Mariah the Scientist: Ry Ry World
Classy samples and Young Thug’s semen provide a pungent atmosphere for her somewhat generically well-sung tales of romantic mostly-woe; if she can work out how to express distinctly all the emotions implied in “Revenge”, she could be unstoppable (“2 You”, “Revenge”, “Aura”)
Low Cut Connie: Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts
Likable memento, some of which is worth replaying even by those of us actively memory-holing 2020: when he brings his own embellishments (Madonna’s “Dress You Up”), when he’s covering something literally as good as "Little Red Corvette" (“Everyday People”), when he’s bringing up an aspect of 2020 we shouldn’t allow ourselves to memory-hole (“Little Red Corvette”, “American Skin (41 Shots)”, “Dress You Up”)
“While punk music was our first love, pop music has become our fixation,” they say about this (fine, post-) punk album that’s best when they have an idea and use a riff to smash it up a bit, but not so there aren’t any chunky bits remaining (“Big Bad Want”, “Eggs n’ Bac’”, “Summer Sun”)
Bfb Da Packman: Fat N*ggas Need Love Too
Scurrilous Flint-to-Houston rapper/mailman finds TikTok more appropriate for his sexual stamina than Pornhub yet claims to spread STDs widely anyway: it’s all in fun, except for hating Rick Snyder (“Free Joe Exotic”, “Northside Ghetto Soldier”, “Fun Time”)
Polo G: Hall of Fame
Not that he’s disavowed firearms, but this is a turn away from the skillful psychopathy of Die a Legend towards the maudlin; yet he still wants to be the biggest star in rap so badly that there’s an incongruous tropical song with Nicki (“Rapstar”, “Broken Guitars”, “Epidemic”)
Palestinian producer’s samples and bloops are dinkily likable, though I don’t claim to understand all the political valences, let alone the alchemy (“Dirasat ’Ulya”, “Bilharf Alwahad”, “Simya”)
Unlike with some post-rock, there’s some rock to post about: sometimes the melodies even resolve, though not so often that I’m willing to memorize another keyboard shortcut (“Money Tree”, “Rice Tea”)
Tribu Baharú: Baharulogía
A Colombian band playing soukous with Kanda Bongo Man, and close to if not quite as much fun as that sounds (“Baharulogía”, “Avancé”)
Garbage: No Gods No Masters
Could the reason Shirley Manson’s broadened her ire from particular men to just about all men be that over the last couple of decades, men got worse (“The Creeps”, “No Gods No Masters”)
Doja Cat: Planet Her
Attaining competence sometimes leaves her in an uncanny valley between professionalism and actually being interesting, but she’s often carried by guests, key producer Y2K, and/or sheer force of trolling (“Ain’t Shit”, “Kiss Me More”)
Lil Baby & Lil Durk: The Voice of the Heroes
Here’s Lil Baby spitting at a density and intensity currently unmatched in mainstream rap, and here’s Lil Durk telling us “Voice of the heroes, I’m the voice of the heroes”, which later in the chorus he helpfully clarifies by explaining “see I’m the voice, Baby, he the hero”; clearly we need more of the latter than the former (“Still Runnin”, “Still Hood”)
Taylor Swift: Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
The preternatural wisdom about being a teenager she possessed when she was audibly a teenager isn’t so much of an achievement in her thirties (“White Horse”, “Mr. Perfectly Fine”)