Albums by Ariana Grande, Neneh Cherry and Others Took the Personal
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18 AR THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2018 THE BEST OF 2018 Jon Pareles Albums by Ariana Grande, Neneh Cherry and Best Songs 1. The 1975 others took the personal and gave it a beat. “Love It if We Made It” 2. Sade “The Big Unknown” chord progressions, devious tracks let her vocals tease, swoop, 3. Rosanne Cash 1. JANELLE MONÁE, ‘DIRTY COMPUT- melodies, odd meters and cleverly push back against pressure, blos- ER’ The interaction of human and featuring Sam Phillips interlocking patterns. No matter; som into harmonies and bask in machine has been a major theme “She Remembers Spalding sings her complex in- satisfaction. And then, less than of Janelle Monáe’s entire record- Everything” sights with such breezy charm three months after the album’s ing career. Her latest concept that the songs come across as 4. Jorja Smith release came a postscript, a single album, “Dirty Computer,” deploys “Blue Lights” lighthearted, even lightheaded. announcing that the romance was funky riffs (often with Prince 5. The Internet over: “Thank U, Next.” echoes), snappy beats and crisp 5. NENEH CHERRY, ‘BROKEN POLI- “Look What U Started” pop-song forms to promise that TICS’ Contemplating the cur- 6. Lady Gaga and 8. SOCCER MOMMY, ‘CLEAN’ Sophie love, polymorphous sensuality rent state of the world led Bradley Cooper Allison, the 21-year-old song- and an inclusive American spirit Neneh Cherry and her husband, “Shallow” writer who records as Soccer can conquer all, even an impend- Cameron McVey, to write songs Mommy, got her start with home- 7. Kendrick Lamar ing apocalypse. Meanwhile, that mix meditation and puckish- recorded songs, and her official “Black Panther” Monáe’s full-length accompa- ness, global concerns and person- debut album, “Clean,” still relies nying video — billed as an “emo- al reflections: “It’s my politics 8. Fatoumata Diawara on low-fi fundamentals: spindly tion picture” — is far more dysto- living in a slow jam,” she sings. “Nterini” but sinewy guitar parts and a pian. Four Tet’s production sets her 9. Richard Thompson voice that doesn’t hide its imper- voice amid plinking, pinging loops “The Storm Won’t Come” fections. Her songs grapple with 2. MITSKI, ‘BE THE COWBOY’ On her and subtle beats, a surreally desire, insecurity, betrayal and fifth album, Mitski hasn’t figured 10. Cardi B featuring synthetic backdrop that somehow self-assertion, learning from everything out. Her asymmetrical Bad Bunny and J Balvin feels homey and organic. “I Like It” every bruised emotion. songs are still trying to make sense of lust, love, life as a per- 6. ROSALÍA, ‘EL MAL QUERER’ The 11. Sudan Archives 9. JUPITER & OKWESS, ‘KIN SONIC’ “Nont for Sale” former and countless contradic- Spanish singer and songwriter Jupiter Bokondji Ilola, the son of a tory impulses. But she has grown Rosalía Vila Tobella, now 25, 12. Anderson .Paak Congolese diplomat, grew up in ever bolder musically, moving immersed herself in the deepest “6 Summers” Tanzania and East Germany but well beyond the confines of indie traditions of flamenco before 13. boygenius returned to the strife-torn Demo- rock and chamber pop to try infusing them into thoroughly “Bite the Hand” cratic Republic of Congo. He leads synthesizers, disco beats, country contemporary pop. With her 14. Marie Davidson a band, Okwess (“food” in the and more, while savoring the songs on “El Mal Querer” (which “Work It” Kibunda language), that draws on sweep of her voice. On her larger could translate as “Bad Desire” or rhythms and languages from all 15. Yo La Tengo canvas, her dilemmas just sound “Bad Love”), produced by the around Congo. It’s a statement of “Shades of Blue” more immediate. electronic musician El Guincho unity; it’s also a trove of ideas and others, she explores passion, that happens to be magnificently 3. SERPENTWITHFEET, ‘SOIL’ Inti- jealousy and betrayal while hand- funky, with a different groove in mate confidences grow dizzying claps interweave with minimal every song. and titanic in the songs of Josiah trap beats and the arabesques of Wise, who records as serpent- flamenco singing segue into Auto- Janelle Monáe 10. AUTECHRE, ‘NTS SESSIONS proves again withfeet. As he sings about love at Tuned quavers: age-old senti- 1-4’ The electronic duo Autechre its most devotional and all-con- that she is not delivered a magnum opus — eight ments expressed in the present cookie-cutter. suming, his androgynous voice tense. hours of music — commissioned arrives as a multitude — tenor by the online London station NTS. and falsetto, whisper and procla- 7. ARIANA GRANDE, ‘SWEETENER’ To It’s a fully imagined artificial mation, moan and chant — and it celebrate romantic and carnal universe of improbable timbres appears from all directions. His bliss along with career success and rhythms, of repetitions vocals become dialogues, collo- while trying not to sound too cracked and warped, of long waits quies, choirs, armies and ghostly smug, Ariana Grande enlisted and sudden tangents, of propul- wisps, all part of an endless pop-factory experts — Pharrell sion and suspension, of expecta- search for connection. Williams, Max Martin — to clear tions set up and undermined, of ample space around her voice. menacing implications and funny 4. ESPERANZA SPALDING, ‘12 LITTLE Elaborate yet insistently skeletal noises. Brittle, fractured, pointil- SPELLS’ The songs on “12 Little listic patterns lead, eventually, to Spells” have extensive intellectual weightless, sustained rapture. superstructures. The lyrics are The final track is nearly an hour tied to particular body parts, long: a reverential, euphoric haze. while the music flaunts its jazzy SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES Jon Caramanica Emotional. Wiry. Thrilling. Albums featured rising stars and big names on their games. and reality-TV fame, isn’t much Best Songs 1. SOCCER MOMMY, ‘CLEAN’ From beholden to tradition, or to one the indie-rock singer-songwriter 1. Bad Bunny particular version of herself. So Sophie Allison, who records as “Estamos Bien”; what’s thrilling about this album Soccer Mommy, comes a fero- “Mia,” featuring is its variety — you hear her cious howl of an album that cap- Drake; working through who she might tures the tension just as the fear “I Like It,” with become in real time, a quick study of internal collapse gives way to Cardi B and J Balvin; already leapfrogging to the front newfound strength. These songs “Te Boté (Remix),” of the class. are damp with derision, regret with Nio García, Darell, Casper and desire, but never uncertainty. 9. THE WEEKND, ‘MY DEAR MELAN- Magico, Nicky Jam CHOLY,’ As the Weeknd has 2. CHARLIE PUTH, ‘VOICENOTES’ The and Ozuna reached for the pop stratosphere year’s most promising pure pop 2. BlocBoy JB in recent years, he’s shed some of album is from a painstakingly featuring Drake the scar tissue that made his detail-oriented, emotionally “Look Alive” earliest music so transfixingly wrenched, melodically ambitious unsettling. This between-albums 3. Ella Mai soul and funk savant who’s just EP demonstrates that he hasn’t “Boo’d Up” and “Trip” now, a couple of years into his run lost those abrasions. 4. Sheck Wes in the limelight, learning how to “Mo Bamba” and squeeze the most arresting of 10. KANE BROWN, ‘EXPERI- “Live Sheck Wes” sentiments from the rawest of MENT’ Sturdy songs about love. 5. Anuel AA featuring arrangements. Sturdy songs about lust. Sturdy Romeo Santos songs about faithfulness. Sturdy “Ella Quiere Beber (Remix)” 3. JUICE WRLD, ‘GOODBYE & GOOD songs about growing up country. RIDDANCE’ The pop-punk of 2018 And one sturdy song about how 6. Bradley Cooper is hip-hop, and Juice WRLD is its political hypocrisy and its reper- “Maybe It’s Time”; best brat. On this album, he’s a with Lady Gaga, cussions can drown out all of lost soul — a victim of others and “Shallow” those things. also himself — who’s never at a 7. ASAP Rocky and Tyler, loss for melody. 11. PUSHA T, ‘DAYTONA’ Listening to the Creator Pusha T rap is like watching a “Potato Salad” 4. DRAKE, ‘SCORPION’ A double skyscraper get built one steel album that captures all the essen- 8. Project Youngin x girder at a time: Every step is Einer Bankz tial Drake modes: indignation, carefully programmed, every “Thug Souljas Acoustic” flirtation, celebration and more angle is crisp, and the sum total indignation. No one is better at 9. girl in red effect is overpowering. internal narrative continuity than “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” Drake, which is why he has the 12. THE BLAZE, ‘DANCEHALL’ Club 10. Shoreline Mafia ability to make an album that’s KRISTA SCHLUETER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES music reframed as earth art. utterly current while effortlessly “Bands” blending with the Drake of yester- 13. TURNSTILE, ‘TIME & SPACE’ Hard- Juice WRLD has 11. Carrie Underwood day. 6. ASHLEY MCBRYDE, ‘GIRL GOING has released albums that shifted core that pummels locally and risen quickly “Cry Pretty” NOWHERE’ Lean, sinewy, blues- and reframed pop culture, making reaches across the aisle. thanks to his 5. GUNNA, ‘DRIP SEASON 3’; LIL BABY, inflected country music from a bold propositions about hip-hop’s 12. Gallant album “Goodbye ‘HARDER THAN EVER’; LIL BABY AND singer with a voice that’s thick dissolving boundaries. These 14. YVES TUMOR, ‘SAFE IN THE HANDS “Gentleman” & Good Riddance.” GUNNA, ‘DRIP HARDER’ The chil- but nimble. The still beauty in her albums are smaller than that — OF LOVE’ Shards of glimmering 13. Lil Tjay dren of Young Thug are alive and singing is impressive, but her plangent ruminations that demon- industrial anarcho-soul. “Brothers” thriving — beautiful, abstract easeful storytelling feels practi- strated that even amid all the 14.