TRF. Posted December 18, 2018 Author Posted December 18, 2018 Ok, so... let me start with the first part of the HMs for the albums! Bamba Pana - Poaa It's a bit too repetitive, yes, but with beats over 300 BPM, this Nyege Nyege Tapes release (one of their best) makes me wanna go Bliss Signal - Bliss Signal This is technically a black metal album, but it's also an ambient one, a club one and a noise one at the same time. Shame about its length but WIFE and Mumdance really did that with this, and I hope they release more music from this project very soon. Chelsea Jade - Personal Best Not as consistent as I would have liked it to be but still one of the best pop debuts of the year. Some of its best songs are as great as modern synthpop can possibly be. I hope whatever she drops next is as good or even better than this! CTM - Red Dragon Posh Isolation is a label that constantly delivers, and this record is probabaly the best they have released this year. Folksy art pop with influences from ambient, electroacoustic and industrial music, very dense and complex but still quite accessible in some way or another. Literally features both Quadron's Coco O. and Puce Mary! I wish I had given this the attention it deserved throughout the year. CupcakKe - Ephorize More than enough has been said about CupcakKe's excellent abilities with punchlines, her great verses, her diversity, and all the acclaim and success she's received thus far has been more than deserved. I'm so happy this got so much acclaim, even if this record didn't stick with me as much as I would have wished it to. Shout out to Eden as well. Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want Previous to the release of this album I had only heard very few Daughters songs, most of them from their previous album. This album is much different from those tracks I heard, but still has lots of elements that make them... theirs. It's really loud, noisy stuff. Wish it was more consistent but glad it got a lot of acclaim. Eli Keszler - Stadium This is kind of a jazz album... but also not really. Like, sure, there are a lot of elements from this that can be considered jazz, like for example Eli's intense drumming, but there is a lot of ambience, a special focus on its electronics, its minimalist structure. It's fascinating, even if it's not the easiest listen. Empress Of - Us Obviously nowhere as good as 'Me', but I feel like her going into a more pop direction was... expected? And for the most part, it suits her. Like, sure, not every song in here is perfect, but it still has a lot of what makes Empress Of so great and some of her best tracks to date. If you're into pop music and you haven't heard this album, you should change that as soon as possible. Gwenno - Le Kov Former The Pipettes songstress Gwenno Saunders really gave us a concept album, and an excellent one at that, completely written in a language spoken by like 500 people and we all STILL slept on her... this was lowkey unacceptable ok? How to Dress Well - The Anteroom I myself have never been the biggest How to Dress Well fan, and after an album like Care I thought I would never be, period. Thankfully, he proved me wrong, with an album that took influence on experimental, ambient, industrial and club music, an album that is possibly his best to date. Iceage - Beyondless It's easy to see why Iceage are sort of one of the biggest post-punk bands of our days. Elias Rønnenfelt is a great songwriter and a charismatic frontman, and this music is as aggressive as it polished and sonically interesting. It's no 'You're Nothing' a.k.a. their best album, but it sure is something very good! ionnalee - Everyone Afraid to Be Forgotten Ugh... you know, as someone who has been the biggest iamamiwhoami fan it kinda hurts me to put this ionnalee album outside of my top 50, but if I'm being honest, aside from some excellent tracks, this didn't capture me as much as I wish it did, maybe because of its length but I don't know. Still a very good album though! And if you're into the whole moody dark, artsy electropop kind of thing that iamamiwhoami is known for, you have a lot to like here! part 2 later!
Remmy Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 cupcakKe's album was cute for one listen. I remember there being a few decent tracks but nothing that made me want to press play again. Didn't even bother with Eden.
ATRL Moderator Tsareena Posted December 18, 2018 ATRL Moderator Posted December 18, 2018 some great ones here Personal best... ephorize...bops on bops Us ... didn't like anteroom much... difficult to get through Ionnalee was cute but true it felt really long
World Eater Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 I really liked the latter half of Poaa, he snapped. CupcakKe, Daughters, Empress Of, HTDW, Iceage - all of these are HM-worthy
ATRL Moderator madonnas Posted December 18, 2018 ATRL Moderator Posted December 18, 2018 Chelsea Jade knows how to write good songs, she just needs better producers to take her to that next level. Ephorize deserves way way more than a HM.
Uncatena Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 (edited) Chelsea getting a shout out YAAAAAAS my girl jonna getting a cute lil shout out too, we stan i compleltely agree btw, as a huge stan it hurt not having her in my album list but the album just doesnt hold up. its waaaay to long too Edited December 18, 2018 by ChapelHooker
Blue Rose Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 13 hours ago, TRF. said: Empress Of - Us This was nice but HM is definitely a good spot for it. There’s potential
theblackestday Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 Daughters and Beyondless are my faves in this set that ionnalee album was cute for a week, love cupcakke but neither of her albums this year truly fulfilled the potential she has
Eeveelution Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 CupcakKe Daughters album is cute but very overrated.
Vilppu Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 Quote CupcakKe - Ephorize Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want Iceage - Beyondless oh bitch this was a serve! Quote beats over 300 BPM oh bitch i have to hear this
Tom Vercetti Posted December 18, 2018 Posted December 18, 2018 I've avoided that ionnaelee throughout the year. That daughters album is v overrated. Their previous album >
TRF. Posted December 19, 2018 Author Posted December 19, 2018 20 hours ago, Remmy said: cupcakKe's album was cute for one listen. I remember there being a few decent tracks but nothing that made me want to press play again. Didn't even bother with Eden. you should at least listen to Quiz from it! it's one of her best songs probably 8 hours ago, ChapelHooker said: Chelsea getting a shout out YAAAAAAS my girl jonna getting a cute lil shout out too, we stan i compleltely agree btw, as a huge stan it hurt not having her in my album list but the album just doesnt hold up. its waaaay to long too yeah we're just gonna wait for the next iamamiwhoami alberm omfg 7 hours ago, theblackestday said: Daughters and Beyondless are my faves in this set that ionnalee album was cute for a week, love cupcakke but neither of her albums this year truly fulfilled the potential she has yeah I feel like I see that! Ephorize has some of her best moments but it's not even close to the best album she's destined to make, imo. 2nd part coming soon
Wicked Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 Everyone did way too much with that Daughters album for me.
volition Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 i thought daughters was plenty consistent (also didn't know everyone else was kinda lukewarm on it) never reeally liked ionnalee and her new album was definitely v avg
TRF. Posted December 19, 2018 Author Posted December 19, 2018 Ok, so... let me start with the first part of the HMs for the albums! J Balvin - Vibras I cannot believe I love this album as much as I do but,.. God, I do! J Balvin is probably the face of reggaeton right now, and I couldn't think of a better person to do it. The production in this album is interesting, well done and sometimes even weird, and "Brillo" with Rosalía is already a classic to me! ❤️ Kali Uchis - Isolation I was never too big into Kali Uchis back when she first came out, but she really did make many points with this record! It's great to see an R&B record this diverse and fun get so much acclaim. Unfortunately it didn't really stick with me for the rest of the year, but I can definitely see why I lot of people love it. Kate NV - для FOR Russian producer and vocalist Yekaterina Shilonosova a.k.a. NV or Kate NV won me over with her debut 'Binasu', which was a mix of Japanese synthpop and experimental ambient music. It grew on me a lot in the past years and might be one of my favorite albums of the decade. This one is definitely focused in the latter, though, and while it is not an easy listen for those who are not used to that kind of music... it's still very good? Like, it's very chill and dreamy, I like that stuff a lot. Kelela - TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES Released exactly one day before its anniversary, Kelela's Take Me Apart remix album is as great as a remix album can be. Most of these tracks are excellent reinterpretations of already excellent songs, whether they're meant for the dancefloor or headphones, with several artists, DJs, producers and vocalists from all over the planet taking on it in the most inventive ways. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter V I didn't expect Lil Wayne's much anticipated Tha Carter V to be as good as it was but... it really is. It is a really diverse and interesting collection of songs, in which Lil Wayne delivers bars upon bars, and has the production to match him. Sure, it suffers from being way too long (and having XXXTENTACION in it) but it holds surprisingly well as one of his best albums to date. Lykke Li - so sad so sexy As someone who has suffered from a really big depression for the majority of this year, I really connected with this album more than I probably should, and to Lykke's credit, most of this new trap-art-pop direction works rather well. Is this album not as good as her previous ones? Yeah, definitely. Do I still have a lot of love for it? Well... Mid-Air Thief - Crumbling This album is quite gorgeous. Lots of warm synths, harmonies, great production, melodies, everything. I wish I had listened to this much more as I feel I would've connected more with it had I had more time to, but still, great album. Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch This is for the Reznors, the Bad Witches and the true Rez- the true Trent Reznor fans! Park Jiha - Communion Another gorgeous album from Korea! Park Jiha is a composer who takes elements from Korean classical and folk music and combines them with jazz, electronics and a great sense of ambience that makes it completely unique. It's abstract, yes, but completely captivating too. She released another album like two weeks ago called 'Philos' which I haven't listened to yet and I need to fix that extremely soon! Rae Morris - Someone Out There I didn't care for Rae Morris with her debut album, to be completely honest. So when I heard about tracks like "Do It" getting a huge amount of acclaim I was... surprised? Even more surprised I was when I heard this record for the first time. But like, she delivered! This is a great pop album. Didn't really hold up with time, but has more than a few gems, and I can't wait to see what she does next. Thou - Magus I know one or two things about doom metal! Probably one of the best metal-adjacent releases of the year, really beautiful moments sit next to really abrasive sounds, and it works wonderfully. Tommy Cash - ¥€$ Another act that surprised me! I was never a big Tommy fan in fact... quite the opposite. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this album a lot. Sure... the lyrics are less than good. Quite bad, in fact. But **** it, the production in it is as good as it can possibly be, which is what happens when you get people like Amnesia Scanner, Danny L Harle, A.G. Cook and Boys Noize to work with you so... ¥€$, I like it. Zuli - Terminal This album came too late in the year for me to digest, but this is excellent experimental club music with influences from Arabic music (Zuli being from Egypt), trap and modern rap music. It's very good!
Pink Matter Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 Most of the ones I'm familiar with definitely are HM worthy (minus Kali ) I thought Rae Morris dropped a solid album but it seems most are panning it (not you in particular)??? So confused by that honestly I couldn't sit through the Wayne album on repeated listens but Mona Lisa was a major highlight The Zuli album sounds interesting I think I'll check that one out!
theblackestday Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 A bunch of these were done dirty others are deserving HMs! didn't know Miss Jiha released a new album lemme save I'm mad that I forgot to give TM_A a shoutout honestly it would've made my list, but I didn't want to include a remix album
Vilppu Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 isolation and bad witch were pretty good and someone out there served a bit early in the year too i was v pleasantly surprised with take me apart remixed, some of these i liked more than originals even
Blue Rose Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 Isolation, SSSS and Someone Out There are all great albums by 3 queens
ATRL Moderator madonnas Posted December 19, 2018 ATRL Moderator Posted December 19, 2018 Vibras is amazing. It was a very late discovery this year for me though. Isolation's strength is its diversity, but yeah I only had like 4 songs stick with me permanantly.
Navyofbadgals Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 Rae and Lykke Kali snubbed from the list at least an HM
World Eater Posted December 19, 2018 Posted December 19, 2018 Tea spilled Re:the write ups for Vibras and ¥€$ Isolation and ssss deserved better
collin Posted December 20, 2018 Posted December 20, 2018 ionnalee was OK - didn't make my list, either, same with Chelsea Jade. I rather liked the How To Dress Well, but it might be because I missed the boat when he was striking gold.
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