How well do you know the defining albums of this year? A brief guide.
Today, I thought I'd take a break from album reviewing in favor of a short quiz. I'm certainly well-versed in current pop-culture, as I must be. Hopefully you are too. Realistically, however, it's difficult to name albums that aren't universally recognized. For this article, I have chosen the 5 most conspicuous albums released this year to allow for the best possible chance of a correct guess. This is not a review and not every album I mention I recommend (though generally I enjoy them all). But honestly, if you can't recognize at least 3 of these, I'd suggest you educate yourself. The rules are simple: I've written a short blurb from which you must derive the artist name and album title. I'll try and make them progressively more difficult as well. Good luck!
First up, it's an album that will never retire.
Go to your local barber shop: You will hear it. Turn on the radio: It will be playing. This is an album of the streets, of austere reality - and it has never felt closer. As a top five hip-hop artist in terms of streaming, this rapper has drawn his fair share of controversy. Just two years ago, a deadly tragedy almost doomed his career. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the world has forgiven and forgot. Now, it seems every major artist, from Beyonce to Kid Cudi, wants a piece of the pie. While his full name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, his artist pseudonym is a mere two words; in 2020, his stage name became a McDonalds special meal combo.
It's been five years since his last #1 Billboard studio album, featuring classic singles such as Butterfly Effect and Wake Up. On this newest album, published on July 28th, his inaugural performance was in front of the pyramids of Giza. During the pre-release campaign, he handcuffed a briefcase to his bodyguard with the album's name scribbled in black graffitti on the side. Fan speculation was through the roof. While the lead single, K-Pop, was critiqued as a sell-out, the album has since garnered extremely positive reviews. The only exception being Pitchfork, who awarded an upset 57 out of 100.
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Second, it's an album that proves the indie supergroup is here to stay.
Despite being an all-women band, their alias is a portmanteau that references the opposite gender. Occasionally, on social media and in writing, they satirically refer to themselves with two 'x's before and after their name. Initially started as a book club, their friendship blossomed into a debut EP in 2018. Just two years later, one of the core members, described by Lorde as a "God-tier female vocalist," released an album whose title she remarked in an interview, "Sounds metal even if it isn't meant to be."
In January, with only two months notice, the band announced this album as their first full-length record, featuring an oddly meta title. They are known for candid and provocative lyrics, like the song Not Strong Enough, where a mantra of "Always an angel, never a god" repeats with all three of the vocalists in unison. The band likes to view themselves as a feminist icon, gleefully kicking out all the men during recording sessions. But that does not define their music, as they have expanded far beyond gender confines to become indie rock luminaries. Given they have continued to release new singles and EPs, the most recent being a cover of the Scottish folk song "The Parting Glass," it is unlikely their union will be divorced anytime soon.
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Third, it's an album that realizes the collab of the decade.
These two hip-hop artists, both masters of their craft, have unlimited chemistry on volume one of their new enterprise together. With tracks named "Fentanyl Tester," or "Where Ya Get Your Coke From?", it's almost ironic that a week before the album dropped one of the artists announced he was going to rehab. The caustic, grating production, along with the nasal, incomprehensible vocals, is a shock to the mainstream. Honestly, it's a miracle they even have a fanbase. As they put it: "Play something for the bitches / How the fuck you s’posed to make money off this shit?". But with a title as confrontingly hilarious as what they have chosen, they have read their target fanbase like a book.
Following in the footsepts of concept rappers such as Injury Reserve or Clippng (or the other way around), the sampling is arbitrary and absurdist. From "Milkshake" by Kelis, to "How We Coming" by Migos, there are no bounds to their resourcefulness. They haven't payed for their liberties, either. Across the entire 36-minute-tight runtime, there is only one feature, and zero tracks without imaginative sexual analogies. Peculiar, but it seems to have fulfilled the exigencies of the contemporary hip-hop scene with libertine flair.
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Fourth, it's an album that cements the genre this band has pioneered.
The Missouri-based duo has polarized the music industry with their flippant, often grotesque, songwriting and production chops. Regularly compared to breakcore artists such as Machine Girl, or bubblegum bass artists such as Dorian Electra, the duo was originally labeled genreless. On this latest album, they fuse dubstep and nu-metal with modern ska. While emanating from an underground, SoundCloud-orientated backdrop, they haven't remained anyone's secret for very long; just last year, they opened for Nine Inch Nails. In fact, they've become so popular that Spotify dubbed the duo with their own genre and playlist.
Out of their many quirks, they have an obsession with powers of ten, as well as having debuted their first single during a Minecraft server ripoff of Coachella, termed 'Coalchella'. Riding an overwhelming surge of Internet-based, deliberately contrarion rule-breakers, the duo have climbed to the top and stuck a flag with their name on it. "I'm eating burritos with Danny Devito / Jeez, Louise, I'm week in the knees / I'm joing the circus, I'm going bezerkus:" There's little rhyme or rhythm to their fast-food cravings on this album. Beneath the pitched-up, nightcore vocals, and screaming, daredevil production, however, is an album that is distinctly authentic. And that authenticity is mirrored in their prodigious success amongst younger generations, taking up the mantle as a new-age rebellion for the angsty teenagers of the world.
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Last, it's an album that is arguably the most talked-about this year.
Hailing from New York City, this artist's father is a multi-millionare who, to her horror, has sprung a musical career of his own. Before she settled on her current moniker, which is commonly mispelled, she was once known as Sparkle Jump Rope Queen. A good friend of Lady Gaga, her career is one of the earliest triumphs of Youtube as a form of marketing. This album is her 8th full-length record since 2012, though she had been a songwriter for almost a decade prior. Despite this, for over four years, she had not played a full gig until she went on tour for this album. The long-winded title references an abandoned beach gateway in Long Beach, California. On many of the tracks, she combines the lyrical sassiness of Fiona Apple with the characteristic seduction of Billie Eilish. On one, the sweetness of child-like treats is paired with the glamour of jewelery, while jazz piano complements and eventually becomes an extended interlude.
Infiltrating the bedrooms, and Instagram captions, of wistful romantics worldwide, this album currently holds the highest-grossing vinyl output of 2023. And even if critics dismiss her as bought and sold, she tries her best to retain her individuality. As she says herself, "I know they think that it took thousands of people / To put me together again like an experiment / Some big men behind the scenes / Sewing Frankenstein black dreams into my songs / But they’re wrong."
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Did you get them all? If not, I hope that it was at least informative. In the future, I will likely write more of these. Perhaps genre-specific rather than time period. Bearing in mind that I can't ensure everyone has listened to the same albums, of course. For these, the more popular, the better.
Thanks for reading!!