Top 30 Albums of 2018

Well, I guess this is a thing I'm gonna start doing this year. The last thing anyone ever wanted or needed; another dumbo who thinks he can talk about music on the internet. I deeply apologize for any poor writing that occurs in the initial process (or any point really) of doing this, I am obviously way out of practice for this. Before talking about anything that will be coming out in the coming year, I think it's best to get started at this with talking about everything that I really enjoyed from last year. Because I spent way too much time writing all of this out and it would really be a waste of that time if I didn't follow this up with actual updates afterwards.

Nevertheless, here y'all go. My 30 favorite albums which came out all year, hope it turns out to be something half agreeable.

#30

Singularity (Jon Hopkins)

Following up an album as huge as Immunity is an impossibly hard task to accomplish, let alone 5 years later. For the first half of this album it seems like Hopkins creates a more than worthy successor, with one of the best 5 song streaks of the year. From the explosive last two minutes of the title track, the throbbing and off-the wall Emerald Rush and the pure captivating beauty of Feel First Life, Hopkins evolves the more mechanical club beats of Immunity with something far more naturalistic and wild. However, the highs don’t last much longer than that. Luminous Beings is a very pretty song but besides that the other pieces lack the contrast and power which the low-key 2nd half of Immunity handled masterfully. Despite that it’s still an album I’ve gone back to constantly over the year, and that first half really stands as a true musical high for Hopkins, release that as an EP and it becomes EP of the year for free.

#29

Vector (Haken)

The prog rock/metal scene right now is kind of a wasteland. What few artists actually doing interesting things in it right now are making music in direct opposition of its trends (Leprous, Steven Wilson, Bent Knee). So it’s refreshing as all hell to see that Haken still manages to make more standard progressive metal which is genuinely interesting. At only 45 minutes long it’s very compact for a prog metal album which only helps the more straightforward nature of the songs here. The main riffs themselves are continuously exciting and technically stunning, and when they decide to let their talent speak for themselves it never comes off as sheer wankery due to the strong songwriting. These tracks flow like a dream, the 12 minute Veil having some of the most awe-inspiring work I’ve heard from these guys period with it flying past you in a blink of an eye. The high point easily goes to Nil By Mouth though, an instrumental jam-out which sounds like if a highly technical Mick Gordon wrote the theme to a Platinum Games boss fight, and is every bit as ridiculous and fun as that combination sounds.

#28

Last Building Burning (Cloud Nothings)

So I guess Cloud Nothings were also kind of disappointed with their 2017 effort weren’t they? I enjoyed Life Without Sound well enough but for a band which has been as continuously forward thinking and powerful as Cloud Nothings it felt like a weak foot-note, with the band taking an even safer sound than Here and Nowhere Else. Well if there’s one word that doesn’t describe Last Building Burning it’s safe. The production on this album is a lot, it’s noisy and messy as all hell and probably isn’t technically speaking “good”. This is made readily apparent in the first seconds of the album as opener On An Edge begins full sprint, pounding you with some of the most vicious and intense guitar and drums we have heard from them in 6 years. Dylan’s vocals here are manic and shrieking and the song does not hold-up at any point. Hell, the entire album doesn’t really hold anything back the whole time. Dissolution descends into this over-engulfing wall of sound and lead single The Echo of the World grows and grows into something truly spectacular. It makes me ludicrously glad to say that Cloud Nothings still holds their title as one of, if not the most interesting band in the current indie/post-hardcore movement.

#27

Kids See Ghosts (Kids See Ghosts)

Well, it most certainly was a year for Kanye West wasn’t it. It certainly was a year that changed my current thoughts about him. Before I could write off any garbage he said and go “well at least he hasn’t made anything interesting since 2010”. This year changed that. Kanye put out a fair deal of music and I really liked a lot of it. Ye was divisive but I felt was a serious return to form, even if it wasn’t a huge event like his previous works. That huge event release turned out to be his long awaited collaboration with Kid Cudi. Like everything else released during this “Summer of Ye” it’s a very short release, barely under 24 minutes. This makes the larger than life impression it leaves all the stronger. Kanye has always been an excellent producer but his re-arrangement of contemporary rap music into something psychedelic is a refreshing take which I am dying to hear more of. Much like the cover itself, the music is ridiculously colorful and full of personality, as is both Kanye and Cudi. From Kanye’s impassioned math-rock gunshot impersonation and Cudi’s screaming of “I CAN STILL FEEL THE LOVE” on the opener instantly shows the charisma shown off through the whole album. Charisma which is later backed by some of the strongest lyrics either artist have ever penned, particularly on closer Cudi Montage and the title track. I can only hope this is not just a one-off project from them.

#26

Live 2002 (Mika Vainio, Ryoji Ikeda, Alva Noto)

I think the best way I could possibly describe this is that it sounds like Mr. Game and Watch’s nightmares. Live 2002 is a fascinating collaboration from 3 glitch artists who have long and historic careers in their field. I only have slight familiarity with Ryoji Ikeda who released Dataplex, which is by and far one of my favorite albums of the genre. Nevertheless their mastery at their craft is easy to understand. I cannot possibly understand how they managed to craft some of these soundscapes live. Quite a lot of it is almost dead-air at points, with only a faint hum carrying you from one barrage of large bleeps and short blips to the next. It stands as one of the most tense listening experiences I have had all year. Sometimes the sounds provided tickle your ears in funny ways like in Movements 4. But then culminates in Movements 11, which descends into a sound I cannot possibly describe by words alone but it is something which shook me to my core. I do not know what spurred on the release of this live collaboration 16 years after its performance but I am incredibly glad it is there for me to appreciate.

#25

Room 25 (Noname)

It is only just hitting me now that this is #25, I promise I did not intend this. An album that is as sharp and witty as the beats on it are loungy and comfy. Noname’s debut full length album had a lot riding on it as a follow-up to a mixtape which exploded in popularity almost instantly. Luckily for us, she’s able to make it all work and then some. There is not a moment on this thing where she delivers something uninteresting. Her flow constantly shifts but never feels forced, and is as smooth as the laid-back beats which perfectly compliment her. The production lush and beautiful but never overshadows Noname herself, whose thoughtful and imaginative poetry and slick sense of humor is really what props her above her peers. From her larger than life and ridiculous persona on the opener to her discussion on identity in the closer, she goes through a wide range of topics with a true eye for the right words and the right way to say them at each moment.

#24

Slide (George Clanton)

It’s going to be interesting in the years to come to see if the whole vaporwave/chillwave movement will have any legitimate impact on music for years to come, or have it become just another passing trend. If George Clanton has anything to say about it, it’s going to stick and it’s going to stick well. As chillout music goes you won’t find a lot more with production as warm and inviting as this, mixing Clanton’s vaporwave background with a lot of 80s synth pop and 90s dream pop tricks to create an all encompassing blanket of comfort. The hooks are consistently strong and while George’s vocals fit the track to a T each time. As great as the straightforward shorter cuts on this are, the real winners are the more long-form ones. The title track goes from a standard but very strong chillwave jam to a calming wave of sound back into mellowed out breakbeat and keeps itself strong the whole way through. The easy highlight however is You Lost Me There, with a lead synth line which instantly lodges itself into your mind, a great repetition of the pre-chorus of Make it Forever into a drum beat which hits with a power unlike anything else on here. Here’s hoping that George continues to keep the dream alive, there is probably still plenty a Simpsonswave video left to make.

#23

The Mansion (Brett Naucke)

As time has gone on and my taste has become increasingly esoteric (to the shame of everyone who has ever known me), the idea of the pure texture of whatever it is I listen to becomes a more important aspect of what I enjoy. I say this because going purely off that The Mansion a true marvel. The sounds which Brett is able to provide are awe-inspiring at times and simple in their beauty at others. It plays a lot like a less technical Autechre album; where you don’t get bombarded by the pure math of the music but instead you listen to the at times simple ideas present in each song and focus in on them developing as it continues. It’s an immensely abstract piece which is hard to truly put into words how it succeeds but get yourself a good pair of headphones, and let yourself sit into Brett’s world for around forty minutes. Do that, and you will understand why it is such a strong and directly impactful collection of music.

#22

Dead Magic (Anna van Hausswolff)

Think one of my favorite parts about checking through the RYM yearly charts is coming across a collection of genre tags and instantly licking my lips in anticipation. Dead Magic was this years version of that by a mile. A dark and gothic journey through nightmarish soundscapes carried by the ever haunting shrieks of Anna herself. Her performance throughout The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra are some of the most cold blooded and horrifying I have heard all year. The real meat of the album however lies in the two absolute behemoths of music in The Truth, The Glow, The Fall, and Ugly and Vengeful. Two tracks sitting at ten and sixteen minutes apiece which continuously shape-shift and morph into one audio spectacle after the other: the insane last few minutes of Ugly and Vengeful especially. As music to have filling your life come October of every year, you will be hard pressed to find much which fits better than this.

#21

Annihilated (Sectioned)

When people talk about metal being just noise I used to just be able to laugh at them and offer no real counters. This album gave me the best counter possible, showing them what metal which is just noise really sounds like. Think the best way to describe the way this album sounds is that it’s Phoenix In Flames, but for 42 minutes instead of 42 seconds. There is a level of sheer technical ability here which is truly astounding as is done as a way to simply make every second as overwhelming and hard to process as possible. Usually something like this would start out exciting but fizzle out very fast but Sectioned manage to make something so overwhelming it goes past that point and back to interesting again at least 20 times by the time the album is done. Annihilated is certainly the perfect way to describe it, because I think if I listen to this thing again my eardrums sure will be.

#20

2012-2017 (Against All Logic)

Imagine being so talented the stuff you record and release behind everyone’s back with almost nothing connecting it to you manages to explode just a large as your regular output. Nicolas Jaar is a god amongst men and this is just another notch in his many successes. As he himself puts it on the packaging: “If you don’t know jack about house, then you’ll love this!”. As someone who has dipped his toes a bit in house but certainly doesn’t have a truly deep familiarity with it, yeah that’s pretty accurate. Despite this being a vague collection of songs recorded through a five year period there is such a strong consistency with the quality of the music and how it all comes together as a fairly cohesive package. Each song brimming with detailed and varied production, from the instantly catchy vocal samples of Know You; the great piano lines which stays all throughout Cityfade; and the subdued, almost The Field ambience of Some Kind of Game. If this is just a little taste of Jaar’s leftovers, I’m going to have to go dumpster diving behind his house to see what other little ditties I can find.

#19

Virtue (The Voidz)

Have never been a fan of The Strokes, got a lot of respect for their early material but they’ve never truly connected with me. Guess one of my big issues with it is for as huge as it was it really was at its core just a look back rather than pushing anything forward. With The Voidz Casablancas is doing his damndest to shed that image of him out of my mind and I do think it has worked. Tyranny was also very good but was inconsistent quality wise, with staggeringly high highs (Human Sadness), and a few low lows (Xerox). Virtue doesn’t have anything quite on the level of Human Sadness but strikes with precision with a wide array of blaring and forward thinking rock tracks. The closest thing to The Strokes on here is opener Leave it in My Dreams, which then immediately goes into QYURRYUS. A futuristic psychedelic synth punk pop jam with what I can only describe as anti-guitar solos as Julian croons away in at least 5 different vocal stylings and effects while a constant wobbling bass line propels it. It’s the highlight of the album for sure and one of my favorite singles of the year but the almost metal guitar shrieks from Pyramid of Bones, the trip-hop stylings of ALieNNatioN and the Sonic Youth like noise nonsense in We’re Where We Were and much more all manage to contain around as much personality and then some throughout the entire project. Hopefully Julian is able to infect that new Strokes album with a tenth of the personality this album has. Given the recent material from that band though, probably won’t.

#18

NTS Sessions 1-4 (Autechre)

Yeah this is technically cheating as these are 4 separate releases spread out over a month of time but if I were to count them separately 3 out of the 4 would make it on here anyway and I can only talk so long about Autechre making very complex bleep bloop noises. I do applaud Autechre in continuing to release increasingly long-winded records as the year goes on as a way to spite anyone with a passing interest in them. I did all 4 and a half hours of else-q in one sitting but 8 hours of pure unfiltered Autechre, that’s too much even for me. Which makes it an absolute miracle that despite the insane running time that in marathoning them over the course of a few days the typical Autechre sound never feels old. Each session does feel like it is its own separate part in a much larger piece. Session 1 feels like a fairly direct continuation from else-q, with a selection of mostly long, glitchy and multi-layered tracks which move forward at a fairly strong tempo despite the repetition. 2 focuses on more individual tracks for the first half of its run-time, throwing new ideas constantly and seeing what sticks until the second half comes around and focuses more on abstraction, stretching out sounds as long as possible. 3 stands as probably the most direct session of the 3, with some of the most beat driven and pulsing of the selection, with tt1pd standing as one of the best tracks Autechre have ever put out. 4 concludes with how the second half of 2 did, focusing on stretching sound out to its breaking point, coming to a natural conclusion on closer all end. A 58 minute track that can only be described as an all encompassing wave of sound unlike any I have ever heard, fully keeping my attention at all times. While I do think as an overall package else-q is a more consistent long as all hell bleep collection and I do think Session 2 stands a tad weaker than the other 3, it stands as yet another reason why Autechre are the gods of what they are. If they release a 16 hour album though I am tapping out.

#17

qp (Ichiko Aoba)

I’ve had friends who have been talking up Ichiko Aoba for years on end. Wasn’t disinterest which never got me to do it but I had just continually put it off for doing later that it just never got done. Finally decided to push through and finally give her a shot and now I feel nothing but a constant fury at my past self. It takes a lot of skill to carry and captivate for an extended period of time with just a single guitar and a voice, especially if the person listening cannot even understand what is being said. Ichiko is able to perfectly transfix and get me to pay attention to nothing but her. There is such a warmth and beauty in every note she sings and the production gives absolute clarity to it. The guitar playing itself is as pleasant as pleasant gets and there is purposefulness of each individual note and the silence between them which is able to truly dazzle. It’s a very simple album for sure but simplicity done this well and beautifully is something to be treasured.

#16

Your Queen is a Reptile (Sons of Kemet)

Most of the bands in the UK jazz scene that I am familiar with (GoGoPenguin, Polar Bear) seem to take a more minimalist and abstract take on jazz music. In complete contrast with them, Sons of Kemet are big, loud and very proud of it. Despite being only a 4 piece there is a fierceness and fire in these guys that is unmatched by most modern groups that I’ve heard today. I have never heard a tuba continuously played with such conviction and force but it is now the basis I will judge every tuba I hear with. Each song is itself a tribute to an inspirational and powerful black woman, ranging from Harriet Tubman to the saxophone player’s Great-Grandmother, and the impact and strength of these women can be felt in each second of their songs. All four members manage to combine incredible virtuosity with pure emotional showmanship to create an experience that grips you and has you groove hard through all 55 minutes of it. Even if you aren’t into jazz and consider it too methodical and clean for your taste, I implore you to give this a listen. If the fiery flames of protest here don’t draw you into the genre, I don’t think anything will.

#15

Haru to Shura (Haru Nemuri)

Genre hopping is something which can lead to incredible results if done properly but done improperly can lead to a disjointed wreck of an album. In her debut full-length album Haru Nemuri shows off such an impressive understanding of so many genres at such a young age that it’s honestly kind of baffling. This stands as one of the loudest and most off the wall j-pop albums that I’m aware of. Haru successfully blends j-pop with post-hardcore, shoegaze, noise rock, hip-hop, sometimes all five of them together at once. The hooks are instant ear-worms, the production allows for everything to hit with a satisfying crunch and Haru herself, whether doing monotone styled rapping or impassioned pop-punk belts is instantly charming and good at all of it. Each chorus on this thing is a stunner, and will have you belting and screaming along right with her.

#14

Crumbling (Mid-Air Thief)

And the winner of the best Animal Collective album to come out this year goes to Mid-Air Thief. Another album matching up the lush calmness of folk music and poignantly contrasting it with a wide array of electronic blips, waves, and bloops. This on its own is nothing particularly new but Mid-Air Thief provide this in such an inviting and comfortable way; much like curling up in a blanket while watching a calm rain. The long-form and sprawling nature of these songs allow you to get fully immersed as the whispery vocals soothe your soul as you enter the most wonderfully muted kaleidoscope of sound possible. Much like the artwork which accompanies it, Crumbling is sparse, solitary, and special.

#13

DAYTONA (Pusha T)

I was sincerely hoping I could come up with a more out-there take than DAYTONA is the best hip-hop album to come out this year but to call it anything else would be a lie. DAYTONA is a finely crafted beast. Barely over 20 minutes long but with each minute of it crafted down to allow for not a second wasted. Pusha oozes character at every moment, dropping the best bars of his career. There are too many good lines to count but “I play musical chairs with these squares” is one which has locked itself in my brain only for me to think about it at random points at the day and chuckle at it. Kanye’s production is as strong as ever but it never stands as something which takes over from Pusha. The beats are incredibly strong and most other rappers would have those beats dominate them but Pusha’s sheer talent as a performer is able to have them perfectly compliment him. Speaking of Kanye, he has a verse in here too, probably the best verse he’s given in 8 years. Praying that Pusha’s next project has the eternal strength to kill Drake and rid him from this world forever.

#12
Alive in the East? (Binker and Moses)

Sons of Kemet is my favorite studio jazz release of this year, but the best overall jazz release this year goes to Binker and Moses’ Alive in the East. A ferocious live release which showcases incredible performances. Each song perfectly flows into the next with no stopping, it’s just a group of incredibly talented musicians working off of each other and creating true art. The fact that none of these songs have any studio equivalent has me unsure if the pieces weren’t all just improved on the spot and the fact that I’m uncertain about that is testament to how in sync all the musicians here are. While there are a fair share of its subdued movements, the record is at its strongest with them firing full blast. The drum duet which starts the record flowing into a dueling saxophone battle is an instant tell as to what this is. A true must listen for anyone with the littlest interest in the avant-jazz world.

#11

Electric Messiah (High on Fire)

Matt Pike had himself a pretty strong year. Sleep came back from a long slumber and High on Fire put out a ludicrously fun sludge release, especially compared to the underwhelming Luminiferous. This album has one mode and one mode only, fast and loud. It’s not a sound with any real amount of depth but the lightning bolt of energy all through it is too infectious to fight against. The production, handled by the always perfect Kurt Ballou gives each instrument that right and satisfying crunch that is needed. While the sound itself is far from new the strong songwriting coupled with the Ballou touch allows for twisting and driving insanity. Guitar riffs are crunchy, instantly memorable and get you headbanging in an instant.

#10

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (Deafheaven)

It cannot be said enough just how big of an impact Deafheaven has had on the culture around metal. In one album they turned black metal into something which was seen as music for church-burners into something sold at Urban Outfitters all across America. With changing the face of metal once you would think that would be the peak of Deafheaven, that they would never be able to top it. While I don’t think this will have nearly the same impact as Sunbather I am extremely confident in saying Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is the best project Deafheaven have ever released. Combining the staggering highs of Sunbather with the consistent quality of New Bermuda (which is for the record a criminally underappreciated record), Deafheaven continue their take on metal with the seeming attempt to get as many purists as mad as possible. Opening track You Without End is as different an opener from their previously gigantic and loud starting statements have ever been. Even when George’s metal shrieks come on there it doesn’t have quite the bite that it usually does, more standing as a sheer contrast from the spoken word and almost glam rock piano which make up most of it. Shorter cuts Near and Night People are by far the lightest cuts they’ve ever delivered, but all stand as strong changes of pace compared to the messy interlude tracks of Sunbather. The real high point of the album though, is its 4 gargantuan 10+ minute tracks, each one standing strong. While the gaze part of blackgaze is far more important than it ever has been. The high-point of the album, and Deafheaven’s entire career so far goes to Canary Yellow, which caps off what is own its own the ideal Deafheaven song with a guitar solo filled with blues licks and an ever chanting choir of voices to create a final two minutes of pure musical bliss.

#9

Double Negative (Low)

A band completely shifting its sound is always something which comes at a risk. For a band with a 25 year old history full of critical acclaim already, it’s almost unheard of. Low have been putting out moody slowcore since ‘94 and while nothing else has had the staying power of I Could Live In Hope they’ve put out their fair share of pretty solid releases throughout that. I’m not sure what exactly changed for them but they decided to totally flip the script of their sound for Double Negative and it works wonders. 2015’s Ones and Sixes had some little hints of them moving to a more glitchy styling but Low took those little hints and made them full front and center. From the opening sound you are immersed in a bizarre, glitch filled soundscape filled with extreme vocal effects, fading in and out almost at random. Despite that description it isn’t manic, it’s quite calm as Low always is. They are able to translate the usually abstract and abrasive and still manage to come through with an album that still feels like a Low album should, but still doesn’t at all. The easiest comparison I can make it Bon Iver’s 22 a Million; an album which while I wasn’t totally on-board with each song on it, I thought the ideas that it brought to the table were fascinating and that I could not wait for someone to fine-tune that sound and make something special of it. It’s no coincidence that Low recorded this at Iver’s studio, and their taking of the ideas on that create something truly special. If you want to see me tear up, just be in the same room with me when those opening vocals of Fly come on, it is something truly devastating and wonderful.

#8

I'm All Ears (Let's Eat Grandma)

The level of sheer talent both members Let’s Eat Grandma shows off at such a young age is frankly unfair. They are able to put together one of the most finely crafted pop records of the decade and get producers as big as SOPHIE to allow them achieve their vision, disheartening frankly. This is a pop album with such a large ambition, cat ASMR, glitchy industrial breakdowns, the Transistor soundtrack, and two huge pieces of progressive pop are just a few of the sounds on display here. Such wide ambition is made clear by the sheer scope of the instrumental opener, inviting you into whatever nonsense that will occur. And the nonsense does come quickly, Hot Pink takes SOPHIE’s production and uses it to its finest (better than SOPHIE’S own album honestly), contrasting sparse verses with a chorus which fires all cylinders. Each hook instantly catching, their vocals which could easy come off as obnoxious work in an endearing sort of way, and their songs themselves sprawl off in even more unexpected ideas from their original sound. The real prize here is Falling Into Me, which could have easily ended at the 3 and a half minute mark and been a wonderful piece of pop bliss on its own but in its final two minutes take the song from that to a landmark pop song of the decade. This level of songwriting reaches its natural conclusion in Donnie Darko, a sprawling 11 song centerpiece that keeps that same piano opening through all of it as it spirals into a kaleidoscope of color and style.

#7

7 (Beach House)

Alright I swear to you this is also not intentional, though I would be lying if I said I really wasn’t hoping that this would end up being the case. Beach House were forever a band which I had a deep respect and understanding for why people fell in love with them but I could never fully join them. They had moments I loved, truly remarkable songs, but never coalesced into a full album which I could get on board with front to back, even if that second half of Bloom really is that good. 7 changed that. I fell in love with this album and I fell in love with it almost instantly. If this is the feeling I’ve been missing out on the past few years I am mad jealous. I think what really puts 7 a bit above the edge compared to their other work to me is that I feel there’s a variety and progression to this album that instantly connected with me. From the giddy excitement I felt over the initial drum-fill of Dark Spring, the gorgeous vocal harmonies of L’Inconnue and the wall of synths of Girl of the Year, each track shows off its unique personality from the rest instantly. Beach House capitalizes on these ideas and adds their distinctive flavor to each one, creating a cohesive atmospheric experience which is able to branch out in multiple different paths. The album sounds otherworldly. Beach House have always been strong on the production side but paired with the songs on display here and it is a combination which gets me entrenched whenever I put it on. It should be a law that Dive is a song which everybody listens to at least once, have heard it constantly and that final 2 minute space rock jam session leaves my mouth agape each time.

#6

The Sciences (Sleep)

I’m making a bold claim here, this is the best long-term comeback album of all time. Dopesmoker was officially released in 2003 but was recorded all the way back in 96. That’s 22 years of studio silence other than a one-off single back in 14. Comeback albums being this good from over 20 years of absence is unheard of, the only other one I can think from the top of my head is MBV. When they announced quite literally the day before it came out (the date of release being 4/20 of course) I had an actual spit-take. Dopesmoker is easily one of my favorite metal albums of all time and a follow-up to that is nerve-wracking but exciting if they do it well. It must have been quite a good rest Sleep had because they don’t sound like they have aged a bit. It’s the idealized version of what a Sleep album in 2018 would sound like, nothing more, nothing less. Taking Sabbath’s ideas to the max, slow and thunderous riffs over equally thunderous production, a bass tone which lulls my eyes back in sheer joy, and truly insane guitar solos over it all time and time again. It’s astonishing just how well they have come together and got so quickly to the core of what makes this band work so well. It certainly won’t change the opinions on anyone who already dislikes the band but anyone who has ever wanted to check out Dopesmoker but was put off by the insane one hour long song concept, this is a fantastic starting point to the band, and hopefully just the first of many an excellent return from one of stoner metals sonic titans.

#5

Little Dark Age (MGMT)

There was a brief moment of time where MGMT had control of the entire world. Oracular Spectacular was a monster of an indie album, with three game changing singles and the follow-up album Congratulations a hit in its own smaller way. After that though they seemed to fade away, their third album having mixed reception at best and a five year gap between releases. So when MGMT was the first bona-fide big album of 2018 it came as a huge shock to me, who just assumed they were gone. Thankfully for us they weren’t truly gone, and came back stronger, sharper and funnier than they have ever been. MGMT have had a penchant for ear worms and it is back in full force here with equal strength of wit to back it up. Whether actually goofy like She Works Out Too Much or existential like in When You Die, this is a record made to make you laugh, and laugh a lot to it I have. The chorus of When You Die is so perfect that it’s indescribable, it just needs to be heard. Each track a distinct blending of specific pop trends, with gothic Soft Cell synthpop throughout the title track and the psychedelic pop of the 60s ever present through the albums beautiful final two tracks. It’s a colorful roller coaster ride of a pop record which hooks you in and gets you grooving and screaming along with it at each point. Plus it has a song named after yours truly, and you cannot go wrong with that.

#4

Bad Witch (Nine Inch Nails)

The 2010’s have been a really good decade for Trent. His weird soundtracking gig that nabbed him an Oscar seems to be a full time thing now, he is a father to the kids with the coolest names possible and he was featured in the singular greatest hour of television that will ever be made. With all of that happening it’d be understandable if NIN was put to the side but Trent has not only made it a focus the past couple years, it has been another highpoint in an insanely consistent discography. I loved the previous EP’s which led up to Bad Witch but even I can look at what he has done here and call it the strongest thing he’s done in at least 15 years. While still feeling like a distinct evolution from the previous projects in this trilogy, Trent is able to push it forward into something truly special by delving into an instrumental pallete that is distinctly not NIN but fits into it like a glove. While the first two songs takes a look-back into the aggressive and messy production of Not the Actual Events, it then quickly becomes a mess of dark jazz meeting post-industrial soundscapes. It’s a mixture of genres that Trent has complete control of instantly, as God Break Down the Door so perfectly demonstrates. In these songs, whenever Trent sings it’s as if he is channeling the spirit of Bowie through him. His inflection and nature of the songs around him are right in the wheelhouse of his former mentor, and he does so with honor and grace. The instrumental landscapes Trent conjures up here harken back to his soundtrack work, with the avant-jazz nightmare from Play the Goddamn Part and the dark ambient hell which is I’m Not From This World, possibly the song song featured on this list which terrifies me the most. It’s final moments however are one of peace. Over and Out is the simplest song here but stands as the most poignant. Trent’s solemn repetition of “Time is running out, I don’t know what I’m waiting for”, as a subtle instrumental build-up gives way to a single, almost hopeful sounding drone. I’m not sure how much longer Trent wants to do NIN, from the sound of things he’s at least going to be done touring very soon. If this ends up being the final NIN album, it’s a perfect send-off to a nearly perfect discography. If not, I can only hope he is able to push this sound even further than he has already taken it.

#3 You Won't Get What You Want (Daughters)

Yeah, what a shock right? This album has taken the weird world of weird people who listen to weird loud music by storm and it has more than earned that respect. This album is a nightmare. A record which takes you by the head and forces you to endure whatever nonsense it wants you to, and you will like it. What really ties everything together is just the way things sound on this. Bass is fat, loud and overwhelming; locking your focus in place with heavy and repetitive grooves which force you to get lost within it. The drums hit hard and fast, sometimes going on top of each other to create walls of noise which overwhelm your senses. The vocals go through so many different types of insanity it’s hard to classify them. From monotone madness mantras, swift and cutting barks or pure impassioned shrieks of anxiety and hate. What really does it all though is the guitar tone here. It can’t be described what they do to the idea of what a guitar should sound like here. At each point on this record it sounds like the shrill strings of a horror film, playing at full blast whenever they decide to creep on in; and the waiting for them is half the fun here. While there are quite a few songs that show their cards right at the start here, the album is full of slow burners. Satan in the Wait plays much like a modern Swans number, settling in a hypnotic groove which sucks you in instantly. The little bouts of sonic madness all come together in one huge jolt of energy in The Reason They Hate Me. While it is the most straightforward song on here it is a song which each member is going at full force at each second, concluding in a guitar breakdown so utterly insane it would make the strings in Psycho shiver. From the opening Suicide-esque hum drums in City Song to the final desperate shrieks of “LET ME IN”, You Won’t Get What You Want immerses you in a fun-house of horrors that you cannot help but love.

#2

Errorzone (Vein)

I oftentimes think about what my teenage self would think about what my taste has become. He’d look at me enjoying Carly Rae Jepsen and Autechre and all this nonsense and would probably sneer that teenage sneer my parents were sadly too familiar with. But I think if I showed him this, showed him that I was still head over heels for music that sounded this loud, chaotic and angry, he’d look up, give a nod, flip me off, and walk away. Errorzone lives by one rule and that rule is be as loud and as angry as possible, no matter how stupid it gets. The lyrics on here consistently read like the angry diary entries of the most eloquent 15 year old possible, the guitars blare at a billion percent at each second with no breaks, and I love every second of it. This is an album which is not only not afraid of what it is but embraces it in a way that most music really does not. It knows exactly what is, a modern metalcore release with influences first wave nu-metal and wears it as proud as you possibly could. It moves at a lightning pace to boot. At only 27 minutes long it makes sure each second is a second which is spent with you thrashing around like a maniac. What brings it to be something truly next level is the ingenuity present throughout its every moment. The moment it truly hit me just how next-level this album was happened during Broken Glass Complexation. This crazy guitar feedback was getting cut between the breakdown ending the song until it ends on this one bit of feedback. Feedback which is then looped perfectly into the next song as a totally off-the wall drum beat plays in time with it and they make a homemade industrial track. Moments like that pepper the record, the breakbeat drums in Virus://Vibrance, the instrumental machine-gun fire off End Eternal, and the incredible emotional release which the title track delivers. Clean vocals which provide a sense of understanding and relief as keyboard notes hit with the pain of a million confused and angry teens. Add that in with the sickest array of riffs and breakdowns both big and small imaginable, and you get a package which leaves me a sweating mess whenever I hear it. Literally, this is an actual picture of me after listening to this album:

I lose my mind whenever I hear this thing. Most years, an album this good would be my album of the year for free. But somehow, not only was there another album which I feel is better, there’s another metal album that I like more. What a good year for metal this has been.

#1

Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It (Rolo Tomassi)

In a year filled to the brim with so much excellent music, let alone so much excellent loud music, you need to do something really special to stand out. Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It is a beast of an album that I have sunk my teeth into more times than I can count in order to try to fully wrap my head around it. I wasn’t totally nuts for this thing at first. I liked parts of it a lot, but there was a lot that is was trying to balance and I wanted to get a full grasp of what it was trying to do. After a few goes at it over a while it struck me, this here is something truly next level. A metal album filled with such pristine beauty and sadness combined with a level of chaos and unpredictability that dozens of listens later still transfixes me. The opening two tracks on here are startlingly gorgeous. Towards Dawn is an ambient piece which instantly hooks with its ethereal choir and looping synth pattern. Flowing directly into it Aftermath, another truly gorgeous piece with no sign of the nightmare that is to come. Lead vocalist Eva Spence has such an immediately spellbinding voice and the way this song builds into an incredible climax is something that you’d think you’d listen to the whole way. Then Rituals comes in and the illusion shatters, Eva transforms into some of the most powerful screamed vocals I have ever heard as the band suddenly becomes Converge. As the rest of the album goes they switch and flow and mesh these two completely different sides of the bands music into one. Carrying this is the sheer talent of every musician involved. The songs are mathy and labyrinthian, with odd and shifting time signatures constantly. The nature of these songs never become pure wankery however, the odd time always being used as tension for the songs which always resolved by the flow into a more common time. Each song flows perfectly into the next, creating a project feels united in a way most records cannot hope to be. Even with all of its lofty ambitions, it still keeps itself grounding. After finding the highest of musical highs possible in the 5 minute mark of penultimate track Contretemps, the final minutes of it and the entirety of closer Risen end on a calm and peaceful note. With simply a clean guitar, Eva’s voice, and a final heavenly drone to close out a project so monumentally huge. Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It is a lot of things at once and it succeeds at all of it. A landmark of its genre that hopefully will get the attention it deserves as the years go on.