there is so much noise out there in America and Britain about dancehall's influence and everyone wants to sound hard and well, like everyone else. And, they're all mostly failing except Gaika. Here he not only puts diversity on display but the individual segments of brilliance as so detailed to perfection.
2. Toast (Koffee):
out for a year now, played to death everywhere AND yet still unrepentantly brilliant and fresh.
3. Zora (Jamilia Woods):
the author finally getting some artist due.
4. In My Room (Frank Ocean):
This looping bop abandons “DHL”’s pitch alterations for its own dream-pop easy-slipping atmosphere. The vocals change pace at random, making for an oddly fluid experience, as if we were all immersed in a wave of colours throughout. Alternating refrains of “Quit being violent with me,” and “You make me violent” seem only to suggest a see-saw of feeling between two people, taking us directly into this room which is where Ocean ends the track abruptly, almost as if shutting the door. (ATWOOD MAGAZINE)
5. Andromeda (Weyes Blood):
not only does Weyes Blood sound otherworldly on this standout track on her new album but she sounds of the world she is assessing too. Andromeda is akin to bowie’s Space Oddity—that gem of a pop track that doesn’t assume but bleed through emotion from a disassociated position yet charms with its sadness. When she turns the line “Looking up to the sky for something I may never find” early on its as if the screws are being pulled out of her body.
6. Drunk II (Mannequin Pussy):
one of the brilliant things about this song is that it communicates so clearly the volatility of being drunk—the wild vacillations between moods and topics, for sure, but also the way that, at least for me, being drunk can reveal you, can put at the forefront the thing you thought you didn’t want to talk about. “Drunk II” notices the frustration and self-defeat of drinking, how “going out almost every night” doesn’t actually solve the problems it’s supposed to—how singer Marisa Dabice, or her narrator, has to “pretend” to have fun even though she says it’s what she wants. Dabice’s sharp, dynamic vocals swing from scared to defiant to bitter to crushed, all ambiguity, and as the song is ending and the searing guitars crescendo, she shouts, “I have the answer now!” But it’s never so simple. (TREBLE)
7. Dirty Laundry (Danny Brown):
over a cheeky, churning Q-Tip beat, Danny Brown lays out a series of ribald tall tales, most of which have the exaggerated, conversational quality of someone drunkenly trying to get their buddies to laugh. But as funny as these stories can be—doing “the humpty-hump in a Burger King bathroom,” paying for a lap dance with pocket change—they’re all rooted in the desperate poverty of their characters. They also often end, funnily enough, with that desperation giving way to strange moments of empathy. (Lori the stripper, for example, doesn’t mind the change because she needed the money—she had her own laundry to pay for.) “Ever seen a roach with babies have babies?” Brown raps early in the song. “In the hood like, ‘Whatever, we in this bitch together.’” (TREBLE)
8. Doorman (Slowthai feat. Mura Masa):
enlists electronic producer Mura Masa, whose job is usually to add dancefloor-ready pop carbonation to songs. Here, though, Mura Masa gives “Doorman” a gnarl of growling guitars, distorted vocals, and drums that seem to kick the song forward as he builds up to a shouted chorus: “Doorman, let me in the door/Spent all my money, you ain’t getting no more.” The rapper said in a press release that he wrote the song after seeing multi-million dollar paintings on a wall after a night out in London, exposing a wealth disparity that “made him sick.” That sickness shakes his voice as he spits the words “high society,” shouting against the rollicking background noise. The song ends with a return to the newscast, this time about working-class Britons sniffing glue. It’s more punk than Slowthai’s ever sounded, a class critique made for a mosh pit. (PITCHFORK)
9. By The Gullet (Nakhane):
crams soul amid the sweet torture held within its lyrics.
10. Flat Tummy Tea (Freddie Gibbs & Madlib):
begins with Freddie Gibbs and ends with Freddie Gibbs. And it has a Madlib beat that sounds like a carnival and refuses to let up. For 2:35, Gibbs is absolutely relentless, throwing out standout lines like they’re filler. “Gold body, my jeweler he black mummy me, I be all in these bitches’ stomach like flat tummy tea,” “step out the kitchen and step in the booth and drop heat on these rap n****s, without a cosign you probably be fillin’ my grocery bag,” and “Bellagio with quatro hoes, stack like Connect 4s” are all in competition with each other for best lines of the year. Even more than singular moments, Gibbs manages to pull together the strands of white supremacy, capitalism, and mass incarceration so quickly that by the second verse, he still has time to flex. (TREBLE)
11. Free The Frail (JPEGMafia feat. Helena Deland):
to think he nearly left it off the album.
12. Receipts (SerpentWithFeet feat. Ty Dolla):
in line with serpentwithfeet’s previous work, an experimental, intricately structured R&B song, and it’s fascinating to see Ty import his melodic sensibility into this context, when usually it’s being employed on Top 40 pop songs or blockbuster rap records. The song is narrative, with Wise and Ty dueting as its two protagonists. Wise explained the genesis of the song in a statement: “I began writing ‘Receipts’ when I first moved to Los Angeles last summer…I played an early demo for Ty Dolla $ign and he asked to join me on the track. This song carries a lot of weight for me because it’s a snapshot of two brothers rhapsodizing about unforeseen romance. Ty is a huge part of my LA story so ‘Receipts’ feels like a perfect document.” (SPIN)
13. 100 MPH (Prince):
nothing beats him in original form.
14. Paralysed (Nilufer Yanya):
Yanya’s style is rich with eclecticism; funk, Bossa Nova, subtle touches of gritty rock and world music influence, for an all around British indie cornucopia. Delicious guitar riffs and bridges carry the album, perking the ear and eliciting uncontrollable grins, as in “Paralysed.” There’s a prettiness to Yanya’s vocals that offsets the tough, toothy veneer. The dichotomy makes for some pleasant surprises throughout the album that leave the listener on their toes. (SLUGMAG.COM)
15. With My Whole Heart (Sufjan Stevens):
We live in particularly trying times for optimism, but here is Sufjan Stevens, shaking things up and teaching us to love again. “With My Whole Heart” is his self-described attempt to “write an upbeat and sincere love song without conflict, anxiety, or self-deprecation.” Coming from a guy whose every passing interest—U.S. state history, Tonya Harding, fucking Christmastime—seems to result in teary-eyed contemplation, it’s a noble pursuit. Inevitably, he almost falls apart less than two minutes in. “I confess the world’s a mess,” he admits softly, “but I will always love you.” You can almost sense him gazing out the window wistfully before remembering the task at hand.(PITCHFORK)
16. Best You Ever Had (B.Y.E.H) (Jada Kingdom):
the beef with Shenseea is still hot but from last year came the real gut-check on how a woman feels about a cheating man.
17. Sisyphus (Andrew Bird):
Bird has this knack for formulating the type of uber smart pop that only he really navigates in an Americana way and Sisyphus succeeds wildly with whip phrases like “history forgets the moderates”.
18. Song 32 (Noname):
“I’m America at its best,” she proclaims over frequent collaborator Phoelix’s laid-back, bluesy production. The Chicago native flows effortlessly as she name drops Diddy, Kendrick Lamar and Cardi B while bragging and boasting about her own skills and godliness. Coming in at just under three minutes, it’s a very short but sweet little ditty that will tide us over until her next single. ("Song 33" perhaps?) (SOULBOUNCE)
19. New Breed (Dawn):
it’s woman worship time…from other women.
20. Paper Tulips (Gallant):
the electronic notes of "Paper Tulips" play with oblique metaphors and layer composition to speak on relationship ambiguities. (EXCLAIM.CA)
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