My music taste can be bi-polar changing genre by the month, and these five albums are my top five and are certainly no exception to my differing musical preferences.
Zach Bryan – Zach Bryan
Zach Bryans’s self-titled album is one of my favorites to have come out in the last year, boasting amazing storytelling and beautiful song structure paired with his innate ability to express powerful emotions through his voice making you feel every emotion he’s feeling on a deeper level than most artists could hope to accomplish. This album speaks to me because of its intimate feel, like you’re sitting in the room or bar with him singing along. It doesn’t feel like a production or a product. The songs pull you into the stories and experiences like you’re not a fly on the wall but an involved character. It’s a beautiful album and one of my favorites.
Blue Lips – Schoolboy Q
Blue Lips was an album long waited for, releasing over 5 years after Q’s last studio album. This album was a big stylistic shift for Q, with hard rock-inspired guitar riffs, a blend of hip hop, jazz, and blues/soul-inspired drums, and intriguing vocal performances from him and some of the features. It’s a hip-hop album at its core but wears its more soulful and classic influences on its sleeves through samples, instruments, and chords. A masterpiece of production and sonic layering, Schoolboy does a good job of keeping you on your toes, with no two songs sounding the same and offering up different flavors with each track like a wine-tasting tray of styles, genres, and experimental sounds.
American Dream – 21 Savage
American Dream is a soundtrack and conceptual album from the rapper 21 Savage depicting his experiences as an immigrant in America and is a soundtrack to an upcoming movie being produced by him which will further tell his tale of moving to America and chasing the “American Dream”. A powerful album to say the least, it tells the tale of him moving to America and growing up in a big family with low income, struggling to survive in one of America’s most dangerous cities: Atlanta, Georgia. He tells his story like a true poet making you feel his experiences and understand his struggles that carved the man he is today.
The Forever Story – JID
The Forever Story was JID’s long-awaited follow-up album to his 2017 project “The Never Story.” The Forever Story goes deep into JID’s upbringing and past, growing up wanting to play football but being unable to stay out of trouble and losing a scholarship, then pursuing music as a broke, homeless, twenty-something whose life got turned around in an instant. JID flexes not only his writing skills but also his singing and storytelling on this album, pairing up with some hip hops greats like Yasiin Bey and Lil Wayne to deliver a rap album to be remembered. He manages to stand out stylistically even with a star-studded features list and finally broke into the mainstream.
Loss Of Life – MGMT
Loss Of Life is MGMT’s most recent album, once again proving they’re still capable of putting out amazing indie/alt-rock work almost 20 years removed from their first EP released in 2005. Loss Of Life is another psychedelic alt-rock experience, boasting experimental sounds, vocal performances, and thought-provoking lyrics. It also has MGMT’s only song with a featured artist on it, Dancing in Babylon, featuring Christine and the Queens. This album is clearly going to be another classic MGMT record and one to remember.
All of these albums have a special place in my heart, and I will probably listen to them on repeat until I get tired of them.
