Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Best Albums of 2018


Here is my best of 2018 albums list!

This is by far the longest best-of I’ve ever posted; as always, they’re in my order from top favorites down. Enjoy friends!

     Note: The following symbols indicate:

                > The artist's debut album
                + The artist's been producing for over 2 decades, wow!

                ~ I discovered the artist this year


A. The Meaning of Life (top 42 infinities) 

1. U.S. Girls - “In a Poem, Limited”
2. Phosphorescent - “C’est La Vie”
3. Mirah - “Understanding”
4. Chris Reimer - “Hello People”
5. Bitchin Bajas / DSR Lines - “Encyclopedia of Civilization, Vol. 2: Atlantis”
6. Joan of Arc - “1984”
7. >Rose Droll - “Your Dog”
8. Low - “Double Negative”
9. Cindy Lee - “Model Express
10. Mitski - “Be the Cowboy”
11. Tim Hecker - “Konoyo”
12. Thomas Fehlmann - “1929: Das Jahr Babylon”
13. >Hana Vu - “How Many Times Have You Driven By”
14. >Hilary Woods - “Colt”
15. The Innocence Mission - “Sun on the Square”
16. Kurt Vile - “Bottled Up”
17. Chris Carter - “Chemistry Lessons Volume One”
18. Marissa Nadler - “For My Crimes”
19. Yves Tumor - “Safe in the Hands of Love”
20. Hamish Kilgour - “Finklestein”
21. Haerts - “New Compassion”
22. Mr. Airplane Man - “Jaracanda Blue”
23. V/A - “Dreams” (Cascine Records)
24. Still Corners - “Slow Air”     
25. Machinefabriek - “Engel”
26. Big Joanie - “Sistahs”
27. Robot Koch - “Sphere”
28. Ought - “Room Inside the World”
29. Neko Case - “Hell-On”
30. >Mint Field - “Pasar de las Luces” 
31. Oneida - “Romance”
32. >Vive La Void - “s/t”
33. >SRSQ - “Unreality”
34. Amen Dunes - “Freedom”
35. Saint Seneca - “Pillar of Na”
36. Grouper - “Grid of Points”
37. Beach House - “7”
38. Julia Holter - “Aviary”
39. >Ruby Haunt - “Blue Hour”
40. Yowler - “Black Dog in My Path”
41. >Lump - “Lump”
42. OST - “A Star Is Born”


B. Larger than Life (63 Orders of Magnitude)

43. Tempers - “Junkspace (feat. Rem Koolhaas)”
44. Lumerians - “Call of the Void”
45. Public Memory - “Demolition” 
46. The Ophelias - “Almost”
47. MGMT - “Little Dark Age”
48. Mount Eerie - “Now Only”
49. Girls Names - “Stains on Silence”
50. Lorn - “Remnant”
51. Rothko - “Blood Demands More Blood”
52. Cat Power - “Wanderer”
53. Laura Gibson - “Goners”
54. Adrianne Lenker - “Abysskiss”
55. H. Takahashi - “Escapism”
56. Deerhunter - “Double Dream of Spring”
57. oOoOO x Islamiq Girls - “Feminine Mystique”
58. Oh Sees - “Smote Reverser”
59. Matchess - “Sacracorpa”
60. Mountain Movers - “Pink Skies”
61. Lucy Dacus - “Historian”
62. >The Beths - “Future Me Hates Me”
63. Parquet Courts - “Wide Awake!”
64. Gia Margaret - “There’s Always Glimmer”
65. Oneohtrix Point Never - “Age Of”
66. Jon Hassell - “Listening to Pictures”
67. Hermit & the Recluse - “Orpheus vs the Sirens”
68. >Loma - “s/t”
69. Ian Sweet - “Crush Crusher”
70. W. Basinski & L. English - “Selva Oscura”
71. Library Tapes - “Patterns (Repeat)”
72. Wooden Shjips - “V.”
73. >Haley Heyndrickx - “I Need to Start a Garden”
74. Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society - “Wow and Flutter”
75. The Dakota Suite - “What Matters Most”
76. Anna Calvi - “Hunter”
77. Frankie Cosmos - “Vessel”
78. Vera Sola - “Shades”
79. Melody’s Echo Chamber - “Bon Voyage”
80. Spiritualized - “And Nothing Hurt”
81. Lera Lynn - “Plays Well with Others”
82. Exploded View - “Obey”
83. Hotel Neon - “Means of Knowing”
84. Ray Lamontagne - “Part of the Light” 
85. La Luz - “Floating Features”
86. Kikagaku Moyo - “Masana Temples”
87. Caroline Says - “No Fool Like an Old Fool”
88. Liela Moss - “My Name is Safe in your Mouth”
89. Lykke Li - “so sad so sexy” 
90. Control of the Going - “ I Love you but it’s Gonna Rain”
91. Deaf Wish - “Lithium Zion”
92. Anna Von Hausswolf - “Dead Magic”
93. Interpol - “Marauder”
94. Fluxion - “Ripple Effect”
95. Odeon - “Galaxies”
96. Daydream Machine - “The Show must not Go on”
97. Lala Lala - “The Lamb” 
98. Jess Williamson - “Cosmic Wink”
99. King Tuff - “The Other”
100. Film School - “Bright to Death”
101. Tomberlin - “At Weddings”
102. Air Formation - “Near Miss”
103. Half Waif - “Lavender” 
104. Orchid Mantis - “Yellow House”
105. Hater - “Siesta”


C. Life of the Party (36 Dramatic Situations)

106. The Kundalini Genie - “You Are The Resurrection”
107. Christina Vantzou - “No. 4”
108. Preoccupations - “New Material”
109. Bernice - “Puff: In the Air w’out a Shape”
110. Deaf Wish - “Lithium Zion” 
111. Leyya - “Sauna”
112. Jackie O Motherfucker - “Bloom”
113. RAYS - “You Can Get There From Here”
114. Drinks - “Hippo Lite” 
115. Beak> - “L.A. Playback”
116. Mien - “s/t” 
117.First Aid Kit - “Ruins”
118. The Black Dog - “Post-Truth”
119. Sigur Ros - “Route One” 
120. Woolen Men - “Post”
121. Ant’lrd & Benoît Pioulard - “Deck Amber”
122. Smerz - “Have Fun”
123. The Men - “Drift” 
124. The Soft Moon - “Criminal” 
125. Steady Holiday - “Nobody’s Watching”
126. Mike Donovan - “How to Get your Recs Played...”
127. Boys - “Rest in Peace”
128. Camp Cope - “How to Socialise & Make Friends”
129. Lana Del Rabies - “Shadow World”
130. Félicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu - “Limpid as the Solitudes”
131. Thomas Fehlmann - “Los Lagos”
132. Brian Jonestown Massacre - “Something Else”
133. The Durty Wurks - “Ballads of a Psychedelic Soul
134. Pllush - “Stranger to the Pain”
135. Papercuts - “Parallel Universe Blues” 
136. Waveless - “As One More Folded Paper Crane”
137. Laurel Halo - “Raw Silk Uncut Wood” 
138. Luluc - “Sculptor”
139. Sun June - “Years”
140. Tape Waves - “Distant Light” 
141. Protomartyr - “Relatives in Descent”


D.  Box of Chocolates (59 things Life is like...)

142. Gruff Rhys - “Babelsberg”
143. Durand Jones & the Indicators - “s/t”
144. No Age - “Snares Like a Haircut”
145. Actress - “Lageos” 
146. Pram - “Across The Meridian” 
147. The Black Dog - “Black Daisy Wheel”
148. Chemtrails - “Calf of the Sacred Cow” 
149. Helios - “Veriditas”
150. Stars Are Insane - “To Be There” 
151. RF Shannon - “Trickster Blues”
152. Mathew Lee Cothran - “My First Love Mends My Final Days” 
153. Illuminati Hotties - “Kiss Yr Frenemies
154. North Americans - “Going Steady”
155. Vactrol Park - “Music from the Luminous Void”
156. Frankie Teardrop Dead - “All You Need Is Love & Fucking Peace”
157. Rivulets - “In Our Circle”
158. Jim’s Younger Spirit - “No Human Tongue can Tell”
159. The Cult of Boydah - “Electrical Youth”
160. Human People - “Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears”
161. Spirit Fest - “Anohito”
162. Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore - “Ghost Forests”
163. Say Sue Me - “Where We Were Together”
164. Sun Dial - “Science Fiction”
165. Odetta Hartman - “Old Rockhounds Never Die” 
166. Echo Ladies - “Pink Noise”
Seahawks - “Eternal Beams”
Jaye Jayle - “Npo Trail & Other Unholy Paths” 
The Goon Sax - “ We’re Not Talking” 
Black Eagle Child - “Six Lugubrious Airs”
Tony Molina - “Kill the Lights”
James - “Living in Extraordinary Times” 
Forth Wanderers - “s/t”
Courtney Barnett - “Tell Me How You Really Feel” 
Penelope Trappes - “Penelope Two”
Suuns - “Felt” 
Soccer Mommy - “Clean” 
En Attendant Ana - “Lost and Found”
Poemme - “Moments in Golden Light” 
Dead Meadow - “The Nothing They Need”
Slow Mass - “On Watch”
Dustin Wong, Tanako Minekawa, & Good 
         Willsmith - “Exit Future Heart”
Firefriend - “Sulfur”
Bill Ryder-Jones - “Yawn” 
Erin Rae - “Putting on Airs” 
Black Moth Super Rainbow - “Panic Blooms” 
Locus Pocus - “s/t”
Tyler Burkart - “A time for everything”
Bonny Doon - “Longwave”
Black Belt Eagle Scout - “Mother of my Children”
The Black Queen - “Infinite Games”
Another Green World - “Video Ritual”
Erin Rae - “Putting on Airs”Fog Lake - “Captain” 
Eartheater - “Irisri”
Landing - “Bells in New Towns” 
Lotic - “Power”
White Denim - “Magazin”
The Black Delta Movement - “Preservation”
Jacco Gardner - “Somnium”
200. Lucretia Dalt - “Anticlines”


And my top 50 EPs of 2018: 

1. Night Beds - “Dear Jewell”
2. Azure Ray - “Waves”
3. Harmony Rockets w’ Peter Walker - “s/t”
4. Midwife - “Prayer Hands” 
5. The Marías - “Superclean Vol. II”
6. J Baker, P Bridgers, Lucy Dacus - “boygenius”
7. Benoît Pioulard - “May”
8. Waxahatchee - “Great Thunder” 
9. Violet Nox - “Twin Flame”
10. Swim Ignorant Fire - “B/w Blood & Bone”
11. Tone of Arc - “Tropical Western I/II”c
12. Haley Heyndrickx & Max Garcia Conover - “Among Horses III”
13. No Joy / Sonic Boom - “s/t”
14. Munya - “Delano EP”
15. Ulrika Spacek - “Suggestive Listening EP 
16. Jenny Hval - “The Long Sleep”
17. Sunun - “Ooid”
18. Anemone - “Baby Only You & I”
19. Hairband - “S/T”
20. Lannds - “Legends EP”
21. Angel Aura - “Sensum EP”
22. Monster Rally - “Starlight” 
23. beabadoobee - “lice” 
24. Deepchord - “Immersions”
25. LA Witch - “Octubre”
26. Helena Deland - “ (5 ep series)
27. Panda Bear - “A Day with the Homies”
28. Lapalux - “Above Between Below EP”
29. Field Medic - “Little Place” 
30. Marcus Fischer & Simon Scott - “Shape Memory”
31. The Black Dog - “Forgemasters: Shards ov Light”
32. Moses Sumney - “Black in Deep Red, 2014”
33. Belle & Sebastian - “How to Solve Our Human Problems (II/III)”
34. Minus the Bear - “Fair Enough”
35. Shitkid - “This Is It”
36. Bokonon - “Atlast”
37. Negative Gemini - “Bad Baby”
38. Kayla Guthrie - “Falling Star”
39. Munya - “North Hatley”
40. Why Bonnie - “In Water”
41. thanks for coming - “Back at it Again”
42. Launder - “Pink Cloud”
43. Jacques Greene - “Fever Focus” 
44. Anmlplnet - “Fall Asleep”
45. Oneohtrix Point Never - “The Station”
46. Buzzy Lee - “Facepaint EP”
47. James Ferraro - “For Pieces for Mirai”
48. Brabrabra - “Brabrabra-Lagoona”
49. Shapes in Calgary - “Here”

50. Aphex Twin - “Collapse EP”