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jbonesy · 6 years

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Music of 2018

Top 10 Albums (No Particular Order)

Death Grips - Year of the Snitch

Even though it’s had some time to settle, I’m still not 100% sure where to place this album in Death Grips’s discography. Regardless, Death Grips continues to reinvent themselves more and more with every continuous album, and continues moreso to be more unpredictable than ever. The departure from their earlier hip hop sound and more toward experimental punk and rock suits them better than ever. While I’m a bit shaky on the predictability of the sound of some songs (Flies & Streaky notably), the songs of which do fall flat, I absolutely love the direction the majority of the album trends toward - songs like Death Grips is Online, Black Paint, and Dilemma perfectly embody the direction I’d hoped they’d go into after The Powers That B. Meanwhile, songs like The Fear and Little Richard continue to be as odd as ever - in the best way possible. My one complaint is that I’d wished they’d have departed a bit more from the predictable hip hop songs I’d mentioned above, but overall, the rest of the album is so great it’s hard to complain.

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (Rerecording/Remaster)

Car Seat Headrest’s original Twin Fantasy is a kind of cult classic bandcamp album which garnered a lot of notoriety, so the 2018 reissue garnering just as much should be a surprise to no one. While it’s true that the original rough quality added to the charm and in the re-recording process certain elements of the original don’t have the same effect, the strengths of the album shine through regardless. What can I say about this album that hasn’t already been said? This is the best indie rock album about depressed gay furries on tumblr I’ve ever heard.

Teyana Taylor - K.T.S.E

The Kanye Wyoming sessions were definitely a spectacle at the time, and because of all the chaos surrounding the releases, and the incredible amount of hype that was generated during the time, KTSE was unfairly overshadowed by a lot of the other albums that came out at the end - and it being the last to release, further mucked by delays and technical problems, didn’t help its case. Listening to the album in full though, it’s pretty sad this was the case, but in my opinion it’s the best album to come out of the Wyoming sessions. It’s an amazing call back to Kanye’s ability to still sample soul, and some of the instrumentals took me right back to the early 2000s, like a time machine. Teyana Taylor might not be the strongest voice in R&B or the most well known, but her performance alongside these instrumentals is definitely something to be lauded. In addition, Gonna Love Me is one of my favorite songs of 2018.

IDLES - Joy as an Act of Resistance.

While I have to admit I’m not as hot on some of the social critiques this album delivers in its music, its done in a way that I can definitely appreciate it. That said, the music on this stuff itself is some of the best punk I’ve heard in forever - maybe this decade. There’s some points of contention in the bluntly direct, sometimes annoying lyrics , but overall, a lot of the politics can probably be seen as a callback to the roots of punk with a modern spin. That said, the instrumentation and vocal performances on this thing are great. As a punk fan at heart I have to say this if there’s one punk or rock album you listen to this year, it should probably be this one. It’s amazing.

Parquet Courts - Wide Awaaaaake!

Continuing on from the last entry above, Parquet Courts smashed it earlier in the year with this post-punk revival album. While post-punk may continue to be influential to a lot of artists, I admittedly haven’t heard a lot of straight up post-punk revivalism, especially not as enjoyable as this, in a long time. While the themes of the album are honestly pretty similar to the above album as well, this is probably the closest you’re gonna get to a Talking Heads or Joy Division album in 2018 - and damn is it good.

Hermit and the Recluse (Ka & Animoss) - Orpheus vs. the Sirens

Two darlings of the real hip hop underground link up for one of the best hip hop albums of the year - and probably the best written. Ka continues to push for his well deserved title of one of the best lyricists to ever enter the genre - which is near insane given his very underground status. A lot of the instrumentals on this thing perfectly suit Ka’s style - lots of looping, eclectic beats, with a hint of eeriness or vintage shine. There’s some soul-like samples mixed in as well for good measure, something I’d never complain about on a hip hop album. Ka’s writing is arguably some of the best in his career as well - which given his portfolio up until this point, is really saying something. His densely layered, metaphor and thematically driven calls to mythology and poetically-inspired style of rapping are the perfect complement to the instrumentals over this album.

J.I.D - DiCaprio 2

J.I.D is one of my favorite newcomers in hip hop, and definitely one of the acts in the genre I’m hopeful for the future - not that this is an uncommon opinion. At this point, he’s got cosigns in coming from every direction - enough that people are already calling him overrated - and he hasn’t even really gotten started yet. The Never Story was an interesting debut album when it came out last year - a case study in an eclectic hip hop album that manages to encapsulate much of the modern trends in the genre while also incorporating some fantastic rapping and some oddly enchanting music choices. DiCaprio 2 - in J.I.D’s own words - is not his magnum opus, or his GKMC - an album comparison common in those already comparing him to a young Kendrick Lamar (despite JID being almost 30, surprisingly). However, despite that, this is a fantastic album regardless; the rapping is some of the best of any newcomer to the genre. There’s punchlines and flows that make callbacks to Lil Wayne, and technical skill to match many currently lauded acts. It’s a great mix of technicality, fun, and skill. While not every song is perfect - Tiiied and Westbrook were a bit underwhelming in my opinion - when this album reaches highs, it reaches REALLY high. Songs like Off Da Zoinkys, Skrawberries, and Despacito Too to name a few are hints that J.I.D isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and I’m certainly excited for his future.

MGMT - Little Dark Age

A lot of what I’ve heard from MGMT has been hit or miss for me, but their synth heavy album from earlier in the year is one of those times where when they hit with me, they really seem to hit heavy. The psychedelic vibes on this album are pretty entrancing, and while I can see the vocals as being love or hate, personally I’m a great fan of them on most of the songs. There’s a few low points where they feel a bit robotic - perhaps on purpose - but outside of those few grating moments, the album’s highs are too high for me to ignore otherwise. Mark it up as a win for psychedelic pop.

Pusha T - Daytona

As I said earlier, Kanye’s Wyoming sessions were one of the biggest music spectacles this year, especially for those in the hip hop genre. Combined with the massive hype circling Pusha T’s supposed release of King Push - an album up there with Detox and Doomstarks in probably never coming out - most hip hop fans were posted up for hours each night in anticipation of what would actually release (and what wouldn’t). While I can’t say I enjoyed this as much as KTSE, it’s still a great album regardless. The instrumentals are gritty and tight - there’s no room for mistakes, and there’s rarely any lows. Pusha raps as great as always, minus some slip ups with some poor or awkward lines. Overall, it’s a great album, but it’s short nature and lack of experimentation or boundary pushing leave a bit to be desired. Kanye’s fantastic production shines more than Pusha does at times - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it never feels like Push really leaves his comfort zone; especially after hearing songs in the past like Lunch Money, it makes me wish he did. Regardless, I can’t really thrash this album; it’s a perfectly compressed hip hop album, and one of the best of the year.

Blood Orange - Negro Swan

Devonte Hynes, better known as Blood Orange, is one of those musicians I’m suprised we don’t hear more about. I have to admit - his voice can be a bit grating at times - but overall, it’s one of those albums whose highs far overshadow subjective lows like that. The instrumentation is varied and lush; overall, Hyne’s production is some of the best its ever been. There’s a nice dip in pop, r&b, hip hop, funk, and other genres throughout the album. While I may have said his voice can be grating at times, I will say when it works - it works. Songs like Charcoal Baby are great examples of his voice working in tandem beautifully with his instrumentals. There’s some great vocal performances on this, and again, I think there’s some amazing production. It’s also more impressive when you realize Hynes alone produced the vast majority of this album, along with singing on basically all the songs. Other complaints? I do wish he brought back Despot because Clipped On from Cupid Deluxe. is an amazing song.

Honorable Mentions / Albums I Found Interesting but not Amazing

Lil Peep - Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 2

COWYS2 isn’t a perfect album. None of Lil Peep’s albums are perfect - his music has largely remained controversial; it seems to piss off both rock and hip hop fans.There’s a lot of complaints I’ve seen about this album - “it’s overproduced” seems to be the biggest one. Is it? Maybe. But man, this album appeals to my love of emo music like no album has in a long time. His writing might not the best, and the instrumentals might be a bit weak at times, but overall, as a posthumous album, you can only complain so much. It’s not perfect, but neither have any of his other albums been. For what it is - a mix of hip hop and early 2000s pop punk and emo - it’s great as it is. Runaway is one of my favorite songs of the year.

Lil Peep - Goth Angel Sinner EP (Unofficial Leak)

I was debating if I should include this at all since it’s technically unofficial, but given I included COWYS, I figured it was worth it. Peep’s death was an untimely shock, and while his music might not have always been the best, I think his interesting blend of music and notably recognizable voice was something he’ll be remembered for regardless. He was growing in his sound, moving away from hip hop and more into that musical sphere of punk and emo - and GAS is a sad hint at what could have been. It’s some of his best music by a wide margin, and it’s profoundly depressing that we’ll never see him at his true potential. RIP Peep.

Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

One of the hipster darling albums of the year, I wasn’t as impressed as everyone else. It’s not bad by any means, but I didn’t think it was amazing. There are some great points the album - the production is pretty good throughout, and Cudi and Kanye both deliver some great performances, but overall, I feel like it fell a bit short. The 7 song length didn’t help either; unlike Daytona, it doesn’t feel as tight, and sometimes it sounds more muddy than anything. Cudi’s vocals can be a bit lazy at times as well, and some of the insistent repetition on the songs doesn’t work well in an album so incredibly short to begin with. All that said, it’s a good album - I don’t want to disparage it too much. It has some of Kanye’s best rapping in ages (regardless of whether he wrote it), and it’s a fun listen. Kids See Ghosts and Cudi Montage are my favorite songs.

Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs

Some Rap Songs is an album I’ve gone back and forth on quite a lot, which is impressive considering it’s barely been out as of writing this. It’s a short album, so I’ve managed to listen a few times, but even so, I’m torn on a lot of it. Earl’s writing is good, and some of the production is eclectic and interesting, but there are times the album dips in severe quality. Regardless of if it was intentional, the muddy (if not straight poor) mixing, lofi recording quality, and lack of variation are some of the few complaints I have on the album. It feels incredibly lazy at times - whether on purpose or not is a different question - but whether it “works” isn’t. There are some songs I do really like - I think Peanut and The Mint are some of the more interesting cuts, but songs like Nowhere2Go among others feel unimpressive, if not falling flat completely. If anything else, it’s an interesting listen, and especially emotional for those already fans of Earl.

Frank Ocean - ENDLESS (2018 Remaster/Reissue)

Frank Ocean is one of those artists who deserves the vast majority of his widespread acclaim. While his less than ideal music release schedule and mysterious public persona (or lack thereof) certainly play into that, his music really is what takes the trophy at the end of the day. When Endless originally released, Blonde definitely overshadowed it (and for good reason), but on its own, Endless still shines bright. The 2018 reissue adds a few new points to the album as well, which overall manage to improve it to a great degree. I was considering placing it in my top 10, but it felt unfair considering this album didn’t “really” come out in 2018, and the changes aren’t big enough to warrant considering it a new album. Still though, it deserved a mention.

Kero Kero Bonito - Time ‘n’ Place

I’m still a bit disappointed at KKB’s artistic choice to change their image and focus - it feels a bit cheap and insulting to some of their audience - but I can’t really disparage their music. While their artistic and musical growth seems more artificial and inorganic than anything, at the end of the day, it’s still growth. On its own, Time ‘n’ Place is a good album. It’s a good mix of their own brand of fun, experimentation, and genre hopping. While the pop fans they courted with their debut might still be disappointed, I did enjoy the album quite a lot, even if the aesthetic felt a bit annoying and - again - artificial. Taken on its own in isolation though, again, it’s a good album.

Anderson .Paak - Oxnard

There’s not a ton I can really say about Oxnard. It’s a good album. There’s a few points in which it falls flat, but even then, it’s not really bad. Okay, maybe except for the last song, which feels completely out of place. It’s no Malibu, no Yes Lawd!, and no Venice, but it’s a good album. Paak’s talent shines through no matter what. Dr. Dre’s influence really does shine through on this album though - it’s very reminiscent of some of Compton to me. I can see hardcore fans of Malibu or Yes Lawd not really liking this album, but the exploration of hip hop and funk more than r&b and soul really do suit Paak during a lot of this album. I say this as a massive fan of Malibu as well - it was one of my favorite albums of the year it came out. He’s branching out and experimenting, and it’s not a bad thing - especially when you look at his entire musical history. It’s worth checking out.

Leon Bridges - Good Thing

I haven’t seen his album talked about, like, basically anywhere. I’m surprised, because it’s a really good neo-soul album. It feels a bit repetitive at times, but the quality is consistent throughout. It’s an enjoyable listen if anything else. It’s not experimental, it’s not super varied, but it’s a tightly strung together, quality listen. The instrumentation is rich and catchy, the Leon’s vocals are great, and overall, much of the album is what I’d expect a neo-soul singer who isn’t D’Angelo in 2018. That said, there are a few weak points in the album where it’s a little week - and trends a bit more towards pop disappointingly, but the pure soul parts of the album are where Leon really shines the best.

Playboi Carti - Die Lit

Carti really can’t write music if his life depended on it, but he doesn’t need to. This thing, as a mainstream trap album, is weird. The instrumentals are odd, definitely not the type of thing you’d expect to hear on this type of album for the most part. They’re reminiscent of cloud rap at times, and at other times so incredibly minimal you can’t help but praise Carti for making the song still get stuck in your head. Overall, the instrumentals are entrancing, hazy, sometimes even bordering on possibly experimental. There’s a unique usage of samples that’s just instantly entrancing on a lot of these songs. That said, there’s still a lot of pop sensibilities, and these songs kind of water down the album a bit by departing from these aforementioned traits. It’s also just incredibly long at 19 songs; while this may work for some albums, for the type of music Carti is making, it kind of suffers from its length. Carti’s performances are the point of contention with most people. His writing is, again, basically nonexistent. Still, he manages to somehow steal the show over the production on a lot of this album. Whether it’s just his excessive usage of adlib ridden, partially lazy flows, or half-sung, half-slurred delivery, he just manages to carry a charisma that’s hard to ignore - even when he is saying literally nothing. It’s catchy, and in this type of music, that’s what matters. For hip hop fans especially, it’s an interesting listen.

Biggest Disappointments & Least Favorite/Worst Albums (No Particular Order)

Kanye West - Ye

I’m a massive kanye fan, and I recognize that a lot of his more recent work can be panned a bit before growing into place. Yeezus and TLOP were two albums which were more growers than straight out the pan classics or similar. Ye, however, is no TLOP or Yeezus. It’s disappointing because a lot of good music came out of the Wyoming sessions, but for as much of a spectacle as it was, its centerpiece really fell flat. There’s some good songs on it - I really do like No Mistakes for example. Overall though? It’s length does it no favors, and at the end of the day, most of the album is incredibly medicore - which is exemplified even further by the fact that it’s Kanye producing it. Certain songs like Violet Crimes, which were at least meaningful, completely lose their meaning once you realize Kanye didn’t even write them, or given his recent associations with certain people, even mean the words written for them. It’s a mess, but not the good type of mess like TLOP. It’s just a mess.

Nas - Nasir

It’s a throw up between this and Ye for what’s the worse album out of the Wyoming sessions. I mean, in the very least, at least Kanye brought his efforts to this record. The production is honestly not bad, and at times, pretty unique. Cops Shot the Kid is a pretty good song, albeit a little bit annoying because of the repetition. The real problem with this album? Nas. For someone with such a reputation for being a legendary rapper - I mean, he wrote Illmatic - what the hell is this? It sounds like he put this together on the taxi on the way to the livestream release party (which unsurprisingly, didn’t even work). Even beyond, the uh, downright insane anti-vax and 5%-er conspiracy shit on the first song, the writing’s just straight up lazy, and Nas sounds like he couldn’t care less. It’s hard to believe a Nas and Kanye collaboration turned out this awful, but here we are.

Denzel Curry - Taboo/Ta13oo

I know people are going to kill me for putting this on the list, but I have to be completely honest. I really like Denzel Curry, and I’ve been cheering for him since before he even made Ultimate. I’ve known him since he was on Raider Klan and working with LUM on Twistin’. I really like him and his music, which is why I’m so disappointed by this album. It’s not as bad as a lot of the other stuff in this list, but it’s not really that good either. Coming off of his last few projects, it feels like a massive step down, and a failure to utilize his best skills while, for the most of the project, capitalizing instead on most of his weaknesses.I won’t say it’s a bad album, but it falls short of expectations. His lyricism is incredibly weak, and when doing a supposed concept album, that’s pretty important. His rapping - and conveying the concept - is subpar at best. He has some good tracks on this, but not enough that it overpowers the vast amount of mediocrity on it. Denzel isn’t a super impressive singer, and he overdoes it a bit with considering this one of his strengths. There’s a lot of boring songs that say very little but masquerade as being deeper than they actually are. There are lots of instrumental choices that destroy the replayability of otherwise good songs too - for example, the high pitched background noise and odd gargling/scratching on Sirens. Overall? It’s not as bad as other albums on this list, but I’m incredibly disappointed with it. Probably the most overrated album of 2018.

Gorillaz - The Now Now

Not sure what to say about this other than it’s about 40 minutes of mediocre, forgettable electropop and synth funk. It’s uh, better than Humanz at least I guess.

Princess Nokia - A Girl Cried Red

Oh my god, Princess Nokia, why? I love your music, and you were one of my favorite artists to be recently receiving more acclaim - definitely one of the best upcoming women in hip hop too. But this is...awful. I mean, I get it. It’s a fun side-step project that calls back to her roots as a goth kid, something that’d been prevalent in her music. I like emo a lot myself, as I’ve said earlier, but this is just straight up bad. I hope she had fun making it, because I didn’t have any fun listening to it. It takes the absolute worst parts of Lil Peep’s music and exaggerates it; the emo-inspired instrumentals are cheap and unimpressive, and her singing is...awful. It’s like, parody level of bad. Incredibly unpleasant and grating to listen to, and her lyrics are parody level as well, which I assume is at least purposeful. Might honestly be in the running for not just one the most disappointing albums, but one of the worst in general this year.

J. Cole - KOD

J. Cole is a skilled rapper and producer who’s really overrated in social media and music spheres. While I’m glad it’s gotten a bit better, I have to say, the album he put out altogether this year is pretty unimpressive. I’m happy he’s trying a bit better to be accessible, but it’s just not a great attempt at what it could be. His rapping is still pretty good, and I’m glad he’s trying to reach out and make a bit more “accessible” music, but I think a lot his attempts at things on this album fall flat. The production is subdued and forgettable, which can be alright, but combined with his repeated use of repetitive, uninteresting hooks and little progression in each song, it’s just an overall forgettable album. It’s sad, because he touches on some important topics on the album, but it’s just not that well done - and not nearly as profound as J Cole himself seems to think it is. It’s also a step down from 4 Your Eyez Only, which was already quite polarizing. He took the worst parts of that album and carried them to this, while not having the rest of the elements of the album be strong enough to really carry it. Props to J. Cole for his amazing run of features this year though.

A$AP Rocky - TESTING

Testing sounds like what someone who’s never listened to anything experimental would think experimental sounds like. It’s the type of hollow artsy album whose sole artistic merit is constantly reminding you how artsy it thinks it is. There are some decent tracks on here, it’s not awful or anything, but god, it’s just so mediocre. Nothing on here is really memorable; tracks come and go, and features seem incredibly tacked on at times, such as FKA twigs on Fukk Sleep. Rock has flow, but he’s just such a mediocre rapper still. It’s a bit of a mess, and again, not the good type. There are a few good tracks, and a few catchy moments, but with the wait and rollout leading up to this, I can say none of the hype was worth it.

6ix9ine - Dummy Boy

One of most controversial figures in modern music abandons the style he embraced along his come up to further embrace watered down pop music. There are a lot of features, and some of them are good, and some of them aren’t. It’s a compilation of singles made to chart, and any listener can tell on one listen. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s downright awful. Did I really expect anything else? Well, I liked a lot of his pre-fame music to be honest, back when he was still signed to FCK THM and repping Scumgang. Stuff like Yokai for example. Unfortunately, this album just isn’t good at all. Formulaic, drab, and watered down pop rap with little identity or variation; and when it does vary - see the latin trap songs - it’s beyond horrible. Sad!

JPEGMAFIA - Veteran

Not gonna say this is the worst album in the world or a necessarily bad album or anything, but it doesn’t deserve the hype. It’s experimental, sure, and impressive at times, sure, but it’s one of those albums which people say they love to appear a certain way more than they actually will ever listen to it. I know peggy couldn’t give a shit what I or anyone else has to say about his music or his messages, and all the more power to him; even though I disagree, I respect it .That all said, I appreciate experimentation, and some songs are okay, but I’m never listening to this again.

Travis Scott - Astroworld

Rodeo-era Travis Scott is never coming back, and that’s a hard thing to deal with. The album has some highs - Stop Trying to Be God is great for example - but its lows are quite low. Again, it’s not a bad album by any means, but when Rodeo is in your discography...meh. It feels like album release schedule is a Fibonacci sequence, because this album is a collage of his last two - Rodeo and Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight. There’s some impressive directing and musical choices on this, but a lot of that super hollow pop sensibility and pop musical direction of the latter shines through as well. Artists grow, and as Travis has gotten bigger, he’s trying his best to keep his entire audience satisfied. With hits like Sicko Mode doing so well, he’s accomplished that. I can’t really sit here and disparage him in full for doing that, but I also can’t lie and say this album wasn’t a little disappointing knowing what highs he could reach if he wanted to.

Yung Lean - Poison Ivy

I love Yung Lean and will defend him and his music no matter what, but this isn’t one of his better ventures. Coming off of Stranger, Lean showed immense growth and experimentation in one of his best and most personal albums yet. He had a few singles in between that and this which were alright, a bit more reminiscent of Draingang and Bladee’s work. When I saw the album cover for this, I assumed it would be in the direction of his punk band, Dod Mark, maybe with a mix of elements from Stranger. Unfortunately, Poison Ivy falls flat on that. It feels like a massive step back for Lean stylistically, especially given he just released one of his best albums prior. The production is pretty great though on its own, just not really in greater context. It’s more of a Draingang-styled album, which is a niche I’m not a massive fan of comparatively. I’ll still be looking forward to his next album though.

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter V

This isn’t a bad album, and before anyone says anything, I’m not a hater of Lil Wayne. In fact, I think there’s an argument for him being one of the best rappers to exist in the genre. That said, the album’s massive wait and hype just wasn’t worth it. People really didn’t know what to expect, and the massive saga that lead up to this couldn’t possibly have met expectations. The music is from an older era, and on a lot of it, you can really tell. Wayne’s rapping is pretty fantastic, and his punchlines and verses are on point as usual. He isn’t really the problem as much as the rest of the album is; dated production, hooks, and features are just a few of the problems I found on the album. It’s a bit sad that this came and went with such an air of general mediocrity around it, because after the saga and the all the shit Wayne went through, he deserved better. Again though, there’s no way this could have met expectations, so in a vacuum - it’s a good album. If this has released when it was originally supposed to years ago, it’d probably be amazing. It’s just in the current musical climate, it feels out of place and dated.

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