15. Beach House – 7

Origin: Baltimore, Maryland



The Gist: Seven albums in, Baltimore-based Beach House have proven that they’re incredibly good at being themselves. Victoria Legrand’s smoky vocals and Alex Scally’s immersive instrumentals once again cohere into an experience that is disorienting in the best way, documenting impressions and moments in a way that is both mysteriously obfuscated and immediately visceral. 7 finds the duo teaming up with producer Sonic Boom to create a heavier sound than the tinkling, dreamy melodies that made their name on early albums like Devotion.

Why It Rules: Beach House are an endlessly creative, well-oiled machine, and 7 is the perfect exemplification of Legrand and Scally’s partnership. Songs like “Dive” start off slow and gradually introduce new elements like driving drumbeats, delivering listeners to a very different place than they were in when the song began. Through a bevy of production tricks like shimmering fades and dissolves and the rich, booming quality of Legrand’s voice, it’s not hard for a listener to imagine themselves experiencing the music on some kind of timeless astral plane — the transformative journey that people have come to expect, and even depend on, when playing a new Beach House record for the first time. In this way, and many more, 7 delivers the goods. –Katherine Flynn

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14. Jeff Rosenstock – POST-

Origin: Long Island, New York

The Gist: Traveled garage rocker Jeff Rosenstock released his third solo outing, POST-, on the very first day of 2018, a decision (intentional or not) that imbues the sprawling protest to follow with a couldn’t-wait-another-day sense of urgency. And given that most songs were written in response to the 2016 Presidential Election, we might wonder how Rosenstock sat on them for an entire year.

Why It Rules: Hip-hop might be seen as the genre where politics and injustice get addressed, but Rosenstock reminds us that few things sound more rebellious and feel more cathartic than a rock band blowing the windows out of a garage. But POST- runs so much deeper than just feeling pissed off over election results. “These songs are about losing hope in your country, yourself, and those around you,” explains Rosenstock. Songs like “USA”, “Yr Throat”, and “All This Useless Energy” perfectly capture the overwhelming feelings of trying to find balance among people we thought we knew in a country we no longer recognize. Rosenstock is one of the few songwriters to truly tap into the wide range of complex emotions that Americans are wrestling with during this administration. To hear your mind and heart shout-sung back at you makes it all the more clear that this cannot become our new normal. –Matt Melis

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13. Snail Mail – Lush

Origin: Ellicott City, Maryland

The Gist: Right before the summer of 2018 formally kicked in, but long after its spirit arrived in the form of rivers of sweat down our backs, 19-year-old Lindsey Jordan released her knockout debut full-length record under the name Snail Mail, expressing vulnerability and confidence in equal measure.

Why It Rules: Lush sounds like summer break, like having so much time to think and feel, and only just beginning to realize that it might not be that way forever. Throughout Lush, Jordan’s voice is round, full, and unabashed. Her guitar is just as brazenly honest, the instrument working almost like a supporting vocalist or lyrical companion to the singer. The album is not without its moments of youthful myopia, but rather than sparking bitterness or jadedness, Jordan simply brings out in the listener a deep and aching empathy. –Kayleigh Hughes

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12. Kendrick Lamar and Various Artists – Black Panther: The Album

The Gist: For easily the most anticipated inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, director Ryan Coogler tapped Kendrick Lamar and his pals at Top Dawg Entertainment to soundtrack the vivid world of Wakanda. What came to fruition is a muscular 50-minutes of A-list hip-hop and R&B, all from superstars like The Weeknd, SZA, Vince Staples, Future, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, BadBadNotGood, Ab-Soul, Anderson. Paak, and, oh yeah, James Blake. In other words, it’s basically Coachella: The Album.

Why It Rules: Look, these kinds of star-studded projects are traditionally dead on arrival — most of the time, everyone trips over each other or wedges in lame ass lines tied to the movie — but there’s so much creative life in Black Panther: The Album. Everyone tries to write The Big Single, and when you have K. Dot for the assist (at least most of the time), it’s hard to fuck that up. Vince Staples sounds like he’s spitting verses from a hoverboard on “Oops”, The Weeknd puts another club anthem on demand with “Pray For Me”, and both Kendrick and SZA wield some of their 2017 magic into the all-too-addicting ballad, “All the Stars”. It’s a soundtrack that leaves everyone looking like an antelope in headlights. –Michael Roffman

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11. Oneohtrix Point Never – Age Of

Origin: The Gist: Wayland, Massachusetts

The Gist: Like a journey through a Graceland-like mansion where every room has been designed and decorated using a computer-randomizing program, Daniel Lopatin invites you to explore the glittering weirdness and small pockets of absolute beauty contained within the walls of his latest album, Age Of.

Why It Rules: Everything you need to know about how Lopatin has found the threads connecting high art and low culture is that, on this new album, he samples both a modern classical piece by Jocelyn Pook and a MAD TV skit. Apparently, nothing escapes his gaze, and his music is all the better for it. Age Of was built by trial and error between Lopatin’s ceaseless production and soundtrack work. The album’s scattershot feel is, in that way, a feature, not a bug, keeping your attention centered as he goes from noisy fireworks to beautiful, Asian-inspired post-trap to future R&B. –Robert Ham

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