Cocoa Sugar

Avant-pop vocal trio from Scotland, with some hip-hop leanings. Compact, hyperactive, introspective, subtly experimental and subversive, very catchy. There are some flat-out incredible pop songs on here, the kind you rush to start again as soon as they stop. Young Fathers are big in the UK but much less so here, and that deserves to change. RIYL all the Anticon projects, Algiers, Shabazz Palaces, Clipping. Favorites: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7. FCC WARNING: 2, 10, 11.

1. *(2:01)—Slow, choppy R&B builds to the verge of a dramatic anthems. Dissonant violins.
2. (2:42)—FCC (s***, f***). Grainy hip-hop feel. Chopped-up piano. Lots of vocal manipulation.
3. *(3:16)—Fast, intense, dire, intricately layered, picks up momentum before you even notice it. My favorite pop song of 2018 so far.
4. (3:37)—Fast, upbeat, bouncy. Minimal beginning, fuzzed-out rapping. Really reminds me of Subtle.
5. *(3:35)—Slow gospel. Fragile piano, thick synth pulses, big and fuzzed out finish.
6. *(3:09)—Medium-fast, pretty. Restrained tick-tock beat, psychedelic effects, organ.
7. *(4:00)—Fast electro-post-punk, almost krautrock. Screaming, deadpan spoken word. Shoo-bop vocals.
8. (4:01)—Glitchy funk. Beatboxing? Big group vocals.
9. (2:33)—Fast. Breakbeats, warbly synth, like a skewed take on ‘80s hip-hop.
10. (1:40)—FCC (f***). Very fast techno.
11. (3:14)—FCC (f***). Fast ping-pong beat. Sarcastic, derisive. Group shouting, clapping.
12. (3:05)—Slow, not far from trap. Snare rolls, thin organ. “Good men are strange, bad men are obvious.”