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I'm still lost in the world of constantly updating sports and news podcasts but I've made a commitment to listen to at least some new music once a week or so, even if just shuffling the year.
woods + segal - Checkpoints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83F4JpVu61k
Here's a link to "Spongebob" because Backwoodz is doing an excellent job of keeping this album offline (or its fans an awful job of making it available), but "Checkpoints" is exactly what I want to hear from two dudes aspiring to keep the adventurous attitude of early 2000s underground rap alive
Avey Tare - Eyes on Eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs1BqWtsyck
Totally not going to work for...maybe almost everybody? As a former Animal Collective mega-stan, though, this is a nice throwback to their weirder days, with a propulsive rhythm that threatens to get old by the second but somehow, maybe, never does.
Big K.R.I.T. - Pick Yourself Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz8ir-7SUhs
Produced by Rico Love with a fake-chopped chorus, I was a little worried I'd be bored by this one, but then the beat flips for the verses and K.R.I.T. turns in one of his better Pimp C love letters.
Ariana Grande - imagine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rftpd0u0U
This was the first year I listened to a Grande album from front to back (and then did so many more times) and this was the perfect opener; I IMMEDIATELY got the appeal. This song is so infectiously aspirational and fluffy, it has the power to make the single nostalgic for love and the knot tied rekindle old feelings.
Camp Claude - Hero / Horses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ook4Bes3Vs / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIkkgJ6mPkc
This band's album is maybe the most exciting thing I've heard so far this year, so I'm picking two. Note I didn't say best, but they are a very malleable band, moving nimbly from L7-like garage pop to No Doubt culture cribbing to an effortless blend of the effortless cool of The Kills' Alison Mosshart or Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. The first song is an example of how all that blends into an iPhone commercial with spirit; the second an example of how they can mope just as hard as Low or Mark Kozelek could. Neither are my favorite song, but that's just another plug for a pretty good record that'll either be the best thing this band ever does or the start of something potentially really special.
P.S. NOBODY (NO.BO.DY.) is talking about them, so this is your chance to buy up stock for cheap. If that's your bag.
Carly Rae Jepsen - The Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRMtwlFUjVw
The poptimist darling took a step back with her newest album with a more predictable, contemporary sound and songs that play it similarly safe too often, but here she gets it just right. If Taylor Swift's name were on this song (and it were slightly higher tempo) it'd be in the Song of the Summer conversation on the pop side of things. "I don't need the words I want the sound" is a novel way to approach the idea of performative versus emotional love and perfect for right now.
Cate Le Bon - Sad Nudes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCkjnJuOrq4
This song feels imported from another time entirely. It's in on the joke of the title all the way, but refuses to not take itself seriously all the same. I know longtime Le Bon fans (I'd never listened) that are disappointed in her new record, Reward, but there's a lot of dry irony like this one on there that really sat well with me, like El Perro del Mar's self-titled album from like ten years ago.
Curren$y - Clear (Part 2) (feat. Jadakiss): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgirPTIHVdo
Statik gets a little freakier than usual on this one, shades of The Alchemist, while Curren$y and Jadakiss are a perfect pair I wish we could get a full collab album out of one day. They're the succulent rap needs but maybe doesn't deserve.
Future - Promise U That: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oAH8Qk_yI
From the moment this song kicked in, it was already fighting for placement on Future's best ever list. This is an incredibly rude take on a whole lot of '90s R&B tropes and I am all a-bout it. I stopped thinking about WZRD pretty shortly after it came out, but this remains a go-to "podcast just ended and I only have three minutes left on this walk to work" track.
GoldLink - Coke White / Moscow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dOH4SLHAkg
Granted, part of the strength of Pusha's verse relies on its placement within the album overall, but I think the song can stand on its own as well (it's just a bummer he punctuates an 8/10 verse with a -5/10 punchline) with its clever framing of the two verses as separate songs with different beats and no hooks. It lets both guys do their thing and not take attention away from the other.
James Blake - I'll Come Too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnN_iullRf8
I've become a pretty emotionally closed off person since the end of my last relationship a couple years ago; this song reminded me how good it can feel to let yourself go and allow yourself to love someone. For such a cheery fucking song it sure does bring the feels out of a cynic like me. I've been avoiding some bigger names in this post just because I know OKPs will have listened to a lot of them, but I'll never not highlight how perfect this song is to me given the opportunity.
Knxwledge - 12. suprstar: Of COURSE THERE ISN'T A LINK, IT'S KNXWLEDGE
HX.PRT13_ is one of his R&B remix projects, which makes it way more hit and miss than his radio freestyle projects, but this one slapped the shit out of me. It's Usher's Superstar, a song I've always liked but never was invested in, which is maybe this stood out so much to me.
Matt Martians - Movin' On: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9a0YIw_50
Picked mainly 'cause it's an end of love song and I've been kinda sappy in this post. Everybody seems to be talking about Steve Lacy (who produced this track) this year but ignoring Matt's material, which is best taken as a whole (and just 29 minutes long) but this is a good glimpse into what he's got going on with The Last Party.
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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz
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