Best Albums of 2018

North Carolina’s own, Jermaine Cole (J. Cole), has had a very successful year. Highlights include releasing his fourth album KOD. The acronym is understood to be defined in three ways: Kids on Drugs, King Overdose and Kill Our Demons. The album, released on April 20, speaks about topics that anyone can relate to: mental health, love, addiction and money management. The theme of the album is about choosing res...

The whirlwind, climactic experience of the romantic and sexual connection of America’s Royal Family, The Carters, has been placed at the height of discussion with the surprise release of Everything Is Love earlier this summer. Curating images of their extensive grip upon the music industry, the triumphs of the black community, and their memorable road to recovery, Beyoncé and Jay-Z electrified ...

I first heard Snail Mail when my older sister sent me the track “Heat Wave,” one of the first singles off of Lush, as an inside joke about snails. I’m glad I gave it a listen, because after that, I was completely hooked.   Snail Mail’s Lush is a ten-track testament on what it’s like to come of age and be in love, and 19-year-old Lindsey Jordan hits home on every one of them. Each song i...

Post Malone is someone we thought was going to be a one-hit wonder with “White Iverson”, but little did we know what he had in store. Malone was born in New York but grew up in Texas. Before Malone made his fame, he opened for Justin Bieber’s tour. This experience got the word out about Post Malone, and everyone fell in love after that. Malone said he was going to drop an album in 2017, but had fans ...

Janelle Monae lets fearless words liquefy and melt from the tip of her tongue to take inevitable precedence over her newfound, unabashed art form, she calls Liberation. It harmonically transfused itself with vulnerability and an unapologetic charisma to produce the lushly, youthful visual album, Dirty Computer. The intergalactic Songstress ventures into the realms of accepting her pansexual awakening...

On June 29,  Canadian rapper Drake released his fifth studio album entitled Scorpion. Drake’s LP launched as the number one album on the Billboard 200 and includes singles like “In My Feelings”, “Nonstop”, and chart-topping singles like “Nice for What”, and “God’s Plan”. The project was Drake’s first double album. Scorpion broke Spotify’s one-day global record with 132.45 million ...

Let’s Go Sunshine by The Kooks was released in late August of this year, and I continue to replay it every day; the soulful acoustics and unique vocals of lead singer Luke Pritchard push it to my personal number one. Inside In / Inside Out is their most popular album, including their hit song “Naive.” Since the 2006 release, The Kooks have produced some of their best music with Let’s Go Sunshine ...