Yeah, kids. After a 7 year hiatus, I have returned to the blog to lay down this year's album picks. (If you're not familiar with the tradition, you can scroll down to view annual weigh-ins from years past.)
Despite the numerical premise I set up for myself with my initial Top 6 Albums of '06 post, I don't have time to deliver full capsules on my 18 faves of '18 (or the much-loved Serving Suggestions that came to accompany each pick). BUT... You will get quick thoughts on some quality records that may or may not have been on your radar AND my official BEST OF 2018 SUPERMIX.
As always, let me know what you loved, what I missed, what should and shouldn't have made the list.
18. Holy Motors - "Slow Sundown"
Mazzy Star-adjacent gauze rock from Estonia. Night drives and desert sex. Slinkily satisfying top to bottom.
17. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - "Hope Downs"
Solid debut from Australian indie darlings. Walks just the right line between jangly nostalgia and propulsive pop zeitgeist.
16. The Nightcrawlers - "The Biophonic Boombox Recordings"
Low-fi ambient synth compositions recorded directly to a JVC boombox? Count me in. This makes the list on a technicality, but it more than earns the right. A collection of cassette recordings made between 1980-1991 that finally get a proper digital transfer and official release. The full backstory is worth reading if this kind of geekery is up your alley. Spacey, contemplative and surprisingly mature given the scrappy thesis.
15. Dead Can Dance - "Dionysus"
The dramatic expanse of "Dionysus" makes the case for breaking the record into two separate "Acts", as DCD have done here. More cinematic and less song-oriented than their triumphant return on "Anastatsis", it actually feels like a spiritual sidekick to "Spiritchaser", the band's shockingly underrated 1996 masterpiece. Try it with your next candlelit bath.
14. Field Music - "Open Here"
If XTC, Talking Heads and ELO all piled into Seth Brundle's cell scrambler, got spat out 30 years in the future and decided to make an album, it might not be dissimilar to Field Music's latest bit of indie pop perfection. Records just don't sound like this anymore, melodically or production-wise. A delightful springtime spin.
13. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Wrong Creatures"
20 years and 8 studio releases in, and I'm still waiting for BRMC to make a substandard album. They don't seem to have it in them. I just fucking love these guys and they never disappoint.
12. Still Corners - "Slow Air"
Still Corners were initially fed to me by some algorithm on some streaming platform and shouldn't have had legs. I'm so glad they did. This is the exact kind of hazy, whispery, reverby vibe I eat with a spoon. If you're making dinner and nursing a glass of Chenin Blanc, "Slow Air" is a worthy go-to.
11. The Field - "Infinite Moment"
The Field was another out-of-nowhere shocker. Repetitive, beat-driven, ambient electronica shouldn't rise to the occasion of earning a spot on my official year-end list. And yet, by sheer play count alone, it has. If you're behind the wheel after dark in L.A., it's good company.
10. Poppy Ackroyd - "Resolve"
My library is rife with artists who specialize in mellow, thinky, piano & strings. Most of those albums are great wallpaper and useful for simple moodsetting. But every year, one or two distinguish themselves and step confidently out of the background. If you're an artist of any stripe, "Resolve" is a rich and perfect soundtrack for creation.
9. Janelle Monae - "Dirty Computer"
Smart, sexy, hooky, hips for days. This year's "Lemonade". So, so great.
8. Mastersystem - "Dance Music"
Well, shit. A supergroup featuring members of Frightened Rabbit and Editors was easy cause for celebration. Until, right? Scott Hutchinson's body of work couldn't help but hint at his eventual suicide, but "Dance Music" seems an almost explicit farewell. As self-eulogizing goes, one can do worse. An honest, aching, soaring punctuation on a too-short life.
7. IDLES - "Joy As An Act Of Resistance"
What sounds like bootboy Britpunk but swaps out racism and misogyny for lyrics like "I put homophobes in coffins"? This gem. IDLES may be treading somewhat familiar musical territory, but they're doing it with a singular and ultimately compelling POV.
6. Ministry - "AmeriKKant"
After the death of guitarist Mike Scaccia in 2012, it was announced that Ministry would be put to bed for good. And then Donald Trump became President of The United States. I sensed it would be too right a wrong for Uncle Al to ignore and I was right. "AmeriKKKant" swooped in, cape flowing and samplers blazing, to be the Black Mirror this broken country deserves. A slamming, sardonic salve for these troubled times.
5. Lowtide - "Southern Mind"
With monikers like DIIV, Slowdive, Swervedriver and Ride, one may wonder if there's an official Shoegaze Band Name Generator out there in some foggy corner of the internet. The emergence of Lowtide does little to refute the suggestion. Nor do they break any molds sonically, for that matter. But what they have done is make a daze-y, delay-cious confection of an album that finds me longing for a rainy day by a cracked window.
4. Khruangbin - "Con Todo El Mundo"
This has probably gotten the heaviest play in my dinner-making rotation this year. Aggressively chill, but groovy enough not to fade into the woodwork. Mwah.
3. Johnny Marr - "Call The Comet"
It seems to be a genuine impossibility for anyone to write about Johnny Marr without somehow tacking on the phrase "former Smiths guitarist". By now, his solo output has so far outshined that of his dopey former bandmate that he should be forever free of those shackles. "Call The Comet" is his most cohesive and dynamic album to date and should finally do the trick.
2. BODEGA - "Endless Scroll"
After hearing "Jack In Titanic", I waited patiently for this album to drop, hoping the lead single wasn't an isolated stroke of inspiration. Far from it. It's hard to imagine that something so solidly encamped among similar scrappy, angular, referential upstarts would sound so... FRESH. Somehow, it does.
1. Shame - "Songs of Praise"
KEXP does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to new music discoveries. My introduction to Shame was the kind of "Who the fuck is this?" moment that I would imagine DJ's live for. "Friction" hit hard, stuck instantly and quickly became my Song of the Year. The record followed suit. It's post-punk at it's plucky, pointed, British best.
