Five years after Plunge, Karin Dreijer dug up Fever Ray to release the single “What They Call Us.” Today, Dreijer actually announced that a new album is on the way. Crafted in collaboration with their brother and fellow former The Knife partner Olof Dreijer, Radical Romantics will also feature contributions from Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross amongst others.

Fever Ray also shared a new single, “Carbon Dioxide,” co-produced by Vessel, as well as an accompanying visualizer. Watch the visuals and pre-order the album via Bandcamp below.

First, no one can be objective, there’s no truth in music. Then, it can be mentally difficult for artists to accept these insights. We are music fans above all and we never want to hurt anyone. Our goal is only to discover new talents and to bring them to our readers’ ears. We know they don’t always have the time to listen to everything we scan and write about during the year so these lists are just recommendations of what they should first focus on. Nothing more.

We know it’s a shared subjective feeling: 2018 has been another great year for music. We got introduced to fascinating newcomers with strong concepts that prove that albums are certainly not dead yet. Some rising singer-songwriters confirmed their defining style while a few established artists successfully re-recorded their masterpiece or explored challenging new soundscapes. You can find below the 30 albums that made 2018 according to our staff and stay tuned for our usual 100 Tracks of the year list next week.

30) Amen Dunes – Freedom

[su_divider]

29) Kadhja Bonet – Childqueen

[su_divider]

28) Yves Tumor – Safe in the Hands of Love

[su_divider]

27) Whitney Ballen – You’re A Shooting Star, I’m A Sinking Ship

[su_divider]

26) Tirzah – Devotion

[su_divider]

25) CupcakKe – Eden

[su_divider]

24) Rosalía – El Mal Querer

[su_divider]

23) Tomberlin – At Weddings

[su_divider]

22) Sidney Gish – No Dogs Allowed

[su_divider]

21) Ezra Furman – Transangelic Exodus

[su_divider]

20) Kali Uchis – Isolation

[su_divider]

19) Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer

[su_divider]

18) Frankie Cosmos – Vessel

[su_divider]

17) U.S. Girls – In A Poem Unlimited

[su_divider]

16) Ariana Grande – Sweetener

[su_divider]

15) Ex:Re – Ex:Re

[su_divider]

14) Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy

[su_divider]

13) Tierra Whack – Whack World

[su_divider]

12) IDLES – Joy As An Act of Resistance.

[su_divider]

11) illuminaties hoties – Kiss Yr Frenemies

[su_divider]

10) Mr Twin Sister – Salt

[su_divider]

9) SOPHIE – Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Sides

[su_divider]

8) Low – Double Negative

[su_divider]

7) noname – Room 25

[su_divider]

6) Soccer Mommy – Clean

[su_divider]

5) Beach House – 7

[su_divider]

4) Robyn – Honey

[su_divider]

3) Lucy Dacus – Historian

[su_divider]

2) Snail Mail – Lush

[su_divider]

1) Mitski – Be The Cowboy

[su_divider]

Earlier this year, Frankie Cosmos, the band headed by Greta Kline, shared their third album “Vessel“. Taken from this LP, here’s the Eliza Doyle-directed visuals for the track “Duet”. It features Kline who is looking for some company, trying to turn a CPR mannequin into a human being; it’s both sad and fun and perfectly fits the spirit of the track. Watch Frankie Cosmos‘ new video and check out their upcoming gigs dates below.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnMVus3hrWw”]

Jul. 27 – Denver, CO – Underground Music Showcase

Jul. 28 – Denver, CO – Underground Music Showcase

Jul. 29 – Denver, CO – Underground Music Showcase

Aug. 17 – Paredes de Coura, PT – Vodafone Paredes de Coura

Aug. 19 – Brecon Beacons, UK – Green Man Festival

Aug. 21 – Belfast, UK – Voodoo Belfast !

Aug. 22 – Galway, IE – Roisin Dubh !

Aug. 23 – Dublin, IE – Button Factory !

Sep. 13 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar *

Sep. 14 – Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall *

Sep. 15 – Asheville, NC – Mothlight *

Sep. 16 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade *

Sep. 17 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn Birmingham *

Sep. 19 – New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa *

Sep. 20 – Houston, TX – Satellite Bar *

Sep. 21 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger *

Sep. 22 – Austin, TX – Barracuda *

Sep. 23 – Dallas, TX – Deep Ellum Art Company *

Sep. 24 – Oklahoma, OK – Tower Theater *

Sep. 26 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Cafe *

Sep. 27 – Milwaukee, WI – Back Room @ Collectivo Coffee *

Sep. 29 – Champaign, IL – Pygmalion Festival

Sep. 30 – Detroit, MI – El Club *

Oct. 01 – Cleveland Heights, OH – Grog Shop *

Oct. 02 – Pittsburgh, PA – Cattivo *

Oct. 03 – Harrisburg, PA – Stage on Herr *

Oct. 05 – Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall *

Oct. 06 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg *

Oct. 07 – New York City, NY – Bowery Ballroom *

Nov. 02 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater ^

Nov. 03 – Long Beach, CA – Tropicalia Festival ^

Nov. 05 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore ^

Nov. 08 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom ^

Nov. 09 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret ^

Nov. 10 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre ^

! w/ Squarehead

* w/ Lomelda & Stef Chura

^ w/ Kero Kero Bonito

Frankie Cosmos have shared their last album “Vessel” in March and there’s now a Tom Scharpling-directed (“The Best Show”) video to come with the highlight “Apathy.” In the visuals, a tough band named Frankie Cosmos is rehearsing before realizing the name is already used by another band and confronting them.

About the video, Frankie Cosmos‘ Greta Kline stated:

[su_quote]I am a huge fan of Tom Scharpling’s work and was so thrilled that we got to work together on this video. I trusted him entirely and just wanted to let Tom and his team do their thing. We had so much fun making it…I was laughing so much that it probably took much longer than it should have to shoot my parts.[/su_quote]

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc3JanvAgz8″]

Frankie Cosmos are in the middle of their US tour and will then come to Europe. Check their full itinerary below:

Apr. 30 – Pawtucket, RI – The Met !

May 01 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place !

May 02 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair *

May 03 – Burlington, VT – ArtsRiot *

May 04 – Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount *

May 05 – Toronto, ON – The Rec Room *

May 06 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Pyramid Scheme

May 07 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall *

May 09 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East*

May 10 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (Back Room)*

May 11 – Richmond, VA – Capital Ale House*

May 12 – Washington, DC – Black Cat *

May 13 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer *

May 22 – Berlin, DE – Kantine am Berghain

May 23 – Hamburg, DE – Aalhaus

May 24 – Ghent, BE – DOKbox

May 25 – Amsterdam, NL – London Calling at Paradiso (Small Hall)

May 26 – Paris, France – Petit Bain

May 28 – Manchester, UK – Gorilla

May 29 – Glasgow, UK – The Art School

May 30 – Bristol, UK – The Fleece

May 31 – London, UK – Scala

Jun. 01 – Lille, France – Aeronef

Jun. 03 – Nantes, France – Stereolux

Jun .04 – Lyon, France – Grrrnd Zero

Jun .05 – Turin, Italy – Astoria

Jun. 08 – Queens, NY – Forest Hills Stadium **

Jul. 14 – Madrid, ES – Mad Cool Festival

Jul. 15 – Stirling UK – Doune The Rabbit Hole

Aug. 17 – Paredes De Coura, PT – Vodafone Paredes De Coura

Aug. 19 – Brecon Beacons, UK – Green Man Festival

* w/ La La La & Florist

** w/ Belle & Sebastian, Perfume Genius

! w/ Nadine

Much like (Sandy) Alex G or Car Seat Headrest, Frankie Cosmos’ Greta Kline began to gain a cult following long before she was signed to a major label. At age 20, she had already released dozens of albums under different monikers – according to the promo bio for “Vessel”, she’s done more than fifty now, and I certainly wouldn’t suggest clicking on her Bandcamp profile if you’re prone to feeling down over procrastinating. Greta Kline is notoriously famous for permeating every single aspect of her art with an endearingly twee charm that is nevertheless brimming with darker undertones. A picture of her dog wearing a green hat was turned into the album cover for the first Frankie Cosmos record, but it was hardly meant to be taken as a suggestion of light-hearted indie pop in the vein of, say, Best Coast – the album, whose closing track was titled “Sad”, was actually an eulogy for Kline’s pet.

Her album titles are also strong with the twee side (a few of my personal favourites include “sunshine over intertwined feelings”, “and it made me cry for a long time” and “i dont like crying and much ado about fucking”), but ever since she started to release music under her Frankie Cosmos moniker she has been keeping things relatively low-key: the band’s debut was simply titled “Zentropy”, and they went with the foolproof “adjective + noun” trope for 2016’s “Next Thing”. That’s not to say that she’s been cutting down on the tweeness, though – at its core, Kline’s music has pretty much remained the same equally wistful and catchy, guitar-heavy indie pop that she has been putting out since she was 15, and “Vessel” successfully follows that trend.

Frankie Cosmos’ major label debut mounts a strong case for Greta Kline as one of the most gifted indie pop songwriters of her generation

“Vessel” is Frankie Cosmos’ third studio album and the first one for the renowned Seattle label Sub Pop, which means that they’ve got a bigger production budget to work with. “Vessel” definitely sounds more professional than her past output, but it’s still an album that makes the most out of its rough edges. Kline’s music has always been informed by its DIY, lo-fi aesthetic, and that’s still very much present in “Vessel” – take “The End”, one of the strongest songs on the album, which is a demo recorded on Kline’s laptop left untouched for the final tracklist. There is definitely something to be said about the production in this album – it is noticeably slicker and sharper than in previous Frankie Cosmos releases, and there are certain bits that could have never made it in Kline’s Bandcamp output, but it manages to retain that sense of immediacy and confidentiality that made her a household name in the bedroom pop world in the first place.

Thoroughly informed by its anything-goes ethos, “Vessel” can feel like a 2018 version of “Alien Lanes” or “Bee Thousand” at points. Listen to songs like “As Often As I Can”, “My Phone” or “The End” and you’ll probably think they were written, played and recorded in the same take. Some of these songs don’t even qualify as songs in the traditional sense – the half a minute long “Ur Up” is comprised of a single verse and includes a false start with Kline fucking up the piano part and starting again. It’s a bummer that she didn’t take the time to develop it into a more fully fleshed out song, but that’s the kind of endearing allure that has turned outsider musicians like Daniel Johnston, Bob Pollard or The Space Lady into legends, and it’s not too much of a stretch to think that Kline will one day be mentioned among them.

There’s a spontaneous quality to Kline’s songwriting, as if she was making the songs up as she sang them. “Vessel” is basically an album made up of indie pop nursery rhymes with the occasional swear word thrown in here and there, yet it boasts certain proficient airs that hadn’t showed up in her work before. On paper, Kline’s songs are too brief to even try to change their course. Only the opening track “Caramelize” and the self-titled closer surpass the three minute mark, and more than half of these songs aren’t even two minutes long. Yet Kline’s songwriting has grown relatively complex and intricate for the genre’s standards – whereas her earlier work was almost a solo affaire, this time round she brought her songs to the rest of the band and they all fleshed them out together, which should provide a satisfying explanation for the Moog-lead instrumental breakdown on “Duet” or for the final sing-along on album highlight “Being Alive”, where every band member has a go at the song’s chorus.

At points, Kline’s lyrical straightforwardness can get too on-the-nose. Lines like “when the heart gets too tender / return it to the sender” or “being alive matters quite a bit / even when you feel like shit” are kinda cringeworthy on paper, but they take on a different character when sung by Kline, whose vocal delivery is as doe-eyed and charming as it can possibly get. It also helps that pretty much every song has a monster hook in it. The eighteen songs that comprise Vessel are essentially pills too hard to swallow gradually being glossed up to death until they slide down your throat – and when they finally do, it’s a glorious feeling. Certainly her strongest and most consistent album to date, Frankie Cosmos’ major label debut mounts a strong case for Greta Kline as one of the most gifted indie pop songwriters of her generation.

Joined by bassist/vocalist David Maine, keyboardist/vocalist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson, the lead-singer and songwriter got to shape their 18-track opus. The album comes after “Zentropy” and “Next Thing”, her previous two LPs. In the video, you get to follow an animated gif of a dog trying to enter a bath, that reminds the art cover of the album that you can check below.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g895FWaEVrU&feature=youtu.be”]

Frankie Cosmos’ “Vessel” is set to be released on March 30 via Sub Pop Records and you can check the tracklisting below.

“Vessel” tracklisting:

1. Caramelize

2. Apathy

3. As Often as I Can

4. This Stuff

5. Jesse

6. Duet

7. Accommodate

8. I’m Fried

9. Hereby

10. Ballad of R & J

11. Ur Up

12. Being Alive

13. Bus Bus Train Train

14. My Phone

15. Cafeteria

16. The End

17. Same Thing

18. Vessel