Stereogum's Best EPs of 2018

Amber Mark is an open book. In 2017, the New York-based singer/songwriter’s debut EP, *3:33am*, grieved for her late mother with staggering honesty. On this follow-up, she chooses to work through faltering love, swapping some of *3:33am*’s vulnerability for shape-up-or-ship-out bite—all wrapped in a velvet glove of lounge- and house-tinged R&B. Throughout, Mark’s subtle majesty recalls Sade, who’s given her enthusiastic approval to the spare, bass-heavy cover of her 1988 single “Love Is Stronger Than Pride.”

U DONT KNOW (Official Music Video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfo6Rp_3X5U twitter.com/BlackDresses666 check out our merch store teespring.com/stores/black-dresses-merch-store rares on patreon www.patreon.com/blackdresses by devi and rook ♡

As The Fuzz plays out, you sense Siggelkow becoming more resolute. Like a doom-metal Mazzy Star, she leans into the distortion pedal as she lays into an ex on “All This Time.” And her paralyzing ennui finally boils into something resembling rage during the title track; for its stormy finale, she cries out the chorus as if self-administering an emergency adrenaline shot. Still, even if you shake yourself out of the fuzz, the symptoms can creep back. On the EP’s stark closer, “N Y E,” Siggelkow finds herself spending the rowdiest night of the year at a party of one, her ghostly voice enveloped by a guitar whose distortion seems to pick at the scabs. She signs off with a missive heavier than the Times Square apple: “After midnight/In the windowless dark/I was falling asleep/You were breaking my heart.” She drifts off, safe in the knowledge that she’s survived another shitty year just to start the next one. - Stuart Berman of Pitchfork 7.4/10

*Bad Witch* was first envisioned as the final installment in an EP trilogy, following 2016’s *Not the Actual Events* and 2017’s *Add Violence*. But, wary of falling into patterns of musical predictability, Trent Reznor scrapped the concept, and instead released the project as NIN’s ninth, and shortest, full album. It feels like pure experimentation—a direct rebuttal to that sameness he was worried about. It alternates between anxious beats, jarring vocals (“Ahead of Ourselves”), and intriguing ambience (“I’m Not from This World”), clearly influenced by Reznor’s masterful score compositions for films including *The Social Network* and *Gone Girl*.

Nobody blends self-awareness and self-deprecation quite like Open Mike Eagle, so it should come as no surprise as to what, exactly, happens when the LA-via-Chicago rapper tries to relax: His mind goes a mile a minute. Hence, the first release on Mike’s own Auto Reverse label is dense and hyper-contemplative, balancing anxiety and world-weariness with dry humor. (“Who you gonna call? Probably not you,” he deadpans to the specter of an ex on “Single Ghosts.”) On “Relatable (peak OME),” he wryly unpacks his status as the approachable rapper next door—a meta-commentary that pits outside expectations against his own self-image.

Open Mike Eagle's first release on his new Auto Reverse label

Sorry - Home Demo/ns Vol II (2018) 00:00 - Moment 00:59 - Tearz 03:41 - Battles 06:03 - Manic 08:08 - Winta 10:22 - Lying Next To Me In Despair 14:26 - Western 17:14 - Blue 19:46 - Ballin' Hard For U

Sink is Sudan Archives' second statement for Stones Throw.