The best pop and R&B albums of 2018
Image: Photo: Meg Remy, a.k.a. U.S. Girls Photo: Janelle MonáePhoto: SOPHIEGraphic: Libby McGuire Music Features Best Of 2018
Sir, November
There’s a lot of nice, tasteful R&B out there—listen to Sir’s first album or pair of 2017 EPs for great examples. So what elevates November from the morass? A lot, really: It’s weirder, earthier, with sharper hooks, the sort of album that casts Schoolboy Q as a bluesy barroom confidante and turns Auto-Tune into an agent of leering, catcalling menace. Also, it’s a concept album about a sentient spaceship. November never stops surprising or delighting, at once focused and freaky. [Clayton Purdom]
SOPHIE, Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
Sophie’s earliest singles, from 2013, were little pop blasts from a shattered mirror dimension, everything hyper-real and polished to eerie, spotless perfection, with Sophie’s voice just one more material to stretch and tweak and pluck. But she begins her long-awaited debut LP with “It’s Okay To Cry,” her voice center stage, unmodified and unvarnished. Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides places the artist’s most clattering, dissonant impulses on a spectrum with more kaleidoscopic, gut-punch balladry, creating a series of “products” that are as concerned with our insides as they are our, well, un-insides. [Clayton Purdom]
Kali Uchis, Isolation
After several increasingly refined short releases and growing support from high-profile collaborators, Kali Uchis’ full-length debut was sure to be good, but Isolation surpassed even its own high expectations by seamlessly fusing Uchis’ retro influences (the smoke-ring bossa nova of “Body Language,” the ’90s hip-hop rhythms throughout) to progressive R&B and Latin pop (“Miami,” “Nuestro Planeta”). True to its title, Isolation sets Kali Uchis in a class of her own. [Kelsey J. Waite]
U.S. Girls, In A Poem Unlimited
The latest studio album from musician Meghan Remy under her U.S. Girls moniker is a bold and engaging pairing of provocative politics with catchy dance-pop grooves, beginning in ’70s soul-funk and ending in a Talking Heads-esque jam, with an assemblage of art-pop way stations in between. Horns, synths, guitars, and presumably a kitchen sink are employed to craft this smart and nearly flawless collection, which may not be a concept album proper but often feels like one in its fierce intelligence and thematic resonance. [Alex McLevy]
Honorable mentions
The 1975, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
No one tries harder than The 1975, here wedging together (deep breath) anthemic arena rock, Auto-Tuned synth-pop, woozy live-band R&B, police brutality, gospel outros, information overload, streaming pornography, a Siri cameo, and a whole lot more. Just go along for the ride. [Clayton Purdom]
Christine And The Queens, Chris
On second LP Chris, Héloïse Letissier introduces a more fluid expression of her studied, funk-driven synth-pop, out-hustling (and especially out-dancing) most of the competition—and doing so in two languages. [Kelsey J. Waite]
Georgia Anne Muldrow, Overload
Overload celebrates a bold and all-encompassing love with a masterful blend of deep funk, jazz, soul, and hip-hop only Georgia Anne Muldrow could conjure. [Kelsey J. Waite]
Rhye, Blood
Five years after the immaculate Woman, Rhye’s Blood sounds like patience, smelting Sade and quiet-storm jazz into a handful of pristine art-object slow-burners. [Clayton Purdom]
Troye Sivan, Bloom
Hot, dark, and compulsively tuneful, Bloom’s the sort of all-killer-no-filler audiophile pop you used to have to be named Jackson to make. [Clayton Purdom]
Listen to selections from these albums and more picks from 2018 on our Spotify playlist.
22 Comments
One of The best R & B albums of 2018 is CAUTION by Mariah Carey, widely acclaimed as her best album in years ….
Yeah, I have to agree. I actually think it’s her best album since Butterfly.“A No No” remix feat. Lil Kim and Cardi B for the next single, pls!
The Blood Orange Slick Rick track tho!!!!
Some good picks, particularly Kali Uchis, Janelle Monae, SOPHIE, and Blood Orange which are also some of my top picks of the year. Elohim’s self titled album is a criminally underappreciated electronic pop gem from this year that makes my list.There’s also Kero Kero Bonito’s Time and Place. Since they moved away from the Jpop, hip-hop, and video game music inspired sound of their last album to a more power pop sound, I’m not sure if it would fit better in this pop album list or on the rock album list, but either way, it’s one that shouldn’t be missed. Finally, this seemed to be the year of the LPs, with Ravyn Lenae, Kilo Kish, and Chromatics releasing phenomenal LPs this last year.
Upvoted for the mention of Ravyn Lenae. More attention to her please, she’s phenomenal and seems to only work with great producers.
https://webprosbd.com/professional-email-example-job-professional-email-template-free-acknowledgement-email-reply-professional-email-example/
I’m sad that Leon Bridges’s Good Thing keeps getting left off these lists. The whole album is great, but “Bad, Bad News” is the only song I heard on the radio this year that literally stopped me in my tracks. (And there was a lot of great music this year)
Thanks for mentioning this – on your recommendation, I gave it a quick listen and actually purchased the album. Nice vibe to the whole thing.
In a Poem Unlimited is in the running for my album of the year (along with Beach House’s 7) and made me disappointed in myself for not listening to U.S. Girls earlier. I still play it in my car regularly. Come to think of it, even though my most anticipated release of the year (Chvrches) ended up being a huge letdown, there was a ton of wonderful synthpop this year to make up for it.
Sabrina Claudio’s “no rain, no flowers” gets my vote.
Matt Maltese – Bad ContestantWhile maintaining an easy 60s/70s vibe musically, Maltese’s self-deprecating humor and clever lyrics (in the vein of The Divine Comedy) thinly mask the fears circulating in the anxiety-ridden minds of a wounded generation. Songs about sex (“Strange Time”), drugs (“Guilty”), clubbing (“Nightclub Love”), and the eternal—possibly endless—search for love (“Greatest Comedian”) are all here, but those well-worn topics are cut through with very real 21st century anxiety about climate change (“Mortals”) and living under unstable leadership with the no-longer-dormant possibility of nuclear annihilation back on the table (“As The World Caves In”).An overdose of cynicism, irony (at one point, he actually sings, “I gotta stop being ironic”), and overconfidence greatly contributed to the messes we find ourselves in, be they geopolitical crises or romantic relationships. The only antidote is truth, sincerity, and a clearer-eyed view of the problems we face as a species.
The album’s centerpiece (and, I think, best song) is “Less And Less,” an unironic, absolutely gutting 4 minutes of heartbreak laid bare for the world to hear (and, in the video, see). A soaring melody and heartbreaking vocal from Maltese bring even greater emotion to the lyrics’ fresh observations that, in those 4 minutes, feel like the first time anyone’s ever felt and described heartbreak.
HATCHIE
I know a few people who are really into them, I need to check them out (he says, lazily putting off typing their name into google)
I love Negro Swan but kind of wish I could deactivate the narration after hearing it twenty times…I’d prefer it were Dev narrating. I just think of it as the Green Frog Dream from M83…like yes this was important to the album but could it self-destruct now.I’d have included Neko Case, Beach House, Django Django, MGMT. I wish I liked the new Spiritualized, Cat Power, and Fucked Up more but maybe time will improve. Also, should Anderson .Paak be here?
I’m surprised that Kimbra isn’t getting any year-end list love. Primal Heart was a nice return to form after her sophomore slump. I’d also put in a mention of Tilian’s solo record, which was a really surprising bit of pop rock from a post-hardcore performer.
I forgot about Kimbra! “Top of the World” was one of the best singles of the year!
It’s a great single indeed. But for my money, the record’s best track is “Like They Do on the TV.”
Man, Christine and the Queens song “Doesn’t Matter” may be one of my favorite pop songs of the year. Just a groovy, deeply beautiful and sad torch song.
Yeah! Thanks for sharing the list and video!
It’s nice when pop music reviews just tell us about the music instead of using flowery language and painfully mixed metaphors to try and convince someone somewhere that it’s okay to like pop… Maybe next year? Until then, have fun surveying things through a kaleidoscope
1. WJ Please – WJSN2. The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships3. Honey – Robyn
Public Service Announcement: If you ever get the chance to see Christine & the Queens live, do it. Heloise puts on a phenomenal show.