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morningrainmusic · 6 years

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Top 25 Albums of 2018

These are the top twenty-five albums (and one EP) of the year. See you in 2019. Best, MorningRainMusic.tumblr.com

25. MGMT – Little Dark Age Little Dark Age is the album in which MGMT wised up to the fact that they can experiment with their sound while not completely alienating their fans. I expect the evolution of this band will continue to be fascinating. Complaints/criticisms should be taken up with goth Andre Van Wyngarden.

24. Jeff Rosenstock – POST- Good old-fashioned American punk rock in another frustration-filled year in the U.S. of A. Few people can make righteous anger sound as fun as Rosenstock. We’re gonna need more in 2019, Jeff.

23. Jon Hopkins – Singularity Likely Hopkins’ best work yet, Singularity is a monster of an electronic album without the monstrously tired trappings of EDM. Of course, this is the arena Hopkins has been working in most of his career, building sonic worlds of mesmerizing beauty.

22. Amanda Shires – To the Sunset The opening track to Amanda Shires’ eighth album is a statement. Shires is a classically trained violinist who plays with Jason Isbell (to whom she is married) and is still firmly rooted in the Americana/folk scene. To the Sunset is a sea change for Shires and “Parking Lot Pirouette” is the coming out party. While it’s not exactly a pop record, it’s damn close. “Leave it Alone” could soundtrack a 90s rom-com starring Meg Ryan. The country undertones linger here and there, but they are typically buried beneath Shires’ stunning voice and Dave Cobb’s slick production. There’s an unexpected and brutal final line of album closer, “Wasn’t I Paying Attention” that fits into the country-western tradition, but otherwise by the end you might forget she’s a country/folk artist at all.

21. Pusha T – Daytona / Kanye West – ye Yes, this is a cheat. But at seven tracks each and just under forty-five minutes combined, it seemed appropriate to lump Daytona and ye together. The marriage of Kanye and Pusha T in 2018 proved a very successful one. Daytona showcases Pusha T’s impressive rhyming ability and penchant for controversy (see the album cover depicting Whitney Houston’s drug paraphernalia-litterd bathroom, which Kanye paid $85,000 to license). Ye was not particularly well-received by critics, and it certainly has its flaws. But its highs are high, reminding us why it’s hard to hate Kanye, even at a time when most everything else he does makes us want to.

20. Kurt Vile – Bottle It In As he states plainly on “One Trick Ponies,” Kurt Vile has always had a soft spot for repetition. He’s made long albums before, but at an hour and eighteen minutes, Bottle It In is his longest album yet. It meanders A LOT, but this is prime Kurt. From the everyday, small town highs of “Loading Zones” to the amphetamine-taking rocker-on-the-road swagger of “Check Baby,” this record delivers the goods. Of course there’s also the ultra-chill side of KV here, like the almost ten minute long day-in-the-life tune, “Backasswards” and the title track which employs harpist Mary Lattimore as well as some saxophone, slightly calling to mind “Under the Pressure” by Kurt’s old band. If he continues making records this good, Mr. Vile can repeat himself as much as his heart desires.

19. Lucy Dacus – Historian Lucy Dacus is only 23 years old and she’s already proven herself one of the best lyricists alive. The biting, shame-offensive “Strange Torpedo” from her 2016 debut contains witty lyrics and begs to be sung along with. Dacus’ Matador-released follow up, Historian, is more explicitly personal, epic, and all around exciting. And while this record is full of stick-in-your-head lyrics, they are complimented by Dacus’ genuinely impressive guitar-shredding and beautiful voice. She could sing the phone book and it would likely make for a half a decent song.

18. Wooden Shjips – V. While Sleep was receiving heaps of critical praise for their doom metal, weed-worshipping comeback record, The Sciences, the best stoner album of the year was a much more lowkey, hazily psychedelic affair. Wooden Shjips’ V. is a warm, echo-laden, bliss-trip with plenty of jammy excursions and thick, Nuggets-era guitar riffs. It’s one of those rare albums that is equally suited for active and passive listening—one can get as much from it by really digging in with a pair of good headphones as playing two thirds in the car whilst the mind wanders back and forth from daydreaming to attentively consuming the music. Most self-respecting musicians would understandably take issue with that comment—did I just describe wallpaper muzak? Not at all. This is a pivotal function of many great psychedelic rock records: the ability to pull the listener in, then facilitate his slow drift away, only to bring him back a few minutes later. It is an ebb and flow Wooden Shjips achieve masterfully. In his review of the album, Stereogum’s Tom Breihan mentions his wife walking in on him listening to “Golden Flower” and describing what she heard as sounding like “Phish covering Third Eye Blind.” This fairly accurate description of the song will send some running for the hills. I’m not much of a Phish phan, but the thought of hearing Trey & co’s take on a late-90s pop-rock masterpiece sounds pretty damn great to me. In a numbingly turbulent year, V. was possibly the perfect soundtrack to turn on, tune in, and drop out to.

17. Pinegrove – Skylight As is the case with so much art (more and more in the past few years), it is impossible to remove the latest Pinegrove record from the context of its primary creator’s personal life, which is…complicated, to put it mildly. A couple years ago when Pinegrove put out their phenomenal (and overlooked by this blog) sophomore album, Cardinal, they were probably the last band anyone thought would garner controversy of any kind. An alt-country/emo band from Montclair, New Jersey, they quickly built up a fervent fan base that calls themselves Pinenuts (yes, actually). Then all this happened. Though it was almost completely finished before that all went down, whatever it was….some of the lyrics on Skylight seem to reference it—take a close listen to “Rings.” In any case, this is a powerful, introspective, and really just classic Pinegrove album. I hope everyone is okay, and I’m glad the band lives on.

16. Miya Folick – Premonitions Like a handful of artists on this list, Miya Folick came out of nowhere for me. This is part of what makes this list so exciting—the musicians who put out stellar debut albums and those that have been around a little while, but I just recently became aware of them. Cardi B and Miya Folick are the only artists here with debut LP’s. They are radically different stylistically, but they are similarly electric, get-up-and-move albums. Premonitions probably doesn’t qualify as a “party record” in the traditional sense but songs like “Cost Your Love” demand body movement. Pair this pop sensibility with Folick’s wide-ranging, Fiona Apple-eqsue vocals and you’ve got a star in the making.

15. Camp Cope – How To Socialise & Make Friends “The Opener,” which is fittingly the opening track of Australian indie rock outfit Camp Cope’s second album, is quite possibly the most powerful and effective protest song of 2018. Through sarcasm and a scorching vocal performance, front-woman Georgia Maq eviscerates the toxic men who work in music and make life for women like the members of Camp Cope that much more difficult. “Tell me again how there just aren’t that many girls in the music scene” Maq shouts, addressing frustrations and injustices that are largely unique to women and reach far beyond music/entertainment. It is a vital statement of a song and perhaps more important to get its message across, it rocks. The album pivots, offering more balladic personal narratives—“The Face Of God” addresses a sexual assault, “The Omen” is an ode to a lifelong love, and “I’ve Got You” is a heartbreaking acoustic number about a parent dying of cancer. It’s a heavy, cathartic record that establishes Camp Cope as an indie force.

14. Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer What’s left to say about Josh Tillman? The man who captured our hearts by dropping out of Fleet Foxes, showing off his moves on Letterman, and putting out a pair of weird, wonderful albums was due for a course correction in 2018. Yes, many consider Pure Comedy a triumph, but really it was a highly uneven, bloated, self-absorbed mess. Tillman, someone who used to poke fun at the type of self-serious people who are so preoccupied by “man’s role in the universe,” had gone and made an album about just that. God’s Favorite Customer is a return to form. Sort of sad, but it apparently took a serious shakeup in his marriage for this sarcastic goofball to get back to doing what he does best: crafting beautiful melodies and singing nutso, often darkly funny lines with conviction and the voice of an angel. (Example: “Last night I wrote a poem / Man, I must have been in the poem zone”).

13. John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness Want to attain enlightenment? Don’t bother meditating or balancing your chakras. Instead, try living seventy-odd years with a fraction of the honesty, humility, and warm resignation that the old master shows on this record. When you come up with a single joke as hilarious and subtle as the beginning of “Boundless Love” you will have achieved your goal, probably. -Alex Seraphin, blog contributor

12. Lala Lala – The Lamb Lillie West aka Lala Lala is a London-born, Chicago-based musician making slightly dark, reverb-laden songs that would leave you feeling as cold as she looks on the cover, if it weren’t for how catchy and propulsive they are. Painful, celebratory, aggressive, and raw, The Lamb is like a classic punk album that isn’t actually punk. It’s like if Youth Lagoon and Bikini Kill had a lovechild, only way better than that sounds.

11. Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog Philadelphia mainstays, Hop Along dabble in grunge, folk-rock, emo (yes, a little), punk, and power pop in their boldest and most consistent album yet. I don’t have much else to say except this is a great band more people should be paying attention to.

10. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus – boygenius This list is traditionally strictly for full-length albums, but an exception had to be made for boygenius, a six song EP by three of the best songwriters working today. Forget all the hubbub about this being the “egoless supergroup of your indie rock dreams” and the album art’s similarity to Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1969 debut. What matters is the music, and the music here is untouchable. Each song showcases Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus’ individual strengths and when put together they are far greater than the sum of their parts.

9. Remember Sports – Up From Below Anybody remember Sports from Gambier, Ohio? They are now Remember Sports (thanks a lot, lesser Sports) but they are still making scrappy, lovelorn, pop punk. Lots of earworms here, Up From Below is upbeat, fun, sad, angry, and awesome. Do not forget Remember Sports.

8. Parquet Courts – Wide Awake! “We are conductors of sound, heat, and energy And I bet that you thought you had us figured out from the start”

Thus begins “Total Football” and Parquet Courts sixth album, Wide Awake! Indeed, Parquet Courts is a band impossible to pin down—anybody who claims to have them figured out is either a liar or a fool. In twenty-five years when we look back at rock music of the 2010s, Parquet Courts will likely stand out as the most adventurous, philosophical, and downright compelling of the pack. And fuck Tom Brady.

7. Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy Shortly after the release of Invasion of Privacy, Top Dawg Entertainment president Punch tweeted “Cardi B is 2pac,” prompting an impassioned debate on social media. In most ways, it’s a boneheaded comparison that undercuts 2Pac’s body of work, socially conscientious lyrics, and overall contribution to the evolution of rap. However, I can’t help agreeing with the connection in other respects—Cardi has a contagious charisma, charm, rawness, and unpredictability similar to 2Pac. Her meteoric ascent in 2018 was impossible to ignore and she has already cemented herself as a powerful voice in hip-hop. But what made Invasion of Privacy an unavoidable smash hit this year is not Cardi B’s similarity to past rap legends, affiliation with other rap stars, or her stripper-turned-reality-start-turned-rapper Cinderalla story. It’s Cardi B herself. She’s not the next Pac, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott, take your pick. She’s the first Cardi B.

6. Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel Get the fuck out of the way—Courtney Barnett has arrived. Gone is the promising Australian upstart/indie darling with witty one-liners. The woman who replaced her is a full-fledged rock star, ready to shred her way to the top. She’ll locate your inner most lecherous and rip it out carefully.

5. Joey Purp – QUARTERTHING I’m told that the amount of great rap coming out of Chicago is mind-blowing. A quick glance at this list should give you sense of how rap is not one of my favorite genres, so I won’t pretend it is. However, I still listen to some rap, and QUARTERTHING rose above the Playboy Cartis, Travis Scotts, and Kids Seeing Ghosts of 2018. Purp’s talent is undeniable and no other rapper can go toe to toe with contemporaries like Chance The Rapper (“24k Gold/Sanctified”), Brockhampton (“Elastic”), and Sheck Wes (“Paint Thinner”). Joey Purp is rap’s next big thing.

4. Mitski – Be The Cowboy “Be the cowboy you want to see in the world” is an expression of Mitski Miyawaki’s that embodies confidence, unapologetic individualism, and freedom. In some ways, it’s a nice companion piece to the next album on this list. Mitski has given us a collection of infectious pop songs that embrace the joy, pain, ecstasy, and sorrow of being alive. Be The Cowboy is a whirlwind of fourteen songs, only two over three minutes long, that leaves you feeling high and low, but ready to grab the bull by the horns in your ten-gallon hat and make them remember your name.

3. Amen Dunes – Freedom I didn’t know Amen Dunes from Adam before Freedom. Before hearing a single note, a friend described Damon McMahon’s vocal delivery as similar to Van Morrison’s, stutter-scatting his way through sonic slipstreams and lush synthesizers. Perhaps there’s a spiritual connection to be found between Van and McMahon, but for the most part Freedom is something entirely fresh. “This is your time, their time is done” a child proclaims on the intro track, and these words ring true on every song that follows. Of his influences for the album, McMahon said: “I realized that for me to do my job well, I need to put myself out there. I was listening to a lot of good mainstream music too. I wasn’t listening to mainstream like Miley Cyrus, but the Michelangelos of pop. So, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, and so on. They have the best melodies, the best rhythms and the best songs.” Freedom is the sound of a man finding peace and allowing himself to make the most accessible record he’s capable of making. This is an ambitious pop album—but not the showy, staggeringly ambitious type, rather it is quietly stunning. It will floor you in its transcendent subtlety.

2. Nap Eyes – I’m Bad Now I’m Bad Now is a tongue-in-cheek album title for a band comprised of four soft-spoken dudes from Nova Scotia who love Yo La Tengo and The Velvet Underground. More likely a reference to children’s schoolyard pronunciation of switching sides from good to bad, I’m Bad Now contains very little in the way of meanness or cruelty, save for the kiss-off chorus on “I’m Bad” that concludes “which is amazing because you’re so dumb.” Rather, what Nap Eyes have made here is a smart, funny, strange existential odyssey that mines everything from the monotony of “the nine to fives and five to nines” (“Judgment”) to spiritual blindness and religious questioning (“White Disciple”), a song that would make George Harrison proud. “Your life is pointless unless it sets you free” sings Nigel Chapman sounding like a guru Lou Reed. It’s heady stuff accented by filthy guitar solos and brilliant songwriting. Do not sleep on the Nap Eyes.

1. Bonny Doon – Longwave For a short while Longwave felt like the wrong pick for best album of the year. It’s a record I came upon via the ardent recommendation of Katie Crutchfield (aka Waxahatchee) and while it is incredibly pleasant, warm, and enjoyable, it is nothing groundbreaking or seemingly capital “i” important. No matter. Longwave, recorded in northern Michigan by four unassuming guys from Detroit, is a collection of songs that soothe the soul. It gently reminds us of the failings of our hearts and minds (“I should be happy/but I’m not”) and it reassures us that things haven’t worked out quite as badly as we sometimes think (“you are who you’re supposed to be”). This album did not shake up the landscape of music in 2018 or top other lists on the web or even rack up more than a few hundred thousand streams on Spotify (to put that in perspective Cardi B’s “I Like It” is sitting pretty at 6.5 million). But this record already feels timeless. Every single song on Longwave is damn near perfect. Honorable mentions: Khraungbin – Con Todo El Mundo Against All Logic (A.A.L.) – 2012-2017 Foxing – Nearer My God Retirement Party – Somewhat Literate Superchunk – What a Time To Be Alive

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