TranscendNoise

40. Yohuna – Patientness Having a washed-out aesthetic is something that works quite well with female vocals, and Yohuna hits the sweet spot right away. Patientness is shoe-gaze with a very singer-songwriter mindset. The washed out sound, the effect-laden guitar, and the reverb-soaked vocals never overpower you, never fall into purely ecstatic moments, but leave nuance and especially enough of the vocals intact. Not that you necessarily get everything that is being said, but on tracks like “Steel Skins”, when the vocals are layered and harmonize with each other, the words are comprehensible enough to give meaning to them, which is equally true for high pitched “Golden Foil” and the sunrise attitude the song carries. The whole album has enough ideas and variations, to digress from any pinpointing and the band´s performance is set on stressing the mood of the vocals rather than creating it on their own. The best moments even recall something like Cocteau Twins or Imogen Heap, ...

70. Lil Uzi Vert – Baby Are You Home ( Lil Uzi Vs. The World ) Lil Uzi Vert might be the best encounter in rap this year, even though the focus was more on Lil Yachty and his very special blend of the old and the new. Uzi Vert is as much a singing-mumbling artist, favoring the melodic and atmospheric over actually saying something, as he is able to rap a few bars and earning his keep over a harder beat. In this, I see his abilities in the lane of someone like Future or Young Thug and a welcome new player in this growing world of rappers breaching the sonic divides of hip hop music. “Baby Are You Home” might qualify as an easily digestible version of a Future track. We get Metro Boomin´s on point production as Vert carries the digital indiscernibility of the new generation with swag and ennui alike.  69. Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards – ...And I Tried So Hard ( Wreck His Days ) It is hard to describe this track in any genre type of ways, just as it is nearly ...