The state of the year in music so far.

The heavy psychedelic rock trend is still going stong, and I have no problem with that. And plenty of indie kids are still re-discovering their older siblings' Matador and Thrill Jockey collections, which is also good. There's a few too many big-stomper hand-clapping sing-son-chorus-y "WE LOVE GROUPLOVE_ style groups out there right now, but luckily they seem aimed for the pop landscape and most are s interchangeable no one cares who's singing what. Chance The rapper continues to make my jaw drop because no one that age should be that good or prolific but hey, weren't The Beatles kids too? So I guess it's possible, just not probable, which make my jaw drop even further. A couple Swedish pop princesses are making the wait for the next Robyn album a little more bearable. A French dude is making the wait for Daft Punk to get Better Faster Stronger Harder again bearable too. Band reunions—both from the fizzled out and out with a bang variety—are producing albums that are as good or better than their hey-day work. Loud, frenetic pop, with big carousel wheeling guitars is also seeing a nice resurgence. Hip-hop and pop and EDM are all treading water in the shallow end and experiencing a bad case of the doldrums, for the most part, but who gives a fuck when there's so much other good music out there?