Saba – CARE FOR ME

It’s that chill out Chicago stuff, Saba riding some gorgeously tasteful production (a little jazzy, a little swampy) to yarn all over some heavy ideas and elite storytelling – LIFE and PROM/KING especially, which are movies in song form. His cousin was murdered last year and that grief haunts this record, as does the setting of his hometown. His lyrical wordplay is superb. His vocal performance is as powerful as it gets. What more do you need to know? Saba burst onto the radar in 2016 with his Bucket List Project album. With CARE FOR ME he edges towards that top tier. Gotta love a dude that drops a Pokemon reference in there too.

DRINKS - Hippo Lite

Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley are back for another avant-garde adventure in wonderful strangeness. The first track, Blue From the Dark, with it’s sweet acoustic guitar plucking, makes it sound like they’ve gone a little less extreme this time but then what sounds like a percussive typewriter steps up and, oh yeah, there you go. Written at a French commune called Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (hence the title), Le Bon and Presley dish up delightful nonsense with crazy imagery and unconventional sounds. It’s exactly what you never knew you needed.

Amen Dunes – Freedom

“This is your time. Their time is done.” So begins the latest record from NYC based Amen Dunes, the project of songwriter Damon McMahon. Fifth full-length effort from The Dunes and one of the best records of 2018 so far. He’s got this wobble in his voice that brings so much emotion to what he sings and these tunes, a little less out there than some of his other stuff but completely engulfed in passion and tension, are really superb. Charging rhythms and hypnotic melodies, the whole thing is spellbinding. Time, Miki Dora and Believe are songs that need to be a part of your life.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Sex and Food

NZ’s psych-rock royalty Ruban and Kodi Nielson are back with Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s 4th offering ‘Sex and Food’. Ruban decides to turn his gaze inward on this record, jumping from melodic to inaccessible constantly throughout the album. The boys disappear into brief explorations of funk, jazz, R&B and folk without warning to create the musical version of an anxiety attack, but like, the good kind.

Hinds – I Don’t Run

This Madrid quartet dropped a ripper of a debut album a couple years back now here’s a ripper of a follow-up from the garage janglers, whose twangy guitar sounds, bouncy percussion and wobbly and accented harmonies dare you not to have a good time. Lyrically they’re a little darker than the cheerful sounds they produce, which is one more layer to a quality outfit. Not a huge development from their first album, simply more of the same blissful rock and roll, with more than a hint of take-it-or-leave it attitude. We’ll take it, please. Muchas gracias.

Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour

Much hyped new one from one of the best, most genuine voices in country music these days but Kacey’s gone in a different direction here. Rustic becomes electronic. Inspired by her recent marriage and probably an acid trip or two, she proves what day one fans already knew which is that she’s got more than enough chops to write outside of convention. The result is a country-pop-disco-trip of an album that’s perhaps lacking that one standout track but the overwhelming golden pure sunny breeze of it all is undeniable.

Estère – My Design, On Others’ Lives

The debut full-length album from Aotearoa’s hip hop and R&B Queen in waiting, Estère. Building an intensely layered soundscape for her voice to play within reveals her technical prowess and experimentation using electronic and prog-rock sensibilities that are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern pop music a la Janelle Monáe, Billie Eilish etc. If you ever wondered what Grace Jones would sound like belting out sultry anthems over late-era Yeezy beats, while David Byrne stares longingly through a window, check her out.

Kid Advay – LonersRadio

The Kid’s new one sounds a lot like his last one. That’s okay. That means he’s still dropping those late-night, submerged, laidback pretty tunes that he’s starting to grow a bit of an underground reputation for. Lakewater Rock is what he calls his unique style. Love the vibe, love the aesthetics, love the sound. Great record cover as well.

Jean Grae & Quelle Chris – Everything’s Fine

Seems like we live in a time when nuclear war is still a looming threat and racism, bigotry, misogyny and prejudice are still alive and well and there are Nazis on the street and the self-perpetuating news cycle of negativity never ends but, yeah nah, everything’s fine. A couple of hip hop’s best indie artists - and a legit couple as well - JG and QC tear those notions to shreds in a hilarious, scathing but also empowering, enlightening and perceptive set of tunes here. And it’s really bloody good, mate.

Hans Pucket – Eczema

The rambunctious young trio are quickly gaining fans up and down the country with their enthusiastic, unhinged shows. Their debut album Eczema is filled with chaotic brass, horns and synths alongside the boys’ signature fuzzy guitars. Check out lead single and album credo ‘Fuck my life’, an existential crisis has never been so fun.

Goat Girl – Goat Girl

Imagine the sound of disaffected youth, grown up on Hammer Horrors and nostalgic grunge, thrown into a world of Brexit and Trump and expected to fend for themselves. South London group Goat Girl are all over that with their 19-track, 40-minute debut. It’s catchy and weird and fierce and too damn cool for school. Two tracks in it’s already clear that this is a band that’ll stick around.

J. Cole - KOD

Where would we be without J? In a genre, hell a whole flippin’ industry, obsessed with excess, J. Cole is the dude out there taking a step back and questioning it all. Plus you already know he’s got a handle on that conscious, introspective hip hop flow. Not a party album… but his ruminations on addiction and substance abuse are pretty important. Probably not his best project but it shredded the billboard charts so you can’t hardly argue.

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