In an era when playlists have become the preferred medium for many listeners, albums can feel like a relic of the pre-digital age. Despite the format’s diminished stature, though, there’s still something alluring about the self-contained nature of an album, and the indelible satisfaction of pressing play and surrendering your ears to an artist’s vision, of listening entirely on their terms instead of your own.
Once again we’ve whittled the pile of outstanding Milwaukee albums released this year to a manageable 15. As always, the list barely scratches the surface of all the notable local music that came out this year, and quite a few favorites didn’t make the cut. That part always stings. But the following standouts were all so creative, so spirited, so immersive, that including them was an easy call. Here are 15 albums worth giving yourself over to completely.
Lex Allen – Table 7: Sinners & Saints
Few performers sound quite as comfortable in their own skin as Lex Allen. On his debut album Table 7: Sinners & Saints, the vivacious soul singer covers a lot of ground, hopscotching between pop, R&B and dance music, acquainting himself to each with chameleonesque ease. The ballads “Mama’s Boy” and “7th Hour” highlight Allen’s indelible, burnt-caramel voice, but the album really comes to life on a series of riotously fun club bangers, especially the libidinous “Bitch U Fabulous” and “Struck Gold,” a thirsty jock jam with a wicked sense of humor.
Barely Civil – We Can Live Here Forever
Given how Barely Civil set their confessional emo against the backdrop of the Dairy State, it’s probably not a coincidence that the group’s disarming debut LP is paced like a Wisconsin winter, with stretches of calm and tranquility interrupted by fits of fury. Crossing the soul-bearing tenderness of early Death Cab For Cutie with the cathartic intensity of The Hotelier, the record plays out as a conflicted song cycle about displacement and the struggle of deciding which ties to the past to preserve and which to sever. Beyond some enthusiastic reviews in zines and blogs that obsessively champion this strain of emo, We Can Live Here Forever didn’t make a huge splash when it was released in March, but it’s an album you can really lose yourself in, one that’s destined to become a cult favorite whose reputation only grows as it’s discovered in the years to come.
Buffalo Gospel – On the First Bell
Ryan Necci has a perfect country voice, a soulful bellow that can sound as pained and weathered or as rough and hungry as a song calls for. He puts every bit of that range to use on Buffalo Gospel’s sophomore album, a grief-stricken but ultimately redemptive record that processes the death of a close friend. On scorchers like “High Time to Hang Fire” and “When Lonesome Comes Calling” Necci lets his voice soar, commanding songs that tear you down before lifting you back up. Few Americana albums this year—bluegrass, alt-country or otherwise—were quite as nourishing.
Collections of Colonies of Bees – HAWAII
Chris Rosenau’s post-rock ensemble Collections of Colonies of Bees has reinvented itself continually over the last two decades, but the group’s latest overhaul is its most drastic yet. For the band’s blissed-out tenth album, the previously instrumental outfit added vocals from guitarist Daniel Spack and invaluable new recruit Marielle Allschwang. The group’s compositions still unfurl like elaborate Rube Goldberg contraptions, but even as the guitars propel these songs ever more skyward, Spack and Allschwang’s unguarded voices make them feel like intimate conversations between close friends. Don’t let the term post-rock, with its fussy, long-winded insinuations, scare you off. HAWAII is an emotional experience.
Direct Hit – Crown of Nothing
Direct Hit’s second full-length for Fat Wreck Chords is their grandest, most sweeping record yet—not bad for a band that’s too often been pigeonholed by punk purists as pop-punk lightweights. As always, sticklers who believe the genre hit its nadir with Blink-182 will want to stay far away, but listeners with even a modest soft spot for punk’s hookier, poppier incarnations will find something to be dazzled by here, from the anthemic opener “Different Universe” to the roaring “Perfect Black,” a reminder of the powerful, no-gimmicks hardcore Direct Hit can throw down when they want to go that route.
Field Report – Summertime Songs
On Field Report’s radiant, aptly titled third album, songwriter Christopher Porterfield sings of sobriety, family and the affirming joy of feeling loved and understood. His emotions are as pronounced as ever, but this time out the music is relentlessly uplifting, as his bandmates accompany him with a warm tapestry of comforting sounds. Though its electronic accents are decidedly contemporary, the record is spiritual throwback to the crowd-pleasing, crossover heartland rock albums of the 1980s, which never let glossy production stand in the way of down-to-earth storytelling.
Greatest Lakes – Divisions
After a harmony-drenched but hushed 2014 debut album, the Milwaukee indie quintet Greatest Lakes let themselves sing out a bit on their vibrantly loud follow-up. Despite the prevailing summer vibe, Divisions isn’t all easy sailing. Several songs touch on the difficulty of sustaining personal relationships in an era of political polarization, yet even when the band delves into touchy territory the music is absolutely euphoric, a bright, modern reimagining of The Beach Boys’ psychedelic folk.
Amanda Huff – Hemiptera
Amanda Huff has one of those voices that imbues every syllable with importance. At times she doesn’t seem so much to be singing as delivering oracles, imparting urgent transmissions from some nebulous realm just beyond the reach of anybody else. Although Huff cut her teeth performing on local stages with a variety of jazz-adjacent projects, her solo debut Hemiptera casts her in a far different setting, against an accompaniment of dusky electronica courtesy of producer Strehlow, who frames her otherworldly voice in continually fascinating ways. An air of mysticism hangs over the whole thing. Even when Huff conjures childhood memories of summer on “Cicada,” they sound as if they’re being recalled through a séance.
Kaylee Crossfire and Kia Rap Princess – Best of Both Worlds
Kaylee Crossfire and Kia Rap Princess are leaders of Milwaukee’s Female Takeover movement, which encourages women to support each other in hip-hop, a genre that’s historically been a boy’s club. On Best of Both Worlds, the two lead by example. They make an unlikely pair. Kia’s flow is methodical and precise, while Kaylee raps in loud, showy gusts. One’s a switch blade and the other’s a machete, but their dueling temperaments flatter each other, and together they make some seriously fierce, club-rattling rap.
Looney Babie and Gwapo Chapo – Splash Bros 2
Milwaukee’s North Side rap scene has never buzzed louder than it is right now. The city is suddenly crowded with rising stars doing monster numbers online, including quite a few with streams in the millions. Despite the competition, though, none managed a better full-length this year than Looney Babie and Gwapo Chapo, two dependable entertainers who saved some of their best work for this kinetic joint project. The beats slap, the energy is unrelenting, and the rhymes are often as devilishly funny as they are hard, especially Gwapo Chapo’s. A cutup with the wily charisma to match his outsized ego, his hectoring flow plays off of Looney’s impassioned rasp beautifully.
Lorde Fredd33 – NORF: The Legend of Hotboy Ronald
Lorde Fredd33 years ago established himself as one of the city’s most fearlessly creative rappers, but even his brilliant early projects sound like a test run for his exploratory masterpiece NORF: The Legend of Hotboy Ronald. Fredd33 raps in a dozen distinct voices, and he puts every single one of them to use on these shape-shifting tracks, which play out with the animated, beat-flipping restlessness of the classic records from hip-hop’s golden-age. Like those works, NORF is pointed, personal, unrepentantly weird and sometimes ugly, as Fredd33 details the economic realities of life in one of the most segregated cities in the country. “50 percent unemployment/ That’s just for black men?” he raps. “No wonder we trapping/Wasn’t we born trapped, then?”
Nickel&Rose – Americana
Including a five-song EP on a best albums list almost feels like a cheat. It probably is. But make no mistake about it, even with its brief, 18-minute runtime the songwriting duo Nickel&Rose’s Americana EP is a major work. The headline here is the title track, a brilliantly argued callout of a genre with a history of borrowing from black music without being especially hospitable to black musicians. The track isn’t just a takedown, though. It’s a reminder of how fresh folk can still sound in the right hands, and the rest of the EP plays as much like a love letter to the genre as a critique, with new songs that hold their own against the time-tested standards they honor.
Paper Holland – Galápagos
Paper Holland’s sophomore full-length doesn’t sound much like the work of a Milwaukee band. It’s bright and beachy, far removed from the meteorological realities of a city where it snows a grim six months out of the year. But what an escape it is. With the help of an expanded lineup featuring keyboardist/trumpeter Glenn McCormick and saxophonist Sean Hirthe, formerly of Soul Low, the band conjures a lush, tropical fantasy filled with delightfully odd detours, including Grizzly-Bear-by-way-of-The-Cure pastiche “Million Eyes.”
Telethon – Modern Abrasive
Milwaukee power-pop enthusiasts Telethon followed up their sprawling 2017 album The Grand Spontanean, an audacious 90-minute rock opera, with this more manageable, snack-sized confection. Even on a scaled-down set, though, the band can’t contain their dweeby ambition—even their three- and four-minute quickies are riff with theatrical embellishments, be it anthemic sing-alongs, Elton John pianos or some old-fashioned cowbell. It’s all euphoric, infectious and irresistibly dorky, especially “Great America,” where the band celebrates a trip to that greatest of summertime destinations, Six Flags (“We got free admission from a case of diet cola!” they cheer).
Versio Curs – How Are You
From Morrissey to The National’s Matt Berninger, many of indie-rock’s greatest frontmen have been unabashed cranks who play their misery as a droll punchline. Versio Curs singer Kyle Halverson carries on in that tradition of proud spoilsports. Flanked by relentlessly buzzy, sticky guitars on the band’s perfectly pitched debut How Are You, Halverson indulges his inner misanthrope, venting petty grievances and hypochondriatic fears (“I think I’m catching your cold,” he complains on the masterfully unromantic “On Sunday.”). The entire record is a triumph of cold, savvy songwriting, the work of a band that’s wise—and jaded—beyond their years.
You can stream a playlist with songs from these albums below.
