Kim James 
The shortest month of the yr has come to a near, and abruptly, we’re two months down and 10 extra to move in 2019. As the times wildly flew by way of, this beyond week didn’t skimp on awesome new music releases. Emily King’s Scenery added bright bops and scintillating sonics, and The Claypool Delirium’s South of Reality kept us on our ft with their wonky genre-bending instrumentation. We additionally witnessed 3 large album bulletins, every with brilliant lead singles—Kevin Morby’s ambitious idea album and double LP Oh My God, growing Aussie singer/songwriter Hatchie’s debut LP Keepsake, and Big Thief’s cryptically-titled 0.33 complete-length U.F.O.F. Finally, we counted down our favorite LPs of the beyond a month, the best breakup albums of all time, and the albums we’re searching ahead to in March. Check out Pastes on hand dandy weekly music roundup under.
BEST ALBUMS
Emily King: Scenery
The kudos Emily King has gathered in her career qualifies her for celebrity status. It’s an excellent listing, one that includes a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album and, in 2012, the Holly Prize honors for songwriting. Still, as her shimmery sound suggests, she leans extra on subtlety and nuance instead of the sort of flash that typically draws attention nowadays. Three albums on, she’s honed a blend of subtlety and sensuality to create a fashion that’s frequently as elusive as it is enchanting. Granted, that description does recommend a pure contradiction, and indeed, King’s hushed vocals are simply a counterpoint to the propulsive rhythms that underscore the songs.
It’s a perfect yin and yang: “Blue Light,” “Forgiveness,” and “Remind Me” create a form of anxiety between her tactile singing and the buoyancy of her melodies. It’s worth noting that King composes all her own songs, and Scenery, her 0.33 complete period, displays a marked maturity. The vulnerability implied in King’s calming vocal caress is extraordinary in a manner, especially whilst compared to the brazenness that accompanies a good deal of what appears to bypass for pop tune nowadays. The skill she shows elevates her above a whole lot of the competition, imbuing her with a decided degree of class and credence. King wears that crown well. —Lee Zimmerman
The Claypool Lennon Delirium: South of Reality
Hearing two musicians of distinct sounds play to their sensibilities below one banner, all while heading off go-fertilization among their father tasks, is a superb factor. Les Claypool, bass god, rise, and inveterate eccentric, and Sean Lennon, methodical, pop musician, and, yes, infant of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, have very reported personalities. On paper, the one’s personalities clash; on the facts, they’ve made collectively beneath the banner of The Claypool Lennon Delirium, 2016’s Monolith of Phobos, and now their ultra-modern, South of Reality, they harmonize. The music treads far away from self-seriousness; neither Claypool nor Lennon can be referred to as businesslike or humorless.
Everything they do, they do, tongue firmly in cheek. At the same time, they have large thoughts, and people’s huge thoughts demand articulation thru music on an equally huge scale. South of Reality has that scale. It’s also idiosyncratic to the extent that it makes gauging it comparable to a carnival ride. There’s showmanship to The Claypool Lennon Delirium, which, given the veteran talent of its chief participants, is unavoidable; their union can handiest lead to excessive caliber artwork. But it’s tough music, mainly for beginners to their sound. What makes the undertaking worthwhile is the elasticity of their paintings, giving the film a sense of scope that underpins the gonzo array of aesthetics they’ve sewn collectively here. In the long run, South of Reality is a first-rate album; however, more importantly, it’s an awesome journey. —Andy Crump
Kevin Morby: “No Halo”
Kevin Morby has made a momentous statement this week, unveiling Oh My God, a double album defined in a press release as “a grandiose director’s cut of his biggest statement thus far, epic in scope as well as sound.” Due April 26 on Dead Oceans, the City Music comply with-ups first single is “No Halo,” additionally out now with an accompanying song video. “This one feels complete circle, my most realized file yet,” Morby continues. “It’s a cohesive piece; all of the songs suit below the umbrella of this spiritual subject matter. I became able to write and file the album I desired to make. It’s one of those marks of lifestyles: This is why I slept on floors for seven years. I’ve now got the keys to my own little nation, and I’m devoting so much of my life to music that I want to preserve it exciting. At the cease of the day, the only factor I don’t need is to be bored. If someone wants to get in my face about writing a non-religious nonsecular record? Thank god. That’s all I gotta say.” —Scott Russell.
Last yr, Australian singer/songwriter Hatchie launched her debut EP Sugar & Spice, a plush, saccharine sea of dream-pop as sweet as it sounds that earned her a gap on our great new artists of 2018 list. Now, Harriette Pilbeam is making ready to launch her anticipated debut complete-length LP. This week, she introduced Keepsake is out June 21 on Double Double Whammy, and the information arrived with the lead unmarried, “Without A Blush,” plus a ’90s-inspired accompanying video. Grunge meets glam inside the “Without A Blush” video, which has a darker area than something Hatchie’s finished earlier than as if her candy syrup hardened to a twinkly star. “You and I had been destined to collapse,” she sings over spikes of electric guitar and droning synths. —Ellen Johnson
Big Thief: “UFOF”
Brooklyn’s Big Thief announced their third album, U.F.O.F., along with its lead unmarried and identified tracks. The band’s commonly excellent new unmarried “UFOF,” in the meantime, reveals Lenker bidding a hushed farewell to an atypical but no longer unwelcome vacationer: “To my UFO buddy, goodbye, goodbye / like a seed within the wind, she’s taking on root inside the sky,” she sings, considering the connections among the cosmic and the earthly, the supernatural and herbal. There’s an evanescence to Lenker’s lyrics (“Just like a horrific dream / you’ll disappear”) that fits the tune’s fleeting splendor—its rolling, fingerpicked guitars and smooth rhythm section are right here and long past, like a passing shadow. —Scott Russell
BEST PERFORMANCES
TEEN
New York City’s TEEN brought their eccentric, arty synth-pop to the Paste Studio this week to promote their coming near album Good Fruit, out today (three/1) through Carpark Records. Good Fruit is their fourth studio album and their first self-produced record. Comprised of three sisters—Teeny, Lizzie, and Katherine Lieberson—TEEN make a more colorful tune than maximum. Their urgent grooves, heady vocal harmonies, and rancid-kilter synth escapades are right now felt, zapping listeners with their laserbeam-like arpeggios and transporting them right into deep, rapturous psychosis. TEEN accomplished three glistening tracks—” Putney,” “Ripe,” and “Pretend”—all from their new album. —Lizzie Manno
Greyson Chance
Back in 2010, a 13-12 months-antique singer and pianist named Greyson Chance stumbled into a single day sensation after a clip of him acting Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went viral. It was because it has been viewed extra than 60 million instances and caused. Chance’s debut album, Hold On ‘Til The Night, arrived in 2011. Now, after EPs (2012’s Truth Be Told, Part 1 and 2016’s Somewhere Over My Head), Chance is, in the end, returning with an observe-up complete-length. Snapshots are about to arrive on March 15 on AWAL, and Chance is now on tour helping his new tune. He carved out time to prevent with the aid of our studio in New York City to carry out three tracks from graphics: recently released unmarried “shut up,” a tune Chance wrote inside the Tel Aviv airport as he became getting ready to go away Israel, plus two unreleased tracks—” lakeshore,” the ultimate track on pictures, and “stand,” what he says is “an ode to wherein I’m from and my family.” —Ellen Johnson.
FEATURES
The 30 Best Breakup Albums of All Time. While Valentine’s Day and its host month February are possibly about love and feeling it/showing it/making it whenever and anyplace you may, this gray, dreary month can sense a touch lonely if you’ve currently weathered a breakup. Thankfully, February 2019 additionally brought us a slew of exceptional new breakup albums (Martin Frawley’s Undone at 31, Julia Jacklin’s Crushing and, sure, even Ariana Grande’s thank u, subsequent), simply in time to assist the ones of us feeling a little damaged block out the swarm of crimson and crimson, plants and sweet.
Those albums got us considering our different favored breakup albums, those statistics we turn to when the song is the handiest thing that numbs the pain. These are the albums on your file series that could set off a chorus of “Who harm you?”s from friends and family. And, to be fair, “Are you k?” looks like the appropriate query if you’re exclusively taking note of The National after a breakup. But those albums aren’t for a while; you’re k. They aren’t the get-up-and-cross records for cheering you up while you’re unhappy. These are the albums in which you could wallow. So move slowly underneath a blanket, fetch a bucket of ice cream and crank up Lorde’s Melodrama till you can’t hear your own mind. This is a safe place to sob. —Ellen Johnson & Paste Staff
Amen, Dunes on His Majestic Breakout Album Freedom
It’s unusual while you see yourself in a piece of art. You by no means laid on a leather-based sofa, pouring your heart out while the songwriter sat next to you, scribbling on a clipboard and pensively probing the query, “And how do you experience approximately that?” As a tune listener, there are moments whilst an artist facilitates you higher apprehend yourself, notwithstanding in no way brushing shoulders with them in actual life. And yet, they’re one way or the other able to attain you on an emotional or aesthetic aircraft in a way that may be difficult to articulate.
You won’t be able to pinpoint a particular lyric or portion of the vinyl groove that initiatives a mirror photo of yourself, but there are waves of familiar comfort radiating throughout—nearly as in case you’ve heard it in a past lifestyle. That’s exactly how I felt approximately Amen Dunes’ latest album, Freedom (my favored full-length album of ultimate 12 months and Paste’s #eleven pick out for the Best Albums of 2018). Melding subliminal traditional rock, woozy psych-people, invigorating grooves, and a quivering, supernatural vocal tone, Freedom is in a class all its personnel. —Lizzie Manno
Sleaford Mods Make A Clear Departure On Eton Alive
The quick progression and growth within the work of Sleaford Mods, the dust-punk duo from Nottingham, England, has been one of the more super storylines of the decade. Ever since manufacturer Andrew Fearn joined forces with vocalist/lyricist Jason Williamson, the pair have rapidly evolved and improved in both in their chosen arenas. The former’s method to beats has taken his rattletrap beats, built from overdriven bass strains and drums that sound like they had been created from plywood and tin, into a greater membership-ready headspace. Tunes like “Drayton Manor” from 2017’s English Tapas and “Kebab Spider,” the primary single from their currently released new album Eton Alive, screen the effect of residence music, and heat tones feel inviting instead of bludgeoning. Williamson has responded in type.
His communicate-making song vocal way is still omnipresent, spitting out wound up, often hilarious rants at the unsightly state of British politics and the struggles of normal Britons. But thru Eton and the self-titled EP the organization released a remaining year, the forty eight-12 months-old has shifted into singing—apparently inspired with the aid of love of the ‘80s and ‘90s R&B—and his lyrical tone feels extra resigned and worn-out. Paste spoke with Williamson lately as he sat in his kitchen in Nottingham about the sound of Eton Alive, the selection to self-launch the new album, and the existing state of the music scene in his native England. —Robert Ham
The 10 Best Albums of February 2019
Welcome to quit-of-the-month coverage at Paste dot com in which we’ve determined iciness is long, February is short, and the track is still desirable. This brief month yet again made suitable on the promise of plenty of super new tunes in a short quantity of time, bringing us wonderful new facts from Texas, Australia, and beyond. From the Lone Star State, Robert Ellis released his flashy flirtation with the keys, Texas Piano Man, and Ryan Bingham again, along with his first studio album in 4 years, American Love Song.
Aussie singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin supplied up to a breakup album for a long time in Crushing, and California experimentalist Chrystia Cabral shared her second album as SPELLING, the transportive Mazy Fly. Emily King dazzled on her enthralling LP Scenery, and French composer Yann Tiersen escaped to nature’s most tempting nether-areas at the elusive ALL. All that and extra is collected right here. So without any similar fuss, right here are the exceptional albums of the month—rather, 10 artists you could listen to rather than Ryan Adams. —Paste Staff
The 10 Albums We’re Most Excited About in March
After an excellent haul of January albums and a slew of excellent February information we’re nevertheless digesting, it’s time to get our hopes up about what’s to come back this month. March will see the discharge of debut albums from Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly, British pop quartet Indoor Pets, Los Angeles lo-fi rocker SASAMI and London-based totally guitar-soul artist Nilüfer Yanya. We’re also set to obtain albums from a few massive names we haven’t heard from in a while, like former Rilo Kiley, frontwoman Jenny Lewis, and Oxford indie-rockers Foals. Please scroll down to study the 10 LPs we’re most enthusiastic about in March, plus a breakdown of additional extraordinary releases, all listed with the aid of album release date. —Paste Staff
Durand Jones & the Indications Look Ahead on Their New Album American Love Call. Nina Simone, one of the maximum iconic voices in soul song, civil rights, jazz, and past, once stated, “An artist’s duty, as a way as I’m involved, is to reflect the instances.” That’s the quote Durand Jones cites when I ask him about the style of songs on American Love Call, his band’s (Durand Jones & the Indications) sophomore album out these days on Dead Oceans, and the Ohio soul label Colemine Records.
But Simone isn’t the most effective soul legend Jones, guitarist Blake Rhein, and drummer Aaron Frazer reference at some point of our name. These guys realize their stuff—in addition, they point out Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, and Curtis Mayfield, all artists who—just like the Indications—wrote effective songs, each political and private. Considering that its genesis, Soul tune has been a cultural watchdog, musical advertising of social justice and equality. But there’s also the only factor that seeps into each component of life and subculture, regardless of who’s in the office or what the calendar says: love and relationships. —Ellen Johnson
