Justin Sidhu

After an excruciating three-year wait since the release of his last album, Earl Sweatshirt’s minimal yet lyrically and emotionally dense Some Rap Songs delivers on its immeasurable hype — it is the album of the year.

The Bay Area stop on her second tour in North America this year proved a massive success to an extremely receptive international audience.

Smino’s sophomore effort NOIR is a masterclass in idiosyncrasy that mostly delivers on the rapper’s enormous promise but is held back by confusing stylistic choices that impede its natural flow.

Mitski’s show Saturday night at The Warfield in San Francisco was a perfect reflection of her musical ethos — her unabashed refusal to hide her personality while performing made for an intimate yet distant experience that mesmerized her die-hard audience.

Tame Impala’s headlining set Sunday at Treasure Island Music Festival was a fitting end to the weekendlong spectacle. The band’s minimalist, charismatic stage design and live performance culminated in a trippy yet immersive event that tore down the confines of the stage and mesmerized the gargantuan audience.

Both A$AP Rocky and Treasure Island had to prove their relevance to their Bay Area audience. Both were being scrutinized, and in trademark fashion, A$AP Rocky eclipsed every other performer to create a fully immersive experience with his headlining show.

While Sheck Wes’ debut Mudboy ushers in a new wave of punk-trap music, it fails to deliver on the high expectations set by its groundbreaking singles.

Treasure Island is a two-day festival that features a lineup geared toward high-energy hip-hop and dance acts on the first day and laid-back rock and indie performers on the second.

After a prolific 2017 and a comparatively quiet 2018, Texas boy band Brockhampton’s RCA Records debut "iridescence" stays true to the band’s ethos while successfully executing on an ambitious push toward new musical territory.