sbcltr recommends the best music albums of the year
An increasingly woke audience and an expanding music scene has pushed independent musicians to experiment like never before. From electronic, to jazz, to pop and even rock, 2018 saw musicians testing fresh waters like never before. In such a challenging milieu, it is hard to rate albums but there are always some breakout hits that are hard to miss. Check out our recommendations below.
Tune In. Tune Out
Skyharbor: Sunshine Dust
If there is one thing that Skyharbor isn’t, it’s boring. After a long wait of three years, the band finally released its third album Sunshine Dust and it is has been worth the wait. Aggressive, clean and experimental AF (they even have a bit of piano and EDM thrown in), this dark take on the world is everything you need at the end of a cold, moody week.
The Local Train: Vaaqif
The New Delhi band has been a crowd pleaser from day one and they continue to spin magic with their second album Vaaqif, a soulful medley of well thought out lyrics, good music and a relatability factor that deserves more audience.
Prateek Kuhad: Cold/Mess
Can there be an indie-music list without a Prateek Kuhad on it? He’s inarguably India’s biggest music artist at the moment. This surprise EP (his last one was in 2015) has all the hallmarks of Kuhad—love, heartache, angst and conflict. The music video for cold/mess has already broken many a replay buttons, but all the six songs on the album are worth a listen and bound to invoke bittersweet feelings of longing for the one that got away.
Alisha Batth: Prologue
This is the second time that Batth has been on a sbcltr list (we gave her a shout-out at the time her debut EP released). The reason she stands out is because her powerful vocals that need little else to accompany them. In her six track EP, she lets her voice lead her through and it is that quality alone that makes Prologue breakout from the clutter of new releases. We didn’t know we needed haunted, folksy-punk as a genre until we heard her drawl it out.
Sutej Singh: The Emerging
It must take some quiet confidence in your art to make your debut purely instrumental, but this Solan based artist has masterfully pulled it off. The 8-track album is a breath of fresh air, completely magical in bits, theatrical the next, it is completely cinematography in motion. If there were one word to describe the album, it would be beautiful.
Laxmi Bomb: Bol Na Ranti
The 11-track album from the Mumbai Electro-pop group is an out and out “rant against pop culture.” The vitriol is delivered to the backdrop of groovy synths with tongue-in-cheek lyrics that adds to the sass quotient, proving that you can get socio-political without getting too heavy. It deserves a mention on the list because of its high electricity.
