Michael's Cut

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At one point, I thought this list couldn’t get done, let alone an article about it. Though I started the re-listening period last January, I was also an undergraduate preparing for spring commencement. A dilemma approached me, one that had beaten me multiple times. I tried to balance my academics, but what about my social life, the friends I’ll never see again after this year because I absolutely hate Washington? And what about rent? Who’s gonna dress in cashmere to serve a bunch of picky 5-year olds lunch? Simply put, I had no time to finish these rankings.

Around August, I resumed the journey, and what a patient six months I indulged in. Re-listening to around 130 albums was so fun! I love when opinions about an album change; it makes me refer back to my notes and question everything I initially wrote. Feelings were hurt, all were mine and internalized. Numbers shouldn’t matter, but it didn’t stop me from making this list.

I learned how to break down each section into smaller bits. I wonder if you’ll agree with my takes, but, regardless, I hope you find a song or work you like or will check out later. Enjoy.

50. AMERICAN GURL, Kilo Kish

Evolving from the antagonizing electropop of REDUX, Kilo Kish’s next act measures self-identity in this capitalistic climate. The result: we’re all doomed. Fortunately, Kish acquires the upper hand, her peppy voice sneaks past prickly synth work layered in the tapestry. Sharp commentary dazzles you (“New Tricks”), while mind-numbing choruses distract a board of directors from validating another expansion (“Bloody Future”). Individuality blooms over the darkness, not even you can stop her from her destiny.

49. Fossora, Björk

Forest and femininity mesh into the soil, along with the mushrooms, corpses, and worms. Despite Fossora tugging to the earth, Björk calls upon an outer-world spirituality, tying her to humanity’s bundle and the glory of motherhood. Unlock this unknown spell through woodwinds galore and an Icelandic voice so immersive you’re drowned in the mulch it cultivates. Note the occasional industrial- and gabber-fest that keeps the record its necessary flashes of intensity, such as on the volatile title track.

48. Glitch Princess, Yeule

On Glitch Princess, the bandages unfold to unhealed scars, still bleeding from trauma both mental and physical. Yeule confesses behind safety glass about the damage done through atmospheric electronics and, well, glitch. Each word indents the wall until the voices expel, and the body succumbs to ant consumption. “Friendly Machine” particularly observes each tick on the clock, noting every pulse in the body and all the white noise in the white room, all before their own demise.

47. Most Normal, Gilla Band

With each sound Most Normal introduces, the walls slowly converge, inspiring fear, manic, and inflammation. To where are the Dublin outcasts leading us? Noise baffles you into submission, almost impossible to evade as the groove act as suctions to any counter-maneuvers. “Backwash” dispenses the paranoia flashing through the passages, though it’s the post-punk “Post Ryan” that swivels into the artist’s instability without the forceful abrasion, though that observation doesn’t stop the track’s spellbinding detachment.

46. Hypnos, Ravyn Lenae

Hypnos defies the propulsion led by the Chicagoan’s past EP’s, as even the softest of its kind possesses some jittery drum machine coupled to her velvety falsetto. Shades of blue and purple dictate the premise of this debut, though the romance still permeates with winks and kisses blowing. “Satellites,” “Skin Tight,” and “Light Me Up” belong on any intimate playlist, while “Mercury” and “Venom” change channels about a partner who still can’t get their shit together.

45. SOS, SZA

Despite my vices towards this superfluous tracklist, SOS feeds into your memory with every listen. A peculiar pen game and aptitude for melodies prove sufficient as the album’s simplicities turn otherwise complimentary to the key herself, Solana Rowe. Even when she’s caught in affairs on the rock-bashing “F2F,” her humanity thrives from the confessionalism driving the album. See “Kill Bill” for a psych-rock cheater bloodbath or “Open Arms” for a Titanic-scene-evoking tearjerker.

44. Em Nome da Estrela, Xênia França

Over an intimate dinner on the veranda, En Nome da Estrela lures you into the cosmic shower, asteroids descending like rainbow sprinkles settling on neapolitan ice cream. A certain level of craftsmanship must be acknowledged when interpreting the Brazilian chanteuse’s second record. She spent years singing at San Paulo bars before receiving her singer stardom. And here, she’s defined in this steadiness. “Já é” flares up like confection rising in the heat, and in a similar flesh, “Magia” relishes in this intensity: soft, vibrant, and stellar nevertheless.

43. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar

Much of the discussion I found regarding Mr. Morale points to Lamar’s relatability to the public. He excavated his American dream. What does that mean for the majority who hasn’t found theirs? It’s a strange red herring, to be frank, stripping Lamar of his humanity, when Mr. Morale naturally evolves from the hardships out of Compton in a white-governed world. The commercial nature of DAMN. is further explored through songs like “Die Hard” and “Purple Hearts,” easygoing R&B, though somewhat idle. Still, the dense storytelling signaled in wordplay and rhetoric are instantly recognizable: “We Cry Together” expands an argument in a toxic relationship with credits from The Alchemist, while “Mother | Sober” brings Portishead frontwoman Beth Gibbons back for Lamar’s sensitive observations of his mother’s sexual assault, among other tracks I simply don’t have the patience to praise.

42. $oul $old $eparately, Freddie Gibbs

Though comically ruthless like the L.A. godfather’s previous work, $oul $old $eparately harbors an affinity with going mainstream. Producer variety sees an all-time high yet caters to this underworld grit Gibbs mastered since Piñata. You could hear Gibbs closing a new deal in a dimly lit room (“Blackest in the Room”) or charging women in the strip club private rooms (“PYS”), all of which do enough to unify an album whose sole purpose’s to grab all eyes.

41. The Loneliest Time, Carly Rae Jepsen

The Loneliest Time mixes sensitivity with a bit of brashness, the evolution of the girl next door moving to the Big Apple and never looking back. On “Beach House,” the Canadian idol undergoes hookup culture with her game intact; on “Bad Thing Twice,” she contemplates returning to those naughty decisions But as edgy as this pop album can get (remember who we’re talking about), Jepsen retains her sweetheart sensibilities: the title track, “Western Wind,” and “Shooting Star” make up the best moments in the LP, focused in the fantasy of pure love.

40. Play with the Changes Remixed, Rochelle Jordan

Rarely do I review remix albums nor place them on my rankings; however, Jordan and co changed my mind. Electronic dance music peels the cold cuts of Play with the Changes, integrating the vocals into space, heightened rhythm, and hypnosis. In a box full of heat and bodies, Things You Say’s “Already” or Soul Clap’s “Broken Steel” remix keeps you pushing to match speed with their sets. The night just begun.

39. Darklife, death’s dynamic shroud

In an age where our existence extends and sometimes necessitates the digital realm, Darklife acts as an online agent sent to examine humanity’s efforts. Confections of pop culture samples and machinery tack onto one another as ammunition, feeding into the more incendiary moments of the album. More importantly, pop music sets its influence within the shockwaves, as “Judgment Bolt” and “”After Third Heaven” apply the formula to create a work both experimentally gratifying and familiar.

38. MOTOMAMI, Rosalía

Rosalía traverses every crevice of the Latin, English, and Spanish worlds to commence her transformation. MOTOMAMI rests on these quick pencil sketches, somersaulting from the turbulence of the journey: you’ll hear reggaeton flicker on and off like switches, while her flamenco roots nearly vanish in the ocean. But this fight for foreign taste awakens new survival tactics, confidence (“CUUUUuuuuuute”) and vulnerability (“HENTAI”) compact in the process. The Spanish songstress takes names, and furthers a legacy unlike anyone else in the Western music industry.

37. Once Twice Melody, Beach House

Space, in its sonic and environmental realms, informs Beach House’s hazy dream pop experience, but Once Twice Melody embarks on an 84-minute odyssey to grasp this vast nothingness all for, dare I say it, love. Fortunately, the voyage succeeds. The music falls captive to intimacy and desire, hope for the touch of a finger in a lonesome region. “Superstar,” “Through Me,” and “Over and Over” pull you into the black daze, being the longest yet most immersive pieces that the record yields.

36. Ultra Truth, Daniel Avery

In the past, Daniel Avery proved he can shatter the permafrost he created with the click(s) of a drum machine. We just needed more. So Ultra Truth divides and conquers, splitting its time between managing the wintry synth work and smacking on high-voltage drum programming. Tensions heighten when they start to intertwine, leaving us astonished by their beauty during the polar nights (“Devotion,” “Heavy Rain,” “Higher”).

35. Spirit of Ecstasy, Imperial Triumphant

Just as Spirit of Ecstasy asphyxiates you in the prison cell, jazz music swarms into the destructive wall of black metal. Brass screams through the concrete (“Merkurius Glided”), voice recordings soaked in bleakness, guitars outraged without consequence (“Bezumnaya”). An empire slowly collapses under a new leadership, one we’ve yet to understand, only certain that the process remains as horrific as cruel tradition. And with every album cycle, the New York anarchists reach closer and closer to the antidote that’ll heal the world’s poisons.

34. Dance Fever, Florence + The Machine

Every minute on Dance Fever evokes drama. You whimper as you study the climax and all that surrounds it, the buildup, the intensity, and the comedown. Pressure builds like a kettle fuming from the lingering heat. Yet there’s another factor into play: Florence Welch’s sense of liberation. “Free” quite literally encapsulates this condition and paves way for “Heaven is Here” to dance with an avant-flamenco beat, or for “Choreomania” to indulge in wanderlust to nowhere in particular, maybe all in the mental? Wherever they go, that’s where I’ll be, and Dance Fever’ll be the derivative. 

33. Tana Talk 4, Benny The Butcher

Westside Gunn may’ve propelled Benny career-wise, but it was the Tana Talk series that slowly built his street credibility, a butcher ready to slaughter meat. As a result, smog grimes the atmosphere of act four, mainly guided by The Alchemist’s and Daringer’s efforts to fit the tainted wealth as a means for pride and survival. “Tyson vs. Ali” and “Uncle Bun” best showcase the different degrees of the Griselda sound, lost in the splendid feeling of opulence and whips us right back in the dirt.

32. Trees, Avantdale Bowling Club

After his debut album, Tom Scott revealed the semi-impossible nature of working between art and reality. “The mornings feel colder, the fingers are frozen, the window of possibility is tiny,” he laments on his page. Yet Trees’ indicative of the struggle that reclaiming your artistry amidst real life can’t be challenged. In fact, nonfiction prompts the album, increasing its humanity over lush jazz-rap structures and dense storytelling (“Friday Night @ the Liquor Store,” “Rent 2 High”).

31. I Love You Jennifer B, Jockstrap

“Post-genre”’s been a term I’ve only discovered recently, a word ostensibly stamped onto any composition that can indent a windshield. Play I Love You Jennifer B, and the plexiglass would instantly shatter, hands grabbing whatever’s lying on the dashboard. In search for this unknown quantity, the Mercury Prize nominees exhibit symptoms of theatrics and nostalgia, exploring quirky electronics (“Debra”), eloquent vocal styles (“What’s It All About”), and so forth, sometimes combining the two (“Greatest Hits” and “Concrete Over Water”). Ideas shoot at the dartboard, successful or not, but you hear them unafraid to go beyond convention.

Be sure to check out my RateYourMusic page as well for additional music ratings!