2018 had some bangers. Bops all around over here. Here’s what I liked.
Wide Awake! – Parquet Courts
I love this band, they could have released anything and I would have put in on here. Luckily Wide Awake! is also their best record by far, front to back amazing songs and the last track Tenderness is a CERTIFIED EARWORM. Also this album wins the award for the best bass-lines of 2018.
Clean – Soccer Mommy
Everything you love about Dream Pop and the songs have more emotion than just melancholy.
Drift – The Men
It’s like New Order and Alabama Shakes had a baby. It’s a little unfocused and that works in its favour. Entertaining listen.
Constant Image – Flasher
A feel good record right here. Good music for driving around in the fall and feelin’ great.
Basic Behaviour – FRIGS
Whenever I have to describe Post-Punk I think about this band. It has the tone and production you would expect from Post-Punk band, but retains a lot of the energy and rage you might find in Punk or Hardcore.
Beyondless – Iceage
Iceage manages to bring a new sound and style to their music without sacrificing the frantic, heavy guitar work and strong drumming that made me fall in love with their first albums.
Goat Girl – Goat Girl
This may have been my favourite album of the year. While I didn’t spend as much time with it as I did some of the others on this list, I come back to it far more often. Goat Girl pulls from a lot of influences around the Indie, Punk, Americana, and Post-Punk spheres and it results in a unique and engaging album front to back.
Microshift – Hookworms
Lots of solid Noise Pop to be found on this record, with the opener Negative Space being a constant feature in my usual listening rotation since this album dropped.
Little Ugly Girls – Little Ugly Girls
Not only does this record have an amazing backstory that I highly recommend you investigate, It is easily one of the best punk records I have heard in my life. Listen to it if you at all like punk.
NOIR – Smino
Smino’s 2017 record blkswn easily made my top 5 hip-hop record of all time list, and this new record doesn’t disappoint. While it won’t challenge blkswn’s position on my list, Smino delivered another amazing record that you should definitely give a listen.
These are my creamiest of the cropiest records of the year, but there were a lot of other records I really enjoyed this year. I had to limit myself on the Post-Punk releases because so many good ones came out this year. You could honestly go on the similar artists page for FRIGS, The Men, or Flasher and find a bunch of great Post-Punk releases from this year.
Twin Fantasy (2018) was also a record I considered putting on the list above. It was easily one of my favourite records of the year, and I think the time period this year in which I listened to that record is something that will stick in my memory for a long time. Rather than being a favourite of mine this year from an artistic standpoint (not that it doesn’t absolutely have both the quality and uniqueness to equal any album on my list), Twin Fantasy will be the soundtrack to all the moments i’ve had this year. I don’t think any other record from this year holds the same emotional connection I formed with Twin Fantasy over the course of the past year. It was good timing on Will Toledo’s part to release this record when he did, it was a perfect storm to hit me the way it did.
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