Best Albums of 2019 -

Welcome to our Best of 2019 series, in which we explore the year’s best albums, songs and extended plays.

Music is flirty and thriving in 2019. The industry itself is a trash heap, just ask Taylor Swift. But the art continues to be the conduit to explore issues of love, loss, mental health, death and joy ⏤ a balance that is hard to achieve without sacrifice. Of course, the singers, songwriters and musicians give of themselves to move the needle of time and what songs can mean for surviving life as it stands this year. From folk to pop and R&B, songs are the bedrock foundation of our everyday lives, whether you commute to work and tune into the radio or go for a run with the latest playlist. Music and art is more accessible than ever, and bodies of work are finding audiences in ways never before imagined.

Below, B-Sides & Badlands has hand-picked the 25 best albums of 2019 so far.

EIC Note: Full disclosure, I reviewed far fewer albums this year, but listened to even more music. So, for this year’s roundup, I offer you a slew of honorable mentions – of truly great bodies of work. I recommend diving into each of these.

Honorable Mentions: Supertoys by Eli Raybon; T. Thomason by T. Thomason; Forever or Whatever by Holiday Sidewinder; Lover by Noah Gundersen; Sexdreamsuperstar by Brasko; Y2K Planet by LIZ; Mercy Bell by Mercy Bell; Lone Rats by Chris King; Civil / War by Sammy Kay; Ok, I Feel Better Now by Kelly Hoppenjans; Love & the Dark by Jason Hawk Harris; Guaranteed Broken Heart by Karen & the Sorrows; Metal Butterflies by All My Friends Hate Me; Family Ghost by Motherfolk; King of the Crows by Mark Cline Bates; Open Book by Kalie Shorr; The HighWomen by The HighWomen; Pinkville by Rod Melcanon; When You’re Ready by Molly Tuttle; Easy Keeper by Del Barber; Desert Dove by Michaela Anne; Lover by Taylor Swift; West by The Restoration; In Your Universe by Monica Aben; Inside Voice by Big Little Lions; Every Single Star by Dori Freeman; and Sin & Redemption by David Newbould.

Will Bennett & the Tells, All Your Favorite Songs (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Jewel Box Records

Folk storyteller Emily Scott Robinson burrows through the booze-medicating melancholy of small town life with her aptly-titled “Ghost in Every Town.” It’s a sobering performance that underscores both the budding tragedy and decaying beauty of a way of life nestled between emerald-capped mountain ridges and abandoned highways. Middle America is a rustic place of forgotten tales and peoples forever tormented by the past ⏤ and the misery is generational, running hot and thick in the aftermath of the commercial and political boom of the ’80s. It’s a dusty land woven from burdens and sorrow many can’t quite understand unless they’ve lived it. Chicago four-piece Will Bennett & the Tells situate their second album, All Your Favorite Songs, amidst such colossal wreckage, and through their shiny rock veneer, they cobble together weather-worn, heart-torn conversations on the ache to break state lines, a small town’s gravitational pull, romantic burning-out and the ruin we all leave in our wake. 11 songs feel rather imposing, jostling emotions of anger, misery, apathy and even joy; frontman Will Bennett navigates the ship, and together with his band of merrymen ⏤ of Daniel Martinson (drums), Ethan Kenvarg (bass) and Wilson Brehmer (guitar) ⏤ the band gives the music scene a necessary punch to the throat. Several years ago, when his father suffered a severe stroke, Bennett returned back his hometown and drove down from his then-homestead in Columbus, Ohio. Weaving through countrysides strewn with farmland, the cityscape glowing in the distance, the songwriter and musician was soon struck with what would become a crucial turning point for his life. Grinnell, Iowa lies roughly 50 miles east of Des Moines, the state’s capital, and contains less than 10,000 people (according to the 2010 census). It is every town, U.S.A. with a blue-collar workforce simply trying to live a decent live and make ends meet. The impetus for the new record’s titular cut sprouted within his bones, and so, within its angst-riddled pages, Bennett stomps his feet around the grounds of Grinnell. “And we talk and we laugh / Like nothing ever happened ‘cause it happened so fast,” he sings, his voice weary and rusted. The blunt truth of reality weighs heavy, yet he still allows for hope to peep through his vocal cords. “So we’ll wait and we’ll see / Picking up the pieces as you get on your feet…” [Full review here] – Jason Scott

Allison Moorer, Blood (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Autotelic / Thirty Tigers

“Mama told Sissy and me a few months before that Daddy had begged her more than once to put him out of his misery and just kill him, then put the gun in his hands so it would look like a suicide,” writes Allison Moorer in her revealing new memoir. “Blood” arrives as a crucial companion piece to her new album of the same name; although it didn’t start out that way. Upon earning her Master’s of Fine Arts in writing from New York City’s New School, she quickly realized there was more story to tell.

Within the book’s 300 pages and across the album’s 10 songs, the award-nominated storyteller grapples with the most tragic day of her life: on August 12, 1986, her father Vernon Franklin Moorer shot and killed her mother Laura Lynn Smith Moorer before turning the gun on himself. In her quest for truth, the singer-songwriter analyzes her ongoing trauma and recovery, the facts of what happened (she even requested the actual autopsy reports) and anything (if at all) that could have been done to prevent it.

Blood’s songcraft is best appreciated and experienced in tandem with the memoir, a savagely poetic and brutal retelling of that fateful day more than 30 years ago. “Cold Cold Earth” – which was originally buried as a hidden track on her 2000 studio album, The Hardest Part – walks through the “hot and steamy” night of her parents’ death. Her words crackle as a eulogy to both her parents (one tormented and full of rage, the other a cowering victim) and to her childhood that she’ll never get back. “Such a sad, sad story / Such a sad, sad world,” she sings. [Full review on American Songwriter] – Jason Scott

BHuman, BMovie (Buy)

Genre: Pop/Alternative

Label: Indepdendent

“B movie sci-fi and horror flicks are special kinds of charmers. The Blob (1958), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and War of Planets (1966), among countless others, all possess a particular aesthetic: delightfully outlandish. Certainly in the 1950s and ‘60s, such bizarre fantasies and their bloated space creatures cloaked a very real, tangible paranoia that spread like wildfire. The world was in the throes of the Cold War, and the art of cinema was vital for the collective cathartic release. Brooklyn alt-pop duo BHuman ─ comprised of Billie Lloyd and Harrison Scott ─ excavate a smorgasbord of cosmic energies and classic b movie imagery to plot a concept record that dissects identity, self-discovery and alienation as queer folk. The aptly-titled BMovie is structured “to be almost a fictional movie soundtrack that reveals itself through the song and tracklist,” says Scott. BMovie comes on the heels of a self-titled EP released earlier this year, signaling big things for the prolific duo. The LP is raw, honest and relevant – a treasure trove of electro-pop that is unafraid to be bold and drive the narrative forward. Billie Lloyd and Harrison Scott are the kind of innovative thinkers that could be total game changers for pop music.” [Full review on Audiofemme] – Jason Scott

Matthew Pinder, Give Me Some Time (Buy)

Genre: Folk/Rock

Label: Independent

Folk designer by trade, New Providence’s Matthew Pinder hollows out his own heart with his extraordinarily-gutting 10-song debut ⏤ an emotionally-savage storybook in which he exhumes such matters as relationship exhaustion, mental decay, death and clawing loose from strangling blackness. Give Me Some Time ⏤ produced by Chris Jacobie (Penny & Sparrow) ⏤ is as gorgeous as it is devastating. Pinder’s penmanship is monumental, shifting through charcoals, ash and barely glowing embers. His pain comes in waves; his reedy tenor thrashes against the eardrums and busts the lining, drowning your soul with a godly body of work and message on the human condition and what recovery really is like. “I’m gonna get better / It’ll take a lot / I had reached a flood of emptiness from all the things you taught,” he drags his fingernails across the present. With the title track, his voice splinters the notes, and his self-imposed absolution tangles with the necessity of time. Its brisk 90-second run underscores the severity of his emotions, always hanging on his eyelids and squeezing him weary and worn, rather relentlessly. [Full review] – Jason Scott

Bror Gunnar Jansson, They Found My Body in a Bag (Buy)

Genre: Americana/Folk

Label: Playground Music

The tragedy of Catrine de Costa stands as one of the most grisly murders to sweep Sweden. In the height of summer in ’84, separate bags of her remains were discovered along the side of a road in Stockholm. The case was quickly met with widespread panic and vast media coverage. Suspected killers Thomas Allgen (a general practitioner) and Teet Härm (pathologist) were greatly implicated and brought to trial, but given the state of de Costa’s body and the unknown cause of death, they were acquitted. It’s around such a harrowing, brutally-relentless story that singer, songwriter and musician Bror Gunnar Jansson builds his fourth studio album. They Found My Body in a Bag, which examines various other real life murder tales, too, is darkly troubling, yet beautifully-performed and poetic. “Body in a Bag” is the artful, heart-throbbing linchpin, cracking open de Costa’s story with raw detail ⏤ but it’s not celebratory. Jansson’s words serve as a piercing reminder of the misery that befell her; there’s a certain level of honor that oozes from his performance. “These songs are not me trying to make entertainment – I’ve never considered myself as doing entertainment – of these horrific things that some people have done to others, and all that suffering that has caused,” he offers in press materials. “This is simply my way of trying to cope with this world we’re living in and the notion that some people become evil and where that evil comes from. As always, this is male violence mostly inflicted on women. We need to end this. And together we can.” [Full review here] – Jason Scott

Lauren Pratt, Young American Sycamore (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Independent

Reality can crumble in vast puffs of smoke, self-aggravated deterioration and unexpected traumas. When we emerge, having endured the kind of filthy misery we all inevitably suffer, what we do next defines who we are. Coated in soot, folksy free-spirit Lauren Pratt peers through the charcoal-laced glow of the past few years of her life on her new record. Young American Sycamore, produced by Don Bates, bleeds from within, and its embers burn a soft scarlet, a tinge of that unforgettable pain still coursing in her veins. But such emotional throbs burst into dangerous flames and serve her well in warding off further damage. “God bless the roof that caved / With hydrant water and flames / In my grieving loss draw near to me,” she sings on “Give and Take,” in which she sifts through broken bones and twisted shards in the now dying campfire. When her apartment building went up in flames, Pratt was so terribly rattled that she cowered from the whole world and “decided to close in on myself,” she says. The devastation ever an imprint on her mind, music fled from her, and for more than a year, she did not write or sing a single song. Her roots all but extinguished, and deflated of all creativity, she chose to pursue a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling, yet she wasn’t totally satisfied. The music would later strike as a relentless python, and so the new record, doused with Biblical imagery, a foundation on which she could then understand her world, crackles with heartsick, fervent colors. “I need to find out what my spirit is wanting / These echoing rooms are just empty tombs / In a house that I’m haunting,” she whimpers on “Haunting,” gliding through vestiges of Patsy Cline’s most well-known works (“Crazy,” “She’s Got You”). Pratt’s now-faded tears work as watercolors splashed across time and space, and her syrup-thick voice is one of great baptismal yearning. [Full review here] – Jason Scott

Ariana Grande, thank u, next (Buy)

Genre: Pop

Label: Republic

You’d have to be living in total isolation to not know this one. Odds are, even if she’s not your cup of tea, you’ve probably found yourself tapping your foot to one of the 12 tracks off of thank u, next. After all, it is one of the biggest-selling albums of the year. Easily Ariana’s best and most-advanced body of work to date. The three chart-topping singles aside, TUN is packed with enough hooks to catch a shark. “bad idea” is a fast-paced club banger, while “fake smile” and “bloodline” prove that Grande’s foray into island music should be further explored. The album’s softer moments, like the hazy “needy” and the deeply personal “ghostin” are her most mature efforts to-date, showing that the pint-sized pop star has much more below the surface than may appear. Grande is not only talented, but she is intelligent and thoughtful, two characteristics that shine bright on this album. She is at the height of her game, and with rumors of even more new music to be released in the coming months, it doesn’t seem like she intends to slow down any time soon. – Joe Kadish

Charles Wesley Godwin, Seneca (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Independent

The suffering of West Virginia can be suffocating. And you can only justly understand what that means unless you’ve lived and toiled the earth amidst sweeping Appalachian ridges and endless farmland. There’s as much anguish woven into the woodlands as there is a resilience cast over its many peoples. Native of Morgantown, Charles Wesley Godwin spins his reedy warble across his debut album, Seneca, on which he seeks to depict the God’s honest truth of what life is actually like amongst the hills. “Coal Country” peels back the emotional layers of an industrialized section of middle America that has since soured, yet it’s a performance that underscores the sheer level of humanity found beneath. He later twirls across the “Hardwood Floors” with his wife on a honeyed little ditty, and on “Strawberry Queen,” he reminisces on falling in love with someone he could not have anticipated. Godwin’s craft is exemplary, from the rollicking traveling song “Shrinks and Pills” to the gut-punch of “Half a Heart,” and a debut album in most others’ hands could have been a mixed-bag, diluted with ambition and lack of vision. But Seneca never once falters, and where Godwin could possibly go next is pretty damn thrilling. – Jason Scott

Petrie, Superstore (Buy)

Genre: Pop

Label: Independent

Petrie are troublemakers. Out of London, the duo set their musical phasers to stun on their first album. Superstore slides between caramel beats that hook right into your heart, pulling you into a blue-silver haze of 20-something angst and heartbreak. Their sticky sweetness gives you a high that you’ll never forget. “Regulate,” “Self-Destruct,” “Too Damn Busy” and “Texting You” are fizzy soda pop treats, which gives such subdued tracks like “Lion” and “The Weather” even more opportunity to knock you to your knees. Petrie’s Superstore bursts at the seams with wholesale hip-hop on a lo-fi discount, but that’s not a dig at their craft. That’s the charm by which the stunningly excel. They let you think they abide by mainstream convention, when in truth, they inject every song with unexpectedly grit and twists to keep you forever at their mercy. – Jason Scott

Maggie Rogers, Heard It In A Past Life (Buy)

Genre: Pop/Folk-pop

Label: Debay/Capitol

Maggie Rogers has spent the last three years transforming herself from the girl who went viral for making Pharrell cry into a fully realized artist who is defined by her work, and with the release of her debut album, Heard It In A Past Life, it’s safe to say that the transformation is complete. Heard It In A Past Life is an invitation through that journey, from the valleys of dealing with newfound fame to the peaks of finding inner peace. The Brooklyn-based songwriter lyrically paints a luminous and colorful experience into each of the record’s tracks, as best heard on the songs “fallingwater” and “Back in My Body,” keeping the record vivid and full of life with each listen. Rogers’ debut album also serves as a testament to her innate songwriting and vocal prowess, as well as her unique ability to juxtapose her folk sensibilities into a pop music structure, all of which come together to carve Maggie into a league all her own. As the decade comes to a close, it’s comforting to know that pop will remain in talented hands. – Galvin Baez

Mindy Gledhill, Rabbit Hole (Buy)

Genre: Folk/Pop

Label: Blue Morph Music

Pop bedazzler Mindy Gledhill, who grew up in the church and later learned of such deceptive ways, lets her tears flow as glittering paint on porcelain cheeks. Her latest record, the wondrous and poetically-sorrowful Rabbit Hole, sketches onto tracing paper the fragility of her youth, an innocence lost to time’s growling stomach, and deftly straddles worlds, belief systems and concepts as a woman in the world. “Little one you’re on the run / Like flickering shadow in the sinking sun,” she sings, a hushed, yet urgent, reckoning to her younger self on the titular cut. She slinks into the piano’s soft gallop that soon swirls as Alice tumbling light as a feather down the metaphorical rabbit hole. Such fanciful mischief soon disentangles Gledhill’s near-lifeless limbs, and a majestic scene of lush cotton candy-capped mountaintops and babbling brooks of soda pop sweeps out from her feet. She lands with a plop in a crystal sea, and that past under which she was once buried alive is only a ghost of the past. [Full review] – Jason Scott

Alice Wallace, Into the Blue (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Rebelle Road Records

The full runtime of Wallace’s new album, Into the Blue, her debut on Rebelle Road Records, is as western-flecked lore etched into redwood fence posts scattered like skeletons across the perimeter of a cattle ranch. She gallops down dusty trails of pain, loss, sexism, self-reliance, womanhood and the renewal of mind, body and spirit, leaving behind crinkled footprints in the sand. “Sail away into the blue / It’s out there waiting / It could be waiting for you / You’re only scared of the things that you can’t see / The most beautiful things you only see in your dreams,” she sings with the romantic pin-up of the title song, which was born out of her primal craving to play music for a living. In quitting her day job, a decision that proved to be the right one, Wallace picked herself up off the ground by her bootstraps and has since exercised her swarthiness in song-craft, twisting her pen to exhume the most fascinating remains of human existence. [Full Review] – Jason Scott

Khalid, Free Spirit (Buy)

Genre: R&B/Soul

Label: RCA / Sony

Khalid became an instant critic darling with the release of his highly acclaimed debut American Teen. The 21-year-old Georgia native immediately connected with Gen Z with his soul-bearing take on teenage angst and restlessness and quickly garnered a following that spanned all age groups. Naturally, there were large expectations for the follow-up to such a near-perfect body of work. Unfortunately for Khalid, Free Spirit would not be as well received by pundits, many of whom cited his lack of focus and uncontentious lyrical approach as a hindrance to the project. That’s not the way I see it. Sure, playing it safe often leads to music that is uninspired and synthetic, but more often than not, Free Spirit feels fresh and authentic. Tracks like “Paradise” and “Self” find Khalid deep in his feelings and even deeper in the marijuana-hazed ambience that suits his voice so well. More luminous cuts like “Twenty One,” “Hundred” and the Disclosure-produced hit “Talk” are the musical equivalent to Xanax, bright and capable of lifting you out of the darkest mood. There are times when the unassuming vibe of the album can cause its content to blur, fusing one track into the next – but who cares? Sit back, relax and enjoy the blend. – Joe Kadish

Andy Hughes & the Mighty Few, Songs for Sunday (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Independent

Right out of middle America, hailing from a town called La Crosse, Wisconsin, long-bearded Americana torchbearer Andy Hughes grabs the listener by the throat right from the outset. “Little miss America, time to play hardball / One nation up on a tin roof / Liberty and Justice for all? That’s the question,” he stokes the fire with his sharp discourse, permitting the flames to lick at his own heels as he dashes across the barren stretches of concrete and mud. Such thematic fabric stretches and folds and creases outward from there across the entirety of his new album, Songs for Sunday, produced by Joe Gantzer. “Scheme of the Song” punctures the pressure for a mid-summer honeysuckle called “Scheme of the Song,” hinged together with Siri Undlin’s tangy-sweet harmony work (a welcome presence throughout much of the album). “So sad that he called ’em pretty / Wanders the world with his words / Taking everyday normal nobodies / Making monuments out of their hurt,” sings Hughes, who nuzzleseach syllable before letting it flutter up to the sky. [Full review] – Jason Scott

Bob Sumner, Wasted Love Songs (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Independent

One-half of the Sumner Brothers, who’ve released six albums, Bob Sumner steps into the soft glow on his own with a brisk, nine-song disc that is heavy on the romantic weepers. There’s a tragic poeticism in the way he puffs his smokey, yet crystal, voice on timeless melodies. “All Your Dead Things” is sublimely-barbed, where “Worn Down Boy” sputters with hushed misery and “Ticket to Ride” flames out like a campfire at dawn, imprints of once-billowing smoke coughing a last rites. Sumner’s storytelling is somber and sobering, as he wanders through the annals of many of life’s most soul-crushing transitions. The production is nearly always warm and inviting, but once it washes over your skin, you feel the violent emotions shock down to your bones. “New York City” flutters and flings his heart out of his chest and onto the floor, perhaps his best career performance. Sumner’s voice is as a garden shovel cracking and slicing at the earth, and all you can really do is let yourself feel whatever it is that you may feel. It’s that kind of record. – Jason Scott

Beyoncé, Homecoming: The Live Album (Buy)

Genre: R&B/Hip-Hop

Label: Parkwood/Columbia

If you’re anything like me, you were refreshing Netflix all night until you saw “Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé” appear on your screen. You couldn’t wait to relive the experience that was Beychella in High Definition, and the suspense of what the behind-the-scenes footage was going to reveal had you on the edge of your couch. Throughout the Homecoming experience, we learn about the grueling schedule Beyoncé endured to deliver a show she would only go on to perform twice, as well as the attention to detail that went into every single aspect of the show. Totaling 40 tracks, Homecoming is a stunningly well-crafted set consisting of hit singles and album cuts from one of the most influential discographies of all-time – brought to life by an incredibly soulful and well-rehearsed army of young musicians and performers. It is not only a celebration of Beyoncé’s illustrious career and accomplishments, it is not only a celebration of otherworldly hard work and perseverance, above everything, it is a celebration of what a cultural emblem Beyoncé, a black woman in America, has become. – Galvin Baez

SONTALK, Stay Wild (Buy)

Genre: Indie/Rock

Label: Sony

Joseph LeMay has endured every kind of savagery life can bring. From struggles with mental health and bipolar disorder to various other shards of brokenness, SONTALK (as he goes by onstage) collects them all together for a remarkable mosaic of both overwhelming darkness and new-found light. He underscores and then punctures the pain; 11 songs are nearly always visceral in nature, cutting into the skin and then letting the insides ooze onto the ground. “Baby, I’m Gone” and “I am a Mountain” are smoldering embers that melt what’s left of his flesh from the bone, and his voice wails into the night for relief that just might never come. But his work here is astounding, and he’s then able to process his ongoing battles, every defeat and chest-pounding triumph, and soldier onward into whatever comes next. – Jason Scott

David Quinn, Wanderin’ Fool (Buy)

Genre: Country

Label: Independent

Life is never quite like you imagine it. There will be hurt and uncertainty and other terrible pain, and sooner or later, you come to accept it all as best you can. Honky-tonk music man David Quinn does as much with his first proper full-length. Across the expanse of Wanderin’ Fool, often feeling ripped right out of the countrypolitan era, he two-steps through many of the most vital stages of his life, from pain to love and back again. “Three Quarter Time” and “In My Dreams,” both featuring the incomparable gifts of Muddy Magnolias’ Alexis Saski, glides as all the best waltzes do, perfectly lush yet weighted with anguish, and “Grassy Trailers” barrels down the train tracks, full-steam ahead. Quinn’s trademarks of harvesting many of classic country’s sonic touch points is framed between his penetrating tenor, swirling between flecks of electric guitar, saloon piano and stormy string work. When he’s not busy picking his broken heart off the barroom floor, he’s wiping tears from his cheeks and downing another shot of bourbon. Either way, he wears his heart on his sleeve in a way that’s truly astonishing. – Jason Scott

LÉON, LÉON (Buy)

Genre: Pop

Label: LEON Recordings

The fact that most people are still sleeping on LÉON, one of the most soulful vocalists in today’s pop landscape, is infuriating. After a slow stream of EP releases, the Swedish songbird finally unleashed her highly underrated self-titled debut album on the world. It’s a collection of immaculate and passionate odes to love and heartbreak and everything in between. While it is ballad-heavy – don’t run! – there are plenty of buoyant bits to keep everyone happy. “Falling,” “Baby Don’t Talk” and “You and I” are lustrous anthems with sweeping choruses and peppy, kitschy production. The more heart-felt moments occur on tracks like “Come Home to Me” and “What You Said,” where she bares all on paper and effortlessly translates her emotions into song. “Lost Time,” one of the best tracks on the album, has a massive chorus that will have you belting the words as loud as you can muster. Perhaps it’s because she chose to release her music on her own label that she has stayed so under the radar, but LÉON deserves much more recognition. – Joe Kadish

Emily Scott Robinson, Traveling Mercies (Buy)

Genre: Americana

Label: Tone Tree Music

Misery winds its way through the countryside as sharply as the gravel roads, whose pathways crumble and crunch beneath the weight of life and those that endured it. Emily Scott Robinson drags her feet along with her hand-sown, home-grown debut long-player. Traveling Mercies notches various pillars of tragedy and its outward ripples, from the sobering “The Dress” (about her sexual assault), the equally-buckling “Borrowed Rooms and Old Wood Floors” and “Shoshone Rose,” a particularly timely piece about an immigrant woman just striving for a break in life. Robinson’s perspective is always gutting, as she stitches stories of strangers she’s encountered in her life while tending to each narrative with potent gentleness, and her voice packs a similar punch. “Ghost in Every Town” weeps for the tormented souls trapped in small towns, and “Overalls” unfolds the end of one hard working man’s life, a moment that turns celebratory rather than mournful. Start to finish, Robinson is Americana’s most astute newcomer. – Jason Scott

Carly Rae Jepsen, Dedicated (Buy)

Genre: Pop

Label: School Boy/Interscope

Since 2016’s Emotion: Side B, Carly Rae Jepsen fans have been on high alert for new music from their pop queen, but thankfully Carly came prepared to feed her subjects with her fourth studio album. Dedicated is filled to the brim with the sugary, flamboyant bops that Jepsen’s fans have come to know and love since 2012’s Kiss. Much like the record’s predecessors, the magic of the record lies in the nostalgic, upbeat production perfectly paired with Jepsen’s savvy, saccharine melodies. What separates Dedicated from the rest of the pack is its maturity, considering both Carly and her audience have
grown up. It’s only logical for her sound and content to reflect that. Look no further than Track No. 4, “Want You In My Room” where Carly turns up the heat and suggestively sings, “I wanna do bad things to you / Slide on through my window,” or on the single “Too Much,” where she coos, “Be careful if you’re wanting this touch / ‘Cause if I love you then I love you too much.” The joy of being a Carly Rae Jepsen fan is that she doesn’t change up her formula, she simply improves it, and Dedicated serves as proof. – Galvin Baez

Billie Eilish, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (Buy)

Genre: Pop

Label: Darkroom/Interscope

From the slurpy cackle of “!!!!!!!” to the disturbingly Tell-Tale Heart-bend of “bury a friend,” pop’s new savior Billie Eilish takes the kind of risks that true legends are made of. Okay, such hyperbole is warranted here, as the 17-year-old has irrefutably reinvigorated the mainstream. Her debut long-player, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, is an astonishing, chest-pummeling statement piece that is so drenched in the macabre that it’s chilling. “bad guy” clicks and crunches with maniacal seduction, while “all the good girls go to hell” is a cathedral bloodbath, sloshing in fiendish distortion and grumbling croaks. “you should see me in a crown” and “my strange addiction” smother on the hooky, dirty earworms, and in her wake, Eilish triggers something deeply gutting every step of the way. She’s a dynamite mastermind, also slashing her way through vulnerability (“ilomilo,” “listen before i go,” “i love you”) and leaving your throbbing heart on the floor. We’ll be talking about her for decades. – Jason Scott

Jade Bird, Self-Titled (Buy)

Genre: Blues/Rock

Label: Glassnote Music

Something magical happens when Jade Bird shreds her way through her debut album. The eponymous release is awash in sunny folk-rock hues, as she slings gravel from her stomach and unleashes unexpectedly left-hook jabs one after another. It’s a curio cabinet of craft: sometimes her hooks glisten gently in the light (“Ruins,” “Lottery,” “Uh Huh”), other times her emotions stew just long enough to drive the dagger deeper in her quaking chest (“17,” “My Motto,” “If I Die”). Her voice is her most treasured instrument, possessing the ability to tap into rage, regret, envy in the same lyric before letting the floodgates of sorrow to overtake her completely. Despite it all, or perhaps because of her musical dexterity, she has risen a bandit of rock and roll music that simply can not be caged. In fact, her work is so staggering, the listener becomes bound and entranced by it. Bird is as bluesy as she is indebted to pop, a permission slip to harvest such vast genres with thoughtful, engaged ease. Her calculations pay off heartily, and now, the world is at her feet. – Jason Scott

Nina Nesbitt, The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change (Buy)

Genre: Pop

Label: Cooking Vinyl Limited

The world has largely been comatose on Nina Nesbitt. It’s been five long years since her first record, a more folksy-centered pop collection, and with The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change, she’s the writer of her very own novel. 13 songs are drenched in pinks and reds, delicately mirroring the ups and downs of being in your early 20s and the burning emotions that come with such a transitory time. “The Moments I’m Missing” is a dazzling piano ballad, adhering to her atypical melodic structures, and “Love Letter” slithers along slinky guitar barks, her voice unearthing a TLC-twinkling footprint. “Loyal to Me” and “Somebody Special” alight upon a similar musical varnish, and each stepping stone is beautifully packaged with a colossal lineup of superstar performances (see also: “Is It Really Me You’re Missing” and “Last December”). Nesbitt, whose voice operates on a thunderously-visceral level, taps into every layer of devastation and urgency and depth of uncovering the person, and artist, she was destined to become. She is a phoenix ripping right through pop music. We should listen. – Jason Scott

Steel Blossoms, Self-Titled (Buy)

Genre: Country

Label: Billy Jams Records

The work of Steel Blossoms, as found on their self-titled debut LP, is relentlessly carved with fiddle and guitar and appropriately laced with correct doses of humor that cut to the core of humanity. “You’re the Reason I Drink” confides to an ex of a new-found entanglement with booze to heal a broken heart, while the second number “Revenge” (depicting domestic abuse) is a haunting gothic ballad that will assuredly send chills down your spine. “Trailer Neighbor” and “You Ain’t Sleeping Over” further leans into their wry smiles with staggering precision; their playfulness is both sharp and breezy, enticing the listener to truly engage with every single syllable. “Killed a Man” is a jovial murder toe-tapper that’ll make you question our fascination with the macabre; of course, the slick melody is a devilish agent here, one of their many secret weapons. “Heroine” is another apex of their craft, a jewel among treasure in their monumental, shimmering crown. Steel Blossoms is, quite simply, a timeless record of truth, the human condition and what it means to really live. – Jason Scott