“Sometimes I wake up and I wonder, what is my job?” she sings in the title jam, answering with a shout: “I play my bass loud! I turn it louder!” -R.S. But what could be more punk than making your first solo album at 67? I Play My Bass Loud has that same revolutionary spirit, one of the year’s freshest, funniest rock statements. Gina Birch became a punk-rock legend with the Raincoats, the feminist London art-rebel band she started in 1977. Their first album together is a masterclass in space, with the musicians trading off and darting around one another like “a school of fish,” as Aftab describes it. Instead, listening to Love in Exile, which also features Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog, is more akin to visiting some sort of beautiful, strange sonic landscape made from strings, keys, and breath. Nor is it “global music” - whatever that means - even though it showcases Urdu vocalist Arooj Aftab, who won a Grammy in that category last year. Love In Exile is not jazz, despite featuring pianist Vijay Iyer, a heavy in that world. Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily On Fountain Baby, Amaarae doubles down on the thrill and amps up the danger, pulling influences from Afro rhythms, Asian standards, and punk-rock rage for a brooding adventure through her world. AmaaraeĪmaarae has been wild and thorough since her excellent 2020 breakthrough, The Angel You Don’t Know, featuring the luxurious and lusty “Sad Gurlz Love Money,” which quickly went viral and attracted a remix with the similarly decadent Kali Uchis. Abrams might have a delicate voice, she might even sing about blocking an ex on the internet, but the way she can deliver seething lines in an angelic whisper sets her apart from her bedroom-pop peers. Proclaimed as “Gen Z’s melancholy maven” in a Rolling Stonefeature earlier this year, Abrams harnesses the emotions of the rising generation into a unique sound full of soft-spoken, simple melodies that are steeped in sadness but still pack a punch. In her stunning debut, one of pop music’s most promising stars sticks the landing in more ways than one. Here are our favorite LPs of 2023 so far, unranked and in alphabetical order. Along with blockblusters by Miley Cyrus, Janelle Monáe, Lil Yachty, boygenius, and Lana Del Rey, this year has given us an exciting new crop of promising pop stars like GALE and Gracie Abrams, a pair of great BTS solo joints, brilliant music from rap radicals like Danny Brown (with JPEGMAFIA) and billy woods (with Kenny Segal), innovative R&B from Jordan Ward and Amaarae, plus much, much more.
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