1. Superchunk - What A Time To Be Alive
Superchunk were my, in my opinion, the best band of the 1990s, so I was pretty thrilled to write the Spin review of probably their best album since the '90s. And I'm glad that now that I'm done the review I can kind of back away from the big picture assessment of the record and just enjoy the hooks and the energy of the performances, that run of "Break The Glass" and "Bad Choices" and "Dead Photographers" is really killer. Now it's Drake's turn to use a Superchunk album title for his next record -- On The Mouth and Indoor Living seem like the best options for him. Here's the Spotify playlist of 2018 albums I've listened to that most of these records are in. 

2. American Pleasure Club - A Whole Fucking Lifetime Of This 
A couple months ago in this space I wrote about American Pleasure's name change from Teen Suicide and their first release under that name. That record was really good but kind of a lo-fi precursor to this, the proper album, which is really ambitious and bursting at the seams with ideas and emotions, kind of this blissed out newlywed record with enough darkness on the periphery to not be saccharine. Sam Ray kind of gives me this millennial Lou Barlow vibe in both his voice and his vulnerability on record, and this album is like if Lou had kind of thrown a solo record and a Sebadoh record and a Folk Implosion record all together into one thing. Spotify and iTunes are missing a couple of key songs so make sure to check it out on Bandcamp. 

3. various artists - Black Panther: The Album
Kendrick Lamar is the kind of A-list rapper who doesn't need to do mixtapes or EPs or anything to keep in the spotlight between albums. But since guest verses are an oddly scattershot and often unflattering venue for him, I'm glad he's started to find good interesting stopgap projects that utilize his penchant for assembling and sequencing albums. And where untitled unmastered. was an understated solitary work, Black Panther: The Album is the opposite, a big star-studded blockbuster action movie soundtrack where he weaves together labelmates and friends and up-and-comers while still managing to always pop up and assert some authorship over it all. I think what I really like, though, is that Sounwave has more production credits on this than any Kendrick album and his sound really ties it all together, so you can throw 2 Chainz or Khalid or Mozzy in the mix and there's still kind of a sustained sound and mood. 

4. 2 Chainz - The Play Don't Care Who Makes It EP 
The way 2 Chainz cleared the path to Pretty Girls Like Trap Music with EPs and short mixtapes worked really well, so I'm glad that he seems to be doing that again, releasing this 4-track just before announcing that an album called Rap Or Go To The League is on the way. The big talk of this record is the last track, "Lamborghini Truck (Atlanta Shit)," a long autobiographical ballad, 2 Chainz has done several great songs like it over the years so I'm glad people are starting to appreciate them. "Land of the Freaks" is great too, if this record has a hit, it should be that. 

5. Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap 
It's been about 8 years since Nipsey Hussle's first initial flirtation with mainstream fame, which included an appearance on a new version of "We Are The World," and a sketch on "SNL" that namedropped Nipsey as an example of how the song was full of "half-famous randos." It's been about 4 years since I made Nipsey Hussle mad by including him in a Complex piece about underachieving rappers. And after all that, Nipsey's major label debut has finally arrived as the album that genuinely cements his long-shaky status as a serious star. It's funny to think that someone's first proper album could be aptly titled Victory Lap, but that's just how careers are now, often albums come at the end of a long process, and over the years Nipsey has turned out to be a really shrewd, creative businessman who's pretty consistent with his music. I don't love it front to back -- the Marsha Ambrosius ballad is like Aftermath Records cosplay of the boring kind of west coast crossover rap album -- but it builds on the strenghts of Crenshaw and puts his flinty real talk in the perfect context. "Hussle & Motivate" is my favorite. 

6. Pianos Become The Teeth - Wait For Love
I don't know if the Baltimore quintet Pianos Become The Teeth are not as heavy as I remember or if the earlier stuff I had listened to was more aggressive, but I was surprised by just how pretty and tuneful Wait For Love is. They're a really powerful, loud band, but there's a lot of brooding slow burning beauty on this record. 

7. Turnstile - Time & Space
Turnstile is another Baltimore band that kind of used hardcore as a jumping off point to kind of find their own unique sound. It's hard to say you think a band that's on a major label now sounded better with less glossy production without sounding like a hater who begrudges their success or something, but the production really does make them sound a little more generic, the cheaper production of the earlier records may suit them more. 

8. Justin Timberlake - Man Of The Woods
I was always in the minority that thought all of Justin Timberlake's chemistry was with Pharrell and that the Timbaland-heavy albums after Justified were a snooze by comparison. So amidst although the bad advance buzz around this album, I was encouraged by the news that The Neptunes produced more than half the tracks. But I found that the Timbaland-produced tracks, especially the three co-written by Chris Stapleton, are really the glue of the album, kind of feels like Timbo brought some of that experience from Bubba Sparxxx's classic Deliverance of fusing his sound with country to this record. I mean, don't get me wrong, this album has a lot wrong with it, from "Supplies" to the weird interlude where Jessica Biel sounds like she's narrating a cologne commercial. But I found more to like here than I expected, more than the 20/20 Experience records. 

9. John Oates with the Good Road Band - Arkansas
I was amused by the fact that the same day Timberlake released Man Of The Woods, another icon of blue-eyed soul released his own tribute to rootsy southern music. Lately I've been really enjoying early Hall & Oates stuff from the Abandoned Luncheonette era, which is a little looser and folkier than the records they became famous for, and Oates has a great voice that you don't hear as much on their hits. So I enjoyed catching up with him on this album, it's got a really nice relaxed, unadorned sound. 

10. Mila J - February 2018 EP
I've always really liked Mila J's stuff but she's really on the edge of the radar of mainstream R&B and I haven't really kept up with what she's done since her last minor hit a couple years ago. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that she released a new EP and it's in fact the 4th EP she's released in the last 12 months, what I've listened to of this recent stuff is all really good, I hope she gets some momentum out of this prolific run she's on. This EP in particular is really restrained and intimate, not a lot of drums.

The Worst Album of the Month: Rich Brian - Amen
This kid is just kind of self-evidently lame in that way that it's almost not worth pointing out, he was until a few months ago known as 'Rich Chigga' and openly talked about how Macklemore was his gateway to listening to rap music. But now he's got a more palatable name and a polished album with trap beats and an Offset feature and it's all just awful. This is the most "if I say curse words in a deep voice nobody will wonder if I'm a virgin" album since early Tyler, The Creator, but without anything resembling a perspective or a personality.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 01, 2018 at 10:42 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.