The 2018 end of the year music lists thread

^ finally someone gets it

that year where the wire had '56 nights' and 'dirty sprite 2' is such a weird anomaly for them taste-wise, i take that maybe just as deference to noz?

feel like yves tumor dropping from top ten to number 50 is a direct result of his 'mainstreaming' via pitchfork lol

pretty funny they had "The Life of Pablo" also

I like the "doom/metal folk" description of Senyawa, and that it was released on Sublime Frequencies. looking forward to hearing it

Safe in the Hands of Love is one of the best records of the year however the Wire rates it

Interesting, that Musicophilia list has a TON of albums I've been digging this year (and is closest to what I'll eventually submit here), and every other list is barren or has 1-3 I even recognize. WTF

― octobeard

I'm a little bummed the Musicophilia list is apparently such an outlier, especially re: Nenneh Cherry, Roy Kinsey, Serpentwithfeet, Saba. . . I'm not saying I didn't miss a lot, but these are so great it's just a shame they won't get the attention these lists bring.

Low (and maybe Neneh Cherry) aside, the Musicophilia top ten definitely feels like a statement about where they feel the energy and excitement is right now, though of the relevant records the only one that will end up in my top ten is Roy Kinsey.

The response to the Lotic album has seemed strangely muted compared to all the hype he was getting previously?

Lotic - Power is incredible, like the Objekt album it's so out there it's hard to absorb

xps Senyawa is excellent, recommended. unperson was the first person I heard talk about them and then someone else recommended their recent 10" which is on Bandcamp

Gorilla vs. Bear: http://www.gorillavsbear.net/gorilla-vs-bears-albums-of-2018/

01 TIRZAH | Devotion
02 HELENA DELAND | From the Series of Songs “Altogether Unaccompanied” Vol. I – IV
03 ROSALÍA | El Mal Querer
04 AMEN DUNES | Freedom
05 ROBYN | Honey
06 EARL SWEATSHIRT | Some Rap Songs
07 ARIANA GRANDE | Sweetener
08 GROUPER | Grid of Points
09 BELLA BOO | Fire
10 CAROLINE SAYS | No Fool Like an Old Fool
11 TESS ROBY | Beacon
12 JULIA HOLTER | Aviary
13 DJ HEALER | Nothing 2 Loose
14 CHANNEL TRES | Channel Tres
15 CINDY LEE | Model Express
16 SOPHIE | OIL OF EVERY PEARL’s UN-INSIDES
17 MR TWIN SISTER | Salt
18 TIERRA WHACK | Whack World
19 SUN JUNE | Years
20 PLAYBOI CARTI | Die Lit
21 THE SAMPS | Breakfast
22 SMERZ | Have fun
23 LENA RAINE | Celeste (original soundtrack)
24 NU GUINEA | Nuova Napoli
25 BEACH HOUSE | 7
26 U.S. GIRLS | In a Poem Unlimited
27 DJRUM | Portrait with Firewood
28 PYNKIE | Neoteny
29 OKLOU | The Rite of May
30 GIA MARGARET | There’s Always Glimmer

we talked about it a little above, I like that list

want to hear the earl sweatshirt

its crazy to be not even that deep in rap discourse & then check these critic lists & see how differently its translating to critics

it really feels like a complete aesthetic backpedal from the early 2010s but i guess soundcloud rap will do that

xps ah oops I did a Ctrl+F for Tirzah rather than the name of the site

https://medium.com/@joshuacopperman1/what-your-favorite-album-of-2018-says-about-you-1e076340217b

You’ve been screaming internally and externally since like around puberty.

Wrong. Only internally.

xp D-40 are you talking about the earl sweatshirt? isn't that record supposed to be about a particular vibe (haven't heard it yet)

i think the earl album is pretty good, or at least is aesthetically distinct ... the thing i'm noticing is a major retreat from charting rap, club rap, regional rap, street rap, and most rap that exists in the intersection of these styles

in part i understand it ... i find the super popular ATL rap pretty boring this year, w a couple exceptions; soundcloud obv has always been super hit or miss and that's not even counting the problematic aspects... but there's definitely been a bunch of projects (as ever) worth listening to, it just feels like critics took a big 180 away from all populist forms of the genre

ok I'm processing this

Good to see Cucina Povera getting a place in The Wire's list

14. Proc Fiskal - Insula

Oh wow someone actually repping for this, endearingly playful melodic eskibleep stuff, Dizzee and Wiley cut-ups interspersed with random aggy Scottish vocal samples.

I feel kind of weird how hard my taste in weird music and Wire's have diverged so utterly

How many of the 50 records on that list have you heard?

imago is someone else who needs to hear the vessel record they had on their list tbh

https://open.spotify.com/album/4wVHohBynJ5eFHw6Cc1WzD

think jordan popped it up over on the experimental electronica thread

good album that

I found that Vessel record super-frustrating, maybe I've heard one too many albums of hypercompressed electronic noises being crashed into one another, but I kept findind myself craving another one of the weird choral interludes.

in a way it kind of reminded me of the maximalism of that rustie album from way back when but with faux baroque madrigals instead of wonky space war noises. personally i love the balance of its beauty and its physicality, but yes you do have to be in the mood for a bit of a bruising

The Quietus list is up - http://thequietus.com/articles/25755-albums-of-the-year-2018

1: Gazelle Twin - Pastoral
2: Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids - An Angel Fell
3: Insecure Men - Insecure Men
4: Suede - The Blue Hour
5: Objekt - Cocoon Crush
6: ILL - We Are Ill
7: Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile
8: Low - Double Negative
9: Audiobooks - Now. (In A Minute)
10: Årabrot - Who Do You Love
11: Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
12: Hen Ogledd - Mogic
13: Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want
14: Marie Davidson - Working Class Woman
15: Pusha T - Daytona
16: Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death In Meatspace
17: Chris Carter - CCCL Volume One
18: Hawthonn - Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing)
19: Blawan - Wet Will Always Dry
20: Julia Holter - Aviary
21: Panopticon - The Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness
22: Senyawa - Sujud
23: Grouper - Grid Of Points
24: Gábor Lázár - Unfold
25: Erland Cooper - Solan Goose
26: Eric Chenaux - Slowly Paradise
27: Planningtorock - Powerhouse
28: SOPHIE - Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
29: Todd Barton - Multum In Parvo
30: The Yossarians - Ambition Will Eat Itself
31: Jenny Hval - The Long Sleep
32: Laibach - The Sound Of Music
33: Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert - Here Lies The Body
34: Mouse On Mars - Dimensional People
35: Skee Mask - Compro
36: Gabe Gurnsey - Physical
37: Laura Cannell - Reckoning
38: Yves Tumor - Safe In The Hands Of Love
39: Szun Waves - New Hymn To Freedom
40: GNOD - Chapel Perilous
41: Blocks & Escher - Something Blue
42: 700 Bliss - Spa 700
43: Tirzah - Devotion
44: Guttersnipe - My Mother The Vent
45: The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time V
46: Kali Uchis - Isolation
47: Bruce - Sonder Somatic
48: Alexander Tucker - The Look Away
49: Alison Cotton - All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre
50: Deena Abdelwahed - Khonnar
51: Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
52: Eartheater - Irisiri
53: Goat Girl - Goat Girl
54: Cardi B - Invasion Of Privacy
55: Ben Vince - Assimilation
56: Bas Jan - Yes I Jan
57: тпсб - Sekundenschlaf
58: Darren Hayman - Thankful Villages Vol III
59: Cucina Povera - Hilja
60: Big Joanie - Sistah
61: Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch
62: Synth Sisters - Euphoria (WAV)
63: AJA - AJA
64: The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But Can’t Any Longer
65: Manni Dee - The Residue
66: Rezzett - Rezzett
67: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - King Of Cowards
68: The Armed - Only Love
69: Helena Hauff - Qualm
70: Jake Muir - Lady’s Mantle
71: ZULI - Terminal
72: Primitive Knot - Thee Opener Of The Way
73: Melting Hand - Faces Of Earth
74: Miss Red - K.O.
75: Vanishing Twin - Magic And Machines
76: Lucrecia Dalt - Anticlines
77: East Man - Red, White And Zero
78: JPEGMAFIA - Veteran
79: Warmduscher - Whale City
80: Xenony - Polish Space Program
81: Lotic - Power
82: Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - Landfall
83: Gaika - Basic Volume
84: Jerusalem In My Heart - Daqa’iq Tudaiq
85: Ian William Craig - Thresholder
86: AMOR - Sinking Into A Miracle
87: Bliss Signal - Bliss Signal
88: Dizzy Fae - Free Form
89: Drew McDowall - The Third Helix
90: Capitol K - Goatherder
91: Nonpareils - Scented Pictures
92: Richard Skelton - Front Variations I & II
93: Creep Show - Mr Dynamite
94; BROCKHAMPTON - iridescence
95: David Terry - Sorrow
96: Gwenno - Le Kov
97: Hailu Mergia - Lala Belu
98: Anthroprophh - Omegaville
99: Simian Mobile Disco - Murmurations
100: Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh - Lekhfa

No Autechre o_O

Great list though, as always, and plenty to check out still.

yeh always like going through tQ list

What on earth is Suede doing that high on that list

Because it's an excellent album, obviously.

theyre one of the groups that the quietus have long had a soft spot for despite the way their taste usually skews, but that's high even considering that

The album is fine and all but sheesh

nice to see my boys and girls at 16

Dutch music magazine OOR (based on individual lists from their writers but also music journalists from newspapers and radio etc.)

1. Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer
2. Low – Double Negative
3. Kali Uchis – Isolation
4. Christine And The Queens – Chris
5. Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
6. Idles – Joy As An Act Of Resistance
7. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour
8. Kamasi Washington – Heaven And Earth
9. The Ex – 27 Passports
10. Jon Hopkins – Singularity

yay for the ex.

many xps to morrisp those are both horrible blurbs indeed

The Ringer's best albums: https://www.theringer.com/music/2018/12/4/18124867/best-albums-2018

10. Action Bronson - White Bronco
9. Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel
8. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Sparkle Hard
7. Smino, Noir
6. Nils Frahm, All Melody
5. Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer
4. Vince Staples, FM.
3. Soccer Mommy, Clean
2. Pusha T, Daytona
1. Cardi B, Invasion of Privacy

Hot Press - Top 20 Tracks of the Year
https://www.hotpress.com/music/hot-press-tracks-year-2018-22763113

1. Childish Gambino - This Is America
2. Gorillaz - Humility (ft George Benson)
3. St Vincent - Fast Slow Disco
4. Hozier - Nina Cried Power
5. Versatile - Ketamine
6. George Ezra - Shotgun
7. Janelle Monáe - Make Me Feel
8. Arctic Monkeys - Four Out Of Five
9. Saint Sister - Twin Peaks
10. Fontaines DC - Boys In The Better Land
11. Sorcha Richardson - Can’t We Pretend
12. Villagers - A Trick of the Light
13. Snow Patrol - Don’t Give In
14. Hudson Taylor - Old Soul
15. Dermot Kennedy - An Evening I Will Not Forget
16. Lana Del Rey - Venice Bitch
17. Sigrid - Sucker Punch
18. Picture This - When We Were Young
19. Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper - Shallow
20. Dua Lipa - IDGAF

be fun to have a tracks list that doesn't have this is america at the top. and i like this is america

*looks again at that list* actually wait no this is america needs to be at the top of that, it is indiana jones surrounded by crocs

ah bloody hell i totally forgot about guttersnipe and grouper. both solid releases.

the gorilla vs bear list is very good. or at least heavily resembles mine

Snow Patrol released a record this year? Then again I somehow managed to forget about the weird Justin Timberlake fake-country album that came out this year.

NPR's albums list:
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/04/671242319/the-50-best-albums-of-2018-page-5

50. The Carters - Everything Is Love
49. Snail Mail - Lush
48. J.I.D - DiCaprio 2
47. 700 Bliss - Spa 700
46. Balún - Prisma Tropical
45. Vikingur Ólafsson - Johann Sebastian Bach
44. Alice Bag - Blueprint
43. Thou - Magus
42. Myra Melford's Snowy Egret - The Other Side of Air
41. The Beths - Future Me Hates Me
40. The HIRS Collective - Friends. Lovers. Favorites.
39. Ammar 808 - Maghreb United
38. Ambrose Akinmusire - Origami Harvest
37. Andris Nelsons - Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11 "The Year 1905"
36. Vince Staples - FM.
35. Travis Scott - ASTROWORLD
34. J Balvin - Vibras
33. Colin Self - Siblings
32. Ólafur Arnalds - re:member
31. Orquesta Akokán - Orquesta Akokán
30. Makaya McCraven - Universal Beings
29. Leikeli47 - Acrylic
28. John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness
27. Christian Tetzlaff - Bartok: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
26. Saba - Care for Me
25. Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
24. serpentwithfeet - soil
23. Mary Gauthier - Rifles & Rosary Beads
22. Ariana Grande - Sweetener
21. Christine and the Queens - Chris
20. Jeremy Dutcher - Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa
19. Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You
18. Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
17. Low - Double Negative
16. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
15. Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider - Dreamers
14. Superorganism - Superorganism
13. Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel
12. boygenius - boygenius EP
11. Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog
10. Tierra Whack - Whack World
9. Kali Uchis - Isolation
8. Rosalía - El Mal Querer
7. Robyn - Honey
6. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy
5. Noname - Room 25
4. Lucy Dacus - Historian
3. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
2. Mitski - Be the Cowboy
1. Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer

xps is that the first list to have The Ex? man that is criminal, record is great.

always lots of good stuff on the NPR lists but out of laziness will w8 for the tracks

Stereogum's list:

https://www.stereogum.com/featured/the-best-albums-of-2018/

I'm not typing it out, sorry.

i'm guessing i would like that flasher album

i had just finished copying out the stereogum list so here you go:

50 Rico Nasty – Nasty
49 SOPHIE – OIL OF EVERY PEARL’s UN-INSIDES
48 Drug Church – Cheer
47 Lil Baby & Gunna – Drip Harder
46 Jon Hopkins – Singularity
45 The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
44 Denzel Curry – TA1300
43 Oneohtrix Point Never – Age Of
42 Holy Fawn – Death Spells
41 Camp Cope – How To Socialise & Make Friends
40 Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar
39 MGMT – Little Dark Age
38 Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer
37 Birds In Row – We Already Lost The World
36 Ryley Walker – Deafman Glance
35 Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs
34 Kamasi Washington – Heaven And Earth
33 Dear Nora – Skulls Example
32 Tirzah – Devotion
31 The Armed – Only Love
30 Iceage – Beyondless
29 Teyana Taylor – K.T.S.E.
28 Kali Uchis – Isolation
27 Adrianne Lenker – abysskiss
26 U.S. Girls – In A Poem Unlimited
25 Fucked Up – Dose Your Dreams
24 Wild Pink – Yolk In The Fur
23 Noname – Room 25
22 Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
21 Rosalía – El Mal Querer
20 Tomberlin – At Weddings
19 Illuminati Hotties – Kiss Yr Frenemies
18 Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog
17 Half Waif – Lavender
16 Brockhampton – Iridescence
15 Spiritualized – And Nothing Hurt
14 Vince Staples – FM
13 Lucy Dacus – Historian
12 Robyn – Honey
11 Pusha T – Daytona
10 Mitski – Be The Cowboy
9 Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer
8 Low – Double Negative
7 Soccer Mommy – Clean
6 Flasher – Constant Image
5 Beach House – 7
4 Cardi B – Invasion Of Privacy
3 Ariana Grande – Sweetener
2 Snail Mail – Lush
1 Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour

certainly the list that i've heard the most of, and heard of nearly all the rest

the flasher album is pretty solid but didn't stand out as anything too special to me when i listened recently. also still confused by sweetener being ariana's critical breakthrough

The NPR list is a little on the nose but I do honestly love that their top 10 are all women.