and non-verbal communication between Yago and Esmeralda. Another great step into their right directions.

Tracks I like the most: Animal, Válsamo, Piedra Vegetal, Nunca Quise

Tracks I like the least: Lo Que No Quiero

Artist: Ainda Dúo

Country: Argentina

Album: Animal

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Pop, Rock, Vals

Length: 25:23

Chancha Via Circuito - Bienaventuranza

Score: 8.2 

Argentinian composer, DJ and producer Pedro Canale and his crew return with another musical statement that aims to combine traditional sounds from the South American Altiplano with the likes of reggae, dub, folclore, cumbia and electronica. Once again they seem to trust on their already known formulas, though there's a sense of utter nostalgia and cynicism behind the colourful instrumentation and optimistic lyrics. The claps that we hear on the track "Indios Tilcara" may also give as a clue to start thinking about the possibilites of autoctonous cultures' exploitation and appropiation through the uses of trend, marketing and showbusiness. Chancha has always had a peak at social commentary (on both lyrics and music), and this time around they sound louder than ever, all of them throughout the perch of dichotomies and tropical delirium.

Tracks I like the most: Ilaló, Nadie Lo Riega, La Victoria, Kawa Kawa, Indios Tilcara

Tracks I like the least: Barú

Artist: Chancha Via Circuito

Country: Argentina

Album: Bienaventuranza

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Electronica, Traditional, Andine Music, Cumbia, Dub, Reggae, Folclore, Pop

Length: 42:42

Ghost - Prequelle

Score: 8.4 

Swedish heavy-metal band Ghost returns with their fourth record, Prequelle, dwelling on a concept that centers on Medieval Europe, where the Black Death creeps around, flesh gets rotten and the Devil bounces back inside people's heads. The band manages to sound as welcoming as spooky to the ears; every single step seems to guide you both to the gates of musical heaven and to the inevitable dark confines of the abyss. Ghost sounds inspired and inspiring, playful, sassy and (why not?) romantic. Indeed, the eeriness the record oozes is directly proportional to the amount of epic excellence it sweats.

Tracks I like the most: Ashes, Rats, See The Light, Miasma, Dance Macabre, Life Eternal

Tracks I like the least: Faith

Artist: Ghost

Country: Sweden

Album: Prequelle

Released: 01/06/2018

Genres: Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Pop Rock, Opera Rock, Symphonic Metal, Hard Rock, Doom Metal

Length: 41:43 

J Balvin - Vibras

Score: 7.4 

The fifth album from the Colombian reggaeton singer-songwriter J Balvin aims for international recognition and success, mainly in the US. The reason why the album works is because of its own sense of flow, charisma and sensuality, since it's mainly packed with jams that'll please the genre's lovers and give a warm welcome to the ones who find reggaeton a new, unexplored, or so-far self-imposed rejected territory. Besides the artist's own versatility and imagination, kudos really go to the production team, who managed to endorse and hide some interesting, unorthodox and sensible ideas behind the tracks' obviously catchy rhythms.

Tracks I like the most: Vibras + Mi Gente, Ambiente, Brillo, Machika

Tracks I like the least: Ahora, Peligrosa

Artist: J Balvin

Country: Colombia

Album: Vibras

Released: 25/05/2018

Genres: Reggaeton, Pop

Length: 42:24

Pusha T - Daytona

Score: 8.5 

One wouldn't be innocent to think about and draw coincidences between Daytona and Kanye West's last album, Ye. They both have Kanye's production hands, they were both recorded in isolation, they both carry seven song in less than a quarter of an hour, and they both feel ostentatiously heavy in content and song production. But where Kanye draws parallel lines and alienates himself into his own personal demons and dark twisted fantasies, Pusha T expands and dwells in cacophonous universes that sound as otherworldly as captivating. The record turns out, to say the least, into a small portion of rap indulged in pure maximalism and grandeur. From the album cover to the quarrelsome lyrics, it's clear that the intention here is to shake listeners off of their politically correct comfort zones. Well, mission accomplished.

Tracks I like the most: If You Know You Know, The Games We Play, Come Back Baby, Santeria

Tracks I like the least: Hard Piano

Artist: Pusha T

Country: United States

Album: Daytona

Released: 25/05/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 21:08

Kanye West - Ye

Score: 7.7 

Self-produced and entirely recorded in an isolated place in Wyoming, Kanye West delivers his most abstract and surreal album to date, with collaborations that more-often-than-not help levitate the delirium, and with a songcraftmanship that makes you feel as afraid as empathic with the singer in question. In short twenty-three minutes, the emotional burden Ye carries along its shoulders is admirable, in its own esoteric way. Thus, the results may seem heavy, not without saying that they also are artistically savage and daring.

Tracks I like the most: I Thought About Killing You, All Mine, Wouldn't Leave, Violent Crimes

Tracks I like the least: No Mistakes

Artist: Kanye West

Country: United States

Album: Ye

Released: 01/06/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 23:41