I'm doing better! This post is much more equally split down the middle between brand new releases and past stuff I've been digging into. I listened to a lot of cool stuff in March, which meant I had to make a few painful cuts to get down to 10 tracks. Mostly, I ended up taking out songs from albums I'll inevitably talk about whenever I get around to making a quarter one review post. While you're waiting in breathless anticipation for that (anyone?), enjoy my other favorite discoveries of the month.

10. Kelis - Runnin'


Kelis' Food is one of those albums I've had saved in my Spotify forever while I keep getting distracted by shinier, newer things. It probably would have sat there a while longer if the opening track, "Breakfast," hadn't come up on shuffle and captured my attention immediately with its raspy, soulful vocals and captivating chorus. Luckily, the rest of the album lives up to its promise and then some. "Runnin'" is the track I can't get over at the moment. The melodies feel timeless, as do the vocals; both are understated but in a simmering, intense way, underpinned by cinematic strings and stately horns that tug expertly at the heartstrings. It's a song that may go down smoothly, but its emotional impact lingers an unexpectedly long time afterward.

9. Digable Planets - Examination of What


I was reluctant to listen to Digable Planets' first album because I love Blowout Comb so much and it feels like one of those really special albums that's near impossible to match. I have to say, though: Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) is pretty formidable in its own right. While it's more traditionally-structured and ultimately less revolutionary than its follow-up, at 14 tracks, it has barely any filler, which is impressive for any album yet alone a debut. "Examination of What" is the closer, and it sounds like Digable Planets' mission statement in terms of both sound and politics. The beats are chill, the vocal chemistry is off the charts, and the lyrics tackle social issues - among them, abortion rights and racial profiling - that are sadly still as relevant now as they were in the early 1990s.

8. Joni Mitchell - Coyote


My slow but steady exploration of Joni Mitchell's discography continued in March with Hejira. Initially, I found it more difficult to penetrate than her earlier works, as the songs are longer, more subtle, and less melodically diverse. Instead, Mitchell's voice, which here hits that perfect sweet spot between serene and husky, and her lyrics, which are more heavily focused on storytelling, are emphasized. Luckily, the songs start to differentiate themselves from one another with repeated listening. I loved the opener "Coyote" from the first moment I heard it, though. Mitchell's delivery is playful without sacrificing gravitas, and the earthy force of the instrumentation complements its evocative, road-tripping lyrics: "You just picked up a hitcher/A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway."

7. Natalie Prass - Sisters


I wasn't particularly impressed by Natalie Prass' debut album when seemingly everyone was raving about it three years ago, and "Short Court Style," the first single from her upcoming release, The Future and the Past, didn't do much besides pleasantly glide through my ears either. But "Sisters" has single-handedly dialed my interest level up several notches. It's another low-key, vintage-sounding, lightly groovy pop number, but something about this one just sparkles. "You got to keep your sisters close to you," Prass croons before breaking into a choir-backed, gospel-infused chorus: "I want to say it loud/For all the ones held down/We got to change the plan/Come on, nasty women." Sure, it's fairly surface-level as far as messages of solidarity go, but, in times like these, such self-empowered calls to action, in any form, are sorely needed.

6. Kelela - All the Way Down


Take Me Apart has remained one of last year's most consistently listenable albums for me, and I still haven't gotten tired of it. However, before I risked ruining it for myself, I decided it was time to investigate Kelela's other offerings. For the last couple of weeks, I've been listening almost exclusively to Cut 4 Me, but what really started me off down that road was "All the Way Down," from her 2015 EP, Hallucinogen. It's a song that didn't particularly stick out to me at first but has proven to be more than worth its weight with every additional play. It's a chilled-out song with surprising emotional heft. My two favorite parts: the effortless cool with which Kelela delivers the shoulder-shrugging one-liner, "Cared before but, baby, now I don't give a fuck," and the dark, downbeat eeriness of the subtly distorted bridge.

5. Neko Case - Hell-On


Neko Case is one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, and I'm so glad she'll be back with her first solo album in five years on June 1st. "Hell-On" is the album's title track, a dark and atmospheric slow-burner that has more in common with brooding deep cuts like "Prison Girls" and "Dirty Knife" than past rollicking lead singles like "Man" and "People Got a Lotta Nerve." In my opinion, this bodes very well for the rest of the album, as I've always loved Case's more introspective and moody side. Here, her voice sounds as pristine as ever, even as the gorgeously evocative lyrics try to convince you otherwise: "My voice is not the liquid waves/The perfect rings 'round a heron's legs/My voice is straight garroting wire/A stolen mile of fingerprints/Peeled the quiet from the dunes/Captured and re-spooled as ruin to be used/At a different time."

4. Iceage - Pain Killer


It's been quite the wait for Iceage's follow-up to their staggering 2014 release, Plowing Into the Field of Love, but it'll finally be over on May 4th, when their fourth album, Beyondless, arrives. "Pain Killer," an utterly addictive amalgamation of post-punk and pop sensibilities, is my favorite song from it thus far. From the start, it's total cacophony, brazen horns colliding with crashing drums and driving guitars, all equally vying for the spotlight. They constantly compete, too, with the voices of Elias Bender Rønnenfelt and guest Sky Ferreira, whose harmonizing is charmingly blurry and imprecise, like they spontaneously decided to wander into the studio after a night of hard drinking and tonelessly wail their lungs out. Combined, it's all a bit of a teetering-on-the-edge-of-falling-over mess, but that's what makes it so great.

3. Cashmere Cat - Love Incredible (feat. Camila Cabello)


Cashmere Cat's 9 brings together an interesting blend of top 40 vocalists and wonky electronic experimentation to catchy and captivating ends. Although "Love Incredible" may be huge-sounding, its actual melodies are more insidious than immediate, and the aggressively-processed vocals at the end, pushed to their synthetic extreme, are initially quite jarring. However, there's enough charm in its overblown style - and Camila Cabello's quirky, auto-tuned affectations - to keep you listening until you fall in love. Mostly, I can't get over the fact that it involves both Cabello and SOPHIE, who's credited as a co-producer (and I swear to God, I will go an entire post without invoking her name, but today is not the day); they represent such opposite wavelengths of the pop spectrum that it's mind-boggling to even see their names in the same sentence.

2. Let's Eat Grandma - Falling Into Me


Either I seriously misjudged this band or they've really upped their game recently because their newly-announced June 29th sophomore album, I'm All Ears, is suddenly one of my most anticipated releases of the year. "Falling Into Me" erases any doubts I had about only enjoying "Hot Pink" as much as I do for the SOPHIE factor (there I go again). Between the dramatic synths, fairytale-nightmare vocals, darkly vivid imagery ("I pave the back street with the mist of my brain"), infectious melodies, and saxophone-soaked finale, it's unbelievable how many of my favorite musical boxes it checks off at once. If you, like me, are impatiently awaiting new Purity Ring, desperate for more synth-pop spookiness a la iamamiwhoami/ionnalee, or disappointed by the growing blandness of CHVRCHES, I could not recommend either of Let's Eat Grandma's new singles more.

1. Sevdaliza - Human Nature


As much as I talk about music like it changes my life on a daily basis, it's rare for me to have a truly visceral physical reaction to a song. But the first time I heard "Human Nature," it was 12:30 AM, I was lying in complete darkness, and I had to cover my mouth with my hands to hold back the actual screams that threatened to erupt from my throat the moment Sevdaliza wails at distorted dolphin pitch, "Our so-oo-oo-oo-ooULS have been separated." And when she asks for the last desperate time, "Have you met an angel," the final syllable stretched into what sounds like the dying breaths of a self-eulogizing android, I was literally shaking with ecstasy. If comparisons must be made, Sevdaliza sings like a space-age Sade, and this song is like if you were to take that brilliant voice-into-pan-flute effect at the end of Charli XCX's "Lucky" and invert it into its spooky underworld twin.

To my ears, a lot of mid-to-late 2000s indie rock and pop, while not necessarily homogeneous in sound, shared this very specific quality of unabashed earnestness, a bold willingness to be as emotional and intense as it wanted to be, even if that meant being more than a little melodramatic at times. It balanced rich, sunny melodicism with deeply cathartic lyricism in which everything mattered. No experience or feeling or reaction was too inconsequential to make a big, bright, messy spectacle out of.

My responses to the bands that made this sort of music were equally dramatic and oversized. I very rarely fall head over heels in love with new artists now as intensely and frequently as I did back then, and I often get nostalgic for how life-changing each of those discoveries felt, even though I realize that my taste now is a lot more interesting and diverse overall. On one particularly nostalgic night a few months ago, I compiled a massive playlist of what 18-year-old me would have considered my signature bands then began slowly narrowing it down to the 18 songs here. I even tried to channel my teenage self in making the delightfully garish cover above.

As usual, be sure to hit the Spotify playlist at the very end of the post for maximum convenience (bar one song because there always has to be that one unavailable song, doesn't there?).

1. Ra Ra Riot - Ghost Under Rocks


I have no idea what this song is about, as the lyrics seem purposefully opaque, but whatever it is, it feels urgent, incendiary, nearly life or death. Between the propulsive cello and violin stabs, breathlessly frenetic drums, and theatrical passion of Wes Myles' vocal delivery, if this song doesn't immediately get your blood pumping, you may want to confirm you actually have a pulse. It's a shame Ra Ra Riot has settled for becoming a middle-of-the-road synth-pop band because I feel like there's so much more they could've done with the chamber music influences of their early work. Their debut, The Rhumb Line, is melodramatic and excessive in the best way possible, and "Ghost Under Rocks" wastes no time setting that standard.

2. Rilo Kiley - Paint's Peeling


Rilo Kiley will always be that band for me, the one that came into my life at precisely the right time and seemed to encapsulate everything I had ever experienced or felt, even when they didn't. Jenny Lewis' lyrics are unrivaled in terms of their depiction of what it means to be a young, self-doubting, and confused 21st-century woman. But what really twists the knife blade deep is her spit-fire voice, alternating between chirpy send-offs to "the assholes that made me" and desperate, white-knuckled questioning: "Hey, how could you love me this way?" Add Blake Sennett's laid-back guitar riffs and understated harmonies, and you've got a musical chemistry for the ages. I'll perpetually keep my fingers crossed, however improbably, for a reunion.

3. Bright Eyes - Something Vague

Conor Oberst gets a lot of flack for his overbearingly emotional songwriting and delivery, particularly in his early Bright Eyes material, and I can see where it comes off like calculatedly performative angst. But, to me, that pain has always seemed very raw and real. Of course, it's not something I want to hear very often anymore, but the cathartic release it provided was vital for my younger self's survival. I spent hours listening to Fevers and Mirrors on repeat (and probably sobbing buckets) when I first discovered it. Its best songs, like this one, are all about the slow build-up to a cathartic climax, from a gentle and dusty acoustic guitar whimper to a bruised knuckles, bloody fingernails, shredded vocal chords bang and back again.

4. Eisley - Invasion


"Invasion" was the first single released from Eisley's sophomore album, Combinations, and I still remember the chills that ran down my spine upon my first listen. It's the perfect hard-edged pop song, like a dark, glittering, and slick slab of obsidian mined from deep within the earth. Drawing on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the lyrics are ominously elusive, slip-sliding from the listener's grip. The protagonist, under a "bloodless moon," flees an encroaching alien enemy, whose "colorless words" threaten, "Go to sleep, this won't hurt a bit/Shifting your shape to our shells." The sci-fi mood is intensified by a blaring synth line and Sherri and Stacy DuPree's voices, like fluttery, omnipotent phantoms who know their warnings fall upon deaf ears.

5. Tegan and Sara - The Con


For a while, I hung out on the borderline of Tegan and Sara fandom, never quite compelled to commit myself fully, but The Con shattered those apathetic feelings almost instantly. Even now, despite knowing every note of it by heart, it's one of those rare albums that still retains its initial charm, only further enriched by the many experiences through which it's accompanied me. While Sara handles the more experimental tunes, Tegan delivers one catchy as fuck indie rock rager after another. On the title track, she wails like a wounded animal, "Nobody likes me/Maybe if I cry," atop an immense wave of guitar and keyboard, establishing a sing-along chorus that persists years on (and will probably never be bested in their career).

6. Mates of State - Parachutes (Funeral Song)


I went through a pretty significant phase wherein I only listened to cutesy indie pop bands with dual male/female vocals (which, I must admit, is still a musical niche I'm very into). Of groups that occupy this category, husband/wife duo Mates of State is one of the most reliably delightful. Objectively, Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel do not have very great voices, but somehow the sound of their full-throated but discordant shouting in unison is charming as hell. My favorite thing about them is that, even on what should ostensibly be a pretty and gentle ballad like this one, they can never stop themselves from belting their lungs out like their lives depend upon it. Try matching their energy when you sing along, and you'll see why they're so much fun.

7. Tilly and the Wall - Brave Day


Another holdover of the above-mentioned phase, I think Tilly and the Wall was unfairly perceived by many as a novelty band (there's a tap dancer, oh my god!) that would age poorly. In actual fact, they made some really killer pop tunes that I continue to come back to regularly. "Brave Day" is a deep cut from their second (and best, in my opinion) album, Bottoms of Barrels, that puts to rest any attempts to categorize their music as amateur. Accompanied by soulful organ and twangy guitar, the band's three vocalists harmonize like old pros. Everything coasts along smoothly, like gently rolling ocean waves, before cresting in the motivational mass shout, "When you going to get back up?!?" This is followed by a board-pounding tap dance solo, naturally.

8. The Good Life - Inmates


An additional phase that has already been overwhelmingly represented: listening almost exclusively to Saddle Creek adjacent artists. The Good Life is the solo project of Tim Kasher, more well-known as the frontman of Cursive, and I will forever consider "Inmates" one of my favorite songs. It's the linchpin of Album of the Year, which documents the rise and fall of a tempestuous relationship. A nine-and-a-half-minute behemoth of a folk song, it finds Kasher laying out his romantic failings with brutal honesty via the perspective of his soon-to-be-ex-lover, as voiced by Jiha Lee. Innumerable soul-crushing lines litter its winding trajectory, topped off by a single-sentence finale - "I can't be your prisoner" - that serves as both celebration and funeral.

9. Neko Case - Star Witness

Neko Case receives a lot of praise for her voice, but she's also almost certainly among the greatest contemporary songwriters. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is another all-timer for me. After its release, I listened to it multiple times a day, to the point of falling asleep and waking up to it, for at least six months. Case is a master of Southern Gothic storytelling and a descriptive wordsmith of the highest order, as evidenced by this song, which may be about a car crash but may also be about growing up in a dead-end town and falling in love for the first time and watching someone die while everyone else looks away. Case's voice reverberates with such deep sorrow and longing that it sells all of these potential meanings and more simultaneously.

10. Straylight Run - Buttoned Down


Straylight Run always seemed a little misunderstood to me. Two of their members were originally in Taking Back Sunday, which I think made people expect them to sound like Taking Back Sunday. Moreover, their most well-known song, "Existentialism on Prom Night," took off as a sort of quintessential bleeding heart ballad for emo kids, which pigeonholed them further. Honestly, though, their sophomore album, The Needles, the Space, is a highly enjoyable amalgamation of whimsical indie pop and passionate melodic rock. "Buttoned Down" is one of its highlights because it's so musically and emotionally pure, John Nolan's ragged voice smoothed over by warm acoustic guitar strums and his sister Michelle's dreamy harmonies.

11. 1997 - In Your Car


A guilty pleasure of mine used to be reading my sister's Alternative Press magazines, despite loudly and aggressively claiming to despise any music categorized as "emo." I'm glad I've lightened up since then. At any rate, I discovered 1997 through an advertisement in that magazine, though I no longer know why I felt so specifically compelled by it. The music, once I heard it, compelled me because it so effectively utilized those male/female harmonies I love. The vocal chemistry is undeniable, upgrading the otherwise trite sentiments of this song's chorus - "Drown the pain of this one to the sound of my guitar" - until, as the next line proclaims, "This song becomes our anthem." It also helps that, melodically, it's just really well-written pop.

12. Be Your Own Pet - You're a Waste (not available on Spotify)


Be Your Own Pet was a band that burned quickly but brightly, though, if I recall correctly, at the time, they were quite roundly dismissed as a bunch of privileged teenagers with connections trying to pass themselves off as bad-ass punk-rockers. And, yeah, there's probably a kernel of truth to that. Really, they wrote simple pop songs dressed up in loud, brash clothing. But they were good pop songs and still are. "You're a Waste" is full of proudly immature (and insanely catchy) one-liners - "You've been a dick to me all along," "Go ahead and tell your sob story/All I have to say about it is blow me" - delivered by Jemina Pearl with a sugar-coated snarl charismatic enough to hold its own against a wall of grungy guitars and blown-out drums.

13. Land of Talk - Speak to Me Bones


I only recently realized the brilliance of Land of Talk's entire discography, but I loved their debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, within seconds of first hearing its jaw-dropping, mind-obliterating opener. There's no gentle easing in here, just blistering guitars and crashing cymbals from the start, blasting their way into a relentless adrenaline rush of a grungy groove. Over top, Elizabeth Powell's lackadaisical, slurred vocals at first seem an odd fit. But by the time the first chorus rolls around, they ooze rock star charisma, which makes it hard to believe her when she brashly wails, "I love anyone but me." In a rapid-fire eruption at the song's finale, she repeatedly insists, "What about right now," her voice growing more unhinged with every syllable.

14. Los Campesinos! - Knee Deep at ATP


Los Campesinos! have stealthily become one of the most consistent bands in indie rock. The fun thing about their debut, Hold on Now, Youngster..., is that in its bright and boisterous sugar-rush high you can hear both hints of the band they would become and confirmation of the band they've always been. "Knee Deep at ATP" serves as a sort of microcosm of this effect, its thoughtful blend of weeping violin, intermittent electronic bleeps, and soft, wistful vocals book-ended by a manic looping guitar and synth melody, over which the entire band shouts haphazardly during the coda, "They said, 'It's not what you like, but what you're like as a person'/Well, I need new hobbies, that's one thing for certain!"

15. Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Talking in Code


As much as I find the later work of Margot & the Nuclear So and So's to be generally enjoyable (Richard Edwards is too good of a songwriter not to), there's something magical about the perfect blend of chamber folk and indie rock achieved on The Dust of Retreat that the band never quite managed to capture again. There's a warmth to the instrumentation and vocals, like sitting in front of a fireplace in your favorite worn-out chair with a mug of warm tea in your hands. Here, the various instrumental flourishes - pedal steel, muted vocal harmonies, violin, horns - may have easily become overkill in lesser hands. Instead, they slowly rise to a nuanced, natural pitch in tandem with the increasingly pained crackle of Edwards' voice.

16. The Narrative - Libra

The Narrative absolutely deserved to blow up, and I'm still upset they never did. Perhaps part of the reason was that their debut EP, Just Say Yes, was so remarkable as to be near impossible to best. Simply put, Jesse Gabriel and Suzie Zeldin make magic together, and they obviously put their entire hearts and souls into this release. On "Libra," Zeldin takes the vocal lead, her serene voice the perfect vessel for the song's sense of melancholy. Its sweetness conceals the bitterness of the lyrics, as on the second verse, when she croons, "We'll pretend that we'll be friends/Oh, an ideal lie, you only last a little while." The final chorus gives way to an atmospheric instrumental outro that seamlessly interweaves post-rock influences and pop melodies.

17. Stars - Soft Revolution

Bands that unabashedly wear their hearts on their sleeves can be polarizing. Their passion is often perceived as melodrama, a word which tends to provoke a visceral reaction: love or hate. Stars' music has always been unapologetically ornate, and this song is no exception. Between triumphant burst of strings and horns intertwined with Amy Millan's blissful harmonies, Torquil Campbell delivers the verses with smooth, effortless cool. The lyrics speak to a generation of artistic romantics who strive to leave the world more beautiful than they found it: "The revolution wasn't bad/We hit the streets with all we had/A tape recording of the sound of the Velvet Underground/A K-Way jacket torn to shreds/And a dream inside our heads."

18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Turn Into



As great as Karen O is at screaming her throat raw, there's something so earnest and lovable in her voice when she attempts to sing more prettily. "I know what I know," she insists with chirpy confidence at this song's opening, and there's something about such a boldly-made assertion that stops the listener dead in their tracks. It's simple but effective, much like the song as a whole, which proved, at a time when it was not yet clear, that beneath their bratty lo-fi punk posturing, Yeah Yeah Yeahs knew their way around how to write a damn song. The build-up is subtle but assured, growing from acoustic beginnings to a high-octane rush of electric guitar, drums, piano, and synth, only to deconstruct itself back down to Karen O's distant, vulnerable warble.

Okay, I meant for these posts to be a way for me to highlight music I've freshly gotten into outside of new releases. (Just like I meant to post something a little different between this and the last Top Ten Tuesday, but it's still in the works. I'm trying really hard to have it ready for next week.) But the problem is I didn't listen to a whole lot besides new releases last month, so that objective has mostly fallen by the wayside, at least this time around. At any rate, it's still a list of 10 really good songs, as usual accompanied by my wordy, gushing descriptions! It's pretty pop-oriented again, because that's just who I am lately, but hopefully there's still enough diversity that something peaks your interest, no matter your taste.

10. Janelle Monáe - Django Jane


Janelle Monáe will forever be one of my favorite artists because The ArchAndroid revolutionized my musical life back in 2010 when I was otherwise listening almost exclusively to cute indie pop bands and sad folk singers. And while I'm happy for Monáe's newfound success as an actress, the announcement of her new album, Dirty Computer, couldn't have come at a better time because I've been hungry for new music for a while. So far, she's released two tracks, and while "Make Me Feel" may be the bigger critical darling, I have to champion "Django Jane" a bit. Monáe's rap skills are vastly underrated, in my opinion, so to have an entire track devoted to them - and one with such an empowering and necessary message, at that - just feels right. A lot of attention has been paid to the instantly iconic line, "We gon' start a motherfucking pussy riot/Or we gon' have to put 'em on a pussy diet." But Monáe also speaks more specifically to her own critics and the sidelining of black female voices with rhymes like, "Remember when they used to say I look too mannish?/Black girl magic, y'all can't stand it."

9. Phoenix - Fior Di Latte (A. G. Cook Remix)


I'll be honest: I don't care much at all about Phoenix, I've never heard the original version of this song, and I doubt I'll be seeking it out. But none of that matters because this remix isn't really about Phoenix; it's about A. G. Cook and his ability to turn a song completely inside out in the most satisfying way possible. Aesthetically, it draws on the same universe of sounds as Charli XCX's Pop 2 and Hannah Diamond's recent releases, which means it's right up my alley. The first minute and a half is almost normal (well, if you consider wavy processed vocals and discordant electronic layers normal, which I do at this point), even a bit beautiful. Then everything starts to break down, the vocals cutting in and out, abrasive bursts of drum machine kicking in, the synths forcefully embedding themselves into the main melodic line. By three and a half minutes, there's not really a "song" left in the aftermath of Cook's gleeful destruction, just vaguely recognizable elements of it that have been smashed up into thousands of crystalline rock candy pieces.

8. Nadia Oh - Is That You


Okay, I'll admit this up front so no one gets the wrong idea: Colours is not a very good album. I was curious about it because I'd seen it described as PC Music before PC Music was really a thing, and that's true to an extent. But, to me, the best PC Music releases are only deceptively shallow, in the sense that what at first seems very frivolous and surface-level is actually a front for emotions that are very earnest and real. Colours, on the other hand, is just shallow, and it doesn't help that Nadia Oh's voice lacks personality and, even auto-tuned to death, melodicism. Why, then, have I included her on this list? Because, very occasionally, she and producer Space Cowboy hit upon something that actually works for an entire song. "Is That You" is silly and empty and cheap-sounding but in a super fun and addictive way. Its two crowning achievements: the Blogspot-referencing lyric that definitely lets you know this song is from 2011 (I say, while posting on Blogspot in 2018) and Nadia's wobbly, pitch-shifted chirp of "Is that you," which has the surreal quality of an auditory hallucination.

7. Carly Rae Jepsen - Your Type


For some reason, ever since Emotion was released in 2015, I've made the active decision to avoid jumping on the Carly Rae Jepsen bandwagon. It's not that I had anything against her personally. I think I was just stubbornly resisting the massive hype for fear I wouldn't get it. Well, now seemed like the perfect time to finally give her a real shot, since I've been so high on pop music in general. Final verdict: I've definitely been missing out. Emotion is a top-shelf pop album that's undoubtedly joining my permanent rotation. In my opinion, it reaches its peak with the back-half trifecta of "Making the Most of the Night," "Your Type," and "Let's Get Lost," and it's the midpoint of this trio I find myself returning to the most. Although the verses are delivered with Jepsen's patented sugary sweetness, her voice takes on a more mature tone in the impassioned chorus, which is one for the ages in how fully it leans into its white-hot '80s-styled melodrama. This is the sort of song that's probably blasting through stadium loudspeakers in another dimension because it's almost certainly too good for this one.

6. Kero Kero Bonito - Only Acting


Leave it to Kero Kero Bonito to pull the rug out from under me just as I was falling in love with the cutesy, hyperactive candy-floss sheen of Bonito Generation. When I first listened to "Only Acting," I had no idea what I was hearing; it was abrasive, jarring, and weird as fuck. But further listens revealed the core KKB qualities that originally drew me in: Sarah Midori Perry's exaggeratedly adorable vocals and a simple but effective chorus melody that'll be bouncing off the walls of your brain for days. The only difference this time is that they're buried beneath grungy, lo-fi instrumentation. But just as you settle into this stylistic shift, unsettling cracks begin to form. "You should be able to feel a performance with your whole body and soul," Perry instructs, "and now I'm going to teach you everything I -" Her words are then cut off by what sound like snippets of her own exorcism. Afterward, the song briefly proceeds as usual until, midway through the final chorus, Perry's voice skips like a bad record and the entire production falls off a cliff into the glitchy depths of hell.

5. Ezra Furman - No Place


Ezra Furman's last full-length release, 2015's Perpetual Motion People, was pretty undeniably delightful, between its diverse mishmash of musical influences and its bright, toe-tapping melodies. But beneath many of these melodies lay lyrics that explored themes much darker and more serious than implied by their shiny, boisterous wrapping. On Transangelic Exodus, the divide between music and lyrics is bridged, as its sound is much heavier, grungier, and rawer overall. The result is intense emotional catharsis at best and damn fine rock and roll at worst. "No Place" is particularly bracing, its non-stop energy propelled relentlessly forward by booming drums, fuzzy horns, and distorted guitar. If I were to describe the song as a feeling, I'm guessing it might be kind of like being a passenger in a car about to crash that never actually does. Instead, the moment just before impact loops over and over again, equal parts terrifying and thrilling. Furman's voice is raspy and rough, sometimes even verging on tuneless, but it's hard to imagine the song hitting as hard if sung with technical perfection.

4. Wye Oak - It Was Not Natural


Jenn Wasner has one of those voices I could listen to sing the phone book. It may not be particularly technically versatile, but it has such an idiosyncratic tone to it, calming and serene but with enough grit and gravity to hold its own against even the most towering walls of guitar and synth. While her solo release as Flock of Dimes, If You See Me, Say Yes, was enjoyable, nothing quite matches what she and Andy Stack can do together as Wye Oak - which makes the upcoming release of The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, their first proper album since 2011, all the more exciting. "It Was Not Natural," as one of those pristine, sweeping ballads that usually shows up to give the listener goosebumps at least once per Wye Oak album, allows the full impact of Wasner's voice to come through loud and clear. It floats atop a spacey spiral of piano, synths, and percussion, doling out simple declarations - "Only human hate could give us something so unforgiving" - with such measured weariness that they feel heavy with deeper meaning.

3. ionnalee - Joy


I am continually disappointed by how thoroughly Jonna Lee's experimental synth-pop, first as iamamiwhoami and now as ionnalee, gets slept on by major music publications. (Pitchfork, for example, gave iamamiwhoami's albums lukewarm reviews and hasn't even touched ionnalee's.) Maybe it's the fact that iamamiwhoami began life as a viral Youtube campaign and has never quite shaken off that novelty, or maybe it's the fact that everything has been self-released by Lee's own label and therefore flown under the radar. Whatever it is, to my ears, Lee (alongside, as iamamiwhoami, her collaborator Claes Björklund) is making the most consistent and interesting music in this style right now. "Joy" is another showstopper, opening with a haze of ominous synths that sounds like a shadowy artificial intelligence breathing itself to life. It builds to a dizzy pitch before shrinking away at the arrival of Lee's spooky, enigmatic vocals and returns for the massive chorus, where Lee's voice rings out like a chime, "This is the sound of joy, coming from my innermost."

2. SOPHIE - Faceshopping


I'll only warn you once: as long as SOPHIE keeps being the most interesting person in electronic music (a claim I'm willing to call only slightly hyperbolic), I'm not going to stop posting about her. "Faceshopping" sounds like the soundtrack to a dystopian but stylish future, one in which the noises of a malfunctioning android assembly line become strangely musical. I've said it before, but I'm continually amazed by how SOPHIE makes chaos sound so clean. There are so many moving parts here, all equally clamoring for the listener's attention, which could quickly devolve into a mess if they weren't designed and layered so precisely. The lyrics are cryptic but meaningful upon closer inspection. Serving as SOPHIE's vocal conduit, singer Cecile Believe murmurs in the unconventional hook, "I'm real when I shop my face." SOPHIE has spoken previously of her fascination with plastic surgery, and she's recently employed prosthetics and makeup to present a sort of hyper-exaggerated version of herself. But, "Faceshopping" seems to insist, no matter how altered, it's still herself, perhaps even most authentically so, because it represents her interior ideal: "So you must be the one I've seen in my dreams," begins the song's surprisingly soulful bridge.

1. Ought - Desire


"Desire," the third single released from Ought's (excellent) new album, Room Inside the World, is pretty easily my favorite song of the year so far. Like the album's prior two singles, it represents a marked departure for the band, from frenetic post-punk to brooding and expansive indie rock, Tim Darcy's voice transformed from an off-kilter shout to a richly expressive drawl. At the same time, despite the shift in sound, there's no denying this is still the same band who released the charmingly sloppy debut, More Than Any Other Day, four years ago. They've matured, certainly, but they've also retained their particular brand of magic in the process. A large part of the charm lies in Darcy's lyrics, which at times resemble poetry in their vivid, unique imagery: "The feel of your honey in the corner of my mouth/Like a loop around the block/Like a shadow in your notebook." This descriptive flair is offset by the direct gut punch of the late-arriving refrain, in which Darcy wails simply, "Desire, desire/It was never going to stay," accompanied by stirring choral backing as his own voice devolves into a wordless howl. It's like the world-weary older sibling of their debut's "Habit," which (until now possibly) has always been my favorite Ought song.

Top 50 Artists:

1. Land of Talk (507 plays)
2. Perfume Genius (437 plays)
3. Joni Mitchell (397 plays)
4. Big Thief (349 plays)
5. Lorde (317 plays)
6. Charli XCX (311 plays)
7. Japanese Breakfast (290 plays)
8. Angel Olsen (229 plays)
9. Tori Amos (226 plays)
10. Hundred Waters (218 plays)
11. Algiers (217 plays)
12. Lydia Ainsworth (214 plays)
13. Alvvays (205 plays)
14. Laura Marling (202 plays)
15. The Wild Reeds (202 plays)
16. Cayetana (200 plays)
17. Jens Lekman (199 plays)
18. Ezra Furman (196 plays)
19. Ibeyi (196 plays)
20. Nadine Shah (194 plays)
21. Kelela (193 plays)
22. Charlotte Gainsbourg (189 plays)
23. Lauryn Hill (189 plays)
24. The National (186 plays)
25. Fugees (185 plays)
26. Hurray for the Riff Raff (184 plays)
27. SOPHIE (183 plays)
28. Laura Nyro (180 plays)
29. Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton (176 plays)
30. Talking Heads (175 plays)
31. Nina Simone (173 plays)
32. Great Grandpa (171 plays)
33. Rainer Maria (168 plays)
34. CARE (158 plays)
35. Marika Hackman (156 plays)
36. Priests (156 plays)
37. Sleater-Kinney (154 plays)
38. St. Vincent (153 plays)
39. Richard Edwards (151 plays)
40. Stars (143 plays)
41. Ratboys (141 plays)
42. Tiny Hazard (140 plays)
43. Anna Nalick (138 plays)
44. Tennis (138 plays)
45. Grizzly Bear (137 plays)
46. Los Campesinos! (137 plays)
47. Tim Darcy (136 plays)
48. Digable Planets (133 plays)
49. Briana Marela (131 plays)
50. Feist (130 plays)

Top 50 Albums:

1. Perfume Genius — No Shape (303 plays)
2. Japanese Breakfast — Soft Sounds from Another Planet (257 plays)
3. Lorde — Melodrama (240 plays)
4. Big Thief — Capacity (213 plays)
5. Ibeyi — Ash (196 plays)
6. Cayetana — New Kind of Normal (196 plays)
7. Various Artists — Our First 100 Days (196 plays)
8. Charlotte Gainsbourg — Rest (189 plays)
9. Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (188 plays)
10. Fugees — The Score (185 plays)
11. Charli XCX — Pop 2 (185 plays)
12. Kelela — Take Me Apart (182 plays)
13. Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton — Choir of the Mind (174 plays)
14. The Wild Reeds — The World We Built (166 plays)
15. CARE — Luv in the Ruins (158 plays)
16. Lydia Ainsworth — Darling of the Afterglow (153 plays)
17. Jens Lekman — Life Will See You Now (149 plays)
18. Land of Talk — Life After Youth (146 plays)
19. Alvvays — Antisocialites (145 plays)
20. Priests — Nothing Feels Natural (145 plays)
21. Laura Marling — Semper Femina (145 plays)
22. Tiny Hazard — Greyland (139 plays)
23. Richard Edwards — Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset (138 plays)
24. Digable Planets — Blowout Comb (132 plays)
25. Hundred Waters — Communicating (127 plays)
26. Milo — Who Told You to Think??!!?!?!?! (122 plays)
27. Laura Nyro — Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (118 plays)
28. Tim Darcy — Saturday Night (117 plays)
29. Great Grandpa — Plastic Cough (116 plays)
30. Algiers — The Underside of Power (116 plays)
31. Feist — Pleasure (115 plays)
32. Hurray for the Riff Raff — The Navigator (115 plays)
33. Ratboys — GN (113 plays)
34. Joni Mitchell — Ladies of the Canyon (112 plays)
35. Football, etc. — Corner (111 plays)
36. Julie Byrne — Not Even Happiness (108 plays)
37. Vince Staples — Big Fish Theory (107 plays)
38. Rainer Maria — S/T (107 plays)
39. Nadine Shah — Holiday Destination (106 plays)
40. Anna Nalick — At Now (105 plays)
41. Tigers Jaw — Spin (103 plays)
42. Land of Talk — Cloak and Cipher (102 plays)
43. Charly Bliss — Guppy (102 plays)
44. The National — Sleep Well Beast (102 plays)
45. Algiers — Algiers (101 plays)
46. Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & James McAlister — Planetarium (101 plays)
47. Fleet Foxes — Crack-Up (100 plays)
48. The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die — Always Foreign (99 plays)
49. Real Life Buildings — Significant Weather (99 plays)
50. Briana Marela — Call It Love (98 plays)

Top 50 Tracks:

1. SOPHIE — It's Okay to Cry (60 plays)
2. Big Thief — Mary (41 plays)
3. Perfume Genius — Die 4 You (39 plays)
4. Perfume Genius — Wreath (38 plays)
5. Big Thief — Mythological Beauty (37 plays)
6. Perfume Genius — Slip Away (35 plays)
7. Japanese Breakfast — Till Death (33 plays)
8. Charli XCX — Tears (feat. Caroline Polachek) (33 plays)
9. Japanese Breakfast — This House (32 plays)
10. Lorde — Writer in the Dark (32 plays)
11. Lorde — Perfect Places (31 plays)
12. Big Thief — Shark Smile (31 plays)
13. Perfume Genius — Sides (31 plays)
14. Lorde — Supercut (31 plays)
15. Lorde — The Louvre (31 plays)
16. Land of Talk — Loving (30 plays)
17. Big Thief — Pretty Things (30 plays)
18. Japanese Breakfast — Road Head (29 plays)
19. Land of Talk — This Time (29 plays)
20. Ought — These 3 Things (29 plays)
21. Rainer Maria — Forest Mattress (28 plays)
22. Big Thief — Watering (28 plays)
23. First Aid Kit — It's a Shame (28 plays)
24. U.S. Girls — Mad as Hell (28 plays)
25. Japanese Breakfast — Boyish (27 plays)
26. Land of Talk — Heartcore (27 plays)
27. Alvvays — In Undertow (27 plays)
28. Lorde — Liability (27 plays)
29. St. Vincent — New York (27 plays)
30. Alvvays — Not My Baby (26 plays)
31. Ibeyi — Transmission/Michaelion (26 plays)
32. Perfume Genius — Just Like Love (25 plays)
33. Joni Mitchell — Rainy Night House (25 plays)
34. Lorde — Sober II (Melodrama) (25 plays)
35. Tim Darcy — Still Waking Up (25 plays)
36. Lydia Ainsworth — The Road (25 plays)
37. Charli XCX — Lucky (25 plays)
38. The Wild Reeds — Capable (24 plays)
39. Perfume Genius — Choir (24 plays)
40. Big Thief — Coma (24 plays)
41. Lauryn Hill — Doo Wop (That Thing) (24 plays)
42. Jens Lekman — Evening Prayer (24 plays)
43. Great Grandpa — Fade (24 plays)
44. Laura Marling — Nouel (24 plays)
45. Lorde — Sober (24 plays)
46. Laura Marling — Wild Fire (24 plays)
47. Big Thief — Black Diamonds (23 plays)
48. Lorde — Green Light (23 plays)
49. Lorde — Homemade Dynamite (23 plays)
50. Lydia Ainsworth — Into the Blue (23 plays)

Top 50 Tracks (one per artist):

1. SOPHIE — It's Okay to Cry (60 plays)
2. Big Thief — Mary (41 plays)
3. Perfume Genius — Die 4 You (39 plays)
4. Japanese Breakfast — Till Death (33 plays)
5. Charli XCX — Tears (feat. Caroline Polachek) (33 plays)
6. Lorde — Writer in the Dark (32 plays)
7. Land of Talk — Loving (30 plays)
8. Ought — These 3 Things (29 plays)
9. Rainer Maria — Forest Mattress (28 plays)
10. First Aid Kit — It's a Shame (28 plays)
11. U.S. Girls — Mad as Hell (28 plays)
12. Alvvays — In Undertow (27 plays)
13. St. Vincent — New York (27 plays)
14. Ibeyi — Transmission/Michaelion (26 plays)
15. Joni Mitchell — Rainy Night House (25 plays)
16. Tim Darcy — Still Waking Up (25 plays)
17. Lydia Ainsworth — The Road (25 plays)
18. The Wild Reeds — Capable (24 plays)
19. Lauryn Hill — Doo Wop (That Thing) (24 plays)
20. Jens Lekman — Evening Prayer (24 plays)
21. Great Grandpa — Fade (24 plays)
22. Laura Marling — Nouel (24 plays)
23. Algiers — The Underside Of Power (23 plays)
24. Cayetana — Bus Ticket (22 plays)
25. Fugees — Fu-Gee-La (22 plays)
26. Tiny Hazard — Ink (22 plays)
27. Charlotte Gainsbourg — Deadly Valentine (21 plays)
28. Ratboys — Elvis Is in the Freezer (21 plays)
29. Grizzly Bear — Neighbors (21 plays)
30. ionnalee — Not Human (21 plays)
31. Priests — JJ (20 plays)
32. Tigers Jaw — June (20 plays)
33. Hundred Waters — Particle (20 plays)
34. Nadine Shah — Big Hands (19 plays)
35. Torres — Helen in the Woods (19 plays)
36. The National — The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness (19 plays)
37. The Weather Station — Thirty (19 plays)
38. Marika Hackman — Cigarette (18 plays)
39. Hannah Diamond — Fade Away (18 plays)
40. Briana Marela — Feel What I Feel (18 plays)
41. Kelela — LMK (18 plays)
42. Special Explosion — Fire (18 plays)
43. Los Campesinos! — 5 Flucloxacillin (17 plays)
44. CARE — Netcong (17 plays)
45. Tori Amos — Reindeer King (17 plays)
46. Hurray for the Riff Raff — Rican Beach (17 plays)
47. Valerie June — Astral Plane (16 plays)
48. Tennis — Baby Don't Believe (16 plays)
49. Stars — Fluorescent Light (16 plays)
50. Pixx — I Bow Down (16 plays)

Top 50 Tracks (released pre-2017):

1. Joni Mitchell — Rainy Night House (25 plays)
2. Lauryn Hill — Doo Wop (That Thing) (24 plays)
3. Joni Mitchell — The Arrangement (23 plays)
4. Joni Mitchell — Blue (22 plays)
5. Lauryn Hill — Everything Is Everything (22 plays)
6. Fugees — Fu-Gee-La (22 plays)
7. Fugees — Ready or Not (22 plays)
8. Fugees — Killing Me Softly with His Song (21 plays)
9. Fugees — The Mask (21 plays)
10. SOPHIE — Bipp (20 plays)
11. Lauryn Hill — Every Ghetto, Every City (20 plays)
12. Nadine Shah — Big Hands (19 plays)
13. Land of Talk — Color Me Badd (18 plays)
14. Hannah Diamond — Fade Away (18 plays)
15. Hannah Diamond — Make Believe (18 plays)
16. Laura Nyro — Eli's Comin' (17 plays)
17. SOPHIE — Elle (17 plays)
18. Fugees — Family Business (16 plays)
19. Land of Talk — Got a Call (16 plays)
20. Lauryn Hill — When It Hurts So Bad (16 plays)
21. Fugees — How Many Mics (15 plays)
22. Lauryn Hill — I Used to Love Him (feat. Mary J. Blige) (15 plays)
23. Charli XCX — Paradise (feat. Hannah Diamond) (15 plays)
24. Land of Talk — Quarry Hymns (15 plays)
25. Land of Talk — Speak to Me Bones (15 plays)
26. Digable Planets — The Art of Easing (15 plays)
27. Talking Heads — The Great Curve (15 plays)
28. Laura Nyro — Timer (15 plays)
29. Digable Planets — 9th Wonder (Blackitolism) (14 plays)
30. CocoRosie — Child Bride (14 plays)
31. Digable Planets — Jettin' (14 plays)
32. Lauryn Hill — Lost Ones (14 plays)
33. Talking Heads — Slippery People (14 plays)
34. SOPHIE — Vyzee (14 plays)
35. Fugees — Zealots (14 plays)
36. Land of Talk — Cloak and Cipher (13 plays)
37. Lauryn Hill — Ex-Factor (13 plays)
38. Digable Planets — For Corners (13 plays)
39. Fugees — The Score (13 plays)
40. The Roots — You Got Me (13 plays)
41. Land of Talk — All My Friends (12 plays)
42. Tilly and the Wall — Bad Education (12 plays)
43. Digable Planets — Black Ego (12 plays)
42. Land of Talk — Corner Phone (12 plays)
43. Courtney Marie Andrews — Irene (12 plays)
44. Algiers — Irony. Utility. Pretext. (12 plays)
45. Sleater-Kinney — Jenny (12 plays)
46. Joni Mitchell — Let the Wind Carry Me (12 plays)
47. Fugees — Manifest/Outro (12 plays)
48. Land of Talk — Street Wheels (12 plays)
49. R.E.M. — Sweetness Follows (12 plays)
50. Laura Nyro — Tom Cat Goodby (12 plays)

My year started off with a decision to more seriously delve into Joni Mitchell's discography. She's an artist I've always wanted to get into, but I've never seemed to be in the right mindset to fully appreciate her. Before this year, the only album of hers I knew well was Court and Spark. Over the course of 2017, I more closely acquainted myself with Blue, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, For the Roses, and Ladies of the Canyon - in that order. I enjoyed all of them, but Blue and Ladies of the Canyon have especially wormed their way into my heart. "The Arrangement" and "Rainy Night House" from Ladies of the Canyon contain, I think, some of Mitchell's most lovely and resonant melodies. They feel like companions to me, not just because they're next to one another on the track listing, but because they give off a similarly warm and home-y energy.