88&1/2 from ‘18
For the past few years, I’ve opted for an overlong, dense paragraph containing all of my favorite music things from said year instead of a standard Top Albums or Songs list (examples here and here). Those were fun and, I fancied, a smidge creative, but they were also quite hard on the eyes.
For 2018, I’ve opted for something different. Feast your eyes upon my arbitrarily-organized list of the 88.5 albums/mixtapes/EPs I’ve enjoyed this year. Albums in each sub-category are ranked favorite to least-favorite. I’ve had the privilege of writing about a few of these albums in the past 12 months, and links to those reviews/interviews/etc. are included. Also included are links to album’s Bandcamp pages (when available)— because Bandcamp’s the only online digital retailer you should be messing with.
INDIE/ALT
Sad indie- Might contain some uplifting moments, but not many.
-Mount Eerie — Now Only
I interviewed Phil Elverum shortly before Now Only’s release.
-Snail Mail — Lush
Lindsey Jordan released this a week before her 19th birthday. I’m over here, eight years her senior, wishing I had a shred of her emotional intelligence.
Euro indie- Regional groupings don’t make a ton of sense, but then again, neither do year-end rankings.
-Iceage — Beyondless
-Hinds — I Don’t Run
I never feel nostalgic for early-2000s garage rock unless I’m listening to Hinds.
Jam band indie- Indie bros likes the Grateful Dead now, get over it.
-Parquet Courts — Wide Awake!
Probably the most wittily-written album I heard this year. Also the first album with Danger Mouse’s fingerprints on it that I’ve enjoyed in a decade (shout-out to Beck’s underrated Modern Guilt).
-Oh Sees — Smote Reverser
At first I was disappointed that this didn’t sound as metal as its cover looks, but crust-punks-do-Grateful-Dead might actually be a better look for this band.
-Ryley Walker — Deafman Glance
Tangentially emo bands- I wasn’t confronted with as many emo albums a usual this year, but was very impressed with a few bands with emo roots.
-Foxing — Nearer My God
Most underrated album of the year, full stop.
-Hop Along — Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Frances Quinlan can SING, Joe Reinhart can RIFF, those newly-added strings can SWOON.
Aussie indie- Another regional grouping!
-Hatchie — Sugar & Spice
Only a five-song EP, but with more sticky, effervescent hooks than your fav’s 45-minute album.
-The Beths — Future Me Hates Me
Reasonably punky guitar pop played with the prowess and precision of prog rock.
Heartland indie- Indie bros also like Springsteen now, get over it.
-Amen Dunes — Freedom
-Wild Pink — Yolk in the Fur
-Kurt Vile — Bottle It In
The dad-est album by someone born to do dad rock.
Dream pop- I think Hatchie would also apply here, but I’ve limited it to the modern masters of the genre.
-Beach House — 7
The Beach House album to sway those who have met all previous Beach House albums with a resounding “meh,” but also a treat for the band’s devotees (🙋).
RAP
(Most links included here are Spotify because most major-label rappers aren’t on Bandcamp)
Workmanlike Southern rap- 2018 brought us an absurd amount of clear-eyed, no-bullshit rap from the South.
-Trouble & Mike Will Made It — Edgewood
-Lil Baby — Harder Than Ever
-Young Nudy — Slimeball 3
21 Savage’s cousin made 14 hypnotic, succinct songs that all sound similar and all slap regardless.
-BlocBoy JB — SIMI
Nobody sounded like he was having more fun in 2018 than BlocBoy.
Weirdo Southerners- As opposed to the previous category. Whether yelping, “mumbling,” or rapping about anime characters, these are the rappers rewriting the rules of rap.
-Playboi Carti — Die Lit
“Shoota” is my favorite song of the year. The rest of the album is two or three superfluous guest verses away from being an A+ in my book.
-SahBabii — Squidtastic
SahBabii is on an entire planet of his own. The lingo, cultural references, and playfulness on this album make it an absolute joy of a listen.
-YNW Melly — I Am You
The only rapper I heard this year who at times— see the vocal squeaks on the aptly-named “Risk Taker”— took Young Thug’s daring vocal stylings to undiscovered heights.
-Young Thug — On The Rvn
If a Thug full-length (this is an EP) maintained this level of consistency, we’d be talking about it on the level of Barter 6.
Perfect midpoint- Not aggressively weird, but still left-of-center.
-Key! & Kenny Beats— 777
Overall, probably my favorite rap album of the year.
-Future — Beast Mode 2
-Gunna — Drip Season 3
Misc. weirdo rap- Oddballs not necessarily located in the Southeast.
-JPEGMAFIA — Veteran
Peggy’s gonna save us all.
-Tierra Whack — Whack World
-Rico Nasty — Nasty
Best mosh music of 2018.
Chicago rap- Again, roll your eyes at regional rankings, but Chicago’s always seemed to have a closer-knit scene than others.
-Noname — Room 25
Loose, jazzy, and brilliant. I reviewed this.
-Saba — Care For Me
-Queen Key — Eat My Pussy
-Honorable mention: Valee — GOOD Job, You Found Me
I love Valee and most of the songs on this EP, but the best ones were all previously released at least a year before this major label debut came out.
Big budget rap- 2018 was definitely a down year for expensive-sounding rap (with Drake, Migos, and Rae Sremmurd all releasing massively overstuffed albums), but were a few major label releases that succeeded on traditional terms.
-Travis Scott — Astroworld
If you know me well, you know I’ve been hating on Travis since day one. He won me over with this one though. For Billboard, I wrote about his newfound sense of identity on Astroworld.
-Jay Rock — Redemption
I reviewed this.
Oh my god it’s “boom bap”!!!!- I’m being facetious. Dusty drum loops are sick.
-Earl Sweatshirt — Some Rap Songs
Difficult but rewarding. I reviewed this.
-Phonte — No News is Good News
Play this for anyone who thinks rap is the province of irreverent snot-noses.
-JID — DiCaprio 2
-Armand Hammer — Paraffin
Whoa I listen to (a very small amount of) West Coast rap too?!- For some reason, I’ve always gravitated more towards Southern rap, so I’m by no means a connoisseur of Cali’s new school. But here a few up-and-comers (the first two of whom, sadly and unjustly, are now incarcerated) who wowed me in 2018.
-Drakeo The Ruler — Cold Devil
-03 Greedo — The Wolf of Grape Street
-SOB x RBE — Gangin
I reviewed this.
METAL
Doom/stoner/sludge- A weak-ass umbrella/catch-all for catatonically-paced metal that’s not overly blackened or deathy.
-Thou — Magus
Probably my #1 album of the year overall. I’ve loved this band for a while, and they haven’t changed their sound all that much, but this one clicked with me on a primal level. I interviewed vocalist Bryan Funck for Stereogum.
-Yob — Our Raw Heart
Didn’t grab me as immediately as its predecessor, but seeing Yob live three times in 2018 made these powerful, emotive anthems stick to my ribs. I interviewed guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt about the near-death experience that shaped the album.
-Sleep — The Sciences
I wrote a 420-word review on Sleep’s surprise 4/20 release, their 4th album and first in almost 20 years.
-Windhand — Eternal Return
-Holy Grove — Holy Grove II
I reviewed this.
-Un — Sentiment
-Vouna — S/T
Black metal- I usually fall on the melodic/atmospheric end of the spectrum of this bleak, beautiful genre. Fuck Nazis and National Socialists.
-Ungfell — Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz
Sounds like goblins frolicking in the woods.
-Panopticon — The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness (Disc 1)
Disc 2 is all acoustic folk, which I didn’t really care for.
-Mesarthim — The Density Parameter
-Uada — Cult of a Dying Sun
I “interviewed” this masked, Portland-based band.
-Wayfarer — World’s Blood
-Skogen — Skuggorna Kallar
Quebecois black metal- Quebec’s got one of the best, most distinctive regional metal scenes going.
-Délétère — De Horae Leprae
Big, beautiful, rich, evil, expertly composed.
-Sorcier Des Glaces — S/T
-Cantique Lépreux — Paysages Polaires
Blackgaze- A whole cottage industry of merging black metal with shoegaze’s warmer vibes has sprung up in the past few years, and I’m a total sucker for it.
-Deafheaven — Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
-MØL — Jord
This Danish band is basically Deafheaven worship but again, I’m a sucker.
-Rolo Tomassi — Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
This ostensibly math/metal/post-hardcore band’s been around for much longer than the blackgaze craze, but their latest shares a bunch of DNA with the other albums on this list.
-Sylvaine — Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone
-Bosse-De-Nage — Further Still
Death metal- Gotta love the br00tz.
-Horrendous — Idol
Proggy, jazzy righteousness. I interviewed these Philly dudes for Bandcamp.
-Convulsing — Grievous
No one-man band should have all this prowess.
-Ritual Necromancy — Disinterred Horror
Super excited to see these Portland gurglemancers perform their first hometown show in years later this month.
-Burial Invocation — Abiogenesis
Pop metal- Turn up the cheese factor, baybeee!
-Tribulation — Down Below
These Swedes have always had a flair for the dramatic, and they finally pitched up the musical histrionics to match on this album. To get the full demon-fucker effect, I listened to this while hiking through a cave.
Uncategorizable metal- Throw it all in a blender.
-Agrimonia — Awaken
How is this band simultaneously the best doom, black metal, and hardcore punk band around?
-Pig Destroyer — Head Cage
Piggy D forsakes grindcore for Sepultura/Pantera-era groove metal, and it’s awesome.
PUNK
Hardcore- I am considerably less interested in and knowledgeable about punk than I am metal, so most of the stuff I dig comes out on the more metallic/wanky end of the spectrum
-Vein — Errorzone
I got a little bent out of shape about all of the critical reevaluation of Korn and Kid Rock albums on their 10th anniversaries this year, but even if Errorzone is considered nü-metal (it probably should be), I’ll cape for it.
-Birds in Row — We Already Lost the World
-Candy — Good To Feel
18 minutes of gloriously noisy anti-authoritarianism.
-Split Cranium — I’m the Devil and I’m OK
Noisy post-hardcore- This is where all of the punk bands with saxophones and 25+ noise pedals go.
-Daughters — You Won’t Get What You Want
Like nothing else released this year. Cheese grater guitars, drrrty industrial percussion, and sleazy Elvis vocals.
-KEN Mode — Loved
Genres with which I have very little expertise
(AKA stuff I listen to because it gets a good score on Pitchfork)
R&B/pop- Pop radio doesn’t play as much R&B as it used to. It should play more of these albums.
-Ariana Grande — Sweetener
All hail 2018’s pop queen.
-Mariah Carey — Caution
-Teyana Taylor — K.T.S.E.
None of the other albums released by Kanye & Co. this June stuck with me. I liked Daytona on first listen but haven’t felt the urge to listen to it in at least four months. Kids See Ghosts was fanboy service. Kanye & Nas’ albums sucked. Teyana FTW.
R&B/funk- Less virtuosic singers, better basslines.
-Kali Uchis — Isolation
No other 2018 album is better to throw on in lieu of a party playlist.
-Louis Cole — Time
Electronic- I clearly don’t have my finger within miles of the pulse of new electronic music, and am therefore highly susceptible to being spoonfed tasty treats that appeal to my poppy sensibilities. That said, I adore all of these albums. Experts: please suggest others that I’d enjoy!
-DJ Koze — Knock Knock
A dreamy, journey-like opus.
-A.A.L. — 2012–2017
Even when Nico Jaar releases a compilation of random deep house tracks he’s tossed off in between more involved projects, it slaps.
-Robyn — Honey
Unfairly lumped-together music from Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Nigeria- Yes, I’m a cultural tourist who needs to listen to more global pop music.
-Bad Bunny — X 100PRE
2018’s version of Charli XCX’s Pop 2, in that it arrived too late in the year to be rightly represented on year-end lists, and also in that it presents a technicolor, futurist imagining of pop music.
-Popcaan — Forever
-Burna Boy — Outside
Jazz- Yup, also need to listen to more of this.
-Kamasi Washington — Heaven and Earth
Critically-acclaimed cowboy-adjacent albums that both whip ass- Yeah, these are on everyone’s year-end lists, but they absolutely should be.
-Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour
-Mitski — Be The Cowboy
