Hello everyone! We are very glad to have our voices heard once again. This year has been a roller coaster, as I am sure it has been for many of you as well. We have compiled two great lists, one apiece, of our favorite songs that were released this year. I will personally guarantee that there will at least be a handful that you have not heard of wh…

Atlanta rapper Playboi Carti debuted with a repetitive and catchy flow like contemporaries Lil Uzi Vert and Young Thug, gaining recognition in the mid-2010s as an affiliate of A$AP Mob. A steady succession of viral singles helped Carti's first proper album, 2018's Die Lit, debut at number three on the Billboard charts, and he moved into a new phase…

The black metal, blues, and African American fusion of Zeal & Ardor's music is the brainchild of musician Manuel Gagneux. He moved from his native Switzerland to New York, and took up the moniker Zeal & Ardor, having previously released music under the name Bird mask. After a tumultuous start to the year 2020, Gagneux could not hold his tongue and …

Rapper, producer, and poet Aesop Rock has received widespread acclaim and amassed a loyal following for his complex, literate rhymes. Aesop's first solo album in four years, the typically heady Spirit World Field Guide appeared in November. https://soundaudits.com/ Donate 99 cents here! https://anchor.fm/soundaudits . Donations are the only way we …

Taylor Swift is that rarest of pop phenomena: a superstar who managed to completely cross over from country to the mainstream. Swift's plans to support Lover with a tour in 2020 were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With some unexpected time on her hands, she wrote and recorded a new set of songs, many in collaboration with Aaron Dessner of t…

Dinosaur Jr. was largely responsible for returning the lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-'80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. As the group's career progressed, they broke into three distinctive acts: the indie years of the original trio, the '90s spent on major labels …

Ariana Grande is perhaps the quintessential pop star of the last half of the 2010s, capturing the era's spirit and style. Grande had duets reach the top of the Billboard charts in early 2020 -- first it was "Stuck with U" with Justin Bieber, then it was "Rain on Me" with Lady Gaga -- before she launched her next album, Positions, with the release o…

With an unconventional pairing of technical rap flows and abrasive noise, experimental trio clipping. approached hip-hop production from largely uncharted territory. Though the group would morph into something new with almost every subsequent release, they held on to their core of experimental and often-confrontational energy on independent cassett…

Japanese musician Joji laces R&B and hip-hop with textured electronics on his atmospheric meditations for the digital age. As part of the 88Rising crew, he experienced a creative rebirth that rebranded him as a serious artist after years as a popular Internet personality. After issuing his first EP, 2017's lo-fi In Tongues, he hit a chart peak with…

One of the most prominent bands to emerge during the late-2000s indie folk boom, Seattle's Fleet Foxes fuse earthy, harmony-rich folk-rock with a sense of lush pop sophistication calling to mind the late-'60s work of acts like the Beach Boys, the Zombies, and Fairport Convention. Following a six-year gap and a switch to Nonesuch, Fleet Foxes return…

Delivering lyrics with the speed of a bullet train, Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly experienced a meteoric rise in late 2011 when he transitioned from grinding out self-released mixtapes to working with major labels. From there, the rapper skyrocketed to superstar status, with each of his albums charting in the Top Ten. A beef with Eminem, a fil…

English singer/songwriter and guitarist Lianne La Havas arrived in the early 2010s with a mostly acoustic and hushed hybrid of alternative folk and soul. Influenced by the likes of Lauryn Hill and Nina Simone, she found success with the release of her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, which reached number five in the U.K. and earned her a nomi…

Taylor Swift is that rarest of pop phenomena: a superstar who managed to completely cross over from country to the mainstream. Swift's plans to support Lover with a tour in 2020 were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With some unexpected time on her hands, she wrote and recorded a new set of songs, many in collaboration with Aaron Dessner of T…

The stylistically dynamic and voluble Logic launched his rap career through uploads and mixtapes prior to signing a Def Jam deal that fostered a sustained mainstream presence throughout the second half of the 2010s. The MC, singer, songwriter, and producer made his recording debut in 2009 and five years later hit the Top Five with his debut album, …

Fiona Apple never quite belonged to a specific scene. The closest she came was at the dawn of her career when her debut album Tidal arrived as the alternative rock wave reached its crest in 1996. Upon its release in 1999, When the Pawn drew attention for its emotional intensity, unconventional arrangements, and eccentric flair, elements that were c…

A Los Angeles-based vocalist, producer, and sketch comedian, Oliver Tree brings a colorful, scooter-loving persona to his indie pop- and hip-hop-informed dance music.

What started as a one-off project and quickly evolved into a Grammy-nominated hip-hop super duo, Run the Jewels features the talents of Brooklyn rapper/producer El-P and Atlanta emcee Killer Mike. Atop hard-hitting beats and ominous production, the pair trade aggressive and often wryly comical rhymes, touching upon social issues, life and death, an…

Nicolas Jaar is one of the least predictable and most experimental dance music producers of the late 2000s and 2010s, composing reflective downtempo numbers indebted to jazz and modern classical as well as minimal techno. In 2016, Jaar released his second proper solo album, Sirens. 2012-2017, a surprise release of dancefloor-oriented material recor…

Los Angeles singer/songwriter Moses Sumney first emerged in 2014, combining rich soul balladry with art-pop, folk, and ambient R&B. The San Bernardino native began playing out in his early twenties, quickly crafting a distinctive style that he augmented in the studio with lush multi-tracked vocal arrangements. In September 2017, he delivered his de…

Britain's ever-evolving the 1975 balance hooky dance-rock and adult contemporary sophistication with arty forays into electronica and Auto-Tuned pop. It was a sound they first debuted on 2013's The 1975, which brought them international stardom, topping the charts in the U.K. and reaching the Top 30 on the Billboard 200. Notes on a Conditional Form…

Straddling the most experimental and mainstream sides of pop with ease, Charli XCX -- aka singer/songwriter Charlotte Aitchison has been making waves in the music industry in recent years. The simply named Charli arrived in September 2019, and debuted in the Top 50 of the Billboard 200 and by the end of the year, XCX was already at work on her next…

Canadian rapper and vocalist Drake sustained a high-level commercial presence shortly after he hit the scene in 2006, whether with his own chart-topping releases or a long string of guest appearances on hits by the likes of Lil Wayne, Rihanna, and A$AP Rocky. Drake collected two Grammy nominations for the 2020 ceremonies, one for best rap song with…

Justin Bieber became a global pop phenomenon with his debut, My World (2009), a multi-platinum smash in the singer's native Canada and several other territories. Only 15 years old at the time of its release, Bieber was fast-tracked to sustained commercial presence with a remix compilation, an acoustic set, a concert film, and additional studio reco…

The Weeknd is the alias of alternative R&B enigma-turned-pop star Abel Tesfaye, whose aching accounts of emotionally and physically toxic indulgences have translated to multi-platinum sales and Grammy recognition. Toward the end of 2019, after a handful of intermediary collaborations and soundtrack contributions, Tesfaye issued the first two single…

By bringing style, fun, and catchy songwriting back to rock music, the Strokes became one of the most influential bands of the early 21st century. Their direct, hooky sound -- equally inspired by classic tunesmiths like Buddy Holly and the brash attitude of fellow New Yorkers the Velvet Underground and Ramones -- set trends even as it looked back o…

Our conversation with the extremely talented multi-instrumentalist Isabelle Hyde.

Combining dream pop, R&B, electronic, and hip-hop influences into futuristic yet familiar-sounding songs, Grimes' Claire Boucher became one of the most distinctive artists of the 2010s. An ethereal yet hard-hitting concept album that explored climate change and human extinction, Miss Anthropocene appeared in February 2020. She is carrying Elon's ba…

KULT KRIMES is the solo effort from a multi-instrumentalist and electronic composer, London Van Rooy. Each song tells a tale of its own and seems to operate from individual characters existing in one vessel. Merging genres like hip hop, post-punk, synth-pop, and even industrial rock, daring to break the idea of having "a sound" while pulling you in…

Phavors is the dream-pop, semi-ambient, Sigur Ros(ey) outfit headed by Phil Marflak (songwriter, instrumentalist, singer, producer, marketer) and Kayla DeRosa (singer/songwriter), which effortlessly began making waves in the New Jersey music scene following the release of their debut single “Petals”. The band has written an additional handful of tr…

Tree Theater is the moniker for multi-instrumentalist and producer Will Carter. His music blends soulful melodies and upbeat rhythms with vast and colorful soundscapes. Much of his music is collaborative, featuring vocalists and instrumentalists as well. Will started making music in the Philadelphia area but has written projects in Denver, Colorado…

Coming on the scene with a throwback style that betrayed his years, Pittsburgh-based rapper and producer Mac Miller combined languid vocals, playful rhymes, and hypnotic production influenced by OutKast, Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, and Lauryn Hill. A pair of non-album singles ("Buttons" and "Programs") kept Miller busy into 2018, when he is…

Brandon Mesen comprises the solo effort “Mesen Around” and is aimed to release a record before 2020 reaches a close. The style of Mesen Around is everchanging, reaching within genres of folk, indie, rock, and alternative, but never straying too far from the ‘groovy’ roots which set him apart from bands of similar stature. Two projects, 2017 and 201…

Childish Gambino is the alter ego of multi-hyphenate American entertainer Donald Glover, who is also known for acting roles on television shows like Community and the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning Atlanta, as well as the film Solo: A Star Wars Story. Glover spent two years working on 3.15.20, a head-spinning collection of tracks influenced by funk…

Today we are joined by the two talented individuals who comprise the Art Rock/Ambient/Folk/RadioHead duo known as Phavors. They were wonderful to speak with and we cannot wait to have them back on!Check out the new debut single 'Petals', available everywhere now!

In January of 2020, he repeated this surprise-release approach with 11th studio album Music to Be Murdered By. The album featured production from Dr. Dre and cameos from the now-usual host of special guests, this time featuring Q-Tip, Ed Sheeran, Anderson .Paak, and the late Juice Wrld, among many others. The album debuted at number one on the Bill…

In a very special new edition of Sound Audits, we are joined by one of the greatest minds in East Coast music, the unforgettable lyrical genius Uncommon Nasa. Uncommon Nasa writes with a tone of harsh wisdom. As he attempts to break through the facade of mainstream culture and politics—its social relations, its stereotypes of race and class, its ne…

Nicolas Jaar is one of the least predictable and most experimental dance music producers of the late 2000s and 2010s, composing reflective downtempo numbers indebted to jazz and modern classical as well as minimal techno. After establishing his name throughout the techno scene for his early EPs and singles, he reached a wider audience with the rele…

In the summer of 2019, months after the release of his critically acclaimed album Zuu, Florida emcee Denzel Curry joined producer Kenny Beats on his online freestyle show, The Cave. The fruits of that meeting arrived in early 2020 as the Unlocked EP. Packing a brisk eight songs into less than 18 minutes, the set is a thrill to experience and begs f…

Rising from the streets of Compton but with a distinctly Southern flair, rapper Roddy Ricch lays his introspective rhymes atop melodic trap, resulting in a hybrid form that has captured the ears of both regions. The MC broke through in 2018 with the platinum single "Die Young" and topped the Billboard 200 the next year with Please Excuse Me for Bei…

Starting off their career as psychedelic explorers, the Australian band Tame Impala spent a decade subverting expectations and mutating their sound in fascinating ways, as well as being an inspiration to musicians as diverse as Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Lady Gaga. Guided by the musical prowess of Kevin Parker, the band's 2010 debut album Innersp…

A review of Radiohead's Discography. At some point in the early 21st century, Radiohead became something more than a band: they became a touchstone for everything that is fearless and adventurous in rock, inheriting the throne from David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and the Talking Heads. The latter group gave the band its name -- it's an album track on 1986…

What started as the dance-oriented Eden Project morphed into something different for Irish singer/songwriter Jonathon Ng, who shifted into more song-based indie electronic territory under the name EDEN during the latter half of the 2010s. With his 2018 album, Vertigo, EDEN earned acclaim and a notable amount of chart success on both sides of the At…

Despite a sparse digital presence and just one studio-recorded song, elusive math rock quartet Black Midi carved out a cult following in the late 2010s. A handful of video recordings of their live shows and the 2018 single "bmbmbmbm" were strong enough to gather significant buzz around their meticulously constructed yet feral rock sounds. Comprised…

Selena Gomez is a multi-talented performer with featured roles on the screen, both small and big, and a musical career that reached the summit of the charts from the very beginning. Her group Selena Gomez & the Scene issued a trio of breezy modern pop albums from 2009 to 2011 that each reached the Top Ten. After going solo, she scored a pair of num…

As a member of the British boy band One Direction, singer, songwriter, and actor Harry Styles topped the charts in impressive fashion, toured the world to play for millions of screaming fans, and sold albums by the bucketload before going solo in 2016 with his chart-topping 2017 debut, Harry Styles, and his similarly successful 2019 follow-up, Fine…

Anthony Fantano is an American music critic known for his website and YouTube channel, namely, 'The Needle Drop'. He started with text reviews on his blog in 2007 and shifted to a video review on YouTube in 2009. He reviews albums and songs from diverse genres including "rock, pop, electronic, metal, hip-hop, and experimental music". While his chan…

Combining her roots in Houston rap, gospel soul, and classical flute as confidently as she addresses issues of race, sexuality, and body positivity, singer/rapper Lizzo's music abounds with humor and charisma. Her 2013 debut, Lizzobangers, reflected her years in Minneapolis' hip-hop and indie music scenes (Doomtree's Lazerbeak was one of its produc…

The cliché about David Bowie is that he was a musical chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion and trends. While such a criticism is too glib, there's no denying that Bowie demonstrated a remarkable skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the '70s. After spending several years in the late '60s as a mod and as an all-around music-…

Blending elements of jazz, hip-hop, and soulful bedroom electronica into a literate brand of singer/songwriter fare, Rex Orange County is the performance alias of English musician Alex O'Connor. O'Connor was still a teenager when he gained attention online in 2015 for his self-produced album, bcos u will never be free. He built upon his viral buzz …

As we have both listened to a massive amount of content this year, and quite literally doubled our libraries and musical knowledge, we each counted down our top 20 songs of 2019. This should be obvious, but we DO NOT own any of the songs aside from the intro and the outro and all of the rights belong to the artists and their respective labels. We d…