In a year where very little seemed static, the world of music mirrored the world we interact in every day – not terribly shocking, given music’s ability to be made a vehicle for expression. It’s also one of my favorite ways to spend my time – listening and enjoying songs was how I spent nearly 81 days this past year – and while that certainly doesn’t make me any more an authority on this than anyone else, it does mean that I’ve spent far too long listening to do nothing with it.
And so, with that, I’ve decided to curate and publish a list of my 10 favorite albums from the past year – even if they did not attain the same critical or commercial success as other releases that didn’t make the list, I didn’t really consider that a factor – this is a list purely designed around my enjoyment of the albums that follow.
Before we begin, though, I should give mention to a few albums that didn’t make the list but were still outstanding in their own right – notably, Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer and Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD, two albums that have been heralded as outstanding to decided commercial success. Additionally, Sports’ Everyone’s Invited, ASAP Rocky’s TESTING, BROCKHAMPTON’s iridescence and KIDS SEE GHOSTS’ self-titled release were also considered quite heavily, but didn’t quite have that last oomph to get them into the list.
With that, though, let’s get into the list.
10 – Pusha T, DAYTONA
The Kanye-produced album that came out of the Wyoming Sessions is arguably Pusha’s strongest work – certainly holding that title in my opinion. It’s short – just 21 minutes and seven songs, it’s a listen that can be run through with relative ease – working to benefit and detriment alike, as the album is over before you can really think too much about it, but also avoids the struggle of weighing too heavy.
While I feel the album is strong throughout, highlighting tough verses and bars with sparse sample-laden beats, typical of West’s style, I think it’s in the middle where DAYTONA finds its footing – Hard Piano, with Rick Ross, running through to Santeria – the usage of Ross and 070 Shake’s vocals to supplement ferocious Pusha bars is enough to feed even the hungriest listeners.
Kanye features on the single from the album – and while it’s not an awful song, I find it to be jarring in its shift from the songs preceding it – turning from songs that border on drug ballads to… something different, that I’m not sure quite works. West’s greatest contribution to this album is clearly his production work, as evident on the closer, Infrared – which is closed with a grating beat laid under a vocal sample – it’s a perfect finish to tie together an album built around those harsher sounds.
Pusha T consistently makes note of his kingship – and while he may never be able to call himself a king in actuality, DAYTONA shows that he certainly seems to have found a place in which he can be his own king.
Favorites: Hard Piano, Santeria
Least Favorites: What Would Meek Do?
9 – Jon Bellion, Glory Sound Prep
Jon Bellion’s brand of synth-infused pop is decidedly distinct, and his third album holds with that – 10 tracks and just under three quarters of an hour of that same vaguely faith-driven pop/rap that has become so easily identifiable as his work.
While the album hits well in many ways, with strong production backing tracks that play autobiographical, in some sense, at times, it feels a tad overproduced, and missteps more than a couple times in that regard.
That being said, the majority of the album is really quite well done – hitting that perfect balance of messaging without preaching that is so hard to strike right, but it certainly seems that by keeping his songs and lyrics relatively introspective, he’s done well to shift it from preachy to a little more message-driven. It’s still not perfect, but it’s done much better than most.
Though he does more work with features and working in other artists, I find the music to be at its best when it’s just him on a track – background sampling and choral effects notwithstanding. Stupid Deep, The Internet, and JT ring truest as far as this effect, I think – highlighting his abilities most strongly.
Though it misses with overproduction at times, I find it a wonderfully enjoyable listen, harkening back to some of the highlights of his work from The Human Condition – and though his features don’t always hit, the majority of the album is done in a way that brings it strongly into this list.
Favorites: JT, Stupid Deep
Least Favorites: Let’s Begin
8 – Jacob Collier, Djesse (Vol. 1)
Musical prodigy Jacob Collier released the first of his four part epic Djesse in 2018, and, at just under an hour, it’s certainly fitting of the epic description. Working with the Dutch-based Metropole Orkest, conducted by Jules Buckley, among other contributors spanning a tremendous variety of sensations and styles, it’s a remarkable splash in the water in terms of showcasing Collier’s abilities in terms of creating and working with a variety of artists and instruments.
From chorally driven pieces such as the opener, Home Is, featuring the talents of ensemble group Voces8, to the pieces that rely much more heavily on instrumentation to showcase talents, such as the stunning With The Love In My Heart, an indulgently bombastic piece that’s just so very wild and crazy at times that it’s almost too much.
Too much is unfortunately where I feel this album struggles – while it’s an amazing piece of conducting, I think it hits steps of disjointed sound and more than a couple areas where it feels like it’s trying to do way too much at once – and while it’s a testament to the rest of that album that it stands so high even with that problem present, at the same time, it could be much higher.
I’m excited to see what Collier does next, though – if my first introduction to him sits here, then I think there’s potential for some pretty amazing stuff ahead.
Favorites: With The Love In My Heart
Least Favorites: All Night Long
7 – Years & Years, Palo Santo
British pop trio Years & Years broke into the scene quite strongly in 2015 with Communion, fronted by the single King. Since then, they’d gone mostly silent, before reappearing late in 2017 with allusions to a new album – and in early 2018, the shape of the record began to materialize with the release of a thumping single in Sanctify.
Palo Santo, the album, rings true to Communion in more than a few ways – similarly styled, with vocals backed by vaguely indie-electronic influences, holding true to a lot of the poppy styling that made much of the group’s debut so strong. Songs like Karma and Sanctify are strong points on a record that seems to be a group stepping a bit further out, expanding their horizons.
Unfortunately, while it holds to that, it fails to evolve towards the back half of the record, leaving it rather lackluster and disappointing, a wobbly finish after such a strong start that is only exacerbated by the contrasts between beginning and end. Songs like If You’re Over Me and Hypnotised break the strong run that the album built and leave the listener wondering if the group is really breaking barriers at all.
Though the album is not without its missteps, it’s at the end of the day a step forward for a group hoping to carve out an identity – and while imperfect, if they can continue to work towards creating more of that danceable pop that so strongly defines the front half of this album, they could definitely ascend to new heights.
Favorites: Sanctify
Least Favorites: If You’re Over Me
6 – The 1975, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
I’m not sure why the titles just keep getting longer, but as long as the music stays good, I’m here for it.
Online Relationships follows 2016’s I Like It When You Sleep, an outstanding effort that really enamored me with the band – and this album manages to maintain that sentiment.
Strangely enough, the singles from this album were songs I found to relatively lacking – while TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME was an early favorite, the rest had me a little concerned that maybe this album was not going to be for me.
Thankfully, though, upon release, I found that it rebounded quite nicely – I think the group’s indie rock/pop/whatever they are style is a niche that remains relatively untouched – at least in the way they do it – it’s bombastic and restrained, powerful and powerless, and everything in between, an ode to strangeness in a sense.
Where I find the album really hits its stride is in songs like How To Draw and I Like America – two tracks that are much less aimed at radio play, it would seem, and much more drawn into the introspective – in a sense, what the entire album seems to be aiming at accomplishing. The latter of these, too, calls strongly of Bon Iver-esque plays on instrumentals, with warped tones pinging into the distance making up the backbone of so much of the track.
The album repeatedly seems to call to the frantic pace of life as an error – a cycle we all must leave – but where it hits best is noting just how difficult it is do actually exit that race, through the eyes of Matt Healy and the band – their basis playing together has left them with the ability to wring feeling from every song, and there is no shortage of opportunity to do that here as well.
It is not without its errors – at times, it hits a little dull, but by and large, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is more than anything else an exploration of just how far the 1975 have come since they first began making their way onto the public scene.
Favorites: I Like America and America Likes Me, How To Draw/Petrichor
Least Favorites: Give Yourself A Try
5 – Pinegrove, Skylight
Skylight is Pinegrove’s sophomore effort, and what an effort it is. Put on backburner for nearly a year due to allegations of sexual coercion against Evan Stephens Hall, the frontman of Pinegrove, Skylight has not been without its own controversies – but the album, which was largely unchanged from the version that was due to release prior to the time off, is the version that we got. I feel it is important to note these allegations not because I wish to create a witch-hunt, but because failing to do so would be a disservice to those affected.
The album shrugs off more conventional structure for more meandering vignettes, better fitting the almost country or folk rock nature of the record. It’s more reminiscent of stories being told, and that’s a feeling I don’t think we get nearly often enough in music today. The record feels raw – and I think, given the recent events surrounding the band and their fanbase, I imagine it’s a rather poignant way to have much of the record ring.
I don’t know exactly what the future holds for Pinegrove, but whatever the case, Skylight is, I think, an excellent depiction of everything surrounding the band in the past year and even the time before – in a way, nearly remorseful, but this rings more coincidental than anything else.
Favorites: Rings, Intrepid
Least Favorites: Easy Enough
4 – The Paper Kites, On The Train Ride Home
The first of two albums to come from the group in 2018, On The Train Ride Home is very much representative of what I feel the Paper Kites do best – gently rolling folk music, sparse without ever being empty. It continues the trend that the band has seemed to establish in recent years – moving towards more downtempo folk, lowkey in the truest sense of that word.
The album is consistent throughout – and this is both a great thing and a bad thing, because, while it’s immensely enjoyable, there’s also nothing that really differentiates each song from the next, enough so that it’s nearly impossible to distinguish between the tracks less lyrics.
What they manage to do with this album is tell a bit of a story, the sort that brings you back to an album, and running connections between the thematic elements of the tracks are what really makes this album shine in a way that many of those ranked below it do not.
Favorites: Arms, Nothing More Than That
Least Favorites: Between The Houses
3 – Young Fathers, Cocoa Sugar
In no way do Young Fathers scream ‘rap’, though their works often have what could be described as rap within them – instead, it’s this strangely lovely genre-bending work that is as much adherent to a specific style as their previous works – which is to say, it isn’t really at all.
From the off, we’re met with a wide variety of influences, from gentle piano under chanting on Fee Fi, to more electronic beats and hard drum sets that run throughout songs like In My View, to the stark nature of Lord. It’s chaotic in the best way, because nothing is allowed to linger for too long, keeping things fresh and different while also ensuring that all three members are able to highlight their own talents in front of a range of influences.
It’s strangely cynical at times, yet also filled with wonder – it’s got the sort of duality that I think makes this record so outstanding. There are also elements that ring of religion – on Holy Ghost, for example, if the title wasn’t enough, many of the lyrics bear some weight in terms of the faith – or Lord, similarly.
To me, the album rings as calmness in chaos – something that I think is incredibly difficult to perfect, but I think that Young Fathers may have done so, just as well as anyone ever has. Amidst many genres, many sounds, many influences, they take everything they have and direct it into these near-meditative songs that ring immensely well to the listener. It’s an outstanding listening experience, full of contrasts – which, I think, may have been the point.
Favorites: Holy Ghost, Lord, See How
Least Favorites: Tremolo
2 – Arkells, Rally Cry
This album is bold, quite simply. The group’s fifth, following the roaring success of Morning Report in 2016, there was no way to do things subtly – and the group have responded in kind by jumping at the chance to go a bit wild with new influences and different takes on things. It keeps things remarkably fresh while still holding on to so much of that alt-rock type influence that built them into the sensation that they became.
Most notably Eyes On The Prize and Company Man are the two songs that stray from the typical – but both are done well, transforming the band into what rings of an evangelist in the former, and in the second, they ring in influences that are borderline jazzy – fostering one hell of a groove, might I add.
That being said, Rally Cry is exactly what I think the group needed – not that their product was stale, but if they have aspirations beyond the indie rock scene, it became somewhat clear that they needed to expand their horizons – and while that didn’t necessarily mean becoming something that the group wasn’t, some variation was necessary.
That being said, part of what I love so much about the album is that they don’t simply deviate from everything they’ve crafted – anthems like Only For A Moment hold tight to early hits like Leather Jacket and craft that same sense of euphoria, bringing a lot of the same energy right back into the album. Masterfully woven throughout are those deviating tracks, keeping you well balanced and never feeling like you’ve strayed too far from that sound that Arkells are so well known for.
Favorites: Only For A Moment
Least Favorites: Relentless
1 – Beach House, 7
Almost from the off, this album just has you in a vice grip, and you’re along for an unforgettable ride. The Maryland duo’s seventh album, aptly titled 7, is one that keeps you enamored and entranced from start to finish, from the opening notes to the final ceasement of noise.
Beach House have carved themselves quite the niche in the world of dream pop, fabricating for themselves a unique place in the world of music, where no other group quite manages to nail the elements of songs the way they do, adding a specific angle to much of their work that makes it an outstanding adventure – working magic to make mountains of molehills.
7 is no different.
While the record is darker than most of their previous catalogue (possibly the result of a switch in producer), it’s not a negative effect – quite the contrary, as the increased influence of lower sounds leaves headphone users reeling with the heightened intensity that songs like Dive have to them.
Much the way a film is crafted, so, too, is 7 – constantly finding new ways to innovate, cut, rearrange, and position in a manner that gives each individual song so much more depth and range – all accentuated by Victoria LeGrand, whose vocal work is iconic in nature for its breadth and strength – without her, Alex Scally’s melodies would not have nearly the same power to them.
It is in here that 7 separates itself from the rest of the albums released this year – while many are outstanding listens in their own right, there’s an additional power to this album that is near impossible to come by away from it, and as such, you’re left seeking something you very rarely can find – further building until you’ve found that place – in all odds, back in front of Beach House, and 7.
Favorites: Pay No Mind, L’Iconnue, Black Car
Least Favorites: Lemon Glow
All these albums have been put into a playlist that can be found here.
The Late Break 