The Top 4 Most Powerful Albums of the Year so far

THE TOP 4 MOST POWERFUL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR SO FAR

In no particular order, here they are...

The Mountain Goats: IN LEAGUE WITH DRAGONS

BY TYLER JENKE

On paper, the Mountain Goats’ In League With Dragons is a strange one. Drawing inspiration from roman noir and tabletop games, John Darnielle attacks the group’s 17th album with a different attitude than usual. Featuring a slightly more eclectic sound with the inclusion of Matt Douglas, the record is more downtempo than the group’s previous records (and features very few dragons), but with an increased amount of emotionally devastating lyrics throughout the piece.

With tracks like ’Done Bleeding’, ‘Cadaver Sniffing Dog’, and ‘An Antidote For Strychnine’ serving as standouts, their titles alone should tell you about the sort of record this is. Grandiose yet humble, emotional yet genuine, and powerful without being overbearing, In League With Dragons might be one of the Mountain Goats’ most exceptional records to date.

Sigrid: SUCKER PUNCH

BY POPPY REID

When I was 22, I once fell asleep in a pool of my own vomit. Sigrid on the other hand, is a 22-yearold with a #1 LP in her native Norway and a Top 5 record in the UK, Scotland and Ireland. It’s not the dichotomy of our differences that has me so fi xated on Sucker Punch; it’s the way it blindsided fans with just how consistent it was across the entire 12 tracks.

From the title track and opener, which sets the pace of heart-onsleeve confi dence, to ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’, which features the self-aware line, “I can shake it off and you feel threatened by me”, Sucker Punch is what pop music should be; bright, infectious and utterly hedonistic.

Solange: WHEN I GET HOME

BY MICHAEL DI IORIO

When entering any Solange album only one thing can be certain, any expectations you have going in will be completely shattered. Twerking for her phone camera and dipping low in cowboy hats in the albums accompanying 39-min fi lm, the Houston-born powerhouse unflinchingly makes the music she wants to, unbending to the fantasies of how an album should operate and sound.

The entire essence of the album is best captured in ‘Can I Hold the Mic (Interlude)’, in which she rhymes over in-time synths singing, “I can’t be a singular expression of myself, there’s too many parts, too many spaces, too many manifestations.” And Solange explores all of these aspects of herself without fear to create her most enthralling album yet; spinning pain into beauty in ‘Jerrod’, and celebrating black excellence in the spiralling beats of ‘Almeda.’

Billie Eilish: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

BY GEORDIE GRAY

Billie Eilish’s debut record was everything that it needed to be. An edgy, brash, chaotic portrait of teenagerhood. Eilish is impossibly cool, but not in the way that makes you feel bad about yourself. Perhaps the most admirable facet of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is the way that it has ushered in a new generation of music fans.

For so many young girls, this will be the fi rst record that they wholly love and are able to relate to. It is a record that inspires young female music fans to embrace their weirdness and their quirks. It is a souvenir of their angst that they will be able to revisit time and time again. Highlights include the devilishly addictive ‘bad guy’ and ‘ilomilo’, which disturbingly pulsates with equal parts charm and horror. ■