The best of beats

St. Vincent Masseduction

The hefty programmed beats, emphatic electronic hooks and gargantuan choruses of current pop are the framework that Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, chose for songs about pleasure, fame, lust and drugs – and their extreme consequences. The songs ended up cryptic and emphatic, tragicomic and bold: taking things to the limit in taut three-minute packages.

Residente Residente

Residente, the rapper from Calle 13, tested his DNA and followed the results worldwide to collaborate with musicians in, among other places, China, Burkina Faso, Bosnia and France, as well as his native Puerto Rico, letting each locale suggest lyrics. Then he built hardheaded songs about war, impending apocalypse and the resilience of the worlds poorest people.

Moses Sumney Aromanticism

A manifesto disguised as a reverie, Aromanticism
offers cascades of the artistes falsetto in rhapsodic songs, seemingly free-associative but meticulously plotted. The tracks undulate slowly and diaphanously, while instruments and ensembles materialise out of nowhere and vanish. The sound is intimate and volatile, while the songs set aside pops expectations of romantic coupledom to explore other kinds of connection and separation.

Julien Baker Turn Out the Lights

Julien Bakers first album testified to …read more