I love making lists, I spend to much time working on this list, and in saying that, don't be put off by the list -- it's just a list. I listened to over 200 albums in full this year, and enjoyed just about all of them. This list ranks them, because I like that sense of order, but I want to be clear about something: the further down you get in the rankings, the more indistinct they become. Once you get down into the upper 20s, the rankings are a bit more vibes-based, and the difference between number 29 and number 41 and number 65 isn't much at all, and if I made the list a month later, they'd swap places. The thing is, I enjoyed all of these releases a lot (and others that didn't make the list). Of course, I don't have enough time to listen to everything, and with only a handful of exceptions, if I can't get a physical copy, I'm not going to spend the time to listen to it (hence, for example, I never spent time with the Cindy Lee album). If nothing else, this is a list of 80 really swell albums.
1.
Charli XCX - Brat (Atlantic): This is the album that Charli XCX has been building towards her entire career. Musically, it’s an affirmation of her mastery of contemporary pop. Club music, hyperpop, whatever you want to call it, the beats and hooks and melodies are there on track after track. That alone makes this a fantastic album, but what really elevates it are Charli’s lyrics. For music that, on the surface, screams “PARTY!!!”, there’s a lot of self-reflection, like when she visits a friend with a newborn and wonders whether she should have a baby. Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn noted in a column for The New Statesman that this album encapsulates being a woman at age 32, between youth (and being nostalgic for it) and the rigors of middle age, and that beneath the confident exterior, there’s a lot of doubt here. So compelling.
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