A guarantee of Navigating the vast expanse of social media is that The Discourse never stops. It is: death, taxes and endless speech. Mass consensus is practically extinct. More than anything, fandoms dictate much of the current conversation.
Still, spring has been a particularly fertile time for music releases: Drake released a distortion record that featured an AI 2Pac (it’s terrible), Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Department of Tortured Poets (not that great either), and Pharrell, the ultimate polymath, quietly released an album that was available exclusively through a promotional website, giving up the route from major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music (which is probably why you just heard about it). Oh! Song lyrics, apparently, are getting sillier, too.
Conversations about all of these things (and many more) have only intensified in recent weeks. There are days when finding common ground seems like a concept from a bygone analog world. Of course, good music is all around us, despite what A study claims. Maybe even more than any recent time I can think of. It’s very difficult for me to keep up. What cannot be denied is the astonishing originality of the following seven albums on our Spring Music List. Each project is a showcase of a different artistic evolution. Think of them as small invention breakthroughs.
This is what the future should sound like: all potential and unlimited imagination.
When Kendrick Lamar left TDE to found pgLang, a creative agency with his manager Dave Free, there was speculation that TDE’s best days were over. Even with an impressive roster (ScHoolboy Q, SZA, Isaiah Rashad, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock) there was no guarantee that the Los Angeles record label would be able to preserve its dominance and reputation, a considerable part of which was due to the skill by Lamar: five albums. , 17 Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize (the first for a rapper). With blue lipsAn essayistic mix of black history and brutal reality, Schoolboy Q confirms what we’ve all been wondering: he is the future of TDE and he’s in good hands.
The second installment of a trilogy of musical recovery, cowboy carter They are all high points. Driven by confrontation and grounded in Southern tradition, the album unfolds as Beyoncé’s best albums do: pure sensation, total awe. (Have you heard the operatic tone of “Daughter”? Chills.) Only this time it’s personal. Years ago, the scions of country music said she had no place in her walled garden. So she paved her own path and, as a result, she became the first black woman to top the country albums chart. What couldn’t she love?
Maggie Rogers will probably never make a better song than “Say It,” from 2019’s cosmic. I heard it in a past life—but his last, Do not forget me, is a nirvana-inducing project filled with shipper worms. The dizzying cinema of “It Was Coming All Along.” The serene contemplation of “All the Same.” The blissful regret of “On & On & On”. Do not forget me is the high priestess of indie pop at the peak of her powers.
Canadian experimentalist BADBADNOTGOOD never plays it safe. His music is full of big ideas, nearly impossible changes, and feats of imagination that sometimes leave listeners dazed with delight. (Go listen Conversation memory right now.) Add Baby Rose to the mix, who is one of the most promising young groups in R&B and sounds like Nina Simone (yes, that Nina Simone), and the result is slow burna six-track work of absolute and unforgettable feeling.
None of that mattered. Historic placement on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The inaugural Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance. The fact that “Water” was on almost every list of best songs of 2023. Or the rumors that she could be the second coming of Rihanna. There was no album, and since there was no album, many wondered if she was just another one-hit wonder. But now we can stop talking. Sun-kissed and sultry, the South African singer’s self-titled debut is a slow-burning hybrid of amapiano, R&B and pop that tackles themes of love, loss and longing (not to mention her impressive guest list: Tems, Gunna, Becky G and Travis Scott). Get comfortable, because Tyla isn’t going anywhere.
“Earth Sign” is a rocket that starts Now what, Brittany Howard’s second album, and luckily for us she continues to ascend, rising higher and braver into a cosmos of astrological cuteness. As leader of the Alabama Shakes, Howard was an immovable force, with a trembling, transcendent voice. As a soloist, she has tapped into a new dimension of musicality, one that seems more elemental than artistic. Vulnerably and supernaturally advancing, Now what It can also be a question, because it doesn’t get any better than this.
The debut album from hip hop’s resident trickster is a blend of sound, color and feel. There’s a reason Tierra Whack’s songs feel so vivid: she wants to build a theater in your mind. One where you can wander, play or rest as you please. world coup is exactly that, a funhouse of fantasy and swirling originality. “Accessible,” “Imaginary Friends,” and “Two Night” are my current favorites, but there are no wrong answers. Go ahead and press Play.
And since good music abounds right now, seven more albums are worth it: