The best albums this year explored heartbreak, obsession, salvation, family, and rage; they came from jazz drummers and hip-hop icons alike.
While most country music coming out of Nashville these days wears a glossy sheen, this record from Lambert, Ingram and Randall was recorded in the desert of Marfa, Texas, where you can hear beer cans crack open and planes fly overhead. But what the album lacks in production value it more than makes up for in breathtaking triple harmonies, tender fingerpicked guitar work and an ineffable sense of communal joy.
Elegant, petulant, abrasive, foreboding: the third album from the English rock band covers a lot of emotional and musical ground, and it does so fluidly and flawlessly. Lead singer Ellie Rowsell sounds tremendous throughout, whether she’s sweetly harmonizing with herself in tributes to California or screaming with the feral energy of Courtney Love.If you’re searching for the sound of the future, look no further than PinkPantheress’s exhilarating debut mixtape for the digital age.