The 2018 end of the year music lists thread

wow this Tierra Whack "album" is powerfully annoying

katherine i'm appealing to the UN to have plaything officially recognised as the top roisin tune of 2018

denied, it's "all my dreams"

maura's point is undeniable, but yeah my version of a genuinely surprising list would be one that had multiple albums from outside the anglosphere.

― rob

i don't know, rym list culture goes pretty heavily outside the anglosphere, to me it would be pretty easy to put together a list of non-english 2018 records

much harder for me to put together a list of records by over-35 women, and it would include stuff like bettye lavette's record of dylan songs

part of that difficulty though is that i don't read press releases and so i have no idea how old the women making the records i listen to are. if it's instrumental i don't even know the gender of the person making it, unless they have a name my american ass recognizes as female.

what's kind of odd about Kamasi Washington being the anointed jazz pick for non-jazz pubs is that both those albums are much easier to digest than KW's
I actually feel like KW's uncompromising, exhaustive maximalist aesthetic is part of what non-jazz pubs admire about him. He seems like a "visionary" and reminds them of Coltrane. (I prefer the McCraven album, too.)

― jaymc, Tuesday, December 11, 2018 8:35 AM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't mean to diss Kamasi, I like him a lot...all three of the albums are great though I prefer the other two, I mean the larger problem is there's only one slot for one capital-J jazz album

I mean an easy way to put together a list of records by over-35 women is to follow women throughout their careers

There's just so much music now! from all over the world, all kinds of genres, the idea that any list of 50 albums can even come close to capturing a year in music in the post streaming era is just foolish

these lists feel less important than ever, but maybe more useful, like i feel like i'm just looking at different playlists and it gives me stuff to look up at work

on another note I am genuinely stunned that the Janelle album is being snubbed more or less across the board

someone should do some analytics on first-half / second-half of year release date breakdowns for EOY placements

What would a surprising list from a mainstream publication even look like in 2018?

lots of women over 35
― maura

Hi guys, if 2019's ILX EOY doesn't feature my band of five over-35yo women (and one under-35yo woman) I'll kick all yr asses. ^__^

the janelle album's only been snubbed by p4k really, it's #1 on this aggregate: https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2018/

Speaking of women over 35, I didn't see Tracey Thorn's album on the Pitchfork list -- unless I missed it.

While we're at it, here are a few excellent 2018 classical releases showcasing works by women over 35:

Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir - Aequa
Cassandra Miller - Just So: String Quartets
Eva-Maria Houben - Breath for Organ
Laura Schwendinger - Quartets
Linda Catlin Smith - Wanderer
Sarah Nemtsov - Amplified Imagination
Séverine Ballon - Inconnaissance
Suzanne Farrin - La dolce morte

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4f/Celine_Dion_Live_2018_Official_Photo.jpg/250px-Celine_Dion_Live_2018_Official_Photo.jpg

Hi guys, if 2019's ILX EOY doesn't feature my band of five over-35yo women (and one under-35yo woman) I'll kick all yr asses. ^__^

yay!!! it’s my number one already and i haven’t even heard a note

I only count 4 men definitively over 35 on the Pfork list (Kamasi, DJ Koze, Jon Hopkins, Alan of Low)

and no Soto you did not miss Tracey, she's not there

celine dion looks so much like liz phair in that photo!

(she also had a single from the Deadpool 2 soundtrack btw, so that's a shoo-in for the singles poll)

the old geezer quotient is definitely down this year

surely young people have generally been doing more interesting stuff in popular music than old people? there's more young musicians than old musicians too afaik (at least at the rehearsal spaces I've been to)

I think it's safe to say that has always been the case.

You must not live in NYC

I only count 4 men definitively over 35 on the Pfork list (Kamasi, DJ Koze, Jon Hopkins, Alan of Low)

― resident hack (Simon H.), Tuesday, December 11, 2018 10:43 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pusha

Well spotted.

The guys from Sleep have to be too

I just remembered there was a Tune-Yards album this year and it's nowhere to be seen on even the most half-heartedly compiled indie list.

came out in january to lukewarm reviews--not a good formula for year-end lists

Victoria Legrand of Beach House is 37, Jon Hopkins is 39

(ok Hopkins already named)

Over-40s though...

Pitchfork and many other lists seem mostly uninterested in largely young people genres like kpop and afrobeats, plus genres with young & old like dancehall, reggaeton, Afropop and soca.

as someone who votes in a lot of lists and frequently enjoys kpop and afrobeats tracks -- it's less that I don't enjoy them, more that I don't listen to enough to feel comfortable making a judgment that this is the best of the year and not the 200 I've never heard.

Over-40s though...

where is the love for gaz coombes?

see also: sting and shaggy

Elza Soares is 81 and she'll be in the higher part of my year list. Come at me.

oh shit, did she have another new one out?

Over-35yo woman Brandi Carlile got a Grammy Nomination and on the NYT Jon Caramanica made a big deal about how out of touch it made the awards look

on the NYT Popcast that is

"surely young people have generally been doing more interesting stuff in popular music than old people?"

this sort of ageism (as well as the carlile moaning cited above) does nobody any good

Over-40s though...

― Siegbran, Tuesday, December 11, 2018 11:08 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pusha, Sleep, Neneh, Cat Power, Low

If you listen to a lot of metal, it’s quite easy to cover the non-Anglophone and over-35 demographics. Women not so much.

DJ Koze too xp to me

Stereogum - Stereogum’s 90 Favorite Songs Of 2018
https://www.stereogum.com/2025428/best-songs-of-2018/franchises/2018-in-review/

Marisa Anderson is a treasure, her album Cloud Corner came out this year, it's so beautiful and if you ever have a chance to see her live she's amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOw_WYV4M6k&start_radio=1&list=RDOBNkVTSKDfw

Heather Leigh continues to put out great work as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCi_aj9-LOQ&list=PLzJOFFo3OoF0qvY9osbZsqQHs8ukBpmUv

Radio X’s Best Songs Of 2018
https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/x-lists/best-songs-of-2018/

AJR feat Rivers Cuomo - Sober Up
Arctic Monkeys - Four Out Of Five
Richard Ashcroft - Surprised By The Joy
James Bay - Pink Lemonade
Jade Bird - Love Has All Been Done Before
Blossoms - How Long Will This Last?
Ian Brown - First World Problems
CHVRCHES - Graffiti
Gerry Cinnamon - Sometimes
Circa Waves - Movies
The Coral - Reaching Out For A Friend
Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever (Re: Wired)
Editors - Cold
Sam Fender - That Sound
Florence And The Machine – Hunger
Gang Of Youths - Let Me Down Easy
Tom Grennan - Found What I’ve Been Looking For
Isaac Gracie - Show Me Love
Hozier - Nina Cried Power
Miles Kane - Cry On My Guitar
Elle King - Shame
The Kooks - Four Leaf Clover
lovelytheband - Broken
Manic Street Preachers – International Blue
Johnny Marr - Hi, Hello
Alice Merton - No Roots
Mumford And Sons - Guiding Light
Muse - Pressure
Pale Waves - One More Time
Snow Patrol - Empress
sund4ra Karma - One Last Night On This Earth
Superorganism - Something For Your M.I.N.D.
Ten Tonnes - Better Than Me
The Vaccines - All My Friends Are Falling In Love
Weezer - Africa
The Wombats - Turn
Yonaka – Creature

#justiceforthekooks

this sort of ageism (as well as the carlile moaning cited above) does nobody any good

the people: grammys totally ignored women last year. bad grammys!

the grammys: [nominates woman whose not-at-all-unpopular breakthrough song is about women and other people who have been unrepresented and unloved]

the people: she is old and you are out of touch. bad grammys!

"surely young people have generally been doing more interesting stuff in popular music than old people?"

this sort of ageism (as well as the carlile moaning cited above) does nobody any good

if you disagree that's fine but no need to accuse me of "ageism"

perhaps "interesting" is imprecise but then zeitgeisty or new or fresh or whatever, stuff that would go on an eoy list in a zeitgeisty mag

that implicates the zeitgeist more than anything

this new Meshell Ndegeocello album came up on a Spotify year end list that's supposed to hip you to stuff you would like that came out in 2018, it's a pretty amazing covers album (though "covers" doesn't do it justice, they really reimagine the songs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ1I4KzFTJ0