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Chappell Roan — "The Rise & Fall of a Midwest Princess"
Nicole Hester / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
When Chappell Roan dropped "The Rise & Fall of a Midwest Princess" in September 2023, it received some warm notices and became a critic's darling, akin to the eternal cult artist that Carly Rae Jepsen has transformed into. Yet those who were in the know immediately clocked that there was something special here. Months after its release, numerous singles by Chappell Roan — a drag-loving theater kid with a dynamite voice and wicked sense of pop dynamics — started picking up steam. Opening slots for Olivia Rodrigo's tour cracked her open to a new audience, but the synergy was there, as they shared a producer/collaborator in Dan Nigro. Yet the songs worked because they all were instantly accessible and unmistakably the work of no other artist. "Hot to Go" might seem tacky on its first listen, but it feels like a personal anthem on its tenth. There's radiant dance-pop ("Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl"), sublime ballads ("Coffee"), and frank lyrics about feminism, sex, self-confidence, and relationships gone awry. A slow-burn of a chart success if there ever was one, Chappell Roan feels like a next-generation pop star only just now hitting her peak. Good thing she started her career with an undisputed classic.
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Jazmine Sullivan — "Heaux Tales"
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Jazmine Sullivan always had a tricky relationship with fame, taking long multi-year gaps between projects and sometimes even threatening to leave the industry in general. Yet the thing about these long breaks? Her albums only become more revered over time. Thus, when the moody, Frank Ocean-inspired single "Lost Ones" dropped in August 2020, people promptly began freaking out over the prospect of a new record. "Heaux Tales", an EP where a handful of spoken-word pieces lead into varied songs built around those mini-monologues, was an experiment that was largely recorded in Sullivan's home and is her boldest work to date. Featuring a smartly-picked group of collaborators (Ari Lennox, Anderson .Paak, H.E.R.), "Heaux Tales" takes on many styles over its short 32-minute runtime, but it feels like Sullivan is in her bag with each one. Her vocal work during "On It" rings with passion, her runs on "Girl Like Me" are subtle but gorgeously rendered, and her lyrical vulnerability is untouchable. Despite its modest origins and unconventional structure, the record ended up being one of the biggest hits of her career, giving her the first Hot 100-charting hits she's had in over a decade and winning endless accolades, including the Grammy for Best R&B Album. These "Tales" were absolutely worth telling.
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Bad Bunny — "Un Verano Sin Ti"
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The Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has been releasing music since 2016, but it was 2020's "YHLQMDLG" that started pushing him into true crossover success. Hits came easy, but he kept pushing his musical boundaries. By the time he dropped 2022's "Un Verano Sin Ti" (translated to "A Summer Without You"), he was in full control of his craft. While still best known for being one of the dominating forces of reggaeton, this record showed the full breadth of his powers: the merengue horn breakdown in "Después de la Playa" kicks things off in high gear as he acknowledges his fans in the Dominican Republic; "Yo No Soy Celoso" takes a surprising detour into acoustic samba; and the Jhayco-featuring "Tarot" slinks into the club with a sophisticated sleekness. It's a sprawling record that cemented Bad Bunny as a global superstar, and the best part is that he knows how to weaponize it. His music video for "El Apagón" is actually a 22-minute documentary that points out the horrendous flaws of Puerto Rico's land privatization and how gentrification has reduced resources his country needs to fight against floods, blackouts, and other disasters. He may be one of the biggest stars in music, but Bad Bunny's strength is that no matter how epic his streaming numbers are, he never forgets where he came from.
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Waxahatchee — "Saint Cloud"
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Katie Crutchfield's Waxahatchee project could've stopped after 2017's rocking "Out in the Storm" and still go down as indie-rock royalty, but her 2020 effort "Saint Cloud" arrived right near the start of the pandemic and felt like a soothing balm. Trading the alt-rock guitars for a bit of twang, "Saint Cloud" marked a noted turn in maturity for Crutchfield's songwriting, going for warm intimacy instead of extroverted postures. Few acts could write choruses that contain couplets as unique as "And if my bones are made of delicate sugar / I won't end up anywhere good without you." There's a small strum and shuffle to the proceedings, but it feels as if Crutchfield has cracked open a new universe of lyrical wonder that feels as universal as it does specific only to Waxahatchee. While some have argued that 2024's "Tigers Blood" is an even better display of her rustic pivot, "Saint Cloud" couldn't have arrived at a more perfect moment, and its resonance still sticks with us years later.
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Turnstile — "Glow On"
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Baltimore's Turnstile has been grinding in hardcore rock circles for over a decade, but 2021's "Glow On" caught the quartet at an interesting, zeitgeisty moment. Capturing the styles of '90s alt-rock radio but adding harder dynamics and, at times, surprising keyboard flourishes, "Glow On" is the sound of a rock group at the peak of their snarling six-string powers. "Holiday" is a rumble of thunder that drops out for a sly bass-only moment partway through, evoking the sound of classic bands like Chevelle and Deftones while also proving to be totally Turnstile. "Humanoid / Shake It Up" starts as a straight-up punk number before deftly pivoting into a hard mosh-pit moment. Even under the label of "hardcore," the group is unafraid to body-shove their sonic stylings in ragged new directions. Throw in a beautifully unexpected collaboration with Blood Orange, and it's no surprise that this record's critical love quickly gave way to crossover success, and in one year, the group racked up three Grammy nominations. "Glow On" may be the album's title, but with the way the band upgraded their sound, it might as well have been called "Glow Up".
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Lil Yachty — "Let's Start Here"
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There's always been a strange magnetism between hip-hop and psych-rock, from Future titling one of his albums "Hndrxx" to Kid Cudi dropping his strange rap-rock hybrid with 2012's "WZRD", which has become a cult classic in some circles. Yet following the fluke success of his world-weary song "Poland", he ended up finding a creative partnership with Patrick Wimberly, who was the other half of the band Chairlift with Caroline Polachek. Wimberly aids Yachty by making his every sonic dream come true, from the mid-tempo funk with "Running Out of Time", to the layered theatricality of the soaring "I've Officially Lost Vision!!!!", there is no vibe Yachty can't make into a moment. While Yachty has served as a dynamic producer and go-to Drake collaborator, "Let's Start Here" feels like a statement, a bold and fearless vision that definitively proves that a hip-hop mentality and psych-rock aesthetics can beautifully coexist. If you're looking for a good entry point into Lil Yachty's discography or just want to hear the boundary-pushing possibilities of contemporary rap music, well, "Let's Start Here".
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Arooj Aftab — "Night Reign"
Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
At the 2022 Grammy Awards, Pakistani-American jazz artist Arooj Aftab found herself competing in the Best New Artist category against the likes of The Kid Laroi, Baby Keem, and eventual winner Olivia Rodrigo. Her nomination was a most welcome surprise for an artist who was carving out a distinct lane by combining elements of contemporary jazz, Hindustani classical, and the poetic neo-Sufi movement into a bold new sound. "Night Reign", her fourth solo full-length, is perhaps her strongest work to date, alternating between moments of levity like the blissful "Saaqi" to the slow-burn dramatic sizzle of her Moor Mother collaboration "Bolo Na". Jazz keys plink and echo, upright bass notes squeal and thump, and Aftab's voice lifts above all these elements, a gorgeous siren song that ties all these moods together into a unifying whole. There are few artists out there like Arooj Aftab, and while we were tempted to go with her album-length collaboration with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily for this spot (2023's seismic "Love in Exile"), 2024's "Night Reign" still features an undeniable sense of poetry and opens Aftab's sound up to new possibilities. She's not just bridging genres together so much as rewriting the possibilities of what jazz can do.
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Bo Burnham — "Inside (The Songs)"
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We're now enough removed from the peak of the pandemic to have a more objective view of the art that was made during it. Despite being a comedy record at heart, Bo Burnham's 2021 release "Inside" is perhaps the most lasting document of the lockdown era, capturing the boredom, the sadness, and the existential crisis many faced during this prolonged period of quarantine. While Burnham makes light of his own role as a comedian ("Daddy made you some content," he notes early), he also throws knives at the mechanisms of capitalism, skewers the empty virtue signaling of social media solidarity, and questions his own moral obligations as a public figure. The songs are immaculately well-composed and alternate in tone between genuine internet-age comedy and a heartbreaking world-weary acceptance of planetary demise. It's no wonder that the slow acoustic strummer "That Funny Feeling" ended up getting covered by the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, as despite Burnham's insular brand of doomer humor, he was perfectly poised to deliver a universal sentiment. We may not be eager to revisit the trauma we all experienced during isolation, but of all the art that emerged from it, "Inside" is that era's undeniable time capsule.
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Denzel Curry — "Melt My Eyez See Your Future"
Jarrad Henderson-USA TODAY
Denzel Curry has always been a rapper's rapper. While switching between numerous voices sometimes remained a polarizing element to his flows, Curry still flexed a deep knowledge of the rap legends who have come before. While his 2019 full-length "ZUU" was his attempt at making a retro hip-hop club record, his now-classic Kenny Beats mixtapes have allowed him to stretch his sound into wild new directions. While great Curry records have come out since, 2022's "Melt My Eyez See Your Future" finds the MC at the peak of his powers, comfortable in his own genre-busting sound.
While the guests are huge (T-Pain, Slowthai, Saul Williams, JID, Rico Nasty), the focus is always on Curry, who works with a cavalcade of producers to deliver some of his most potent tracks yet. He acknowledges his lack of mainstream success beautifully on "X-Wing": "All these beats go dumb in the stereo / But I'm just too smart for the radio / Masked up like a young Rey Mysterio / Mask off when I'm back in the studio." While the brilliant Kal Banx-produced "Walkin'" is perhaps his best standalone single ever, "Melt My Eyez..." succeeds because, even with the dozen-plus producers credited, it feels like Curry's most coherent statement. If "ZUU" was his throwback party record and his 2018 breakthrough "TA13OO" was his tour through horror-trap, then "Melt My Eyez" feels like the first record that is entirely, unabashedly, the sound of Denzel Curry. Incidentally, this also is the sound of hip-hop's future.
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Knocked Loose — "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To"
Nicole Hester / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
Blending the brutal impact of hardcore punk with the melodic rage of metalcore, Kentucky's Knocked Loose has quickly ascended to a revered spot in the metal hierarchy, opening for acts like Slipknot while also netting major spots in festivals like Coachella for actual crossover exposure. Their pure squall of sound is visceral, but the fact the group can change tempo so frequently and so effectively is a testament to the artistry behind their thunder. "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To", their third full-length and 2024's most lauded metal release, shows them in fearless mode. As lyrically death-obsessed as ever, "You Won't Go..." surges with static, smart guitar riff interjections, and singer Bryan Garris discovers new ways to bend and flex his caterwaul voice. The group has never been afraid of collaborations, but even getting popstar-turned-metalcore singer Poppy on a track feels like the kind of bold move that could only come from a band willing to trust their audience. Each new record of theirs is more dynamic than the last, and it's pretty clear that at this clip, they won't be leaving their perch atop the hard rock food chain before they're supposed to.
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billy woods & Kenny Segal — "Maps"
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Dexterous New York rapper Billy Woods has averaged an LP a year, and most of them tend to be album-length collaborations. He already dropped a record with L.A.-based producer Keeny Segal back in 2019, but their 2023 collaboration "Maps" feels like they've tapped into something different. Designed as a travelogue as Woods traveled the world as Covid restrictions started lifting, there's a surprising sense of emptiness floating in the core of Woods' lyrics, as loneliness and lost connections comprise a great deal of his thoughts, buoyed by Segal's colorful but emotive productions. "I will not be at soundchеck," he declares on "Soundcheck", adding that he "Might watch the sunset over your city from a parapet or a park bench / Headlamps splash squatter tents on my way to the venue, they wave me in." He captures sad but poignant details with casual precision, and when one of his stellar superstar guests joins in (like Danny Brown and Aesop Rock), it feels like a group commiseration. "Maps" is a document of a very specific time in Woods' life, but its sentiments reach listeners from all walks of life.
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Olivia Rodrigo — "Sour"
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When "Drivers License" dropped out of nowhere at the top of 2021 to become one of the biggest chart-toppers of the young decade, it was easy for some to write off Rodrigo's theater-kid earnestness as a flash in the pan, benefiting from tabloid speculation of a messy breakup on a TV show few cared about. Yet in collaboration with former As Tall As Lions frontman Dan Nigro, who was a few years into his pivot as a pop producer, Rodrigo stunned naysayers with "Sour", a full-length that married Rodrigo's diary-style lyrics with '90s alternative-rock aesthetics, all updated for contemporary pop radio. It was a bold fusion, as instead of going full pop-punk like Machine Gun Kelly, Rodrigo took cues from the likes of Michelle Branch and delivered hard-rocking numbers that could be enjoyed by everyone from young teens to pop literati. "Good 4 U" was a pleasantly surprising chart-topper, but tracks like the thundering opener "Brutal", the slinky body-image rant "Jealousy, Jealousy", and the acoustic lament "Enough for You" showed that Rodrigo's artistry was far deeper and more honed than anyone was giving her credit for. An instant superstar, Rodrigo soon picked up the Grammy for Best New Artist and followed up this massive seller with 2023's equally-acclaimed "Guts", but "Sour" felt like an actual cultural reset, as a whole cottage industry of Olivia-soundalikes soon started popping up everywhere. Yet no matter how hard the clones tried, they couldn't beat the original, no matter how closely they continue to try and copy the "Sour" blueprint.
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boygenius — "The Record"
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It's hard to believe boygenius' debut EP came out in 2018. Back then, a trio of established solo stars coming together to record a one-off project wasn't unheard of (in 2004, "The Bens" released a few songs under the collaborative eyes of three Bens with surnames like Folds, Lee, and Kweller), but boygenius felt like something different. While Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus had a lot in common artistically, they still had unique sounds and perspectives that they were able to weave together to create some frighteningly effective rock confections (to say nothing about those stacked vocal harmonies). Long threatened after years of rumors and speculation, boygenius' debut full-length, 2023's "The Record", picks up where that debut EP left off and drops one thundering classic after another.
At times hushed and acoustic, and at others sounding like something not far removed from modern rock radio, the trio proves just as deft lyrically as they are musically. "You say you're a winter b---- / But summer's in your blood / You can't help but become the sun" are the kind of lines that stay with you, and "True Blue" is just one of the album's many highlights. Fans and critics felt like it was one of the rare supergroups that actually worked, and plum gigs like guesting on "Saturday Night Live" followed, along with seven Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. Following a short but beloved tour, all three members have said they are taking an indefinite hiatus and aren't going to reunite anytime soon, but in truth, they don't need to: "The Record" has already made its mark on rock history.
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Taylor Swift — "Folklore"
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The 2010s weren't exclusively owned by Taylor Swift, but it was clear she had become the pop heir apparent, releasing some of her most critically celebrated full-lengths ("Speak Now", "Red", "1989") followed by two of her most divisive ("Reputation" and "Lover"). With "Lover" especially, cheeky lead singles belied the deep hits contained within (like "Cruel Summer"), but many critics felt that Swift wasn't as in control or as focused as she was before. As the COVID-19 virus hit and days of quarantine turned to weeks and then months, Swift was forced to cancel her "Lover" world tour, instead focusing on songwriting, collaborating with producing go-to Jack Antonoff and an unusual new collaborator in the form of The National's Aaron Dessner. The resulting surprise-announced album "Folklore" felt like a revelation, as Swift removed the excess pop artifice from her last few records and instead got down to quiet, hushed acoustic tones and songs that were character studies instead of personal tales. Swift sounds reinvigorated with this new artistic lens, and tracks like "My Tears Ricochet", "This is Me Trying", and "Betty" quickly became instant classics in her already-deep songbook. Netting Swift her third Album of the Year Grammy, even her harshest critics admitted that "Folklore" felt like a breakthrough. In a world full of pandemic-born albums, it was Swift who seized the opportunity to deliver one of her all-time best.
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Fiona Apple — "Fetch the Bolt Cutters"
Robert Hanashiro, USAT
When Fiona Apple dropped "The Idler Wheel..." back in 2012, the record was noted for a distinct shift in dynamics, as the piano songwriter produced the record herself, giving her typically biting songs a newfound bloody rawness, tossing in wild percussion, instruments that appeared in one verse and then never were heard from again, and lots of blown out and humane elements that made the songs feel like actual flesh creations, wounded and sweet and caring all the same. After its release, she tucked herself away for a while and finally emerged in 2020 with an album of unbelievable power and brutality. "Fetch the Bolt Cutters", named after a throwaway line from the Gillian Anderson detective series "The Fall", is all about rawness. Reacting to the #MeToo movement, Apple uses layers of intricate percussion and pounding pianos (that are still susceptible to moments of whimsy and sweetness, mind you) to craft tales of women being controlled and lied to by the men who have forced themselves into their lives. With songs tackling everything from depression ("Heavy Balloon") to the male gaze ("Rack of His") to gender politics ("Under the Table"), Apple is unafraid to dive into the most lurid of topics, and by the time she gets to the climax of "For Her", with its visceral attack to a male figure saying "Good morning, good morning / You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in," your heart is in your throat. This record is a knife stab. This record is a banquet. This record is a diary. This record is incredible.
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Haim — "Women in Music Pt. III"
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The Haim sisters' brand of sleek and smart guitar-pop sounded timeless when they arrived in 2013, but now a decade on, they've only released two other full-lengths. The most recent one, 2020's "Women in Music Pt. III", is also their best, making their absence since then all the more profound. While some viewed their songwriting as perhaps so polished it was bereft of gravity, "Women in Music Pt. III" fixes all those concerns, stretching their sound and creative scope into incredible new directions. From the Motown-affected opener "Los Angeles" to the pocket sad-dance banger of "I Know Alone" to the R&B-leaning "3 AM", each song is as good as the last. While the sisters have always had some Fleetwood Mac affectation to their songwriting, this record proves that they were Christine McVie acolytes first and foremost, unafraid of direct melodies to get their message across. A masterpiece that rightly scored an Album of the Year nomination at the Grammys, it seems music is by and large on hold for them as Alana continues her acting career with director Paul Thomas Anderson. Yet whenever they come back, they will have a tall order to fill, because few acts could ever follow up a record as beloved as "Women in Music Pt. III". If anyone can do it, however, it's Haim.
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Wednesday — "Rat Saw God"
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North Carolina's Wednesday has been dropping raucous records full of heavy shoegaze-adjacent bangers that occasionally flirt with country-rock affectations, but it wasn't until 2023 when Karly Hartzman's project went supernova. With "Rat Saw God", the furious five-piece has honed into a sound that is rocking and wallowing in equal measure. The album's lead single was the eight-minute "Bull Believer", which opens in a beautiful sludge of feedback and ends with Hartzman manically wailing about finishing a round of "Mortal Kombat". Throughout many of their songs, guitars whir and distort in the background, like a squall of noise is about to attack at any unexpected moment, keeping the listener on edge for most of its runtime. Yet as good as they are at rocking with the amps turned up to impossible levels, Wednesday's pivot into country-via-pavement rollicking ("Quarry"), almost straight-up pop-rock ("TV in the Gas Pump"), and even lo-fi post-rock balladry (if that's what you can call the Radiohead-esque "What's So Funny") are what keeps "Rat Saw God" so compelling. For a band called Wednesday, we'll probably play this record every day in a given week.
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Little Simz — "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert"
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British-Nigerian rapper Little Simz hadn't broken big in the West by the time her fourth album "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" dropped, despite picking up some attention with guest verses on tracks from Gorillaz and even indie darlings Joywave. Yet "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" is the album her career has been building towards: bold, political, sprawling, and fearless. With a flow reminiscent of Jean Grae, Little Simz launches her opus with the stunning "Introvert", where a cinematic orchestra floats over a military drumline and she paints her insecurities on a grand canvas: "One day, I'm wordless, next day, I'm a wordsmith / Close to success, but to happiness, I'm the furthest." As she delves deeper into her psyche, the record opens up beautiful new paths, from retro-soul vibes (the Smokey Robinson-sampling "Two Worlds Apart") to full Afrobeat celebrations (the amazing "Fear No Man"). Deep in the pocket with producer Inflo, "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" earned immense acclaim for its impossible scope and personal focus, going Top 10 in the U.K. and winning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Little Simz has pivoted to new sounds since then, dropping a more dance-oriented EP in 2024, but no matter where her journey takes her, "Introvert" will always be her calling card, given it's already one of the best rap albums of the decade.
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Jason Isbell — "Weathervanes"
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At this point in his career, it's universally accepted that you can't go wrong with a new Jason Isbell album. The former Drive-By Truckers member has carved out a stunning solo discography full of country-soul numbers drenched in character studies filled with the kind of details only a novelist could conceive of. 2023's "Weathervanes", his ninth studio album to his name (aided once again by his great band The 400 Unit), continues his winning streak, offering up 13 great new offerings that have already codified themselves in the Americana songbook. Isbell is a great guitarist and an ever-reliable vocalist, but his lyrics always stick with you, such as on "King of Oklahoma" where he opines that "She used to make me feel like the king of Oklahoma / But nothing makes me feel like much of nothing anymore." His characters are still out looking for love, but there isn't a line as breaking as the chorus of "If You Insist", where he croons, "We're running out of options / It's time to close the tab / If you insist on being lonely / Let me put you in a cab," a perfect study of trying to find your soulmate in a city that doesn't much care about your journey but accepting you're just an accessory to someone else's story. It's hard to pick Isbell's best album when his level of quality remains so consistent, but these "Weathervanes" are always pointing in the right direction.
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Beth Orton — "Weather Alive"
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The last we heard from British folk legend Beth Orton was back in 2016 when she dropped a curious record of bedroom electronic pop called "Kidsticks". Orton was often looped in with electronic artists, giving her the broadly drawn but inaccurate "folktronica" label, even though her albums were so much more than that. While Orton did manage an appearance on a track with her old pals The Chemical Brothers in 2018, she took time off to focus on raising her children and dealing with some personal matters. Thus, the 2022 announcement of "Weather Alive", her eighth full-length and the first time she produced it entirely herself, shocked many.
Even more surprising are the songs contained within: lucid, dreamy, piano-driven folk-pop numbers that shapeshift right before your ears. Orton's lyrics are lovestruck and tired, her voice weathered over time, and the overall effect is warm and haunting simultaneously. Armed with a backing band made of guitarist Alabaster DePlume and go-to indie drummer of the moment Tom Skinner, this record breathes with life, with no second left unfilled with beautiful, swirling sounds. "Weather Alive" contains multitudes, and you discover something new with each listen. Orton has always been one of your favorite artist's favorite artists, but with "Weather Alive", it was no longer a secret — just an accepted fact.
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SZA — "SOS"
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Who knew that one of 2023's catchiest lines would be, "I just killed my ex / I still love him though / Rather be in jail than alone." Yet few have captured the popular zeitgeist quite like SZA, who endured years of album delays before finally settling on the tracklist for "SOS", a record that pushed her from a mainstream success to a next-level superstar. Filled to the brim with wit, pain, and surprising bouts of humor, "SOS" truly felt like it was whittled down from the 100 songs SZA claimed she wrote for the sessions. Her signature brand of romantic fatalism is in full effect, but on tracks like the string-laden "Blind", she mixes insight with pathos, trying to be more grateful for the things in her life while humorously reflecting on her image: "Put the hood on / Now they callin' me Cassius / Raunchy like Bob Saget / Greedy, I can't pass it." Even better for a modern-day R&B/hip-hop release, it's light on guest appearances, keeping the focus solely on SZA's craft and voice. Yet the guests she lands have impact: Don Toliver, Travis Scott, a surprise Phoebe Bridgers collaboration, and, on closer "Forgiveless", a verse from the late Ol' Dirty Båstard over a Björk sample. With only two albums to her name, SZA has created a distinct, instantly recognizable sound that has already proven influential. The record may have started as an "SOS", but in the end, it's SZA who saved herself.
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Yves Tumor — "Heaven to a Tortured Mind"
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Do you know what the best thing is about being an "experimental" artist? You can do literally whatever you want without fear of being pigeonholed. For the Florida-born Sean Bowie, recording under their Yves Tumor moniker means he can do it all. Soul-pop? Ambient instrumentals? It's all the same to them, but honestly, the reason we keep talking about Yves Tumor is that they're so very good at every single pivot. On their 2020 full-length "Heaven to a Tortured Mind", Bowie started swinging into bass-driven hard funk that felt perfectly matched up with the vibe of the chaotic world we're living in. Their most accessible record by a mile, this fuzzed-out, aggressive, and surprisingly catchy record finds Bowie serving us both rock and psychedelic tropes but all with their own spin. Certain songs like "Gospel For A New Century" and "Dream Palette" overwhelm with their constantly crashing drum fills, but numbers like "Hasdallen Lights" and "Strawberry Privilege" go through so many wavy echo effects it feels like the guitars themselves are tripping out. While their even wilder 2023 release, "Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume", was also in the running, "Heaven to a Tortured Mind" still sounds like heaven to us.
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Low Cut Connie — "Private Lives"
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Adam Weiner's Low Cut Connie moniker is somewhat a guise for his band, somewhat a fearless persona he can don to deliver his intensely character-driven songs with real emotional impact. While Weiner had always been an admirer of Jerry Lee Lewis' boogie-woogie fury (leading to Low Cut Connie's reputation as a must-see live act), years of touring and increasing recognition bolstered Weiner's confidence, and soon his sonic palette ran the gamut of Western rock music. His songs were getting weirder, bolder, and more emotional, and even if his band isn't setting the charts on fire, "Private Lives" is acknowledged as a modern masterpiece. A double album built around small-town character studies, he details his admiration for the weirdos of his hometown ("Private Lives"), explores teenage escapism disguised as a come-on ("Wild Ride"), and becomes terrified at the thought of enjoying domesticity ("What Has Happened to Me"). Throughout, Weiner swings his upright piano around until it hits Springsteen levels of balladry, touches of '70s AM soft-rock, and even a beautifully Americanized brand of Britpop. A cult favorite band if there ever was one, their critical stock only rises with each subsequent full-length. Adam Weiner may be leading a semi-private life, but with another classic record under his belt, it won't be long before he's world-renowned.
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Ethel Cain — "Preacher's Daughter"
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Ethel Cain is a singular entity in the popular consciousness, as few could've imagined a homeschooled Christian trans girl would eventually self-produce and self-release one of the most talked-about albums of the decade. Yet Hayden Silas Anhedönia's journey is inimitable, and the fact that she rose to prominence with a sound that is best described as a mix of "slowcore," "gothic," and "ambient" is all the more reason to sit in awe of her achievement. "Preacher's Daughter" is an intimidating debut album, clocking in at a meaty 75 minutes, but Anhedönia has a lot to say. While lead single "American Teenager" could melodically pass for a Taylor Swift song, most of "Preacher's Daughter" has a deep fascination with the 4AD Records catalog, drawing heavy inspiration from the likes of the Red House Painters and This Mortal Coil to craft a dynamic soundscape that swallows the listener in reverb. Her songs touch on very specific pangs of hurt, whether it be pining for the one that got away on "A House in Nebraska" or going on a drug-induced trip in the horror-movie-like hard rocker "Ptolemaea", which echoes the grand aggression of Michael Gira's Swans. It's a dynamic concept album that features boundless imagination and instantly turned Ethel Cain into a cult artist like no other.
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Sufjan Stevens — "Javelin"
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY NETWORK
Great songs should stand by themselves, but context and narratives are what help define stars and icons in music. Knowing Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" is about the passing of his child or that Bon Iver's debut was recorded in the woods following a breakup gives these recordings a certain gravity. Prior to the release of 2023's "Javelin", Sufjan Stevens' tenth studio album proper (not counting his endless litany of side projects and one-off experiments), he revealed his diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome and how he was learning to walk again. This was then followed by a release-week album dedication to his partner Evans Richardson, a renowned Black educator who passed away earlier in the year. While Stevens has always had fans trace queer themes in his lyrics, this unexpected and devastating confirmation suddenly recontextualized his entire discography, and the struggle of being gay and God-fearing at the same time gave every lyric new light. This even applied to the new record, as the major-chord lead single "Will Anybody Ever Love Me?" was now recast under a cloud of both sadness and wizened acceptance.
The sound of "Javelin" plays somewhat like a career overview of Stevens' work, from hushed acoustic strums to full-blown twee-adjacent whimsy-pop, but his words, as always, cut sharpest. When he closes out the album with a cover of Neil Young's "There's a World", it feels as if he found a counterpoint in another artist to perfectly capture the pangs in his heart, rearranging almost all the melodies to better fit his emotional mindset. As crushing as it is to hear of Stevens' recent struggles, he's fashioned them into an album of aching beauty. "Javelin" is another masterpiece in a discography already full of them.
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Magdelena Bay — "Mercurial World"
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Rolling up the sounds of CHVRCHES, Grimes, Charli XCX, and Chairlift all into one package, Magdelena Bay's debut album absolutely shouldn't work as well as it does. Yet the L.A.-based duo of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin has managed to create a full-length firecracker that's brimming with every possible electropop trope you can think of. What's most infuriating about 2021's "Mercurial World" is how easily they pull off every genre detour. A '90s-pop throwback number full of orchestral hit synths ("Secrets (Your Fire)")? Breathy early-2000s stadium electroballads ("Dreamcatching")? A trap-pop number that borrows the dungeon theme from the NES Legend of Zelda game ("Halfway")? All wild ideas executed perfectly. An album that is instantly-beloved by anyone who gives it a single listen, the record took its time to slowly grow an audience, but as it did, fans recognized that the duo's pitch-perfect production and songwriting escalated them to a higher plane. Magdelena Bay reminded us that pop music should be fun, goofy, and unexpected. So while there is no end to Magdelena Bay's creativity, the confidence exuding from them is frightening. Better you get to know them now before their songs oversaturate the airwaves in a few years' time.
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Phoebe Bridgers — "Punisher"
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As intriguing as Phoebe Bridgers' 2017 debut album "Stranger in the Alps" was, her 2020 sophomore effort displayed a quantum leap forward in her dynamic indie-rock songwriting prowess. "I've been running around in circles / Pretending to be myself," she sings on "Chinese Satellite", before continuing, "Why would somebody do this on purpose / When they could do something else?". Filled with doubts, dismissals, cynicism, and acceptance, the lyrical ground Bridgers covers on "Punisher" is stunning. On the deeply-felt closer "I Know the End", her imagery of driving head-first into the apocalypse is striking in its beauty: "Windows down, scream along / To some America First rap country song / A slaughterhouse, an outlet mall / Slot machines, fear of God". Her writer's pen may dance in some of her wounds (as well as many of our own), but "Punisher" excels due to its wild variety of moods. While "Garden Song" moves us with its melodic guitar lines, tracks like "Kyoto" give us just a fine layer of guitar rock to keep things lively. A lot is going on in "Punisher", and whether you're dissecting its many references or bathing in the power of her performances or finding a new sonic detail that you're only noticing now on your 20th listen, it's clear that between this and her work with boygenius, Pheobe Bridgers has turned into a once-in-a-generation songwriter. You're only punishing yourself for sleeping on her.
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Run The Jewels — "RTJ4"
Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
At this point, finding out that Killer Mike and El-P made another great album as Run The Jewels shouldn't surprise anyone. What is surprising about their fourth studio full-length isn't so much that it's their most commercially accessible album, or that Mavis Staples sounds fantastic on the stark "Pulling the Pin", but that after releasing so many acclaimed tracks and great singles, it is here, on this truly essential 2020 release, that they created their two best songs and put them right in the middle of the tracklist. "Walking in the Snow" features an all-timer verse from Killer Mike, wherein he walks us through what it's like growing up Black, and, chillingly, stating that "Every day on the evening news, they feed you fear for free / And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me / Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, 'I can't breathe'". It's a heart-stopping moment, made all the more impactful by being released in the middle of the protests in the name of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. This track is then followed up by the pitch-perfect casting of Pharrell and Zack de la Rocha on the biting satire "JU$T", which features the instantly-memorable refrain of "Look at all these slave masters posing on your dollars!" There are many other highlights as El-P plays with samples for one of the only times in his production career, but this record ended up doing so well that the group didn't bother trying to follow it up for years.
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Ratboys — "The Window"
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Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan's Ratboys have been building out their country-adjacent indie rock sounds since 2011, and each year, their audience grows just a little bit more. Well, at least until 2023, when the group's fifth album, "The Window", absolutely clicked with critics and fans alike, exposing them to the wider music-listening public. While the searing fiddlework of "Morning Zoo" gives the group a lilt to their sound, the quietly frantic "Crossed that Line" shows that they still haven't lost that Pavement-esque garage rock spirit that bubbles underneath their best works. Yet what sets "The Window" apart is its lyrical frankness. The title track details Steiner's grandfather having to say goodbye to his ailing wife through a window during the pandemic: "I sit down at thе table / And I fiddle with the phonе / I wish you were right next to me / Instead I'm alone." There's such heart and pathos behind the band's latest it feels like they've broken through to a new level of their songwriting, making them one of the most exciting acts out there today.
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Beyoncé — "RENAISSANCE"
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How did you spend your time in pandemic lockdown? Beyoncé will tell you how she spent hers: making a three-album project exploring numerous genres through her unique lens. While 2024's "Cowboy Carter" is truly something special, we keep coming back to 2022's "Renaissance", a record that takes the sounds from gay club culture and underground ballroom and filters it into a modern context. Bey merges the old and the new together seamlessly, giving us camp with "Alien Superstar" and fawning disco affection on the Donna Summer-sampling "Summer Renaissance". There were hits ("Break My Soul", "Cuff It"), but there were no visuals because Beyoncé learned a long time ago that if you keep the fans fed, they'll do your promo for you, and from "The #CuffIt Challenge" to many witty meme-smashed videos going viral online, all Beyoncé had to do was give us that unique blend of artistry and danceability in one place. She more than met her goal, adding new phrases into the lexicon while also giving us a must-see world tour, a stellar documentary, and cheeky remixes with the likes of Madonna to keep things fresh. As is often the case, it's Beyoncé's world, and the rest is just parking (that you'll still pay a premium for).
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Charli XCX — "Brat"
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2024 marked the year of the "Brat summer," where Charli XCX's sixth full-length album dominated the cultural conversation. Interestingly, her 2022 album "Crash" was designed more for crossover appeal, and while "Brat" kept closer to her aggro hyperpop roots, it's the latter album that made a more lasting impact. The music was short and sweet: a majority of the songs were under three minutes long, but the club classics gave way to deeply vulnerable lyrics about self-image and perception. While it was beloved the moment it dropped, the post-release campaign has been a marvel: remixes with Robyn, a deluxe edition called "Brat and it's the same but there's three more songs so it's not", and a stunning collaboration with Lorde on the song "Girl, So Confusing", which many attributed as a swipe at Lorde until Lorde jumped on the track to "work it out on the remix" and deliver her astonishingly intimate and gut-wrenching side of the story. Soon embraced by the Kamala Harris campaign, "Brat" became a cultural touchstone, launching Charli back into the mainstream but on her own terms. Forget "Brat summer;" at this rate it's going to turn into "Brat decade."
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Cindy Lee — "Diamond Jubilee"
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While the post-punk sounds of the Calgary band Women made some waves in the late 2000s, a fractured relationship and the death of guitarist Christopher Reimer forced the remaining members to go their separate ways. Patrick Flegel created Cindy Lee, an indie-rock outfit with a deep obsession with the dry production and unvarnished garage-pop sounds of the late '50s and early '60s rock songbook. While their horror-themed 2020 album "What's Tonight to Eternity?" won them accolades if not fans, it was the out-of-nowhere 2024 double-album "Diamond Jubilee" that took the world by storm. Unavailable on streaming services or even Bandcamp, the record was a free-to-download/tip-if-you-feel-like-it experience whose scope and broad melodic stylings sounded like nothing else out in the world. The band started touring the album before abruptly canceling their jaunt, but the songs and ambition of "Diamond Jubilee" remained: "Wild Rose" is playing in a sock hop jukebox in another dimension, "Dallas" is soundtracking a slow dance at a poodle skirt prom, and the brooding landscape of "Til Polarity's End" is making Khruangbin jealous. Lo-fi but joyous, like a rainbow trapped under a dirty windshield, there's surprising joy, depth, and emotion to "Diamond Jubilee", a musical epic that exists in its own self-contained universe. A beauty.
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Rosalía — "Motomami"
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For all the chewing gum memes and bits about how chaotic her songs are, it's easy to forget that Rosalía is not only breaking new boundaries in reggaeton and urbano but is doing so while enriching herself in great Latin music tradition. 2022's "Motomami", her wildest release to date, made headlines with its duet with The Weeknd and the wild opening track "Saoko", but the strengths of this album rest in its ballads. "Hentāi" has the draw and allure of a modern Fiona Apple torch song, while her cover of Cuban singer Justo Betancourt's classic "Delirio de Grandeza" bridges classic balladry with modern production aesthetics in delightfully unexpected ways. Throw in a bonus edition with singles as colorful as "Despechá", and you have the makings of a groundbreaking artist who never once forgets her musical history.
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The Weeknd — "After Hours"
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When Abel Tesfaye headlined the Super Bowl in 2021, his over-the-top spectacle reminded the world of just how strange a pop star he was. At one point, he was wandering around a room full of mirrors, trying to make his way through a throng of Abel clones with their heads wrapped up in bandages. It was a strange sight, but so utterly specific to The Weeknd, who migrated from underground blog darling to one of the most successful radio hitmakers of the past decade. His dark lyrical subjects were always tapered by the catchiest hooks of any given year, and in that sense, "After Hours" was his crowning achievement. Featuring one monster smash after another ("Blinding Lights", "In Your Eyes", "Save Your Tears"), the record plays more like a greatest hits album, and the best part is that all the radio singles are stuffed in the back half, meaning the record's A-side features beautiful-strange cuts like the beautifully offbeat "Hardest to Love", the coyly ridiculous lovejam "Snowchild" (where not a single lyric is treated seriously), and the slow-motion surrealism of "Escape from LA". It plays into all of The Weeknd's tropes perfectly: unrestrained hedonism, the dark side of success, and watching cockiness turn into pure ego death in a heartbeat. While his underrated follow-up "Dawn FM" didn't fare as well and his HBO show "The Idol" was widely mocked, there's no denying the "After Hours" showed that the world is ready for a new kind of pop star that never existed before — and might never exist again.
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Japanese Breakfast — "Jubilee"
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While Michelle Zauner's band Japanese Breakfast has been putting out their distinctly emotive brand of indie-pop since 2013, the 2020s marked a turning point. For one thing, Zauner turned into a best-selling author, as her 2021 memoir "Crying in H Mart" became one of the defining books of the last few years, even getting optioned for a movie. Shortly after its release, Japanese Breakfast dropped their third full-length, "Jubilee", considered one of their best. Sleek, smart, colorful, and catchy, songs like "Be Sweet" and "Slide Tackle" were tailor-made for getting crowds going at festival sets, but it was tracks like the Björk-indebted "Posing in Bondage" and the alt-rocker "Sit" that displayed Zauner's unique lyrical frameworks for depicting the emotional complexity of relationships. It was the album that moved the group out of "cult act" status and pushed them into serious rock contenders, even netting them Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Music Album and Best New Artist. Add in their stellar soundtrack they developed for the video game "Sable" that came out the same year, and it feels like Zauner's pop-culture reign has only just begun.
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Jessie Ware — "What's Your Pleasure?"
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Throughout the 2010s, London-born singer Jessie Ware was netting acclaim for her collaborations with some of the leading electronic acts of the time (SBTRKT, Disclosure) while putting out albums full of torch ballads and sophisti-pop. Yet in 2018, she dropped a surprising standalone single called "Overtime" that was coy, minimal, danceable, and funky. It marked a new direction for the balladeer, and when she dropped "What's Your Pleasure?" in 2020, it was a vibe shift. Upbeat, disco-obsessed, and breathlessly composed, Ware pivoted and was having fun as a club singer, and the new role fits her like a sequined glove. Spinning off singles for years, "What's Your Pleasure?" became one of the defining pop albums of the new decade, featuring the lush orchestrations and gorgeous multi-tracked vocals she was known for, but now all set to four-on-the-floor beats. Merging '70s dance trends with an '80s synthpop obsession and a modern aesthetic, songs like the playful "Ooh La La", the Robyn-esque "Save a Kiss", and the cinematic closer "Remember Where You Are" felt like instant-classics. While it's easy for appreciated chanteuses to sell out in order to become in-demand concert tickets, Jessie Ware completely reinvented her sound and audience without compromising a thing. Next thing you knew, she was duetting with Kylie Minogue, collaborating with The xx's Romy, and putting out a dynamite sequel album called "That! Feels Good!". The more that time passes, the more fun Ware is having; no wonder her fanbase is growing with her.
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Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders — "Promises"
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Over the course of 46 breathless minutes, "Promises", the extraordinary 2021 collaboration between electronic producer Floating Points (a.k.a. Sam Shepherd) and saxophone master Pharoah Sanders, centers around a very simple, repeated harpsichord motif. It occurs over and over, with the space in between each "loop" being filled with keyboards, Sanders' delicate sax lines, and the actual London Symphony Orchestra, giving the whole affair an icy, hypnotic beauty. The groove swells, crashes, antagonizes, and releases into a state of bliss. Anyone who's heard the record even once can already hear that central riff in their head, but the joy of "Promises" is how such a simple musical idea is expanded, extracted, and folded into itself in ways both expected and surprising. A surprising commercial success, "Promises" is, without question, one of the decade's most unexpected and captivating releases.
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Lady Gaga — "Chromatica"
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After 2016's acoustic experiment "Joanne" and turning into an Oscar darling with 2018's "A Star is Born" remake, the fans who embraced Lady Gaga's trashy, dance-y early sound were worried that they were losing her into a world of awards shows and eternal Tony Bennett duets. Yet right at the the start of the pandemic, Gaga dropped "Chromatica", a throwback to her early sound that was filled with awkward lyrics, thrilling beats, and a sense of unbridled fun that we hadn't heard out of Mother Monster in years. Featuring collaborations with new talent (K-pop megastars Blackpink), good friends (Ariana Grande on the chart-topping "Rain on Me"), and rock legends (Elton John), it lit up both the lockdown bedroom parties and post-lockdown dance clubs with nary a ballad in sight. As highly praised as "Stupid Love" and the transition from "Chromatica II" to "911" were, it was album tracks like the Diana Ross-sampling "Replay" that have become immediate fan favorites. When her tour which was delayed by years by the fallout of COVID-19 finally arrived, it felt like vindication for the patience many showed in isolation. "Chromatica" ended up being more than just an album: it felt like a neon candy reward after years of patient waiting.
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Tomb Mold — "The Enduring Spirit"
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Four studio albums into their career, and Canada's extreme metal stalwarts Tomb Mold seem to only get better with each release. What makes this quartet stand out from their growling contemporaries is the way they marry pummeling styles so effortlessly. As the opener to 2023's "The Enduring Spirit", "The Perfect Memory (Phantasm of Aura)" could easily rely on nothing but its chugging death metal riffs, but the shifts to parallel guitar layers, alternative-rock chorus swells, and thrash-speed interplay showcases a compositional ability that far exceeds most bands they'd share a touring bill with. By the time you get to the elaborate, winding 11-minute closer "The Enduring Spirit of Calamity", you may find yourself physically exhausted, as keeping up with a band this complex, nuanced, and mature is an exercise all itself. This album alone has allowed multiple chiropractors to buy new vacation homes due to all the people they have to treat for excessive headbanging.
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Zach Bryan — "Zach Bryan"
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"I don't need a music machine telling me what a good story is," Zach Bryan speaks during the opening poem of his 2023 album "Zach Bryan", and he holds onto his lyric-heavy, direct songwriting with few concessions for populist country radio. Bryan simply can't stop writing songs, as this eponymous offering follows his two-hour major label debut "American Heartbreak", which was billed as a triple-album. For "Zach Byran", his scope narrows as his pen only gets sharper, and the focus has resulted in a record that feels like nothing short of a breakthrough. "East Side of Sorrow" mines family tragedy to achieve a universal sentiment, while "Fear and Fridays" is a barn-burner about questioning how the mechanics of relationships even operate. Even more surprising was the song "I Remember Everything", a sad lament of a relationship gone with the gutting line "You only smile like that when you're drinkin'." A duet with Kacey Musgraves, the song was a shock chart-topper, proving that not only was Bryan becoming a revered country songwriter, but a popular one as well. Dropping an EP later in the year and another full-length the year after, Bryan shows no signs of stopping, but as consistently great as his records are, the raw nerve feels of his self-titled feels like he's setting the bar for himself extremely high.
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Dua Lipa — "Future Nostalgia"
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For a moment, Dua Lipa seemed like she was going to be a one-hit wonder. "New Rules" was a hit in the U.K. but took a long time to even hit the Billboard Top 10, seeing the kind of organic embrace by radio that shows it had a genuine audience and real appeal. She then went right into the club world, garnering hits with the likes of Calvin Harris, Diplo, and Mark Ronson, but it was unclear if her success was going to be sustaining or more Charli XCX-like: big on a few radio smashes then playing to a cult audience for years. Instead, "Future Nostalgia", her sophomore album, fully reset what 2020s pop music sounded like. Drawing queues from disco divas and the Minneapolis sound of Prince's Paisley Park, Dua Lipa moved the genre forward by boldly embracing its past. While plenty a pop star have mined the '80s for inspiration, it was often cheekily or ironically, like with Katy Perry's "Hummingbird Heartbeat". Dua Lipa didn't detect any irony: great songwriters exist in an era, and if you respect the trade, you end up with better songs. "Future Nostalgia" could be boppy ("Levitating"), menacing ("Physical"), or camp as hell ("Hallucinate"), but it was remarkably consistent. She wasn't an anonymous voice on the radio: Dua Lipa had a sound that stood out, as no one could ever replicate her perfect formula. Even if she never has an album this big again, "Future Nostalgia" will always be considered a contemporary classic.
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The Weather Station — "Ignorance"
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Tamara Lindeman (who records under her moniker The Weather Station) has one of the sweetest voices in all of music: a beautiful, unassuming tone that elevates her already-great writing. Yet, as has been the case throughout her whole career, her lithe intonations often hide crippling lyrics, and on 2021's "Ignorance", her wrecked worldview has never been more apparent. Instead of offering us quiet hope or proud protest in the wake of the climate crisis, Lindeman has penned an album's worth of songs that speak to the hard, bitter reality that we are heading toward our own doom. "I feel as useless as a tree in a city park / Standing as a symbol of what we have blown apart," she intones on "Tried to Tell You", and the truth absolutely pierces us. Yet even with her lyrical bluntness, "Ignorance" is quite a delightful listen, careening between her folky roots and straight-up pop-rock. Often backed by creative and buoyant orchestration, "Ignorance" coats its bitter truth pills in some of the most immediate melodies she's yet created, resulting in her best record to date. Let's hope future generations are around long enough to appreciate it.
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Kelela — "Raven"
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While Kelela's vinyl might be found in the R&B section of most indie music stores, the lane her music occupies exists far outside mere genre classification. Signed to Warp Records, home of experimental electronic acts like Aphex Twin, Hudson Mohawke, and Yves Tumor, her sonic uses electro-ambient and breakbeat styles as tools to build songs around her soulful voice. It had been six years since fans heard her last full-length, and with 2023's "Raven", only her sophomore record, she more than makes up for lost time. Featuring production assists by the likes of Kaytranada and LSDXOXO, "Raven" uses fractured pieces of digital subgenres to craft a record about profound heartbreak. The somewhat jazzy "Missed Call" has Kelela asking if she even wants to be in love again, while the quietly crashing soundscape of the crystalline "Divorce" finds her lyrically giving up against greater odds. The beating heart of this "Raven" is also a wounded one, but in her questioning, searching, and healing, we, the listeners, share in her journey, making for a profound experience. Here's hoping we don't have to wait another six years until she drops her next classic.
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Jungle — "Volcano"
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British dance duo Jungle have quickly established their retro-soul credentials with their looping, hooky, fascinating music, and their singles have always been accompanied by one-shot music videos featuring the same troupe of dancers. Sometimes, the visuals highlight the power of the music, two artforms working in tandem with each other, and when "Back on 74", the single from their 2023 full-length "Volcano", went viral for its memorable/easily imitable choreography, Jungle ended up having their biggest chart hit to date. Good thing, too, because that means that many more people were able to hear an eclectic mix of soul, disco, dance, funk, and R&B. The visuals for every track help draw the distinction, but even without them, it's easy to zero in on the enthusiastic joy bop that is the Erick the Architect-featuring "Candle Flame" or fall in love with the dripping slow jam that is "Good at Breaking Hearts". For those who discovered them through social media trends, here's a viral term that applies to this expertly crafted selection of dance music: "no skips."
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Corinne Bailey Rae — "Black Rainbows"
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To this day, there are some people who only know U.K. R&B artist Corinne Bailey Rae for her 2006 smash "Put Your Records On". Yet the second anyone blindly hears "New York Transit Queen", the lead single from her first album of new material since 2016, they'd be shocked to discover it was the work of that same incredible songbird. Rae is shouting and screaming through a fuzzed-out rock guitar squall, proving that her 2023 record, "Black Rainbows", is the mark of a different era. The track that follows is a flute-adorned acoustic strummer called "He Will Follow You With His Eyes", and while it does evoke the more mature sounds Rae was exploring in the records following her big crossover debut, the whole of "Black Rainbows" feels different. This is partially because she spent quite some time at Chicago's Stony Island Arts Bank, learning about the ways Black art thrived in the city's South Side, which in turn made her want to create music that didn't need to meet any commercial expectations. Released on her own record label after years of being signed to a major, there's a twisting, psychedelic internal logic to "Black Rainbows" that intrigues, excites, and surprises. It's a record so loose and confident that not only is it instantly one of the best R&B records of this young decade, but it sounds like the studied work of a whole new artist. It might be her fourth studio record altogether, but in many ways, it feels like the first time we're meeting the real Corinne Bailey Rae.
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NewJeans — "Get Up" EP
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When NewJeans debuted in 2022, they were a breath of fresh air in the world of K-pop. Under the master guidance of industry pro Min Hee-jin on a new label that she runs, the girl group eschewed traditional K-pop beats (drum-n-bass!) and promotional arcs (multiple preview singles!) to stand out in an oversaturated market. Their rise to success was near-instantaneous, and their follow-up EP, 2023's "Get Up", continued one of the most incredible winning streaks in recent memory. At only five tracks long (and one interlude) and clocking in at just over 12 minutes, this is the epitome of "leave them wanting more" pop music. The massive hits "Super Shy" and "ETA" were instantly catchy, the production sly and, at times, even silly. Mid-tempo stunner "Cool With You" shows that this dynamic five-piece can do more than just straight-up dance bangers, but on their official releases, they have yet to release a single weak track (they save the bad ones for promotional tie-ins with "League of Legends"). While Blackpink was selling out stadiums, NewJeans was winning the hearts of both K-pop superfans and casual Western audiences alike. Even with a 12-minute EP, they still managed to debut at the top of the U.S. album charts. Nothing "Shy" about it.
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Andre 3000 — "New Blue Sun"
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André 3000 pulled off a record-breaking feat in 2024 by landing a Billboard Hot 100 entry with the longest-ever runtime (12 minutes and 20 seconds) that also has one of its best-ever titles: "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time". That sentiment sums up the feeling of "New Blue Sun", his first true-and-proper solo record not tied in with his legendary rap group OutKast. While there had been memes aplenty of Dré becoming increasingly eccentric, along with videos of him wandering streets while playing the flute, releasing a full record of ambient-adjacent jazz instrumentals felt like he was leaning into the parody. When "New Blue Sun" arrived, however, it was apparent that Dré was taking this dead seriously. Collaborating heavily with the L.A.-based Leaving Records ambient-jazz collective that includes maestro Carlos Niño, guitarist Nate Mercereau, and keyboardist Surya Botofasina, Dré gave his all to craft a lush, rich record that was patient, exploratory, and surprisingly well-received. His resulting tour drew in hardcore fans who loved the new direction and casuals who went viral with their confused reactions to this completely different sound. Either way, Dré clearly wanted to follow his authentic self when it came to his music, and surprisingly, it resulted in one of the most acclaimed releases of his already-storied career.
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Black Thought — "Cheat Codes"
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The last time we checked in with Black Thought, his overdue debut studio album topped some 2020 end-of-year rap surveys, and for good reason. As for Danger Mouse, still with a need to prove that he was more than just the smart sample guy who made "The Grey Album" all those many years ago, he was getting lost in making bland indie rock with his Broken Bells project while producing a string of unremarkable records for the likes of U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. While the duo had been in contact for years, "Cheat Codes" finally found its finished form in 2022, and it's an absolute knockout.
While Danger Mouse hadn't hung up his rap production side completely, he sounds reinvigorated here, using classic soul samples in a dexterous but not overwhelming way, serving as a beautiful basis for some of Black Thought's fiercest lines to date. The guest list is stacked to the brim (A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, and the late MF DOOM), but Black Thought is the reason to tune in. "My skin tone is aubergine / I'm a war machine," he spits on the opener, "Sometimes," and then proves it by demolishing every verse that follows. Essential listening.
Evan Sawdey is the Interviews Editor at PopMatters and is the host of The Chartographers, a music-ranking podcast for pop music nerds. He lives in Chicago with his wonderful husband and can be found on Twitter at @SawdEye.