As cruelty reigned, the years top releases sought stability.
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Pop music turned inward and looked backward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses.
10.mediopicky,Bexaco y rico
10.
The playful spirit of Dominican DJ and producer mediopicky shines through his records.
October yielded the more conciseBexaco y rico, which uses dembow as a launch pad into hyperspace.
The frenetic disilence soars on clattering percussion and synths that conjureSonic the Hedgehoglevels of the mind.
9.Various Artists,TRAA
9.
Any stretch of track list is a joy: Beverly Glenn-Copeland is everywhere.
Young Lion sees the quiet-storm icon apologizing to her son Izaak for not noticing and affirming his manhood sooner.
8.Fontaines D.C.,Romance
8.
7.Rachel Chinouriri,What a Devastating Turn of Events
7.
My Everything is crushing, psychedelic break-up playlist platinum, and The Hills out-WeezersVan Weezer.
6.MJ Lenderman,Manning Fireworks
6.
Shes Leaving You sells shrugging motivation: It falls apart / We all got work to do.
5.Mustafa,Dunya
5.
4.Bilal,Adjust Brightness
4.
3.Ka,The Thief Next to Jesus
3.
News of thesudden deathof 52-year-old Brooklyn rapper and firefighter Ka was devastating this fall.
Hed been a standard-bearer for chiseling out a career hour after moonlit hour.
It all reads like a manifesto now.
2.Mach-Hommy, #RichAxxHaitian
2.
1.The Cure,Songs of a Lost World
1.
All we will ever know is bitter ends, the agonizing Warsong prophesizes.
The new songs are thick but plush, intimidating but inviting, blustering but unhurried.
Its the best the Cure has sounded this century.
Some of those selections appear above in our top ten.
Below, the rest of the albums that stood out this year, presented in order of release date.
Wind & Fog and Wind & Fog, pt.
Eerie knows all your pressure points.
The 40-minute composition feeds desolate piano notes into echo effects that alter a sense of time and space.
Listening feels like witnessing the birth of a new process .
This yearsPostcards From Texasmakes a more deliberate theme of Lamberts musings on home.
Read Jennifer Zhansinterview with Tinashe.
Eight tracks culled from extensive jamming have been whittled down into hearty exercises in patient instrumental interplay.
The three- and four-minute tracks land all their punches, and the six- and seven-minute workouts never lose steam.
If anything,Desiris rifling through the artists colorful back pages.
Read Craig Jenkinssreview ofThe Great American Bar Scene.
The summer tributary EP pops with effervescent flows and cadences anchored in limber melodies.
The EP hangs less sharp turns thanBabybut still revels in a shapeshifting talent.
That was the party; this is the kickback.
NxWorries,Why Lawd?
Read Jason Franksscene report from Charli XCXs Boiler Room set.
This yearsSanta Cruzfollows 2022sHavasuand 2019sPhoenixin surveying the artists upbringing via concept albums named after cities he grew up in.
Read Craig Jenkinssinterview with Vince Staples.
A.G. Cook,Britpop
HyperpoppioneerA.G.
Read Justin Curtosinterview with A.G. Cook.
The sensibility recalls another midwestern artists introduction: Chance the Rappers10 Day.
Its also a wry meta-discussion about the machinery of cool.
So what if I like the big truck, Gordon preens in Im a Man.
Its saying plodding, icy stasis can be hellish, too.
The choice works wonders for the craft.
Read Craig Jenkinss fullreview of ScHoolboy QsBlue Lips.
Brittany Howard is singing herself, and us, through it.
/ And whos got the power in your mind?
and expressive playing, which communicates a firm grasp on rock canon but also the urge to subvert it.
You might start to suspect hes using snazzy effects pedals, but he isnt.
There are no searing indictments of political injustice this time from the erstwhile leftist-rock vanguard of the aughts.
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