1. Bjork, “Vulnicura”: Bjork’s superpower: Delivering highly abstract vocalizations that simultaneously obey specific feelings, melodies and lyrics. Another one: Mapping out the margins of human emotion like a cosmonaut cartographer (who might actually be lost). Another one: Making existential dread feel like raw beauty. Another one: Reminding us that to be alone is to be alive.
2. Jessica Pratt, “On Your Own Love Again”: A lullaby has strange and magical responsibilities — it’s a song designed to guide the listener safely across a state of blurred consciousness. So when duty calls this California singer on her superb second album, she uses a willowy voice and an acoustic guitar to ferry us between wakefulness and dreamtime with magnetic strangeness and maximum magic.
3. Rae Sremmurd, “SremmLife”: From the young rap duo who brought us the twin joy-spasms of “No Flex Zone” and “No Type” comes a debut album that’s either a gurgling fountain of sonic caffeine or the actual fountain of youth.
4. Obnox, “Boogalou Reed”: Frontman Bim Thomas likes his jokes as dirty as his guitar riffs, but one of the zingiest zingers on this ripping new batch of Obnox tunes assumes the shape of metaphysical trash talk: “Got my third eye open! I’m watching you!”
5. Jazmine Sullivan, “Reality Show”: There’s a distinctive fed-up-ness to this R&B singer’s third album, a frustration that often refuses to erupt into falsetto shrieks of annoyance. Sullivan sounds most comfortable airing her grievances in her lower register. The truth is at the bottom.
6. RJ and Choice, “Rich Off Mackin’”: At this point, could a Yellow Pages recitation over a DJ Mustard beat crack the top 40? We’re getting close. On this sterling new mixtape, Mustard’s somewhat unremarkable new acolytes sound practically infallible rapping over the maestro’s exquisite boom-clap.
7. Turnstile, “Nonstop Feeling”: As if conjured from the brittle pages of a mid-’90s skateboard magazine, this hardcore group reanimates the knuckle-headed corpse of goofy, gonzo punk-funk in a smart, sincere way. (Someone in this band also digs the Pixies.)
8. Panda Bear, “Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper”: As Noah Lennox hones his original brand of difficult psychedelia, his music continues to feel deliriously conflicted — like trippy drudgery, like hard labor in a colorful dream, like working on the chain gang on psilocybin — and there’s always a nice melody to hum along to.
9. Zuse, “Illegal Immigrant”: As hip-hop’s epicenter and Xanadu, Atlanta continues to generate a cacophony of disparate voices, but this Jamaican-born rapper’s accent isn’t the only thing that sets him apart in the Georgia din. He sounds hungry, literally, as if he’s trying to devour his own syllables.
Chris Richards, The Washington Post
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