Best breakthrough acts of 2018

Spending her time between New York and her hometown of London, Ella Mai caught the attention of producer DJ Mustard, who found something really special in her: She had a singing style that was streetwise and fresh and classic and modern at the same time. Although her first series of EPs didn't do much, her 2018 single "Boo'd Up" absolutely shot her into the pop chart echelon. That beat, her vocal phrasings on the chorus — they were signs of a star in the making. Her follow-up single, "Trip," was also a solid performer. Then her self-titled album dropped, and it proved to be a surprisingly wise slice of modern R&B. Some have even compared her to the likes of a young Mary J. Blige, and we gotta be honest: The comparisons are not unwarranted.

This self-made Texas "boy band" is, in fact, a self-produced rap collective whose member lineup cuts across many races and orientations. Their inclusive nature is not always reflective of their music; however, frontman Kevin Abstract and the fluctuating members of Brockhampton continue to make their own sound without outside influences, with their beats abrasive and their lyrical attacks pointed. However, the trilogy of "Saturation" albums — along with their intense live shows — have built up a following, and in 2018 they managed to top the album charts with their new set, "Iridescence," without even a hint of radio support. Welcome to the big time, fellas.

Known for creating avant-garde soundscapes with nothing but his saxophone, Colin Stetson has been building up his credentials with increasingly ambitious instrumental albums over the course of the new millennium. In 2018, however, he became an in-demand film and television composer, and boy did he deliver. While the Hulu Mars colonization series, "The First," got decent notices, Stetson's score for it, a mixture of triumph and worry in the vast reaches of space, was easily the best part. Yet when it came to his score for the Toni Collette horror film, "Hereditary," he tapped into something much more primal, much more visceral, squeezing fear and tension out of every single note. Something tells us that Colin is going to be getting a lot more calls for film gigs very soon.

Jack Tatum's band Wild Nothing seemingly switches up its sound with each album, giving its discography a unique feel that still comes from a central artistic place. With "Indigo," the band's fourth full-length, Tatum applied all his craft to make the best '80s pop-rock record imaginable — and what's even more amazing is that he actually hit that goal. "Indigo" breaks out the octagon drums, sax solos and a litany of era-specific keyboards. But what's perhaps most striking is that his songs don't feel like a pastiche. Sure, "Partners in Motion" evokes a specific feel not too far removed from a 'Til Tuesday album, but it still feels strangely contemporary despite all the neon texture. Packed with hooks and a distinct sense of purpose, Wild Nothing made 2018 the year when it went from a group with good notices to a band people were truly starting to love.

Meghan Remy's wildly eccentric U.S. Girls project has been going strong for close to a decade, but the songs she's made recently have been otherworldly levels of thrilling. A quick listen to "Disco 2012" off her 2013 "Free Advice Column" EP shows just how deep and psychedelic her sound can go, but it serves as a sharp contrast to the panoply of styles she tackles on the group's breakthrough 2018 effort, "In a Poem Unlimited." Harping on everything from doo-wop tropes to P-funk song structures to hard '80s electro-pop, her band's new effort has been one of 2018's most acclaimed releases — and for good reason. It's the kind of record that demands more than a single listen.

Straight out of Edinburgh, the trio of Scots who make up Young Fathers has long been U.K. critical mainstays, winning the coveted Mercury Music Prize in 2014 for its debut full-length "Dead." Two albums later, the Young Fathers are still making challenging, forward-thinking pop music, and 2018's "Cocoa Sugar" felt like their announcement in the U.S. With no two songs sounding even remotely the same, the group's sound runs from gospel to electro hip-hop to dusty basement funk at a near breakneck pace and may very well serve as their U.S. breakthrough moment. (Critics are already on board.) Whether they hit any commercial highs in the States remains to be seen, but when you have a record as infinitely relistenable as "Cocoa Sugar," we don't see them remaining unknown for long.

California's best-kept stoner-rock secret Sleep has been at it for over two decades now. The audience for their fuzzed-out sludge-metal sound has been small but devout. But it wasn't until 2012 when people really started to take notice, as Southern Lord Records' rerelease of their 1999 album "Dopesmoker" made hard rock fans from all walks discover what was so special about this group to begin with. Even better? 2018 brought forth the group's first new album in nearly 20 years, and "The Sciences" brought the kind of uncompromising in-the-red guitar thunder that fans have been eagerly waiting for. Hell, it was enough to even land Sleep on the Billboard charts, which, for some heavy-as-hell indie stoner-metal, is quite the damn accomplishment.

As a one-time keyboardist for Jenny Lewis' touring band, Natalie Prass hasn't only branched out on her own but she also has done so with a distinct sound that recalls several decades of pop history, often all within the same song. While her self-titled 2015 debut garnered several great critical notices, her colorful, expansive sophomore effort, "The Future and The Past," is a true marvel. Although each song is rooted in a simple piano hook, the textures, builds and sense of wonder found within each track have elevated Prass to a whole new echelon (oh, and the way she stacks those backing vocals!). This is one of those records that gives you a new "favorite song" every month or so, which, in turn, makes Prass one of our favorite breakthroughs of the year.

For the Chicago-by-way-of-Baltimore transgender artist known as Angel Marcloid, music is a way to depict the chaos of the world. While Marcloid's knowledge of everything from smooth jazz to industrial metal is nothing short of breathtaking, her sophomore album under her Fire-Toolz moniker is a striking, thundering sonic document. Sure, songs are divided into segments and given names, but each piece is a pastiche of seemingly disparate genres, as New Age keyboards straight from the '90s meld with ambient synth waves while a screaming voice not too outside of the realm of hardcore emo bands plays over everything. Fire-Toolz's blatant disregard for genre is a thing to behold, and in 2018, people finally began to take notice of Marcloid's unusual, insane and ultimately satisfying aural world.

Lindsey Jordan has been working under the Snail Mail moniker since 2015, slowly building up an audience around her Liz Phair-inspired sound. Jordan's EPs showed promise, but her 2018 debut full-length, "Lush," saw her songwriting take a quantum leap forward, wrapping her voice and somewhat bittersweet lyrics around swirling guitar hooks that will get stuck in your head for days. At times she recalls everything you loved about '90s alternative rock, and at others, she just sounds like the best band you've discovered this year.

Although they've been active since 2013, the K-pop boy band BTS only started really finding their identity a few years ago, embracing a bad-boy aesthetic to their hard-edged dance-pop and riding it all the way onto American shores. Although they stunned the world by netting a top-five single in the U.S. in 2017, it wasn't until 2018 when they absolutely saturated the market. They added two new Gold singles to their collection ("Fake Love" and "Idol") and went platinum with the Steve Aoki remix of their song "Mic Drop." Add in two more chart-topping albums to the mix, and you just have to admit it: It's BTS' moment, and we're all just observers of it.

Having come into prominence through a series of YouTube covers, Kane Brown's origin story feels more akin to that of an upstart pop artist than a country titan. But Brown's young age belies his deep-seated love of country music's storied past. While he found success with his eponymous debut, his 2018 album, "Experiment," really did live up to the name. While working within typical Nash Vegas song structures, he sneaked in chanting backing vocals, rock-and-roll guitar solos and even a bit of sitar work  and that's just on the song "Baby Come Back to Me." Brown is working within the mainstream but very much making his own place in it. The reward for his hard work? A chart-topping album, of course.

While the German-born Stefan Kozalla (better known as DJ Koze) has been releasing albums under his favorite moniker since 2003, it wasn't until 2018 when everything truly started coming into place. With "Knock Knock," his third studio album proper, he not only expanded his guest list — welcoming acoustic-folk greats like José González into the fold — but also his sense of sonic wonder, as each song seemed to tackle a new genre of dance music. "Scratch That" is the lo-fi electro hummer, "Pick Up" is the Daft Punk-indebted floor workout, and "Planet Hase" is the sound of vaporwave all grown up. DJ Koze did not get a ton of notice prior, but "Knock Knock" was the moment that everyone latched onto him — and for good reason.

Known as "Noname Gypsy" during her 2013 appearance on Chance the Rapper's iconic mixtape, "Acid Rap," Noname (Fatimah Nyeema Warner) has developed a sharp spitting style all her own — and one she deployed to amazing effect on her 2016 mixtape, "Telefone." Songs like "Casket Pretty" really helped ground the plight of what she saw in her hometown of Chicago, but where "Telefone" was a wise-beyond-her-years debut, her first proper studio album, "Room 25," threw her to the front of several critical conversations, as her confident rhymes and funk-based music backbone proved that like Chance and Saba before her, there is no limit to the extent of Chicago's rap talent right now.

Can you forgive the horrible name? We understand if you can't, but in disregarding Felix Weatherall's moniker, you'd also be neglecting one of the most progressive electronic albums of the year. Following a series of increasingly better EPs, Weatherall struck gold with debut album, "Family Portrait," which is the kind of electronic set that you'd expect Warp Records to put out if it had more commercial intentions. Songs like "Don't Wake Dad" recall peak-era Bonobo, while the drum-machine frenzy of "The Beginning" is no doubt soundtracking the lounge of your favorite downtown nightclub right now. Weird, wonderful and wild in equal measures, Ross From Friends' debut shows that the future of dance music is just as quirky as you were hoping it was going to be.

For Switzerland-born, Nashville-bred Sophie Allison, Soccer Mommy has been an outlet for her distinct, minimalist, yet evocative brand of guitar pop. Equally comfortable with light acoustic strums and fuzzed-out electric rockers, her moniker has cheekily avoided any twee connotations to instead stand for something much more impactful. Her proper full-length debut, "Clean," is a wonder, filled to the brim with personality and surprising degrees of pathos. It may well be the indie hit of the year, but it proved that sometimes all you need to break through the noise is just to be insanely good at what you do.

As the most prominent band to be a part of Tyler, The Creator's rip-roaring "Odd Future" collective, The Internet has been working hard at their contemporary brand of soul-pop over the course of a few albums now, working with the late Mac Miller and remixing the likes of Lana Del Rey and Charli XCX to help raise their profile. Yet 2018's "Hive Mine" (their fourth album) was a different beast altogether: streamlined and accessible without compromising their ideals one bit. Sleek wah guitars and crisp drums ground the band's slick grooves, and they were rewarded with an album debut in the upper echelons of the chart. Well worth it.

Troye Sivan has actually been a known entity for a while, whether it be through his early success as a YouTuber or even his I-can't-believe-he-did-that role as a flashback mutant in the film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." While he did manage to drop an acclaimed album called "Blue Neighborhood" in 2015, it was this year's "Bloom" that truly shot him into the public consciousness. From "My! My! My!" to the title track, Sivan's grown-up self managed to deftly tell the story of what it's like to be gay in the modern world, complete with a guest appearance by pal Ariana Grande. Add in his role in the buzzy awards season film "Boy Erased" and you have a star-turn of a year if there ever was one.

George FitzGerald's love of music led to him working at a hip British record store in his youth, but little did he know that record stores would soon be carrying his music. While his 2015 debut record, "Fading Love," garnered decent notices in the midtempo electronic scene, it was his 2018 effort, "All That Must Be," that truly launched him into the stratosphere. Improving on his debut in every way, FitzGerald's ear for melody is unmatched, as the chorus to his indelible Lil Silva collaboration "Roll Back" proves. Mix in guest appearances by Tracey Thorn and a top-of-his-game Bonobo, and you have one hell of a reason to point to George FitzGerald as one of the great new voices in dance music.

In the dead middle of 2017, Low Cut Connie, the Jersey-born, Philly-bred project led by Adam Weiner, dropped as a stellar full-band cover of Prince's "Controversy" to a lot of internet buzz. But it wasn't even the peak of the group's ascension. From glowing critical notices to getting a spot on President Barack Obama's 2015 playlist, Low Cut Connie's brand of modern, down-and-dirty piano boogie certainly has struck a chord while sounding like nothing else in the current rock landscape. With 2018's "Dirty Pictures (Part 2)," it sounds like the band has fully come into its own — and it is just getting started.

One of the best rock critic narratives over the past couple of years has been the gradual re-evaluation and embrace of Athens, Georgia's great non-R.E.M. export in the form of The B-52s. While they had other songs besides their iconic quirky party-pop hits, the group was made of truly talented composers, and that guitar tone they managed to achieve was otherworldly. Often imitated but rarely bettered, leave it to the Washington D.C. trio of Flasher to come closest to capturing that studio magic. Their debut album, "Constant Image," is the melodic guitar album of the year and one that's as instantly listenable as it is endlessly repeatable. Professional songwriters only wish they had this band's natural knack for a pop hook and instant charm.

Formed in 2015, Ontario native Brandon Williams used his Chastity moniker to filter his influences into a unique rock sound — and when your influences range from Stone Temple Pilots to Hole, that's bound to leave you in a weird, somewhat twisted place. With his aptly named debut, "Death Lust," Williams is unafraid to dive deep into some hard topics while walls of guitar fuzz crash in on his dynamic choruses. There's a soft-loud dynamic between the choruses and verses that makes "Death Lust" recall a lot of late-'90s hard- and alternative-rock, but we're guessing that's just the way Williams likes it. (And it's OK, Brandon: You have full permission to write great pop songs like "Suffer" as much as you want.)

Although he had been a bass sideman for a lot of L.A. alternative-jazz types as of late, 2018 was Sam Wilkes' year. Early in 2018, he put out a joint collaborative album with his saxophone buddy Sam Gendel, and it merged ambient structures with jazz pastiches to make something dreamy, psychedelic and new. With "WILKES," his second release of 2018 and first solo album proper, he upped the ante considerably. Each of these six tracks moves to its own groove, often tying simple two-note looped grooves into a flurry of exploratory journeys where drummer Louis Cole, a returning Gendel and guitarist Brian Green help Wilkes alter jazz's very formula to create something altogether new. An extraordinary debut.

Oh sure, the great Brazilian producer Alexandre Kassin has put out albums before, but often as part of his +2 ensemble or when he was off producing other artists. However, few could've seen what he was going to pull off with "Relax," his years-in-the-making effort. Swinging from sambas to Frank Zappa-esque orchestral freakouts to unfiltered disco vamps, "Relax" is a quirky, unique record that shows a producer of Kassin's strength and vision in full control of his powers. A lot of American journalists finally got on Kassin's wave due to "Relax," and we just hope several more follow suit.

Kali Uchis was born in Virginia but jointly raised in the U.S. and in her parents' home of Colombia, but not much was known from the young Uchis outside of some prominent guest vocals on recent albums by Gorillaz and Tyler, the Creator. Given those spots, her solo debut could've sounded like anything, but the joy in her first full-length, "Isolation," shows just how truly expansive it is. Fusing bossa-nova with modern pop and R&B flourishes — along with guest spots from Thundercat, Tyler, and even Kendrick Lamar's in-house producer — Uchis' effort is bilingual in its lyrics but global in its fusion of styles and fierce perspective. Keep an eye on Kali: She's going to incredible places.

At age 29, Ryley Walker has already proved himself to be a bit of a smart-ass — not in an insufferable way like Father John Misty but in a wry and witty way that has made his Twitter account a go-to for fans and casual observers alike. Yet since his stellar 2015 debut effort, "Primrose Green," Walker's style has moved from psych-dabbed folk music to something bluesier and more experimental. While his 2018 album, "Deafman Glance," was a challenging new chapter for Walker's fans, he followed that up in short order with a track-by-track cover of Dave Matthews Band's infamous leaked album, "The Lillywhite Sessions." What's even more remarkable is how earnestly Walker takes himself on the DMB set, turning upbeat jam numbers into slow-burn dirges, the humor existing in the transformation of it all. Yet it wasn't a joke record: It was deliberately planned, expertly executed and one of many reasons why 2018 served as the breakthrough year for the Illinois-bred songwriter.

Dropped on the first day of 2018 with no warning, former Arrogant Sons of Bitches/Bomb the Music Industry frontman, Jeff Rosenstock, helped ward off 2017's bad vibes with a fully formed rock album that was equal parts exasperated and lively. Rosenstock is no doubt world-weary, but he's managed to use his burgeoning solo career to refine his pop songwriting instincts into a force to be reckoned with. "POST-" really did feel like a breakthrough, and at times it was as funny as it was sweet. "Nine times outta ten I'll be thinkin' of you," he says during the unnamed final track, and that's about how frequently we think about this album.