FEATURE:
From Beginning to End
IN THIS PHOTO: Kali Uchis
2018-Released Gems That Show the Album Is Definitely Not Dead
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THERE have been some terrific records…
IN THIS PHOTO: Superorganism
released to the world this year! I have already collated a list and formed opinions but, since a couple of months have passed; new treasures have come in and it has been a busy time. It is hard to get a grip on all the fantastic music that has come through. In any case; there is plenty of evidence to suggest the album, as an artform, is not dead. We are told people prefer singles as opposed albums: if you can find a wondrous and biblical record then you are compelled to stay with it from the first notes to the last embers. Here is a collection of the best works of this year so far that show the album is very much…
IN THIS PHOTO: Eleanor Friedberger/PHOTO CREDIT: Philip Cosores
IN demand and going strong.
ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES: Getty Images/Press
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Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour
Release Date: 30th March
Label: Mercury Records
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Review Snippet:
“Less concerned with outside forces than internal balance, Golden Hour stands as an assured, artful snapshot of a particular rush of feelings, but its wisdom speaks volumes to Musgraves’ ongoing evolution. “If you’re ever gonna find a silver lining,” she sang in the first track on her major label debut, “It’s gotta be a cloudy day.” Even then, she suspected that ecstasy is most rewarding when it’s hard-won. On Golden Hour, she wears the sunlight well.” - Pitchfork
Natalie Prass – The Future and the Past
Release Date: 1st June
Label: ATO Records
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Review Snippet:
“Prass’s voice and writing are more than capable of handling the stylistic shift she’s initiated: indeed, they frequently feel liberated by it. Her usual vocal style is soft and understated enough that it’s easy to overlook what a fantastic singer she is. No danger of that on Never Too Late, where her voice soars without ever dragging out the melismatic fireworks. It’s all about control, and I’ve got lots of it, as Janet once put it.” – The Guardian
Shame – Songs of Praise
Release Date: 12th January
Label: Dead Oceans
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Review Snippet:
“With Songs of Praise, Shame have smashed through walls with a bold and unflinching manifesto and raised the bar for young bands wanting to make an impact. It’s the sound of politically engaged youngsters living between the cracks demanding to be heard in a society that’s more than happy to look right past them.
Listening to the raucous anthems that bury into your very soul, it feels as magical as something almost on the verge of collapsing can feel. Whip smart, furious and, most importantly, fun, Songs of Praise is the first essential album of 2018. And what an album it is.” – The Line of Best Fit
SOPHIE - OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES
Release Date: 15th June
Label: Future Classics
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Review Snippet:
“’Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides’ retains the innate oddness that sits at the centre of SOPHIE’s work and, as such, is an album that interrogates the nature of pop music as much as it embodies it. Riffing on Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’, ‘Immaterial’ imitates the synthetic claps and drop-chasing patterns of mainstream dance music, and the vocals – provided by Cecile Believe – are hurtled up and down multiple octaves like a plastic bag in caught a gust. Beneath the studied structure – at times, almost a parody of mainstream EDM – SOPHIE’s lyrics concern escaping societal structure. “I could be anything I want/ Immaterial boys, immaterial girls.” - NME
Eleanor Friedberger - Rebound
Release Date: 4th May
Label: Frenchkiss Records
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Review Snippet:
“The emotional rollercoaster sees her hurtle from “losing my mind to ZZ Top” to achieving some kind of connection in the dreamy love song, Nice to Be Nowhere. It’s all held together by sharp, tunefully lovely songwriting, and the likes of Make Me a Song and Everything are copper-bottomed, classy, euphoric electro pop.” – The Guardian
Lily Allen - No Shame
Release Date: 8th June
Label: Parlophone
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Review Snippet:
“Rather than worrying about radio play, Allen has made an album that captures the mindset of an artist and a mother approaching a pivotal crossroads. It definitely still has hits – look no further than lead single “Trigger Bang” featuring English rapper Giggs – but it also has a more endearing purpose. With No Shame, Allen has eschewed making an Irish exit from her days as a party girl and instead delivered a eulogy that gracefully buries the past while continuing to seek the sunshine of the future.” – Consequence of Sound
Leon Bridges - Good Thing
Release Date: 4th May
Label: Columbia Records
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Review Snippet:
“Faster than you can say “A change is gonna come,” Bridges has shuffled things up for “Good Thing,” probably correctly divining that what seemed fresh on the freshman outing would start to look like a one-Cooke-pony stunt by album two. He renewed work in the same vein with the same longtime band that produced and co-wrote the first record before thinking better of it. Instead, he started over with project overseer Ricky Reed, a 2017 Grammy producer of the year nominee whose labors here won’t hurt his chances at a repeat nomination. Reed has wisely kept Bridges’ original crew on board for a few tracks, but brought in a broader range of neo-soul collaborators for the others.” - Variety
Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy
Release Date: 5th April
Label: Atlantic Records
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Review Snippet:
“Cardi B’s rapping may not be as elastic as some of her peers’, but she’s endlessly daring, comparing her breasts to Beyoncé‘s twins on ‘Money Bag’ and asking Rihanna and Chrissy Teigen for a threesome on ‘She Bad’. She also matches the randiest male rapper with her sexual agency. When she raps “Give him some vag’, I’m gettin’ a bag” on ‘Bickenhead’, it’s one of several ‘Wow, she really went there’ moments. But this doesn’t mean ‘Invasion Of Privacy’ becomes one-note. The way she flips from righteous fury to plaintive desperation on ‘Thru Your Phone’, a track about her partner’s infidelity, is thrilling and palpably emotional.” - NME
Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer
Release Date: 5th April
Label: Atlantic Records
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Review Snippet:
“Other collaborators connect Dirty Computer to the best of pop’s now: Grimes brings vibes on the deliciously softcore “Pynk,” tagteaming off Aerosmith’s “Pink” with an amusingly Taylor Swiftian pre-chorus (its liner note credits also shout out “Kali, Sheela Na Gig, Isis, Sheba, Athena, Medusa, Mary … Vagina by Naomi Wolff, Interior Scroll by Carolee Schneemann and the calligraphy of Sun Ping). “I Got the Juice” features kindred spirit Pharrell; it’s a tasty ode to secretions and personal power that nods to Kelis’ Neptunes-produced “Milkshake” while declaring “this pussy grab you back.” Kendrick Lamar cohort Thundercat turns up alongside Wilson on “Take a Byte.” Other current A-list pop co-writers here include Taylor Parks, Julia Michaels, Justin Trantor and Mattman & Robin.” - Rolling Stone
Hookworms – Microshift
Release Date: 2nd February
Label: Domino Recording Company
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Review Snippet:
“You would have to search far and wide to find a transformation in an already great band that works as well as this. The key to it all is the vulnerability that MJ is now willing to put on display, giving the newfound musical incisiveness the emotional fuel it needs to really fly. If this isn’t one of the albums of the year then we must be in for something special.” – Drowned in Sound
Tierra Whack – Whack World
Release Date: 30th May
Labels: UMGRI/Interscope
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Review Snippet:
“The triumph of Whack World feels that much more important given the music industry’s stubborn refusal to champion diverse portrayals of women in rap outside of hypersexualized stereotypes. There is freedom in the margins, and Whack has crafted a work that beautifully manifests her own vision on her own terms. The result is brilliant—from the length of the songs down to the exaggerated imagery. Though she springs from a rich stylistic lineage, her 60-second confections have few modern precedents.” - Pitchfork
Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel
Release Date: 18th May
Label: Mom + Pop Music
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Review Snippet:
“The source of Barnett’s frustration is a moving target though – and she is both fuelled and exhausted by it. Need a Little Time, whose melody is at once bright and flat, feels like a conversation with herself: “You seem to have the weight of the world upon your bony shoulders.” The peppy isolationist anthem City Looks Pretty is conflicted too, dabbling in optimism and nihilism, succumbing to neither: “Sometimes I get sad / It’s not all that bad / One day, maybe never / I’ll come around.”
As much as finding a neat conclusion might lighten that mental load, Barnett has none to offer here. All she can do is show her workings, but leave the problems unanswered.” – The Guardian
Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth
Release Date: 22nd June
Label: Young Turks
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Review Snippet:
“The album hits its full, glorious stride during its last several tracks. “The Psalmnist,” a taut, unassailable post-bop theme by trombonist Ryan Porter, sparks one of the sharpest Washington solos on the album, before a virtuoso battle royal between drummers Tony Austin and Ronald Bruner, Jr. The next tune, “Show Us the Way,” opens with a modal crush of piano chords that recalls “Change of the Guard,” from The Epic. It culminates, after a rafters-raising Washington solo, in a refrain by the choir: “Dear Lord,” they sing, invoking John Coltrane, “Show us the way.” – Pitchfork
Nils Frahm - All Melody
Release Date: 26th January
Label: Erased Tapes Records
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Review Snippet:
“As we turn into the final straight with “Kaleidoscope”, it's clear we are dealing with a composer of profound textural appreciation. The main riff is a cascading arpeggiated pattern that is both spine tingling and compelling. It plants us right back in that rainforest, but this time it's more of a dreamscape - a kind of meditation space between dimensions. It’s astounding stuff from a modern master.” – The Line of Best Fit
Kali Uchis – Isolation
Release Date: 6th April
Label: Virgin EMI Records
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Review Snippet:
“Each song on ‘Isolation’ sounds wildly different from the last, but Uchis proves to be the constant, pulling and manipulating the strings in all the right places. Disco bangers in the shape of Tame Impala collaboration ‘Tomorrow’ brush shoulders with ballads like ‘Flight 22’, via the Amy Winehouse-recalling pop triumph ‘Feel Like A Fool’. Miraculously, it feels in no way forced: it’s a joy to witness her glide into any genre and totally own it.” - NME
Tess Roby – Beacon
Release Date: 20th April
Label: Italians Do It Better
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Review Snippet:
“What standouts most about the record is Roby’s vocals. They are deep and luscious, almost the opposite of her lithe synth work, but also a heady complement. Roby credits this to having spent eight years of her childhood as a member of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company.” - FACT
Field Music – Open Here
Release Date: 2nd February
Label: Memphis Industries
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Review Snippet:
“The driving, funky, sax-honking Share a Pillow could even be their belated answer to David Bowie circa Fame, with Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl drumbeat, were it not a touching ode to struggling to get a child to sleep. Everything comes bundled up in sumptuous production, with terrific tunes, and there’s never long to wait for a killer hook. Short of running naked through the streets of Sunderland, it’s hard to know what else they can do to alert a wider public.” – The Guardian
Florence + the Machine – High as Hope
Release Date: 29th June
Label: Virgin EMI Records
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Review Snippet:
“Stirring violins open “The End Of Love” like a sinister eulogy; Welch’s voice comes in with gorgeously textured harmonies, unfolding elegantly as she details a finished relationship with bittersweet recollections. Finally, “No Choir” is transparently self-deprecating: Welch sings about the fear of lost inspiration as she leaves those wild years behind her and confesses: “I did it all for myself… but the loneliness never left me.” She drifts off on an airy “la da da” as the violins fade until the song is stripped bare, left with just her vocals, sounding lighter and freer than ever before.” – Independent
Boy Azooga – 1,2, Kung Fu!
Release Date: 8th June
Label: Heavenly
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Review Snippet:
“Bright, exciting and full of effortlessly intelligent songwriting, ‘1, 2, Kung Fu!’ is an absolute joy to listen to. Wickedly fun, and made to be played on festival stages this summer, it’s short glimpse into the musical landscape of Newington’s mind – and one that we’re pretty bloody glad he shared.” – NME
Superorganism – Superorganism
Release Date: 2nd March
Labels: Domino Recording Company/Hostess Entertainment
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Review Snippet:
“Wake up wake up wake up,” whispers singer Orono Noguchi in the opening of ‘Night Time’, the last track on Superorganism’s self-titled LP. And that’s exactly what this album will make you do. Open your eyes, refresh your senses and make you woke into a whole synth pop paradise of cola cans being cracked and poured, hushed tones and – you know those sticks that make the noise when you flip them – something like that too.
The disorientating utopian ride you take when listening to this album in full will no doubt bring you glee, and maybe some weird dreams if you think about being a prawn too much.” - CLASH