The 2018 end of the year music lists thread

I need to revisit Serpentwithfeet. I was impressed when it came out, but haven't listened to it since.

I'm currently running down rabbit holes, lists are leading to more obscure recommendations ending up in dark alleys, often enticing singles and EPs that leave you wanting more. For example, C.C.T.V., a northern Indiana art punk/post-punk band allegedly released their third EP, Season Finale. I say allegedly because the only place I can find it so far is a single track on YouTube with funny Jerky Boys style radio bits. There's some intrigue here, with the original posting saying, "rick, if you're reading this please know, you're the devil" and the song titles. Rick is the DJ. I recommend listening to the whole thing, but it ties together at the end. I'm tempted to drive to Hammond for a rare gig on Dec 1. Also:

Body Type - Body Type EP (Melbourne jangly garage pop/punk)
Neurotic Fiction - Pulp Music (UK jangly pop/punk)
Spiritual Cramp - Television (San Francisco chaotic post-hardcore art rock, Deranged compiled their EPs and recent single. I saw them earlier this year, amazing. Admire the tambourine player's total commitment)
ILL - We Are ILL (whacky Manchester psychedelic post-punk)
L.A. Witch - Octubre EP (garage punk noir)
Public Practice - Distance Is A Mirror EP (NY, members of WALL)
LIINES - Stop-Start (UK post-punk)
Ganser - Odd Talk (Chicago energetic post-punk)
180dB - "Road Trip" single (Savages' Ayşe Hassan & Fay Milton with guests Meredith Graves of Perfect Pussy and Nick Zinner. WANT MORE)
Flat Worms - "The Apparition/Melt The Arms"
Goat - "Let It Burn"

Also, after being disappointed by last year's Bulls And Roosters, I've been pleasantly surprised by Together PANGEA's Non Stop Paranoia EP, with a great cover of Devo's "Gates Of Steel"! Interested to see if it shows up on a best EP list somewhere other than mine. Here's a Spotify playlist of certain tracks to explore in the pre-T-Giving lull.

I was thinking of bad bunny

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Sunday, November 18, 2018 7:49 PM (three days ago)

Yup, him and Arcangel and Ozuna...D-40 largely otm about trap's heavy influence on Latin pop

jfc you'd think Gaz would chill out for once and drop a record that isn't album of the year

xp

Trap’s influence on Latin pop/reggaeton is a given (and guess what, it’s not even the biggest notable influence). We’re still talking different genres though. It’s weird to suggest that acts like J Balvin or Ozuna or whoever don’t belong on lists like these when there are no (US) trap artists there, which is what D-40 was doing.

i'd actually say Ozuna and J Balvin in particular work slightly outside of what deej is talking about—Bad Bunny in particular is *really* indebted to Travis, but Ozuna and Balvin have more formalist reggaetonero personas even though they're still modernizing the sound (Ozuna bridges the gap a little more i'd say).

I like Serpentwithfeet when his church-rooted vocals and the rhythms are more traditional, but on a number of tracks the backing is too forced and stiff in an art-rock way gone bad. He tries too hard vocally on some cuts too

serpentwithfeet is prob a record i should talk about in the overhyped releases thread. still i look forward to whatever is next

Serpentwithfeet I don’t get at all. Can’t believe that got a fader cover

Ozuna songs I heard are pretty straightforward trap music although i do love “balanciaga”

J balvin is def Reggaeton tho I wasn’t thinking of him

It’s weird to suggest that acts like J Balvin or Ozuna or whoever don’t belong on lists like these when there are no (US) trap artists there, which is what D-40 was doing.

― breastcrawl, Wednesday, November 21, 2018 5:02 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was thinking of the wrong artist but regardless it’s still pretty weird not to have trap music really represented

Like even in its pop Travis Scott form

every time i heard “sicko mode” this year i thought “wow this is such a bad song(s)” but otherwise i agree

I quite like the serpentwithfeet album (wouldn't put it higher than that) but it does seem like an alternate-reality ridic. side project effort by Olly of Y&Y with frands.

Piccadilly Records, who have missed the thanksgiving dinner lull memo, presumably because they are in Manchester

https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?&feature=875
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/1023-piccadilly-records-top-100-albums-of-2018/2

20. Whyte Horses - Empty Words
19. Boy Azooga - 1, 2, Kung Fu!
18. Baxter Dury & Étienne De Crécy & Delilah Holliday - B.E.D
17. Children Of Zeus - Travel Light
16. The Orielles - Silver Dollar Moment
15. Low - Double Negative
14. Altın Gün - On
13. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
12. Eleventeen Eston - At the Water
11. MGMT - Little Dark Age
10. Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
9. Ezra Collective - Juan Pablo: The Philosopher
8. Phil France - Circle
7. The Advisory Circle - Ways of Seeing
6. Halo Maud - Je Suis Une île
5. TVAM - Psychic Data
4. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs
3. Beak> - >>>
2. LUMP - LUMP
1. Kadhja Bonet - Childqueen

Ooh, Childqueen at #1!

LUMP! ILM is seriously sleeping on this one.

The Boy Azooga album is great too

see, musicophilia is a good reminder of why i stick around for this year-end clusterfuck. hard as i try to keep up with the new music scene there's always stuff i had no idea even came out, like neneh cherry and jlin.

Piccadilly always do a really good EOY list, a mix of stuff I know I really like already and stuff I've never even heard of, and I end up investigating the latter based on the strength of the former. I imagine their list is preperation for Black Friday shopping

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is showing in a lot of these and it didn’t do much for me on first listen. Should I give it another chance?

It’s currently #1 on the AOTY summary score:

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2018/

It’s too early to tell but compared to the critic score summary it’s not even in the top 25:

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/ratings/6-highest-rated/2018/1

Those lists make 2018 seem weirder for music at least from my POV. I don’t really agree or have even heard 80% of the albums on those lists :/

Happy to see Low doing well I guess

Resident did a list. Without even looking at it I said to tt 'Roling Blackouts Coastal Fever at 3 then'. They're at 4. I guess record collector rock lives

Or at least, UK record shop rock

rolling blackouts is decent, their ep made it into my top 50 last year

haven't listened to the new one, but if it's a whole album's worth of the same, it probably isn't as good

They're a very bread and butter guitar band, could slot them into 1984 as easily as you could 2004. I guess that's what makes them unique in 2018?

The record has really strong melodies and hooks, and some lovely guitar interplay. Took a few of listens for it to sink in for me - I saw them live before hearing the record and was initially put off, but the album converted me. It isn't experimental, it isn't political, it says nothing about the age we live in (these are the kinds of things that tend to see something get rated highly on EOY lists), but sometimes ya just need a record with a bunch of good songs on it.

the vocals are bad

It’s ok but very nondescript? I’d rather have The Beths or Orielles or Black Belt Eagle Scout get the nod than this record...

Losers so far for me on the “indie rock” category are Amen Dunes, Beach House, US Girls, Mr Twin Sister... really good records and i must be getting old because I would have predicted they would make it in many eoy lists and I don’t think they’ve even showed up anywhere yet.

Not sure you can class Mr Twin Sister as "indie rock" anymore tbh

Piccadilly always do a really good EOY list, a mix of stuff I know I really like already and stuff I've never even heard of, and I end up investigating the latter based on the strength of the former.

Their compilations Top 20 tends to be really good too and I always discover some gems that I missed during the year.

https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=872

yeah and I love that they do a compilations list as so many other places tend not to bother despite comps being a great launching point for further explorations

3. Beak> - >>>
I find this more fun than it probably is

They're a very bread and butter guitar band, could slot them into 1984 as easily as you could 2004. I guess that's what makes them unique in 2018?

This must be true of hundreds of bands, the only difference is that people pay attention to RBCF.

would be very surprised if Mr Twin Sister show up on any list except the ILM one, they were completely ignored by most outlets unfortunately

Is there a good reason why this year's Jlin record has been largely ignored?

probably because it's a soundtrack and wasn't really presented as the real follow-up to Black Origami

This thread is giving me anxiety, seeing all these names and they are like marksmen taking up positions on nearby hillsides. Some familiar from incidents past, and some new ones coming through the ranks

There are so many of them and fact they are ordered and numbered suggests they are organized this time, so in theory I should be able to dodge the most dangerous but its not likely to work out that way I know

don't be so precious and get yer sen down Our Price and check out the hit parade, saer!

Lol at the RBCF backlash. Never thought I'd see that happen, as I just expected them to be ignored as usual by people unimpressed by anything that doesn't obviously say anything about the age we live in. There is hardly a shortage of jangly guitar rock with bits of garage and post-punk this year - Body Type, Neurotic Fiction, Melbourne Cans, The Black Watch, Salad Boys, Clearance, RAYS, The Roves, Heaters, Sea Pinks. Sans jangle there's Teen Judge, Sir Robin & the Longbowmen, Goat Girl, Parades Against Parades and dozens more. Also RVG, Chook Race, Total Control, Dick Diver, Zebra Hunt, Black Springs, Last Leaves, Odd Hope, Melenas, Glaciers, Real Estate, Proper Ornaments. Anyway, RBCF deserve the attention. And they DO get political, they just don't waggle it in your face -- the album Hope Downs is named after a giant hole meant to mine iron-ore until 2037, at the expense of the community, environment and economic sustainability.

Piccadilly has outdone themselves, complete with a printed guide to accompany the list (you can read the PDF here). There's interesting choices pretty much all the way through. Check out #58 Mildlife - Phase, for example. Good to see mentions of Les Big Byrd and White Denim. I spent time with Altın Gün earlier in the year and I admired it, but didn't get into it, need to revisit. I've loaded Spotify with at least a dozen albums I hadn't heard yet.

I never said there weren't a lot of active guitar bands, just that the one people chose to rally around this time is RBCF for reasons that remain a mystery to me.

That's fair, as I think most of the bands I mentioned above are really great. But I do especially enjoy the perhaps indulgent use of three guitars among other factors that give them an edge in my mind (my review).

Here's the portion that might address the questions at hand: "So what makes them so great? Let’s start with the fact that they have three members sharing guitar, songwriting and vocal duties. This could create a chaotic, shambolic sound, and while early tracks do have a giddy, fragmented quality, the writers sound completely locked in tune with each other, so I can’t easily tell who’s songs are who’s they all sound like RBCF. The band has been described as “motorik jangle” thanks to Joe Russo’s bass locked in with Marcel Tussie’s precise propulsion which is actually rooted in his background with Afrobeat. And then there’s the guitars, guitars, guitars! Fran Keaney’s acoustic guitar is aggressively percussive, while Joe White paints wide swaths of sound. With his 1959 hollowbody Gretsch, Tom Russo produces a distinctively sharp chime, a post-Shadows and Hank Marvin surf twang. Together they create a rich array of textures and intertwined leads. While so many bands feel obligated to rely on synths (a technology that’s already a half century old) to sound contemporary, it’s refreshing to just roll around in guitar heaven with a pop band.

While their Sub Pop recordings are relatively clean and pristine, the band manages to retain some of their original garage punk feel amidst the sweet melodies and hooks. “An Air Conditioned Man” is a jittery masterpiece of tension and drive, with vocals that remind me of prime Felt, a couple solos tossed back and forth like challenges. If you think this would make for great live music you’d be right. A month and a half before the album’s release, I saw them near the end of their tour. Despite coming all the way from Australia and driving across North America, the band were nearly bursting with joyous enthusiasm, clearly having a blast playing."

I agree, RBCF deserve the plaudits. The propulsive nature of their songs makes them stand apart from the crowd and it doesn't surprise me that RBCF has got the momentum at the moment.

The thing about the RBCF album for me is that each song sounds pretty good in isolation, but when listening to the album the sameyness all becomes noxious.

I do like the jangle motorik sound and they are actually tight-sounding live but for a band with three vocalists none of them are really good. Fran Keany in particular is really bad imho, and yet he seems to pen their catchiest choruses.

I don’t really hate it but seeing it as the top, consensus album of this year so far is a little baffling to me. Everyone in here seemed to hate War on Drugs (which sort of was the indie/jangle consensus pick from 2017) and this one sounds like a lesser version of that sound to me.

Maybe I’m just sore that none of the artists I mentioned upthread will make it to the top 50.

I have always felt that War on Drugs take themselves very seriously whereas there is a playfulness to RBCF that I find endearing. Maybe I am just predisposed to Aussies having spent a formative year out there...oh, and I really like the vocals, admittedly, they can't sing for toffee but then neither could Grant or Robert. Most of my favourite vocalists are 'bad' singers.

That said, I'm equally baffled by the seemingly random nature of reaching a consensus. For example, Overload by Georgia Anne Muldrow hasn't appeared on any list as yet, as far as I can tell, yet is a stone cold classic. I also really liked Hop Along's album, also conspicuous by its absence from these lists.

Is there a good reason why this year's Jlin record has been largely ignored?

― Matt DC, Friday, November 23, 2018 11:54 AM (five hours ago)

probably because it's a soundtrack and wasn't really presented as the real follow-up to Black Origami

― ufo, Friday, November 23, 2018 12:00 PM (five hours ago)

Yeah, it's not been promoted as a Jlin solo album, but like a collaborative side project thing. I need to listen to it, tbh, because it's probably still great.

...
ILL - We Are ILL (whacky Manchester psychedelic post-punk)
...

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, November 21, 2018 3:34 PM (two days ago)

Also need to listen to this, I've really liked some other ILL stuff. (To be fair to me, I don't think it's been out long.)