10 Unbelievable Albums Turning 10 This March

March 2015 brought to light some of the most exciting, ambitious, and resourceful music ever made. Across all genres, artists broke barriers and created wonderfully diverse musical experiences that still stand out today. In this month’s edition, I’ll discuss some of the best albums that dropped during that unbelievable period of music history and how they have impacted the overall music sphere.

56 Nights- Future and DJ Esco

March 21

Trap, Southern hip hop 

10 tracks, 30 minutes

Favorite tracks: March Madness, 56 Nights, Diamonds From Africa, Never Gon Lose

Least favorite track: Da Fam on da Gram Skit

This completely solo (no pun intended) Future mixtape packs quite a punch for a half-hour project. Over pounding sub bass, blistering synth leads, bongos, and hard-hitting kick and snares from 808 Mafia, DJ Esco, Tarentino, and Southside, Future enthusiastically shouts in autotune details of his lavish lifestyle, delivering some of his strongest bars and most entertaining performances ever. Future’s so good on this project that there’s no gap left behind by the lack of features. An overall career highlight for the Atlanta trap icon.

Today, I Wrote Nothing | billy woods

March 31

East Coast hip hop, hardcore hip hop, abstract hip hop 

24 tracks, 52 minutes

Favorite tracks, U-Boats, Poor Company, Lost Blocks, True Story, Bicycles, Warmachines

Least favorite track: Benediction

Another installment in Billy Woods‘ (stylized in lowercase) lengthy discography, Today, I Wrote Nothing sees him rapping in an intricate, off beat, and poetic style over 24 vastly different instrumentals that range from jazzy, MF Doom-like East Coast beats and gospel beats with to punchy experimental beats with stretchy bass and distorted leads. Lyrically, this album handles Marxist-Leninist thought, police brutality, gang violence, economic inequality, and racism, all of which are mentioned with intense wordplay and various literary references that add a sense of irony.

'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' | Godspeed You! Black Emperor

March 31

Post-rock, drone, ambient

4 tracks, 40 minutes 

Favorite track: Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!’, Asunder, Sweet 

Least favorite track: Lambs’ Breath

‘Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress’ is yet another crushing, breathtaking, electrifying album from Canadian post-rock titans GY!BE. Featuring great orchestral movements, militaristic drumming, haunting drones, buzzy guitar solos, and huge swells of brass and woodwinds, this somewhat short collection of instrumentals rises like musical towers over 40 minutes, with a wide atmosphere and dramatic soundscapes. 

Fantasy Empire | Lightning Bolt

March 24

Noise rock, math rock, stoner rock

9 tracks, 48 minutes

Favorite tracks: Dream Genie, Snow White (& The 7 Dwarves Fans), Runaway Train, Over the River and Through the Woods

Least favorite tracks: King of My World

Fantasy Empire, the 6th studio album from the infamous noise rock duo Lightning Bolt, goes completely off the rails in terms of aggression and character. Relying heavily on distortion and sheer volume, this unflinchingly powerful release has some of the most ridiculously impressive songwriting I’ve heard on any album of similar caliber, with rapid polyrhythms, jazzy melodies, and shattering vocal moments that border on post-hardcore.

We Cool? | Jeff Rosenstock

March 3

Power pop, pop-punk, indie rock

12 tracks, 36 minutes 

Favorite tracks: You, In Weird Cities, I’m Serious, I’m Sorry, Nausea, Polar Bear or Africa, Hey Alison!

Least favorite track: Novelty Sweater

With danceable guitar rhythms, punchy drums,  DIY production, and Jeff’s trademark yell-singing, We Cool? is an album with the atmosphere of a college party, the sound of a skatepark, and the lyrical DNA of a bootleg Blink-182 single. It’s one of the most rebellious pop-punk albums in recent memory, completely reinventing the wheel when it comes to writing. 

Hasta La Raíz | Natalia Lafourcade

Mar 17 

Folk pop, chamber pop, Latin pop

12 tracks, 52 minutes

Favorite tracks: Hasta La Raíz, Palomas Blancas, Lo Que Construimos

Least favorite tracks: Vámonos Negrito

With her glorious lyric soprano voice and heartfelt, poetic songwriting, Natalia Lafourcade really stands out in the world of Latin pop. Her 5th and most commercially successful album is essentially a modern spin on 60s chamber pop, with clean, spacey production, great harmonies, beautiful vocal effects, and an overall atmosphere that one might describe as bittersweet. 

Jenny Death | Death Grips

March 19

Noise rock, experimental hip hop, rap rock

10 tracks, 49 minutes

Favorite tracks: On GP, Inanimate Sensation, The Powers That B, I Break Mirrors With My Face In the United States, Turned Off, Beyond Alive 

Least favorite track: Pss Pss

Preceding the release of the double album The Powers That B, Jenny Death is a rawer, more rock-infused effort, harkening back to the band’s debut mixtape Exmilitary. With its ear-piercing distorted drums, heavy guitar riffs, rubbery bass, stuttering leads, and copiously edited vocals, it’s a refreshing mix of rap, electronic, and rock. Lyrically, it follows themes of existential crisis, depression, loneliness, mania, and schizophrenia, topics that are perfectly suited for the extraordinarily forceful and distinctive instrumentals. 

The Powers That B | Death Grips

March 31

Experimental hip hop, noise rock, glitch hop

18 tracks, 1 hour and 20 minutes 

Favorite tracks: On GP, Up My Sleeves, Inanimate Sensation, The Powers That B, Centuries of Damn

Least favorite track: Voila

Consisting of 18 tracks, 10 of which were featured on Jenny Death, The Powers That B is everything great about Death Grips and more. Intricate drum patterns, chopped and screwed samples, loud electronic squelches and pops, extremely glitchy vocals from frontman MC Ride, and probably some of the darkest lyrics that the trio has ever written. Touching on complex issues such as substance abuse, depression, schizophrenia, racism, suicidal ideation, herd mentality, and more, Ride’s cryptic word choice and aggressive approach to rapping perfectly matches the general tone of the bleak and overwhelming instrumentals. 

Carrie and Lowell- Sufjan Stevens 

March 31

Singer-songwriter, indie folk, ambient pop

11 tracks, 43 minutes

Favorite tracks: all (but particularly Fourth of July, Death with Dignity, Should Have Known Better, The Only Thing)

Least favorite track: n/a

On Carrie and Lowell, Sufjan steps away from his often folklore-and-romance-inspired writing and delves deeper into his childhood, bittersweetly describing his relationship with his mother, Carrie, and stepfather, Lowell, hence the title of the album. Production-wise, Carrie and Lowell has more electronic elements (mainly synth pads) than Sufjan’s previous albums, and his vocals feel very loud compared to the rest of the mix, giving it a really intimate feel, like he’s singing in your face. In addition to her death, he breaks down his mother’s neglect and drug addiction, his alcohol abuse, and the religious trauma that permeates many of his other albums. Overall, it’s a very sobering album, but well worth the time spent listening.

To Pimp a Butterfly- Kendrick Lamar

March 15

Conscious hip hop, jazz rap, West Coast hip hop

16 tracks, 1 hour & 18 minutes 

Favorite tracks: all (but particularly For Sale? (Interlude), Alright, Mortal Man, Wesley’s Theory, u, Momma)

Least favorite track (but not by much): How Much a Dollar Cost

Kendrick’s earth-shattering performances on TPAB will most likely go down as some of the greatest in rap history; many blogs, newspapers, websites, and even other artists have considered it to be the “greatest album ever.” With production from many huge artists including Sounwave, FlyLo, Thundercat, and Pharrell Williams, and features from Ron Isley, Bilal, Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, and frequent collaborator Anna Wise, among others, Kendrick vigorously cuts down racial injustice, police brutality, racism, and inequality like a hot knife through butter, using multisyllabic rhythms, off-kilter flows, and great wordplay. When not touching on his struggles with discrimination, Kenny embraces his identity and redefines what it means to be a Black individual in modern America. Mortal Man, the 15-minute closing track, even has an incredible “interview” with Tupac, strung together using segments of other interviews recorded before his death. It’s an album that touches on Californian rap culture while also providing Kendrick’s own perspective on racial tension and identity.

Thank you for reading this month’s music edition of the Beat!