Flying Lotus, Flamagra
One might think ofFlamagraas EllisonsApocalypse Now, orThe Wall it shows an artist at the height of their power, able to realize their most over-the-top imaginings, delivering a sprawling near-masterpiece teetering at the brink of overkill. The cast is full on: jazz fusion icon Herbie Hancock and P-Funk mastermind George Clinton represent for the old school; Solange, Tierra Whack, Anderson Paak, and Shabazz Palaces Ishmael Butler provide varying shades of the new. Will Hermes
Cate Le Bon, Reward
Cate Le Bons fifth studio album, Reward, is ten sonically diverse tracks that are delicately layered in texture, accompanied by her swelling vocals that deliver short, surreal lyrics. The hazy piano on Sad Nudes is reminiscent of Love Is Not Love, a highlight from her great 2016 LPCrab Day.But its hard to go back and listen to earlier albums afterRewardthe enhanced instrumentation and dreamy songwriting make this the singers strongest album yet. Angie Martoccio
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Faye Webster, Atlanta Millionaires Club
The 21-year-olds Atlanta roots allow her to effortlessly coalesce R&B with indie-folk. Whether shes aching against twangy guitar in tropical disarray (Hurts Me Too) or pining for the past over mellow R&B rhythms (Johnny), Webster breaks musical barriers in such a way that musicians rarely do these days. She delves into her emotions and wears them on her jersey, and though at times this vulnerability and malaise feels tiresome, its her self-exploration that makes it worthwhile. Angie Martoccio
Tyler the Creator, IGOR
IGORis an album for the summer months. Its a rich and messy mlange of R&B, funk and rap that carries a luminous sheen and a bittersweet undercurrent; lyrically, Tyler traces the emotional journey of being the odd man out in a love triangle. Your other one evaporate, we celebrate/You under oath, now pick a side, he raps on New Magic Wand. OnIGOR, Tyler seldom acts as the character he plays in theWhats Good music video, in which he vigorously shadowboxes while wearing a blonde bowl cut wig and a two-tone pink suit. Much more often hes wounded and vulnerable, weighed down by real emotional labor. Danny Schwartz
The National, I Am Easy to Find
OnI Am Easy to Find, the indie standard-bearers have reconfigured themselves with multiple womens voices at the LPs core, one portion of the roughly 77 musicians that temporarily explode the bands quintet, and they pull it off without diluting their National-ness. The lyrical and formal suggestion, explored throughout the record, seems to be that it takes two to tango, and despite the canyon that separates our gendered perceptions, we share vast tracts of emotional territory, and are capable of deep empathy. Whether we act on it is another story. Will Hermes
Big Thief, UFOF
Big Thiefs third album creeps up on you. Unlike their previous LPs 2016sMasterpieceand 2017sCapacity on which sweet-n-sad folk-rock wrapped you in a warm embrace,UFOF sends a shiver down your spine in its simplicity. The album is 43 minutes of gentle, crackling coos from singer-songwriter-guitarist Adrianne Lenker about what lurks in the unknown (the final F in UFOF stands for friend). The impact is so quiet you might miss it, but its revelatory enough that you cant escape it. Daniela Tijerina
Jamila Woods, Legacy! Legacy!
Chicago r&b poet Jamila Woods generated her first major who is she?! moment beside Chance the Rapper in the Sunday Candy video (by Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment). Her LP debut HEAVN answered that question a year later with a personal set of gospel-tinged rap-soul hybrids. Her new Legacy! Legacy!views the personal through a lens of cultural history. Songs are named for giants: MILES, ZORA, EARTHA, BALDWIN, BASQUIAT, and if the connections arent always obvious, theyre always inspired. Will Hermes
Rhiannon Giddens, There is No Other
With its mix of originals, covers and traditional songs, Giddens latest encompasses the disparate strands of her heritage like nothing before, blending the canon-recasting interpretations of her 2015 solo debutTomorrow Is My Turnwith the historically-minded storytelling of her 2017 opusFreedom Highwayand this yearsSongs of Our Native Daughters, a black feminist roots reclamation recorded with Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell and Amythyst Kiah. Jonathan Bernstein
Charly Bliss, Young Enough
The second Charly Bliss LP has plenty of bright, bracing power-pop: Hard to Believe and Bleach are New Pornographers-worthy in their quick and easy sleekness, while the That Dog-y Camera riffs cleverly on identity theft. It also sees the band leaning a little heavier on New Wave synthiness that was present but inchoate onGuppy. That somewhat moodier texture fits the albums difficult subject matter. Im at capacity/Im spilling out of me/Desecrated and complacent, Hendricks sings over the mechanical beat and keyboard blips of Capacity. On Chatroom, she processes the aftermath of a sexual assault, turning pain into rage. Jon Dolan
Human Switchboard, Whos Landing in My Hangar?
Formed in Kent, Ohio during the late Seventies, Human Switchboard only released one full-length LP, 1981sWhos Landing In My Hangar, but it remains an absolute classic. The bands was of its time; singer-guitarist Robert Pfeifer was a Lou Reed superfan and co-leader and organ player Myrna Marcarian had a husky, searching voice like Patti Smith. Yet, where a lot of cool post-punk bands of the time were filling their albums with dada screeds about modern alienation, Human Switchboard sang about basic stuff like love and loss, the thrills and setbacks and weirdness of trying to find someone. Jon Dolan
Mavis Staples, We Get By
In her seventies, gospel-R&B legendMavis Staples has emerged as perhaps the hardest-working singer of her generation, releasing more albums of original material over the past decade (five, and counting) than even her famously prolific contemporary Willie Nelson.On her new album,We Get By,Ben Harper serves as Staples newest collaborator, writing and producing a series of defiant declarations of peace, justice and heartbreak. From the charging electric blues of Change to the modern soul protest of Brothers and Sisters, Staples further refines the type of socially conscious artistry she rediscovered on 2017sIf All I Was Was Black,in the wake of horrors like Charlottesville and Trumps child-separation policy. Jonathan Bernstein
Marc Anthony, Opus
EitherMarc Anthonyhad his Aviators on while making his new album,Opus or he is just blithely uninterested in the awkward contortions the middle-aged make when they attempt to seem hip.Salsa turned Anthony into a million-selling star in the Nineties, and salsa is what he gives you in 2019. He doesnt even attempt another version of 2013s Vivir Mi Vida, which traded tenacity and specificity for the benign, anyone-can-chant-this qualities that make global hits. Anthonys refusal to change with the times onOpus is unfashionable, but intelligent. Elias Leight
Carly Rae Jepsen, Dedicated
Four albums in, the notion of Jepsen coming out with a mature album would be anathema to all that is Carly Rae. And she seems more than happy holding the mantle of cheerful, mid-tempo pop-rock for her generation a great American tradition passed down from the Monkees to Wilson Phillips to Hanson.The downside is that when your fans expect you to bring the hooks, you better bring them. Jepsen doesnt appear constrained by those expectations, maybe because pops two main ingredients melody and melodrama come to her naturally. Sarah Grant