Pitchfork's 20 Best Pop and R&B Albums of 2017

Until a late flurry of percussion arrives, doleful guitar and bass are Solána Rowe’s only accompaniment on opener “Supermodel,” a stinging kiss-off to an adulterous ex. It doesn’t prepare you for the inventively abstract production that follows—disembodied voices haunting the airy trap-soul of “Broken Clocks,” “Anything”’s stuttering video-game sonics—but it instantly establishes the emotive power of her rasping, percussive vocal. Whether she’s feeling empowered by her physicality on the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “Doves in the Wind” or wrestling with insecurity on “Drew Barrymore,” SZA’s songs impact quickly and deeply.

Four years after Lorde illuminated suburban teendom with *Pure Heroine*, she captures the dizzying agony of adolescence on *Melodrama*. “Everyone has that first proper year of adulthood,” she told Beats 1. “I think I had that year.” She chronicles her experiences in these insightful odes to self-discovery that find her battling loneliness (“Sober”), conquering heartbreak (“Writer in the Dark”), embracing complexity (“Hard Feelings/Loveless”), and letting herself lose control. “Every night I live and die,” she sings on “Perfect Places,” an emotionally charged song about escaping reality. “I’m 19 and I\'m on fire.\"

R&B singer Kelela’s deeply personal debut LP does just what it says on the label. Over beats from Jam City, Bok Bok, Kingdom, and Arca—which swerve from warped and aqueous to warm and lush to icy and danceable—Kelela turns her emotions inside out with a sultriness and self-assuredness that few underground artists can muster. She’s tough and forthright, tender and subdued on songs about breakups (“Frontline”), makeups (“Waitin”), and pickups (“LMK”)—and the way she spins from one mode to the next is dizzying in the best way possible.

The album that finally reveals a superstar. Sampha Sisay spent his nascent career becoming music’s collaborator à la mode—his CV includes impeccable work with the likes of Solange, Drake, and Jessie Ware—and *Process* fully justifies his considered approach to unveiling a debut full-length. It’s a stunning album that sees the Londoner inject raw, gorgeous emotion into each of his mini-epics. His electronic R&B sounds dialed in from another dimension on transformative opener “Plastic 100°C,” and “Incomplete Kisses” is an anthem for the broken-hearted that retains a smoothness almost exclusive to this very special talent. “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano,” meanwhile, makes a solid case for being 2017’s most beautiful song.

Taking on the majority of lyric writing for the first time, Charlotte Gainsbourg imbues her delicate vocals with arresting intimacy on her most personal album to date. Slipping between French and English, she mourns for her father (the pulsating electro-pop of “Lying with You”) and her half sister (the simmering, orchestral “Kate”). Grief hangs over the title track’s spare, fragile groove, but “Les Oxalis” juxtaposes a visit to her sister’s grave with glittering disco beats, while Paul McCartney collaboration “Songbird in a Cage” welds urgent funk to a glorious pop chorus.

After the introspective reflections of 2015 debut *Ibeyi*, twins Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz set their focus on the volatile political landscape. The spare, percussive “Away Away” clings to the hope of a better tomorrow with an uplifting, hymnal hook before Kamasi Washington’s saxophone underscores a gripping mood of defiance on “Deathless,” an account of wrongful arrest. However, “No Man Is Big Enough for My Arms” best encapsulates the album’s blend of bold expression and entrancing, experimental R&B, striking at misogyny with a fierce punch wrapped inside a velvet glove of beautiful harmonies.

Pushing past the GRAMMY®-winning art rock of 2014’s *St. Vincent*, *Masseduction* finds Annie Clark teaming up with Jack Antonoff (as well as Kendrick Lamar collaborator Sounwave) for a pop masterpiece that radiates and revels in paradox—vibrant yet melancholy, cunning yet honest, friendly yet confrontational, deeply personal yet strangely inscrutable. She moves from synthetic highs to towering power-ballad comedowns (“Pills”), from the East Coast (the unforgettable “New York”) to “Los Ageless,” where, amid a bramble of strings and woozy electronics, she admits, “I try to write you a love song/But it comes out a lament.”

For the most part, Lana Del Rey’s fifth album is quintessentially her: gloomy, glamorous, and smitten with California. But a newfound lightness might surprise longtime fans. Each song on *Lust* feels like a postcard from a dream: She fantasizes about 1969 (“Coachella - Woodstock In My Mind”), outruns paparazzi on the Pacific Coast Highway (“13 Beaches”), and dances on the H of the Hollywood sign (“Lust for Life” feat. The Weeknd). She even duets with Stevie Nicks, the queen of bittersweet rock. On “Get Free,” she makes a vow to shift her mindset: \"Now I do, I want to move/Out of the black, into the blue.”

Syd, of The Internet and Odd Future fame, shows another side of her musical persona. *Fin* takes a carnal R&B turn with all the complex emotions it brings. Her demure voice gives strong vapors of Aaliyah and *Velvet Rope*-era Janet Jackson on “Drown In It,” “Body,” and “Know.” Syd gives herself a pep talk on “All About Me” and gets lit on “Dollar Bills” and “Nothin to Somethin.” And this being Syd, the tracks glisten with futuristic shine.

Kehlani Parrish reached the release of her debut album the hard way—dues paid in a teen pop band and on *America\'s Got Talent*, various personal struggles—but it’s helped sharpen her silky R&B with a bewitching edge. She can do radio-friendly summer jams (“Distraction” and “Undercover”), but really comes alive when the Sweet and Sexy gets outmuscled by the Savage. “Not Used to It” hits deep, while “Too Much” and “Do U Dirty” are gloriously lewd and completely brilliant.

Following 2013’s *Paramore*, Hayley Williams became “tired of self-doubt and losing friends” and considered decommissioning the band. It makes this rich, vibrant, defiantly poppy return as surprising as it is satisfying. On an album indebted to the ’80s, there are echoes of Talking Heads (“Hard Times”) and Blondie’s forays into reggae (“Caught in the Middle”), while guitarist Taylor York’s love of Afro-pop informs “Told You So.” Darker moods sit beneath the shiny surface though, and Williams’ lyrics offer compelling studies of frustration and self-sabotage.

Self-assured and sonically restless, Charli XCX is a chameleonic pop force. This mixtape lets her middle-finger-flipping attitude loose on \'80s synth-pop and it’s a cinematic experience loaded with sharp plot twists, A-list cameos, and an epic finale. The curtain rises with the Carly Rae Jepsen-starring “Backseat”’s sparse, coiled electro, and Charli sharply questions the cost of love across staccato beats on “Porsche,\" but “Out of My Head” is the real scene-stealer. United with Tove Lo and ALMA, the trio bid to rid themselves of a no-good lover on a shimmering pop gem. This is the sound of girl power in 2017.

Khalid\'s soft-lit ’80s synths and heartfelt, raspy vocals will catch your attention from the start, but it’s his effortless warmth and sincerity that will keep you coming back. An alumnus of the Apple Music Up Next program and a 2018 GRAMMY® Award contender, the Texas songwriter is one of the year’s most impressive newcomers. *American Teen*, his sensational debut album, is all about summer sunshine, young love, and the adventures of tight-knit friends—subjects perfectly matched with the elegant blend of throwback R&B, ‘80s pop, and glitchy future-soul.

Goldfrapp have tended to zig-zag between dynamic electronica and sparser, folkier sounds with every release, but their seventh album successfully absorbs both styles. “Systemagic,” a pounding throwback to 2005’s *Supernature*, and the metronomic disco of “Everything Is Never Enough” plug the duo back into the mains. However, *Silver Eye*’s central passage of sedate, spare electro is warmed by soul and intimacy typical of their more pastoral moments, not least on the pleading “Beast That Never Was.”

Lean in close, HAIM has something important to say. On their second album, the sister trio—Alana, Danielle, and Este—explore sounds and eras while deepening their emotional connection. “Want You Back,” “Little of Your Love,” “Found It in Silence,” and “Ready for You” will resonate with fans of the first LP—all sweet melodies, catchy rock and pop hooks, and gonna-work-it-out feels. HAIM also unfurl swashes of vintage ‘80s/‘90s pop (“Nothing\'s Wrong” and “You Never Knew”) and confessional showstoppers (“Night So Long”) that, when combined with their crush-note lyrics, consistently hit the sweet spot.

Released as singles, the defiant tropical house of “Hotter Than Hell” and “Lost In Your Light”’s love-giddy electro-pop have already established Dua Lipa as a pop powerhouse distinguished by her husky, soulful voice. Now, on a debut album inspired by past relationships, she gets to showcase her striking range. From the stinging dismissal of a remorseful ex (“IDGAF”) to a tender duet with Chris Martin (“Homesick”), the Londoner’s richly emotive singing and songwriting maintain her steeply upward trajectory.