Top 30 Albums of 2018
A bit of background from my 2013 preamble for those new to my lists:
I do this more for me — as a way of discovering new music — than for you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to get as much joy from these amazing artists as I did this year. My list-making secret is to start a “long list” of albums I like at the beginning of the year. I keep adding when something strikes my fancy and use the year-end holidays to figure out which ones really made the cut.
For those interested, my previous Top 30 Albums are still online:
- Top 30 Albums of 2010
- Top 30 Albums of 2011
- Top 30 Albums of 2012
- Top 30 Albums of 2013
- Top 30 Albums of 2014
- Top 30 Albums of 2015
- Top 30 Albums of 2016
- Top 30 Albums of 2017
I feel this was another good year for music although I didn’t find as many of the mainstream releases inspiring this year. Kacey Musgraves is probably the only chart hit on the list. And really only one straight-up rock band this year – She Drew The Gun.
I’ve made a concerted effort to listen to women more. More female musicians, authors, directors, commentators, etc. It’s been very fruitful and is reflected in this list. 17 of my Top 30 are by women or bands with women in them.
And now, my Top 30 Albums of 2018! Enjoy!
Note these are in alphabetical order. I could never rank-order these — it would change daily.
- Freedom by Amen Dunes
- Streams of Thought Vol 2 by Black Thought, Salaam Remi
- First Flower by Molly Burch
- Broken Politics by Neneh Cherry
- Chris by Christine & The Queens
- Knock Knock by DJ Koze
- Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt
- Everything is Recorded by Everything is Recorded
- Quilt Jams by Elsa Hewitt
- Hive Mind by The Internet
- Uniform Clarity by Jim James
- The Horizon Just Laughed by Damien Jurado
- Con Todo El Mundo by Khruangbin
- Correspondence by Jens Lekman and Annika Norlin
- Double Negative by Low
- All The Things That I Did… by The Milk Carton Kids
- Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves
- Being Human In Public by Jessie Reyez
- El Mal Querer by Rosalía
- If Only There Was A River by Anna St. Louis
- Revolution of Mind by She Drew The Gun
- Compro by Skee Mask
- Sink by Sudan Archives
- Superorganism by Superorganism
- Love, Loss and Auto-Tune by Swamp Dogg
- The Hex by Richard Swift
- Devotion by Tirzah
- Isolation by Kali Uchis
- Bottle It In by Kurt Vile
- Nothing Is Still by Leon Vynehall
My 2019 list will be my 10th and I’m thinking I’ll look at the 300 albums I’ve recommended this decade and do a Top 30 of my Top 30 along with my annual list. Stay tuned!