MUSIC ARCHIVES Pazz & Jop Comments: Top Albums and Singles
“Father John Misty’s a prophet and I think you ought to listen to what he can say to you, what you wanna do is follow for now."
by The Editors
Kyle McGovern
Jay-Z, 4:44: The hip-hop Sinatra has finally made his September of My Years.
Simon Vozick-Levinson
I hated [Selena Gomez’s] “Bad Liar” the first time I heard it, loved it the third time, and now believe it to be a canonically genius tribute to the timeless experience of going about one’s day with a Talking Heads song in your head. We’ve all been there!
Nelson George
Seeing the love SZA received at Afropunk this summer in Brooklyn was quite impressive. Felt like I was watching the current generation’s Mary J. Blige in action.
Shannon Carlin
Charli XCX had me living in a teenage dream, and Jay-Z had me thinking about the pitfalls of monogamy. Of course, the person who got me thinking the most was Kendrick Lamar, who just can’t make a bad album. Seriously, just give him the damn Album of the Year this year.
Rob Tannenbaum
Father John Misty’s a prophet and I think you ought to listen to what he can say to you, what you wanna do is follow for now.
Austin Brown
Cavernous, syncopated, and insecure, Lorde’s Melodrama might be an album about “the party and the after-party,” but musically, it’s an album about a love-hate relationship with transcendence, fantasy, and the pop that purports to offer it. Infinite love without fulfillment.
Jaime-Paul Falcon
Carly Rae Jepsen left “Cut to the Feeling” — one of the best songs of 2017 — off of two separate albums, and then released this metric ton of synth-drunk bombast just for the hell of it. Jesus, we’re not even close to ready for the next album.
Nick Farruggia
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Nashville Sound: This record is not a road map to solutions, nor is it a lucid history of what exactly brought forth the administration that now hovers over everyone like a monstrous storm cloud. Instead, it is more accurately a crystallization of the Small Town that helped bring the world this wretched, farcical moment.
Ian Steaman
Let’s face it: Last year it was Cardi’s world, we were just living in it.
Emerson Dameron
Kelela, Take Me Apart: Psychologically rich sex jams with a of textures and waves of sadness and spiritual longing. The warmth of lounge pop, the chill of cold techno, and the ache of all timeless tunes about fleeting relationships.