best of bluth appetit | finished xo

[bluth]

Spoiler

 

20 hours ago, theblackestday said:

Process and Flutopia 

20 hours ago, Wicked said:

Process was overrated to me, personally. Ibeyi, Mac

yeah process really was an album that was carried by the highlights. that first track tho!

19 hours ago, Playa Playa said:

Not prepared for the inevitable hate Brockhampton will face for being the current flavour du jour, as you put it, because they really do have great stuff.

they're kinda in this precarious position where they're good enough to be hyped but not good enough to be overhyped. wishing them the best

17 hours ago, Penk said:

The first time I heard Light the Night Up I couldn't stop laughing  poor girl, I need to stop by her house down the street and make her get her career back on track. 

yes girl save our sis!

16 hours ago, Tom Vercetti said:

I wish Goldlink's album was as hot as its singles. 

I heard a couple of songs from Turnover but never gave the album a chance. 

tbh i think as long as u hear the highlights from turnover then that should do it

11 hours ago, Lazuli said:

Rainbow YAS  

always good to see love for kesha <3

5 hours ago, Allstar said:

Where is ma ma pa pa pa perfect illusion?

it's my retroactive #1 of 2016, poor formation. though i forgot to include frankensteined this year. ugh i'm so behind

4 hours ago, TheWayWeWere said:

Utopia is such a dissapointment there's some great songs, but overall -

tbh it was really carried by the highlights for me thankfully the highlights are EXCELLENT

2 hours ago, ChapelHooker said:

oh wow, taste

Feel Infinite was beautiful, need to relisten to it

AZD, Love What Survives, Future Politics, Ti Amo, Silver Eye, Rainbow, Ash, Process, Hot Thoughts and Utopia

 

a LIST.

thx yew 

55 minutes ago, Kang. said:

Omg so.... I'm probably never gonna listen to those Ed songs but ur descriptions pretty much mean I don't have to now so thanks. Glad some of us can be tasteful about our Irish heritage <3

do u play the fiddle in an irish band

 

 

gonna blitz thru 20 more albums l8r be there or be square

 

[prézli]

Rainbow

 

 

[SLIME]

Yes have you heard my album Rocket?

[bluth]

10 minutes ago, Kang. said:

Yes have you heard my album Rocket?

i only listened to bobby sorry m9

 

[bluth]

 

30 - 21

 

30 ANTISOCIALITES ALVVAYS

antisocialites was a welcome addition to 2017 - a refreshingly light-hearted album in amongst some of the more dense and complex contributions of the year. the simplicity isn't something to be treated with derision, though. alvvays played it simple but they did it well, giving us a pretty solid and consistent album showcasing some of the most ineffable qualities of dream/indie pop, reminding us that, at its best, it can be an endlessly satisfying genre

 

best sings: plimsoll punks, lollipop (ode to jim)

 

 

 

29 REAL HIGH NITE JEWEL

pop muisc, and its boundless optimism, can often transport us to a more ideal place, and this is something which rings true on real high - an album of blissful, often-sub tropical, musical escapism. though, nite jewel use this wistfulness in a way which feels longing, giving the sense of being away from something you love, blissful, concise pop songs capturing a daydream which is just as pretty as it is transient 

 

best sings: 2 good 2 be true, i don't know

 

 

 

28 FIN SYD

perhaps one of the most satisfying vocalists of the past few years, syd gave us something to fawn over more than vocals on her debut, presenting a style which felt more alt-r&b than the internet, but just as lush and humid. syd doesn't necessarily reach for artistic impressiveness than she does effectiveness and - i have to say - it works, establishing syd as a strong act in her own right. despite the album's title connoting a sense of ending, this feels like a promising start

 

best sings: dollar bills, got her own

 

 

27 MUSIC FOR PEOPLE IN TROUBLE SUSANNE SUNDFOR

there's a saying that less is more - and susanne truly exploits that on music for people in trouble: an album of minimal ballads which uses sparseness in a way which magnifies the album's more grandiose, emotional climaxes, take the apocalyptic ending of the sound of war. susanne truly is an artist who knows how to create towering melodrama in her work, and, while i wish we got another accelerate, i can't really fault her for executing her vision well

 

best sings: the sound of war

 

 

 

26 STELLULAR ROSE ELINOR DOUGAL

perhaps one of the most welcome surprises from earlier this year, rose elinor dougal is essentially an indie musician with excellent pop instincts. shimmering synths on album opener colour of water evoke rippling water, while she moves into more quirky playfulness in closer. overall, it's a deceptively fun album, and, if anything, it offers something promising for the future - introducing an artist who could really go somewhere!

 

best sings: colour of water, closer

 

 

 

25 REBORN AGAIN AND ALWAYS STARTING NEW MONDO GROSSO

as we grow older, we begin to increasingly see the world as a banal, derivative and unexciting place. on reborn again..., mondo grosso uses the boundless possibilities of electronic music to create a beautiful, microcosm which fills us with a sense of wanderlust in its freshness and wonder - especially on the dizzying standout labyrinth. it's an album which presents a sense of wonder with what we already have, a music adventure that's diverse in both its sound and vocalists. reborn again hints more than just a comeback: but being able to find the beauty hiding everywhere in the world

 

best sings: labyrinth, the song that comes after it

 

 

24 FLOWER BOY TYLER, THE CREATOR

tyler kinda has this charm that no one really knows what he's thinking. flower boy, as a title, could refer to many things - a feminine nod to sexuality, an image that evokes summer, an ironic take on woke culture and personal #growth, or just some obscure ass reference that's not designed to be understood. i think the real standout on flower boy on the production, which is so summery throughout and gives me nostalgia ultra teas. tyler doesn't necessarily get overshadowed, though, and it goes without saying that his personality permeates throughout, even if we're unsure as to what his intentions are

 

best sings: where this flower blooms

 

23 RINA RINA SAMAWAYA

i decided against doing an ep list (sorry yaeji) but i figured that this is only like five minutes shorter than some albums on this list so WHY NOT. i think rina is possibly one of the breakout stars of this year, at least in atrl's best of 2017 section, and deservedly so. of course, rina does have an ineffable charm from its throwback styles (despite how worryingly familiar they may seem), but the ep is underlined more than #throwback, introducing an artist who clearly has great instincts and taste. slay sis!

 

best sings: 10-20-40, tunnel vision

 

 

22 SUPERMAN WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA

wednesday campamella successfully avoid the trap of become too anonymous with their electronic music by animating it with their usual whimsical touches which take their songs in, often, unexpected directions. superman successfully illustrates the usual charm of their work, managing to make an album which feels well-edited and concise while remaining somewhat eclectic throughout

 

best sings: onyankopon, audrey 

 

 

 

21 THE WEATHER POND 

pond used the weather to somewhat successfully alleviate the current tame impala drought. it's an album which is something of a commentary or illustration of mundane, everyday life, but they present it in a way which feels as engaging and psychedelic as ever. i guess it's kinda like the feeling of getting high and losing yourself in an episode of blue planet or smthn, news reports flickering by before being cut short by infectious hooks, crystallised synths and airy vocals which make mundane things like the weather feel exciting and engaging

 

best sings: colder than ice, the weather 

 

[SLIME]

Love Syd and Tyler, OF really won this year didn't they. Ngl the ballads turned me off from listening to Susanne hers  but y'all seem to love it so I will give it a go. Pond theirs seems like it improved on their last which I did like so that's another.

[Playa Playa]

Yes, Rina deserves the attention ATRL Best Of is giving her.

 

Susanne and Alvvays are the other two I like. Personally I couldn't get into both OF-related releases.

[bluth]

 

20 - 11

 

20 NUMBER 1 ANGEL CHARLI XCX

charli really did give the gays everything they want.gif, but i don't think that was necessarily a conscious thing charli was trying to exploit, because it feels like she genuinely adores this kind of music and the artists which operate therein. i know we're all desperately waiting for that album, but the difference between an album and a mixtape is so arbitrary now anyway. plus, charli is delivering on her mixtapes, showcasing her astute taste and her ability to turn anything into a sugary, viscous pool of pop music

 

best sings: drugs, lipgloss

 

 

19 SOFT SOUNDS FROM ANOTHER PLANET JAPANESE BREAKFAST

japanese breakfast could have easily fallen down the route of staying in her lane and continuing to release cutesy indie records (which, by no means, is a bad thing), but on soft sounds she decided to try something new and create an album which felt more imaginative and creative. diving woman and machinist are two stellar examples of the dreamlike, futurism of this record, i just wish the entire album held this up a bit more. nonetheless, where it falters in concept it remains strong in execution

 

best sings: diving woman, machinist 

 

 

18 KELLY LEE OWENS KELLY LEE OWENS

kelly lee owens really does sound like a person who's been on her gap yah and now she's more worldly and woke she's ready to show everyone the fruits of her travelling by embedding more influences into her ambient, electronic music. amazingly, though, this album doesn't come off as annoying in the slightest, and it really showcases an artist with a caring and intelligent touch who can expertly make serene, calming electronic music which felt so welcomed this year

 

best sings: s.o., arthur

 

17 GUPPY CHARLY BLISS

charly bliss remind us of our messy pop punk, /r/blunderyears days but they do so in a way which feels so much more mature and self-aware. guppy is enjoyable on a visceral level alone, an album of powerful, pop punk punches featuring some of the biggest, nonsensical choruses of the year (SHE'S GOT HER TOE IN A CORN HOOOOOOLLLE), but it also has some excellent lyrics, creating a potent combination which is both self-aware and fun

 

best sings: black hole, percolator 

 

 

16 RTJ3 RUN THE JEWELS

rtj3, falling in that precarious time period right at the end of a year, was in a dangerous position of being forgotten by the time december 2017 came around, but rtj3 manage to hold up well in being another solid addition to their discog, if not obvs a bit weaker from rtj2. it continues on their general rap as resistance narrative which felt so needed at the end of 2016, delivering some pretty hype moments along the way in its bigger bops

 

best sings: call ticketron, panther like a panther

 

 

 

15 A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING THE WAR ON DRUGS

though a deeper understanding operates on a grand, lengthy scale, it doesn't necessarily feel overbearing or tiresome during its run-time. it's surprisingly light, an album which brings indie rock with some 80s ass synths together to make for something which sounds pretty pop accessible. i guess its main strength is its ability to create great emotional climaxes, delivered with impeccable timing to allow us to mull over the consequences and the aftermaths, allowing us to feel the emotion reverberating in the silence once the vocals end and the music becomes more pensive

 

best sings: pain, holding on 

 

 

14 V THE HORRORS

v is an incredibly dense and heavy album which, somehow, manages to avoid imploding under its own weight. the songs are huge, existing within great cavernous spaces which deliver maximum impact, but the horrors manage to offset the heavier moments with comparatively lighter ones - take the weightlessness of weighed down or that triumphant-sounding, 80s high school film end credits song in world below. it made for a listening experience that was just as satisfying in its maximal scale as it was digestible in its editing

 

best sings: weighed down, world below

 

 

13 REST CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG

one of 2016's best albums taught us that when life gives you lemons, you either make lemonade or you make a damn good album about it. charlotte gainsbourg definitely achieves this on rest, an album in which she takes grief and decides to make a excellent artistic statement about it. though the album touches on heavy themes, it's constantly buoyed by the sinister, dark humour that pervades the album, take the italo-disco standout deadly valentine which is a quasi-mockery of wedding vows. the way rest takes grief and makes it an enjoyable listening experience is, in itself, a worthy attribute, but it's also a salient reminder that grief is a natural, inescapable part of our lives - we just have to find a good way to deal with it.

 

best sings: deadly valentine, ring-a-ring o roses, sylvia says

 

 

12 CAPACITY BIG THIEF

capacity - out of all albums this year - perhaps felt the most intimate, which underlines the beautifully effective storytelling at play here. the lyrics are deceptively simple but boundlessly evocative, making an album which takes small, everyday events and makes them feel colossal. perhaps most striking of all is shark smile and it's haunting portrayal of survivor's guilt with a few simple words - "and i said ooh, baby, take me too." throughout, they use lyrics and melody with the most dexterous touch to remind us that, though life may seem dull and plain at times, the smallest moments have an individual capacity to be beautiful. 

 

best sings: shark smile, mythological beauty

 

 

11 PLUNGE FEVER RAY 

though plunge randomly fell out of the blue one day this year, its introduction to the year felt no less emphatic - a wild, frenzied album in which fever ray basically brandishes punchy beats like a dagger and chases you down the ****ing street with them. it made for one of 2017's most frivolous and exciting albums this year, one which didn't just feel explosive in its music, but also in the explicitness of the lyrics. plunge's aggressive styling doesn't, however, capture the real charm of this album, in which we hear something that feels so idiosyncratic and human in its lack of censorship. in trying political and economic times, we may feel encouraged to take a more cautious approach to our lives, but fever ray offered a different, more exciting approach, bidding us to take a plunge and feel exhilarated as we do so.

 

best sings: wanna sip, this country, to the moon and back

 

[bluth]

list so far. top 10 tomorrow!!!!! and then we're done. i'm crying, we (almost) did it kids

 

 

 

Spoiler   11 Fever Ray Plunge 12 Big Thief Capacity 13 Charlotte Gainsbourg Rest 14 The Horrors V 15 The War on Drugs A Deeper Understanding 16 Run The Jewels RTJ3 17 Charly Bliss Guppy 18 Kelly Lee Owens Kelly Lee Owens 19 Japanese Breakfast Soft Sounds From Another Planet 20 Charli XCX Number 1 Angel 21 Pond The Weather 22 Wednesday Campanella Superman 23 Rina Samawaya RINA 24 Tyler, The Creator Flower Boy 25 Mondo Grosso Reborn Again and Always… 26 Rose Elinor Dougal Stellular 27 Susanne Sundfor Music For People In Trouble 28 Syd Fin 29 Nite Jewel Real High 30 Alvvays Antisociallites 31 Ibeyi Ash 32 Spoon Hot Thoughts 33 Brockhampton Saturation II 34 Kesha Rainbow 35 Mac DeMarco This Old Dog 36 Bjork Utopia  37 Sampha Process 38 Real Estate In Mind 39 Poppy Poppy.Computer 40 Goldfrapp Silver Eye 41 Phoenix Ti Amo 42 Pixx  The Age of Anxiety 43 Little Dragon Season High 44 Austra Future Politics 45 Mount Kimbie Love What Survives 46 Turnover Good Nature 47 Actress AZD 48 Wiley Godfather 49 Jacques Greene Feel Infinite 50 Goldlink At What Cost

[prézli]

Kween Charli

 

 

[Wicked]

I need to listen to this Fever Ray album, huh?

 

A Deeper Understanding

[Unoriginal]

Music for People in Trouble whew  too low tho imho

RINA  10-20-40 is probably one of my least favourites though

N1A above both of those

A Deeper Understanding won too whew 

[Lazuli]

Antisocialites and MFPIT are cute  

I love how Fin/Syd is such an easy listen, like it's such a good balance between R&B and more "poppier" sensibilities

Rina  Soft Sound  Asian excellence right here!

The Weather is cute too! The title track is indeed the standout

Strangest Thing is missing from your best sings off ADU  

V is amazing, you described it pretty well

Capacity  

[theblackestday]

omg @ some of these snubs  

[Eeveelution]

A lot of good albums, a couple of great ones.

 

Stan Godgloss!

 

 

 

 

 

[TheWayWeWere]

Rina and N1A underground queens

Rest such an amazing suprise

[bluth]

Spoiler

 

23 hours ago, Kang. said:

Love Syd and Tyler, OF really won this year didn't they. Ngl the ballads turned me off from listening to Susanne hers  but y'all seem to love it so I will give it a go. Pond theirs seems like it improved on their last which I did like so that's another.

that's why susanne isn't higher - it has some stunning moments but some other moments i fall asleep to because i'm not sophisticated

22 hours ago, Playa Playa said:

Yes, Rina deserves the attention ATRL Best Of is giving her.

 

Susanne and Alvvays are the other two I like. Personally I couldn't get into both OF-related releases.

yes! kinda surprised at rina's reception but at the same time i'm not

22 hours ago, Wicked said:

I need to listen to this Fever Ray album, huh?

definitely!

22 hours ago, Unoriginal said:

N1A above both of those

it's what she deserves.gif

15 hours ago, Lazuli said:

Strangest Thing is missing from your best sings off ADU  

i think it's pretty consistent overall so anything would do!

9 hours ago, theblackestday said:

omg @ some of these snubs  

hopefully the top ten will make it up 

 

 

final update - top ten albums l8r!

 

[Lucas32]

Big Thief and The War on Drugs   . V was too much for me, too overstuffed with ideas to me. I love that cover though!

[MP2K]

A few albums here that I didn't get to finish. Like Japanese Breakfast' album, I think it was you that got me into them last year.
It's also good to see some RTJ love here!!!

[K$Ellie]

Ed dominating the worst list  Symphony is so annoying

I need to listen to ADZ, it see it getting praised a lot

Utopia and Rainbow slay  your standouts for Pörk  

I liked Knew and Body on Fin's album  Rina

Number 1 Angel top 20  Drugs is one of my faves too

[Tom Vercetti]

Oh wow, you speeded through the albums! Umm there's a lot to choose from since nice sets as usual. 

I didn't include RTJ only because I got my fix from them already from December last year. 

[bluth]

Spoiler

 

1 hour ago, Lucas32 said:

Big Thief and The War on Drugs   . V was too much for me, too overstuffed with ideas to me. I love that cover though!

it definitely felt maximal, but i think they pulled it off well!

49 minutes ago, MP2K said:

A few albums here that I didn't get to finish. Like Japanese Breakfast' album, I think it was you that got me into them last year.
It's also good to see some RTJ love here!!!

it's a cute album - if not a little top heavy. thx yew 

48 minutes ago, K$Ellie said:

Number 1 Angel top 20  Drugs is one of my faves too

taste <3

45 minutes ago, Tom Vercetti said:

Oh wow, you speeded through the albums! Umm there's a lot to choose from since nice sets as usual. 

glad to hear!

 

 

 

 

okay top ten albermz up as soon as humanly possible xo

[jose168]

So jelly that you're almost done lol. 

Glad youre repping Capacity cuz theyre cute

 

Charli, RTJ (didnt like this album doe), Japanese Breakfast and TWOD  

[jose168]

oh waiT previous update

Wednesday Campanella  Pond  

[bluth]

 

10 - 1

 

10 DRUNK THUNDERCAT

in a time where nuclear annihilation hung like a cartoonish piano on the end of a string above our heads, drunk was a humble, often comical, reminder about life resuming its daily course. thundercat basically made an entire album about the mundanity of everyday life, but the album is animated by his self-deprecating sense of humour, telling a failed date "i'd rather play mortal kombat anyway" on friend zone. not least, the production throughout this album is gorgeous, straddling various tightropes between r&b, funk, jazz and hip hop, feeling consistently warm and lush in its presentation. 

drunk, above all, felt like an album that was free of pretension, one which catalogued the daily routine of its artist, but managing to do so in a way that felt interesting. it appeals to the sonder we experience, unveiling a life that may not necessarily be exciting, but boundlessly entertaining in its whimsy, humour, and presentation.

 

best sings: friend zone, show you the way, them changes

 

 

9 WORLD EATER BLANCK MASS

in amongst widespread politicking over the past few years, blanck mass offered something which felt like a much more visceral version of a wake-up call on blanck mass. i can't think of any other album which really had me, uh, shook the way i felt when i heard this for the first time - the introduction building up ravenously like a pack of dogs raring to rip you apart, me eyeing the album cover nervously as if it were about to leap through the screen and tear my face off, until rhesus negative shatters through the room, dragging you down through this hell-like oblivion.

world eater uses electronic music in a way which feels so amazingly atmospheric and immersive, it's hard to understand that you're only listening to a piece of audio. we often turn to music as a means of escapism into a better reality, but world eater tests a sense of masochism in us by inviting us into a microcosm which feels comparatively hellish, brooding and foreboding. yet, curiously, when we leave this place after an exhilarating fifty minutes, bruised, scratched and torn to shreds, the first thing we want to do is dive back in and experience it all over again.

 

best sings: rhesus negative, the rat

 

 

8 NOTHING FEELS NATURAL PRIESTS

on nothing feels natural, priests captured a sense of sharpness and rage that most people felt going into this year. the sound of female-lead punk alone existing in 2017 felt like a cathartic moment, but nothing feels natural is a clever, compact assassination of a culture wherein, often, nothing feels natural. 

priests achieve this through the dual presentation of our own personal hardships alongside political ones - the endlessly satisfying, scream-along line "I THOUGHT I WAS A COWBOY BECAUSE I... SMOKED REDS" on jj could just as much be a mockery of an ex as it feels like a sharp take-down of the way consumerism and corporate-branding infects our self-image. all the while, nothing feels natural remains fun to listen to - remaining concise and exciting in the small details like the sax on suck. it's a salient reminder that life beyond emptiness exists, and that, after we come to terms with our identity in trying times we can always go back and smoke reds as if we're a cowboy again because, ultimately, everything means jack ****. although nothing feels natural, nothing feels natural.

 

best sings: jj, suck, nothing feels natural

 

 

7 SLOWDIVE SLOWDIVE

There’s a saying that people experience two deaths: your biological death, and the final time someone mentions your name. In the case of the latter, it could be said that it felt like Slowdive had passed on. It had been decades since their last album, with little sign of another. Then, from beyond the proverbial grave, came their self-titled album, a beautiful, posthumous memento – the sound of music from the afterlife.

                Even if this was unintentional, it’s certainly evoked in the grand space in which this album operates, where the songs feel so vast in scale. In eight songs, Slowdive transported us to another plane, within which the songs possessed the expanse of the night sky, where it felt like we could see galaxies being born, breathing, and dying transiently like mayflies in the dusk, captured beautifully on Star Roving.

Slowdive is more than just an arresting piece of shoegaze and a demonstration of a band at the top of the game, but it also represented something much more comforting – emptiness being filled with warmth again to the sounds of a lost, loved one finally returning home.

 

best sings: star roving, sugar for the pill

 

 

6 DAMN. KENDRICK LAMAR

I think it speaks more to Kendrick’s own track record than the quality of DAMN. that he can receive praise for being a little more slapdash than usual. Sure, a lot of things said about DAMN. are true even if they are annoyingly obvious – “The beat switch in DNA!”, “He gave us bops”, and perhaps the most banal of all – “He’s the best rapper around right now!” Maybe that’s just my inner cynic talking after my own friends who I introduced to Swimming Pools called me a Kendrick-hater for saying this clearly wasn’t as good as his last two, but I think we have to admit a painful truth after DAMN. birthed the most iconic, non-existent album of the year (RIP NATION., 14.02.17 – 16.02.17), which was going to be the true, didactic masterpiece – the real album.

                That’s not to say that DAMN. isn’t excellent of its own accord, because there are incredible moments here. Kendrick really sounds on top of his game as a rapper, as ever, he captures something incredibly astute about our culture, and he gave perfectly serviceable music that offered a new side to his discography. That said, DAMN. suffers from inconsistency, a narrative that gets slightly lost in the middle during LOYALTY, PRIDE and GOD, and possibly one of the worst moments of Kendrick’s career in the cheesy, nasally refrain of LOVE’s “I WANNA BE WIH YHOO.”

                Nonetheless, some of the criticism this album receives reinforces the standards to which Kendrick is held. As he said on Section 80., he’s not just the next “socially-conscious rapper”, he’s a human trying to make sense of the world, something which often can’t be captured through elegant, woven narratives. Kendrick is still the storyteller he always has been with this album and, as we hear on the final track, we understand the very contradiction of his life – as noted by the antithetical track names. For Kendrick to be alive, let alone releasing one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, is a miracle and a blessing, and it’s in this moment that DAMN. successfully reasserts who we’re in the presence of at the moment: after all the Kung Fu Kenny leaping and jumping at beat switches and endless quotable lyrics, we’re reminded to sit down again. Be humble.

 

best sings: dna, element, humble, feel, xxx

 

 

5 TAKE ME APART KELELA

Our perception of the world can often be very different to someone else’s. Memories are rarely concrete, our emotions can infect the past like dye unfurling through water. When we come to terms with the fact that our minds are so indescribably individual, we can become very isolated by the thought that the only person who will truly accept our version of the universe is ourselves.

Kelela acknowledges these feelings on Take Me Apart, a quasi-conceptual work of metallic R&B where emotions and memories float and merge like gaseous clouds inside a galaxy, presenting a universe in which Kelela is the architect. Though Take Me Apart may lack the true, killer moments that Rewind and All The Way Down offered, one can’t deny that it’s one of 2017’s most fully-realised, consistent and conceptual albums, where Kelela has managed to craft something which is so perfectly coherent and beautifully articulated within her own vision.

                Though we may be alone with our own thoughts, Take Me Apart’s cold, futurism is underpinned by something more warm and personal in the album’s more tender moments. Synth lines in Jupiter feel both so enveloping and isolating as if we’re floating in space, while Kelela’s paranoia radiates through the acidic, warbling instrumental on Blue Light, fear reverberates alongside the shuddering production on Enough. Though Kelela may be acknowledging something deeply discomforting on Take Me Apart, there’s no doubt she does it in a way that never loses sight of the place from which this universe emerged: a living, breathing human.

 

best sings: lmk, truth or dare, take me apart, enough, blue light

 

 

4 CTRL SZA

Being young and struggling with your identity is not a new concept, however, it may have certainly been magnified by the rise of social media, our lives now plastered onto digital screens like tattoos on flesh. Someone who may understand this as much as anyone is SZA, who had yet to even release her debut album before being witch-hunted with an excavation of her old tweets and a deluge of slut-shaming.

CTRL comes, as the title suggests, a dialogue about control in the age of the computer and, like the Control of the 1980s by the woman to which this title pays homage (another album which so astutely captured social attitudes of the time), SZA manages to capture something so candid, raw, and true about our culture. We live in a post-Drake world, one that’s obsessed with loyalty and unmasking “snakes” like an episode of Scooby-Doo, but our preoccupation with perfection has left us inorganic as people. SZA does something few people do, and she creates narratives which feel so true and refreshing for it, her catalogues of being the other woman on The Weekend, being a homewrecker on Supermodel. These admissions don’t shroud CTRL in a heavy sense of villainy, but rather, they feel cathartic and refreshingly honest in a world which is increasingly filtered.

                CTRL felt like more than album; it was a general conversation about our culture and our constant grappling with control over our digital identities. SZA addresses these ideas masterfully; the album is gentle in its delivery, elegant in its execution, warm in its touch which is unmistakably human. The greatest irony of CTRL is that, if anything, it tells us that having control over our lives may not be possible, but the greatest sense of control we may have is when we finally accept that.

 

best sings: supermodel, the weekend, go gina

 

 

3 BIG FISH THEORY VINCE STAPLES

Though Vince made something of a sizeable splash in 2015, it perhaps didn’t cause the waves that others have done with their debuts (I’ll stop with the water puns now, or not.) I was someone who wasn’t completely taken with Vince, but then Big Fish Theory came along and completely blindsided me. Vince flaunts his creativity here and his willingness to explore new territory, bringing together rap with so many influences from 90s dance to modern PC.

Vince Staples is more than a big fish, Big Fish Theory sees him flirting with new, unexpected ideas in a way which swells and breaks the fish bowl Vince occupies, the shattered glass tinkling and scratching like metallic synths from SOPHIE’s production. To certain crowds, this may not seem as innovative as it is, but irrespective of that it’s damn well fun to listen to, giving us some particular highlights from this year where we actually got to hear Kendrick and SOPHIE on a track together and have it work so well. It doesn’t entirely rely on aesthetics for impressiveness, and Vince is as astute as ever with his takedowns of rap braggadocio and his keen eye for detail.

Vince’s skill as an artist was never in question, but Big Fish Theory allowed him to spread his wings – or fins – in a way which left me feeling more excited for what’s yet to come. Vince may have been occupying a small pond as a big fish previously, but now it feels as though he’s moved into new bigger territory. It doesn’t feel like something that dwarfs him, but it poses the exciting question as to where he’ll go next.

 

best sings: yeah right, bagbak, big fish, love can be, crabs in a bucket

 

 

2 MASSEDUCTION ST. VINCENT

Ever since we are able to understand words, we are told that too much of a good thing can be bad. We learn from a young age that if we eat too many sweets we will rot our teeth, and we fail to understand how something so pleasurable can be destructive. These warnings are a recognition of the fact that we live in a world of excess – the most beautiful people in society are often the most repulsive, our **** stars are sexually dysfunctional, our religious figures are amoral, our law-makers are corrupt. If pop music is the music of excess, then Masseduction’s use of it reflects a world where we embrace excess to the point where it becomes debilitating – creating an album which is Annie’s most upbeat but, poignantly, her saddest.

                The saccharine jingles on Pills and robotic hooks on Masseduction juxtapose the album’s more reflective moments, making for an album which occupies a curious ground between two places – between the high and the comedown, between love and raw lust, between youth and adulthood. It’s something which signifies transition, as Annie navigates being an indie musician on the cusp of being truly mainstream, while coming to terms with the loss of youth on Los Ageless and the loss of relationships on Happy Birthday Johnny. As a listener, we succumb to the sad moments on Masseduction, while turning back around to alleviate our feelings through the dopamine rushes of the likes of Sugarboy, mirroring our own cyclic movements between depression and absurd highs.

                It makes for, in and of itself, a poignant illustration of mass, vapid consumerism – the way Masseduction buoys between addictive highs and deflating lows mirrors the unsustainability of our own excess: whether that be our role in mass-consumerism, or our self-destructive, romantic obsessions. As with any cycle of dependency, we know there must be a moment when it finally breaks. As Annie sings on Smoking Section, “And sometimes I feel like an inland ocean / Too big to be a lake, too small to be an attraction”, Masseduction grapples with the 2017 Annie Clark, too big to be truly indie, too small to be truly mainstream. It hints at a monotony that is soon to break, and we, as an audience, watch helplessly as Annie falls over the side of the building, and, as she begins to float over the taxis below, we feel ourselves moving with her.

 

best sings: los ageless, masseduction, pills, sugarboy, happy birthday johnny

 

 

Spoiler

 

1 MELODRAMA LORDE

One of the most romanticised things in the world is youth – a supposed holy grail of first times, new experiences and endearing naivety. Our music industry has thirty-year old songwriters creating songs for twenty-year old singers to sell to teenagers; our high school dramas feature beautiful adults portraying pubescent teens. There is such a towering pressure placed on us to be grateful for our youth, and thus, when we become debilitated by social anxiety, towering debt, and a political system which ignores us, we can sometimes feel as though we’re wasting the most precious thing we own, and that we are ungrateful for feeling so. It’s no surprise that millennials have been written off as the entitled, whiney generation. Our feelings are all just melodrama.

                Lorde is possibly the most authentic voice of the youth the industry has seen for a while. On Melodrama, Lorde didn’t feed us another bastardised and filtered-to-**** portrayal of youth, but rather, she gave us something with the artistic resonance of poetry, a stunning work of unique beauty and haunting realism. Lorde managed to capture so many things about the tangible experiences of being young – the glittering nightlife evoked by Green Light’s dancing piano riffs, the brooding hedonism of Homemade Dynamite, the heart-breaking relatability when Lorde sways alone in her living room, wondering whether she can ever be loved on Liability.

                With Melodrama, Lorde managed to capture something so beautifully real and reassuring about our lives – she found a place where the lights from the dancefloor were erupting geysers, the blurry neon signs of the city bled together to become fluorescent brushstrokes on a canvas and that our bodies could paint the road in shimmering red and chrome if we hit it hard enough. It’s an album which enshrines the melodrama that surrounds our lives, offering a warm touch of solidarity for our imperfect lives. While it doesn’t offer solutions to our problems, Melodrama offers something far more comforting and real – you may not be loved, you may not be stable, you may party too hard and you may be fiscally irresponsible, you may have no direction in life and, at times, you may have no friends, you may have no clue what goes on in the “real world” and you may be wasting your one and only chance at youth, but, in spite of all that, you are never alone.

 

best sings: green light, homemade dynamite, sober, writer in the dark, liability