Jamie XX, In Colour (Young Turks)

Since his 2006 debut as one-third of the cloak-and-dagger British indie-pop band The XX, 26-year-old Jamie XX has flexed a strength in sample-based production and the variety of moods he is able to project through it. While the London-based DJ has bounced around between careful, ruminating vocal collaborations and featureless floor-filling bangers, Jamie has always thrived on his minimalist assembly of well-balanced foreground and background sounds that leave us craving more.

Over the past six years we’ve seen him cast in a few different lights, from the two full-length studio albums with The XX to his 2011 compilation of Gil-Scott Heron remixes. In Colour is a culmination of everything Jamie is capable of: trance-inducing songs filled with cascading vocal samples (“Girl” and “The Rest is Noise”); solemn, breathtaking collaborations with fellow XX bandmates (“Stranger in a Room” and “Sleep Sound”); and upbeat, fist-pumping dance tracks (“Gosh” and “I Know There’s Gonna Be [Good Times]”).

Favorite Tracks: “Girl”, “Obvs” and “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) [feat. Young Thug & Popcaan]”

Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath/Interscope)

There seems to be a pattern with a vast majority of new-school rappers on the come up in modern hip-hop. After their initial buzz dies down, they either disappear off the radar of cutting-edge blogs or fall into the major-label trap. The latter is much too common, as artists unknowingly relinquish character and individuality for fame. Kendrick has been an outlier. As he gained popularity, his sound became sharpened and his lyrics slowly took a heightened sense of consciousness.

While Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City was a reflection of his austere upbringing in Compton, California, TPAB is a statement. It’s a macrocosmic outlook on the 360 degree Kendrick Lamar experience: African American oppression, surrendering oneself to financial success, inner struggles that come with fame and finding an equilibrium between an unwanted childhood and the synthetic glamour of the hip-hop world, all tied together though a poem that encapsulates the entire work. If GKMC was K. Dot’s senior thesis, To Pimp a Butterfly is a graduate-school level paper: brooding, aware and taboo.

Favorite Tracks: “Wesley’s Theory”, “How Much a Dollar Cost” and “Alright”

Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, Surf (Self Released)

Following the remarkable success of his sophomore effort Acid Rap, Chance the Rapper chose an unorthodox route. After turning down dozens of major-label offers, he teamed up with long time friend Donnie Trumpet as part of The Social Experiment. In their debut project Surf, the Chicago collective flaunts a deliberate creativity and dips its feet into a wide range of genres, including but not limited to: neo soul, funk, hip-hop, R&B, acid jazz and ska. What’s so special about the album isn’t necessarily it’s representation of a finite, newly engineered sound (think Yeezus); rather, the way Donnie and fellow bandmates are able to bring a wide variety of sub-genres together and make it work. In true Chance/Donnie/SoX form, the album transitions through grooving, beach day bangers as well as melancholy tracks filled with pensive electric pianos and lonely trumpets.

Lyrically, each track possesses an underlying message. On “Wanna Be Cool”, Chance, Big Sean and Kyle question the way our society perceives coolness. “Familiar”, which features King Louie and an unexpected Quavo of Migos, contemplate our standards of beauty and “Slip Slide” explores the fear of failing in the music industry by succumbing to major-label influence. If we learned anything musically from this project, it’s the idea that just because there’s rap doesn’t make it hip-hop.

Favorite Tracks: “Windows”, “Miracle” and “Familiar”

Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color (ATO Records)

If there has been an album in the past year that embodies the progression of modern music, Sound & Color would be it. Heavily based in roots-rock, the band gained immense popularity in 2012 after there first project, Boys & Girls. Their debut effort made use of multi-genre crossing sounds, incorporating elements of 50s Southern black soul, 60s psychedelic rock and 70s funk, all while keeping in touch with modern alternative rock. As to be expected, Sound & Color takes this one step further. Brittany Howard, the band’s lead vocalist, continues to paint walls with her desperately hungry Janis Joplin/Curtis Mayfield voice. This time though, her accompaniments bring with it more diverse, amorous melodies, alluding to Otis Redding, The Strokes and Al Green.

Favorite Tracks: “Don’t Wanna Fight”, “Gimme All Your Love” and “Dunes”