2018 was another weird year. Politics are inescapable from the conversation. Ever present as they are. The noisy backdrop of any contemporary conversation.
The economics of music are changing. Streaming, the pushback against streaming and everything in between.
Albums have grown shorter, and yet longer.
And there is music, always there.
For me, 2018 was a big emotional shift. I feel older. There was stability and volatility. Podcasts have eaten up much listening time. As ever, I inevitably missed many many things.
Here is what landed.
Historian by Lucy Dacus
is a gorgeous, hopeful, haunting album filled with great poetry with the chops and arrangements to match its subject matter and a powerful, rich voice to tell its great stories.
is a gorgeous, hopeful, haunting album filled with great poetry with the chops and arrangements to match its subject matter and a powerful, rich voice to tell its great stories.
Offerings by Typhoon
Is a massive, sprawling, ambitious record that aims to answer questions fundamental to humanity: what is the value and worth of our memories? What are we in relation to our tapestry of experiences? It is difficult and intertextual and demanding, but if you give it your time and attention, it will reward like few other albums, and it sets Typhoon above even their already stellar track record.
Is a massive, sprawling, ambitious record that aims to answer questions fundamental to humanity: what is the value and worth of our memories? What are we in relation to our tapestry of experiences? It is difficult and intertextual and demanding, but if you give it your time and attention, it will reward like few other albums, and it sets Typhoon above even their already stellar track record.
The Horizon Just Laughed by Damien Jurado
Is a deep, dense, meditative album stuffed front to back when introspection and thoughtful meanderings that demands to be listened to - and listened to again to dig into the words and their emotions and insights. Jurado's first self-produced album (R.I.P. Richard Swift) is immediately one of his most essential. And I guess, most personally, The Horizon Just Laughed is the album that feels like existing in constant motion, in the Pacific Northwest.
Is a deep, dense, meditative album stuffed front to back when introspection and thoughtful meanderings that demands to be listened to - and listened to again to dig into the words and their emotions and insights. Jurado's first self-produced album (R.I.P. Richard Swift) is immediately one of his most essential. And I guess, most personally, The Horizon Just Laughed is the album that feels like existing in constant motion, in the Pacific Northwest.
Twin Fantasy by Car Seat Headrest
Is so full of piss and vinegar and youthful joie de vivre as to practically be bursting at the seams. It is a revisitation of some of Will Toledo's older songs, but they are revisited with such confidence and swagger as to be immediately essential. Car Seat Headrest are a zeitgeist in and of themselves.
Is so full of piss and vinegar and youthful joie de vivre as to practically be bursting at the seams. It is a revisitation of some of Will Toledo's older songs, but they are revisited with such confidence and swagger as to be immediately essential. Car Seat Headrest are a zeitgeist in and of themselves.
All Melody by Nils Frahm
Is one of the most mind-blowing keyboard albums ever made. What Frahm does with textures, rhythms, space and form feels like magic. I described it to my partner as feeling like watching someone build a very intricate level of Mario Kart 8 on the fly with twists and turns and shortcuts and interweaving loops and tracks, and then proceeding to race through that track once it has been constructed, repeatedly chasing and beating best lap times, without ever missing a single beat or note. It is a flawless speed-run of a record and it is hypnotizing.
Is one of the most mind-blowing keyboard albums ever made. What Frahm does with textures, rhythms, space and form feels like magic. I described it to my partner as feeling like watching someone build a very intricate level of Mario Kart 8 on the fly with twists and turns and shortcuts and interweaving loops and tracks, and then proceeding to race through that track once it has been constructed, repeatedly chasing and beating best lap times, without ever missing a single beat or note. It is a flawless speed-run of a record and it is hypnotizing.
Singularity by Jon Hopkins
Probably feels like doing drugs to someone who has never done drugs. It is similarly as accomplished as All Melody, but here with an often club-friendly pulsating beat underneath the various ebbs and flows and transcendences - an ethereal melding of the esoteric with the primal that feels like watching a master of craft fold delicate and beautiful origami art and proceed to illustrate it in real team in a way that evokes the very sense of consciousness, individually, and aliveness, all as though as in a dream.
Probably feels like doing drugs to someone who has never done drugs. It is similarly as accomplished as All Melody, but here with an often club-friendly pulsating beat underneath the various ebbs and flows and transcendences - an ethereal melding of the esoteric with the primal that feels like watching a master of craft fold delicate and beautiful origami art and proceed to illustrate it in real team in a way that evokes the very sense of consciousness, individually, and aliveness, all as though as in a dream.
Wide Awake by Parquet Courts
Is a rabidly fun record. It is eye-rolling hipster-stoner punk at its most immediate, dripping with sarcasm and disdain, but rolled in a sugary coat of Danger Mouse production that makes it their most immediate and infectious listen. It is two disparate aesthetics that bolster each other and feel fresh together.
Is a rabidly fun record. It is eye-rolling hipster-stoner punk at its most immediate, dripping with sarcasm and disdain, but rolled in a sugary coat of Danger Mouse production that makes it their most immediate and infectious listen. It is two disparate aesthetics that bolster each other and feel fresh together.
DAYTONA by Pusha T
Is the biggest success of the largely disastrous summer of Kanye. It is forceful and spare and its production hits are tight enough to support King Push as he rips through these lean seven songs across 21 minutes without an ounce of fat on it.
Is the biggest success of the largely disastrous summer of Kanye. It is forceful and spare and its production hits are tight enough to support King Push as he rips through these lean seven songs across 21 minutes without an ounce of fat on it.
Interstate Gospel by the Pistol Annies
Is a greatest hits of contemporary country from a powerhouse trio representing a cross-section of the genre's best talent and a wealth of experience and perspective that makes this a brisk, fun, and rewarding listen. Ascerbic, biting, bracing, emotional and fun all in the same breath.
Is a greatest hits of contemporary country from a powerhouse trio representing a cross-section of the genre's best talent and a wealth of experience and perspective that makes this a brisk, fun, and rewarding listen. Ascerbic, biting, bracing, emotional and fun all in the same breath.
In a Poem Unlimited by US Girls
Is the best Fleetwood Mac album ever; an Avant-pop show of force that bounces across styles to build a patchwork of fascinating tracks that touch deftly on the relevant and pressing questions of our age.
Is the best Fleetwood Mac album ever; an Avant-pop show of force that bounces across styles to build a patchwork of fascinating tracks that touch deftly on the relevant and pressing questions of our age.
Brighter Wounds by Son Lux
The Much Much How How and I by Cosmo Sheldrake
Isolation by Kali Uchis
Freedom by Amen Dunes
Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman
Reminisce Bar and Grill by Walter Martin
Re: memory by Ólafur Arnalds
Double Negative by Low
I Need to Start a Garden by Haley Heyndrickx
Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts
Superorganism by Superorganism
The Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar
Bark Your Head Off, Dog by Hop Along
Room 25 by Noname
Breaking English by Rafiq Bhatia
Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt
FM by Vince Staples
Be the Cowboy by Mitski
Soil by Serpentwithfeet
The Much Much How How and I by Cosmo Sheldrake
Isolation by Kali Uchis
Freedom by Amen Dunes
Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman
Reminisce Bar and Grill by Walter Martin
Re: memory by Ólafur Arnalds
Double Negative by Low
I Need to Start a Garden by Haley Heyndrickx
Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts
Superorganism by Superorganism
The Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar
Bark Your Head Off, Dog by Hop Along
Room 25 by Noname
Breaking English by Rafiq Bhatia
Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt
FM by Vince Staples
Be the Cowboy by Mitski
Soil by Serpentwithfeet
EP José González & The Brite Lites At Svenska Grammofonstudion
Re-Release The Beatles 2018 remixes (the white album)
Re-Release The Beatles 2018 remixes (the white album)
Listen to this playlist of my favorite songs of the year:
https://open.spotify.com/user/1212103938/playlist/6LT85TeO30GHY0y2M20LNL?si=c7koD1ugRjW5JEJssfwXIA
