Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3 [2016]

Hip-Hop is funny isn't it? Honestly, who would've thought that one of the best recent hip-hop groups would be formed from El-P, of abstract hip-hop Def Jux fame and Killer Mike, who earned his stripes working in an Atlanta hip-hop scene that couldn't sound any more different than that? Even more surprising is that the fruits of this combination have given both rappers, who could have definitely been described as veterans before Run The Jewels was even an idea, an unprecedented level of attention. In a way, RTJ operates as a modern day M.O.P. - although they sound radically different and (unlike M.O.P.) get blatantly political, there are two things that you are guaranteed on every RTJ album that you would be guaranteed in M.O.P's hey-day (Firing Squad, First Family For Life, Warriorz): aggressive lyrics filled with braggadocio accompanied by extremely banging beats.

Solange - A Seat At The Table [2016]

In recent years D'Angelo's Black Messiah and Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, albums that undeniably pull from the rich past of black music, genres like funk, soul and jazz, but at the same time feel fresh and contain socio-political commentary ("The Charade", "Alright"), have been released to wide mainstream and critical success. Each album performed extremely well on the charts, with D'Angelo and Kendrick Lamar reaching number five and number one on the billboard charts respectively. If these albums are continuing any relatively recent musical lineage, it is that of the Soulquarians, an eclectic collective of instrumentalists, singers and rappers of which D'Angelo himself was apart of. The Soulquarians, which consisted of Erykah Badu, Bilal, Common, D'Angelo, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Pino Palladino, James Poyser, Roy Hargrove, Q-Tip, Questlove, J Dilla and Raphael Saadiq, created a number of beautiful albums during the late 90s and early 2000s, that were full of soul (be it the expression or the actual genre), jazzy, funky and at times contained socio-political - pro-black - commentary (e.g: Common - Like Water For Chocolate). 2014 gave us Black Messiah, 2015 To Pimp A Butterfly and 2016's gift is Solange's A Seat at the Table, the latest, Soulquarian-descendent to take the charts by storm.  

Noname - Telefone [2016]

In a by-gone era, when visiting the ridiculously big (and now non-existent) Virgin record store in Manhattan was one of the highlights of my life as a young music enthusiast, the first thing that would have drawn me to Telefone would have been the cover. Like many great album covers, the art that accompanies the mixtape makes a statement without words, a statement that, more or less, lets the observer know what the content of this project will be. It's a simple, but powerful image: a young black girl, with flowers in her hand and a skull on her head. She is young, innocent, but weighed down by death - mourning. Telefone is a mixtape that deals with innocence, youth and growth. However, the most interesting - and at times heartbreaking - aspect about Noname's debut is how she juxtaposes the innocence, sonically and lyrically, with the harsh reality, which comes in the form of racism, police brutality and loss.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool [2016]

Radiohead knocked it out of the park when choosing the two singles, "Burn The Witch" and "Daydreaming". Outside of the context of this album, they are both quite stellar, and in the case of "Daydreaming", hypnotically beautiful. Aside from that, a listen to this record reveals that these two songs were probably the two most effective, in terms of being a near-perfect teaser trailer for this album. The songs that introduced the public to A Moon Shaped Pool didn't give away too little or too much - they revealed just enough.

Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid [2016]

Aesop Rock has been at it for a very long time now. The New York native, who is known for his lyricism, which includes crazy rhyme schemes, abstract wordplay and an impressively large vocabulary, released his first record, Music For Earthworms, in 1997. Since 1997, as is natural with the passing of time, Aesop Rock's music has gone through many changes. Over the years he eventually traded the beautifully gloomy beats by Blockhead that were part of what made Labor Days such an intriguing, and generally extremely well received album (to this day the consensus seems to be that it is his "classic") for a relatively faster and harder hitting, albeit still at times quite dark, production style. The key in this change being, that with Skelethon (2012), Aesop, for the first time in his career, handled all of the production himself. Skelethon, one of the best records of its year, confirmed many fans suspicions (he had already produced a good number of beats on his earlier records) that Aes' skills behind the boards are not that far behind his on the microphone.

Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered [2016]

In the interviews surrounding To Pimp A Butterfly, Terrance Martin revealed that there was an extremely high number of unfinished tracks that were scrapped from the album. In addition to this, during various live performances Kendrick Lamar performed "untitled" songs that were not present on his recent masterpiece, and were, until the release of this "album" believed to be tracks that the general public would never hear outside of those live settings. Those that have followed his TV performances will immediately recognize "untitled 3" and "untitled 8". "untitled 3" remaining a captivating song that explores racial stereotypes, although the recorded session lacks the fire of his Colbert Report performance, and "untitled 8" being a great song with extremely funky and soulful instrumentation, with Kendrick's verses being accompanied by background vocals which sing throughout the entire track.

Oddisee - Alwasta [2016]

It's always nice to see people like Oddisee, a great rapper, producer and a fantastic live performer, drop a free EP out of nowhere. Oddisee has been releasing nothing but quality for a while, with his most recent projects, Tangible Dream and The Good Fight, being very enjoyable. Those records featured a noticeable improvement from him in the rapping department, with Odd growing even more in synch with his production while being more adventurous with his flow and rhyming with well written and thoughtful lyrics. On this EP, we find Oddisse continuing this trend, delivering intelligent, well crafted rhymes over lush production that features tastefully used live instrumentation provided by his backing band, which is comprised of Ralph Real (keyboards and vocals), Dennis Turner (bass), Jon Laine (drums) and Oliver Saint Louis (guitar).

Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D+Evolution [2016]

Published on Pretty Much Amazing

This is an album of firsts for Esperanza Spalding. Emily’s D+Evolution is her first album of almost all original compositions (the only cover here is “I Want It Now”, from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and her first album on which she has embraced a heavier, often guitar based sound. As a result, despite her past forays into classically influenced territory (Chamber Music Society) and mixes of jazz and soul elements with a pop sensibility (Radio Music Society), this is arguably her first album that runs a serious risk of alienating some of her fan base. I could be wrong (what do I know really?), but with the singles of her last (and highest selling) album being the pop-soul of “Black Gold” and a cover of a Michael Jackson classic (“I Can't Help It”) it is pretty easy to see how someone who hasn't paid that much attention to her artistic evolution since 2012 (the singles from D+Evolution are not chart topping hits, after all) could find this album, opening with some dark keys that lead into some heavy guitar playing that has more in common with a Cream record than her past efforts, more than a bit surprising.

Cécile McLorin Salvant - For One To Love [2015]

Cécile McLorin Salvant, who is accompanied by the extremely talented trio of Aaron Diehl (piano), Paul Skivie (bass) and Lawrence Leathers (drums) is one of the most exciting vocalists in jazz today. Her past two albums were quality, a particular highlight being an original tune named "WomanChild". "WomanChild" is a wonderfully written tune that may have had more than a decent chance of being a jazz standard if it was released back when jazz was a big part of mainstream music culture. Salvant is one of the key young jazz performers right now, equipped with an extremely expressive voice that has a great range. This range is one of the key aspects of her singing style, which occasionally features her using starkly distinct tones to convey various (and at times, conflicting) emotions in the same track. Salvant's voice is equally as captivating when it is singing playfully ("Stepsister's Lament") as when it is bellowing powerfully ("Growlin' Dan") and For One to Love may be her best release yet.

Moka Only - Magickal Weirdness [2015]

Moka Only is a quality emcee with great wordplay and nice multi-syllable rhymes, but above all, his flow on Magickal Weirdness is extremely on point. A user on Okayplayer forums compared the rapper to Common circa Resurrection - and one can really hear that in the flow. Moka's music mostly gives off the playful and jazzy vibe that was present in the much of that Common classic.

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly [2015]

The Dissection of A Butterfly

It's February 22, 2016. It has been almost a year since To Pimp A Butterfly, noticeably a week before its actual release date, awkwardly found its way on to iTunes. Considering all the critical acclaim that this album has received, it is a bit easy to forget - and as a result a bit funny to remember, that its early release was publicly described as an Interscope "fuck up", by an irritated Anthony Tiffith (CEO, Top Dawg Entertainment), on the same day where it would eventually break Spotify streaming records. Since that day, an endless amount of think pieces, positive and negative reviews via online mags and forum posts (don't let metacritic fool you - this album is quite divisive among hip hop fans) and some poorly written backlash ("hip hop and jazz, what? this is a thing that happens?" - Complex) have been penned about this album. Many of these pieces were written extremely fast, some even just days after the album was released - such is the climate of modern day music journalism and blogging.

David Bowie - Blackstar [2016]

For those who processed the record directly before or after his death, it will be impossible to separate Bowie’s death from the analysis of Blackstar. One could argue that it’s nearly impossible to find a similar situation in music history. That situation would have to have the following five key factors:

(1) The artist is aware that he will probably die soon and decides to record an album 

(2) The album produced contains songs that musically have a dark and foreboding atmosphere 

(3) There are blatant references to death and mortality, lyrically and visually throughout the project (the "Lazarus" video speaks for itself)

(4) The public did not know that the artist had the illness which caused his death.

It is sadly appropriate that Bowie, a one of a kind artist, would exit this earth artistically in such unique circumstances. To dedicate your life to art is one thing, but to use the possibility of your death as something that fuels your art is something else entirely.

David Bowie - Low [1977]

Low is arguably Bowie’s greatest and most daring achievement. The Thin White Duke had just dropped Station to Station in 76’, which is, in comparison to this record, an amazing, but relatively straightforward, rock masterpiece. Take out the epic krautrock title track are what exactly is the listener left with on Station to Station? The remaining album is something that comes off as very American, despite the fact that Bowie himself is English. To be fair, this isn’t exactly the biggest surprise as it was recorded in Los Angeles, with a band that was majority American. Of the five songs not named “Station to Station”, two of them in particular are clearly groovy and more importantly, a bit soulful. “Stay” and “Golden Years” sport rhythms that make the fact that Bowie, an English rock star, was the first white man on Soul Train (despite his awkward Soul Train performance) significantly less surprising. Overall, the title track aside, Station to Station was a very warm, and arguably, American record, which is what makes the entire aesthetic of Low all the more surprising and intriguing, even when analyzing it decades after the fact.