signalmodulator

[signalmodulator]

A Goodbye from the Editor

by Owen Z.

Signal Modulator is shutting down. Ultimately, what was the beautiful and prolific journalistic project of two high school students became the tedious title of one college student, and it’s time to put an end to this story.

It blows my mind that it’s been two and a half years since Alex and I kicked this thing off - this blog was the first significant way I was able to express my love for music, and it remains the most ambitious. Our first year was definitely our best; regular news articles, quality album and track reviews, and even a couple stellar reviews from Alex! After Alex departed and I went on, things slowed down considerably - once I started my first year of college in the fall of 2016, I had to make some decisions about the blog’s future. 

I decided to turn the blog into a quarterly magazine; this change would stop the daily flow of posts and allow me to better budget my time towards a longer, larger medium. It was probably the best choice, and hey! The seven issues of the magazine that were produced are all pretty quality. Although they don’t contain any new material, it was a good reminder of the sheer amount of good content Alex and I had written in this blog, and it was a good way for me to try my hand at graphic design, a field in which my interest has been rapidly growing.

However, even that didn’t work too well. I haven’t written much more than a paragraph or two since the arrival of 2017; after falling behind and failing to make the cultural deadline for year-in-review lists, I just didn’t feel that driven to write anymore. I was also hampered with bad grades and some minor mental health issues during the spring, which became extra classes and a part-time job in the summer. Now, as I return to school with a healthier mindset and a brand new set of responsibilities, it’s abundantly clear to me that Signal Modulator can’t go on.

Ending this blog makes me sad, but it’s been coming - what it brings me even more than sadness is excitement. Writing and working on this blog made me want to be in the music industry, and that hasn’t changed as my interests in this blog waned. Since October of last year, I’ve been DJing for my campus radio station, Radio 1190; my new show, Music for People & Things, plays every Thursday from 9-10 ET. I’m also planning a new writing project, one that will hopefully be more consistent, free-minded, and entertaining than Signal Modulator was. That will be around soon; for any news, I encourage you to check Signal Modulator’s Facebook.

For this channel of communication, however, this is the last thing you will get. I’ll be letting the website expire next summer; once that happens, you will still be able to read our magazines on issuu. For the few of you who followed this blog during its existence, thank you. The thrill of having an audience, however small, and the excitement of pushing for more readers made writing this blog exciting. I hope you enjoyed whatever you happened to see, and I hope you’ll go ahead and take care of yourselves after we’ve lost touch. Sincerely, thank you. It’s been a joy.

-Owen Zoll

[signalmodulator]

“Can You Handle This Modern Critical Work?”: A Love Letter To Pulitzer Prize Winner Tim Page’s Writing

by Owen Z.

As Signal Modulator finishes its oft-sporadic run of publishing, we’re clearing out our drafts in order to publicize all the projects we were working on for issue 8. Here’s an essay written by myself, a tribute to music critic Tim Page.

Like me, Tim Page was a college student with big aspirations - he wrote for magazines, hosted a show for his college radio station, and interviewed many artists. I can relate to his love for music and the passion he has shown for the art in his career; since his college days, though, he has written for The New York Times and edited The Washington Post, produced concerts at Carnegie Hall, and become a professor for the University of Southern California. Most importantly, he won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in journalism in 1997, after a prolific year of writing fantastic pieces. My favorite of these is “The Age of Dissonance; Can You Handle These Modern Classical Works?“, a piece which drew me in because of my interest in 20th century classical music. Frankly, I was surprised by how concise and witty it was, along with being packed with artfully delivered information. Page goes above and beyond in his write-up of these ten classical works; he accurately describes them and beautifully summarizes why they might be interesting, and he also keeps his writing vivid but appealing to all audiences in an age where contemporary classical music is nowhere near popular.

Of the ten works that Page writes about (Ives, Strauss, Sibelius, Schoenberg, Thomson/Stein, Copland, Cage, Stockhausen, Reich, and Monk), I have heard none of them. I hadn’t even heard of a few of these artists - I’d only heard music from Copland, Cage, and Reich before reading the piece. Although I’m incredibly passionate about music in general, I’d firmly put myself in the second audience classification - I certainly don’t know as much as Page on this topic, but I’m not unaware of it either. Nonetheless, I was blown away by how well Page seems to address all classifications of audience. This essay is quite lengthy - it clocks out at almost three thousand words, and Page uses many advanced musical terms (harmonic fourths, triads, tritones, and the like) to describe these ten pieces. However, he uses humor excellently to make his writing more accessible. He opens up the essay by recalling how, after, playing a piece from the 12th-century composer Perotin, “The phone rang and I was confronted with a furious gentleman who claimed that I’d ruined his drive home (and, one might have surmised, his life as well). He promised he would never again contribute to public radio until we stopped playing what he called “all that damned new music”!” Later, after he justifies why modern listeners might be disconnected from modern classical music, he offers up an unapologetic yet tactful thesis for the essay - “Instead, let’s break out the hard stuff. For once, let’s give frank radicalism its due – without apology and without sugarcoating. The following is a list of substantial 20th-century pieces that make no special effort to be liked. Indeed, if I may anthropomorphize for a moment, they really couldn’t care less whether you like them.” Page knows his stuff, but he’s still ever so aware of his audience, which is one of the major reasons that this essay is as good as it is.

Additionally, Page does what any good critic should - he peppers his writing with razor-sharp stabs at the essence of the work he’s criticizing. It’s hard to summarize any medium of art in a different medium - writing about music is a lot like painting about how a light well-cooked pasta tastes. Yet Page does it with aplomb. Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” is “an utterly horrible piece; it is also magnificent.” Jean Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 4” is described as “musical cubism.” Lastly, Steve Reich’s “Four Organs”, in what I find is Page’s most stunningly accurate illustration, is “pristine formal perfection; the suspense it builds in a susceptive listener; the ecstasy one feels as the organists dive slowly, deeply, inexorably into Reich’s wonderful chord and then come up renewed.” Page’s language strikes that perfect balance of music criticism - so many critics that I’ve read, both amateur and professional, are often either way too informal or excruciatingly periphrastic, the type of writers who would unironically put “periphrastic” in a sentence, and probably butcher it at that. Page’s eye for criticism is literally Pulitzer-worthy; he brilliantly summarizes his work and - this is the key - makes you incredibly, innocently interested in every composition he writes about.

Criticism is an oft-maligned field of journalism, both from within and without the industry. It’s been varyingly described as a useless task undertaken by pretentious pedagogues and an artless endeavor of glorified promotional workers - and honestly, reading Tiny Mix Tapes and Rolling Stone makes me understand why people think both of those things. However, every once in a while, you’ll happen upon a writer that hits the sweet spot, one who respects the identity of the work but describes it in his own personal voice, one who can talk about Reich to both the captain of your high school football team and Reich himself. Tim Page is one of those critics; God bless him and this wonderfully written, impactful essay.

[signalmodulator]

The Catch Up, Vol. VIII (unfinished)

by Owen Z.

As Signal Modulator finishes its oft-sporadic run of publishing, we’re clearing out our drafts in order to publicize all the projects we were working on for issue 8. Here’s a partially unfinished edition of The Catch Up, featuring releases from Solange, Bon Iver, and The Weeknd.

Subways (The Remixes) EP

The Avalanches

September 23 / Modular

This three-song EP features three different glittering takes on The Avalanches’ effervescent song “Subways”; strangely enough, however, the most memorable one is the one that stays most faithful to the original. In Flagranti’s extended edit of the song takes whimsical strings and weirdly plucky bass line and stretches it out until it lasts 6 exhilarating minutes; the other two, although both decent, are a bit of an afterthought.

A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings

Beach Slang

September 23 / Polyvinyl

Beach Slang wasted no time in following up last year’s debut album The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, but maybe they should have worked a little longer on the also-brilliantly-titled A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings. There are exactly two songs on this record that are truly special, the dizzyingly triumphant “Spin The Dial” and “Young Hearts”, a mid-tempo roaring guitar song with a dollop of melancholy. Beach Slang are perhaps too occupied with the loud bashing on this one; it’s much better when they bring out the “teenage feelings.”

Ape in Pink Marble

Devendra Banhart

September 23 / Nonesuch

Ape in Pink Marble is exactly what you’d expect from Devendra Banhart, but that doesn’t make it bad by any means. This record is a charming collection of 13 new silken soft indie pop songs; the textures are often so delicate you feel like you’re cupping the entire song in your hand. “Middle Names” and “Celebration” are two exemplary demonstrations of this delicacy; other tracks like “Fancy Man” and "Theme for a Taiwanese Woman in Lime Green” combine this delicacy with goofy high tempos.

Dang

Eola

September 23 / Leaving

Brooklyn artist Edwin White’s fifth full-length album as Eola is a deeper exploration of the themes in his four previous ones: Dang is entirely a capella, an experiment in the vocoder and a genre that he likes to call “choral-bluesy.” Overall, Dang is pretty dang unexceptional; because it’s such a sparse album, it almost completely relies on the beauty of its melodies, and only two - “Future Hymns” and “No Getting” - truly stand out.

From Patterns to Details

FIS

September 23 / Multiverse

New Zealand artist FIS has one of 2016′s best experimental albums; From Patterns to Details is a brutally beautiful album, one that manages to explore terrifyingly abrasive and unpredictable territory without compromising color. There are long tracts of noise, and there are short surprising interruptions of god knows what; all you should expect from From Patterns to Details is the unexpected.

I Had A Dream That You Were Mine

Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam

September 23 / Glassnote

Perhaps I Had A Dream That You Were Mine plays a little too much by the rules; Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam’s first album together is a pretty standard mixture of singer/songwriter, chamber pop, and ‘60s-inspired indie rock. But even within these rules, the group finds some beautiful tunes, thanks to Leithauser’s emotion-laden voice and Rostam’s brilliant production. “A 1000 Times” is the song you wish you had your first kiss to; “In a Black Out” makes you want to huddle around a fire in the desert at night. “1959″ is perhaps the album’s best song; like all of Rostam and Leithauser’s best work, it’s unafraid to tug at your heartstrings in the most dizzyingly direct of fashions. Sometimes you don’t have to break the rules to win.

Care

How To Dress Well

September 23 / Domino

From the moment you turn on Care - scratch that, maybe from the moment you look at the soppy album cover - you’ll know that this album blows romance up for the big screen. Everything on Tom Krell’s new album as How To Dress Well is amplified: the hooks, the instrumentals, and yes, the dumb lyrics. Even so, Care works for the same reason that any dramatic pop song might work: it’s full of beautiful, wistful, and nuanced chord progressions. These tunes are catchy, and thanks to the anthemic production by the likes of Jack Antonoff and CFCF, they are both catchy and unforgettably momentous.

The Healing Component

Mick Jenkins

September 23 / Free Nation

Mick Jenkins’ debut album is (expectedly) a grand statement - The Healing Component is about love, and how its various forms need to be cared for and nourished. Although the album is a bit long and certainly loses its shine on a few tracks (like most of his previous works, some of the songs are a bit heavy on production and short on innovation), the concept is extremely well-executed, and you can’t complain with songs like “Communicate” and “Spread Love”.

Slam Dunk Vol. II EP

Sporting Life

September 23 / Letter Racer

The second of three Slam Dunk EPs, this installment in RATKING producer Sporting Life’s series is a little less impressive than the first. Of the four tracks featured here, only “Skip To My Lou” makes a decent to good impression; the rest are rather forgettable.

Campaign

Ty Dolla $ign

September 23 / Atlantic

Ty Dolla $ign’s new mixtape is all of these things: a hilariously generic political statement, a depressingly generic project, and an occasional indicator of his brilliance. While the politics are silly (for an example, check out “$intro” and the end of “No Justice”) and the beats are often completely boring, Ty’s soulful vocals remain his one brilliant attribute. This is why “Stealing” is the best song on the tape; even with all the ham-fisted Clinton endorsements and shiny 808s, Ty Dolla $ign sounds best when his voice is paired with a guitar and nothing more.

Farewell, Starlite!

Francis and the Lights

September 23 / KTTF

After some pretty high-profile collaborations with Chance The Rapper, Kanye West, and Bon Iver, Francis and the Lights’ new album became a quasi-debut for him, or at least to a whole new audience of pop music fans. This record features an all-star cast of production from the likes of Rostam, Bon Iver, Cashmere Cat, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Benny Blanco, and it shows. Farewell, Starlite! has its issues (cheesy lyrics and occasionally excessively quirky production), but it’s an overall interesting and captivating record, full of innovative and beautiful sounds.

Atrocity Exhibition

Danny Brown

September 27 / Warp

Danny Brown’s masterwork. The Detroit rapper’s new album is a harrowing diary of drugs and sex and mental (un)health, and it features several of Brown’s best songs he may ever make. Atrocity Exhibition flows effortlessly from one classic to another - the shivers-inducing posse track “Really Doe”, the trippy “Lost”, the Mario Kart fever dream that is “Ain’t It Funny”. It’s stunningly cohesive and also a tiny bit eye-opening - I, for one, didn’t know rock bottom could be this deep down below the ground.

The Altar

Banks

September 30 / Harvest

Banks’ new album The Altar sees her continue in the same (lack of) light as her 2013 debut - the music on this record is mostly dark, brooding pop in the light of FKA twigs and Kelela, minus a few degrees of creativity. The Altar is mostly filler; these are basically pop songs dressed up for Halloween, and their melodies and chords fall pitifully short of those of Banks’ contemporaries. The best song on the record is the plainest: “Mother Earth” is stunning, and Banks would do well to explore a similarly natural feel on future releases.

22, A Million

Bon Iver

September 30 / Jagjaguwar

Truly one of the year’s best albums, Bon Iver’s 22, A Million sets itself up for monumental failure. This album is incredibly ambitious, but it all works; every strange, Oneohtrix-indebted sample, every banjo pluck, every croon feels perfectly placed. There are memorable moments (the uplifting final chorus of “33 “GOD””, the mind-melting AutoTune of “715 - CRΣΣKS”) and even more memorable lyrics. Vernon continues to find new ways to express his trademark northern spirituality/melancholy; 22, A Million is nothing less than a jewel.

Muzik (Remixes) EP

Delorean

September 30 / PHLEX

While both Pional and El Guincho’s offerings for this three-song remix EP are decent enough, Pedro Vian’s rework takes the cake. Vian essentially takes the original and stretches it further, making the colorful vocals and instrumentals all the more vivid across six minutes. (Although something has to be said about El Guincho’s intrepid dancehall version!)

Blood Bitch

Jenny Hval

September 30 / Sacred Bones

Like last year’s Apocalypse, girl, Jenny Hval’s newest album Blood Bitch deals with our innermost psychological workings - themes of sex, womanhood, and violence are common. This album is different, however; it’s significantly darker, and a fair bit dreamier. It’s also fantastically imaginative - who else would have thought to make an album about menstrual blood through vampire metaphors? You’ll find yourself fascinated, challenged, and a tiny bit obsessed.

Human Energy

Machinedrum

September 30 / Ninjatune

On new album Human Energy, Machinedrum dives deeply into his new sound, which is evidently just a mixture of all his previous work with DJ Mustard’s production quality and fondness for syncopation. These tracks are incredibly similar, but it’s an interesting experiment; with a lesser artist, it might come off as exhausting, but Machinedrum pours so much energy into it that you never get off the ride, so to speak. Highlights are “Angel Speak”, “Dos Puertas”, and the synesthesia-inducing “Spectrum Sequence”.

Lamentations EP

Moses Sumney

September 30

Nymphs

Nicolas Jaar

September 30 / Other People

Watching Nicolas Jaar’s four Nymphs singles trickle out onto the Internet throughout 2015 just does not compare to this. Nymphs was released as a full album along with Sirens on the last day of September, and while its songs were always incredible, they because Jaar’s magnum opus when assembled together. Nymphs I’s two excellent beats set the stage for a half-hour of fearless experimentation in sound design; the hallucinogenic sounds of “The Three Sides of Audrey and Why She’s All Alone Now” are among the best on the album, while “No One Is Looking at U” and “Swim” make for a thrilling 20 minutes of dance music. Nymphs sounds like the music Aphex Twin would make if he were lost in a jungle somewhere.

Sirens

Nicolas Jaar

September 30 / Other People

Sirens, meanwhile, is Jaar’s grimier political statement; it’s a little less colorful than its counterpart. While it doesn’t have Nymphs’ consistent brilliance, there are still some fascinating moments on this album, and Jaar’s increased vocal presence on this one make for an interesting political message. The slow-burning “Killing Time” is a fantastic opener, while the Radiohead-inspired “The Governor” deals with grand themes of corruption and impending destruction. While Sirens is not as musically adventurous as some of Jaar’s previous work, it stands as his most expressive piece of work ever, and that is in no way a bad thing.

When Love Hurts EP

Pional

September 30 / Counter

When Love Hurts is a short, sunny collection of four Balearic house tracks; this release is the epitome of "mildly interesting, nothing more.” Opener “Casualty” sets the groove nicely, and the following three tracks match it easily; however, the closer “The Way That You Like” is the standout, mainly due to Empress Of’s excellent vocals.

A Seat at the Table

Solange

September 30 / Columbia

Solange’s newest album has received extensive comparisons to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly - like that record, this one is a passionate and thoughtful exploration of the black experience in modern America. However, A Seat at the Table goes about things entirely differently - instead of To Pimp A Butterfly’s grand and cathartic arrival at a conclusion, A Seat at the Table starts with a core theme (”Wake up and rise”) before building up into the sky from that. It’s an incredible album, largely thanks to Solange’s blurring of genres and inclusion of collaborators from Dave Longstreth to Lil Wayne.

Epoch

Tycho

September 30 / Ghostly International

You know what you’re getting from a new Tycho album, and Epoch does not disappoint. Tycho makes atmospheric beats that lie somewhere between “full band jams” and “bedroom Boards Of Canada”; his music is richly mastered and tastefully produced. Epoch is the latest installment, and its eleven songs are just as good as anything Tycho has ever done. Call it easy listening, but it’s some of the best easy listening you’ll ever hear.

NANIMONO EP

Yasutaka Nakata

October 5 / Warner Japan

Longtime Kyary Pamyu Pamyu producer Yasutaka Nakata’s song for the Japanese film Nanimono gets the full remix treatment here on this EP, but all the reworks pale in comparison with the original. Danny L Harle and TeddyLoid both have interesting takes, but neither of those remixes is really an improvement upon the original track. Overall, you won’t find yourself returning to the NANIMONO EP.

Mare

Christian Löffler

October 7 / Ki

Mare is more of the same for German producer Christian Löffler, who specializes in textural, melancholy techno music. This release features more sparse, atmospheric beats, and while it does get a little exhausting across 18 tracks, the sparse, atmospheric core is always there.

Somewhere in the Nowhere EP

Chrysta Bell & David Lynch

October 7 / Meta Hari

Chysta Bell & David Lynch’s sleepy, Twin Peaks-esque collaborative EP is mostly unremarkable, but it does yield two beautiful songs: “All the Things” is a deathly prom slow dance, and “Back Seat” is what happens after. Somewhere in the Nowhere may not be remembered in a year’s time, but hopefully these two songs are; they’re nothing short of gorgeous. 

Heart Like a Levee

Hiss Golden Messenger

October 7 / Merge

Heart Like a Levee is the newest record from M.C. Taylor’s Hiss Golden Messenger project, and it’s a consistently pleasant mix of Americana-tinged folk rock throughout. The highlights, however, are opener “Biloxi” with its infectious chorus and the title track, which unfolds its wistful chord progression with grace and panache.

Cody

Joyce Manor

October 7 / Epitaph

2016 was a fantastic year for DIY music, and Joyce Manor’s Cody might just be the best DIY album of the year; it’s a raucously fun record from front to back, and you can tell as soon as you hear Barry Johnson belt out “Fake I.D.”’s chorus: “What do you think about Kanye West / I think that he’s great, I think he’s the best!” That song, “Eighteen”, and everything else is fantastic; Joyce Manor pull no punches on Cody. It’s punchy pop punk - one of the most solid releases of 2016.

Remixes From An Island EP

Mark Barrott

October 7 / International Feel

Mark Barrott’s Sketches From An Island 2 was a welcome addition to his discography; it, along with his other records, has such a distinctive sound that it makes complete sense that a remix EP would follow. Remixes From An Island features four remixes of Barrott’s new album, but one is far ahead of the others: it’s Domenique Dumont’s masterful rework of Sketches highlight “Der Stern, Der Nie Vergeht”. The song, originally a serene sunrise warmup, turns into a nocturnal groove in her hands; she takes Barrott’s web of synths and effects and adds an intoxicating rhythm.

Building a Beginning

Jamie Lidell

October 14

The best part about Jamie Lidell’s new album Building a Beginning is the first five seconds, where the title track begins in absurdly sexy fashion. Lidell spends his time trying to set a good groove on this new LP, but fails most of the time; the instrumentals are simply too bland, as are his lyrics, vocals, and basically everything else. There are more moments like “Building a Beginning” - “In Love and Alone” starts off in a similarly enticing manner - but Lidell can’t seem to work out how to build anything other than a beginning on this new record. (Zing!)

Reflections

Kastle

October 14 / Symbols

Kastle’s new album Reflections is music for the post-digital age; it’s full of imposing bass hits and jagged samples, and it fearlessly moves from Shlohmo to Burial to Machinedrum (basically, it’ll go anywhere that you would call ‘dark electronic music’). While it should be commended for its playfulness with the boundaries of genre, these transitions aren’t always well-executed, and the majority of Reflections comes off as a little too overbearing. Strangely, the best song is the most unabashedly experimental: closer “Masks” is scarily unpredictable. Kastle has basic mastery of all of the musical styles featured on Reflections; however, you’ll find yourself wishing he made one of them his own.

Color

Katie Gately

October 14 / Tri-Angle

The lead single off of Katie Gately’s debut album Color is fascinating; “Tuck” is nightmarishly strange, with Gately singing lost nursery rhymes over perverse beats. However, the rest of Color isn’t as fascinating. This is a very crowded album; each track is bursting with noise, and not always in the best way. There’s plenty going on with this record, but the moments are when one specific thing takes center stage in front of everything else. Regrettably, that doesn’t happen often.

Simple Forms

The Naked And Famous

October 14 / Somewhat Damaged

The Naked And Famous’ third album is an attempted bounce back after a sophomore slump (but then again, what band wouldn’t slump after a debut like 2010′s Passive Me, Aggressive You?), but it doesn’t really pan out. Lead single and album opener “Higher” is the group at their peak; towering choruses with abrasive, buzz-saw synths are where it’s at. However, not many of these tracks have a memorable bite; it’s back to the drawing board for the New Zealand group.

There Is No Right Time

Youandewan

October 14 / Aus

Youandewan’s style of house music is quiet, but distinctive; it’s bleary-eyed but clear at the same time, as if it’s been designed for when you’ve almost finished clearing out the cobwebs in an early morning. There Is No Right Time is the Yorkshire producer’s debut album, and it’s a remarkable mix of music, from crisply refined jams (”Be Good To Me Poly”, “4D Anxiety”) to sprawlingly sentimental ambient house (”Have The Guts”, “Our Odyssey”) to goofy club tracks (”Earnest Kelly”, “Left On Lucy”). It’s a very, very well-designed album; it’s the perfect length, with just enough variation in musical styles without sacrificing individuality. 

Introverted Intuition

Lance Skiiiwalker

October 18 / Top Dawg

Top Dawg’s most esoteric signee makes a splash with this debut album, a cryptic and sludgy mixture of neo-soul and nocturnal hip hop. Lance Skiiiwalker is not a household name, and these songs won’t make him one - the music on Introverted Intuition is fragmented and fractured, with songs suddenly taking flight or falling apart. However, what he has done with this album is show off his skills as a beatmaker, along with his knack for pulling the rug out from under you. Dive into the introverted world of Introverted Intuition, and don’t expect anything to last too long.

American Football

American Football

October 21 / Polyvinyl

Surprise, surprise - the second American Football LP does not live up to the expectations set by the fantastic first album, released 17 years ago. Even still, American Football the second holds up quite well as a standalone emo record. The band’s twinkly guitars are, as they always have been, strangely comforting, and Mike Kinsella’s vocals on songs like “My Instincts Are the Enemy” fit the music perfectly. American Football may not be a new American Football, but it’s a perfectly fine record. American Football may not be exceptional anymore, but they’re reliable.

Big Baby D.R.A.M.

D.R.A.M.

October 21 / Empire

Big Baby D.R.A.M. is D.R.A.M.’s arrival, his first grand statement on a large scale after the runaway success of lead single “Broccoli”. The statements on this album are all eccentric; they remain true to D.R.A.M.’s larger-than-life personality, from the steamy Erykah Badu duet “WiFi” to the analog-meets-AutoTune “Misunderstood” (props to Young Thug for his fantastic feature on that one). However, they don’t all stick - it’s kind of a mixed bag, and while D.R.A.M. is a fun guy to hang around for an hour, there isn’t necessarily anything you’d be hard-pressed to return to. Besides “Broccoli”, that is. You’ll always want to return to “Broccoli”.

Heaven Is for Quitters

FaltyDL

October 21 / Blueberry

New York producer FaltyDL’s fifth LP is exciting at times, but mostly flies under the radar. Heaven Is for Quitters is nocturnal and kind of dreamy; ambient interludes abound, and the album centerpieces are all full of woozy synths and reverb. The highlights are the cosmopolitan sax jam “Bridge Spot” and the magnetizing Rosie Lowe collab “Drugs” - the rest are good, but nothing special.

a new family EP

Felicita

October 21 / PC Music

a new family is the new release from Felicita, one of PC Music’s peripheral producers. Instead of the experimental pop music that the likes of A. G. Cook and SOPHIE work with,  Felicita prefers more straightforwardly experimental stuff, as is evident on a new family - the title track is the most straightforwardly clubby, but still eschews pop’s common verse-chorus form. Instead, a new family explores sounds both abrasive and sweet on an unstructured canvas, and the results are exciting at times. However, the EP drags during the middle - the best song is outlier “Track 6″, an arrestingly bare solo piano piece.

Bonito Generation

Kero Kero Bonito

October 21

Children’s music has the potential to be some of the best music out there - Kero Kero Bonito’s Bonito Generation isn’t exactly children’s music per se, but it’s surprisingly sophisticated as well. “Fish Bowl” features an out-of-nowhere shoegaze hook, “Lipslap” is an exhilarating hip house romp, and “Picture This” is a simplistic but brilliantly composed pop song. This extends beyond just the music - the lyrics are brilliantly layered so that they can appeal to people in various stages of their life. “Picture This” could be about the simple joys of technology, or it could be about the dangers of showing “everybody you’ve ever known.” “Trampoline” has a brilliant double meaning - jumping on a trampoline could also mean finding “your rhythm” to break out of depression. Bonito Generation is one of the most exhilaratingly original albums of the year.

Joanne

Lady Gaga

October 21 / Interscope

Lady Gaga renounces weirdness for this new LP - Joanne is a fairly straightforward pop rock album, albeit with country influences. This means that occasionally, Gaga is, well, boring, something she’s never been before. The music on Joanne can be a little too straightforward at times; some of these songs lack “centerpiece” melodies or features to capture the ears. But there are also some of Gaga’s best songs to date: the title track is captivatingly gorgeous, and the Kevin Parker-produced “Perfect Illusion” is a brilliant pop portrayal of despair and betrayal, perfect for the always-dramatic Gaga. Joanne is an interesting development in Lady Gaga’s career; while not entirely successful, it certainly has its moments.

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

October 21 / Sony

Even as a fascinating final glimpse at the life of the late Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker rarely feels essential - it is never an album you will struggle to stop listening to. However, it’s just about as good as an album can get without giving you that feeling; the opening track features elegant vocal arrangements, both realizations of “Treaty” are beautifully bare, and Cohen’s grey, ashy voice is a joy to listen to throughout. You Want It Darker is not another ★, but it’s a very solid album from one of the 20th century’s greatest artists.

Yes Lawd!

NxWorries

October 21 / Stones Throw

Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge on Stones Throw - no, you’re not dreaming. The Oxnard soul man and the skittery, lo-fi hip hop producer team up on Yes Lawd!, a smoky 50-minute affair sure to get your stoner friends buzzing. Yes Lawd! suffers from what a lot of beat albums suffer from - several of the tracks on here are stoner jokes of the worst variety (”H.A.N.” comes to mind). But there are also fantastic beats that .Paak augments brilliantly: “What More Can I Say”, “Link Up”, and the album-highlight woozy slow dance that is “Another Time”. .Paak and Knxwledge work together - let’s hope they perfect their product soon for another album as NxWorries.

Front Row Seat To Earth

Weyes Blood

October 21 / Kemado

Weyes Blood’s newest is perfectly summarized by its cover: laconic, dramatic, glittery, and utterly beautiful. Natalie Mering’s heavenly voice drifts across these songs like sunbeams an hour before sunset - the songs themselves are rich with golden guitar and other warm tones. Most of these tracks work up to cathartic crescendos: “Do You Need My Love” and “Used to Be” are this way, and they both brilliantly hit their mark, the former with towering choirs and the latter with trumpets. The standout, however, is “Generation Why”, a disillusioned ballad masked in a wistful, otherworldly chord progression. A little iPhone notification sound breaks through the mix about a minute in - it only contributes to Weyes Blood’s majesty.

Dog Food EP

GFOTY & Spinee

October 24 / PC Music

GFOTY and Spinee are two of PC Music’s most off-putting characters, and that’s saying something - therefore, a release like Dog Food is sure to test the boundaries of your tastes. This EP is exhilarating - eight tracks, most under two minutes, each exploring garish pop trends both present and past. “CASH COWS” is a happy hardcore stomper with a disorienting vaporwave outro; “MONEY ME” is a gooey capitalist anthem with some very SOPHIE-sounding climbing basslines. Of course, there are plenty of moments where Dog Food is hard to stomach, but it’s certainly never boring. My favorite moment? The line “walking down the street in my brand new car” - it perfectly summarizes the gleeful rebellion of this jarring EP.

Call Him A Doctor EP

GFOTY

October 25 / PC Music

A day after the release of Dog Food, another GFOTY project comes, and this one is much, much different. Call Him A Doctor explores some of the same sonic territory, of course, but it’s strangely beautiful in the way it unfolds - it might be one of the best PC Music releases yet. From the unexpected rock-influenced opening track onwards, things are packed with surprisingly touching musical flourishes. “Snakes + Ladders” is abrasive at the beginning, but suddenly evens out into an Art Angels-esque industrial pop jam; “You Don’t” features messy guitar solos on top of a full, wistful arrangement for strings. The best of them all is “The Argument”, where an amorphous instrumental track and an absurd rhyme scheme from GFOTY (no spoilers) slowly combine to win you over. Try and not just marvel in the weirdness of it all.

Bucket List Project

Saba

October 26

After hitting it big with his chorus on Chance The Rapper’s “Angels”, Chicago rapper Saba’s debut album is full of the same exuberant personality - just listen to opening track “In Loving Memory” and that jazzy, warm sound is apparent. However, Bucket List Project just doesn’t have the same killer instinct as a Chance mixtape; too many of these tracks glide by without making much of an impression. The one piece of true brilliance is “Westside Bound 3″, where Saba’s ridiculous flow - “And I’m from the part of the city that they don’t be talkin’ about” - latches onto a beat that is both warmly accessible and unmistakably ambitious. It’s in moments like those where you can hear the potential in Saba’s music - unfortunately, he’s unable to sustain this through all of Bucket List Project.

Joy

Brandt Brauer Frick & Beaver Sheppard

October 28 / K7!

The German trio of producers known as Brandt Brauer Frick added a fourth to their ranks for Joy, their new album - vocalist Beaver Sheppard sings over all ten of these tracks. Maybe he isn’t to blame directly, but Joy is a little bit more poppy as a result of his presence; it’s clear that these songs are structured to accommodate Sheppard’s verses. This change does not work well for Brandt Brauer Frick; most of these songs are utterly uninteresting, with no exciting progression á la “Bop”. Joy is rather joyless.

January Tape

Cut Copy

October 28 / Cutters

Cut Copy’s last two albums were really, really good - the Australian indie dance band continues to have a knack for crafting blissfully weird dance pop. They’ve clearly taken a break - January Tape is far from a proper follow up to 2013′s Free Your Mind, but it’s an okay enough interlude between full albums. This tape is not for light listening - the five tracks are connected to form a continuous, 40-plus-minute progression. While things never really converge into masterful ambient music, you always get a feeling of momentum, and that’s worthwhile - January Tape isn’t magical, but it’s a lovely way to wake up in the morning. I’d check it out if I were you.

Labyrinths

Daedelus

October 28 / Magical Properties

Beatmaker Daedelus’ first solo album in two years is a collage of various sounds and experiments, and this diversity both helps and hinders the album. Some - like the wonderfully sunny opener “Aries” or the jazzy groove of album highlight “Special Re: Quest” - are fantastic. Others uselessly hang in the balance as they indecisively make several cluttered statements at once. Overall, Labyrinths is one of those albums you cherry-pick your favorites from; you may not want to spend too much time in this maze.

DC4

Meek Mill

October 28 / Maybach

“Back To Back” or no “Back To Back”, you know what you’re getting from Meek Mill - his new album DC4 is just as direct as any of his previous releases. His act is admittedly getting a little old (or, was it ever exciting across an entire album?) but, as always, there are highlights. On DC4, it’s when Meek mixes his one-dimensional style with that of a featured artist; when this goes right, both artists’ contributions benefit. Tory Lanez kills it with his AutoTuned chorus in “Litty”, and Young Thug and 21 Savage do a great job in bookending “Offended”. You probably shouldn’t expect front-to-back consistency from DC4, but then again, you probably weren’t before you read this. Just know that, as always, Meek Mill has his moments.

Talk To You Soon

Ricky Eat Acid

October 28 / Terrible

Ricky Eat Acid’s new album is supposedly something of a comment on communication in our digital world; Talk To You Soon features plenty of digitized voices and glossy, welcoming synth pads, and you only need to listen to the eerie “Never Alone in a Dark Room” to tell. While this concept doesn’t necessarily fly across the album’s full 40 minutes, Ricky strikes gold several times with his simpler ambient experiments. Little interlude “Know” is a slice of precious, electric optimism; meanwhile, “Fucking to Songs on Radios” takes a potentially embarrassing refrain and spins it into a surprisingly touching lo-fi electronic pop song. Talk To You Soon might be slightly top-heavy (the back end of this album is a bit of a flop) but you’ll find a silver lining at the beginning of this cloud. Pun intended.

Cozy Tapes: Vol. 1 Friends-

A$AP Mob

October 31 / RCA

After a tour with Tyler, the Creator, A$AP Rocky - and his Mob by extension - seems like he’s having more fun than ever before, and A$AP Mob’s new mixtape mirrors this; at the end of the day, this is just a bunch of irreverent bangers thrown together, the result of a few months’ worth of casual studio sessions. This means that there’s plenty of unnecessary stuff here - for one, the skits (all of them long, none of them funny) could have been axed, and some of the features are a little lazy. But other moments make Cozy Tapes: Vol. 1 Friends- very redeemable: “Yamborghini High”’s beat is ridiculously cool, A$AP Nast sounds utterly at home on top of the old-school “Nasty’s World”, and Tyler, the Creator stops by for a ruthless verse in the middle of the headache-inducing “Telephone Calls”. Cozy Tapes: Vol. 1 Friends- is nothing more than a goofy promo tape for A$AP Mob and their various pals, but it floats off of the sheer fun factor of some of these tracks.

HERE

Alicia Keys

November 4 / RCA

After releasing the excellent single “In Common” and releasing raw and exciting new album art, everything pointed towards HERE being a surprising comeback for Alicia Keys. However, this record winds up being a bloated disappointment, one which deals too much in clichés and too little in actually exciting artistic statements. HERE’s songs are vintage 2000s with their use of acoustic guitars and clean, crispy drum programming; unfortunately, Keys takes the bare vulnerability in the production and fails to do anything other than overplay it. The only song worth listening to is “Where Do We Begin Now”, which sports a wonderful descending piano riff and some excellent drums. Overall, however, HERE is a decisive letdown.

Collage EP

The Chainsmokers

November 4 / Disruptor

The Chainsmokers have made headlines in the last year as one of the most formulaic pop machines out there; it’s more than clear by now that the duo has a successful blueprint for a song, and they won’t be changing anytime soon. Collage sees them riding on the back of “Closer”, their most successful song yet, and while it’s far from a perfect pop release, it’s got its moments. “Don’t Let Me Down” is completely forgettable, but all the other tracks feature some exciting moments; the buildup and release of “All We Know” is electric, the drop in “Setting Fires” is explosive, and “Inside Out” features some tried-and-true chords which are only blown up to larger proportions during the chorus. “Closer” is the best song on the EP, though - even if you’ve heard it too much and the drop gets a little old, the verses and buildup is better than any Chainsmokers song. Collage isn’t that strong of a project, but it’s fascinating as documentation of The Chainsmokers’ ruthless formula for pop gold.

A Fistful of Peril

CZARFACE

November 4 / Silver Age

CZARFACE continue doing what they do best on A Fistful of Peril, the comic book-obsessed hip hop group’s third album and follow up to the only-a-year-old Every Hero Needs a Villain. Just like that record, this one gets better as you get deeper into it - while the first few tracks struggle to find a rhythm, CZARFACE hit their stride by “Revenge on Lizard City” and kill it thereafter. Credit is due to Inspectah Deck for serving another batch of excellent beats; 7L and Esoteric both do a fine job in tandem on the mic as well. A Fistful of Peril proves for a second time that CZARFACE are here to stay.

Say It (Remixes) EP

Flume & Tove Lo

November 4 / Mom+Pop

Flume’s slowly unfolding colossus “Say It” was a highlight off of his album Skin - he gives it the remix treatment on this EP, with contributions from Clean Bandit, Anna Lunoe, SG Lewis, and Stwo. Most are decent but nowhere near the quality of the original; the only one that comes close is Lunoe’s glittery house remix, which restructures the original’s chord progression into silver synth stabs. As for the rest... not much to say.

Slam Dunk Vol. III EP

Sporting Life

November 4 / Letter Racer

The third and final installment of RATKING producer Sporting Life’s Slam Dunk EP series is the least impressive of the three, even though it’s positively stacked with exciting collaborations (Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes, Wiki, and Babyfather all stop by). Hynes sounds a bit out of place on opener “Nothing To Hide”, but Wiki’s verse brings things nicely into place; “Jumpball” and “Espy” are both rather uneventful, and Babyfather’s mix of “Nothing To Hide” is a good-but-not-great rework of the song. Slam Dunk Vol. III is a little too sleepy; the material would do well as part of a larger project, but it’s nothing to write home about as things stand.

On The Green Again

Tiger & Woods

November 4 / T & W

Tiger & Woods are here to comfort you while Todd Terje is away. The Italian production duo make dance music that is quite similar to Terje’s stuff in its unrestrained joy; these guys will get you moving in a way that is goofy, golf-y, and entirely unpretentious. On The Green Again, their second LP, is another great journey through ‘80s instrumentation and upbeat grooves. It’s a little long and a little too ‘club-ready’ (not much variation in these songs) but it’s still solidly consistent, and the tracks that do have tricks hidden away are more than worth checking out. 

Nightride

Tinashe

November 4 / RCA

Nightride

comes during Tinashe’s struggle to get her career off of the ground after 2014′s lovely

Aquarius

; she says that it’s the first part of a two-part series that

Joyride

will hopefully complete. This album definitely deserves its title: it’s dreamy and dark, with lots of deep 808 hits, midtempo jams, and slurred production.

Nightride

has the vibe down, but it’s missing some

momentum.

While plenty of these tracks (”Lucid Dreaming” and “Sunburn”, for example) have a nicely gloomy atmosphere, too many of them lack any kind of kinetic energy.

Beautiful Things You Left Us for Memories

Pedro Vian

November 9 / Modern Abstract

Barcelona producer Pedro Vian makes classic Balearic dance music; light, airy and summery, with just enough psychedelia to still be able to fit into a dark night in the club. However, this album, his debut, isn't exactly firing on all cylinders; Beautiful Things You Left Us for Memories is somewhat bloated with midtempo cuts and ambient periods that don't contribute anything to the mix. The darkly propulsive "Maia" is the highlight; other than that, Beautiful Things You Left Us for Memories rather disappoints.

Are We Not Burning: The Devolution Of Capsized EP

Andrew Bird

November 11 / Wagawam

Listening to Andrew Bird's latest album Are You Serious only serves to further drive home the idea that Mr. Bird might be one of the most listenable musicians on the planet. He could play the same song over and over and, thanks to his improvisational skills and quickness of mind on the violin, it would never get old. That's exactly what he does with Are We Not Burning: The Devolution Of Capsized - Bird takes "Capsized", an excellent cut off of Are You Serious, and transforms it four different times into four different 'songs' across various live performances. All four versions are excellent - a final version recorded at Sound City Studios takes the cake - and Bird proves a point: his music sounds good no matter what he does with it.

DedSec - Watch Dogs 2

Hudson Mohawke

November 11 / Warp

Hudson Mohawke's Watch Dogs 2 score is his first full-fledged piece of work since 2015's disappointing Lantern - unfortunately, DedSec falls victim to the same issues, although maybe for different reasons considering the music on this project was designed to fit a different medium. Even still, most this music is simply unpleasant to listen to, from the pointless video game stabs of "Burning Desire" to the decent but ultimately forgettable efforts of the off-kilter "Amethyst". Mohawke is still at his best when he makes grand pop statements - on Lantern, it was "Scud Books" and "Ryderz", and here, it's the glittery opener "Shanghaied". The rest of DedSec, however, is an exercise in futility.

Love Songs: Part Two

Romare

November 11 / Ninja Tune

It makes sense that Romare's album covers are entirely made up of monochrome cartoons; his music has the same sophisticated, sly sense of humor. Love Songs: Part Two is his new collection of sample-based and love-obsessed dance music, and there are some fantastically weird tracks on here. Take opener "Who To Love?", where a woman's vocals are digitally prolonged on top of some jazzy chords. Everything is slightly, gloriously off key. "Honey" is another track that builds to a satisfyingly golden climax out of a few bare instruments; this one features saloon piano and a flat-sounding flute thing. "Je T'aime" is the best, however; a kooky stomper of a song that builds into a mind-melting chorus. Love Songs: Part Two doesn't land every punchline, but for the most part, Romare is clinically on target.

We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service

A Tribe Called Quest

November 11 / Epic

A Tribe Called Quest's return could not have been handled more brilliantly - We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service is a near-flawless finale to the rap group's illustrious career. Q-Tip, Jarobi, the late Phife Dawg, and guests (Busta Rhymes, André 3000, Anderson .Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and others) combine to craft an intimidatingly smooth double album, one which coasts so coolly and comfortably that it's easy to lose track of time. "The Space Program" is a wonderful opener, "Dis Generation" is utter bliss, "Black Spasmodic" is addictively jerky, and "The Donald" is a brilliant finale; Tribe make their exit in unforgettable fashion.

Sixth Stitch

Via App

November 11 / Break World

Sixth Stitch is a grower, that's for sure. Dylan Scheer's second album as Via App is packed with unexpected sounds; one minute, you're listening to the broken-record techno of eight-minute opener "Far She", the next, you're hearing weird one-minute synth experiments quickly pass through your headphones. Sixth Stitch is an exploration in atonality to the extreme; none of these tracks have central keys or melodies. Instead, they jump around aimlessly - sometimes, like on the bouncy "Visabel" or the thrumming "Airborne Shuffle", this is really interesting, and sometimes it's a dead end. 

24K Magic

Bruno Mars

November 18 / Atlantic

Bruno Mars returns with a new kind of feeling on 24K Magic, the follow-up to 2012′s Unorthodox Jukebox and his first major release since Mark Ronson’s addictive “Uptown Funk” hit the radio. 24K Magic follows in that hit’s footsteps; Mars is full of élan and personality on this nine-track, 30-minute stomper. This album draws heavily from the music of the 1980s - Michael Jackson, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Warren G especially - but it manages to stay exciting and fresh. “24K Magic” is the thrilling opener, “Versace On The Floor” and “Straight Up & Down” are the ballads, and “Calling All My Lovelies” is the psychedelic poolside jam. 24K Magic is a pleasant surprise; out of nowhere, Bruno Mars has come through with a consistently good pop record.

Redemption

Dawn Richard

November 18 / Local Action

Dawn Richard’s new record Redemption features a heavy production influence from Machinedrum - the producer has co-production credits on nine of the album’s fifteen songs, and these songs’ fizzy energy mirror that of the songs on Machinedrum’s album Human Energy. It’s a good overall fit, if unspectacular; Richard does well on top of bouncy club tracks like “Renegades” and “Voices”. The rest of the album sits uncomfortably close to “in one ear and out the other” territory, however - Richard still struggles to put out a front-to-back impressive project.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 7 is here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 7, for the autumn 2016 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $23.

[signalmodulator]

The Catch Up, Vol. VII - Summer 2016

Check out our roundup of this summer’s biggest and best releases, from Frank Ocean to Young Thug to Lil Yachty.

Esco Terrestrial

Future

June 24

Future’s new project, his third of this year after Purple Reign and EVOL, is much more scattered and hit-or-miss than the other two. Esco Terrestrial is sixteen tracks of DJ Esco-hosted southern hip hop, and although it boasts an impressive list of features (Drake, 2 Chainz, Young Thug, Rae Sremmurd, and more) the songs themselves are rarely impressive. Although Future has put out some incredible projects in the last 12 months, Esco Terrestrial is a rare misstep - the beats and vocals are both not up to par on this one.

The Mountain Will Fall

DJ Shadow

June 24 / Mass Appeal

DJ Shadow has spent his entire career in the shadow of his first album, Entroducing....., and his new record does nothing to challenge the superiority of that classic. However, The Mountain Will Fall does seem like a solid - if unexceptional - escape of ‘90s-era Shadow; the beats on here are all very modern and very unique. While no particular song stands out on this project, Shadow has proved that he can be a 2016 artist instead of a mere memory of one great album.

Bobby Tarantino

Logic

July 1 / Def Jam

After releasing the lengthy and lofty The Incredible True Story last November, Logic made a speedy return this summer with a searing new mixtape, Bobby Tarantino. It’s clear that this tape is an If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late of sorts - unlike most Logic projects, it’s a mere half-hour of half-cooked pop rap. However, strangely enough, it works most of the time - Logic’s fiercer, less ambitious approach makes for some truly memorable songs. “Flexicution”, “Slave II”, and the Pusha T collab “Wrist” are all incredibly well-done songs, perfect mixtures of Logic’s compact, clinical bars and 6ix’s icy, bare production. While some of the more improvised tracks near the end of the tape lose the momentum, Bobby Tarantino is an impressive project overall. It’s ironic that on his shortest and most compact release, Logic sounds at his most ambitious.

Kingdom EP

Gold Panda

July 1

One of the many reasons that Gold Panda has made his mark in electronic music is that he has a profound skill for creating an atmosphere. Kingdom, an EP quietly released in the wake of the result of the Brexit referendum, is almost solely focused on this trait; unlike his new album Good Luck And Do Your Best, Kingdom is dominated by long periods of either ambient music or minimal techno. While the results are never revolutionary, they’re always appreciated - Kingdom is yet another successful release for Gold Panda, a solid collection of lo-fi electronic tunes.

Sketches From An Island 2

Mark Barrott

July 1 / International Feel

Once Mark Barrott moved to Ibiza and released the first Sketches From An Island, his music grew quietly popular, perhaps due to how unique and divisive it is. Sketches From An Island 2, the deceptively titled third installment of his Sketches From An Island series, continues Barrott’s work in the field of Balearic beat music - this album lies somewhere in between the ranges of ambient music, summery Ibiza club music, and the kind of inoffensive new age tunes that grace commercials for beachside resorts. Sometimes, these experiments work - “Brunch With Suki” is wonderfully lush and relaxing, and “Der Stern, Der Nie Vergeht” is the album’s glittery ambient highlight - and sometimes they don’t, coming across as merely boring.  

Waking at Dawn

Roy Woods

July 1 / OVO

Roy Woods’ debut album is the third OVO release this year, and like other OVO acts (Drake, PARTYNEXTDOOR), Woods’ music showcases a desire to move towards a more dancehall-oriented sound. However, Waking at Dawn, a short album with short songs, goes in and out the ears without leaving anything memorable. Woods’ voice is pleasant, and the beats are generally well-made and nicely diverse throughout the record. All in all, though, it’s as if Woods is on autopilot - Waking at Dawn struggles not to fall back asleep. 

COOLAID

Snoop Dogg

July 1 / Doggy Style

Snoop Dogg has worn many musical hats in recent years, but his new album COOLAID garnered a lot of attention compared to his other recent works - this is because COOLAID marked a return to Snoop’s sunny West Coast hip hop origins. Unfortunately, as nice as it is to hear Snoop in his natural hip hop habitat, COOLAID is a shockingly long and joyless affair, an unending slog featuring plenty of distasteful sexism and unnecessary Swizz Beatz features. COOLAID had promise, but it turns out to be just as crude and cartoonish as its goofy artwork.

Dream World

araabMUZIK

July 5

Although not widely accepted as such, araabMUZIK’s debut album Electronic Sound was something of a minor classic in the world of electronic music - at the very least, it was a confident and exciting record from an artist representing a new sound. Five years later, however, araabMUZIK seems to have lost all forward momentum with Dream World, a garishly uncomfortable album of brash, unoriginal big room house and played-out dubstep tracks. The one salvageable track is “Chasing Pirates”, a remake of American singer Raiche’s song of the same name - her vocals are wonderfully lightweight on top of the tightly contorting beat. However, the rest of Dream World leaves a terrible taste in the mouth; this is not one we’ll be returning to, by any means.

Cheetah EP

Aphex Twin

July 8 / Warp

Aphex Twin’s continuous return to music after 2014′s Syro has been marked by a series of pleasant if unspectacular releases, and his new release Cheetah continues that pattern with a short collection of dreamy midtempo songs. The music on this EP kind of softly hums in the background of your headphones; don’t expect any revolutionary music á la Richard D. James Album or Drukqs, but you’re guaranteed to get more playful, mildly groovy IDM.

IV

BadBadNotGood

July 8 / Innovative Leisure

This is BadBadNotGood’s first album with any kind of colorful artwork, and it fits - IV is perhaps the jazz fusion group’s best and most vivid work yet. From the wildly expressive opener “And That, Too.”, to Samuel T. Herring’s gripping vocal contribution to “Time Moves Slow”, to the wonderfully light soul of Charlotte Day Wilson collab “In Your Eyes”, IV stays adventurous, rich, and groovy. BadBadNotGood are quickly establishing themselves as a mainstay of modern jazz - IV only helps with this reputation.

Windings EP

Lindstrøm

July 8 / Smalltown Supersound

It’s called “space disco”, the music that Lindstrøm makes, and although the term seems pretentious and maybe even a little fake at first sight, it couldn’t be more appropriate when describing the Norwegian producer’s new Windings EP. Hyperactive bass lines and cheap, jittery disco synths contribute most of the main melodies, but the sound is given some breathing room through the addition of airy, atmospheric synths and percussion in the back of the mix. Windings uses this formula brilliantly - lead single “Closing Shot” and its two companion tracks are all brilliant and slightly different takes on the space disco sound. It’s hard to make music that is both dreamy and rooted to the dance floor, but Lindstrøm accomplishes it wonderfully with Windings.

Blank Face

ScHoolboy Q

July 8 / Interscope

Even though Kendrick Lamar is the undisputed king of the Top Dawg crew, ScHoolboy Q can be just as exciting, mainly because he brings to the table what Kendrick does not - brutal, dark West Coast hip hop, the type of gangsta theater that functions as both a depressing warning and a thrillingly twisted fantasy. Blank Face is the most comprehensive ScHoolboy Q album yet - although it well exceeds an hour at 17 tracks, the album progresses fantastically well thanks to the variety of songs featured. From “THat Part”’s poppy trap rap, to “Groovy Tony”’s intense, percussive beat, to the dark duo of “By Any Means” and “Dope Dealer”, to the psychedelic hip hop masterpiece that is “JoHn Muir”, to closer “Tookie Knows II” (which is perhaps one of the best gangsta rap tracks of the year) - Blank Face is stuffed with music that ranges from frightening to plain old groovy. ScHoolboy Q’s best album yet. 

Nothing’s Real

Shura

July 8 / Bsessi Limited

In a decade where sparkly synthpop was probably played out by 2013, the fact that Shura’s debut album is cohesive and actually notable is certainly surprising. The English musician’s debut, a 50-minute album featuring nine full tracks, two ambient interludes, and one mammoth “found sound” closer, is jarringly emotional and warmly catchy from start to finish. Songs like “What’s It Gonna Be?” and “Touch” have a desperation to them - Shura’s voice, while nothing particularly unique, bleeds quiet yearning. Nothing’s Real is one of the biggest sleeper successes of the year - keep an eye on what Shura does in the future.

Stateless

Tangents

July 8 / Temporary Residence

Before the release of their debut album Stateless, Australian band Tangents put out a Four Tet remix of their song “Jindabyne”, one which, along with currently being their most popular track, nicely illustrates what is so good about their music. The Four Tet remix, a bonus track on Stateless, is full of clanging percussion and distortion; there’s less of a focus on melody and more of a focus on pure, restless rhythm. The main songs on Stateless are similar - although the album could maybe use a bit more color in general, songs like “Oberon” and “N-Mission” are uplifting, quietly delirious mishmashes of polite jazzy noise. You won’t hear many jazz albums this year that have better rhythms than this one.

Savage Mode

21 Savage & Metro Boomin

July 15 / Slaughter Gang

Metro Boomin’s first project in three years is a collaborative mixtape with the Atlanta rapper 21 Savage, and the iconic producer’s sound has never sounded more idiosyncratic. The beats on this project are some of Metro’s best - it’s a sad state of affairs on the mic, though, as 21 Savage is plenty menacing without actually doing anything deserving of praise. Hooks, bars, an attractive voice - he’s got none of them. All things considered, Savage Mode is a regrettable waste of cutting-edge production.

32 Levels

Clams Casino

July 15 / Columbia

Clams Casino’s debut album suffers from a lot of the same maladies as other “producer albums” - 32 Levels is full of different collaborators and genres, with the result being that it’s less of a Clams Casino album and more of an album produced by Clams Casino. Of course, there are highlights - Vince Staples kills it on “All Nite”, and both the opening and closing instrumental tracks, “Level 1” and “Blast”, are some of Clams’ best beats yet. Overall, however, the collaborations on 32 Levels are hit-and-miss, making for an inconsistent listen.

Made To Measure EP

Darkstar

July 15 / Warp

Made To Measure is a short companion EP to Darkstar’s recent album Foam Island - the EP features vocals from Empress Of and Gaika. Altogether, Made To Measure makes for a solid short listen, full of Darkstar’s jittery ogranic electronics. The Empress Of track “Reformer” is the clear standout - the other three are decent. Overall, pretty middle-of-the-road EP - new, mildly exciting sounds and interesting collabs, but nothing to write home about.

Scum With Boundaries

The I.L.Y’s

July 16 / Third Worlds

Scum With Boundaries is the second album of Death Grips side project The I.L.Y’s, the follow-up to last year’s I’ve Always Been Good at True Love. Zach Hill handles the vocals on this one, and although there are some truly mind-melting bangers on here (”Spiral to Me” is the clear standout), the full album seems to be missing the vocal histrionics of MC Ride.

Summer Songs 2

Lil Yachty

July 20 / Quality Control

Having turned on this tape with no prior experience of Lil Yachty other than a disgusted 20-second preview of “1 Night”, I was pleasantly surprised by how diverse, spirited, and unconventional it was. Summer Songs 2 is perhaps the next incarnation of trap music - after T.I., Gucci Mane, Future, Young Thug, and Rae Sremmurd, this tape falls cleanly into the genre of trap music. However, the artist I was most reminded of while listening was not any of those Atlanta icons - it was Chance The Rapper, who similarly stocks his mixtapes with inspirational, youthful messages alongside all the pop rap braggadocio. Yachty’s emotional versatility allows him to play with trap music like very few can. On “DipSet”, Yachty and Offset trade laconic bars over a beat sampled from the anime series Cowboy Bebop; the result is an enjoyably weird song, as if Moonrise Kingdom was set in Atlanta. Closer “So Many People” trades the trap percussion for a dusty drum machine, which sets the foundation for Yachty’s success story. “Pretty”, the best track on the mixtape, is a heartwarming love song: “I stroll through cities / gang, they stay with me / But never has I seen someone so pretty like you,” goes the chorus. Whether Yachty is the next wave or not, Summer Songs 2 is a wonderful mixtape, the sound of an artist exploring and testing his boundaries.

Bloom EP

ATTLAS

July 22 / mau5trap

Signed to deadmau5′s mau5trap label, Toronto producer ATTLAS makes open, warm pop house - like Kygo, but without the weird appropriation of instruments. His new Bloom EP is a decent collection of these tracks, if unspectacular - at least “Ryat” and “Avenue Road” are definitely worth hearing, and “Shadow Play” isn’t that bad either. The use of acoustic guitar throughout the EP is a nice touch - even though these tracks aren’t doing anything groundbreaking, Bloom is still a satisfactory EP.

Everybody Looking

Gucci Mane

July 22 / Atlantic

After making his highly publicized return from imprisonment, Gucci Mane made his return almost immediately - Everybody Looking came a mere two months later. Featuring Drake, Kanye West, and Young Thug, it attempts to capitalize upon Gucci’s post-jail popularity - although “Richest N**** In The Room”, “1st Day Out Tha Feds”, the Drake and Kanye collabs, and a few other tracks are all nice enough, the album is overall rather bloated and overproduced, like eating too many McDonald’s cheeseburgers in one sitting. Ah, well. It’s nice to have Gucci back.

Lil Durk 2X

Lil Durk

July 22 / Def Jam

Lil Durk’s oft-delayed second album is finally out, and he seems to have taken a few leaves out of Young Thug’s book. Lil Durk 2X features some great production, especially from Wheezy on “Check” and Sonny Digital on “True” - Durk, meanwhile, kills it lyrically in several places, particularly “My Beyoncé”, a heartwarming duo with loved one Dej Loaf. Although Lil Durk 2X definitely slips up, especially in the album’s second half, it’s overall a decent record, with some real highlights.

Quintesence EP

Ricardo Donoso

July 22 / Denovali

After putting out two transfixing records in 2015 (especially Saravá Exu), Ricardo Donoso’s first solo release of 2016, the Quintesence EP, is just as captivatingly dark and labyrinthine. Originally a soundtrack to a Florence To installation, Quintesence stands just as well on its own; the names of the songs point towards the process of mitosis, and the music is just as deceptively human. Another great release from Donoso.

Major Key

DJ Khaled

July 29 / Epic

Thanks to his Snapchat and the barrage of memes and product placement that came with it, DJ Khaled blew up last fall, and Major Key, his first release since then, comes appropriately stacked with starpower. No need to waste space by listing the full features list - suffice it to say that like most DJ Khaled records, a few songs stand out and the rest are ridiculously overloaded. The standouts here: “For Free”, where Drake’s flow and Nineteen85′s samples mesh incredibly well; “I Got the Keys”, where Jay Z puts in some work over a phenomenal Southside beat; and “Work For It”, where Big Sean and Gucci Mane both impress over Metro Boomin’s typically strong production. The rest, Meghan Trainor and all, ranges from decent to utterly unredeemable.

Romantic Comedies

Foozle

July 29 / Babe City

Washington, D.C. outfit Foozle’s sophomore album is a pleasantly sunny collection of soft slacker rock tunes - the best of these is “Letterman”, which benefits from a driving bass line and some wonderful, late-night-TV-inspired vocals. Other than that, however, not much pops out the second time around - even though plenty of these tracks are nice enough, Romantic Comedies doesn’t offer much replay value.

In Summer

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma

July 29 / Devotion

After his decent 2015 album A Year With 13 Moons, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s new album is just as spacey and a little less stimulating. Although opener and lead single “Love’s Refrain” is good enough, especially as it slowly melts from a VHS dream into VHS sludge, the rest of the album is rather forgettable. A great experiment from Cantu-Ledesma, but nothing that takes you to another world.

For All We Know

NAO

July 29 / Little Tokyo

NAO’s debut album comes after two highly received EPs, and this album, although longer and more ambitious, is just as lovely. Although she dabbles in the kind of bouncy, hiccupy synthpop that could absolutely take alt-rock radio waves by storm, NAO never really succumbs to repeating the same trick over and over again. "Get to Know Ya” is a summery guitar track; “Inhale Exhale” is driven by its vicious, rubbery bass; “Bad Blood” makes use of sensual silence in between bombastic synth hits. The only similarity is the effect it has on you: it makes your blood boil and your body rock to the beat. For All We Know is a great album, pairing NAO’s electric voice with some electrifying production. 

Trim

Trim

July 29 / 1-800 Dinosaur

Although this is technically an album by the British grime MC Trim, Trim is much more than that - it’s the debut LP released by the label 1-800 Dinosaur, James Blake’s group of producers like-minded in their vision to take club and hip hop music decades forward into the future. This record is full of minimal, futuristic beats, even compared to most grime production, and it couldn’t be better. Trim is vicious on top of these skeletal tracks - “Waco”’s bleacher stomp and organ stabs, the distorted guitar and swirling underbelly of “White Room”, and the sonic barrage that is “RPG”, Blake’s riveting contribution to the LP. Trim is a brilliant album; look out for more from the 1-800 Dinosaur crew.

GENERATIONWHY

ZHU

July 29 / Columbia

ZHU teeters between lush ‘80s synthpop and modern pop house, and these two genres dictate GENERATIONWHY, the producer’s debut album. Although the singles (the fleet-footed ”In the Morning”, the Miami-at-sunrise-sounding “Palm of My Hand”, and “Generationwhy”, which struts irresistibly for four groovy minutes) are all fantastic, the rest of the album is painfully underdeveloped and often cringey. GENERATIONWHY shows promise, but ZHU has plenty to work on, his lyrics and his consistency especially.

Superimpose EP

The Range

August 4 / Domino

The Range’s companion EP to his 2016 album Potential is a little less flashy; this is a seven-track affair consisting of album leftovers and reworks by producer Damian Taylor. While Superimpose is certainly nothing to remember, there are a few small pleasures: “Naught” and “Flag” both reach their climaxes nicely, and the standout track “True Value” features some wonderfully unexpected drum programming near the end.

Daniel Son; Necklace Don

2 Chainz

August 5

2 Chainz took 2016 by storm; Daniel Son; Necklace Don comes after March’s COLLEGROVE and before October’s Hibachi for Lunch. Sadly, quantity did not match quality on this tape; although 2 Chainz is funny and upbeat throughout, there’s very little worth replaying save for the razor-sharp “Ghetto” and the YFN Lucci collab “You In Luv Wit Her”.

Hangin’ At The Beach

Delroy Edwards

August 5 / L.A. Club Resource

Delroy Edwards’ 30-track opus Hangin’ At The Beach is a definitive work of outsider house; even so, it is only sporadically brilliant, with a few magnetizing tracks in between large swaths of forgettable, muddy filler. Even with there being an average song length of around 100 seconds, this album is way too long; if it were more compact, maybe songs like “Crime Spree” and the highlight “Numbnuts Hymn” would be a little more common.

Encore

DJ Snake

August 5

DJ Snake is the latest pop producer to explore the format of the album, and his effort is by far the worst this year. This record includes an impressive list of collaborators (Skrillex, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Migos, Justin Bieber), but none of them can salvage what is an utter mess of unoriginal and unrewarding drops. The only respite is an exhilarating closer in the form of Mr Hudson’s “Here Comes The Night” - other than that, Encore is a disgustingly bad album.

The Disco’s Of Imhotep

Hieroglyphic Being

August 5 / Technicolour

The Disco’s Of Imhotep is the latest offering from Hieroglyphic Being, a Chicago DJ who specializes in acidic, unfriendly house music. It lives up to his reputation for sure - this record has pulverizing percussion and not much else, relying on stripped instrumentals and the power of the beat. Unfortunately, the whole thing kind of falls victim to what many techno/house albums fall victim to - repetition - leaving The Disco’s Of Imhotep as less of a cohesive album and more of an interesting sound that could have been executed better.

(m)edian EP

Ta-ku & Wafia

August 5 / Future Classic

Perth, Australia-based producer Ta-ku continues his move towards the charts on (m)edian, an EP recorded in collaboration with Brisbane’s Wafia, and the results are surprisingly pleasing. (m)edian is a three-song project with two seamless interludes - it plays like an 11-minute mini-mix, and the transitions are often the most exciting part. Be sure to pay attention during “(1.5)” - it’s fascinating to listen to “Treading Water” slowly fade into “Meet In The Middle”.

Boy King

Wild Beasts

August 5 / Domino

Boy King is the sound of an artsy British band - the four-piece Wild Beasts - unabashedly giving in to a more primal, visceral sound. This album combines a plastic, nocturnal ‘80s musical vibe with lyrics from frontman Hayden Thorpe which explore the more poisonous areas of hypermasculinity. Boy King drags a bit in its second half, but overall, it’s a decent musical work with an excellent conceptual foundation.

Songs From Final Fantasy XV EP

Florence + The Machine

August 12 / Island

Florence Welch’s voice seems like it would go well with the vast universe of a game like Final Fantasy XV - after all, “vast” is definitely a word you could use to describe her sweeping chamber pop. The three songs on this EP - two originals and a cover of Ben E. King’s classic “Stand By Me” - are all wonderful in their own way, a reminder of what Florence + The Machine can do. Here’s hoping for a new album some time soon.

PARTYNEXTDOOR 3

PARTYNEXTDOOR

August 12 / OVO

PARTYNEXTDOOR sits at the frontlines of OVO’s campaign to shift modern R&B culture; along with the likes of Roy Woods, dvsn, and Majid Jordan, the Toronto man uses cold, hip hop-influenced beats to help harden the genre’s typically soft shell. PARTYNEXTDOOR 3 is his newest album; it’s a little long at 17 songs, and it’s a little repetitive, but the core of Party’s sound is better than ever. 

SremmLife 2

Rae Sremmurd

August 12 / Eardruma

After last year’s successful debut album SremmLife, Rae Sremmurd are back with the sequel, and it’s just as compact and entertaining. These dudes mean business with their party music; there are no frills or unnecessary details on these songs. While the middle half drags quite a bit, SremmLife 2 redeems itself by offering up the group’s best songs yet: “Look Alive”, “Black Beatles”, and the gloriously weird “Do Yoga”.

The Love That Remains

Savoir Adore

August 12 / Nettwerk

Savoir Adore are a pretty typical alt-rock radio-ready indie band, but their sophomore album Our Nature was impressively varied - unfortunately, this year’s follow up isn’t as impressive. The Love That Remains tries to follow the same formula as Our Nature, with massive singles and various groovy filler tracks; the difference, however, is that neither of the two types of songs really hit their mark. Savoir Adore would do well to get a little more creative with their sound - The Love That Remains just isn’t good enough.

Amnesty (I)

Crystal Castles

August 19 / Fiction

After a tense break between frontman Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass, the prospect of a fourth Crystal Castles album seemed slim. It’s quite a surprise, then, that Amnesty (I) is here - that it features a new lead vocalist in Edith Frances, that it’s relatively uncontroversial after such a notorious split, and that it’s so good. Frances is no Glass, but maybe that’s a good thing - she pulls the band into more multifaceted direction. There are moments of rage (”Concrete”, “Fleece”) and beautiful clarity (”Char”, “Ornament”). It’s a welcome rebirth for the group.

Open Your Eyes

DJ Earl

August 19 / Teklife

DJ Earl helped usher in a new Teklife label this year, releasing a new album full of refined footwork as the Chicago label’s second-ever release. Earl receives help from the likes of Taso, Dj Taye, and Oneohtrix Point Never on Open Your Eyes, and he and his collaborators knock it out of the park - while there may not be anything hugely exciting apart from the excellent opener, Open Your Eyes is packed from start to finish with solid footwork cuts.

25 25 

Factory Floor

August 19 / DFA

There’s so much potential in Factory Floor. They’ve got amazing artwork and a cool sound to boot; not many can pull off vintage-sounding dance music like they can. Unfortunately, the London group’s sophomore album is confined to mediocrity based on one thing: besides the lovely “Ya Ya” and a lesser handful of others, these songs aren’t that exciting in the first place, and they don’t go anywhere. Dance music can be repetitive, but it has to make you dance. 

At Swim

Lisa Hannigan

August 19 / Hoop

Irish singer/songwriter Lisa Hannigan’s third album is like her first two - At Swim is graceful and crisp-sounding, with clever songwriting and accessible lyrics. However, this record only gets this in fits and bursts - Hannigan is never exceptional here, and is only good half of the time. You’ll appreciate At Swim, but you might not enjoy it.

Golden Sings That Have Been Sung

Ryley Walker

August 19 / Dead Oceans

Illinois’ Ryley Walker is pretty unashamed in how his singer/songwriter-tinged indie rock resembles lots of 1970s folk music; even so, his new album Golden Sings That Have Been Sung is a lovely collection of fresh, thoughtful folk music. These are jams for the morning radio in the best kind of way; “The Roundabout” has one of the album’s most memorable riffs (and it has some competition), and “Funny Thing She Said” seems to revel in its own golden, laconic pace. If you’re looking for the perfect album to put on while you wake up with a cup of coffee under the rising sun, then Ryley Walker’s the one for you.

EMOTION SIDE B EP

Carly Rae Jepsen

August 26 / School Boy

Carly Rae Jepsen doubles down on her ‘80s-indebted whimsy on EMOTION SIDE B, and while it doesn’t pack the same punch as 2015′s excellent E•MO•TION, it holds up perfectly well as a companion project. Jepsen is excited and sad and sassy, all at the same time - opener “First Time” is ready to soundtrack an aerobics competition, “Fever” is a synthpop song that somehow manages to feel wide open and incredibly well-contained at the same time, and “Cry” is wonderfully heartbroken, almost sounding like a cover of The War On Drugs. EMOTION SIDE B isn’t a classic, but it sure is fun as hell to listen to.

Mangy Love

Cass McCombs

August 26 / ANTI-

Mangy Love, the follow up to Cass McCombs’ 2013 album Big Wheel And Others, is a little less diluted than its predecessor, which is a good thing. This record works well together as a 50-odd-minute showcase of oddball Western lounge rock - McCombs weaves tiny little additions to his guitar rock foundation to make things interesting along the way. Add a few standout songs - “Opposite House” and the gorgeous “Medusa’s Outhouse” - and you’ve got yourself a good album.

CDW EP

Charlotte Day Wilson

August 26

Charlotte Day Wilson gained plenty of attention by appearing on BadBadNotGood’s IV - her gorgeous vocals on “In Your Eyes” stole the show for many. CDW is her debut EP, and it helps the singer establish her own lane, which is evidently textured soulful indie pop. CDW is a more than adequate introduction to Wilson and her voice; now, we lie in wait for what comes next.

and the Anonymous Nobody...

De La Soul

August 26 / A.O.I.

As a dramatic concept album about the future of hip hop, and the Anonymous Nobody... is a little disappointing. All things considered, though, this record is a solid one from De La Soul, especially considering it’s been over a decade since their last one. All the collaborators seem to have been carefully and mindfully chosen - Jill Scott, Little Dragon, 2 Chainz and more serve important roles as the album progresses. It ends in “Exodus”, the best song on the album as well as the “outro that’s also an intro,” as they put it. It’s a poignant farewell from De La Soul, and it’s a powerfully delivered invitation for more artists to step up. De La Soul might be done, but hip hop is just beginning.

Hoops EP

Hoops

August 26 / Fat Possum

Hoops’ debut EP of jangly surf rock is a small but important success for the Indiana band. In an indie world where Mac Demarco’s sound is long past overdone, Hoops find a way to make it fresh again - it turns out that all you need is enthusiasm and some much-needed brevity.

Prima Donna EP

Vince Staples

August 26 / Def Jam

Although Vince Staples is ever closer to reaching his fantastically high potential on Prima Donna, this EP suffers from the same problems that plagued Summertime ‘06 - shoddy production and halfhearted choruses. Staples is mesmerizing when every part of a song has been taken care of - just listen to “Norf Norf” - but here, save for the caustic, James Blake-produced opener “War Ready”, there isn’t much that couldn’t use some extra work.

JEFFERY

Young Thug

August 26 / 300

Not only does Young Thug continue exploring the boundaries of his own voice, continuously coming up with weird takes on trap rap tropes, it seems as if he’s actually doing it more with each project he puts out. JEFFERY is his third mixtape this year, after Slime Season 3 and I’m Up. Its nine tracks are uniformly unique; Thugger blends his sound with reggae on “Wyclef Jean”, nocturnal slow-burning trap on “RiRi”, and psychedelic, summery electro on “Kanye West”. While not every experiment is successful, they’re all immensely entertaining.

MY WOMAN

Angel Olsen

September 2 / Jagjaguwar

Angel Olsen’s newest LP is fuller - it’s more assured, more ambitious, and just a little bit more safe. MY WOMAN doesn’t really reach the heights that the endearingly bare Burn Your Fire For No Witness did; nevertheless, it’s a formidable album that showcases her talents as a lyricist and a songwriter. Just try listening to “Shut Up Kiss Me” without getting a spring in your step; just try listening to “Intern” and “Pops” without feeling alienated and lost. It’s an emotional tour de force.

False Readings On

Eluvium

September 2 / Temporary Residence

One of the best ambient records of the year, hands down. False Readings On has all the best qualities of Stars of the Lid’s catalogue - this album takes short, quietly desperate chords and infuses them with emotion through pure, unstructured sound. “Fugue State” is built around three tiny notes; “Posturing Through Metaphysical Collapse” and “Movie Night Revisited” build to shimmering climaxes from their similarly limited beginnings.

The Sun’s Tirade

Isaiah Rashad

September 2 / Top Dawg

One of Top Dawg’s less magnetizing artists, Isaiah Rashad’s debut album was released with relatively little fanfare in early September, which fits with the spirit of this pleasantly drowsy project. Rashad has a talent for making it all look easy; he coasts through these songs like he’s floating down Route 1 in a convertible. The production on The Sun’s Tirade, meanwhile, is varied enough to keep you interested: “4r Da Squaw”, “Park”, and “Bday” are heartfelt, vicious, and gregarious respectively, all while retaining a healthy homegrown feel. It’s a well-balanced if rather unsurprising project, a solid progression in Rashad’s career.

Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight

Travis Scott

September 2 / Grand Hustle

Travis Scott is more disillusioned (and disassociated) than ever on new album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight, which comes just under a year after his excellent debut Rodeo. This record is definitely a change from Rodeo’s sprawling production; only one song on Birds is over 5 minutes, and the Wild West-inspired aesthetic of Rodeo is much more restrained to traditional verse-chorus form this time around.

Nevertheless, there’s plenty of room for Scott’s trademark outlaw debauchery to shine through on this album; he and his guests are equally impressive throughout. Scott and André 3000 form a formidable duo on opener “the ends”, TM88′s warped guitar sample makes “coordinate” a standout, Washed Out’s “You and I” is brilliantly flipped on the spacey “sdp interlude”, Kendrick Lamar contributes a passable verse to the woozy “goosebumps”, and The Weeknd stops by for a memorable verse in the icy closing track “wonderful”. Overall, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight may be lacking in the overall aura of mystery and godliness that Rodeo possessed so brilliantly. Nevertheless, it ranks as one of the year’s better trap rap projects. 

Ultra

Zomby

September 2 / Hyperdub

London dubstep artist Zomby returned with a new album this year, a year after a pair of Let’s Jam!! EPs in 2015 - unfortunately, just like those EPs, this record is quite forgettable, a 55-minute low-tempo slog of uninteresting electronic beats. There are some highlights, notably "Glass”, which makes use of an infectious (and very pretty) keyboard sample, along with one of the only high tempos on the album. Overall, though, Ultra will probably not be revisited by many who aren’t the most hardcore of Zomby fans.

Badu

Bear Mountain

September 9 / Last Gang

“Badu”, the title track off of Canadian band Bear Mountain’s second album, is a charming combination of jazzy chords and Caribou-esque indie dance beats - Badu as a whole, however, is anything but charming. Save for “Badu” and the decent enough “Can’t Stand To Lose”, this record is an utter disappointment of generic HD synthpop and overwrought, sexless pastiches of the 1980s.

Sunset Yellow EP

General Ludd

September 9 / Mister Saturday Night

Glaswegian producer General Ludd made his return this summer on Mister Saturday Night, and it’s definitely a good one. Sunset Yellow features three songs, each with vividly colorful titles, and all three do not disappoint - this EP is a lovely mixture of house and ambient techno; the aged drums and buttery synths make for a more-than-sufficient soundscape for your summer Friday evenings.

Sunlit Youth

Local Natives

September 9 / Loma Vista

Local Natives continue their slow-moving foray into electronic indie pop on new album Sunlit Youth; this record utilizes synthesizers and even some samples. Regardless of what Sunlit Youth sounds like, though, the important thing is how well it’s written. Tracks like the wonderful opening three of “Villainy”, “Past Lives”, and “Dark Days” ensure that this increasingly electronic sound for the California indie band isn’t too jarring; frontman Taylor Rice’s desperate tenor cries still hit their emotional mark on this record, and Local Natives continue to find new territory to explore.

AIM

M.I.A.

September 9 / Interscope

M.I.A.’s new album - surprise surprise - did not have the most predictable of release strategies. After months of battling with her label, Interscope, the British cultural icon's newest (and possibly last) album is out, but it’s a little less organized than her previous works. AIM is a little bit like M.I.A.’s The Life of Pablo - it’s a messy collection of both fully-fleshed songs and sketches thrown in between. The best moments are when she finds some clarity amidst the messy, Middle Eastern-influenced production; the vicious one-two punch of “Borders” and “Go Off” and the quieter dancehall bounce of “Finally” and “Survivor” rank among the album’s best moments.

Skeleton Tree

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

September 9 / Bad Seed

Unsurprisingly, Nick Cave’s new album is pretty grim - what did surprise us, however, was how forgettable it was too. Other than a few tracks (the opener and the draining “I Need You” and “Skeleton Tree”), Skeleton Tree is a drab affair. It’s almost as if this album is so drenched in dark, languid emotion that it collapses under the weight; certainly not among Cave’s best.

Away

Okkervil River

September 9 / ATO

Okkervil River’s first record since The Silver Gymnasium seems to exemplify the image of the Western singer/songwriter album; you can almost see Will Sheff recording this in a lodge somewhere up in the mountains where the air is dry. This raw, Western vibe extends to every part of the record; the songs are crisp and stately yet sprawling and faded, kind of like an old dignified hotel. From the soulful notes of “Okkervil River R.I.P.” to the cluttered, introspective closing strings arrangement of “Days Spent Floating (In The Halfbetween)”, Away is a delight.

2 years of failure

C418

September 13

Despite being an expansive compilation of German electronic musician C418′s throwaways across 2 years, this record is not actually that bad. Besides the uniformly tedious “90s_” suite that opens the album, there are several surprisingly high points. The album’s middle third is dominated by a serious of soft, inviting ambient pieces, the best of which are “house_loneliness” and “cr1_meadow”. There’s a punching tech house anthem near the end in “egoismus_2016edit”. And, finally, the pièce de résistance is “stranger_think”, a fantastic rework of the Stranger Things theme that was just waiting to be made. Most of the time, 2 years of failure happily contradicts its title.

Shape Shift With Me

Against Me!

September 16 / Total Treble

The newest Against Me! record comes two years after Transgender Dysphoria Blues, and it’s with noticeably less fanfare - this album quietly released in the middle of September. Shape Shift With Me is pleasantly short; there are 12 songs, and none exceed four minutes long. While there aren’t many truly memorable moments of scuzzy punk rock on this album, there are some - the chorus of “333″, the exhilarating trying-not-to-fall-in-love words of “Rebecca”, and the pulverizing bassline of “All This (And More)”, to name a few.

I Remember

AlunaGeorge

September 16 / Island

After they sensationally announced their arrival onto indie pop’s scene with 2013′s Body Music, everything was pointing towards a good 2016 for AlunaGeorge - especially after their impressive features on songs by Flume and Jack Ü. I Remember, then, comes as one of the year’s hugest flops - save for the sultry, Flume-produced “I Remember”, this record is completely devoid of anything remotely energizing. 

Pretty Years

Cymbals Eat Guitars

September 16 / Sinderlyn

Pretty Years, the newest Cymbals Eat Guitars album, is influenced by ‘70s rock, and the result is a record that is supersaturated with flavor - these songs desperately lack fresh air. Although the saxophone in lead single “Wish” is certainly exciting, the rest of the album falls flat; Pretty Years is a failed experiment in warm indie punk.

The Divine Feminine

Mac Miller

September 16 / Warner Bros.

Brush aside the weird, trying-not-to-be-sexist-but-really-sexist theme of Mac Miller’s new album for one moment - The Divine Feminine is actually not that bad. It might not be as consistent as 2015′s GO:OD AM, but that album doesn’t have “Dang!”, a ridiculously smooth song that is by far the highlight. There are some sweet moments amidst the badly sung choruses, too - Ty Dolla $ign’s chorus on “Cinderella”, Kendrick Lamar’s verse on “God Is Fair, Sexy Nasty”, the simmering groove of “We”. Overall, The Divine Feminine is another typical Mac Miller album - bizarre themes and weak choruses, but with some really special moments in between.

Mykki

Mykki Blanco

September 16 / !K7

Mykki Blanco is undoubtedly one of current hip hop’s most unique personalities, without even trying to be - his identity as a trans rapper immediately places him in the context of a genre that is often frighteningly hostile towards people like him. Mykki, his debut record, takes this personality and stretches it to its limits; this album switches from grimy trap rap to experimental hip house from track to track. Overall, it’s a great project, and not unlike Le1f’s Riot Boi in its nocturnal, somewhat drowsy mood. Here’s hoping Mykki is just the start for Mykki Blanco.

Preoccupations

Preoccupations

September 16 / Jagjaguwar

Preoccupations is the “debut album” of Preoccupations, the band that formerly made music as Viet Cong. It’s an imposing 40-minute wall of dark post-punk - its best moments are the singles, the compelling “Anxiety” and “Degraded”. All things considered, Viet Cong’s new album is like their new name - it might have been a necessary change, but it’s a little too abstract and a lot less provocative.

Stage Four

Touché Amoré

September 16 / Epitaph

Touché Amoré’s concept record about cancer guarantees plenty of intense, burning emotions; however, the musical side of this album leaves a lot to be desired. Stage Four is made up of the exact same music from start to finish; while there are highlights and lowlights, of course, the album as a whole is frankly forgettable.

Hard II Love

Usher

September 16 / RCA

Usher has made a career of making thoughtful, tasteful carbon copies of pop’s best trends, and new album Hard II Love is no different. It’s his first record since 2012′s Looking 4 Myself, and he’s updated his sound thanks to producers like PartyNextDoor and Metro Boomin. Overall, Hard II Love is pretty unremarkable; however, tracks like “FWM” and “Missin U” ensure that he keeps his reputation as pop’s cleanest vulture.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 6 is here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 6, for the summer 2016 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $21.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 5 is now here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 5, for the winter/spring 2016 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $22.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 4 is now here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 4, for the autumn 2015 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $21.

[signalmodulator]

The Top 25 Albums of 2015

This was a turbulent year for music; after a rather sleepy 2014, it felt like exciting new music came out of the woodwork from every possible direction. These albums told stories, or they thrilled with their memorable individual highlights. They were socially relevant, powerfully emotional, or boldly progressive in sound and message - sometimes all three. Without further ado - and, yes, a year late - here are our 25 favorite albums of 2015.

Ivywild

Night Beds

August 7 / Dead Oceans

Winston Yellen’s second LP as Night Beds is one of the bravest musical departures made this decade so far, and - surprisingly - it sticks. The Nashville-via-Colorado Springs musician found his sound in the sleepy alt-rock of 2013′s Country Sleep, but Ivywild is different; this album has everything from AutoTuned R&B ballads (“Finished”) to thumping club numbers (”[9-6] slack-jaw”) to old-school samples (”Moon Sugar”). And, the more you listen, Ivywild is magnetizing. The whole album is drenched in the same Southern moonlight that Country Sleep was; Yellen’s vocals, meanwhile, are fantastic - he’s despondent as he turns to alcohol in the aftermath of a breakup. All in all, Ivywild is a good album because it essentializes long nights and broken hearts; it’s an after-hours flawed Nashville R&B masterwork.

DEATH MAGIC

HEALTH

August 7 / Loma Vista

HEALTH took their time following up 2009′s GET COLOR, but the result was nothing less than electrifying. At just under 40 minutes long, DEATH MAGIC is impressively varied for such an uproarious album; from the hulking tension of opener “VICTIM”, to the techno throb of “FLESH WORLD (UK)”, to the bleary synthpop stomp of highlight “L.A. LOOKS”, the Los Angeles four-piece ensure that their sound doesn’t get stale. And what a sound it is - the conventional tracks on DEATH MAGIC go hard. One of the best industrial releases of the year: DEATH MAGIC takes a strong and unique foundation and fills it with satisfying genre experimentation.

Compton

Dr. Dre

August 7 / Aftermath

Compton is larger than life; the first Dr. Dre record in over 15 years, featuring scores of rappers and producers, is an hour of retrospection, taking everything Dre’s been through in his career and blowing it up to filmic proportions. Every beat on this album sounds huge - “Talk About It” and “Genocide” are a breathless opening duo, “Loose Cannons” playfully moves from one opulent beat to another, and “Deep Water” is just as ruthlessly dark as its subject matter. And that’s just the production; the lyrics, from King Mez on “Talk About It” to Kendrick Lamar on “Genocide” to Eminem’s mind-melting verse on “Medicine Man”, are always good and often unforgettable. Dr. Dre’s ownership of his music is always going to be in doubt; Compton is a record that clearly benefits heavily from the people it features. Still, Dr. Dre has always been good at putting on a show, and that’s where Compton is unbeatable - it’s the biggest, brashest hip-hop event of 2015.

Mutant

Arca

November 20 / Mute

Just in time for the winter, Arca made his return in late 2015 with an hour-long mishmash of warped, slushy electronic sounds, and it’s by far his best project yet. Mutant is a little more benign compared to Arca’s other work; it moves further away from traditional beatmaking and delves into the world of ambient and experimental music. The first two tracks are the loudest - “Alive” is a merciless onslaught of cold synths, while ���Mutant” stretches a palette of sounds to its sonic limits across seven minutes. From then onwards, Mutant enters into a new world, full of exciting sounds. From off-kilter beats (”Umbilical”, “Anger”) to orchestral experiments (”En”, “Soichiro”), to entrancing ambient periods (”Siren Interlude”, “Peonies”), Mutant proves time and time again that it is one of the year’s most thrillingly unusual albums.

What For?

Toro y Moi

April 7 / Carpark

What For? is Toro y Moi’s most conventional rock release to date, and it’s no surprise that the Chaz Bundick-fronted project sounds more carefree than ever on this record. Bundick has never been this comfortable on an album; songs like “Buffalo” and “Spell It Out” take Anything In Return’s funky groove and add a sunny delirium to it. Bundick’s reedy voice melts into these instrumentals, giving them that final touch necessary for barbecues and beach trips. What For? isn’t ambitious, by any means, but it makes up for it in the good vibes it gives off. To answer the album title’s question: for summer days and nights spent outdoors.

Morning / Evening

Four Tet

July 10 / Text

The quiet nature of how Morning / Evening came out (announced on Twitter, released weeks early on Four Tet’s Bandcamp) perfectly fits the style of the album - tranquil, peaceful, and completely under the rader in how good it actually is. Consisting of two mammoth 20-minute electronic pieces, there’s a pleasant symmetry to this album - how “Morning” fades peacefully into the background, and how “Evening” slowly congeals into a bubbling dance beat. Both sides work wonderfully well - “Morning” is the standout, with that winning sample and the gorgeous percussion, but “Evening” is no slouch, especially considering the radiant way it builds into a climax. With this album, Kieran Hebden challenges what an IDM album can be - he takes two songs and stretches them until every glittering layer is visible.

Dark Bird Is Home

The Tallest Man On Earth

May 12 / Dead Oceans

Dark Bird Is Home is The Tallest Man On Earth’s ‘awakening’ album. Kristian Matsson’s music has drawn praise for evoking passion and pain using the simplest of instruments - normally a guitar and Matsson’s own scratchy voice. On this record, however, Matsson comes out of his shell, making use of drums, pianos, and wide-open ambience. The result is an album that sounds as if the subject is on the cusp of an adventure - songs like “Fields Of Our Home” and “Singers” make use of yearning, impatient chord progressions, and the title track blooms into a full-grown stomper from a little ballad. On Dark Bird Is Home, Matsson is poignantly aware of where he came from and where he could go from here, and that makes all the difference.

Have You In My Wilderness

Julia Holter

September 25 / Domino

Julia Holter is a fearless aesthete; it’s clear from her ornate, echoey music that she finds endless joy in crafting a sound that pleases the ears. Have You In My Wilderness takes the upright, classical sound of her previous records and adds a chamber pop bounce; it makes for a fascinating album, one where Holter’s dreamy, ambient approach is given a mesmerizing groove. “Sea Calls Me Home” and “Everytime Boots” are both bouncy and humorously quirky pop songs; “Vasquez” uses crisp drums and prog-rock conventions to craft a rainy jam of epic proportions. Have You In My Wilderness takes pop music and Julia Holter and mixes them delicately together. Pop hasn’t sounded this heavenly in a while.

Garden of Delete

Oneohtrix Point Never

November 20 / Beat

After the subconscious fever dream that was R Plus Seven, it was hard to tell where Daniel Lopatin’s Oneohtrix Point Never would go next. It turns out that, after using arcane computer technology to explore themes of consumerism the subconscious, Lopatin would fix his gaze on humans with his new album Garden of Delete. A lot of this record is about the pubertal angst and existentialism felt by teenagers, and the fascinatingly disgusting transitions that the body goes through during that time - “Sticky Drama” mixes schmaltzy pop synths with alien vocals and rageful electronic percussion breaks, while “I Bite Through It” features juvenile, death-metal stomps and weird guitar-ish synth solos. Garden of Delete is an excellent new installment of Oneohtrix Point Never’s music - this record proves once again that no one can explore the human subconscious with more substance than Daniel Lopatin.

Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper

Panda Bear

January 9 / Domino

Even when compared to the rest of Animal Collective’s discography, Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper is a strange album: crafted in Lisbon, influenced by traditional Portuguese music and modern techno, and often fond of stretching a loop of music to its limits. This musical style is all over the album; you can hear it on the seven-minute cosmic jam “Come To Your Senses”, as well as on other highlights like “Boys Latin”, “Selfish Gene”, and the bewitching “Tropic Of Cancer”. On that song, like many, the instrumentals set the stage for Panda Bear’s boyish, reverbed vocals to explore themes of life and death. “Sick has to eat well too,” he sings about his father’s cancer, a nod to the reality that all life has to prosper in some form. Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper never really settles for normalcy; instead, it uses its weird collection of pop songs to make a profound statement about how life is inextricably tied to death.

I Love You, Honeybear

Father John Misty

February 10 / Sub Pop

Okay, maybe Josh Tillman’s sarcastic and cynical, but it doesn’t seem like he can help it on I Love You, Honeybear, his 2015 album as Father John Misty. Tillman has a very John Lennon-esque personality - he’s a former Fleet Fox living in Los Angeles and doing acid with his wife - and on this record, he goes through the same struggle that Lennon did: the struggle to love in spite of everything else. There are moments of bitterness and negativity; he’s hilariously spiteful in “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.” and politically nihilistic in “Bored In The USA”. But the best moments on I Love You, Honeybear are when love wins - “Everything is doomed / and nothing will be spared / but I love you, honeybear,” he sings on the title track. It’s an album infatuated with the power of love to overcome the modern world.

PRODUCT

SOPHIE

November 27 / Numbers

“Whatever you’re feeling / I can make you feel better.” Those words were our introduction to SOPHIE, the PC Music-affiliated producer who has made some of the most provocative electronic music of the last three years. PRODUCT is the compilation of his first four singles, and just as much as it is a retrospective, it’s a thesis statement for the future. Every track on this album is unexpected - the zany “HARD” and the deliriously sugary “LEMONADE” are two standouts, but PRODUCT is fantastically cohesive as a whole. SOPHIE has the possibility to make major waves in the future - with PRODUCT, he’s given himself eight different potential directions, from cutting-edge experimental wankery (”L.O.V.E.”) to lightweight Target commercial fodder (”VYZEE”) to ballads (”JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE”) that are heartbreaking in their minimalism. Keep your eyes out for more PRODUCTs.

Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

Courtney Barnett

March 23 / Marathon

Indie rock has always been drawn to unique voices: people who look at what humans put up with through a funny-colored lens and, in doing so, give us all a way to look at things with a renewed sense of vigor and originality. Courtney Barnett is no figurehead (”Put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint you,” is the rallying cry of “Pedestrian At Best”, her most popular song), but she’s a hell of a lot more original than most indie rock musicians today; her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit is a compact and endearingly witty album. Barnett is a powerfully relatable figure; on “Depreston”, she laments the idea of growing up and leaving the progressive haven that is the city, while she writes about the environment and the desire to escape ordinary life in other spots on the record (”Kim’s Caravan” and “Elevator Operator”, respectively). There’s a reason why, after listening to Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, I feel a little cheerier than I felt 40 minutes before. It’s because Barnett, her guitars, and her wonderful, unique lyrical voice are too enjoyable not to carry into your own life.

Multi-Love

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

May 26 / Jagjaguwar

The cover art for Unknown Mortal Orchestra is strangely fitting - it’s not just a lazy pic of Ruban Nielson’s studio, but rather a message that the stories that go on in this album are intensely autobiographical. Multi-Love is about what it sounds like it’s about - when you love more than one person - and it’s a wildly groovy analysis of what that says about our most central experiences as humans. The lo-fi psych vibes of earlier UMO releases (Unknown Mortal Orchestra and II) blossom into full-on psych funk on this record, and the variations are all quietly alluring. The poppy title track unfolds like a labyrinth, and so does “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone” - both climax with their otherworldly choruses. Other tracks have more of a subliminal groove - “Extreme Wealth and Casual Cruelty” is hazy and messy like a summer day spent in the forest, while “Necessary Evil”’s peaceful momentum is offset by a quietly urgent guitar riff. Front to back, Multi-Love is a brilliantly composed psych pop album - it’s also a profound statement on the universal power of love.

If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late

Drake

February 12 / OVO

If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late’s surprise release in the dead of winter is only fitting; compared to the ambitious Nothing Was The Same (which was promoted heavily), this tape is abrupt, cold, and no-nonsense. This will likely go down as Drake at his peak, mixing the razor-sharp production of the first half of his career with the worldwide appeal of the second, and if it does, there are no complaints here. After 2013 and 2014 cemented the “Toronto sound”, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late gives it a healthy shake-up. “I didn’t do this tape / for CNN,” Drake shouts on the lurking “6 Man” - this song and others feature a newfound lyrical aggression on top of brutal production from Boi-1da and others. Drake is fond of making flowery, elaborate music for his albums; on If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, however, he found a refreshing new sound by using clinical, austere simplicity.

Apocalypse, girl

Jenny Hval

June 9 / Sacred Bones

Jenny Hval makes experimental music with the voice of a folk artist; although the songs on Apocalypse, girl are uniformly odd amalgamations of pop and ambient music, Hval approaches these soundscapes with autobiographical lyrics that make large statements about wellbeing, faith, and countless other things. “Self-doubt, it’s what I do,” she sings at the beginning of “Angels and Anaemia”; Hval doesn’t mean self-doubt as pain, but as growth. Through these songs, she battles the conflicts and contradictions at the center of her being: What does it mean to take care of myself? What makes me a woman? How can I not believe in God and still feel religion in me? Very few albums in 2015 were this fearlessly self-examining - Hval’s Apocalypse, girl is the sound of a woman entertaining her deepest and most personal questions. Why this, and not that?

Rodeo

Travis Scott

September 4 / Grand Hustle

On Rodeo, Travis Scott carves out an imposing space of his own. The protégé of Kanye West combines the opulence of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with the nihilistic apotheosis of Yeezus on this new record, but Rodeo doesn’t fall victim to its inspirations. Instead, Travis injects a special ingredient of his own into the mix: a Wild West theme, resulting in sweeping production and reverbed, AutoTuned vocals. It’s absolutely brilliant; on this album, Scott is the archetypical Wild West villain, dating porn stars and threatening executives while admiring the view from the top. And the music follows suit; the first half hour is some of the best hip hop this year, and the second half doesn’t slouch either, featuring surefire hit “Antidote” and the dark, criminally underrated “Piss On Your Grave”. “Will he make it? Was it worth it? Will he win?” narrator T.I. asks at the end of closing track “Apple Pie”. Yes to all three, unequivocally.

The Epic

Kamasi Washington

May 5 / Brainfeeder

2015 was Kamasi Washington’s year; not only did he contribute to projects from Kendrick Lamar and Thundercat, he released his own tour de force, one which has made him one of modern jazz’s biggest names. The Epic deserves every plaudit; if you can get over the massive three-hour runtime, you’ll discover a truly out-of-this-world project where Washington and his bandmates execute a monumentally ambitious musical goal. Even with all its might, however, The Epic still manages have a heart; songs like “The Rhythm Changes” and “Cherokee” benefit from the warm lyrical presence of Patrice Quinn, and others like “Leroy and Lanisha” and a stunning rendition of Debussy’s “Clair De Lune” are overflowing with tenderness and humanity. Washington has said in interviews that The Epic, along with being a collection of his music, is an argument that modern music can be both complex and successful; the response to this album has confirmed that theory. But what makes The Epic a truly epic album isn’t the intricacy of the solos, or the fantastical overarching concept. It’s the humanity that is always peeking through the music, the feeling that Washington is going to the greatest heights to say the simplest things; The Epic is a jazz album for everyday people who go to work, dance, and fall in love.

Sound & Color

Alabama Shakes

April 21 / ATO

It doesn’t take long for Brittany Howard and the rest of Alabama Shakes to let you know that Sound & Color isn’t a traditional Southern rock album. Halfway through the opening track, after a meditative intro and first verse, Howard lapses into a subdued chant (“Not far out, not far out...”) and then utters the title words. All of a sudden, a string quartet appears, waxing melancholy as Howard gets existential: “I wanna touch a human being... Ain’t life just awful strange?” From here on, Sound & Color astonishes the ears with a variety of earthy, soulful songs; they’ve taken their flavor of rock and sent it to space, booting it into the sky where it can mingle with everything from punk to funk.

Howard is enchanting at the center of it all: on “Don’t Wanna Fight”, she’s squealing her frustration; on “Gimme All Your Love” and “Miss You”, she’s erupting into climaxes of staggering intensity. The band behind her provides some great and varied musical moments, as well; “Guess Who” is tantalizing summer funk, “Dunes”, is a brash yet tender Southern ditty, and “The Greatest” churns at a quick, intense tempo before suddenly, gloriously melting into a sunny guitar waltz. It’s only fitting that this record is named Sound & Color -Howard provides the earsplitting, heartwrenching emotion, and her bandmates surround it with intricate, honeyed music of the finest variety.

Currents

Tame Impala

July 17 / Interscope

There’s something about the concept of change that is innately psychedelic. The word itself comes from two Ancient Greek roots, psychē and dēloun - together, they mean “mind-revealing.” Currents, Kevin Parker’s third album as Tame Impala, closely explores this concept of how external change can affect you internally (and how the internal can crave the external); on the silky “Yes I’m Changing”, Parker sings, “It’s calling out for you,” as sounds of a bustling city creep into the mix. From the entrancing opener “Let It Happen” to the pensive “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” (which, admittedly, was probably done better by Rihanna), Currents is obsessed with change, and it’s exciting to listen to; it’s the most fluid Parker has ever sounded on record.

It helps that Currents contains some of the best music Tame Impala has put out to date - songs like “Past Life” and “The Less I Know The Better” are funky explosions of color, where Parker adapts his thin voice and muscular guitars to sit front-and-center in his brand new glittery disco world. "Let It Happen” is the obvious standout; it’s a fearless introduction to the new Tame Impala, where Parker addresses his internal turmoil and moves past it into a state of harmony and positivity. Tame Impala were already great before Currents; after it, they’re not only great but exciting. God knows what they’ll do next.

Depression Cherry

Beach House

August 28 / Sub Pop

Every new Beach House release feels like a vacation, a summer trip you take with your family to the beach you used to go to as a kid. They’re that evocative, they’re that soaked in old memories of formative times, and yes, they’re that comfortably familiar. Along with Thank Your Lucky Stars, Depression Cherry is part of the most recent addition to the Beach House catalog, and this one is certainly an adaptation of their sound. It’s warmer and blearier than Bloom, a summer night spent in the desert compared to that album’s haunting oceanic feel; it’s also one of the best Beach House albums yet.

Through the tinny drum machines and velvety keyboards, Depression Cherry acquires a very subdued feel to it; this is augmented by Victoria Legrand’s stunning voice, which is more vulnerable than ever before on top of instrumentals like “10:37″’s honeylike organ and sleepy drum sequence. They’ve always tried, but never before have they actually achieved such profound intimacy, in both the musical and lyrical arenas. "I know... it comes... too soon. The universe is riding off with you,” Legrand sings in “Days of Candy”, a song where the first two minutes  It’s wonderfully universal, that feeling of losing someone you love and feeling like a grand part of your world has just left forever. Depression Cherry never shies away from these feelings; it’s both unabashedly grand and intensely personal.

Art Angels

Grimes

November 6 / 4AD

No other pop album this year was this fearlessly daring about what pop music should be. Grimes’ Art Angels is the fullest realization of Claire Boucher’s talent yet, and it’s also one of the most modern-sounding records on this list. Boucher has always been influenced by art from different civilizations, whether it be Russian, Japanese, or Chinese; on Art Angels, these influences clash harshly together. “California”, the first substantial song on the record, exemplifies this - in one track, you’ve got sunny guitar, metallic drums, angelic vocals, and a healthy undertone of Bollywood glee.

Art Angels is also fiercely personal and impersonal at the same time. On “Kill V. Maim”, Grimes isn’t herself; she’s none other than a gender-bending, vampiric space traveler Michael Corleone. It’s off-the-wall brilliance; on top of a grotesque, throbbing instrumental, Boucher squeals and screams like her life depends on it. In other places, she’s more autobiographical than ever, like on “Artangels”, where you’ll find her racing through the streets of Montréal; on “Butterfly”, meanwhile, she combines the two, emphatically singing, “I’ll never be your dream girl,” on a track supposedly "from the perspective of a butterfly in the Amazon as people are cutting down trees.” Art Angels is stuffed with ideas, many of them garish or shocking, but it never falters for a second; it’s because of how strong this woman has become at selling a story. Through exploring other people’s voices, Grimes has discovered her own.

Carrie & Lowell

Sufjan Stevens

March 30 / Asthmatic Kitty

“I don’t know where to begin,” Sufjan Stevens softly sings at the beginning of his album Carrie & Lowell - does anyone after losing someone close to them? From the very first line of this album, Stevens has the listener in the palm of his hand: Carrie & Lowell pulls you through eleven different experiences of loss. The result is an album that is harrowingly heartbroken without being emotionally taxing; songs like “All of Me Wants All of You” and “John My Beloved” are sad, sure, but they’re also quietly catchy, folk songs to be played after a funeral. It’s delivered with the air of someone who might not have moved on from their loss, but still has the emotional maturity to look back on it with poignant clarity.

It’s only fitting that the last song doesn’t offer much in terms of closure - “Blue Bucket of Gold” finds Stevens reaching out for support from friends and family to little avail. You’re not meant to reach a conclusion at the end of Carrie & Lowell, you’re meant to pick up meaning along the way, just like you do in real life. And Stevens infuses this album with meaning, from the beauty of his brother’s daughter to his stepfather calling him “Subaru” to the names for his mother in “Fourth of July”: “It was night when you died, my firefly.” Carrie & Lowell is unforgettable. This is what grief feels like.

In Colour

Jamie xx

June 2 / XL

In Colour captures the primal fascination we have with the nighttime - after dark, it seems like we feel everything stronger, from aggression to love to heartbreak. We have our highest and lowest moments after the sun has set; In Colour captures these fractured feelings of hope and despair and binds them tightly together. One moment in “Gosh”, you’re dancing aggressively to the ashy sample and the thudding bass; the next, you’re lifted up by a synth overture. Immediately after “Hold Tight”’s obsidian shuffle, you get to hear “Loud Places”, one of the most romantic songs of the year. You get music that is gloriously airborne (”SeeSaw” and the vast “Girl”), but also music that is anchored to the dance floor (the narcotic “Sleep Sound” and “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)”, the effervescent high point of the party). In Colour has it all.

Most importantly, this album taps into the very essence of dance music - what has it always meant to go out and have a good time? Although many comparisons have been (accurately) drawn between Jamie xx and the music of his band The xx or his colleague Four Tet, this album closely resembles Jon Hopkins’ seminal 2013 LP Immunity in that it internalizes dance music. The dance floor is so often honored as a cold, hard place, a mere vessel for sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. But maybe it’s something else - for a lot of people, dancing is a communal experience. It’s a way to meet friends, fall in love, move your feet - it’s just as much an innocent place for people to connect as it is a place of rebellion. In Colour understands - it takes dance music, with its darkly addictive, gloriously primitive rhythms, and injects life into it. Jamie xx finds the colour in the darkness.

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

March 16 / Top Dawg

This year felt like a musical rebirth; after a relatively calm 2014, 2015 was a year full of artists returning with surprising and challenging new musical directions. However, the best album that came out this year is much more closely tied to 2014 - Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly comes after a year quite literally bloodstained with widespread incidents of police brutality all over the United States. Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown - the names are familiar because we made them so, and Lamar was listening. It took a while, but when it did come out, To Pimp A Butterfly was instantly, indisputably one of the most powerful statements on the matter that has ever been made.

A concept album? Forget that - To Pimp A Butterfly has all the qualities of a well-thought-out novel, complete with a left turn of an epilogue and a cliffhanger ending (sorry, no spoilers). It’s got quite the horsepower for an 80-minute record, too, probably because it’s hard not to feel caught up in the ride when assaulted by the album’s three-pronged attack of lyrics, music, and pure psychedelics. Lamar’s own voice is constantly shifting, from an exasperated husband on “For Free? - Interlude”, to an ignorant teenager on “Institutionalized”, to a mentally tortured drunk on the painful “u”. It’s an absolutely dizzying command of both language and character, and it cements Lamar on top of the game as the best rapper in the world today.

These characters that he plays do not exist in vacuums. They go through real life situations; they suffer and prosper, rage against the machine and kiss the hand that feeds them. It’s an arresting look at Lamar’s own experience - the key to To Pimp A Butterfly is that the political is also the personal on his album, and Lamar’s internal struggles between hedonism and salvation mirror those of the greater black community. On “Wesley’s Theory”, he’s the newly signed rapper: “When I get signed, homie, I’mma act a fool.” On “For Sale? - Interlude”, he’s battling Lucy’s (Lucifer’s) temptation; on “u”, these behaviors backfire and turn him into a sobbing wreck of self-hatred and intoxication. 

Yet, peppered in between the tribulations, there are moments of triumph. “Alright” is beautiful - it’s no wonder it’s become a protest song for Black Lives Matter, as its message of optimism and faith in the face of evil is a universal one. “Hood Politics” is delightfully no-holds-barred: “I don’t give a fuck about no politics in rap, my nigga.” And “King Kunta” is a monstrous jam; Lamar sounds more triumphant than ever over a stripped, sinewy funk beat.

This duality - between Lucy and Lamar personally, but also between surviving and living on a larger scale - defines the struggle of To Pimp A Butterfly, and “The Blacker The Berry” blows the question wide open, leaving room for an answer to eventually come. No album has had a climax this terrifyingly massive in years; Lamar has worked mercilessly over seventy minutes to build to this point, and he drives his point home with aplomb. Every word matters.

And the music; oh, the music. It’s a West Coast album primarily, but with some heavy jazz influences; it’s transfixing from front to back. Some out of the many highlights: the way the sunny beat to “Complexion (A Zulu Love)” breaks down into watery keys during Rapsody’s verse, the raw live energy of “i”, the ridiculous, “Planet Rock”-referencing beat switch a minute into “Institutionalized”. To Pimp A Butterfly will constantly excite you; it’ll surprise you every minute with a new sound, a new flow, or a new idea.

That’s really what music is about most of the time, isn’t it? To Pimp A Butterfly was the album of the year for so many reasons. It was socially relevant, experimental, fearlessly performed, and it gave the voiceless a voice. More important than any of those things, though, it was exciting. When it came out, millions of people sat down and listened to it - every minute. They heard the opening Boris Gardiner sample lapse into an urgent, jazzy beat on the first song, and suddenly they were carried away, holding on to every new introduction with nervous exhilaration. I certainly did - I cried when I first heard “u” and “Mortal Man”, and I got shivers when I heard “The Blacker The Berry”. I still do. To Pimp A Butterfly is a masterpiece. Music can be this good. 

[signalmodulator]

The Top 50 Tracks of 2015

Without further ado - and a year late - here are 50 songs which made us believe in the power of music this year. From Kendrick Lamar’s gift for storytelling, to Grimes’ bewitching, idiosyncratic pop songs, to Jamie xx’s elegant love songs for crowded clubs, 2015 was full of exciting sounds. Here are the best and the biggest.

“How Much A Dollar Cost (feat. Ronald Isley & James Fauntleroy)”

Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp A Butterfly

It makes sense that Kendrick Lamar's "How Much A Dollar Cost" would attract the attention of someone like President Barack Obama, who named it his favorite song of 2015 back in January - even when compared to the Compton rapper's many other politically powerful songs, this might be his most skillfully made. "How Much A Dollar Cost" checks all of conscious hip hop's boxes without falling victim to conscious hip hop's worst tropes, mostly thanks to Lamar's genius talent for painting a totally immersive scene with his lyrics. He's at the top of his game on this track - using a flow that unfolds like organic thought to narrate his encounter with a South African homeless man, establishing the key question "how much a dollar cost?" without overdoing it, and expertly navigating different perspectives, from his own entitled self to the homeless man's spiritual squalor. Through the story-like structure of these verses, Lamar slowly shows his hand, letting it overcome the listener without helping it along. As his security begins to falter - he's "frustrated, indecisive, and power trippin'" - we finally get the whole story, in the form of an intensely spiritual revelation that fundamentally changes Lamar's line of thinking. "How Much A Dollar Cost" never makes a definitive moral statement; instead, just like how the song's captivating instrumental plays with syncopation, Lamar prefers to work between the lines, putting in detailed work to ask a simple but cathartic question - to what extent do we sacrifice our humanity in search of a dollar?

“I Went To The Store One Day”

Father John Misty

I Love You, Honeybear

Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear is J. Tillman’s battle between bitter cynicism and hopeless romanticism, and “I Went To The Store One Day” is when cynicism makes a few feeble attempts and then beautifully, poignantly, gives way. It’s Tillman’s tribute to his wife - “For love to find us of all people / I never thought it’d be so simple,” he sings over a steadily played acoustic guitar. As the song nears its end, Tillman throws out line after tongue-in-cheek line (”Insert here / a sentiment re: our golden years”), but the wondrous strings arrangement betrays his true feelings. And then the curtain is swept aside, beautifully and simply, in the final two lines. Not only is this song a perfect summation of J. Tillman’s Father John Misty character, it is a plainly beautiful song. They just don’t make love songs like this one anymore.

“Why Does It Shake?”

Protomartyr

The Agent Intellect

“Why Does It Shake?” is Protomartyr at the peak of their excellent abilities. This song epitomizes the feelings of terrifying unease that The Agent Intellect strived to create - lead singer Joe Casey's default setting is shallow optimism, singing, "I'll be the first to never die / Nice thought, and I'm never gonna lose it." Meanwhile, a plodding drumbeat sets the background for a shrilly clanging electric guitar that works in hand with the lyrics to build and build, before releasing in one shrieking burst of terror. "Never gonna lose it!" Casey screams over the mess. Part of the reason that "Why Does It Shake?" is so captivating is that it never seems out of control; it's contained chaos, a song about struggling to escape from routine life. Casey shouts the title less like a question and more like an indictment.

“Can’t Keep Checking My Phone”

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Multi-Love

Between the sunny psych-rock tunes of Multi-Love's first half and the subdued jams of its second, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s "Can't Keep Checking My Phone" is a sort of oasis. By far the most bizarre song on a bizarre album, this track is so eclectic in its influences that it can be offputting at first. There are weights and counterweights - the drums are both disco and tropical, and the Nile Rodgers-esque guitar is met with rushes of soft synthesizers. All this activity - not to mention the song's throbbing bassline and weird, wandering composition - results in a wonderfully delirious song. Each element of "Can't Keep Checking My Phone" effortlessly bleeds into the next - it's that groovy beat that keeps things going. And on top of the groove, Nielson's lyrics are wonderfully fantastical, detailing a phone conversation with his South America-bound lover: "We drink chicha / in the jungle / that sounds great / I'm kinda busy, could you call back again?" Until then, he "can't keep checking [his] phone" - that unapologetic obsession is the same feeling you get when you listen to this song.

“Hourglass (feat. LION BABE)”

Disclosure

Caracal

On Caracal, Disclosure sidestepped the burgeoning UK dance pop scene for something different - something more textured, nuanced, and overall expensive-sounding. "Hourglass" is perhaps the song most strongly indicative of this new direction, but that in no way means that it's an over-the-top track; just the opposite, actually. If "Help Me Lose My Mind" was meant as a glowing epilogue to Settle, "Hourglass" is entirely different - positioned right after two of the album's most upbeat singles, it's the secret beating heart of Caracal, the metronome that dictates the flow of the rest of the album. And what a centerpiece - in classic deep house fashion, Disclosure ever so delicately tweak the atmosphere of the song, so that it seems wonderfully alive, like a rose slowly blooming. LION BABE's Jillian Hervey's vocals are entrancing - "Eyes on / the hourglass," she sings in the chorus, watching time pass by while allowing a relationship to decompose. It's a well-known truth of dance music that the beat can help you forget all your troubles - on top of "Hourglass", Hervey seems to take a deep, relaxing breath and let it all happen. Meanwhile, the Lawrence brothers work their magic - "Hourglass" is a quietly magical song, a delight to the ears that also functions at a much more primal level.

“Are You Alone?”

Majical Cloudz

Are You Alone?

Majical Cloudz aren’t the biggest believers in dynamics. The now-defunct duo of Devon Welsh and Matthew Otto’s music, while certainly powerful, seems to prefer gradual buildup to immediate momentum - songs like “Bugs Don’t Buzz” and “Silver Car Crash” are less of an epiphany and more of a growing realization. “Are You Alone?”, however, has a little bit more momentum than the rest - it comes from a fragile drum machine that ebbs and wanes, always keeping an uneasy rhythm in the background. Meanwhile, Otto’s synths and Welsh’s lyrics work hand in hand in creating an entrancing foreground - as an optimistic chord progression slowly eases itself into the front seat, Welsh confronts depression with unnerving positivism. “Are you alone? What do you say? I don’t know what I would not do to know,” he remarks in the chorus to an unknown person, a question that is both everything and nothing, an impossible thing to ask and a powerful expression of adoration. Majical Cloudz are at their best when they wring sweet optimism out of the bleakest subjects, and “Are You Alone?” is the perfect example of this - it’s a song that is as calming as it is moving.

“Brainwash yyrr Face”

Baio

The Names

Vampire Weekend bassist Baio’s debut album The Names found a surprisingly fruitful middle ground between two of his apparent musical loves: wintry indie pop and rousing house music. “Brainwash yyrr Face” is an exhilarating cut of the latter, a fantastic way to start off the album. Although it’s got quite a groove, all from a jittery synth line that is looped at the song’s beginning, the magic of this track comes from its progression. From the first minute onwards, you’re pulled in directions you don’t expect. From a snaky opening chord progression, we’re led to believe that this is a standard monolithic house track, complete with vocals; then, the track disperses for twenty seconds, into a far-out pool of samples and effects. Normality never really returns after those twenty seconds; the song is always building on its foundation, straining for the next level. It finally reaches it just before the three-minute mark, in a wholly unexpected rush of drums and brain-melting synths. “Brainwash yyrr Face” does exactly what its title threatens to - although it starts off as a fairly innocuous track, it finishes as an airborne masterpiece of dance music, and it keeps you guessing the entire time.

“bytheneck”

Toro y Moi

Samantha

Chaz Bundick killed 2015 with two different Toro y Moi projects, both of which were so holistically strong that it is hard to single out specific songs as being better than the rest. But “bytheneck”, a simple 160-second beat positioned deep into the second half of Samantha, Bundick’s mixtape, does have that something special. Like most of Samantha, it’s adventurous and tasteful, mixing Bundick’s proven indie pop chops with a newfound experimental side - the song is endearingly grainy, and Bundick’s voice is drenched in AutoTune and echo. But there’s something extra somewhere in there. Maybe it’s the effects put on the song; they’re somehow cavernous and lo-fi at the same time, like you’re taking in a beautiful nighttime view through a crappy airplane window. Maybe it’s the vocals, which carry so much emotion through so little - just a robotic voice and a few scraps of lyrics (”Don’t you understand?”). Maybe it’s the exquisite, chiming piano loop that forms the backbone of the beat; it’s such a simple four-note loop, but there’s something about it that seems so endless, as if it’s welling up and shrinking all at the same time. Or maybe it’s all of these things, a meeting of the most robotic and organic sounds to make a song that’s alternately blunt and nuanced in all the right places.

“Crucified Again”

Arcade Fire

The Reflektor Tapes EP

Recorded during the Reflektor sessions and released around the premiere of documentary film The Reflektor Tapes, "Crucified Again" is a song that bleeds Haitian blood. There's something remarkably backwards about this song - its warmly hushed atmosphere brings you into the room with Win Butler and the rest of Arcade Fire. This song is about the suffering in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that killed over 100,000 people, but it is also about the reaction to the destruction - "The preachers talk on television / Hand out the judgements of their religion," Butler sings, singling out the comments of those who labeled Haiti as cursed after the earthquake. Then, Butler offers a rebuttal: "But when I heard those women singin' / They made a sound I could believe in." Through so much destruction and horror, the people of Haiti remain strong - that is Butler's message, and he delivers it brilliantly. "Crucified Again" is a graceful critique of the United States' reaction to the earthquake in Haiti, but it's more than just that - it's a light embrace of the Haitian people. The music is tenderly optimistic, like the morning after a terrible tragedy. There is plenty of unrest in "Crucified Again", and it comes from both the earth itself and those among us. But Butler and his band offer a way out - not through simply appreciating Haitian culture, but through adopting a Haitian spirit of positivity and fostering charity and understanding.

“Laplander”

easyFun

Deep Trouble EP

Of all the music that the PC Music collective released in 2015, nothing was more electrifying than "Laplander", the closer to PC Music, Vol. 1 and the opening track of easyFun's Deep Trouble EP. "Laplander"'s kinetic beauty comes from a wonderfully multilayered group of melodies, all of which rush along at a sprightly 145 BPM. "Laplander" is so stuffed with earworms that it feels like a three-minute chorus. First, there's the madcap box of samples that opens the song, which is then joined by a whirlwind of farty synths and a the plastic vocals ("Don't say I didn't warn you in advance!"). By the time that easyFun, whose real name is Finn Keane, works in a throbbing bass and a four-on-the-floor beat, the song has transcended a certain part of PC Music for something even greater. Those who dislike the label for its manufactured, Internet-indebted aesthetic may view "Laplander" in a different light, and here's why: this song is so urgent, so full of verve and spirit and unpretentious, no-holds-barred immediacy that it's hard not to tap your foot to the beat and smile a little inside.

“Leave A Trace”

CHVRCHES

Every Open Eye

Yes, "Leave A Trace" is a punch to the gut of Lauren Mayberry's ex-lover, but it's a little more than that - it's the bittersweet sound of Mayberry yearning to escape from a mucky relationship, and it's a rare kiss-off track that focuses on the wronged rather than the wrongdoer. This might be CHVRCHES' most accessible song yet, and it is also an early highlight of their sophomore album Every Open Eye - the Glaswegian trio pairs a glistening, compact pop sound with Mayberry's excellent vocals. Although Iain Cook and Martin Doherty deserve plaudits for their work on the song, this is Mayberry's show - she adds a fierce edge to her idiosyncratic vocals on this track, and gives an overall incredible vocal performance. "Take care to bury all that you can / take care to leave a trace of a man," she spits in the chorus, but it almost seems like a bitter afterthought. Mayberry's mind is closer to herself - "I know I need to feel release!" she sings as the chorus breaks free from the song's restrained verses. "Leave A Trace" is the best - and most empowering - single that CHVRCHES have ever made.

“Sorry”

Justin Bieber

Purpose

In 2015, Justin Bieber had maximum musical exposure. Purpose and its singles drew attention from young fanatics, highbrow music aficionados, and casual adult listeners alike, and "Sorry", which released in late October, was the summery follow up to "What Do You Mean" that proved Bieber was here to stay. It's also one of the best songs on Purpose, with an effortlessly breezy sound that you will undoubtedly hear around many swimming pools this summer. Although you're tempted to read into the lyrics, where Bieber begs and pleads for forgiveness, they're clearly not the focus of this song, although they certainly lend a certain last-day-before-summer-break desperation to the song. "Sorry" is about the production and Bieber's interaction with it - this song is breezy riddims and synthesized brass and looped vocal samples courtesy of Skrillex and Bloodpop, and Bieber rides the waves effortlessly, singing the title over and over like an anthem. Even if the tropical house fad that "Sorry" buys into is short-lasted, this song will last much longer, as will Bieber. Pure summer fun doesn't diminish with time.

“90210 (feat. Kacy Hill”

Travi$ Scott

Rodeo

“90210″ is a testament to Travi$ Scott’s seemingly boundless ambition within his genre of music - on this track, Scott explores his common themes of hedonism, sex, and opulence, but he does it with greater panache than ever before. Scott is “in the 90210, looking for that alley,” as he roams one of America’s most famous neighborhoods with a supermodel-slash-porn star. But the specifics are lost on us, because what’s more important is the mood of what is being said. And, just like the rest of Rodeo, it’s darkly ambitious, a twisted attempt at giving Beverly Hills an inside-out anthem. The guitars in the song’s first half angrily swirl and churn; Kacy Hill’s light, angelic vocal contribution makes the track seem all the more ethereal. On “90210″, Travi$ Scott is a god of the Underworld lost on Earth - Beverly Hills, to be precise. By the time that the clouds open (with more gaudy electric guitars) to reveal a dreamy piano loop, which Scott rides effortlessly for the better part of two minutes, he’s cemented his status as one of the more creative minds in trap rap. No one else does it like this.

“Can’t Feel My Face”

The Weeknd

Beauty Behind The Madness

So this is how The Weeknd becomes a household name and an established pop star: with a song about addiction that, fittingly, is quite addictive itself. “Can’t Feel My Face” mixes modern production with a timeless, Jackson-esque rhythm that will make you get up and dance. Tesfaye, who previously made his name singing coldly sensual modern R&B songs á la “Belong To The World”, sounds utterly alive on top of the song’s groovy bassline, snapping delightfully in and out of the rhythm with clever syncopated lines - “alo-oh-oh-ooh!” Max Martin’s killer touch behind the scenes is just audible - you can hear it in the way the song’s initially bare chorus becomes repeated, warped, and elevated until it is an Event, something that millions of people know and will sing along to. Of all the songs that took 2015 by storm on the charts, “Can’t Feel My Face” was one of the most... addictive.

“All That”

Carly Rae Jepsen

E•MO•TION

Carly Rae Jepsen’s E•MO•TION is a whirlwind of whimsical pop music front start to finish, except for "All That”, and it’s damn gorgeous, a perfect slow jam that gleans all of nostalgia’s benefits without any of its obvious drawbacks. Jepsen has such a powerful voice as a pop singer - her innocent persona is the source, and rather than resulting in vapidity or formulaic pop pandering, Jepsen channels a remarkable amount of emotion (no pun intended) into her work. All of this is plainly visible in “All That" - after the song’s verses, which end with Jepsen breathing, “Just let me in your arms,” she hops an octave, pleading “Show me if you want me, if I’m all that,” on top of Devonté Hynes’ electric guitar. "All That” could have been a masturbatory ‘80s novelty track with any other artist; Jepsen, meanwhile, taps into a kind of yearning that is hard to achieve and impossible to forget.

“Kamikaze”

MØ

While MØ’s feature on the chart-topping “Lean On” was arguably more exciting, “Kamikaze” might just be the better song, and it’s all thanks to her fantastic chemistry with Diplo. Under his production, MØ becomes Scandinavia’s answer to M.I.A., a pop princess who does her best work when supported with invigorating international influences. Diplo’s touch on this song is obvious but still catchy, and it’s nuanced in the way it goes about bringing a global openness to the track - instead of ripping “exotic” instrumentation, he uses textured synths, syncopation, and an ecstatic chorus that makes you ask yourself once more, “What instrument is that?” A collaboration between an American and a Norwegian that sets its music video deep in Ukraine, “Kamikaze” wears its multinationality on its sleeve - and it couldn’t be more exciting.

“Grief”

Earl Sweatshirt

I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside

Although Earl Sweatshirt’s new album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside was certainly out there, it still aligned closely with Doris in many places. “Grief” is not one of them. This song is viciously aloof - you feel trapped between the late-night-foghorn beat and Earl’s razor-sharp vocals. Such a contrast is striking - the instrumentals on “Grief” are almost somnambulant, down to the lazily clicking drum sequences (especially that one that sounds like breathing in slow motion). But Earl is unfazed. “Nigga, I ain’t been outside in a minute, I been living what I wrote,” he reveals in a voice that goes against everything that the music stands for - it’s sharp, combative, and entirely lucid. Because of this imbalance, “Grief” is deeply and beautifully conflicted, between Earl’s lyrical focus and the hazy, undetermined musical world around him. When he succumbs to the void, moaning, “I’m fleeting thoughts on a leash / for the moment, high as fuck / I been alone in my shit / for the longest,” it’s hard not to connect with him. “Grief” is the best song off of Earl Sweatshirt’s most recent album - on it, he explores his darker feelings in a way that is blunt, abrasive, and 100% human.

“Gosh”

Jamie xx

In Colour

In the video for “Gosh”, we slowly descend on an alien planet before realizing that it looks a hell of a lot like the one we already live on, and that’s what “Gosh” is in relation to the rest of Jamie xx’s In Colour - a cosmically charming intro where the destination is the journey. At the song’s end, the sampled pirate radio DJ extends an invitation “...wherever you can pick this up man. Many thanks for still keeping the vibe alive!” “Gosh” is a vibrant intro to an album that is very intent on keeping the vibe alive - not just offering a tribute or appropriating its sound for modern times, but capturing the feeling that intoxicated the last generation. You can hear it in the honking cars and weird screams - “Boo-uh!” - between the chants of “hold it down, hold it down”; you can hear it the way that slowly pulsating bass becomes either ashy black or vividly colorful depending on its surroundings. This song manages to be clinical and composed while still sounding utterly organic and lived-in. “Gosh” is a bewitching invitation to the party, a UK treasure that reaches so, so far beyond that.

“Afterglow”

CHVRCHES

Every Open Eye

CHVRCHES' Every Open Eye is a compact, glittering synthpop listen, which makes things even more jarring when it ends with a three-minute breath of fresh air. "Afterglow" is the quietest song the group has ever made, a soft and delicate chord expression that begins and ends with floating ambient sound. In between, Lauren Mayberry is the undisputed centerpiece, a powerful voice whose every change in tone seems to pull the music along with it. "A lifeline," she sings in the song's chorus as the synths swell, "to highs and lows." Not only does "Afterglow" function in a more abstract sense (meaning that it can make you cry without knowing what the song is about), it has a powerful lyrical theme of remembering love's legacy. Mayberry is broken after the end of a relationship, and she sets out to take in the good and the bad - it's all "laid out before me now / to leave a trace." Mayberry is lovely in "Afterglow", and as she seeks closure from a dying relationship, the music stays with her, lingering like memories tend to do.

“Institutionalized (feat. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg)”

Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp A Butterfly

As the introspective cut that follows "King Kunta"'s bravado on To Pimp A Butterfly, "Institutionalized" plays like our first glimpse at the inner workings of Kendrick Lamar's mind. It's a maze of live, jazz-influenced instrumentation, bizarre production effects, and wonky flows - "Institutionalized" never fails to be sonically entertaining, and it actually uses that musical intricacy to make political statements on top of that. This song is infused with political meaning. In its first section, Lamar describes the ghetto's subconscious hold on him, from the streets of Compton, to the White House; not only is the ghetto a result of generations of discrimination and deep social disparities between blacks and whites, it is a manifestation of Lamar's own feelings of temptation. After an Afrika Bambaataa tribute of an interlude, Lamar is back with a peculiar singsong flow, dispensing lines left and right about the importance of hard work and the challenges of making it when you're still very tied to your roots - "You can take your boy out the hood but you can't take the hood out the homie," as Snoop Dogg puts it. "Institutionalized" is a fascinating song - it's Lamar at his most obtuse and intellectual, and it's a brilliant musical and lyrical jungle that gives you one more thing to think about with every new listen.

“Complexion (A Zulu Love) [feat. Rapsody]”

Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly is an incredibly intricate album, full of diverse instrumentation and difficult concepts - "Complexion (A Zulu Love)” is no different. But what is truly special about this song is that although it’s just as political as “u” or “For Free? - Interlude” or “The Blacker The Berry”, it’s surprisingly light on its feet, riding a calmly looping guitar phrase and a smooth beat punctuated by vinyl scratches - “Two-step,” as Pete Rock says throughout the song. Lamar is on top of his game as usual - on this track, he’s a “good field nigga”, exploring the complicated world of colorism through American slavery, an institution which started the problem in the first place. For all that Lamar says, though, the real catharsis of the song comes when North Carolina’s Rapsody enters the song, riding in halfway through over glassy piano and knowing wolf-whistles. “Call your brothers magnificent, call all the sisters queens, we all on the same team, blues and pirus, no, colors ain’t a thing,” is the ending couplet, the finish on a verse that ties Lamar’s words together and puts a powerful touch of positivity on it at the end. “Complexion” is a such a powerfully natural song - it’s telling that one of the most well-delivered arguments on To Pimp A Butterfly is put with music so intuitively beautiful.

“Tropic Of Cancer”

Panda Bear

Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper

If Panda Bear’s Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper is a trip through a mysterious alien planet, then "Tropic Of Cancer" is its peculiar and expansive centerpiece, a song for tranquil, mystical mornings spent in the forest after a frenzied night. However, it's much more than that; while "Tropic Of Cancer"'s music seems to be the soundtrack to peaceful exploration of uncharted worlds, its lyrics explore the most uncharted world of all - that of death. Noah Lennox's father died of cancer during the recording of this album, and "Tropic Of Cancer" is a breathtaking tribute to his memory - the centerpiece of the song is a looped harp sampled from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Pas de Deux", a similarly graceful daydream of a song, and Lennox surrounds it with the lush sounds of a tropical forest deep in sleep. "When they said he's ill / Laughed it off as if it's no big deal," he sings over the angelic melody of the harp - the surreal quality of the music adds to the dazed, postmortem-like feel of the lyrics. But it's not only his father that Lennox considers - "Sick has to eat well too," he sings a few lines later. "Tropic Of Cancer" "is about sympathy for disease. Trying to forgive disease, seeing it as just another thing in the universe that’s trying to survive," Lennox says. He couldn't have made a better tribute. "Tropic Of Cancer" is one of the most interesting songs about death made this year; it toes a profoundly beautiful line between hopeless despondency and wondrous awe.

“JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE”

SOPHIE

PRODUCT

Of the eight songs that make up PRODUCT, the last two tracks are the most essentially SOPHIE. One, "L.O.V.E.", is bitter and caustic, a vile experimental pop song which globs synths on top of synths; while it's fascinating in its own right, it pales in comparison to its counterpart and polar opposite, "JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE". You might not hear a more feather-light song this year, much less last year - no acidic synths, no weird noises, no tongue-in-cheek lyrics this time around. Hell, there isn't even percussion, save for a single isolated snare in the second verse. What makes this song float is its crystalline future pop purity - without a torrent of pop production in the background, our anonymous female subject is more exposed and more intimate than ever before. And she delivers a powerfully straightforward performance - "We were young, and outta control / I hadn't seen you since I was about, mm, sixteen years old," she begins, adding to the song's themes of innocence and reminiscence. Meanwhile, the perfectly engineered stabs of synthesizer behind her give the song a sense of dynamism - although they're unsupported by any other solid instrumentation, they build fantastically towards the final chorus. This song might not have the bracing conceptual shine of "HARD" or "BIPP". But it is SOPHIE's best song, one where he checks almost all pretense at the door and crafts one of the best, purest, and lightest pop songs of 2015.

“Sagres”

The Tallest Man On Earth

Dark Bird Is Home

With the anthemic Dark Bird Is Home, Kristian Matsson’s The Tallest Man On Earth opened up his sound and shot for the moon. While his new, more lavish music drew plenty of criticism, there’s something wonderfully arresting about the album’s lead single “Sagres” - something that should make even the most rigid naysayer feel a little less critical. This song is the aural equivalent of Richard Linklater’s film Boyhood - although it’s certainly quite a bit shorter and less ambitious than that three-hour behemoth, the two works of art both have an impressive presence. “Sagres” is not a challenge to listen to - its five minutes are invariably controlled by a single, lilting chord progression. However, it turns out that the song is an emotional Trojan horse - while Matsson stays cryptic about exactly what it is he’s fighting, there’s a sense of bittersweet peril to the whole song. “Sagres” is about a very abstract but relatable feeling - it’s about teetering on the edge of a major turning point in your life, all the while knowing that you’ll never be the same once you leave. And this feeling couldn’t be expressed that much better.

“Flesh without Blood”

Grimes

Art Angels

The subversive lead single that introduced the world to Art Angels-era Grimes, “Flesh without Blood” was never going to be easy to process on first listen. However, over a year later, it’s clear that this song is the marker of a new era for Grimes - one that is surprisingly candid, clear-headed, and sincere under all that zaniness. This is like a Kelly Clarkson song that keeps getting better - the percussion is typically unpredictable, the electric guitar goes from tinny to viciously fierce in the chorus, and Boucher’s own voice is more compelling than ever. “If you don’t need me / Just let me go,” she sings before the chorus, drawing out the words. It’s emphatically expressed carelessness, the sound of a producer discovering her voice.

“Sound & Color”

Alabama Shakes

Sound & Color

Alabama Shakes know exactly what they’re doing here. The Southern rock group’s second album took their sound out of their home state, melding it with classic rock and psychedelic funk and searing punk - quite a departure from their first album. The opening track begins with a somber yet layered vibraphone/drums duo, before introducing Brittany Howard’s excellent voice. Ever so slowly, a sliver of melancholy seeps into the song’s foundation like a water leak - a little off note at 1:45, an upright bass at 2:00, and then the pièce de résistance at 2:15, a string quartet which blooms and flourishes like flowers in April. It’s one of the most unexpected and tear-wrenchingly beautiful musical moments of the year, and it sends a clear message to anyone listening to Alabama Shakes for the first time - they’re capable of more than you think.

”Apocalypse”

Moon King

Secret Life

Even after listening 50 times, it still punches me in the face. Makes my blood boil and my feet tap the floor and my stomach suck inwards, reacting to invisible pressure. “Apocalypse” is that damn dramatic. Just listen to how innocently it starts, with a cute little guitar riff and calmly hissing hi hats. When the riff kicks in on the right side of the mix, you’re taken in by the momentum, and you notice the drums picking up pace. When it finally happens, it feels like it’s too soon - it feels like the dike that’s been containing the flood has suddenly slipped and then exploded, letting a thunderous river through. That guitar sound burrows into your bones, and it won’t leave anytime in the near future. Moon King’s “Apocalypse” is a nuclear explosion of delirious fury - the loudest song of 2015.

“Butterfly”

Grimes

Art Angels

Nevermind 2012 - after hearing the lead singles of Art Angels, it was hard imagining Grimes making a song like “Butterfly” in 2015. But here we are - a goofy intro that sounds like a sitcom theme mixed with a surprisingly AutoTune-y electropop strut, all resulting in an arrestingly uncommon ode to individualism. After all of Art Angels’ mania - the ecstatic opening act, the dreamy middle section, and the darker, clubbier second half - “Butterfly” offers a soothing exit. It also perfectly puts the finishing touches on the new, stronger persona Grimes has created for itself: “If you’re looking for your dream girl / I’ll never be your dream girl.” Those were the words she left us with - no one knows what to expect next.

“No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross”

Sufjan Stevens

Carrie & Lowell

The loss of someone great never really results in one emotion. When someone close to you leaves, it triggers an onslaught of feelings, from despair to confusion to numbness. Coming near the end of Carrie & Lowell, “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross” is the last one - Sufjan Stevens is reeling after going on a self-destructive romp after his mother’s death. “There’s blood on that blade / Fuck me, I’m falling apart,” he sings in a whispery voice, accompanied by a gentle guitar. This song is the morning after the storm, the moment where Stevens is at his lowest and most defeated; in a way, it’s also a new beginning.

“SeeSaw (feat. Romy)”

Jamie xx

In Colour

I read these words one day on an electronic music forum:

‘I saw my heart break in two / With you. / I saw her again / With you.’

Unbelievable beauty and sadness. It’s really something to be in the electronic music scene for nearly 20 years and eventually an artist comes along that is hyped like world madness and designated our next savior. And you listen to the record and you hear every reference, every allusion, decades of rave and breakbeat and drugs and hope. You listen and you know he knows like you what it’s like to be in nightclubs and the only one on deserted blue-lit dance floors for half your life.

Every once and awhile, they get something right.

The post was deleted soon after, but I saved the words because there’s nothing more that needs to be said about this song. After “Gosh” and “Sleep Sound” get In Colour into an earthy, intimate groove, “SeeSaw” seems to pull you back into the sky - back into your own head. Romy’s lyrics - “I see pictures in my mind” - couldn’t be more perfect. In Colour is an album about how it feels to be on the dance floor, and “SeeSaw” is the moment where you experience the heartbreak of knowing, in the middle of this massive party, that the person you came with isn’t there for you.

“Artangels”

Grimes

Art Angels

You can pinpoint the exact moment in the middle of the title track of Grimes’ Art Angels when her newfound taste for eclectic pop music stops being newfound - it’s the moment where, after a hectic first verse in English, she suddenly switches to French. “Je comprends / je l’ai dit / c’est la vie” - it means “I understand, I said it, it’s life.” Art Angels is a cluttered album full of stories that somehow manages to feel cohesive, and it’s titular track is a microcosm of that. This song is absolutely stuffed with melodies and vocals and sounds, but a singular message gets through all the glorious muck - Grimes loves her city of Montréal. “Artangels” is a perfectly executed statement of love for a specific place; we all have our Montréal, and we’ve all felt the way that Claire Boucher feels in the chorus: “Running every red light / you were right / oh Montréal, don’t break my heart / I think I love you.”

“Where Are Ü Now (feat. Justin Bieber)”

Jack Ü

Jack Ü

Listening to Jack Ü’s debut album back in March, it was obvious what “Where Are Ü Now” was destined to be. The finale of a half-hour barrage of gloriously clunky, globally influenced post-dubstep beats, this track isn’t revolutionary: it’s a common trope nowadays for EDM albums to feature the “emotional closing track.” What’s truly daunting is how well it’s done here - from the initial sample, metallic synth buzzing quietly away behind it, to the intimate, careful buildup, to the moment where Bieber relinquishes control to a tropical, squeaky dolphin-ized version of his own voice. 

This track might just be the best use of vocal manipulation in a trap song so far. It revived the career of Justin Bieber, and helped revive the career of Diplo, who since went on to craft “Lean On” and produce music for Beyoncé, M.I.A., and The Weeknd. It expertly mixed emotional songwriting with regular conventions of EDM, something that is insanely hard to do well (although Skrillex has done it before). “Where Are Ü Now” is one of the most influential songs of 2015 - it elevated the three musicians involved towards becoming chart-dominators across the next twelve months. But that’s not what makes it a good song - what makes it a good song is its flawless composition, its stunning production, and its unquestionable heart.

“Holy Shit”

Father John Misty

I Love You, Honeybear

Josh Tillman wrote this song on his wedding day, and it shows. The penultimate track to I Love You, Honeybear works like a lot of his songs: on first listen, it sounds unbearably pretentious, but the song’s meaning slowly emerges with repeated listens. A simple piano/guitar ballad, “Holy Shit” is much more lyrical than it is music. Tillman lists the things humans can’t escape in the verses - basically, a bunch of ‘holy shit,’ from original sin and genetic fate to isolation and online friends. The sheer scope of the subjects addressed is exhausting; Tillman addresses this in the first chorus, singing, “Oh, and no one ever really knows you and life is brief / So I’ve heard, but what’s that gotta do with this black hole in me?” Two thirds through the song, the key changes, and a string quartet majestically comes together - then, Tillman turns his eye to love. “Maybe love is just an economy based on resource scarcity / But what I fail to see is what that’s got to do with you and me.” “Holy Shit” is an slyly delivered statement against intellectualism; maybe marriage is an empty social construct, maybe it’s just a genetic advantage, and maybe love is just a market where you settle for you afford. But it doesn’t matter - Tillman and his wife will keep existing, and so should we.

“u”

Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar is more than just an excellent lyricist - he’s an actor, someone who uses different voices and personas to express different aspects of his own personality. His talents in this area have never been as prominent as they are in “u”, one of the most heart-wrenching tracks on To Pimp A Butterfly. Across the song’s four minutes, Lamar goes through hell - “Lovin’ you is complicated,” he squeals at the song’s beginning, before launching into a searing self-criticism. “I fuckin’ hate you, I hope you embrace it.” When the song suddenly cracks - the mix fractures, spinning nauseatingly from ear to ear as a maid knocks at Lamar’s hotel room door - so does Lamar’s anger, becoming despondent sorrow as he adopts a pitiful sobbing voice that stops to sniffle and drink from a bottle. More than any other song this year, “u” made a statement by showing instead of telling.

“Kin”

Azedia

Form

Compared to other genres, there isn’t really that much room in house music for innovation. In the world of electronic music, where genres can have smaller boundaries than your average Brooklyn micro-apartment, what makes a “house” song isn’t necessarily an exciting new sound; instead, it’s a good groove and a creative ear for samples. “Kin”, a single off of London duo Azedia’s sophomore album Form, is hands down the best conventional house track of 2015, and it’s because of both of those criteria. 

One thing that does set “Kin” apart from most other house songs is its many musical elements - although there are strong musical motifs throughout, this track tells a story with them instead of repeating them ad nauseam. The main theme is so simple - a warped sample of a woman saying “you” - but, like so many other classic house tracks, it speaks to the universality of the genre (house music tends to be about big things, like love and sex and community). The song’s first movement is irresistibly opulent - wormy off-key synth lines alternate with plush, jazzy keyboard hits, and a muscular bass kicks in as the track grows and grows. When the track drops out to reveal a simple piano line, one that slowly gains momentum before meshing beautifully with the first half of the song, Azedia find their true magic; it’s the hummed melody on top of that piano that seems to summarize what "Kin” - and house music as a movement - is all about.

"Know Yourself”

Drake

If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late

After putting out maximalist masterpiece Nothing Was The Same in 2013, Drake’s next project took a surprising turn - while all the after-hours melancholy was still there, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late displayed an aggression that was compelling, to say the least. “Know Yourself” is this aggression - this sense of vicious, unadorned musical focus - at its peak. The drums are so mean - deep and guttural, yet they still feel brittle, like they’ve been left out overnight in the Toronto permafrost. Boi-1da′s simple synth lines, one twinkling in the back and one writhing around in the front of the mix, give the growling bass some direction. And Drake is cold and clinical, dropping words right on the beat - “I want that Ferrari then I SWERVE.” When he lurches into a triplet flow, it feels as if he’s suddenly taken the reins from the production, and it’s just in time for him to hand them right back to another Boi-1da beat which just shreds, taking all of that pent-up mercilessness from the song’s first half and letting it go through machine-gun sprays of hi hats and chants of “RUNNIN-THRUTHE-6-WITH MY WOES!” No song this year was more ruthlessly, luxuriously cold - with “Know Yourself”, Drake gave harsh Toronto winters an anthem.

“Feel You”

Julia Holter

Have You In My Wilderness

“You know I love to run away from sun,” Julia Holter sings near the beginning of “Feel You”; if you’ve ever listened to any of her music, which is invariably lush, delicate, and full of reverb, you’ll know this. Like the rest of Have You In My Wilderness, “Feel You” expresses how wonderful certain textures can be - not only does Holter pepper her lyrics with things that stand out due to their evocative beauty (raincoats, perfumes, Mexico City), she rejoices in simply letting the words tumble out of her mouth. Listen to her first line and how she crisply enunciates everything to the point where it’s almost unintelligible. It’s a simple thing for a song to hold most dear, the joy of aesthetics, but “Feel You” does it on almost every layer - it’s a positively radiant song, to the point where you begin to enjoy your own surroundings all the more.

“Fourth of July”

Sufjan Stevens

Carrie & Lowell

Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell was uniquely brilliant in that it approached a cataclysmic loss in a variety of different ways and emotions, and “Fourth of July” was by far the most haunting of these explorations. This song has such a hushed atmosphere that it’s hard not to picture Stevens’ at his mother’s deathbed. Keyboards swirl amongst foggy reverb; Stevens’ lyrics portray a man at ground zero of a loss (”The hospital asked, should the body be cast before I say goodbye / my star in the sky”). “Fourth of July” will resonate through the years as one of Stevens’ great songs - a stirringly simple song about how it feels to watch someone you love pass away.

“Days of Candy”

Beach House

Depression Cherry

Beach House are a band obsessed with a certain ineffable feeling, and on Depression Cherry closer “Days of Candy”, they stretch this feeling to its astonishingly gorgeous limits. It’s hard to decide whether this track is thick or thin, maximalist, or minimalist - all that I know is that it is grandly evocative. Victoria Legrand’s heavenly voice is more vulnerable than it ever has been, roaming naked amongst the harmonies of a Mississippi choir. When things transform into a guitar ballad, it feels like a statement from the band, some cosmic connection of their own simple dream pop with a greater force. “I know it comes too soon / the universe is riding off with you,” Legrand breathes cryptically, sealing this track’s feel of mysterious wonder. “Days of Candy” works on two levels: as a plain old lovely song, and as a portal to another world. 

“Excuse Me”

A$AP Rocky

AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP

A$AP Rocky’s “Excuse Me” is a wake-up call of the best variety. That sample - courtesy of Vulkan The Crusader, lifted from a Christmas song by The Platters - is the one of the best of the year; it’s psychedelic in itself, but positioned after the fantastical “L$D” on AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP, it feels like a lush summer morning. Rocky, meanwhile, pulls out one of his strongest flows yet, spitting continuously over a lazily floundering drum beat. The chorus lapses back into nighttime, with Rocky singing chant-like over a colorful instrumental, before you’re woken up once more. As the heart of the psychedelics-obsessed AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP, “Excuse Me” is outstanding - as a showcase of Rocky’s mesmerizing ability to flow on top of a track, it’s even more so. The result of a man on top of his game in every sense.

“The Rest Is Noise”

Jamie xx

In Colour

Jamie xx’s debut album steadfastly denies genre labels - instead, it’s almost as if In Colour wants to be categorized more emotionally than musically. Throughout the album, the London producer strives for a sound that’s airy and dreamy, but still primal in its rhythm; “The Rest Is Noise”, the penultimate track on the record, is surely the most direct, constant, and impactful exploration of this sound. Just listen to how delicately he builds the song to a crescendo, seemingly listening carefully to every sound - the first 90 seconds of “The Rest Is Noise” are a slow ascent into the night sky, before lightly touching down onto a rooftop of disguised handclaps and classical pianos.

This is a song full of moments that excite and inspire, from the sudden onslaught of dark bass after three minutes to the moment where everything comes together at the end of the track. In Colour might have flashier tracks, or better and bigger singular moments. “The Rest Is Noise”, however, is unparalleled in its consistent momentum - it’s Jamie xx at his best, taking a simple set of musical ideas and conjuring life out of them.

“Brought to the Water”

Deafheaven

New Bermuda

Of all the music that came out in 2015, very little was this ambitious. “Brought to the Water” is an onslaught of sound and fury at first glance, sure, but what makes the opener to Deafheaven’s New Bermuda truly captivating is its songwriting, something which doesn’t always come first in black metal. George Clarke’s band can shred, and they let loose on the first half of this track; drummer Daniel Tracy does fantastic work in keeping a deadly rhythm during the song’s breakneck first act. But as the song progresses, losing its obsidian edge and becoming more nuanced, the one-note thrashing slowly blossoms into an imposing minor-key jam - then it goes even further, introducing a bold guitar riff three minutes in which plays with major-key notes. All of a sudden, the song is in a major key; it carries onwards, introducing a gorgeously laidback guitar riff and ending with a cathartic piano piece.

The point of all this kind-of-but-not-really music theory is to reveal how brilliant "Brought to the Water” is at using songwriting to get across a nuanced combination of emotions. This track starts off as a frenzied explosion of crazy drums and monotonous bass and gradually melts into a more layered, musical piece - it’s a magnificent portrayal of how behind our visceral anger, there’s always something a little more human.

“Should Have Known Better”

Sufjan Stevens

Carrie & Lowell

Carrie & Lowell doesn’t remember Sufjan Stevens’ mother by telling a concise story about her life; instead, it’s more of a piece-by-piece recollection, like a diary that’s been put through the shredder and pasted back together to make more of an subconscious impression than a conscious one. This is how Sufjan writes, and “Should Have Known Better” is him at his utter pinnacle; depression and hope are tied exquisitely together, all around love for his mother.

He comes close on other songs, but in the end, this is the most intimate he’ll ever sound towards his mom. The funny thing is that he almost never mentions her, but when he does - “Oh, be my rest, be my fantasy” - it’s a feeling of desperate desire, as if she’s alive for one moment more. He recalls being “three, maybe four” and experiencing his earliest memories of her - being left at a video store, seeing her picture on a door in his house - and that feeling of being an impressionable toddler who loves their mom more than anything is so painfully apparent. “Should Have Known Better” is stunning; every tiny detail contributes to paint an overall picture that’s a little rough at the margins, but so, so clear where it really matters. 

“Morning”

Four Tet

Morning / Evening

Four Tet (a.k.a. Kieran Hebden) has spent his career as a musician exploring two things, the more intimate side of the dancefloor and the allure of Eastern traditional music, and Morning / Evening - especially “Morning” - takes both of those and sets them free, letting them intertwine across 40 sprawling minutes. The funny thing about this song is that it wouldn’t really be that good if it were, say, 7 minutes long - the distinctive Bollywood sample and the train-tracks beat behind it work much better when stretched for so long that they fade warmly into the background. Hebden almost never stops adding and taking away elements of the song, as if the core sample is a diamond that looks different every time you move an inch in any direction.

The more romantic side of me loves this song for something a little less demonstrable: to me, "Morning” is an ode to the power of travel, and a statement about how vast our Earth truly is. Hebden’s use of the Indian sample never really strays into the poisonous territory of orientalism; there’s almost nothing else in the track that suggests any connection with Indian culture. Even so, there’s something thrillingly “other”-ish about the song, and it doesn’t feel like it’s cultural. “Morning” represents the better side of travel, the side that shows you how boundless the human experience really is. It makes complete sense that it’s titled something like “Morning”; it makes complete sense that it sounds like how a sunrise looks. After all, that’s all we have in common.

“Levitation”

Beach House

Depression Cherry

Even though they’ve spent their entire career trying, Beach House have never said more with less than in this song. The opener to Depression Cherry is like a dream where you fall in love with someone you’ve never met, and Victoria Legrand is happy to play the part. Her first lyric, simply a wistful “You...... and me,” puts you in the palm of her hand. To some extent, the criticisms that Beach House’s songs are too detached too make an emotional connection are understandable. With “Levitation”, though, it’s not so much detached as it is universal. It’s hard not to feel something to the words Legrand sings, or the way she sings them; it’s hard not to feel lifted up in the air when Alex Scully’s reverbed-out guitars suddenly fill the space surrounding her vocals. “There’s a place I want to take you” - the words that are said over and over as the song disappears into a cloud of wistful, silvery keyboards. The journey is the destination.

“Realiti”

Grimes

Art Angels

While the title to Grimes’ “Realiti” might suggest otherwise, this song feels like a dream - and maybe it’s supposed to. The song plays with present and past tense, jumping from one to the other between every verse and chorus; it’s almost like Grimes herself is torn between the present and her past loved one. “Oh baby, every morning there are mountains to climb,” she sings over a nocturnal synthpop beat. “Realiti” is not a happy song - it’s remembering an old relationship, and how she doesn’t feel the way she used to. Even still, there’s something incredibly joyous in the way she embraces these memories; Grimes doesn’t merely revisit them, she lets them wash over her. “Realiti” is a song thick with feeling and memory, yet it manages to stay cool as a cucumber. You won’t find another song from 2015 like this one - so unassuming on the surface, but you never really let go of it.

“The Blacker The Berry”

Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp A Butterfly

It’s important to read the lyrics to this song. You should pore over them - read the Genius page, Google Wallace Thurman, read how, a month before the release of this song, Kendrick Lamar said in Billboard, “When we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us?” and was met with criticism from the hip hop community. You should understand how the song fearlessly unfolds its message - Lamar is black, and his community faces nothing less than annihilation by those who oppress it, but when the gangs continue to kill each other, peace will be hard, if not impossible to accomplish.

But the song’s greatest strength isn’t something that needs to be learned. It’s something that Kendrick Lamar has always possessed, more so than any other rapper out there today. It’s the ability to tell a story without relying on the words, and he’s never done it better than he does it here. Boi-1da’s vicious production and Assassin’s chorus contribute to the mood, but the catalyst here is Lamar - his carefully chosen words are yelled out with venom, as if he’s been emotionally strained so intensely that his outburst, while passionate, still hits all the right points. The phrases he uses to identify himself - “I’m a proud monkey”, “heart as black as a fuckin’ Aryan”, “my hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide” - lack any restraint. And when the song reaches its absolute peak, he’s there to give his all. By the end of “The Blacker The Berry”’s five-plus minutes, Kendrick Lamar’s point hasn’t merely hit home - it’s shattered any response you could possibly have. The biggest hypocrite of 2015, maybe, but he’s also the best storyteller.

“Loud Places (feat. Romy)”

Jamie xx

In Colour

“I go to loud places / to search for someone / to be quiet with / who will take me home.” The protagonist of “Loud Places” is also the protagonist of In Colour as a whole - just like Romy in this wonderful, wonderful song, the album is besotted with the dancefloor because it is a place where love happens. This is the most emotionally rewarding moment on Jamie xx’s In Colour - the elegance of the chorus simply cannot be matched. It’s packed with emotion - it’s as if fear, depression, hope, frisson, and new love were all packed inside of a tiny club - but it remains utterly exquisite, a rare moment of serenity in the middle of a night of extremes. Jamie xx proves his talent time and time again. In “Loud Places”, he’s made maybe the best song he’ll ever make, a song of such astounding grace and momentum that it makes you fall in love with music all over again.

“Let It Happen”

Tame Impala

Currents

“Psychedelia is not a genre. It has nothing to with guitar or synths. Psychedelia is a sensation. It’s when you transport people; where you feel like you’re outside your own skin.”

Kevin Parker took a huge departure with “Let It Happen”. He left behind the world that he’d inhabited for the last four years - sure, not that long of a time, but it’s important because Parker’s Tame Impala had kind of made it their own; Innerspeaker and Lonerism are two of the 2010s’ best psychedelic rock records. The key to Tame Impala’s skill was never in what the music sounded like, though. It’s what it felt like - nervous, insecure, cluttered, and introverted to a fault. There is real conflict in Tame Impala’s music; it’s these imperfect feelings that give you the urge to leave your own body and look at things on a cosmic level. Parker has always been a genius at invoking these feelings; the difference is that on “Let It Happen”, they’re perilously out in the open. 

“Let It Happen” strips away the grimy rock façade in favor of a cleaner, more dreamy sound: you won’t hear any guitar fuzz or vocal distortion. The skittery guitar line at the beginning sings an uneasy, one-note tune; underneath, the drums are crisp but quietly frenetic. Parker’s voice is unnervingly sleek as he urges his inner self, “Let it happen (it’s gonna feel so good)”; he retreats inside himself to find “an ocean growing inside”, and then resurfaces to an even more nervous variation on the opening theme. With each repetition of this simple chorus/verse format, the intensity in the song grows; it’s like he’s pushing on his own inner walls, trying to make his inhibitions give way. When the second riff kicks in, it’s as if the true battle has begun; when the song unexpectedly freezes into a loop and goes underwater, it’s as if Parker is facing the boss level, his inner ego that prevents this vast, ambiguous change from taking over. 

Parker goes to war with himself in “Let It Happen”, and when he wins, the payoff is palpable. The song resurfaces and resumes its second melody, but it’s different - it’s proud, even triumphant. When Parker returns, singing nothings into a vocoder, it’s as if he’s finally found his groove. Currents was an album about the beauty and tragedy of inevitable change, and “Let It Happen” is its shimmering peak, the first hill on the rollercoaster ride that, once crossed, will change everything forevermore.

“I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) [feat. Young Thug & Popcaan]”

Jamie xx

In Colour

Here’s a statement about 2015 that, while a little simplified and subjectively, I’d certainly like to say I believe: this year was a year where we came to terms with our modernity. The best songs this year always came as surprises; they were bold and brave, more so than the year before or the year after. The meme fully arrived on the scene as a thrilling (at least at first) new way to talk about music. The age of streaming continued its journey, full steam ahead. And, overall, it seemed like a year to deal with looming technological advancements.

What “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” says about the future is that even though it’s unfamiliar, we’ll make it familiar. Jamie xx’s poppiest song on In Colour takes these polar elements - starry-eyed nostalgia and electric modernism - and lets them gloriously clash against each other. The beat - dancehall-inspired with a very house music-styled sample, is so childlike in spite of it all. That dancehall vibe is executed with a radiant kind of chime noise that’s colorful and playful; it’s bolstered by weird, glassy sound effects and goofy synths that mirror Popcaan’s voice. The sample, meanwhile (it’s of The Persuasions’ “Good Times”), is similarly lighthearted: it has an anthemic kind of positivity to it that pays homage to the simpler days of yesterday.

And then, on top of this hyperactive, buoyant beat, we have Young Thug and his partner-in-crime Popcaan. To this day, this is Young Thug’s best performance ever, and it’s all because of how his electric, alien flow interlocks with Jamie xx’s youthful production. He’s tender one second (“Watch her come to my lights like a reindeer”) and triumphantly feeling himself the next (”Me and Poppy on the same pills”). His voice, which has been AutoTuned and smoothed into a neon whine, sits pleasurably right on top of the song’s key, although it regularly roams to the I and the III chords. Every little bit of this performance is thrilling. It makes you sit back and listen closer, it makes you laugh (”I’ma ride in the pussy like a stroller”? Seriously?!), but - most importantly - it makes you dance.

Popcaan, meanwhile, plays an important rule too - he adds one more layer of melody (and one more exciting flow) to a song that is already overflowing with feel-good songwriting. This more than anything is what makes “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” exciting on a purely pop level: there is always music to latch onto. There are Jamie’s chimes, which set the main groove of the song and occasionally drop down to a lower frequency. There’s the weird glassy thing, which playfully swings from note to note like a rubber band that’s being pulled tight and let loose again. There’s Thug himself, who provides almost constant gratification by riding smoothly on top of the whole thing. There’s the sample, which adds a layer of old-school whimsy to the whole thing, and then there’s the Jamaican dancehall star, who interplays with the sample beautifully during each chorus. This track is teeming with melody, so much so that it’s damn near life-affirming.

In the end, yeah, “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” is just a pop song, and not even that much of a popular one. There are those who will say this, and they’re right; they’re also right that it’s hard to give a year a particular spirit, or write about Young Thug like he’s some sort of music theory wet dream. But what fun is that? It’s alright to be pretentious about music sometimes - because our favorite song is never “just a pop song” to us. Our favorite music is full of life, emotion, and color. It makes us feel better about the world and about ourselves - or, if it makes us feel worse, it at least comforts us in our moments of despondency. There were some good times in 2015, and it was all thanks to songs like this one.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 3 is now here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 3, for the summer 2015 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $19.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 2 is now here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 2, for the spring 2015 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $17.

Read and download ISSUE 2 on issuu.

[signalmodulator]

ISSUE 1 is now here.

We’re turning into a quarterly publication - with that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all of our writings from the last two years into digital magazines. Here is Issue 1, for the winter 2015 quarter - you can buy a physical copy at Peecho, starting at $16.

Read and download ISSUE 1 on issuu.

[signalmodulator]

An Update from the Editor

Hi. That’s me in that picture there. My name is Owen Zoll, and I’m the editor-in-chief of Signal Modulator, which means that I have the lofty task of managing a team of one for this blog. I founded Signal Modulator in January 2015 with my good friend Alex Rudenshiold, and ever since, we’ve strived to bring you quality music recommendations, whether that be through news, features, interviews, or what have you.

Recently, we’ve run into some life issues that have taken away the amount of time we’ve been able to put into this blog. Alex has been hard at work at Tape Modulator, our tape label which has put out seven releases this year, and although I’ve tried to keep up in posting every day, I’ve run into issues centered around personal life (I started my first semester of college this August) and professional life (I’ll shortly be applying for writing gigs at many online blogs and publications). This means that I’ve had to take a good hard look at Signal Modulator as a blog, and how it should function moving on.

We have next to no audience here, but that’s never been important to me. What I take pride in at this small, relatively low-risk and DIY level of music writing is putting out a solid package of quality content. In the past, this meant reviews every day or two, with news articles constantly appearing on the site. Now, we’re going to make some changes in how Signal Modulator is run. I’ve outlined them below.

Change number one: From today onwards, we will be a quarterly publication instead of a daily one. Due to time constraints, I’ve had no time to post daily - even when I wasn’t in college, it was hard to stay consistent in what I posted. In order to make an effort to put out quality content at a rate that people expect, I’ve decided to move the blog to a quarterly schedule. This means that the release of our winter “issue” will be December 21 - until then, the blog will not be posting. Our spring issue will come out on March 20. 

Change number two: Our WATCH OUT! series of pieces will come to an end. In their place, we will add album reviews, track reviews, feature articles, and other fun and interesting tidbits to each quarterly issue. 

Change number three: Our news posts will also come to an end. Since we’re changing to a quarterly schedule, news posts aren’t too important anymore; even now, they are time-consuming and low-quality pieces to write.

Change number four: Our previous work from the last seven “quarters” will be accumulated into seven previous issues. These will be made available along with issue 8.

Change number five: We will be cultivating a much more active presence on social media. In the past, SM has tried to engage people on various social media, but we’ve never really fully engaged our audience. Expect weekly posts on social media from now on - our Cymbal, our Facebook, and our Twitter. We’ve decided to get rid of our Spotify for the time being - we simply don’t have enough time to update it.

Change number six: We will be actively searching for contributors. We understand that this is a moneyless and - for the most part - audience-less blog. (For transparency purposes, I’ll share the numbers: we have 200 followers, 130 Facebook likes, 100 Cymbal followers, 10 Twitter followers, and around 20,000 total page views in two years.) However, if you or someone you know wants to collaborate and help make a cool final product based on passion and love for music, hit us up. We’re happy to have you.

I’ve long toyed with the idea of ditching Signal Modulator. I have plenty of personal opportunities on the horizon, and this blog has never really culled that much of an audience anyways. But looking at the amount of work that Alex and I have put into it, along with the potential of what it could be and the pride that comes from making something out of nothing with no outside help, I can’t think of any other decision than this one. It’s clear that what we’re doing now isn’t working - so, because it must happen, we will adapt. For those of you who do read us, thank you. I appreciate it. Know that every word comes from a place of love for music and writing about music. Signal Modulator will never stop in its mission to provide quality music journalism.

[signalmodulator]

Gallant Shares Visuals for Jhené Aiko Collab “Skipping Stones”

Gallant’s debut album, Ology, came out back in April - featured on the album was “Skipping Stones”, a collaboration with Jhené Aiko. Now, the two have shared a music video together, where Gallant is stuck in the back of Aiko’s car. Check it out below - things don’t go well for him.

[signalmodulator]

The Weeknd Shares Nightmarish “Starboy” Video

After last year’s Beauty Behind The Madness, The Weeknd is making his return just over a year later with Starboy, a new album. He shared the Daft Punk-featuring lead single last week, and he’s shared the track’s music video this week. Check it out below - Abel Tesfaye kills an old version of himself, trashes his house, and drives away with a panther in the passenger seat.

[signalmodulator]

Solange Announces New Album Out Friday

It’s been four years since Solange’s last release, 2012′s Blood Orange-produced True EP. She has just announced her return - this Friday, she’ll drop a new album called A Seat at the Table, her first full LP in eight years. It’s out on Saint Records, her label - it features Lil Wayne, Sampha, and more. Check out the album art and tracklist below!

01 Rise 02 Weary 03 Interlude: The Glory Is In You 04 Cranes In The Sky 05 Interlude: Dad Was Mad 06 Mad (feat. Lil Wayne) 07 Don't You Wait 08 Interlude: Tina Taught Me 09 Don't Touch My Hair (feat. Sampha) 10 Interlude: This Moment 11 Where Do We Go 12 Interlude: For Us By Us 13 F.U.B.U. (feat. The-Dream & BJ The Chicago Kid) 14 Borderline (An Ode To Self Care) [feat. Q-Tip] 15 Interlude: I Got So Much Magic, You Can Have It (feat. Kelly Rowland & Nia Andrews) 16 Junie 17 Interlude: No Limits 18 Don't Wish Me Well 19 Interlude: Pedestals 20 Scales (feat. Kelela) 21 Closing: The Chosen Ones