{"id":932,"date":"2018-12-19T10:47:52","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/?p=932"},"modified":"2018-12-19T10:48:04","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:48:04","slug":"2018-a-year-in-underrated-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/2018-a-year-in-underrated-music\/","title":{"rendered":"2018: A Year in Underrated Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paul Holtz and Zoe Glasser<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Rosal\u00eda – El mal querer<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Spanish singer Rosal\u00eda is a force to be reckoned with on her second album, El mal querer <\/em>(in English it roughly translates to \u201cthe bad desire\u201d). Rosal\u00eda sings staunch, trembling lines about jealousy and romantic torment, reminiscent of romance novella. The main production of her songs are hand claps and her own voice, synthesized and laid over each other. The lack of a booming production makes it so that she is singing in a empty cathedral, and we are just hearing the echoes. There are quiet waves of electronic bass in \u201cPienso En Tu Mira\u201d and vocals through vocoder in \u201cDe Aqui No Sales\u201d \u2014 along with a vrooming motor, screeching car-brakes and shrieking sirens. The song sure to attract the most attention in the US is \u201cBagdad,\u201d as it riffs on Justin Timberlake\u2019s hit song \u201cCry Me a River\u201d before leaping into choral overlays. A crisp 30 minutes long, El Mal Querer is intended to be a concept album \u2013 each track comes with a chapter number and subtitle \u2013 although without either a translation or any fluency in Spanish, what the concept may be remains a mystery. It doesn\u2019t matter: this is music potent and adventurous enough to grip you without you understanding a word of what she\u2019s actually singing.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must Listen Songs: Malamente, Bagdad, Di Mi Nombre<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOPHIE – OIL FROM EVERY PEARL\u2019S UN-INSIDES<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

English DJ SOPHIE basks in a glossy, angelic glory, with a shimmering voice and image perfectly constructed for the spotlight. Her debut album is certainly an opener to a formidable future. Tracks like the singles \u201cFaceshopping\u201d and \u201cPonyboy\u201d arrive with a noisy, warped weight, and with \u201cWhole New World\/Pretend World,\u201d this ambitious maximalism works in service of the song\u2019s thematic interest in utopia. These songs are vastly different from her previous songs: instead of glimmery, plastic electronic-pop like her EP, Product<\/em>, they are dark, bass-forward and aggressive singles. The four-minute center of the record, \u201cImmaterial\u201d is glittering diamond in her own constructed madness; it\u2019s SOPHIE at her most dense, inverting the ritzy excess of Madonna\u2019s \u201cMaterial Girl\u201d into a high-concept banger for our age of Instagram influencers. The album ranges from quiet, soft spoken coos (songs like \u201cPretending\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Okay to Cry\u201d) to machine-like, disorienting avant-garde electronica. Packed with more than enough ideas to constitute what\u2019s still considered a \u201cdebut album,\u201d OIL OF EVERY PEARL\u2019S UN-INSIDES<\/em> pushes new limits of excess only to settle into the same sort of razor-sharp, high-concept pop that\u2019s worked for SOPHIE since the beginning.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must Listen Songs: Immaterial, It\u2019s Okay to Cry, Ponyboy<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beach House – 7<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Six albums in, Baltimore duo Beach House has well-established itself as masters of this unmistakable sound: a transportive pulse of organs and swooning melodies drawing from psych pop. 7<\/em> plays like a dark distortion of the Beach House we\u2019ve come to know. The band\u2019s signature hypnotic sound is still here\u2014all mystical keyboards, soaring guitars, and alternately brooding and operatic vocals. But this sound has been cracked open, letting in both light acoustic and acidic electric guitars, blown-out bass lines, and rhythms that beat out of the speaker (and occasionally run amok). The album is ruled by an distorted temperamental energy that cuts some songs off abruptly (\u201cLemon Glow,\u201d \u201cGirl of the Year\u201d), redirects others at whim (\u201cDive\u201d), and lets others build up and wash away slowly (\u201cBlack Car,\u201d \u201cLast Ride\u201d). The roar of deadpanned, psychedelic opener \u201cDark Spring,\u201d for example, disappears suddenly into the ballad \u201cPay No Mind,\u201d before the 808 groove of \u201cLemon Glow\u201d arrives to pick up the pace again. With 7<\/em>, Beach House have freed themselves. This is the sound of a band that knows itself very well and yet, in seeking outside perspectives and embracing imperfection, has discovered a whole new level to explore. If this album feels like an alternate-reality Beach House, it\u2019s because they<\/em> have altered their reality.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must Listen Songs: Drunk in LA, L\u2019Inconnue, Girl of the Year<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janelle Monae- Dirty Computer<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

NPR recently named Janelle Monae\u2019s third studio album the number one album of 2018, and for good reason. The Kansas City native\u2019s fusion of synth, R&B, rap and pop is somehow both colorful and coherent, combining light-hearted beats with heavy political lyrics. Monae has always been a lyrical storyteller, and she makes no exception here. Accompanied by its visual album, which Monae termed an \u201cemotion picture\u201d, Dirty Computer<\/em> sets the scene of a not-far-off dystopian future in which all people are forced to conform to suffocating standards, and those who do not are considered \u201cdirty computers\u201d. The earlier tracks on the album act as a sort of exposition for this story, with the later ones providing conflicts and conclusions. Monae expresses her empowering self-confidence and prideful femininity through tracks like \u201cPynk\u201d and \u201cI Like That\u201d, singing \u201cI\u2019m always left of center and that\u2019s right where I belong\u201d on the latter. At the same time, she criticizes the current political climate in America on \u201cScrewed\u201d and \u201cDjango Jane\u201d. <\/em>Furthermore, the list of featured artists is incredible, with artists such as Zoe Kravitz, Grimes, and Pharrell Williams; even Stevie Wonder drops by for a 47-second piano interlude. Combined with its visually stunning music videos, Dirty Computer <\/em>is an eclectic experience that contains diverse music styles and powerful, topical lyrics, and is a must-listen for 2018.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must Listen Songs: Crazy Classic Life, I Like That, Americans<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitski- Be The Cowboy<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mitski (real name Mitski Miyawaki), although popular in the indie scene, was fairly unknown to the general public until the August release of Be The Cowboy<\/em>. She has received a Grammy nomination for Best Package, but sadly none for the music itself. Whereas Janelle Monae\u2019s Dirty Computer <\/em>is mostly upbeat, the Japanese-American singer prefers to have more control over her sound. Her soothing voice lends itself perfectly to her lyrics, which range vastly in tone from optimistic (\u201cMe and My Husband\u201d) to lonely (\u201cOld Friend\u201d) to frustrated (\u201cGeyser\u201d) and even to desperate (\u201cRemember My Name\u201d). To top it off, Mitski wrote all fourteen songs and played multiple instruments on each. Each song tactfully encapsulates a different emotion, all of which are relatable to any listener, in a short 32 minutes. The album\u2019s opener, \u201cGeyser\u201d,  begins with a siren-like wailing that immediately captures one\u2019s attention, and through its synthesized background music, simple piano melodies and straightforward, emotional lyrics, it keeps it. The fan-favorite track on the album, Nobody, chronicles a depressive episode with a strangely appropriate dance beat behind the sad lyrics. The song opens with the lyric \u201cMy God, I\u2019m so lonely\u201d, but as synthesized piano turns into a steady kick-drum, you can\u2019t help but bop your head. As a result of the following she gained from Be The Cowboy<\/em>, Mitski will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must Listen Songs: Nobody, Two Slow Dancers, Lonesome Love<\/strong>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Holtz and Zoe Glasser Rosal\u00eda – El mal querer Spanish singer Rosal\u00eda is a force to be reckoned with on her second album, El mal querer (in English it roughly translates to \u201cthe bad desire\u201d). Rosal\u00eda sings staunch, trembling lines about jealousy and romantic torment, reminiscent of romance novella. The main production of her songs are hand claps and her own voice, synthesized and laid over each other. The lack of a booming production makes it so that she is singing in a empty cathedral, and we are just hearing the echoes. There are quiet waves of electronic bass in \u201cPienso En Tu Mira\u201d and vocals through vocoder in \u201cDe Aqui No Sales\u201d \u2014 along with a vrooming motor, screeching car-brakes and shrieking sirens. The song sure to attract the most attention in the US is \u201cBagdad,\u201d as it riffs on Justin Timberlake\u2019s hit song \u201cCry Me a River\u201d before leaping into choral overlays. A crisp 30 minutes long, El Mal Querer is intended to be a concept album \u2013 each track comes with a chapter number and subtitle \u2013 although without either a translation or any fluency in Spanish, what the concept may be remains a mystery. It doesn\u2019t matter: this is music potent and adventurous enough to grip you without you understanding a word of what she\u2019s actually singing. Must Listen Songs: Malamente, Bagdad, Di Mi Nombre SOPHIE – OIL FROM EVERY PEARL\u2019S UN-INSIDES English DJ SOPHIE basks in a glossy, angelic glory, with a shimmering voice and image perfectly constructed for the spotlight. Her debut album is certainly an opener to a formidable future. Tracks like the singles \u201cFaceshopping\u201d and \u201cPonyboy\u201d arrive with a noisy, warped weight, and with \u201cWhole New World\/Pretend World,\u201d this ambitious maximalism works in service of the song\u2019s thematic interest in utopia. These songs are vastly different from her previous songs: instead of glimmery, plastic electronic-pop like her EP, Product, they are dark, bass-forward and aggressive singles. The four-minute center of the record, \u201cImmaterial\u201d is glittering diamond in her own constructed madness; it\u2019s SOPHIE at her most dense, inverting the ritzy excess of Madonna\u2019s \u201cMaterial Girl\u201d into a high-concept banger for our age of Instagram influencers. The album ranges from quiet, soft spoken coos (songs like \u201cPretending\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Okay to Cry\u201d) to machine-like, disorienting avant-garde electronica. Packed with more than enough ideas to constitute what\u2019s still considered a \u201cdebut album,\u201d OIL OF EVERY PEARL\u2019S UN-INSIDES pushes new limits of excess only to settle into the same sort of razor-sharp, high-concept pop that\u2019s worked for SOPHIE since the beginning. Must Listen Songs: Immaterial, It\u2019s Okay to Cry, Ponyboy Beach House – 7 Six albums in, Baltimore duo Beach House has well-established itself as masters of this unmistakable sound: a transportive pulse of organs and swooning melodies drawing from psych pop. 7 plays like a dark distortion of the Beach House we\u2019ve come to know. The band\u2019s signature hypnotic sound is still here\u2014all mystical keyboards, soaring guitars, and alternately brooding and operatic vocals. But this sound has been cracked open, letting in both light acoustic and acidic electric guitars, blown-out bass lines, and rhythms that beat out of the speaker (and occasionally run amok). The album is ruled by an distorted temperamental energy that cuts some songs off abruptly (\u201cLemon Glow,\u201d \u201cGirl of the Year\u201d), redirects others at whim (\u201cDive\u201d), and lets others build up and wash away slowly (\u201cBlack Car,\u201d \u201cLast Ride\u201d). The roar of deadpanned, psychedelic opener \u201cDark Spring,\u201d for example, disappears suddenly into the ballad \u201cPay No Mind,\u201d before the 808 groove of \u201cLemon Glow\u201d arrives to pick up the pace again. With 7, Beach House have freed themselves. This is the sound of a band that knows itself very well and yet, in seeking outside perspectives and embracing imperfection, has discovered a whole new level to explore. If this album feels like an alternate-reality Beach House, it\u2019s because they have altered their reality. Must Listen Songs: Drunk in LA, L\u2019Inconnue, Girl of the Year Janelle Monae- Dirty Computer NPR recently named Janelle Monae\u2019s third studio album the number one album of 2018, and for good reason. The Kansas City native\u2019s fusion of synth, R&B, rap and pop is somehow both colorful and coherent, combining light-hearted beats with heavy political lyrics. Monae has always been a lyrical storyteller, and she makes no exception here. Accompanied by its visual album, which Monae termed an \u201cemotion picture\u201d, Dirty Computer sets the scene of a not-far-off dystopian future in which all people are forced to conform to suffocating standards, and those who do not are considered \u201cdirty computers\u201d. The earlier tracks on the album act as a sort of exposition for this story, with the later ones providing conflicts and conclusions. Monae expresses her empowering self-confidence and prideful femininity through tracks like \u201cPynk\u201d and \u201cI Like That\u201d, singing \u201cI\u2019m always left of center and that\u2019s right where I belong\u201d on the latter. At the same time, she criticizes the current political climate in America on \u201cScrewed\u201d and \u201cDjango Jane\u201d. Furthermore, the list of featured artists is incredible, with artists such as Zoe Kravitz, Grimes, and Pharrell Williams; even Stevie Wonder drops by for a 47-second piano interlude. Combined with its visually stunning music videos, Dirty Computer is an eclectic experience that contains diverse music styles and powerful, topical lyrics, and is a must-listen for 2018. Must Listen Songs: Crazy Classic Life, I Like That, Americans Mitski- Be The Cowboy Mitski (real name Mitski Miyawaki), although popular in the indie scene, was fairly unknown to the general public until the August release of Be The Cowboy. She has received a Grammy nomination for Best Package, but sadly none for the music itself. Whereas Janelle Monae\u2019s Dirty Computer is mostly upbeat, the Japanese-American singer prefers to have more control over her sound. Her soothing voice lends itself perfectly to her lyrics, which range vastly in tone from optimistic (\u201cMe and My Husband\u201d) to lonely (\u201cOld Friend\u201d) to frustrated (\u201cGeyser\u201d) and even to desperate (\u201cRemember My Name\u201d). To top it off, Mitski wrote all fourteen songs and played multiple instruments on each. Each song tactfully encapsulates a different emotion, all of which are relatable to any listener, in a short 32 minutes. The album\u2019s opener, \u201cGeyser\u201d,  begins with a siren-like wailing that immediately captures one\u2019s attention, and through its synthesized background music, simple piano melodies and straightforward, emotional lyrics, it keeps it. The fan-favorite track on the album, Nobody, chronicles a depressive episode with a strangely appropriate dance beat behind the sad lyrics. The song opens with the lyric \u201cMy God, I\u2019m so lonely\u201d, but as synthesized piano turns into a steady kick-drum, you can\u2019t help but bop your head. As a result of the following she gained from Be The Cowboy, Mitski will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. Must Listen Songs: Nobody, Two Slow Dancers, Lonesome Love<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":967,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}