Top Tracks 2018 Part IX 20 – 11

20. Playboi Carti – Shoota (feat. Lil Uzi Vert) (Die Lit) 

Lil Uzi and Playboi Carti really come off as brothers in spirit, in their solo work and especially in their collaborations. “Shoota” shines in a power that is life-affirming and strongly addictive. In under three minutes Uzi sings a verse that embodies his wild dances on Instagram and his stage show alike and while Carti´s hook slightly fails in topping off the energy, the sketch-like nature of the song, it appearing and closing in the blink of an eye is the singular representation of  youthfulness the two rappers combine on their tracks. Their music never has to be deep and meaningful, but energetic and affective in their simple disregard for structure and hip-hop tropes, a small symphony of improvisation and style and swagger.

19. Nothing – Hail At Palace Pier (Dance On The Blacktop) 

Nothing implement a metal or even black metal mindset of songwriting and mood to the most delicate sounds of shoegaze. A smooth voice singing about “Vapor angles climbing up sewer holes” on “Hail At Palace Pier” is the culmination of bleakness in uplifting clarity of soaring guitars and beautiful white noise. As in the title of their third album, “Hail” is a moment of hollow youth, the triumph of being young, dumb and emptied out. There is this feeling of a warm embrace, Nothing saying “it´s ok to be aimless, at least fight against the world”, personal troubles becoming structural and the unbearable weight being washed away in drink and the everlasting knowledge that life is ultimately meaningless. 

18. Rosalia – BAGDAD (Cap.7- Liturgia) (El Mal Querer) 

While the whole sophomore album by Rosalia is brimming with musical ideas of pushing the form of flamenco into more modern iterations, "Bagdad / Liturgia" is the prime example of every part clicking together and flamenco becoming the better pop music of future times. Flipping the melody of “Cry Me A River” into an even more ghostly and mournful vibe, Rosalia fills the negative space of the minimalist beat of keys and claps with heartfelt notes and a glass scattering falsetto that is offset with an equally holy child choir. For its short runtime, “Bagdad” is a chill-inducing powertrip by a singer that will hopefully be at the forefront of popular music and stay as uncompromising as on this track. 

17. Beach House – Lemon Glow (7) 

“Lemon Glow” is Beach House channeling James Turell and doing their own form of light art, in an aural fashion and with yellow contrasting white and black. Being lost in a turret of light, the enveloping warmth and disorientation of being bathed in yellow; it might be an easy association to be had with Beach House in general, but going with their theme of the mind making up patterns and finding sense in things like the number seven or shapes and forms, “Lemon Glow” is the sensation of making sense of being in light and foreground and background blending into each other. The springy synths with the simple stutter of the drum machine in combination with the subdued organ keys develop a feeling of overarching safety in sound. Colors carry deep meaning that can never be simply broken down into lightwaves or their physical setup alone, it is the cultural dependence of white and black on these other hues, like yellow to carry meaning and emotions, and “Lemon Glow” constructs this sensation in filling the space with punchy drums and cyclical sounds to give the sensation of spiraling out of control into a place that feels uncanny, non-threatening and reminiscent of better times. 

16. Rolo Tomassi – A Flood Of Light (Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It)

What makes Rolo Tomassi unique in their pursuit of hard-soft dynamics, tender vocals clashing with metal screams and shouts is the sense of wonder and refinement they weave through their ambient pieces. The clean moments, the sun rising and stormy sea ebbing guitar strings over an open-ended synth rise set a perfect vista for the vocals of Eva and James Spence trading off and combusting beauty and disgust into one holistic expression of humanity and tension. While people will always try to go for tags like “mathcore” or “progressive” and will focus on the one bugging question of Rolo Tomassi being metal or not, Time Will Die and especially “A Flood Of Light” show the band way beyond these categories, working with their voices and instruments to deliver a jarring epic that lives by its ability to invoke raw emotion and bathe the listener in ambience without floating off into nothingness and bring us back from shattering serenity into chaos.

15. IDLES – Never Fight A Man With A Perm (Joy As An Act Of Resistance.) 

The actual fight song off Joy As An Act of Resistance is the cutting soliloquy of John Talbot grappling with his past surroundings and likely himself. Picking a fight with a stereotypical rock alpha male, on creatine and cocaine, the feeling of Talbot actually talking to himself, standing in front of a mirror and taking his self-hate out on his own image is just one of the many references and meanings Idles cram into their song apart from quickly incorporating Nancy Sinatra´s song. The only difference is these boots belong to an idiotic alpha that is threatening to stomp your face in. Overall “Never Fight A Man With A Perm” is Idles taking their incredibly songwriting to create something that is thoughtful, socio-political and the end of the day, still usable to mosh it out and sing and shout in ecstasy. We´ve come a long way from the front-men Talbot describes in this song to a band that is all-inclusive and very much aware of toxic masculinity and its pitfalls. 

14. Abul Mogard – The Roof Falls (Above All Dreams)

On his second album, Abul Mogard went even deeper into a visceral mindset that almost eschewed any electronics melodies for pure drones and noises. What could be a plotline like a blipping beat becomes long drawn out synth and the Farfisa organ is played in its most natural or organic setting. On closer “The Roof Falls” the winds of decay that are reminiscent of Basinski Disintegration Loops give way to a slow-paced organ that comes close to Hecker's work on Ravedeath 1972. Without becoming churchy, Mogard creates openness and contemplation, a point of standstill that layers into the movement of thought and mental imagery. Mogard always puts special care into closing an album off with the length of his composition, but also with the sense of weight these tracks carry. “The Roof Falls” deters from significance and sees Above All Dreams pushing towards darkness and nothingness in the best ways possible. Maybe Mogard will grow even quieter and more abstract in the future as this track feels like a further push towards understanding the quantum-physics of his own music.

13. Metro Boomin & 21 Savage – 10 Freaky Girls (Not All Heroes Wear Capes) // 21 Savage – A Lot (I Am > I Was)

The standout of Metro Boomin´s album might not have been his production, but the many instances 21 Savage flowed over these beats and put his own mark on the sounds. “10 Freaky Girls” is the centerpiece of Savage and Boomin becoming an even tighter entity then in their previous collaborations and in retrospect, serves as the preview of what was to come on Savage´s sophomore album “I Am>I Was”. Initiated through an elevator music RnB moment, 21 Savage demands every inch of attention with his “In peace may you rest” on “10 Freaky Girls”. The horns on this tracks become the bravado, the victory lap of Savage leaving his gangster past way behind while still being hard as fuck and funny at that. What always struck me with 21 was a certain sadness in his voice, or much rather his artful earnestness that can only come about through having seen and left a world that is violent and nonsensical at its core. This becomes most apparent on 21´s twist on “99 Problems” with his opener “A Lot”. Far from brooding or mournful, “A Lot” is the point of taking account of everything, counting blessings and courses and taking a moment to reflect on the life lived to make a stake in the future. The J. Cole feature gives a depth that was unknown in 21´s music and helps make the usually boastful and over the top rapper into a skillful artist in his own right. 

12. Long Distance Calling – Out There (Boundless)

Long Distance prove themselves to be one of the best instrumental rock bands there is by really stepping back to the drawing board and creating Boundless. “Out There” is the magnificent opener that flashes right back to their opening salvos on Satellite Bay or Avoid The Light. After line-up changes and finally bidding farewell to half-hearted singing on otherwise magnificent tracks, the remaining core of the band refocuses their energies on painting vast open fields and numbingly high mountain ranges with drums and guitars alone. While other instrumentals and electronics do appear on the album, “Out There” is the starting point of banging riffage and tight drums that sounds like a band picking up their jam session after success and experimentation. When the first movement is done and the clear arpeggio resounds to the drums wandering off, you can feel the band and crowds alike smiling, arriving at even higher plains, the fruit of their labor, honing the craft and becoming gods of nature by means of their sound alone.

11. The Field – Made Of Steel, Made Of Stone (Infinite Moment) 

As his label boss deliver the diffuse moment of ecstasy taking a wrong turn, community becoming ideology and a congregation of like-minded individuals becoming the unison stomp of people prone to hate and discriminate, Axel Willner had to create an expression of hope in his ever-evolving palette of distant voices, drawn-out minimal thumps and a lot of space to go around. His previous work The Follower might have been closer to Rausch and Gas putting out a monstrosity of destitute into the world, but with the same sounds The Field creates a different vision that is at once slowed down and more in tune with itself, and equally captivating and “club-ready”. The warped laser vocals that open “Made Of Steel, Made of Stone” create a sense of acceptance, straying away from the mystical and strangely desolate usage of the same sonic idea in the last two Field albums. As the track swells, grows to incorporate a well of new sounds and arcs, a sense of being in tune arises, nothing that seems out of the ordinary or agitating shows its face even though the track never drifts towards complete ambiance. In the idea of coming to term with the state of the world, The Field in his own words crafted “hope” and did this by subtle shifting his sound and expanding his palette to awe-inspiring effect.