Mental Receptacles and Other Passages

Album: Tales From the Backseat by The Academic

Genre: Irish Indie Rock

Runtime: 34 minutes

Release: January 12, 2018

Going by semi alphabetical order, I'm starting the list with probably one of the more accessible choices here. Also going to be one of the shorter reviews since the band is following a recognizable sound to a T. Drums, lead singer, bass, two guitars- pretty standard way a rock band is set up and The Irish band's full length debut album was on my radar since they released their Facebook Live video for "Bear Claws" in July 2017 and the album's overall feel is like the early to mid 2000s indie rock scene with major influences from the Strokes, Killers, and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs most notably in their jangly melodies and lyrical feel, but there's also a slight influence of lesser remembered bands like Jet, the Vines, and the Hives. In effect, it's recognizable for what it is. It's a safe choice to be sure because the indie rock sound they are going for has been relatively done to death, but the happy sounds of that time period is something that is refreshing in the languid rock or pop focused rock that is currently on the radio. Kind of nostalgic really. Very consistent album for a debut, and if I had to choose particular standouts I'd say that "Bear Claws", "Why Can't We Be Friends?", and "Permanent Vacation" are the ones I've been listening to the most. Not exactly why I vibed with this album so much since it sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the rest. But I hope they will be blowing up soon because while they are killing it Ireland, it'd be nice to see them have an even better second album in a few years. 

Album: The Neo Blues Project EP by AJ Ghent
Genre: Modern Blues
Runtime: 22 minutes
Release: March 16, 2018

Pretty hard to find modern blues albums- the lists I had used to at least try to limit the search for good music this year don't usually go for roots music and the youtube channels I follow to get recommendations don't often cater to that demographic. So I had to kind of dig for this one and the other blues album I have on the list.

AJ Ghent (sounds more like Jent) has really been on the periphery of my music radar since around 2013-2014. It's kind of easy when I definitely have a love of blues guitar and keeping up with modern players. And so I kept hearing about this guy from the Sacred Steel tradition of gospel blues and how impressive he was with his music. Makes sense since his family are well known performers in that particular style since the 1940s and 1950s so he definitely gets the guitar skills from growing up in that kind of environment.

Then came the Dave Grohl Sessions Volume 1 EP by the Zac Brown Band and I heard AJ Ghent's electric slide guitar on "All Alright" and that hooked me. Really great EP overall, but that was the track he was featured.

Fast forward a few years and I stumbled on the rest of his music with a live band and he did a fantastic 12 minute cover of "Purple Rain" where he made his guitar sing- which takes control of the slide to a different level. And in that particular video he ended Purple Rain with a short version of Amazing Grace which seems to be one of his closers- since he has a few videos of him playing Purple Rain.

So I kept him on my mind just in case he'd release an EP or something and he released this short and concise series of tracks to highlight the style of blues he's going for- still a healthy influence of gospel and soul music, rock, funk, and more modern R&B. Personal favorites are the blues rock "Power" and the soulful track "Long Lost Friend". Also there's this 50s rock influenced track "Gonna Rock" The guy is versatile and I hope he breaks through to the mainstream like Robert Randolph and the Family Band did. Hard to explain every track since whenever I put this one on, I tend to listen to the whole thing since its so short and there's not a bad song on here.

Album: You're Not Alone by Andrew W.K.
Genre: Alternative Rock/ Metal
Runtime: 52 minutes
Release: March 2, 2018

After nearly a decade, Andrew WK's return to music is as bombastic and party focused as before but it feels more realized than his previous albums where he started flirting with more instrumentation and pushing his sound to ever greater heights. I mean he pushed the limits of his sound already with his previous album, but this almost seems like he's going for a power metal kind of feel here with all the string sections, piano, and sometimes two or three part harmony. This album almost feels like he's taking cues from Meatloaf, Queen, and Kiss and adding in his hopeful message about not giving up hope and not looking away from the dark points in life. It's like a complete pep talk in an album. Sure his one note love of partying can seem laughable at points, but it's gaudy and over the top for a reason. It's almost like he wrote a rock opera in his head and released it into the world just so people can realize there's not just darkness nowadays and that life is worth living. And while the album could cut the motivational speech portions, it helps contextualize the themes of the album and see where he's coming from as an artist. It's just nice to have a rock star so focused on cheerful and hopeful music because we need that today. Personal favorite tracks are "Music Is Worth Living For" and it's anthemic focus on the joy of playing music and not giving up on your dreams, "Ever Again" and it's message on not letting your depression or bad times consume you, the Beach Boys flavored "Party Mindset" and the theatrical power metal tinged track "Give Up On You" which is about not giving up on your friends during their bad times. Andrew WK came back with a fantastic album that personally I think is his best one yet.

Album: Collapse EP by Aphex Twin

Genre: British Electronic

Runtime: 28 minutes

Release: September 14, 2018

I've always had a soft spot for Aphex Twin due to him being one of the first electronic artists I was really introduced to- and I own and constantly listen to his debut album "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" to focus. Sure I like far more odd electronic music now, but he's kind of an important figure in pushing electronic music to where it is today. And I always at least have to try each of his new releases just to see if he'd reach the heights of his first few albums under the Aphex Twin name and most of the time they are just okay, but this one stuck with me far longer than I expected.

Though what really pushed me towards even trying this EP was a mix of near constant praise from critics and general listeners for kind of finally doing his style but with more modern aesthetics- because while I dig his albums and EPs ever since Richard James started using the Aphex Twin name again, its been kind of a mixed bag on what he wants to do. Sure it's been more than three decades since he came onto the scene, but people wanted something more ever since he released Syro in 2014 and Cheetah in 2016.

Now how did I hear about this EP since it only came out a few months ago? Adult Swim. Yeah the Adult Swim block of programming was supposed to have dibs on releasing "T69 collapse" as a music video since the programming block really loves to do some odd music choices and fake infomercials late at night just to mess with people or just have some trippy visuals on screen for those watching. 

But that never actually happened since the music video failed the Harding test that checks if a something will trigger photosensitive epilepsy and the music video failed hard. So Adult Swim pulled that promised airing quick once they heard it might cause harm and I heard of it through just trawling through the internet about how awesome the visuals were. And yeah, the visuals were rather trippy and weird and was like if a computer rendering program started to critically fail with things morphing into other things and everything jittering around like crazy. Great video though a complete no go for anyone that might have epilepsy since every time I watch it to completion I get a headache and I don't even have epilepsy- just slightly sensitive eyes.

So how do I explain an album that has no real lyrics besides these drum and bass tracks and bleep bloops are particularly good? Well I could say that while there are technically 5 tracks on this EP, Aphex Twin really has each track have a beat or style switchup around the middle of each track and that "T69 collapse" is probably the hardest track with the most amount of ideas within it. Since the first few minutes are a relatively calm and collected sort of ambient track until 2 minutes in and the whole composition switches into a computerized breakdown for a minute or so where the track devolves into organized chaos and returns for the final stretch a more amped up track than it started, but less so than the breakdown. Kind of a thematic climax within five minutes of music and it starts the EP on a high note.

Then moving into "1st 44" is a lowkey hype track with a random dj voice used as an echo within this simpler track mainly focusing on drum rhythms and some synths. Probably the most straightforward track on this.

"MT1 t29r2" sounds like something he made in the early part of his career where the alien sound and kind of more melodic than some of the other tracks on here- or at least there is a repeated idea where it sounds like it is some weird audio transmission from space. 

"abundance10edit[2 R8's, FZ20m, & a 909] sounds like the most barebones beginning to a Death Grips track I could think of and while I could see a collab somehow in my dreams this would need a fair bit of work. Though this one has one of the few vocal lines in the album and it sounds like something I'd hear current day rap use to add something to get the track a chorus or something. Here he only uses the line once, but he seems to be sort of filtering ideas here since the beginning drum track is pretty hype and there's more than one melody line that pops in and out for a while. 

"pthex" is a strange way to close off the album since it's one of the faster tracks here and ending it on a slightly uneasy note with all the wobbly bits and slightly dark instrumentation leaves the album in this kind of jittery end point that I've continuously gone back to just listen to this track alone. It's kind of fascinating what he can do with his style because each track does have similar sounds since he does tend to have a certain taste he goes for, but each go in different directions and stay sort of interesting. 

Does this mean I like this better than his older works? Probably not since at least one or two of those are classics. But at least Aphex Twin can stay familiar yet change ever so slightly with the times 33 years on and that's impressive enough as it is.

Personal favorite tracks: T69 collapse, abundance10edit [2 R8's, FZ20m & a 909], and pthex. 

Album: Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino by Arctic Monkeys

Genre: British Indie Rock/ Lounge Rock

Runtime: 40 minutes

Release Date: May 11, 2018

Yeah this is probably where I start showing some of the stranger picks on here because I've spent months trying to understand this album. This one I wavered on adding to my favorites until it finally clicked for me. Not that I don't love the Arctic Monkeys, far from it. I remember them being one of the first bands I was actively a fan of on the internet with me searching up their "Fluorescent Adolescent" music video in like 2007-2008 and thinking it was then a weird and memorable video or listening to "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", "Mardy Bum", and "Fake Tales of San Francisco"  on repeat and thinking that they were the coolest modern band ever. Probably I love their second album the best due to them continuing the great ideas all in the first album and having a lot of my favorite songs by them in there, but early Arctic Monkeys were stellar. I actually had a phase where I actually called them my favorite band. Honestly that was around 2006-2008 but those That was probably in middle school now, but I had about seven years where I only listened to their first album or a smattering of tracks from their other ones because they bottled that angst and rock stuff I needed then so well that I just loved these British dudes. 

Actually now I can skip ahead to 2014, because there isn't much to speak of the AM's in my memory besides me trying hard to like their other stuff and not vibing with it. Maybe their other stuff didn't hit me as hard or just didn't come to me at the right time, but the love for them still was there. I fell off of most of their music in 2010 when Humbug dropped and have barely listened to that record since. I mean when I had to look up what songs were on there and realize that "Crying Lightning" a passable, if less hard hitting and memorable song than their previous work and something I haven't even remembered outside of the strange video it came with since the record came out, it isn't a great sign for me. And I skipped the next record so I've literally never even heard any of the songs on Suck It and See. Could be a passable album and rather nice, but I can't vouch for it. 

So yeah 2014 hit and I heard they released a new album and everyone was talking about how the tracks were hot fire and that the music video to "Do I Wanna Know?" was fantastic and so I just had to check it out. Wasn't disappointed since that was the album that made me think that these dudes still had that hard rock feel and the songwriting to back it up. And then they took a 4 year hiatus. Which really blew because they have decent solo careers, but those aren't the band I signed up for once again. 

Cue a random trawl through their tracks once again this year and I hear they have a new record out. And people are super conflicted about the album which is odd since AM- their previous record- was released to general acclaim. So cue my interest. I mean how different could it be? They have had a rock type sound since the beginning and while I haven't liked some of their albums, they at least stayed pretty consistent sonically so I wouldn't be confused about them being a different band. I mean mean looking at the reviews, you either love this album or you think it's compete garbage and I had to check this out if it was having that divisive of a reaction.

Cue me listening to it and realizing it's like if the Arctic Monkeys were lounge singers in some 70s hotel and took notes from David Bowie. Sure, not iconic notes, but Alex Turner has that feel of that time period Bowie in his tone even if the musical feel is more lounge jazz than indie rock. I mean the main instrument here is a piano, not the guitars and while I saw AM as a transition album, I didn't expect them to take a hard left into easy lounge pop.

This took me forever to like it, partially for the complete change in sound and feel, to just being hit by how odd some of the lyrics could be at points. I mean when you have titles such as "Golden Trunks", and "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip", you'd expect odd.But it kind of works in this cheesy way to make the lead singer and main songwriter's conviction in his lyrics that you forget how strange this album is. Until I see what they have in store for the next album, this current album stands out as an outlier, either a fun departure from the norm, or a new normal that makes them do something else. The lyrical songwriting is still here- just the musical tapestry they used expanded.

Personal favorites: "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino", "Four Out of Five", and "The Ultracheese" 

Album: Paraffin by Armand Hammer
Genre: Alternative Hip Hop (Language Warning)
Runtime: 47 minutes
Release Date: August 30, 2018

I heard of Armand Hammer from looking through a decent amount of hip hop reviews and seeing Rolling Stone talk about the 'music you missed in 2017" which helped me find this two piece through one of the members' 2017 albums. I went back to see Billy Woods' music and see what exactly he's about and I kind of fell down this New York alternative hip hop hole for a week or two. Fronted by Billy Woods and Elucid, the pair create this fusion of hip hop, electronic, and jazz that I really dig. Sure some of the tracks are a little weirdly mixed for my tasted when maybe a word gets slightly downed out by the mix, but the sheer groove of this thing and the lyrical wordplay shown here makes up for it in spades.

I really can't find a lot about how to get a physical copy though- seems that it's primarily a vinyl release with maybe a cassette tape coming later due to how small the studio is. Though don't quote me on that cassette tape- that seems to be through offhand comments and their Bandcamp only mentions a vinyl release- no CD.

Personal favorites: "Dettol", "No Days Off" which sounds like something DJ Shadow would create, "Hunter" which uses overtone singing tones in the background, and "Sudden Death" which has a flute heavy beat.

Album: 7 by Beach House
Genre: Dream Pop/ Neo Psychedelia
Runtime: 47 minutes
Release: May 11, 2018

If I had decided to rank the albums instead of listing them alphabetically by artist, this would at least crack my top 10 of the year, if not top 5. Now why is that?

I've loved each and every one of Beach House's dream pop/shoegaze albums since they came out and I found them on the internet. Probably 2007-2008, I found their first two albums (Beach House and Devotion) on some music blog and listened to them in their entirety. The duo was pretty different than the stuff I usually listened to, (I was on a big classic rock and White Stripes kick at the time) and I didn't exactly know what to do with the dreamy duo. I mean sure I joked they were the White Stripes of dream pop, but I couldn't really fit them in my rather limited idea of modern music since I was only in middle school at the time.

So I've been holding on to a love of this band for probably a decade and while they've been consistently great, I hadn't found the highs of their Bloom album released in 2010. Sure Depression Cherry came close in 2015, but it didn't completely get the sad, dreamy textures I fully wanted.

And honestly I skipped most of their B Sides and Rarities album from 2017. I've never really liked when bands do that since it always feels like it's for the hardcore fans of the band and just seems unnecessary to me. It had some good songs, sure, but it won't be something I'll be returning to anytime soon. I mean it cleared out their unreleased song catalog and made them focus on this, but it just doesn't super interest me.

Cue this year, where I stumbled upon the new Beach House full album stream and visualizer on Youtube through a rather convoluted series of clicking on related videos to Father John Misty's new album and somehow I ended up listening to this. I've only watched the visualizer graphics like three times all the way through since it's in black and white and has a lot of moving lines and things- it does a number on my eyes even though I think it's pretty cool, and also I don't know if it might cause some photosensitivity issues for people. But you can easily listen to this whole album and most of Beach House's catalog on Youtube super easily and it's a great time.

Now let's try and figure out why this is my favorite album of the year. The album starts off on a weirdly high note for this sort of crazy and melancholy album with "Dark Spring." Not really my favorite of the album since it kind of gets overshadowed by the next two songs in my opinion, but whenever I start listening to the album, I have to listen to every song in order. Don't know why, but I do. The lyrics are some rather obtuse lyrics referencing stars so seriously I have no clue what it's about besides the fact that Beach House tried to create an album with as much chaos and darkness they could because of the times. Thanks 2016 and 2017. But this album kind of reminds me of them trying to do the Velvet Underground and Nico 1967 album just from the feel of the thing- not just because there's songs influenced by Andy Warhol model Edie Sedgwick in "Girl of the Year" and Nico herself in "Last Ride".

So "Pay No Mind". I debate if this is my favorite or if one of the others is (Hint: It's probably "Lemon Glow" if I had to choose.) But the sad melody and rather hard hitting guitar really words for a song about relationships. Actually most of this album is focused on that in some way but this one is one of the easier to understand lyrics since it seems like the narrator is thinking about a relationship that's completely dissolving since there's reference to the cold kiss of love and most definitely the lyric "It's painful but/ you do what you must" which sounds like a defeated realization that the relationship is over and done with and they might be holding onto something that is dead.

"Lemon Glow" is probably my favorite track on here if I had to choose outright, it's more psychedelic soundscape has some great moments and Victoria Legrand throughout this whole album is just fantastic with how she harmonizes with herself. I think this one is my favorite song because of how the lyrics tell a story yet don't- I mean what is "Candy colored misery, the color of your mind" truly mean. Most likely this is a love song. This album is definitely one of those "you bring your own interpretation to it" kind of albums.

I looked down in the album player and for a moment didn't know what "The Unknown" was. Probably because whenever I see it on Spotify or anywhere else it isn't translated from French. So "L'Inconnue" is rather special and not just because I think it sounds like what Enya would do if she went less New Age and more modern electronica- but because it's the first time Victoria Legrand sings in French to my knowledge. I mean she's fluent in french and yet it's taken nearly a decade and a half for her to use it on record.

"Drunk In LA" is a rather pretty track about being in a dive bar and probably thinking about your childhood as you age. I mean the setting is pretty outright stated in the first few lyrics- and the chorus is about something that sounds like it could be a childhood activity- "I had a good run playing horses in my mind" now that could be something else, but then we have the reference to a highschool memory. Then the final lyric is literally "I am loving losing life" a reference to aging or alcohol since the title is Drunk In LA. Lots of layers here and I am still trying to digest it even six months later.

Honestly "Dive" is one of the weaker tracks in my opinion since I always forget about this one. It's about two people having communication problems in a relationship and not being able to talk because they are still dealing with their loneliness. Probably one of the more upbeat instrumentals but it also is one of the slower tempo songs so it just kind of gets lost in the shuffle.

"Black Car" is oddly simple with it's lyrics, two major verses and possibly a chorus all kind of jumbled together into this repeating song that sounds like it's about death or depression and it really depends on what I feel that day. Most of the time, I see it as this song about depression with the continued imagery of a happy memory within the dark with her repeating the "skipping rocks" line, but then I get to the title and see "Black Car" and the lines surrounding "t's like a tomb, but it's something to hold/ And in the time before it ends/ When the stillness bends" which sounds like it's all about death. Either way it's one of the downer tracks on a pretty dark album.

"Lose Your Smile" is rather nice because unlike "Black Car" it sounds happier. Sure it's still about a girl losing her smile and sunshine and tears- but the final chorus is all about dreams coming true. So it's less depressing, but the feelings are still there. I always see this as a bridge from the sad "Black Car" and the happiest sounding track on the album "Woo."

"Woo" is deceptively happy and also seems to be the only track on the album where Victoria Legrand drops the f-bomb in the lyrics. Though how loud and noticeable it is on first listen is debatable with how the two lines of lyrics intertwine with one another. The main hook is "I want it all, but I can't have it." which kind of fits with the sad undercurrent in the song with the music and almost halfhearted "Woos" that pop in and out of the track. Add the slight theme of living life to the fullest and not caring what people think and yet again the theme of the album hits- life sucks, but maybe you can enjoy it.

"Girl of the Year" is based loosely upon Edie Sedgwick, a model famous for working with Andy Warhol and possibly inspiring some songs of Bob Dylan's, her rather depressing rise to stardom and eventual overdose. I had to look up a few interviews to figure out the inspiration but I guessed it had to deal with a model in some way since "Turn on the TV, they all want to see me" and "Get dressed to undress, depressed to impress" definitely outlines the idea that this was the saddest song on the record to me. Add in the lyrics referencing pulling off petals of a flower to check if someone loves you and this track is a actually a big downer. Oddly beautiful downer I love, but it really isn't one I like listening to even though it's like top five of the album. The rawness of the song is just too much at times.

So the closer track "Last Ride" is referencing Nico herself in how she died in a bicycle accident. Ironically, this almost seems like an inversion of "Femme Fatale" by the Velvet Underground- a song based on Edie Sedgwick. Beach House takes the lyric that Nico sings in that- "Here she comes" and starts their tribute to Nico with "There she goes". Sure that's a really silly sounding idea, but with the references to Nico's death in falling off of her bike after she got a brain hemorrhage, and her dyed blonde hair and fake eyelashes. The longest track on the album at seven full minutes, this one takes its time building to the guitar heavy climax and ends on a high note.

This album is well worth your time even if it's kind of a downer. It's probably the most accessible Beach House record now and also in my personal opinion, their best album now- not that I don't love their older stuff. But this album threw away the constraint they had before where they wanted to be able to play every song live with just two people- this one is an evolution where they tossed that aside and just focused on making great songs without worrying about live performances.

Album: Negro Swan by Blood Orange
Genre: British R&B
Runtime: 49 minutes
Release: August 24, 2018

I had to choose at least one R&B album from this year and this one just floated to the top after a few listens. Sure the production is more lo fi than most of the albums I thought were pretty great, the mix of funk, hip hop, and R&B on here was just a fun time to listen to. I mean it's like I'm listening to a D'Angelo record or some lost 90s R&B. And I only really discovered this record through a convoluted walk through youtube and saw a video of Devonte Hynes (Blood Orange) interviewing, of all people, Philip Glass. I mean a person I've never heard of interviewing one of my favorite modern composers? So I had to check out who Devonte Hynes was and found this album- this weird hip hop funk almost jazz classical melange of genres that shouldn't even work but by sheer force it does. Extremely hard to classify album, with hints of Prince and Stevie Wonder mixed with modern R&B. The length of this review is not me saying this is on the lower end of quality, just it's hard to figure out how to truly explain how to feel about it since he loves changing a song in the midst of a track to change the mood entirely.

Personal favorites: "Saint", Jewelry", and "Charcoal Baby"

Album: Blue Madonna by BORNS
Genre: Indie Pop, Psychedelic
Runtime: 41 minutes
Release: January 12, 2018

Well I had introduced to BORNS in 2014 when a guy I knew kept saying how great his Candy EP was. And yes, the whole EP is great with it's really catchy and fun pop music with some influences from the Beatles, early seventies rock, and electronica. What really kept me going is that his voice is fantastic since at first I actually thought it was a female singing some of the parts of the songs.

Now I slept on his debut album in 2015 since a decent chunk of it felt like a rehash of songs on the Candy EP, but as I at least kept him in the back of my mind as I just kept listening to the small cache of music I liked of his,

Cue late 2017 where tracks and singles started dropping for this album and since it felt like the first truly new music of his in about three years (don't quote me on that, just saying he took a while to release this thing.) it surprisingly didn't disappoint me. Even with the first track on the album featuring Lana Del Rey, who I've flip flopped back and forth liking her music. Just some catchy fun pop songs here that just continue the resurgence of bands re-contextualizing the 70s and 80s sounds with more of a modern feel.

Personal favorites: "God Save Our Young Blood", "We Don't Care", "Supernatural", and "Bye Bye Darling".

Album: Love Yourself: Answer by BTS

Genre: South Korean Pop

Runtime: 1 hour and 39 minutes physical, 1 hour 44 digital

Release: August 24, 2018

This choice for K-Pop album was pretty contentious on my part. I mean I literally chose this album for my list December 4th, the day before I was going to start releasing this list of albums - not because I was rushing through trying to find a K-Pop album I liked, but because I was trying to figure out which one I liked overall. Very hard to do when I liked most of the K-Pop albums I'd tried out this year.

I've liked K-Pop as a genre probably since 2012 ever since I accidentally found out Babymetal was a thing (note: Babymetal is Japanese Kawaii metal- more J-Idol mixed with black metal, not K-Pop but I clicked on one too many related videos and ended up listening to a ton of this stuff. World music can be weird and fun too, even with the language barrier.) So after finding out that Japan has all kinds of fun and weird music which I had guessed from watching a ton of anime intros and me at least being semi competent in J and K-Drama tv shows- I went to the K-Pop side and found a whole lot of bands I loved. What hooked me about all the music videos I saw during this time was the combination of aesthetics- since music videos in K-Pop arye usually really expensive looking since they get crazy production values and the choreography- and so I can say that I had a good few months after first discovering K-Pop where I just looked up Korean dance videos. If I had to explain what K-Pop is simply, it's if Korea looked at our music landscape in general and thought they could amp up everything to 11 or 12. Everything is this major production, with bands being created by music labels and taught to do it all- dancing, singing, rapping, acting, and often teaching the members at least one language (often English due to how good it is for crossover appeal, but there's bands that also sing in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. It's all marketing and the schedules are completely insane, but record labels don't premiere bands on their music unless they pass muster. The Idol system in the Asian sphere is big business.

K-Pop is really, really hard to generalize. And that's the hard thing about K-Pop music, since you could see it as a syncretic genre- South Korea and America have had close ties since the Korean War so every time a genre gets really big in America, it comes over and gets added to Korean music. Sure there's the current thing of EDM, hip hop, and 90s boy and girl group tinged R&B, but if you could think of a genre to add to K-Pop, I've heard it. Honestly. Even reggae, American country music, and blues tinged tracks- these are far less common than the normal melange of genres but they do exist and get airtime over there.

When a musical genre is chameleon-like, it makes me have to dig deeper than usual. I can cut down my list of probable favorite albums in most other genres by skimming lists and seeing how scores match up even if that's a really terrible stopgap since I can't listen to the best music every day, but it helps. And then I just look at the sheer volume of stuff coming from just South Korea in particular its a mess. Every few months there's a batch of new groups, new rereleases, new everything. It's actually a bit intimidating.

So trying to figure out what K-Pop album I wanted was rather difficult. Did I want to highlight Jonghyun's posthumous album "Poet/Artist" which dropped in January which I kept on repeat due to how sad his death was since he really knew how to mix some singer songwriter jazz feel into it, BoA's newest album "One Shot Two Shot" which I enjoyed a decent amount as she continually has released decent music since the late 90s almost like she's South Korea's Britney Spears, Mamamoo's new album "Yellow Flower" for a good girl group example like how I loved Blackpink's self titled EP in 2017, or EXO's new album "Don't Mess Up My Tempo" since I got introduced to K-Pop from watching their music videos and have heard nothing but overall acclaim for their album.

Nope, while every single one of those were so dang close and great albums, I went with the one that I've been listening to since August- technically February since Korean pop labels like releasing compilation albums and adding some new songs on it so superfans buy every physical copy and digital song that the artist has ever released. For example this record's big draw for superfans is that there is four different album covers- S, E, L, F not to mention the need to collect whatever else is in box sets. To put it in perspective, the box set concept in America is what normal albums are in South Korea- the labels knowing full well that most people stream music digitally now so getting little pieces of swag in albums is important over there. Record labels love repackaging albums to get people to buy the same album two times or more. Or my personal favorite tactic for fans to buy albums- have physical release exclusive tracks which I have seen and heard about. This album doesn't really do that (since the track that's original is just IDOL but with a Nicki Minaj feature and is a digital exclusive. At least I didn't have to search down some physical copy and get swag to hear the full album experience. I would have probably done it to be perfectly frank, but nope Spotify streaming works just fine for me.But be warned because there's like five or six major entertainment companies and each likes releasing different sized boxes for physical albums.

This album is the only compilation album on my list taking the hits of the entire Love Yourself album concept that they've been doing to promote their partnership with UNICEF. The whole concept is about self love and enjoying life even if people bring you down. Which makes sense since BTS' is known for trying to be socially conscious in their music. They often try to bring notice to the societal ills of South Korea, which honestly I kind of like since idol culture is both seen as puppers controlled by big record labels or disliked by the Korean Indie music scene. Being an idol isn't probably super great to be honest after looking up some of their schedules and rules and all the stuff they have to do to even start training to be an idol. It's kind of a cutthroat industry.

Also why I chose a BTS album is because they've been literally everywhere this year, with appearances on America's Got Talent, Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, the Billboard Music Awards, and they were invited to the UN as ambassadors for UNICEF. They've broken into the mainstream which is really cool for a foreign artist. Honestly it makes sense, K-Pop is just Korean pop music and it sounds like it could easily be played on the radio over here if you discount that the singers and rappers are talking in a mix of Korean, Japanese, and English. Pop music has gone global and this is probably the most important boy band in the world right now. Yeah, definitely didn't expect the culture shift of having a Korean boy band that I know in the American music charts, but everything is so much more connected thanks to the internet that I was kind of expecting this might happen since South Korean music labels have been trying to get major crossover appeal for the last twenty to thirty years. It's been happening for quite a while and is just part of what people term the "Korean Wave" of a spread of South Korean culture to a global audience.

Personal favorite tracks: "DNA", "The Truth Untold", "I'm Fine", "FAKE LOVE", lead single "IDOL", the Latin flavored "Airplane pt. 2" and "Anpanman"

Album: Science Fiction by Church of the Cosmic Skull
Genre: British Modern Rock, Retropsychedelic
Runtime: 41 minutes
Release: May 18, 2018

This seven piece band, with a guitar, bass, drums, cello, keyboard, and sometimes five or six piece vocal harmonies feels like I'm listening to a mix of Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, and many other random 70's classic rock. Sure it could be said that the mix is derivative but I don't often hear cellos in rock music and the aesthetic they are going for in that they seem like the strangest hippie collective is rather fun. This album is one of those that once I put it on, I have to listen to the whole thing in its entirety. I mean I do love some nostalgic feeling rock and this hits all the nice checkboxes here. Groovy harmonies and slightly psychedelic lyrics are fun even if they don't hit the incomprehensible lyrical heights of the 60's and 70's. This second album refines the sound they had on 2016's "Is Satan Real?" and makes it really great. Good album oriented rock and anthemic rock.

Classic rock isn't dead. It just migrated to Bandcamp.

Personal favorite tracks: "Science Fiction", "Revolution Comes With An Act of Love", and "Paper Aeroplane & Silver Moon".

Album: Love is Dead by Chvrches

Genre: Scottish Electropop
Runtime: 49 minutes
Release: May 25, 2018

Ironically I only learned of this new record of Chvrches by talking to my brother a few months back since I had only once in a while listened to Chvrches music. I mean I had to have barely heard of them when he mentioned it and I had thought he said Crystal Castles had a new record out. Don't ask me how that happened, but I felt at least a little bad the next day when I realized I had a long conversation mixing the two bands up- which wouldn't normally be a bad thing except that Crystal Castles' broke up and reformed with a new female vocalist due to some rather bad allegations and a few lawsuits for defamation. Bad time for all.

This is a long way to say that I had to then listen to this album because I felt bad I mixed up two bands that did sort of similar music. Found out I kind of liked Chvrches even though it was mainly because like the same week they released a single featuring, of all bands, Wednesday Campanella- a Japanese electropop band. Guess there's some weird crossover appeal but I had to check out that song and realize that that wasn't on this record. Slightly disappointed since that was a fun song, but this record is consistent with very little duds on here. Sure I could have wished they cut the "ii" track on here since it's little more than a minute long, but that's just me nitpicking by this point.

But yeah, overall, fun little record that amps up some of the pop hooks that Chvrches kind of does throughout their music with some catchy music here. Not something I put on as regularly as some other records on here since I really have to be in the perfect mood for this record.

Personal favorites: "Graffiti", "Miracle", and "Heaven/Hell".

Album: Toilet EP by Clown Core
Genre: Grindcore, Jazz
Runtime: 13 minutes
Release: March 3, 2018

This album choice isn't for everyone. Not one of my top ten albums and yet this one's the album I've listened to the most. Probably because it clocks in at barely 13 minutes but it does help that it stands out from the pack. And this one is a guilty pleasure since I love both grindcore and jazz in different ways and mixing genres like this tend to be rather creative. A lot of my choices for black metal this year also tend to do this a lot. Guess I like seeing what people come up

The duo, who stays in costume during their performances, seem to have a background in jazz of some kind because they know how to do some odd time signatures in some songs and the melodies when apparent show some kind of musicianship. It's oddly not just noise and speed. Sure most of the songs are really short but the fluidity of the saxophone solos are rather pretty and nice sandwiched between the organized chaos of this record.

Also I know they released music before under this moniker- though it's been nearly a decade and they definitely sound different. I mean eight years between releases does affect people in some way, and while I like their almost playful titles and mood, I just think this is the better album due to them refining some of the kinks out and while some genres thrive on lofi and bad recording quality- I can hear more of what is going on in this modern album than their old stuff.

Personal Favorites: "Hell", "Toilet", "Google Your Own Death" and "Buy This Album"

Album: Face the Brutality by Datarock

Genre: Norwegian Electrorock

Runtime: 39 minutes

Release: March 9, 2018

Odd choice but I stumbled on this record while doing my normal look through Youtube recommendations for music and I thought this had some good merits. Sure some of the longer songs in  my opinion could have been slightly tightened up and lost about a minute without much difference due to how long some of the instrumental passages are, but the record is short and focused enough for me to not entirely care about that nitpick.

They've been around since 2000, so I can still hear the early indie rock scene here and be nostalgic even though I had actually never heard of them until this year. The records mostly peppy fun rock music, with the requisite slow sad songs and it's perfectly serviceable. This album's definitely on the lower end of repeat listens but it still has fun moments with its more 80s dance aesthetic and sometimes odd lyrical choices. Solid, if somewhat safer choice than the rest of my choices.

Personal favorites: "Sense of Reason", "Everything", "Darkness at the Edge of the Pit"

Album: You Won't Get What You Want by Daughters
Genre: Noise Rock, Experimental
Runtime: 48 minutes
Release: October 26, 2018

After an eight year hiatus, the rock band Daughter comes back with a dark and disturbing record. Can'treally call it anything but noise rock with how odd the melodies are and the abrasive tone the instruments take on the opening track and other songs on here. It's almost like they distilled a panic attack into music with how glitchy and stressful this thing is.

If I had ranked this list, I would have put this in my top ten of the year due to how unexpected their return was since they disbanded for years before this. And they almost switched genres with most of their records being ridiculously short, almost a grindcore focus on songwriting. Here they let some of the tracks reach six or seven minutes in this horror show carnival ride.

Kind of reminds me of some of the Velvet Underground's odder songs mixed with Nine Inch Nails or a Perfect Circle. Though that's the closest I could think of comparing it since it's so loud and draining that it's like a black hole of sound.

I love this album. There's no song that I dislike or think should be cut since they all build on one another into this solid mass of great music.

Personal favorites: "Long Road, No Turns", "Satan In The Wait", "Less Sex", and "Ocean Song"

Album: Ordinary Corrupt Human Love by Deafheaven
Genre: Blackgaze, Post-Metal
Runtime: 61 minutes
Release: July 5, 2018

I like black metal. So we have Deafheaven, originally from San Francisco, now living in LA with their first album in like three years. I kind of got into them with 2015's Bermuda where they were combining postrock ambient melodies with black metal and they were rather fun to listen to. Because while they sound really terrifying and scary, they are almost like some happy black metal. Sure there's still lines on here that definitely hit on the tropes of black metal- stabbing things, hanging bodies, depression, death- there's also this rather pretty mix of abstract ideas like being hung by sunflower stems and that life is a field of flowers in "Honeycomb" or a black metal band singing about how the world will know true love on "You Without End." That track's bombastic opening is not what you'd expect from a black metal band- big piano chords and happy soaring melodies climaxing in almost a Queen pastiche- not the heaviness you see on a Portal or Horrendous album.

The quintet is almost reveling in having all these ambient passages and just sprinkling them all over the place. Maybe I have to check on how I compare this album to 2013;s Sunbather, but I do enjoy it.

It's this weird dichotomy of ideas where they have really hopeful passages followed by dark lyrics and the whole album almost seems like a non-concept album. No songs are truly connected with one another and with how the lyrics are super obtuse in their full meaning, more focused on feeling than actual meaning, the album's really what you might call a "bring your own interpretation" album. Deafheaven's probably one of the few bands that can introduce you to black metal by putting some sunlight in it.

It's kind of a beautiful mess.

Personal favorites: "You Without End", "Canary Yellow", "Worthless Animal"

Album: Year of the Snitch by Death Grips
Genre: Experimental Electropunk Hip Hop
(Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 37 minutes
Release: June 22, 2018

Death Grips is my favorite band.

Been into them since at least 2012 when I first heard their Exmilitary mixtape and continued through their entire discography, each album a completely different experiences and sure maybe I didn't like some of their albums as much as others, I still like them for what they do in pushing their sound. Often that includes makinge the sounds as loud and abrasive as possible but they often switch genres or just do whatever they want. Exmilitary doesn't exactly like No Love Deep Web and No Love Deep Web doesn't sound exactly like this album. They make music that they like and don't stick to a defined formula for their sound.

This was one of the albums I was most excited for since I've pretty much been waiting for a new record from them since they dropped their 2017 mix- "Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix) and said they planned to make some new music.

Now about the lyrics, I wish I could analyze each and every line that MC Ride puts out because he really likes double meanings but the dude also has some really dark lyrics about drugs, sex, suicidal tendencies, internet culture, and mental illness. So for safety's sake, I have to say that check out the lyrics if you want. And it's being yelled pretty much constantly so he has this style that makes him seem like a real angry hobo. And then in the few interviews the band has done, he's this softspoken guy. I do have to say that the whole record's lyrical tableau is just what I wanted out of Death Grips, and I see each record as an evolution of the band. And I wasn't expecting DJ scratches in 2018. Those were fun.

For example, this record has some weird use of electric guitars- not a super common feature in Death Grips since the band has a side project that focuses on the psychedelic rock aspect of some of the members, The I.L.Y's so when I heard the chorus drop in "Hahaha" I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of the most bombastic and cheerful Death Grips songs I had heard of in a while. Yes the songs still dark and depressing and paranoid, but there's some light in there.

This is Death Grips' Exile on Main Street and not just because they used a cover that sort of apes the look of the Rolling Stones logo or "Black Paint" is their "Paint it Black" but there are references to them recording in the same studio that the Rolling Stones had done one of their albums on "Dilemma" It's bringing Death Grips outright punk influences to the fore, with some almost jazz like pattern switchups on "Shitshow" And personally one of my favorite moments on the record isn't even technically an important one- the sequencing of "Flies" into "Black Paint" makes "Flies" work for me since I had listened to the singles and I hated that song until it was on the record and saw how it fit into the whole thing.

And "Little Richard" continues their theme of the dark parts of the internet, a song about a kid that sees horrible things on the internet and wants to make his real life like the stuff he sees online, his violence and anger at the world going outward.

And it's so fitting that the first track is called "Death Grips is Online" since that's a rather fun meme that the band and fans use when they see Death Grips is posting again. Almost as if Death Grips saw the modern hype track and wanted to make that better and even more ridiculous than most.

Oh and "Dilemma" starts out with the director of the Shrek movie introduce the track. Death Grips is the internet distilled into its purest form. It's dark, weird, violent, and sexual.

Seriously though, this would be top ten of the year. And while I have favorites, each track is a banger. This is one of the albums I've been listening to the most since it makes me focus and get ready for the day.

Personal Favorites: "Black Paint", "Hahaha", "Streaky" and "The Fear"

Album: Ta13oo by Denzel Curry
Genre: Hip Hop (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 43 total minutes over 3 separate discs (10-15 minutes a disc)
Release: July 27, 2018

Ta13oo henceforth written as "Taboo" to not make me go rather crazy writing all the number letter switching this album does, is a weird sort of concept album split into 3 acts- Light, Gray. and Dark where I think it might have worked better as a whole. Since the title and concept is talking about dark and taboo things most of the time this album's a downer hiding that fact with some rather creative beats.

Do I think the whole thing is perfect? No. I personally think the first few tracks are my least favorite on the album due to them being "Light" and yet I could put "Black Balloons" and "Sumo" for example anywhere else and nothing really changes. The sequencing of the tracks due to this feels odd, almost sort of an afterthought, with the lyrics taking the full focus here.

Not my favorite rap album of the year because of the few okay tracks but I rather like that he tried to make both a cohhesive statement of intent and also didn't make a nearly two hour album just to get people listening to their music(looking at you Migos).

Definitely be checking out more of his stuff when he drops it because he seems to be a different kind of modern rappper, taking shots at the big drug culture and the dark side of fame in general with some rather biting lyrics and a less single focused mentality.

If not in my top ten albums of the year, its just out of range. It's pretty great. If modern trap is like glam rock in it's mentality, this is like Alice Cooper.

Also quick note: There might be some music videos that contain flashing images so be careful listening to his music on Youtube.

Personal favorites: "Sumo", "Super Saiyan Superman", "Switch It Up","Clout Cobain", and "Percz"

Album: God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty
Genre: Folk Rock
Runtime: 38 minutes
Release: June 1, 2018

While I personally think of this as almost like a palate cleanser after 2017's cynical Pure Comedy which I loved, this still works as an album. It's still got the lyrical chops that I like from Father John Misty and other singer songwriters- maybe it has a little less of his signature turns of phrase and wry comedy, but this seems to be written at a different time and in a rather dark place for him.

If Pure Comedy was him sort of having a laugh at modern life, this sounds like he was having a marriage crisis at the time of writing this which is rather apt when you listen to interviews and he wrote this album mostly in one rather bad six week period in his life. He doesn't mention much else about why the record was made, but he had to have multiple things on his mind at the time because this isn't the hyperfocused and slightly preachy FJM I grew to at least like if not appreciate. I'd say this is the opposite of his "I Love You Honeybear" album.

Personally while I prefer Pure Comedy from last year, this is a different beast and it's far easier to listen to with it being half as long as PC was- I mean I have to be in a very certain mood to listen to that whole record again for a while. This I can just put on and enjoy. Still though, this isn't a happy album. And supposedly he said this was his least pretentious album and I can see it. Pure Comedy felt like a political tract at points, this seems far more accessible than that was and a little less ponderous with it's tempos. At least I can listen to the full album without worrying about a song that just drags or repeats the thesis statement he was going for.

Personal Favorites: "Hangout At The Gallows", "Please Don't Die", and "The Songwriter"

Album: Haru to Shura by Haru Nemuri
Genre: Japanese Noise Rock
Runtime: 48 minutes, 37 minutes if you don't count the remix tracks
Release: April 11, 2018

This is a rather strange album since I said it's a noise rock album for it's general idea with the loud and almost manic energy coming off this thing, but Haru seems to be channeling her inner rapper and delivering her lyrics in a rather quick clip. Sure I have no real clue with what she is saying since there is a language barrier where I can only pick out a few phrases every once in a while, but this has fantastic energy and is one of the few Japanese albums that stuck with me for months. Sure I could take or leave the "zzz" 4 part idea since it is a really short series of tracks and I still think it's odd to end out an album with tons of remixes. Are those truly necessary? Probably not.

Still I come back to this album every month and while I have issues with how it was sequenced, it's still a fun album to kind of jump into the huge pool of weird Japanese bands that just exist in their own strange world.

Japan really has a nice and diverse rock and metal scene. See Doll$boxx, TRICOT, the 5.6.7.8's, Dazzle Vision, and COHOL for at least a small taste of some of the music I listen to from Japan. Honestly I could have focused primarily on the East Asian music scene and found some great music to highlight this year alone.

Personal favorites: "Haru to Shura", "sekaiwotorikaeshiteokure", and "yume wo miyou". Bit difficult to find the whole thing on Youtube without there being a catch due to it being foreign and sort of niche music.

Album: Hazemaze" by Hazemaze
Genre: Swedish Retro Hard Rock
Runtime: 43 minutes
Release: February 9, 2018

Found this album during the summer months and kept it on throughout that time. Sure it doesn't have the most unique sound to it, sounding like a mix between Black Sabbath and baat points and isn't as memorable than that Church of the Cosmic Skull record I shared, but more classic retro attempts at music that don't sound like a complete ripoff is fine by me. And since Black Sabbath is no more, it seems like there's a resurgence in their sound. I like the whole album so choosing a song I really like is kind of difficult- partially because the stoner rock aesthetic they are going for here sometimes seems a bit one note, but partially because the album is bolstered by a drummer that's seemingly better than the material probably calls for and the singer is seemingly doing a similar melody over similar sounding tracks .Guilty pleasure here.

Personal favorites. "Lord Cubensis" and "Mind's Abyss"

Album: Bark Your Head Off, Dog by Hop Along
Genre: Indie Folk Rock
Runtime: 40 minutes
Released: April 6, 2018

I really like this album. It is a bit of a throwback to those bands that I really do appreciate and love for their sound and songwriting ability- Mazzy Star, Rilo Kiley, and Waxahatchee all come to mind as they also had this sort of then eclectic sound mixing country and grunge and folk and pop music into thies mess of female led singer songwriter melancholic bands that were all the rage in the 1990s and 2000s. This falls in line to those so well that I originally had to check if any of the members of Hop Along were part of those bands, as far as I know they aren't but they have that feel that I have actually kind of missed.

The lead singer is also the main songwriter and while I don't get her meanings since I kind of fell out of that phase where I had to get the authorial intent of each song- it still has that overall mix of hopeful and depressing lyrics that balance each other out. It's all about broken relationships and aging. Kind of a downer but it's rather pretty and one of the albums I've kept on rotation since I listened to it. Personally I think due to its short and focused length that they trimmed the fat that sometimes occurs in some singer songwriter albums and focused heavily on the mood of the thing. And since they release a full album every three years or so, it seems Hop Along has a good release schedule and it works well for them.'

More Indie Folk Rock is always a good thing in my book.

Personal favorites: "How Simple", "Not Abel", and "What The Writer Meant" are particular standouts.

Album: Joy As An Act of Resistance by IDLES
Genre: British Punk
Runtime: 42 minutes
Release: August 31, 2018

This is definitely in the top ten if I had organized this list by what I loved the most- maybe top five. I've kept this on since it was released and everytime I need a bit of a pick me up, I put on this record. It's both fun and meaningful since IDLES wanted to not just be pidgeonholed as the angry man band that just is one of the most electric bands today- they wanted a message to be put out in their music and they looked at the whole Brexit mess over in Britain and they just wrote an album focusing on some rather hard issues with a rather trite sense of humor. I mean seriously they have a nice statement with the album's title. "Joy as an Act of Resistance"

They aren't just an angry man band. They are an angry man band with emotions and love. And also a whole lot of anger.

Which is perfectly understandable since they had that humor in spades all over 2017's Brutalism- this album is far less hilarious than that one due to the times and their focus slightly shifting. Sure there's still songs like "I'm Scum" a song about being leftist scum and wearing that label with pride. "I'm Scum" also has my favorite lyric of the year in "this snowflake's an avalanche" which just is a nice and meaningful turn of phrase.

They kind of tackle a whole range of issues- "June" is one of the songs I like but I can't get myself to replay it all that often since it's one of the more emotional tracks where the whole point of the song is that it's a massive downer with the ending being "baby shoes for sale, never worn." over and over again as the song fades out.

What about toxic masculinity? Yep, they tackle that too on "Samaritans" with a rather fun chorus listing all the terms men hear when they are being called unmanly and effeminate. And hey it has a fun Katy Perry reference when they sing "I kissed a boy and I liked it."

"Colossus" is a great opener since it is both the slowest and one of the faster tracks in the album- around the 4 minute mark it switches into the "1,2" section and kicks off the album on a high note and from what I can see in live performances the crowd goes insane.

And for those people that like 1960s soul music, they have a cover of Solomon Burke's 1962 hit- "Cry to Me" in a punk setting which makes it feel manic and the lead singer actually has a nice voice during it. I mean when I first listened to it, I knew the song immediately and was surprised that they even covered it.

IDLES did a great job with this album and they've stayed oddly consistent with their releases- for a sophomore album they knocked it out of the park with one of the heavier rock records of the year that also brought me back to stuff that the Sex Pistols and Ramones did while making it be relevant for the modern age.

Punk's not dead.

I love this band.

Personal favorites: "Colossus", "I'm Scum", "Danny Nedelko" "Love Song", Samaritans". "Great" and "Cry To Me" I couldn't really choose a small selection of the album because I like each song for different reasons.

Album: Clear Tamei and Steel Mogu EPs by Iglooghost
Genre: British Electronica
Runtime: 37 minutes total
Release: August 8, 2018

I don't normally count two EPs in one selection, but since both are thematically linked and released on the same day by the artist- this counts as one.

And why not? It continues the multimedia fantasy world idea that he had in 2017's Neo Wax Bloom, but this time it's a prequel set 300 years before that album. And he continues using a made up gibberish language that he created which takes some dedication.

More bleep bloops that I like. At least I can tell Clear Tamei and Steel Mogu apart from one another since Iglooghost made Tamei the bright and bubbly one with more instruments and synths and Steel Mogu the dark one with 808s and breakbeats. It's a light and dark bifurcation in which he pushes his sound and ideas a little further. Sure this is a bit trite, but I put on a lot of these electronic albums while studying or relaxing due to a lot of them having zero words. And honestly I think getting the whole package with multimedia stuff and booklets would help this album since Iglooghost's fantasy idea is behind like two layers of obfuscation through the fantasy language and electronic music needing a video or light show to convey the idea.

Also just in case, electronic music producers like flashy videos so there might be some strobe effects in his videos. Be careful while watching them.

Personal favorite tracks: "Clear Tamei", "Shrine Hacker" from Clear Tamei and "Black Light Ultra" and "Night Racer" from Steel Mogu.

Album: Vile Luxury by Imperial Triumphant
Genre: Black Metal, Jazz
Runtime: 56 minutes
Release: July 13, 2018

On the continuing tale of me loving black metal, we have probably my favorite black metal record of the year with Imperial Triumphant's Vile Luxury, a record that has the avant garde metal outfit from New York City focusing on the juxtaposition of jazz music with black metal and making the mix work so well. It's both oddly pretty and superheavy. Never would have guessed that jazz and black metal have similar roots in their soundscapes but here we have a record that uses the almost amelodic ideas of black metal and free jazz's improvisation and almost creates something out of an alternate universe 1940s jazz club.

Weirdly enough, I got onto them because I kept hearing great stuff about this record and I checked out their Youtube channel, which has the full album easily streamable, and I stayed primarily for the music- but I also stayed because of the fact that the video has a film clip on repeat that I know rather well, the shot of the New Tower of Babel in 1927's Metropolis film which is my favorite movie of all time.

Now that sounds like a rather interesting side note, which it is, but it also relates well to the album's idea of the modern city. Black metal seems to like the idea of urban decay and modern life and this album has that in spades, even if the lyrics are hidden beneath like seven layers of distortion and growls. The idea of the underbelly of the city meeting the high society is all over this record with "Swarming Opulence" with the city seeking "We forget our lavish life/ And seek luxury in death
Emptiness through decadence/And madness through beautiful greed" the city is a living organism on the brink of decay, the workers drones and completely expendable with the higher classes looking down like gods- this statement is all over the next track "Lower World" with one of the few passages that is clean and almost operatic being in Latin that somewhat translates to "Human beings work together- and die alone."

The track after that is almost a reflection of "Lower World" since "Gotham Luxe" seems to focus on the unstable decadence that the upper classes have while the city rots away on the brink of a disaster. Also this continues the odd choice of having passages in other languages- this time German with something that seems to roughly translate to "Bend rather than break"- seemingly a passage that could be a continued mention of the lower classes bearing the brunt of the work for the modern opulence that cities hold.

"Chernobyl Blues" is probably one of my favorite tracks of this year- once you translate the lyrics you realize that while the band is singing in broken Russian, they are singing about a city's survivors after nuclear fallout or a bomb blast- "Skin is peeling off like rags and ashes slowly settled over our scorched flesh." Et cetera. It's one of the songs that is almost entirely quiet until halfway in where it starts sounding like something out of George Crumb's Black Angels with screams and complete madness as the song almost feels like it's on the brink of death.

"Cosmopolis" continues the trend of seeing hubris within massive cities, the lyrics having a real nice parallel to the Tower of Babel story with people building a skyscraper to the stars. And here we come again to imagery that almost makes the city itself a personified object- "The cosmopolis: Her grand luster/ Austere master/ Behold your servants. The city probably due to the mix of machinery and life itself is a living breathing organism. A temple to man's own pride and genius, continually on the brink of disaster. Or as the song itself says: "Great is Man and his Creator, Great is Man and his hell.

"The Filth" is the last song with lyrics and it has one of the more uncomfortable lyrics in the whole thing since one of the few repeated lyrics is "Work Sets You Free" which is a well known phrase if you know German WW2 history. The path of virtue is through hard labor. The song itself is about people being thrown away and buried under progress, the city itself almost feeding off a mass of human lives ever fixing it and replacing themselves in a long line of faceless drones. The repetition of that phrase is almost a mantra- the people in the system will only be freed by death. The city itself becoming "a grand effigy of failure" which is shown over and over again in this whole record as class warfare and disharmony- itself almost reflected in the music with the jazz being high class and pretty and the black metal jutting in and ruining the portrait of harmonic complexity.

I didn't mention "Mother Machine" or "Luxury in Death" since both of them are both the shortest tracks on the record and also the only instrumental tracks (besides "Luxury In Death" having a non verbal scream section. The only thing I could think of maybe mentioning is that personally I think the title of "Mother Machine" could be a slight reference to Metropolis yet again where they could be referencing the "Maschinenmensch"- the gynoid in the film that also sort of influenced how C3-PO in Star Wars looked with the gold approximation of a human being a definite influence on George Lucas.

This is a really pretty album for black metal. And I really love this album.

This whole record is as if they saw Metropolis and redid the soundtrack into this madcap fusion of blackjazz while keeping similar themes and tone through the whole thing. It's really close to my favorite album of the year because of this. Also more people should watch Metropolis because it's genius and the screenplay and book were primarily written by a woman. A woman that later directed and wrote screenplays for 1930's Germany but she really knew how to write some cool ideas and Metropolis itself is now a touchstone for a lot of sci fi tropes and it's a beautifully shot silent film that is just a treat to watch.

Personal favorites: Whole thing's great, but in particular "Lower World", "Chernobyl Blues", "Cosmopolis", and "The Filth" are my choices for the best out of an already great album.

Album: Hymns by Jack Harlon & the Dead Crows
Genre: Australian Psychedelic Doom Metal
Runtime: 43 minutes
Release: July 6, 2018

Rock isn't dead in foreign markets- especially in Australia. This band I discovered since I'm subscribed to about five or six different music sharing youtube channels and honestly I check out as many of those as I can when I need something to inspire me in some way. And I totally jumped on this one because of the cool goat cover so I did actually judge a book by its cover.

But I chose pretty well since it's an entire concept album based around this postapocalyptic drug addled cowboy in the wastes of Australia with doom metal psychedelia and almost a bit of a country twang guitar in the instrumentation. Sure, since it's a debut record from a small band, there's going to be some issues with sound recording and the muddy nature of the thing at points but since stylistically doom metal is kind of lo fi metal its not too bad and it adds a bit of charm to the record. And unlike some of the other doom metal bands I have liked this year, these guys at least have different sounding songs than the one note doom bands. Slight variety in the tone and melody helps when that helps them stand out a bit more than the norm.

Australia has a vibrant rock scene with Whoopie Cat, the Chats, Elbrus, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard being particular standouts for me and there's always Wolfmother as well though they have kind of shifted a bit in tone in the past decade.

Personal Favorites: "Los Plagas", "Byroad", and "Ghoul"

Album: Boarding House Reach by Jack White
Genre: Experimental Rock
Runtime: 44 minutes
Release: March 23, 2018

I really used to love the White Stripes- they were one of the then modern bands that got me into old time blues music and got me to like garage rock and see what two people with a guitar and drum set could do live. I absolutely love those albums.

Jack White post the White Stripes is a real mixed bag honestly. I've tried the Raconteurs and his more recent outings and I've felt like he's kind of coasting off his guitar chops, which are still really good and all, but he kept writing kind of similar sounding music to the White Stripes.He had a fan base that wanted more of that kind of music- a kind of garage rock blues, but modernized.

This isn't that- it has his blues rock and old time music feel that he's known for, but it continues the electronic influences that he has started to really buckle down on with his last few albums. and "Ice Station Zebra" has a major hip hop influence mixed with jazz. "Humoresque" is Tin Pan Alley meets Dvorak, literally. It's a real mixed bag of influences- and that is reflected in the album itself. Mainly because it's experimental if a tad bit unfocused to me.

I have major issues with this record honestly- I could have "Abulia and Akrasia" and "Ezmerelda Steals the Show completely cut. Those are both my least favorite tracks and also two of the shortest at less than two minutes a piece.That isn't all, the sequencing of the album and the multigenre non focus hurts the album. Each song sounds like Jack White had a completely different idea and just ran with all of them. There's such a thing as too much experimentation and I think for Jack White, he reached that level. And back to the sequencing, I don't know why the albums shifts into calmer songs at the end of the record and not close out on at least a high point since I still think "Corporation" could have been a better closer than the Tin Pan Alley/ Dvorak mashup that is "Humoresque" even if White came up with the idea to record the song because he bought a manuscript that was handwritten by Al Capone. (Note: Capone didn't actually write the lyrics at all, he just copied it from an earlier album of piano songs) Rather pretty tune, but like so many other songs on this album, the mood whiplash throughout is what hurts this so badly and I skip the last four tracks because I don't feel they work too well conceptually in the album.

It's cool to see Jack White try to fully experiment and honestly this album has some of my favorite solo Jack White songs on here- but it also has ones I could entirely do without. Honestly, if he wrote more songs like "Ice Station Zebra" I'd be cool, but this probably isn't his end point. It feels too all over the place to be a cohesive album and whatever concept he was probably working with- it feel through. This feels more like a transition album between his rather safe and expected past albums to the next thing he makes in the future. I'll be looking forward with trepidation when he releases something.

It sounds like I hated this record- ironically it's my favorite Jack White solo record. It's just something I've had to listen for almost ten months and the 'this is a fantastic album' has cooled into it's good, but it's missing something to be in the top ten- it's too messy and I really like consistent music in my top ten- a band needs to have a vision that I vibe with immediately.

Personal Favorites: "Corporation", "Ice Station Zebra", "Over and Over and Over", and "Respect Commander"

Album: Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae
Genre: Electropop, Neo Soul
Runtime: 48 minutes
Release: April 27, 2018

This is a really odd choice since this is Janelle Monae's first full album that we get to see the artist behind her previous concept albums "ArchAndroid" and "Electric Lady" Unlike those Metropolis influenced concept albums where she was playing a character to get the point across, here's Dirty Computer where this is far more personal than that. It's her ode to female sexuality with lyrics outright talking about her own experiences and being supportive of LGBT issues. Always nice to have a focused idea in albums- but its also nice for the album to be really fun to listen to. And a bit experimental.

I would say she picks up the baton laid down by Prince rather well- though I do have to say that it makes sense on this album since she mentioned in an interview or two that Prince helped her on a few idea in the album before his death. Most notably, "Make Me Feel" had the most Prince fingerprints over it with the way it sounds like a version of "Kiss" or that the synth line was played during a party with Prince years back. I mean its just so Prince heavy and so familiar that I could have picked out the rhythm line from anywhere.

The album has a lot of sex positive anthems from "Screwed" and its far more pop focused funk highlighting the sex is power idea and reclaiming that in a catchy way. Or "Pynk", which shares a similar melodic and rhythmic beat to Aerosmith's "Pink" and its talking about the same exact body part that that sound was. Except this time it's a bi/pansexual female singing about that and being far more open with hinting than what modern female artists toy with the idea of bisexuality. And the music video completely throws the hint of what their talking about when they walk out in pink pants that look like it. It's completely blatant. And the song's a catchy song I've kept on my playlists for this year.

I mean I liked the smart android pop of her past releases but seeing a more human Janelle Monae and her smart sex positive songs that actually have a nice message to them while being danceable as well is a good thing. I mean this is probably her most accessible album since it still makes its ideas recognizable, but it's not so far in it own headspace to release another album focused on a Afrofuturist Metropolis album. I mean I liked those but I rarely listen to those anymore due to them just being too focused on the concept.

In contrast, I've had a few tracks on Dirty Computer on repeat since it released and I don't have to keep the songs in order due to a storyline.

Personal favorites: "Take a Byte", "Screwed", "Pynk", "Make Me Feel", and "Americans"

Album: Everything's Fine by Jean Grae and Quelle Chris
Genre: Underground Hip Hop, Satire (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 55 minutes
Release: March 30, 2018

One of the first hip hop albums I really sat down and listened to this year was this collaborative album by Jean Grae and Quelle Chris- this lo-fi jazz rap record that uses satirical dark humor to mention all the weird stuff going on in 2018.

So the repeated mantra of "Everything's Fine" keeps coming up. Don't think about all the horrible stuff going on in the world because it doesn't happen to you, it's using that idea that people don't want to fix the problem because it doesn't affect them.

Do I have issues with a semi political hip hop record? Not really. Now I have to mention that since it's an underground and somewhat lo fi record, the recording quality of some of the samples is kind of mediocre at points and sometimes the music gets drained out. That's what I tend to notice first- sound or music quality, then message. Though I noticed this felt like a 90s throwback record with some of the skits being tied into the album. It has that laid back feel to it when they trade bars- Quelle Chris has this laid back rhyme scheme, almost feeling like he's sliding smoothily from beat to beat while Jean Grae tends to just be a relative rapid fire wordsmith- just her bars alone make me think this is a decent album.

Then we have the weird list of features- past collaborators of the duo with some of the rap and song features. And then we have the comedians. Nick Offerman himself tackles one of the skit songs "Everything's Still Fine" while Hannibal Burress tackles "Ohsh". There's a few more that pop up but they tend to be in the shorter tracks and are more like cameos than anything else. But this feels like a jam packed list of features since 90 percent of the album has a featured artist or two.

Still I do love jazz rap so this fell onto my best of list for concept, lyrical flow, and memorable songs. A consistent concept helps me put this album in a decent spot in my personal list.

Personal favorites: "My Contribution To This Scam", "Gold Purple Orange", "The Smoking Man", "Waiting For The Moon"

Album: Firepower by Judas Priest
Genre: British Heavy Metal
Runtime: 58 minutes
Release: March 9, 2018

I love Judas Priest- and since Black Sabbath ended a year or two back, Judas Priest seems to be the one band that originally formed 50 years ago that is still going strong. Rob Halford's high vocals might not be as crisp and clean as they used to be (four and a half decades of touring and singing tends to do that to a voice) but his control over his lower register seems to be more consistent and he knows exactly what his voice is capable of and pushes the limit on this record.

Seriously good return to form from Judas Priest in what should be the twilight of their career- honestly the years from 2005-2018 has had some strange ups and downs. Firepower is exceedingly focused- clocking in at less than an hour and only on one CD. That hasn't happened since 2005's Angel of Retribution. The following albums have been either concept albums that have been panned by critics (2008's Nostradamus, which I loved and still own on Itunes) and 2014's Redeemer of Souls, the true comeback record with either one disc or two depending on what edition you had.

But what about the personnel changes in that timeframe because that's actually sort of important with this record. Judas Priest's image was built on two lead guitarists trading duties and solos as they wished- their rise to stardom was built on the backs of that. Now personally I say that each person is really important to the band but Halford, K.K Downing, and Glenn Tipton were the stars with Ian Hill doing his bassist duties and whatever drummer they had that decade (Scott Travis is the only drummer that has lasted three decades with the seven ex drummers lasting about twenty years.) Now what's the exact point of me spouting off random facts about the band? Well I felt like it and that Judas Priest has been a metal institution for a ridiculously long time and yet due to breakups and reformations and medical issues- in 2018, they only have one original membefr. The bassist, Ian Hill, is the only member now that has lasted since 1969 with K.K. Downing's departure from the band in 2011 on unknown but bad terms. Outside of the off hand comments about the business relationship souring, that's about it. But what about the other members of the band? Tipton has pretty much stopped touring due to a reveal that he's been fighting Parkinson's disease since at least 2008. Makes Nostradamus, the record that critics despised, as the last record with the original dual lead guitar players.

Don't know what the next few years will mean for Judas Priest, especially since they release an album every three to six years now and with Tipton usually being a partial songwriter- but this is a real high note nonetheless. Way higher than I expected due to their ages and everything that has happened.

Now, finally, we can get into the record. Rob Halford is probably one of my favorite metal vocalists due to his sheer presence and theatricality. Even at 67, his voice evokes the days of Electric Eye and Painkiller, but now the band has that more exuberant feel with some of their best songwriting to date. If I had to say there was a low point, and that's being rather generous since I've blasted this record since it's release, that would be the song "Guardians" due to it's ridiculously short length at barely a minute and mainly being played on a piano. Odd choice, but then you realize that it's technically an intro to the next song "Rising From Ruins" and seeing it as a full piece, it's rather nice with a decent buildup to the highs that the album hits consistently.

I know I keep saying the album's consistent, but besides "Guardians" and "Sea of Red" most of the songs are some real metal bangers. And even both of those two have merit- "Guardians", as mentioned above, being a nice intro to another song and "Sea of Red" ending the album off with a nice metal ballad.

What should be theoretically a death knell for a band as old as Judas Priest is and how most bands fade into their last part of their career in a mess of bad or disappointing albums, they've stayed on top even with personnel changes and bad news.

If you want some old school metal in 2018. Here you go.

Personal Favorites: "Lightning Strike", "Never The Heroes", "Children of the Sun", "Rising From Ruins", "Spectre", "Traitor's Gate", and "Sea of Red"

Yeah I love this album enough to list half of it here- I can't narrow it down and I could have kept going. This is one of the albums I've listened to the most this year.

Album: Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves
Genre: Country Pop
Runtime: 45 minutes
Release: March 30, 2018

I had to have at least one outright country album and this one got it. I really took a chance on this record because modern country is usually my one and only weakness in music. I don't often like how pop heavy it is now.

Just doesn't usually excite me. Sure there has to be good music, but I'll take this slight blindspot and deal with it. Most of the time when I take a chance on a country record I find it bland and depressing how just okay it is.

So why would I even choose a country album on here? Well honestly I have two reasons- I kept seeing it pop up in best of lists everywhere and I actually liked it. Yeah, while I do have issues with the album (primarily focusing on the barely a minute track "Mother" and why it's even on here) it's just a well done and almost a singer songwriter record in it's brevity and slight melancholy through the whole thing.

Seriously her voice hooked me from the first few hits of "Slow Burn" and whenever I put this album on, I have to listen to the whole thing. I probably am sort of biased since I like female vocalists- but this definitely is a cut above the usual crop of country music- I could almost hear this on a pop station and be totally fine with it. Sure we still have the country twang and instrumentation, but her

Pretty album here.

Personal favorites: "Slow Burn", "Butterflies", "Velvet Elvis", "Rainbow"

Album: Isolation by Kali Uchis
Genre: Modern R&B, Latin Pop
Runtime: 46 minutes
Release: April 6, 2018

I had to choose at least one pop focused album and this is what I came up with. Kali Uchis has been around since 2012 or 2013 and has been in the background of my mind since last years Grammy Awards ever since I stumbled on a song that featured her.

This debut album is a pretty interesting throwback to the funk and soul sounds of past with modern hip hop beats and a definite thread of Latin pop music- sure it doesn't sound up to date but it stands out for it consistent sound and decent songwriting for pop music.

She made her debut record without following trends and made a statement that is better than I expected. Debut records can be hit or miss but this one is just a good modern R&B pop thing. Though songs like "Flight 22" has that old school female jazz and doo wop influence all over it. And "Nuestro Planeta" shows off her Spanish skills and has a reggaeton beat. She's oddly versatile on this so I can't get a full read on what her second album could sound like.

Since debut records are rather weird, I don't know what she'll do next, but I like this record even if it's kind of difficult to figure out an easy descriptor of her sound. It took me one listen of the record to easily figure out that it'd have a spot. I like the retro sounds that modern R&B is bringing back.

Personal Favorites: "Miami", "Flight 22", "Nuestro Planeta", "After the Storm"

Album: Ritual en Carcosa by Kamadeva
Genre: Spanish Heavy Psychedelic Rock
Runtime: 37 minutes
Release: June 7, 2018

In the continuing saga of rock not being dead, we have a rather short record from the east coast of Spain. I very little clue of what the vocalist is actually saying due to how he's singing and it being entirely in Spanish and sometimes the vocals get washed out by the mix, but that doesn't really matter since the band has that psychedelic flair of the past mixed with grunge and doom metal that I like.

Took a chance on this record due to the rather colorful cover and found a small band that actually knows how to play and actually write songs that sound distinct from one another. Doom metal and other metal subgenres can sound a bit samey. Here we have decent riffs and tone for the guitars while the drummer, as is usual for stand out bands like this, actually knows what he's doing, shifting in feel and time signature as the songs go on. With how long some of these songs go on for, that lets the band show off their skills and leads to some rather fun solo tradeoffs between the guitars and drums that just get to a rather nice and comfy place.

And it doesn't just focus on the heaviness that metal is known for with at least one short song at the end of the record being quiet and introspective- "Om (Mantra)" has that psychedelic eastern influence all over it and it was a rather unexpected calm before the storm moment before the record finishes with "Sagrado Ritual- the nine minute long climax to the record that's still a great listen to even six months after I first heard the song.It sounds like Santana's "Black Magic Woman" with the Latin poly-rhythms and an entire beat switch halfway through the song where it turns into a psychedelic jam session.

Personal favorites: "Bovedas del Tiempo", En la Bruma", and the closing tracks "Om (Mantra) and "Sagrado Ritual.

Album: Ye by Kanye West
Genre: Hip Hop (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Release: June 1, 2018
Runtime: 23 minutes

Kanye West is still one of my favorite rappers, even if I usually have to separate his gaffes from his music. Been a rather odd year being a Kanye fan. Still he made a few of my favorite records this year and this is one of them. Sure tonally it's different than the rest of his discography in a way- being far more lo fi hip hop and more attuned to the message than his good production values. Each record of his tends to be somewhat different- I can't confuse College Dropout for Yeezus or the Life of Pablo. This album seems to be really spur of the moment since Kanye has been on record that he scrapped an entire record because he wasn't feeling it and coming up with Ye in about three weeks. Does that make it a lesser album in his discography? Probably not, but it's one of his most open albums hitting on his failures of the last year and his struggles with bipolar disorder- even if on one track he calls that his "superpower" which just seems a bit odd.

Still this album has at least one of my favorite tracks of the year- "Ghost Town" with it's gospel and psychedelic rock influenced backing track that just stuck with me.

"Violent Crimes" is kind of a mixed bag for me since it's really pretty but it later came out that a fair bit of Kanye's verses about his worries about being a father was written by a ghostwriter which still sort of makes me a bit worried about ghostwriting and rap music. If he hired a ghostwriter for one of his most open tracks- other rappers could easily do the same and lose that personal connection and truth that rap likes focusing on.Not to

"I Thought About Killing You Today" was another standout track due to his repeated focus on intrusive thoughts and how he thought about killing his significant other and he wonders if he could do that- since "I think about killing myself and I love myself more than you" Kanye's always been pretty open with his struggle with mental illness, but this is more real and dark than his other mentions.

Overall a good record with that slight issue with "Violent Crimes" If I had to choose an album I liked because of the one song on it- it is this one because I listened to "Ghost Town" about once a day since June. Partially because I've tried to learn it just for fun, but it's mainly because it's a nice song.

Personal favorites: "I Thought About Killing You Today", "Yikes", and "Ghost Town" with "Violent Crimes in an Honorable Mention due to the ghostwriting issue and that Nicki Minaj comes on the record the last ten seconds through a phone recording- I hate those on records because the sound quality is garbage.

Album: Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts
Genre: Hip Hop (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 23 minutes
Release: June 8, 2018

And here's another album that Kanye was a part of- this time part of the duo of Kids See Ghosts. I expected a collaboration between Kid Cudi and Kanye West for a while since they became friendly a year or two back and kept hinting at stuff every few months.

Honestly didn't expect this to be this cohesive since I listened to Kid Cudi before and I thought he was okay if a bit all over the place- wanting to be a mix between hip hop artist and grunge influenced rock star. Kanye has his up and downs but he usually knows how to produce and lead a record concept and even on his lesser tracks, there's at least some vision there.

So pulling my punches and just checking out Kanye's whole Wyoming Project and it's five albums- I didn't expect to find a psychedelic short hip hop record in the midst of Pusha T's Daytona, Kanye West's own minimalist Ye and the rest which I thought were good but didn't hook me as much.

This one's personally my favorite since it contains a lot of hype tracks- from "Feel The Love's" bombastic opening on what was a decent Pusha T feature with Kanye's odd choice to almost echo the hi hat hits with his scat sing influenced rap beat which oddly works. Sure I knew he had the odd, almost joke rap, in him since I still remember "Lift Yourself"- but this works.

Then we have "Fire" that samples "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haa" which is a song I never expected to be sample in a hip hop context but the song works in context if you remember that both Kid Cudi and Kanye have dealt with mental illness and the problems that caused for their careers. Sounds like they know they burned some bridges and just want to move on and live their lives. Cool, but even as a Kanye fan, he said some odd stuff this year so I have to take that in context since Kanye is so referential that you almost have to be partially up on his drama just to make sense his shift in tone and sound sometimes.

"4th Dimension" continues the odd sample choices- Louis Prima's "What Will Santa Claus Say?" and Shirley Ann Lee's "Someday" finishing off the track as an uncredited sample. Didn't expect a Louis Prima posthumous feature but here we are and the beat becomes this hweird psycho blues tune for how they manipulate the sample by almost turning it into this haunting jumble of sounds. Add in the unsettling laugh that happens every once in a while and what is mostly an extended sex metaphor for Kanye and what seems to be Cudi reflecting on his low points into this banging track that I like.

"Freee (Ghost Town pt. 2)" continues the idea on Kanye's "Ghost Town and uses what was the outro of saying "I Feel Free" as this songs main hook and it's now completely a rock song with hints of self control and acceptance with a sample from Marcus Garvey. Yeah, the Marcus Garvey that due to his Pan African and Black Nationalist views influenced disparate movements such as Rastafarianism and The Nation of Islam. Didn't expect a deep cut interview from when he was being investigated for mail fraud in 1924 to be in a hip hop song 94 years later.

"Reborn" is almost the album's thesis statement in which Kid Cudi and Kanye discuss their past failures and wanting to move past and better themselves. A rebirth process in which they have become something different than what they used to be and yet still have a ways to go before the end of their journey of self-discovery.

"Kids See Ghosts" sees Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) taking the chorus and repeating "kids see ghosts sometimes" kids see things that adults don't. Rather catchy hook and sort of meaningful in that like so many of the songs on here, Kanye and Cudi are connecting their present selves to past mistakes and events and reflecting on where they came from. Honestly Kanye delivers a lot of references here in the song to previous works- "Mr. West" a really early reference to a moment in "Late Registration" where he uses a similar way to refer to himself or the reference to him having a bible near him in bed. Odd choice unless it might be a reference to "Jesus Walks" the song that always comes up when Kanye and religion comes up. There's a bit more that he references but it boils down to that his life is crazy and he's been to places all over the world and met people he wanted to.

"Cudi Montage" is the culmination of years of Kid Cudi trying to marry hip hop and grunge together into a cohesive whole where they use a Kurt Cobain song "Burn the Rain" as a backing track focusing on the riff's tempo as this anchor point so Kid Cudi and Kanye can both focus on their praying to God for help and Kanye's focus on the black community's issues with a cycle of violence and being sent to jail for life for drug offenses- which is a big problem with the US's war on drugs- focusing on the dangers of drugs while maybe not helping the causes of poverty and addiction.

Oddly, I really like this album and Kanye and Cudi bring out the best in each other. Weird how I don't often like Cudi's music but here it works- maybe it's Kanye's influence or just the two of them bouncing ideas off of each other, but this is probably one of my favorite albums for either of them. Concise focus with fun samples and decent messages from the both of them make this one of my favorite records of the year.

Personal favorites: If I had to choose "Fire", "4th Dimension", "Reborn", and "Cudi Montage" are good standouts. Even if that's technically half of the album.

Album: Sarah by KIRARA
Genre: South Korean Indie Electronica
Runtime: 58 minutes
Release: August 11, 2018

Honestly I stumbled onto this record when I was trying to find some South Korean music to highlight since a lot of random music blogs and other things specialize in foreign music. Sure I stuck with BTS as my main show of Korean music- but this one is a taste of Korean indie music in the electronic music sphere. And if you care about it, it's made by a female artist. Always exciting to find those outside of a pop or rock context.

The album itself relies on a lot of samples- vocal samples of KIRARA herself, acoustic instruments, bird calls, and everyday life mixed with a weirdly melodic electronic beat that is actually kind of different at points. No, not every song is a club banger, but some are more minimalist like "Water" with its acoustic guitar influenced melody, some vocal samples and an electronic beat that sounds like water droplets. It's almost like one of those minimalist techno tracks that were all the rage in the late 90s. Or "Rain Dance" with its long vocal sample and upbeat feel having some sense of emotion within the track. Sure I have no idea what she is meaning by it since it's in Korean, but it sounds rather pretty. Even if it took me a few listens to get it.

"Rio" is another stand out track with a melody that sounds like it's a mix between Latin music to me and chiptune music. Personally this is probably the track I've listened to the most off of this album with it just feeling so catchy.

Honestly it's really hard to classify this record beyond Indietronica or something like that since she switches her song and mood enough that it's just KIRARA making music that she likes and just releasing it.

Personal Favorites: "Worries", "Water", "Rain Dance", "Rio"

Album: Light of Mine by KYLE
Genre: Hip Hop (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 51 minutes
Release: May 18, 2018

Here's some happy hip hop music. Sure it's not as hard hitting as the Kanye cuts, or not as dark as the Denzel Curry stuff but honestly I kind of like the aesthetic of some of the modern rap stars that kind of take this pop rap that 808s and Heartbreaks Kanye and then Drake pioneered and added some happier tones and more playful lyrics a la the mumble rap scene.

And yes, even though I don't really mess with much mumble rap, I can see its artistic expression as valid.

And honestly I had to check out this album when I heard decent stuff about it- it fits nicely in my wheelhouse since I like dudes like DRAM, KYLE's last record "Smyle" in 2015, Lil Yachty, and all these pop rap/ modern R&B stars that ended up on this record- for example, last year I loved both Kehlani and Khalid's albums and they both appear on this one in some of the catchier tracks.

So I jumped into this and while it's definitely not as uplifting and peppy as his last release, the aforementioned "Smyle" its more of him trying to find balance in his life with all the new fame and haters that he gained in the three years between albums. Sure the album doesn't technically need the skits that sometimes introduce songs but KYLE and Lil Yachty have this odd fun chemistry between them as they work through KYLE's issues with feeling down and unhappy with fame and women and all these things- with Lil Boat (Yachty) as KYLE's very own Jiminy Cricket type conscience. Sure it's a convoluted way to build up to the fun and goofy banger "iSPY" featuring Lil Yachty- but unlike a lot of albums that do this and that inadvertently annoy me with their antics- this had some charm to it. Yes that technically means I'm fickle about skits and goofs in albums but I give it to them. They made skits work okay.

And it's a weird mix of modern things going on here- from "Games" where he has a chiptune influenced rap beat where the hook is all about playing video games, or his main rap focus about relationships and the mess they can cause with "Playinwithme" and "Open Doors" or the actually kind of humorous "It's Yours" the song where KYLE raps about him losing his virginity and it turns into a skit where he thanks everyone that got him to that moment. Cheesy, but that's most of this record- he's kind of a goofball- seen in "Ikuyo" where the entire prechorus and hook is primarily sung in Japanese. Not very odd, to be completely honest, since KYLE has had a song or two on "Smyle" have bits of Japanese in them and rap itself has really flirted with Asian culture since at least the Wu Tang Clan, if not earlier, but full choruses in Japanese kind of stand out a tad bit more than kung fu movie samples and the like.

And then there's the more emotional tracks in between those where he raps about his life and rising above the sad stuff- "Ups and Downs", "ShipTrip" and "Clouds" focus the most on that side of him. It's not just one mood in this album- even when his flow just sounds happy 90 percent of the time, you can have moments in the aforementioned songs where he sounds like the happy sound of his music hides some real sadness there.

Fun little album.

Personal Favorites: "Ups and Downs", "Ikuyo", "Games", "OpenDoors", "Playinwithme", "ShipTrip", iSpy" I'd have put on "It's Yours" on here too, but for some reason the song has like a 40 second instrumental outro in a four minute song. Slightly deflates the fun when you are waiting for the next fun song.

Album: I'm All Ears by Let's Eat Grandma
Genre: British Electropop
Runtime: 51 minutes
Release: June 29, 2018

Yeah the electropop duo of Let's Eat Grandma takes the fun little hooks of CHVRCHES and some lofi singer songwriter feel to make this odd record. It's this electropop singer songwriter record helmed by twenty year olds.

Sure I don't usually bring up the age of the artists, but their first appearance was in 2016- when they were probably around seventeen or so. And sure I can definitely feel the influence of the modern music scene- bit of the Chainsmokers, CHVRCHES, SOPHIE (moreso due to her production on the tracks "Hot Pink" and "It's Not Just Me" which got me into this project due to me getting into the modern electronica scene for this year to balance out my knowledge of music a little bit more for these year end lists. I reread the stuff I wrote about last year's Grammy Awards and I was dismissive of a lot of electronic artists for some reason.

So I got into finding more pop focused music that I liked and I found this album. Fun little gem due to me picking albums by two criteria- critic reviews and album score. And this was a critical darling.

So let's focus on the record itself. Sure I have some gripes with it. A lot of the songs are short- about a third of them are 3 minutes or less, with one being barely thirty seconds long- the "Missed Call (1)". Sure it's a song that sounds like a great ringtone, but it doesn't add much of anything in the record itself. Same thing with "Cat's Pyjamas" at barely a minute long. But that's nitpicking since even the shorter tracks have something I like in them. They focus on the instrumentals and are usually a bit of a respite from the long and winding psychedelic tracks they have on here. Sure I technically made two different calls on the same music- but the short tracks are still bouncing around in my head about if I like them or not. I'm conflicted since they are short and give you a taste of the record, but the main heft of the record aren't those at all.Even if the opener is probably one of my favorite tracks of the year and it's just a short instrumental- "Whitewater" sounds like something out of a Christopher Nolan film.

The twenty three minutes at the end are almost the whole idea of the record- from the indie rock influenced 9 minute long track "Cool & Collected" to the piano heavy "Ava" and finally the 11 and a half minute closer to the whole record- "Donnie Darko". And yes, that is referencing what you think it is.

Is this my favorite record of the year? Probably not, I can think of albums I gushed harder over in the past few weeks than this, but it's still a good electropop record and something different than CHVCHES or Aphex Twin.

Personal favorites: "Whitewater", "Hot Pink", "It's Not Just Me", "Cool & Collected", and "Donnie Darko"

Album: Ventriloquism by Meshell Ndegeocello
Genre: Neo Soul/ R&B
Runtime: 53 minutes
Release: March 16, 2018

One of the few covers albums on my list- the album focuses on 11 different tracks from the 80s and 90s and updates them into this odd multigenre hopping disc. From "Atomic Dog 2017" which takes the George Clinton track and makes it into this country tinged funk track. Personally it's one of my favorite tracks of the year just from the oddity of hearing a George Clinton track that is slightly more uptempo and fun.

Or "Waterfalls" by TLC done as a country tinged ballad. I'm conflicted about that one since it slows down the song. Bit odd to hear the song as a folk ballad, but it's definitely unique and I can at least remember it.

Then we have one of the lesser remixed tracks in my opinion- "Sometimes it Snows in April" originally performed by Prince. From what I can get from interviews and the like it seems like Meshell and Prince were at least friendly and so it makes sense that she decided to cover a song from him in memory of his recent passing. Really pretty and I keep coming back to this track in particular do to the feeling she injects into the song.

Then we have a fair bit of songs that I have actually never heard of due to the 80s having a glut of odd pop and R&B stuff I had rarely touched outside of a few. Interesting since I had checked what she had covered and each song sounds like a complete re-imagining of each track. I mean besides me knowing about Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" and Sade's "Smooth Operator", I wouldn't have guessed that these were covers. Sure, I would have figured it out at some point, but due to how she made each track her own and didn't just rerecord the song with her vocals- it shows some talent that I didn't expect for a record like this.

Personal favorites: "Nite and Day", "Sometimes It Snows in April", "Atomic Dog 2017", "Smooth Operator"

Album: Little Dark Age by MGMT
Genre: Synthpop
Runtime: 44 minutes
Release: February 9, 2018

Yeah, didn't expect an MGMT album in 2018 since they've been on a little bit of an extended break for the last few years. I also didn't expect to like it as much as I did since it took me forever to get into their previous releases after their original pop hits. They got pretty experimental there for a while.

But this album has hints of their odd humor and beats with a retro feel since a lot of the songs here sound like updated 80s songs. "Little Dark Age" for example sounds like some Bauhaus or The Cure track done in their style. It's probably my favorite song on the record due to how catchy it is.

The whole album is full of failed or failing relationship songs with "She Works Out Too Much" starting off the record as a song that sounds like they took a listen to "Let's Get Physical" by Olivia Newton John and made it sarcastic. A female voice is all over this trying to get her lover ready to work out- in whatever way that means- and he's just starting to get bored of her.

The album just sounds depressing- from the lyrics about death in "When You Die" and "Me And Michael" sounding like a nostalgic track that with the lyrics like "Too happy with ourselves to notice when the change had come." is this weirdly ambiguous idea. Does this mean it's a good thing that the singer's a bit nostalgic about a friendship or is he thinking back on a broken friendship. I can't really tell since MGMT has always kind of liked ambiguity in their songs.

"TSLAMP" is another favorite since it's a fun little club track that is focused entirely on phone addiction. "Time Spent Looking At My Phone" gets repeated over and over and even in death, he's signing in and out of his phone checking his social media. I actually really like how in the last decade, music's started to change and focus on the internet and social media and how it affects relationships. When I see one of these songs I give the artist a few extra meaningless points for it.

Overall, I think the album hits on the 80s nostalgia feel that's been really big this decade and runs with the idea, updating some of the melodies and adding the MGMT flair that I liked about them. Sure they don't sound exactly like they did around a decade ago, but that shows they did some shift in feel or just grew as artists which can be jarring, but overall a good thing.

Personal favorites: "Little Dark Age", "When You Die", TSLAMP", "One Thing Left To Try" Though it was hard to get this to a more narrowed down list since I like most of the tracks, and the songs that I mentioned above but aren't in this shorter list are also pretty okay. They made an oddly consistent album here. Seems like quality and experimentation over quantity.

Album: Hex of Infinite Binding EP by the Mountain Goats
Genre: Folk Rock
Runtime: 14 minutes
Release: September 7, 2018

I absolutely love the Mountain Goats. Sure my two favorite bands can't be further in tone from one another with Death Grips on one end and the Mountain Goats on the other, but that's what happened.

This 4 track release (and no, I keep noticing that when linking albums with Spotify, sometimes songs drop out of the list- I don't know why that happens.

But yeah I have to put on a Mountain Goats record if they release something due to me liking the lyricism that John Darnielle, the songwriter and sometimes only member of the band puts into his songs. Why do I love his writing? That's a hard question. Maybe it's the themes of aging and sadness that often pop up in his prolific writings- or his ability to craft narratives within songs that resonate a certain way. Or maybe it's his ability to write about anything that comes to mind- from a narrator empathizing with H.P. Lovecraft in "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" from 2008, or having an entire album dedicated to his relationship with his stepfather in 2005's "The Sunset Tree", or even showing a deft hand in making an album or song based entirely on Pro Wrestling with 2015's album "Beat The Champ" and 2018's single "Song for Sasha Banks", or Ozzy Osbourne with his book "Master of Reality", a fun little read, and 2017's EP "Marsh Witch Visions" or finally a snapshot of the goth movement with 2017's "Goths" I could go on for hours listing all his songs and maybe one day I will but not now.

Like how Bob Dylan can make anything slightly good with his ability to craft a tale through song- John Darnielle is one of the songwriters that carry on Dylan's scrawling storytelling. His songs are anchored by strong writing and character portraits- which makes his sometimes forays into novels and novelettes make sense- the way he writes songs is similar to writing a mini novel about some character or theme he cam up with.

2017 was a good year for John Darnielle with his release of his book "Universal Harvester" a book set entirely around the small town of Nevada, Iowa, It was almost his take on that odd found VHS horror tape genre in book form and it was also my favorite book of 2017 due to how it starts out as that and changes into something else by the end and ends on a bittersweet note. A real love letter to the 90s and video stores.

"Goths" in particular was my favorite album of 2017 and while this one is good, it's more scattered and all over the place- understandable since John Darnielle said he wanted to get back to short EPs to do some fun shorter songs and stories and it due to that, the EP wasn't written primarily in one or two sessions- some songs were cobbled together over months or were impacted by his moods- "Tucson Fog" was written in December 2017 or thereabouts and he was a a bit of a mood. His use of fog is apt since he often uses that word as a hint for depression and bad moods.

His odd song choices and ability to write character studies in songs continue on "Song for Ted Sallis" a referencing a mostly obscure Marvel Comics character- Theodore Sallis or Man-Thing. Thanks John Darnielle I never thought I needed a song about Man-Thing's angsty creation and existence but it exists now and I like it.

"Hospital Reaction Shot" is a song about Judy Garland and her death with each chorus repeating "Gone down where the goblins go" a slightly paraphrased idea from a less memorable line from "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead". And it's not like John Darnielle hasn't touched on the depressing qualities of Judy Garland's life since he did write "The Autopsy Garland" in 2011- this just has this melancholic quality that gets me into this sad mood.

The Mountain Goats is one of my favorite bands due to John Darnielle's sheer output and view on the world and his ability to make meaning out of anything- the pathos of small towns, odd characters, and emotional baggage that comes with life while also evolving as a performer in the nearly three decades since he came on the scene- from his old school albums where he was this lo-fi singer songwriter recording songs on cassette tapes, into this singer songwriter bandleader that has learned how to expand his writing skills and instruments used in his records into this sad landscape that adds pianos and horns on top of what he had before.

Personal favorites: "Song For Ted Sallis" and "Hospital Reaction Shot"

Album: Musas (Un Homenaje al Folclore Latinoamericano en Manos de Los Macorinos), Volume 2 by Natalia Lafourcade
Genre: Mexican Folk Pop
Runtime: 56 minutes
Release: February 9, 2018

So I've had Natalia Lafourcade and the release of this album ever since I stumbled onto her music during the whole long look at last years Grammy Awards- Musas Volume 1 was this mix of new songs and folk songs that made her voice the focus and was really close to getting on the best of list I made last year but had cut a few albums due to me wanting as close to 50 albums on there. This time I threw that away and put it on due to it just being another pretty record.

The problem with this record is that its both weirdly sequenced with songs going from loud and fast folk songs into love ballads and lullabies as fast as possible. If I had to choose record by just how albums were sequenced, I'd fail this one due to the tone and mood shifts.

But I have it on here due to me just liking it regardless of timing due to each song being really catchy. Must have been the bleedover from last year where I found out the the Latin section of the Grammy Awards hides away some real catchy albums.

I'll have to choose "La Llorona" as one of my favorite songs of the year- the play between her voice and the guitars here are just pretty and while I had to look up the lyrics in English to get the whole idea of the song, I still know enough Spanish and can read her voice that this song's a bit of a downer.

I'd say more but I'm sick. Maybe I'll come back to this- maybe not, but it's one of the most overall consistent albums of the year to me by pure enjoyment and I've put this album on to relax since it came out. Besides "Derecho de Nacimiento" which I usually skip due to it being somewhat political sounding from what I can read and remember of Spanish and I looked for the english translation of each song just in case- this is a rerecorded version of a song originally written in 2012 or so. It doesn't fit super well into the ideas of the album of rediscovering old folk songs and making new songs.. That just is a vaguely political sounding song in the midst of a section of the album that's kind of downtempo and pretty. It's still pretty but to me, it's one of the few hiccups on a record I like.

Personal favorites: "Danza de Gardenias", "Alma Mia", "Luz de Luna", "Eclipse", and "La Llorona"

Album: Naxatras III by Naxatras
Genre: Grecian Psychedelic Rock
Runtime: 65 minutes
Release: February 16, 2018

Been following this psychedelic band from Greece ever since they released their first album on Bandcamp in 2015. In the continuing tale of how Bandcamp and other platforms like Soundcloud are the new frontiers of music, here's a band that records all of their music on analog stuff while playing live. So if you were lucky enough to check these guys out in a live show I'd at least hazard a guess that they wouldn't sound too far off from their CD performances.

The songs on here tend towards the lengthy side- fair warning a lot of psychedelic bands like being in the moment and just winding down a path towards the ending of a song, but this album's shortest song is about six minutes long and the longest is about twelve. There's only seven tracks on here- so putting that in perspective, outside of EPs I've highlighted on here, it's less dense with music than the rest of the albums.

Though that cuts out filler. And honestly most of the tracks thankfully switch up their tempo or style one or two times in each song so even while there isn't a lot of songs to work with there is a variety that is appreciated.

This is nearly an instrumental album- not that they don't have a singer, because they do, but because they focus on the rhythms and melodies here and for long stretches of time there are no words. Almost a meditative feeling washing over you as you listen to it.

Sounds like something out of 1975. But there's some fun elements since I can hear bits of eastern influence and jazz in their melodies and this sounds like a throwback in a good way since I don't think they are ripping any band's sound off. While there are definite influences, I don't confuse Naxatras for Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin for example.

Personal favorites: "You Won't Be Left Alone", "On The Silver Line", and "Spring Song"

Album: Snares Like A Haircut by No Age
Genre: Noise Rock/ Art Punk
Runtime: 39 minutes
Release: January 26, 2018

This is one of the earliest records I found last year and it's still one of my favorites due to the mix of 90s skate punk aesthetic and noise rock ambiance with the backing tracks. This duo is surprisingly good, Personally this is my favorite album by thems due to how fun it is, but I do have to say that I haven't listened to everything.

Sure the singing is particularly one note, but it's pretty much a punk record so loud, abrasive guitars and pure feeling trumps outright singing ability. Still it has a fun little focus on having the guitars just wash over you, with some tracks almost being ambient little things (see the title track and "Third Grade Rave" for examples) while the rest of the record having this devil may care attitude that just makes the record more enjoyable.

Even if it's loud and abrasive, the songs aren't just that- they aren't just noise. (though due to how people perceive noise, as long as repetition happens, anything can become music) it has some fun little melodies that the vocalist/ drummer sings- see "Cruise Control" for a little melody that I can't completely forget due to it being in my head for a year or "Popper" for a similar simple melody that anchors the songs into a more manageable state.

Is this my favorite record of the year? No, Is it up there? Probably.

Personal favorites: "Cruise Control" "Snares Like A Haircut", "Tidal", Popper" "Third Grade Rave", and "Squashed".

Album: Room 25 by Noname
Genre: Hip Hop/ Jazz Rap (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 35 minutes
Release: September 14, 2018

Noname has been on the rise ever since she got a feature on Chance the Rapper's 2013 Acid Rap mixtape. She's been getting followers ever since with her 2016 self released mixtape Telefone and this self released debut album "Room 25". Personally what I see from her is this mix of slam poetry and jazz rap when her flows kind of fall on and off the beats every once in a while in a sort of stream of consciousness way. Sure every word is written down or at least memorized- but the confident way she can build a scene through her words while just feeling natural at it feels a bit off the cuff.

Personally I see her biggest influence as Lauryn Hill or a lot of these jazz rap stars that are big now- Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator. Sure I can see the influences from her pee wants hrs from the jazz instrumentals and the slight jokes that pop up all over the place in the mix, but the interpolations and additions of sample like content make me think of if the 90s never really left. Or if Lauryn Hill actually had released music in the last two decades and wasn't sort of an awkward footnote in rap that female MC's have to either look up to or reject due to her odd choices.

Due to how Noname had to self release and self fund this album, her personality is all over this. And compared to Telefone it's a far more adult record. Still kind of cute in a quirky rap way but Telefone was PG rated at points, this is like PG-13. Not anywhere near the raunchiness of a Cupcakke, but it's a definite change. More realized and focused on what she wants her sound to be, her flows are slightly better, her music and sample choices are more of a story.

Definitely a fun little record and for rap, personally one of my favorites of the year for sure.

Personal favorites: "Self", "Blaxploitation", "Don't Forget About", "Montego Bae", "Ace", and "No Name"

Album: Nostrum Grocers by Nostrum Grocers
Genre: Underground Hip Hop (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 28 minutes
Release: August 3, 2018

Looking back I've been on a really big jazz rap kick this year and I listened to a ton of odd hip hop stuff just for fun. Rap's kind of a big genre that splits off into different things. This is probably one of the more lyrical focused albums I have on here with the word choices a little bit of a cut above than the norm. And honestly I wouldn't have known about this record if I hadn't listened to that Armand Hammer record I also put on the list due to Elucid being in both groups. Dude can rap. Maybe he's not the fastest, but I just like his vibe.

Weirdly enough, for how short the album is, it always feels longer due to how much actually goes on in here. The instrumentals have this off quality, lo-fi feel mixed with some piano beats and some layered samples into this fun little mix. And after listening to a fair bit of rap this year and underground stuff, I can say I can hear everything on here without stuff getting muffled or overpowered- sure Milo and Elucid might be on that low energy rap vibe, but I don't have to listen to a song multiple times or trawl through Genius to get the lyrics down.

Such a fun record- bit hard to describe since a lot of the fun is the lyrics since it's two rappers just trading off bars and having what sounds like pure fun in the studio.

Honestly just from rap music this year alone I could have done a list of this length and still had room to spare- though this one was a fun little find that I didn't expect since it dropped mostly without warning.

Personal favorites: "milk drunk", "where'ing those flowers", "'98 gewehr", "thermometer", "peace is the opposite of security"

Album: White Is Relic/ Irrealis Mood by of Montreal
Genre: Alternative Rock/ Retro 80s Electronic
Runtime: 40 minutes
Release: March 9, 2018

I've kind of liked of Montreal ever since some of my freinds showed me their stuff a decade ago. The band isn't really one of my faves, but after two decades and fifteen studio albums, I do appreciate the ability of the band to change and push their lyrics and music to ever odder places. I mean this album right here is almost like of Montreal took a time machine back to the 1980s while keeping their wit. And they've kept that wit since the band's founding since Kevin Barnes, the main singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist has been the driving force in the band since inception. His odd voice and writing style makes of Montreal stand out as a fun little indie rock band that just likes writing about what he thinks up. And for some odd reason he spend the time writing White is Relic/ Irrealis Mood as this 80s dance mix record. Synths and techno babble are all over this record and it's like if MGMT took LSD or some other psychoactive drug. It's totally in its own little world.

It's this odd record where the main singer almost has a feel of Gary Numan era rock or 1980s David Bowie-influenced stuff while singing about body dysmorphia and how the United States is a mess. Fair warning, the album is not made for mass appeal since even the boppier tracks are slow and plodding and just kind of a depressing mess.

A beautiful depressing mess, but still kind of a downer. Still it's probably one of my favorite of Montreal albums in at least a few years if not a decade since it just vibed with my mood really well and I've been a retro 80s funk for the last year.

Personal favorites: "Paranoic Intervals/Body Dysmorphia", Plateau Phase/ No Careerism No Corruption" and "If You Talk To Symbol/ Hostility Voyeur"

Album: Duel by Onsegen Ensemble
Genre: Finnish Postrock Jazz Fusion
Runtime: 43 minutes
Release: June 6, 2018

Stumbled on this record when I was trying to find rock music since rock is super dead and all. Honestly I got hooked from the first minute with the mix of almost classical music with jazz and rock that was all over this record. It kind of stuck with me due to to it just being so kind of out there for rock. There's a definite fusion aspect with portions of the album almost sounding like some old Western movie with the brass instruments and how the chanting choir kind of play off each other. It's kind of haunting and pretty. But then the guitars come in and add their swirling postrock interludes and it just builds into a weird album that can be really haunting and pretty one moment and then really technical and almost math rock with the polyrythmic moments- so it's just kind of a mess conceptually.

A really nice mess since I usually don't get to hear brass instruments with guitars or rather impressive drum solos in rock music nowadays. I mean technically Imperial Triumphant had a similar mix of ideas if you compare a black metal jazz band to Onsegen Ensemble's postrock jazz fusion. Similar ideas here since they both want to push what can be done in rock music- but this one's not as abrasive in tone or sound.

Still a fun record, it's just a little hard to place it in a distinct genre due to how it blends all of it's influences into a weird soup of sound.

Personal favorites: "Think Neither Good Nor Evil", "Dogma MMXVIII", and "Three Calls of the Emperor's Teacher"

Album: The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness, Volumes 1 and 2 by Panopticon
Genre: Black Metal, Bluegrass, Neo Folk
Runtime: 58 minutes Part 1, 1 hour Part 2
Release: April 6, 2018

This is the longest album I have on here and it's just due to Panopticon doing a double album. Panopticon- or more aptly Austin Lunn's view of black metal combines his love of the dark metal's bleak and depressing ideas with his love of Americana music and mixing the two. So you can get banjos and black metal guitars trading off solos and building this eclectic mix of genres that really do mix rather well. The one thing I have to say about this album is that it is a bit different than the pure mix of black metal bluegrass that was on previous albums like Kentucky.

This is because Part 1 almost entirely focuses on the black metal side of Panopticon- blast beats, dark and nearly indecipherable lyrics about the woods and how humans are destroying the natural beauty of the Earth or just how nice it is to be outdoors- this one is what Panopticon usually sounds like but stripped of what truly makes it super special to me.

Part 2 is a rather pretty album though since it just focuses on the neo folk aspects of Panopticon- Austin Lunn's deep scratchy voice is in full display here, fully comprehensible with banjos and little bluegrass hints of color all over his songs that sounds oddly old and yet are completely new. Neo folk songs about how the modernization of the world is destroying people's souls or the continued musical idea of winter snows. It's desolate in another way, sad and plaintive in a more human way. It's folk music in a black metal lens and it's probably the most consistent part of the double album.

Personal favorites: "En hvit ravns dod", "A Ridge Where The Tall Pines Stood", "Snow Burdened Branches", "The Moss Beneath The Snow", ""The Wandering Ghost", "Beast Rider", "At The Foot of the Mountain", and "The Devil Walked The Woods".

Album: Wide Awake! by Parquet Courts
Genre: Art Punk
Runtime: 38 minutes
Release: May 18, 2018

Is this a fantastic record? It really depends on my mood- outright I think it's a really fun album with hints of 60s pop and funk wrapped up in a art punk shell and then sometimes I think some songs are way too short- almost vignettes of ideas in a consistent album- more than half of the album is songs of lengths of three minutes or less. Right when I get into some of the songs' grooves (see "NYC Observation" and "Extinction" for example) the song ends and moves on. It's almost bite sized joy wrapped up in slight disappointment. I have to sort of compare Parquet Courts to IDLES- both have a punk aesthetic and their songs are catchy for different reasons- Parquet Courts are more accessible and fun, IDLES are political and long faorm anger distilled into song form. I go back and forth about if I like IDLES or this band more for what they are doing here.

But I really do like this album even if it's a different punk experience than the Sex Pistols IDLES. This is almost the Velvet Underground or some New York view of punk with some bubblegum pop mixed in. It's depressing and morose in a pretty and deceptively happy exterior.

Personal favorites: "Violence", "Almost Had To Start A Fight/ In And Out of Patience", my personal favorite of the whole album and one of my favorites of the year- "Freebird II", "Normalisation", and "Tenderness"

And no, I can't find every song in a playlist on Youtube. Guess this is one of those albums that is kind of hard to find in that way.

Album: Flavour LP by Paul Cherry
Genre: Jazz Pop
Runtime: 30 minutes
Release: March 31, 2018

Yeah this is one of those albums I kept getting recommended by Youtube's related videos feed for months. Definitely wasn't the album I had expected since I had found this during my heavy doom metal phase of this year, but this was a breath of fresh air because it feels like a throwback to 80s pop. Something Seals and Crofts would do for fun- or more likely a forgotten Hall and Oates record. Not because the melodies are the exact same or there's two dudes singing rather catchy harmonies. No, it just has that 80s aesthetic in how MGMT and of Montreal had it. The record sounds of a nearby era without feeling like a complete ripoff.

Now I have to mention one odd stylistic choice because I've been harping on records for having phone conversations on records and calling that primo content. This album does something similar in that the album starts and ends on a phone conversation, but unlike Kanye West's Ye for example, its not just one song that does it and it kind of has a running thread in connecting the album together- almost like how KYLE's Light of Mine had little interludes within his conscience.

So do I hate this album for doing what so many albums have done before but worse? Not really. Sure I could do without the talking but it doesn't really detract from the dreamy pop feel of the record.

It's maybe not my favorite of the year, but it was a rather nice find. Thanks Youtube, maybe your search algorithm isn't as messed up as I thought.

Personal favorites: "This High", "Like Yesterday", "Your Letter", and "I See U"

Album: Coloured by Priscilla Renea
Genre: Country R&B
Runtime: 36 minutes
Release: June 22, 2018

Didn't expect an album to do country in this way- even though Priscilla Renea doesn't look like the average country star- which she has actually talked about in interviews since that question comes up a lot thanks to how interviews go. First question is pretty much a 'why are you doing country music' kind of question. But she's confident in her ability to wring good melodies and songs thanks to a decade of writing songs for other artists like Fifth Harmony and Rihanna. And it's not like she's not released music before since this is her second album- though it's been a while and the genre shift is prominent since her first album's late 2000's fun pop, this is country with a definite African American twist with the songs doing R&B melodies and hip hop beats mixed with country guitars and all that. Personally while I think Kacey Musgraves had a more consistent album in the country sphere- I keep coming to this one and remember more songs from it due to the genre shifts and melodies.

And the album's still kind of a fun pop record since each song doesn't overstay its welcome and each sticks in my head because they keep slightly switching genres- "Heavenly" is probably one of the more R&B hits. Sounds like something Mariah Carey would sing or Whitney Houston, while "Family Tree", "Gentle Hands", and "Let's Build A House" are really country songs. But then there's "Different Color" that's a reggae influenced song. Then the album ends on "Land of the Free" which ends on a political pop song note mixed with a guitar solo of America the Beautiful. It's really a mixed bag of ideas here and yet each are rather well done.

And honestly I really only jumped on this due to the cover and genre labels I kept seeing since I wanted something more out there for country music and I kind of got it.

Is this a fun record? It has it's moments. Is it memorable? Yes.

Personal favorites: "Family Tree", "Gentle Hands", Heavenly", "Different Color", "Let's Build a House", and "Land of the Free". Really hard to pick my favorites because this is pretty solid yet eclectic for a country record.

Album: Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay by Psychic Lemon
Genre: British Psych Rock
Runtime: 41 minutes
Release: January 12, 2018

This album's the album that started me making the list for 2018. Mainly because it was one of the first albums I had listened to in 2018, but also because it had a rather nice groove to it. And having a saxophone on the record helps get this psychedelic rock record stand out that little bit more. It kept my attention since even hearing a saxophone in rock nowadays feels oddly strange, but it worked for this psych rock throwback of fuzz and distortion.

There really isn't much vocals to speak of, if any at all, so I have to go by how it sonically hit me since that's all I have to describe it. So we have the guitar being one of the main focuses hear due to it laying down the groove. Then every once in a while the sax comes in on a few tracks and lets those stand out. This is a loud fuzz filled record that just keeps it's energy up throughout. Helps there's only five tracks on this thing so the band can just keep going and going on their space rock jams,.

Fun record that isn't super high on my list but I like it because it really gave me a push to even do a list like this again after I was drained from the huge Grammy list I did.

Personal favorites: "Hey Droog", "Interstellar Fuzz Star" and "Satori Disco".

Album: Daytona by Pusha T
Genre: Hip Hop (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Runtime: 21 minutes
Release: May 25, 2018

GOOD Music had a great run with five decent albums dropped in five weeks during May and June. Daytona's the one that came out first and I've at least liked Pusha T's drug focused rap since he debuted in 2013. Mainly because I thought Numbers on the Board was a total bop, but it helped that he had a definite voice that made me come back and like his stuff. Helps that he has actual charisma and flow.

And Daytona is another decent album from Pusha T with it's short scope of tracks and production by Kanye West made this a cohesive album that I keep going back to.

I do have to mention that Daytona helped really start the beef between Kanye West and Pusha T versus Drake. It's a real mess that I'd rather not go into extreme detail but it was vicious with how they kept going back and forth between each other and just dropping diss tracks and beefing on twitter for a few months. It was messy. But "Infrared" is still a decent song even if it now feels more like a track made to bait Drake into saying something. It's a minimalist rap album and is super condensed with how well produced and how the lyrics are done that its kind of impressive.

Really consistent album, even if it's not now my favorite rap album of the year. Time and other factors trumped it, but its still decent and it got a Best Rap album of the year nod at the 2019 Grammy Awards so it has to be something competent.

Personal favorites: "If You Know You Know", "The Games We Play", "Come Back Baby", "Santeria". Honorable mention goes to "Infrared" due to the Drake beef it gave kindling to.

Album: Nasty Mixtape by Rico Nasty
Genre: Bubblegum Trap Hip Hop
Runtime: 36 minutes
Release: June 15, 2018

I had to figure out a more out there female rapper and I was flip flopping on either Cupcakke or Rico Nasty and while I love me some Cupcakke and her explicit sexual rapping and weird hooks, I think that Rico Nasty had a very interesting vocal delivery in that she has a real raspy voice and an ability to switch between two or three personas. Cupcakke may be lovably goofy, but I jived with Rico's feel since she is one of the trap rappers that's mixing current rap ideas with metal. I mean I see it more and more often as people want to mix their eclectic tastes and reflect that in their music, but she's really pushing that rock aesthetic at times.

It's not every track though. "Pressing Me" is a real quiet Rico Nasty as she raps about everybody wanting a piece of her and lying about dating her because she's important. It's not the loud and abrasive Rico, but it almost has this low tempo R&B feel.

Then the next track is "Ice Cream Truck" which is the weirdest sex metaphor ever but after the complete bop that Kelis' "Milkshake" was in the early 2000's, I'm perfectly fine with female songs using dairy products as metaphors for their skills. I mean it's still one of my favorite tracks of the last few months with its almost videogame/ ice cream truck beat. It's weirdly catchy and fun.

This mixtape is a good major label taste of Rico Nasty. She's has a few more mixtapes on Spotify- but not all. That's the problem with streaming services sometimes, they might not have everything, And at least she's kind of found her voice because the stuff I heard on Spotify were good, but really sounded like she was partially trying to sound like Lil Yatchty at points with only a little bit of her now more apparent nu metal vibe.

I'm going to keep my eye on her stuff because I usually like female rappers and this decade's seen a bit of an explosion of them.

Personal favorites: "Countin' Up", "In The Air", "Pressing Me", "Ice Cream", "Transformer", "Rage", and "Lala"

Album: Persona by Rival Consoles
Genre: British Electronica
Runtime: 58 minutes
Release: April 13, 2018

Yeah this isn't what I usually listened to electronica wise this year. Sure I had a similar time with Kirara's music in that it wasn't the norm for me, but this album's focus on melody and minimalism really stands out from the bombastic bunch of electronic artists I followed this year.

Honestly don't know why the record hit me so hard. Maybe it was the pretty beginning or maybe it was the beats that helped me relax during my free time or something but I come back to this album every once in a while. Mind you that's only once in a while. Definitely not an album I've listened to a song from every day- but maybe every week or so I listened to this album at least one time all the way through just to get what the artist was doing here because it has more layers in each song than I originally thought.

And yet again there's no lyrics so it's all based on the calming mood I got from just listening to this. It's just a nice, chill album with some nice spacey vibes.

Also note that if you look up the collectedfull album on Youtube, the tracks are slowed down to get past the media dection on the site. It gives it a different feel when listening, but either listen to each song separately or just listen on Spotify.

Personal favorites: "Unfolding", "Phantom Grip", "I Think So", and "Dreamer's Wake"

Album: Exit 16 by Roosevelt Collier
Genre: Blues
Runtime: 69 minutes
Release: March 9, 2018

Yeah, I like the Sacred Steel blues tradition and with how I mentioned AJ Ghent as one of the new generation that's spreading the tradition around in music circles, so is Roosevelt Collier. He grew up in a similar situation to AJ Ghent- within the House of God church tradition and learning lap steel from one of his family members in Miami, Florida. Being part of a family of musicians that use the lap steel in their performances,(Collier is related to the Lee Boys), he learned at a decently young age how to play the guitar and it was only slightly later when he heard Stevie Ray Vaughan's music and translated his licks to the instrument that he really got his blues style really going.

And while this is technically his debut album LP thing, he's been around and working as a musician that pops every once in a while. He's been with the Tedeschi-Trucks band, Los Lobos, B.B. King just to name a few- and also is part of the world music influenced group Bokante. So he's not just dropping his music out of nowhere- he's been building up a following and working out the groove he wants on this album.

And yeah, this album is pretty funky. And that's what's going for it- unlike AJ Ghent's Neo Blues Project EP, Collier is not focusing on lyrics. Each track is a long form instrumental between his lap steel, an organ, a bass and some drums. It's pretty low key and focused on building a groove that he can just play over. It's more of a jazz blues focus than the modern blues of AJ Ghent. Sure there's a bit more fuzz, and "Spike" sounds like he's trying to be influenced by Jimi Hendrix- the overall feel is just some musicians getting in the groove and writing good music.

Personal favorites: "Happy Feet", "Exit 16", and "Spike"

Album: El Mal Querer by Rosalia
Genre: Spanish Nuevo Flamenco/ Latin Pop
Runtime: 30 minutes
Release: November 2, 2018

Rosalia was on my previous year end list, so I'm rather surprised she'd release both something a year later for a sophomore album and also have a near switch in genre. This was probably on my list for most anticipated albums ever since I heard she'd release something this year and it'd be rather out there. Not that she didn't do modern flamenco before. It's just that her last album was far more stripped down and folk influenced than this one. It's almost like she took her inner pop diva and let it out. And while maybe I'll miss her debut's dark and low sadness or her pretty cover of "I See A Darkness" but this seems to be a rather nice mix of modern sensibilities with flamenco. Things I didn't expect in a flamenco record- hip hop beats and electronic pop instrumentation with the rhythm and hand claps that give flamenco some of it's flair. And on a few tracks, Rosalia's extremely capable voice is multitracked and put through layers of autotune. It's something I don't expect in flamenco albums since either they go full flamenco influenced or purely traditional. And if you think the music sounds oddly Arabic, it's due to a long historical mixing of the surrounding areas of Andalusia- since it used to be part of Moorish Spain up until 1492. It's sometimes hard to translate flamenco songs since they have their Southern Spanish dialect and influence from Arabic and Romani sources.

You could possibly call this one of the first syncretic musical genres but I digress.

I'd have to say this has to be one of my top ten or fifteen albums of the year since the only track I technically dislike is "PRESO" due to it being only 41 seconds long and easily skippable. Otherwise from start to finish this album is rad. From the opening track of "MALAMENTE" which is honestly one of my favorite tracks of the year with it's swaying beat and catchy hook, to "DI MI NOMBRE" and it's sensual lyrics and feel- and autotune solo. Or "BAGDAD" and it's choice to use Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River" as a sample melody for it's chorus. Weird hearing that in what almost sounds like a choir and Rosalia's voice doing rather impressive melodies. Her voice is a real gift in the whole album. It's an odd mix of ideas here, but the language barrier isn't too hard since the emotion comes and sweeps you along through this album. Seems like there's a new Latin pop idol on the rise.

Personal favorites: "MALAMENTE", "PIENSO EN TU MIRA", "DE AQUI NO SALES", "BAGDAD" and "DI MI NOMBRE"

Album: Your Queen Is A Reptile by Sons of Kemet
Genre: British Jazz
Runtime: 55 minutes
Release: March 30, 2018

I like jazz, though it usually takes a very certain album for me to recommend a pure jazz album- mainly because jazz is kind of inherently a difficult genre to listen to at times and also when you listen to a whole lot of jazz, the bands all kind of blur together at points. And that's coming from someone who likes seeing what modern jazz can come up with at points. There's a lot more than you realize until you dive right in.

Sons of Kemet stands out to me though. Which is a good thing because while I had enjoyed portions of the new Kamasi Washington album, I usually tend to avoid three hour long records or albums that you have to destroy your album art just to get to. (See Kamasi Washington's The Choice for that to make sense because I dislike marketing gimmicks and defacing my stuff if I ever got it) because there's only so much time in the day and after a while I just got tired of it. Three hours plus is too long for me to stay focused on music unless it's some bomb music.

Your Queen is a Reptile isn't that kind of record- at less than an hour, it's compact and full of fun little polyrhythms and with it's mix of, at times, jazz, grime, reggae, and African influenced beats with a band made up of only a revolving cast of Sam Hutchings playing both the saxophone and clarinet, Theon Cross on tuba, and Tom Skinner and Eddie Hick on drums. Bit of an odd combination of instruments but with the two drummers, there is always a really good backing beat that centers the track as the rest of the players all play around them,

And with how I liked John Beasley's Monkestra vol 2, the use of different genres made it stand out. And not just because the title itself seems to be a comment on British culture and immigration with each track named after a female figure that had historical importance or the title itself being a focus on the Queen of England. Your Queen is a Reptile. Now I could be reading too far into the metaphor, except that their own youtube page has a non album spoken word piece titled "Your Queen is a Reptile". That's not exactly a necessary track to listen to due to it not being on the album, but it does make the political message far more clear than just "choosing women that did important things" and naming songs after them.

This might not be in the top ten, but it's close and with how many albums I have on this list- that's still a decent accomplishment in itself.

Personal favorites: (Side Note: Each song is partially titled My Queen Is, so I'm going to exclude that part of the titles so I don't partially repeat myself.) "Ada Eastman", Mamie Phipps Clark", "Harriet Tubman", "Nanny of the Maroons", and "Albertina Sisilu". It's really competently made and Sons of Kemet has a few more records I'd recommend you to check out.

Album: OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES by SOPHIE
Genre: Scottish Electronica/ Art Pop
Runtime: 39 minutes
Release: June 15, 2018

This was a Grammy Nominated Dance/ Electronic Album. Really fantastic work for SOPHIE and actually was one of the few choices I liked from the Grammy Awards this year since I wanted this to be nominated since it pushes what pop and electronic sounds like while also being artistic and pretty even under the loud and abrasive instrumental tableau.
This easily gets into my top five best albums- and if Imperial Triumphant's album hadn't been so good, probably close to number one for me.

June was a really good time for music this year and SOPHIE's debut, non-compilation album was probably one of the best albums that came out during that period. Yes, even when Death Grip's album dropped the week after. I've listened to this album probably the most out of any album in my list since this thing dropped.

Why is that? Probably since it's a fantastic record with a definite message since SOPHIE hadn't released much of anything for a few years while she came out as a trans woman which the whole album is kind of playing with. From "Faceshopping" which tackles artificiality and image, to the BDSM anthem "Ponyboy" which is probably one of my favorite songs of the year and it's a total bop. Or "It's Okay To Cry" the first single that dropped and also the first time SOPHIE used her voice and image in a video. It's a rather pretty song and the whole album sounds like Madonna mixed with Aphex Twin. Each song sounds like 1980's aesthetics remixed by an alien and it's just so good.

Now this album really isn't for everyone. Its deafening bass and club influenced rhythms are fine if you want to dance and all that but the way she plays with vocals and having a lot of the lyrics masked under sheer amounts of reverb and noise that just makes the outright interesting to listen to.

Now what about the music itself? Yeah it's completely a pop record with the hooks and melodic songwriting that sounds old and yet the way SOPHIE made the album and layered the sounds make it sound completely cutting edge. Though I have to say that "Immaterial" is the most outright pop focused song here that almost sounds like a refutation of Madonna's "Material Girl" with how things aren't important and the image of yourself becomes important as you strip away everything to the core and discover what truly defines you or makes you happy. It's a trans anthem in just how upbeat and nice it sounds while also hinting at SOPHIE's struggles with being a trans woman while her detractors labeled her as male.

"Whole New World/Pretend World ends the album off on a really high note and, yet again, is another song I loved immensely this year with how the beat switches up about three different times and makes the whole album into a complete party that devolves quickly into robotic growling and cheers as electronic beats just overwhelm the track.

The whole album is immaculate and the sequencing of each track is nearly perfect since each track or most tracks segue into one another so well that I found an actual difference when I skipped around and listened to it the first time to see the major hits and when I returned and listened to the album as one long song or idea. My personal favorite is the euphoric change from "It's Okay to Cry" to the grimy "Ponyboy" or the three song bleedover from the quiet "Pretending" to the pop banger "Immaterial" and the futuristic "Whole New World/ Pretend World".

Personal favorites: All of them, though "It's Okay to Cry", "Ponyboy", "Faceshopping", "Immaterial" and "Whole New World/ Pretend World" are the particular standouts. This is impossible for me to choose because even the lesser songs I love.

Album: Superorganism by Superorganism
Genre: British Electropsychedelic Pop
Runtime: 33 minutes
Release: March 2, 2018

Superorganism's debut album is not my favorite album of the year- it's weird and all and really kind of a bit of a meme but its just well done pop. I definitely would be careful watching the music videos since they kind of overdid the visuals on a few of them and some can trigger photosensitive epilepsy. Don't know what it's been with a few of the bands that I love, but some do that.

But yeah the 8 piece band is this weird world collective of artists from all over the place (New Zealand, South Korea, Australia, Japan) living in a house in London all really focused on making music. It's actually kind of hard to get information on this band since they appeared out of nowhere and got signed before thee band met up all in person or anything. Sure, that's what you get when it's easy to make music and collaborate with people on the internet age, but it's still something I've had to get used to.

And this album shows it's odd internet memery. From the almost stream of consciousness lyrics that hint at bigger ideas or the 90's kid aesthetic of the bored sounding lead singer while the instrumental tracks behind her sound like the most sickening sweet bubblegum psychedelia behind her. Or maybe it's having a song titled "Prawn Song" where the main thing they are singing about how the singer wants to be a prawn just because they are simpler than humans. Maybe it's their music videos leaning heavily on visuals and getting people to talk about the weird stuff they have in them.

Either way, I can't rate this too highly on the list besides maybe middle of the road- partially because it's weird and as time went on, I got less and less interested in their outright odd lyrics and feel while I kept finding music that hit me slightly harder on instrumentals or singing. Still sounds like they took a bit of influence from the weird 60's psychedelic stuff and added 90's music and current day electropop into a blender and came up with this.

It's still a decent record, though like some other records I've shared recently, it has lost some of the luster that interested me in the beginning.

Personal favorites: "It's All Good", "Everybody Wants to Be Famous", "Nobody Cares", "SPRORGNSM", "Something For Your M.I.N.D", and "The Prawn Song".

Album: Whack World by Tierra Whack
Genre: Hip Hop
Runtime: 15 minutes
Release: May 30, 2018

This is a fun little debut album from female rapper Tierra Whack that focuses on one minute long songs and showing her vocal talents and ability to change both her voice and genre as the 15 song mix moves along. From the R&B stylings of "Flea Market", "Cable Guy", to the 60's pop of "Silly Sam", or the Country tinged track "F**k Off"

The weird flow and humor that is all over this album reminds me of Missy Elliot or Tyler, the Creator and their kind of odd song choices. And with how she can change her flow and voice on a dime makes her versatile. It's kind of fun to see what the next song is and the album's hyperactive changes make me only slightly disappointed. Not because they are bad, but because at only a minute each, the songs change so fast that I feel like this debut album is an appetizer for longer music.

And honestly the sixteen minute long music video is rather fun and creative. I probably will keep her on my radar to see what next project she comes out with. She's decently talented and because the length of the project is short- each of the songs are catchy.

Personal favorites: "Flea Market", "Hookers", "Pet Cemetery", "F**k Off", "Silly Sam" and "Fruit Salad",

Album: ¥€$ by Tommy Cash
Genre: Estonian Electro Hip Hop (Explicit Lyric Warning)
Runtime: 37 minutes
Release: November 30, 2018

I had been waiting to listen to this album for the last four years- no it's not my number one pick, but it's my most hyped up album. Top Ten at least. So this one got rather long.

Hard to explain how exactly I got into Tommy Cash's music except thanks to Youtube. I really got into his music around 2014 to 2015 when people were reacting to his odd acid trip like music videos for his music. And I had to check him out mainly because I tend to like really odd or out there. I think his first song I ever listened to in full was "PRORAPSUPERSTAR" in which he raps over Enya's "Only Time" which kind of blew my mind. I mean I have a bit of a soft spot for Enya and hearing a remix of it made my day.

So I had to check out all of his music and while that was my favorite song of his four years ago, he consistently made music that played off stereotypes of Russian culture- from wearing Adidas tracksuits and bragging about having knockoff iPhones or rapping about how much he loves money and horses. He gets the joke and as he transitioned into a worldwide artist he gets that he's a bit of a meme.

Honestly due to him working with a fair bit of Russian artists, I got into that little subculture before most people. Does that mean that technically I'm a hipster? I hope not because that sounds like an absolute pain, but thanks to him being on Little Big's "Give Me Your Money" I got to them years before "Skibidi" ever blew up stateside. Though his song "Leave Me Alone", I found the electrogoth band IC3SPEAK. And then as I kept listening and time went on.

If you want to figure out at a glance what I would term Russian pop seems to be influenced by, oddly enough it seems to Die Antwoord. In a similar way how the rise of the zef countercultural movement exploded on the scene thanks to Die Antwoord really pushing the 'be yourself in all that you do' kind of attitude and almost being a self parody. So you can rap in English, but don't hide your accent, talk about things in your culture, make whatever music you want to the point of unmarketability by normal record labels thanks to the internet, and dress in whatever way you want.

Even if that involves wearing nothing but counterfeit Adidas track suits or old hand me down looking clothes. Be almost 'white trash' and celebrate in that.

So why was I so excited for an album that nobody has probably heard of by a rapper with probably the most boring name in the world? Well, 2017 and 2018 were good for the self stylized Kanye East of music- from launching his own shop that is a parody of Western fashion in an Eastern off brand parody, to being on Charlie XCX's 2017 album Pop 2 (also through some interviews, it seems that his off handed comment about how her music was pushing pop to a new level- therefore Pop 2- accidentally named her album. And boy was I surprised when he had a verse on her song "Delicious". I mean he's rather good friends with AG Cook and some of the guys at the PC Music label thanks to his internet persona and how well it fits in their extreme internet pop vision of the world, but I wasn't expecting him to pop up on a sort of mainstream artist track.

Then came the non- album hype tracks that got me excited for YES. Am I disappointed that P***y Money Weed and Little Molly aren't on the album itself? Maybe at first. I actually liked his dark attempts art modern trap music. Sure it was a rather marked difference in his sound, but they oddly worked. I mean they are far more minimal in their production than most so I was both slightly intrigued to see if he'd go mainstream or not.

Then the album dropped and I was pleasantly surprised to see neither of those tracks on the album. So what's on the album?

Well we have the necessary opening hype track of "WAIT A MINUTE (Intro)" where he's at his most Danny Brown like flow- high pitched and manic adlibs of "Yes" over and over. Maybe not the most lyrically dense track, but it gets you ready for the rest of the album.

Then we have a rather nice beat change as we go into "Mona Lisa" where fashion designer Rick Owens has a rather monotone verse about "black magic f**kboys, necromantic savages, and supernatural distortion" as Tommy Cash is just the best hype man as he hurriedly raps all his bars. Really pretty ending as electronic strings come in and change up the entire mood from club banger into a slow, sad song.

Then we have the single "X-RAY" where the hardbass influenced techno track has him start the track off doing an homage to Scatman John's "Scatman" melody. It's not exactly the same but it really surprised me to hear a reference to it.Now what's the lyrical stuff within the song itself? Well mentioning Hannibal Lecter and playing basketball with certain parts of his anatomy as most of the first bar is rather odd but he's really confident about his wordplay. Honestly it's kind of endearing because English was not his first language- Russian most likely was and his major influence in his rap style and demeanor is Kanye West himself who has himself done songs like this- from one moment talking about dark, violent things and then the next to a sexual metaphor. It's less that he's misunderstanding the context of rap music- especially since he can fluently speak English now and more than he's playing up the imagery. And he can easily switch from English to Russian and rap in both languages fluently since he does that exact thing on this track and as the beat switches, the song almost ramps up the crazy beats. I could see this easily be played in the club because it's an outright danceable song.

"BRAZIL" is an outright Brazilian funk banger with how the song is mostly focused on the featured artist, MC Bin Laden. Yeah, he's kind of controversial, but thanks to the internet we can have an Estonian rapper in English while a Brazillian funk rapper sings entirely in Portuguese. It's one of the more upbeat tracks.

"VEGETARIAN" has one of my favorite few lines by Tommy Cash on the album, from "I don't want no beef, I'm vegetarian
I'm too ratchet, act like a barbarian Swimming in the ocean Mediterranean Next day bath in Evian Rubles, pounds, francs, I'm busy King of the jungle, snakes sizzling Woke up drunk at Disney I lose control like Missy. Probably one of my favorite choruses on the album.It works in context and really is a fun track except that he drops the R word in the song and that honestly isn't the best. I mean sure it's not like rap hasn't thrown that word around before- see the Black Eyed Peas original version of "Let's Get It Started" for a somewhat modernish example. But it throws me off slightly to hear that and it dings a fun track that is still one of my favorites on the album.

"HORSE B4 PORSCHE" is all referencing his love of horses. I mean he owns at least two horses and has in interviews explained his love of riding horses in terms of it being like "riding them feels like flying a wingless dragon." Apt description of horseback riding there from him and well who else but the white trash Rakim to explain horseback riding beating owning a Porsche? Or that his girlfriend beats all the other women in her looks in his own special way as he buys counterfeit iPhones, Gucci, and tracksuits from the market.

"DOSTOYEVSKY" is another good track as it's idea is a brag song about his sexual prowess and being "Gopnik in the streets, Dostoyevsky in the sheets" Or translated to less of a Russian/ Slavic reference- Gangster in the streets, gentleman in the sheets. Also for reference, this is one of the few times he outright calls himself Kanye East on the entire album. His love of Kanye being apparent as Kanye always comes back with experimental music and pushes the envelope on fashion and everything he does. But yeah overall this is a song built on sexual metaphors and ideas.

"BLACK JEANS, WHITE T-SHIRT" is one of the more lowkey tracks on the album which after the run of hype tracks was needed. It's okay and if I need to relax, I tend to put this one on.

"COOL 3D WORLD" is the reverse of Charlie XCX's "Delicious" in that this time Charlie XCX is the featured artist because she provides the backing vocals as he makes references to Power Rangers and Darth Vader amid other weird lyrical references.

"NOT CARE" is one of the few tracks I almost forget about until I put it on since the chorus of "Rain, rain,rain, make it rain, yeah" sounds like a Kendrick Lamar chorus. The album really unwinds as it goes along as the backing track is soothing and quiet as the music washes over you. It sounds like a modern trap song and even then it's slightly more interesting than half of the genre.

Then the album switches tone as the hype comes back as "YES OR NO? (Outro) plays as what would probably be a great encore or pre encore track gets you dancing as the electronica blasting beat hits you as he continues talking about random stuff and how a person said maybe when he asked yes or no. It's a weird alternate universe take on Justin Bieber's song "What Do You Mean?" Or not. Either way, besides a few missteps this gets up there on my list.

Personal favorites: All of them, though "Wait a Minute", "Mona Lisa", "X-Ray", "Brazil" "Dostoyevsky" and "Yes or No?" are particular standouts.

Album: ASTROWORLD by Travis Scott (Explicit Lyrics Warning)
Genre: Psychedelic Trap Hip Hop
Runtime: 58 minutes
Release: August 3, 2018

Here's a hip hop album named after Houston's defunct Six Flags Astroworld. Which makes sense if you realize that Travis Scott is one of the largest artists in the hip hop game right now and he represents the Houston area pretty hard. From the title alone and the odd cover, you'd expect a dark carnival like atmosphere through the album and for quite a while it works. (Not the whole time, because the last few tracks are more like the old Travis Scott stuff, downtempo, dark, and pretty chill compared to the rest of the album) And after listening to a lot of hip hop the last few years, I grade them on very different scales than the rock stuff due to how often nowadays that hip hop albums focus on either really good singles that get the streaming service payouts going or, like Migos' Culture 2, they pack the album with way too much stuff just to get more money on streaming.

Travis Scott's album here is in the middle of that- unlike Kanye's Wyoming Project albums this year at short and sweet amounts of consistency and minimalist aesthetic- ASTROWORLD is made to be as indulgent as possible.

I actually like Travis Scott's trap music- I mean it helps that his backing tracks are usually a bit more interesting than the norm due to his focus on psychedelia and strange ideas. I mean from the first time I heard "Sicko Mode" and it's constant beat switchups and a good Drake feature. I still don't get why people on twitter and other sites call this this generation's "Bohemian Rhapsody" because I don't see it besides it's three distinct parts. Still probably one of my favorite hip hop tracks of the year and the music video's a visual treat. Though I have to point out that Drake's verse probably has one of the few times a rapper describes taking Xanax responsibly compared to the rockstar idea of modern rappers in bragging about their drug usage and party atmosphere that surrounds them.

Even though I sound like I don't like this album better than the rest of the rap albums I've highlighted, I'd say this is one of the best rap albums of the year- it's pushing trap music further than Travis Scott's other albums he's released in the past and after listening to this over and over and it still hits me as much as it did when I first heard it. And this album is just stuffed with features- from the who's who of hip hop to the odder choices-John Mayer plays guitar on WAKE UP" ,"ASTROTHUNDER" and "CAN'T SAY", Stevie Wonder plays harmonica on "STOP TRYING TO BE GOD" and James Blake appears on the same song as well.

Don't know why this album's packed with a who's who of music artists but most of the songs are really good stuff.

Personal favorites: "Sicko Mode" "Stop Trying to be God", "No Bystanders", "Skeletons", "Wake Up", "NC-17", "Who? What!". and "Coffee Bean"

Album: Galapagos by Wednesday Campanella
Genre: Japanese Electronica/ Art J-Pop
Runtime: 36 minutes
Release: June 27. 2018

I had already mentioned this artist when I highlighted CHVRCHES new album and non-album single "Out of My Head" and what I have to say is that while Wednesday Campanella is doing some rather pretty songs and everything- for those that might like CHVRCHES, this might be a decent band to check out since they actually sound oddly similar. The only major difference I see is that this band is a little more relaxed with their songs. Quiet moments and acoustic sounding bits make the album stand out when compared to CHVRCHES loud electropop. This band has more of a Japanese bent with their lyrics being mainly in Japanese and often having weird lyrical references to folklore or Japanese culture, almost reading like stream of consciousness lyrics if you translate them to English.

Though that tends to happen with foreign albums, they lose a lot of their magic when translated- see any number of Spanish albums when translated- while I can pick out bits and pieces of really basic Japanese, the experience is mainly listening to the slightly humorous or weird songs and just enjoying them.

Probably one of the most excited tracks on the album "Melos" is an entire lyrical reference to a Japanese short story by Osamu Dazai- "Run, Melos!" a story based on an older verse poem "Die Burgschaft" by Fracis Schiller which was retelling a Greek tale on how important strong unwavering friendships are in times of hardship. It's a nice sort story and is often referenced in Japanese culture. That song is one of my favorites of the year due to how catchy the hook is.

Due to how short the album is, each song is perfectly timed and there's no song that stands out as the worst one. Consistency is key here. Though I do have to say that the last two tracks- "The Sand Castle" and "A Cat Called Yellow" are probably the most chill and quiet tracks on here so the album ends on a relaxing note which is good because the album almost feels like a perfectly sequenced album in that the songs build up to the most exciting track and work back down as it ends. If you want to know how I wish most albums were sequenced, check this album out.

And for those who somehow care, the song "A Cat Called Yellow" had already been released before in a soundtrack album the band did for the movie "Neko wa Deku Mono" or "The Cat in Their Arms". I usually don't like when bands highlight a song I had already heard before especially if it was made for a movie but it fits well enough in the album to not stand out as a bonus track or added in just because the song had hype around it. I don't often like movie soundtracks, but since Wednesday Campanella did a lot of the music for that movie, it actually was not that bad and gave me a different view of the band because their soundtrack sounds different to most of their works.

I don't always listen to extremely loud bands. Sometimes I need a break and put on this record just to relax after a tiring day.

Personal favorites: "The Bamboo Princess", "Picasso", "Melos", "Three Mystic Apes"

Album: Illusion of Choice by Whoopie Cat
Genre: Australian Blues Rock
Runtime: 64 minutes
Release: June 16, 2018

Had to find a new Australian album a few months back when I figured out the out I had stumbled on was not from last year- so I looked around and found this album.

It was really easy to find when my recommended links for Youtube videos after a few weeks were all albums. Make that search algorithm work for you and you'd easily find weird music that you might like easier than casting a wide net and hoping you can figure it out on your own.

It's a blue rock/ psychedelic based record that sounds slightly retro but has some nice short hooks. Easy way to find genres that are figuratively dead over here in the States is realizing that thanks to the internet and music sharing sites, it's easy to find what you are looking for.

But if you want to lessen the language barrier, try Australian rock music- they haven't got the memo that rock's super dead yet and they love psychedelic, long winded rock. I'd have put an album of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's five albums they released recently. Except they released those in 2017, so by sheer temporal luck, that was a no go.

If you like blues rock though, this wasn't half bad for modern stuff. And it helps that I found their full album on their personal band youtube page- whenever I find a band that shares their own music because they know people will upload it to Youtube anyway, that shows some real prerogative on their part. Sure after listening to a ton of blues rock influenced albums, this slightly has an issue where each song bleeds into one another so, at points, this feels like one long song instead of an album, but unlike other niche rock bands I highlighted here, there's dynamics and a slight change in tempo every once in a while. Which is a good thing because I like slow and plodding rock or really fast stuff, but if there's dynamics and a slight shift in tone that helps these blues rock influenced bands. And I will at least check out a blues rock band that has a flute playing in one of their songs.

Personal favorites: "Ophidian", "Sweet Jane", "Fear Is Blind" and "Cicada".

Album: Palo Santo by Years & Years
Genre: British Electropop
Runtime: Original 36 minutes, Rerelease 39 minutes, Deluxe 47 minutes
Release: July 6, 2018

Stumbled on this album when I was trying to find pop records that I even kind of liked. Pop music is catchy and all, but it's not really my forte or something I seek out all that hard when I can choose so many other genres.

This album's pretty okay for a pop record. The hooks are all there and fun, the mix of religious imagery with profane topics kept me slightly interested and the singer's voice isn't half bad.

What's more impressive is that I checked out their debut album and they didn't fall into the trap of rereleasing similar sounding songs and coasting off their first album. Sure there isn't a ton of experimentation, but the pop aesthetic they are going for is fully in focus and on point. This album, if I had to choose, is right in the middle of stuff I liked this year- not too bad on a relisten that I wonder what I was doing or maybe the time I liked it passed by, but not good enough to shake up any of the really hard hitting albums I like.

Catchy pop doesn't have to always be completely mindblowing to be actually good. It just has to just be fun.

And this album has a ridiculous number of rereleases- from the original short album, to a later rerelease this year adding one track, to the deluxe edition that adds more almost good enough for the original album content, and even a Japanese version that adds on two more unique tracks on top of every track mentioned before.

It's a mess and, just to check, I listened to the bonus material and I guess if you want to- check the final four tracks out on Spotify or something, But even though I'd share the deluxe edition of it- its not because I want to, it's because its the only real version on Spotify. I'd say the first eleven tracks are the most important in this case since they appeared on the original release and the way the 11th track is perfectly fine as a closer.

Sometimes streaming services are just too competent for their own good. Because usually they like having the normal and deluxe versions at the same time.

Personal favorites:"Sanctify", "All For You", "Karma", "Preacher", and "Palo Santo"'

Album: Stranger Fruit by Zeal & Ardor
Genre: Black Metal Blues, Satanic Gospel
Runtime: 47 minutes
Release: June 8, 2018

Sometimes the internet can be a rather good place for creativity. Zeal and Ardor was originally a one man band created by Manuel Gagneux after what sounds like the start of a really bad idea- asking 4chan what his next project should be. I mean I get why he did that, 4chan is brutally honest about their critiques on anything and due to the nature of the more internet heavy portions of the internet- a bit like the dark side of humanity. He got a few different idea but he stuck with the two different ideas of black metal and African American music (worded rather distastefully thanks to 4chan).

And hey, this is probably one of the few albums I've heard since the really old blues records I loved that use the call and response form of work song field holler- main soloist singing and as they sing, multiple singers repeat parts of lines as a chant. It's weird to hear a work song rhythm in black metal but it's rather interesting.

The second album of Zeal and Ardor continues the idea of the first in that it continues his idea of fusing both genres and in effect answer the question of "what if American slaves had embraced Satan instead of Jesus?" It makes for a rather interesting thought- slaves rebelling against their masters and choosing Satan to be comforted in a power that rebelled against God.

It surprisingly works since the musical ideas don't change- it still sounds gospel influenced at points and besides a few sator square of protection of Latin chants from the Book of Abramelin the Mage in "Ship on Fire" and "Coagula" with it's only lyrics being Solve Coagula- dissolve and coagulate- which tying back into black magic and symbolism, there is the very influential image of Baphomet drawn by Eliphias Levi in which the image of Baphomet has those words on his arms. The whole image is a rather total view of opposites. Hands pointing up and down, male and female, light and darkness, opposite ends of the Sephirot with Chesed and Geburah- Kindness and Severity, the hermetic ideal of "As Above, So Below"- the individual reflects the universe. The image of Baphomet is more of a sum total look at opposing forces and later got adopted by Satanists. Why is this really important? Not particularly, except that the album ties the imagery of slavery and wanting to break free from the system- slaves praising the Devil and death itself as a way to release from their current situation. Again its using Satanic imagery as a refutation of Christian morality in it's themes. Which I'm surprised didn't happen sooner- modern music sometimes likes having a point beyond just "the music is good" and the bleak and dark history of slavery is always a topic that has a lot of potential for music and a message.

I mean when "Servants" has at least one interpretation of a slave revolt as the fields burn, and "Stranger Fruit" is a black metal song using similar themes to the anti-lynching classic song "Strange Fruit" It's maybe more of an homage than an outright reuse of ideas- but the idea lingers as the album goes on. and comes back on the closing track "Built on Ashes" with the idea of dying alone as you swing on the breeze.

The album is bleak and yet somewhat hopeful at the same time- taking the idea of hopeful spirituals and adding the idea that they played with on their previous album and, in particular, "Devil is Fine"- in this alternate universe of slaves, they find the Devil so much more welcoming than their masters' God. As the "Intro" puts it. "We all heard the stories to bring it to your knees, ain't no Lord gonna help you now."

Thanks internet, you made two genres I always wanted together work together better than I ever expected- black metal bringing out the bleakness of the blues so well. And the album's both a good way to introduce metalheads to older blues and bluesheads a way to appreciate black metal.

Sure there's always the purists, but I like the eclectic looks at black metal slightly more than the norm. Maybe they don't do certain aspects of black metal well, but at least I remember them better.

Top ten album for sure.

Personal favorites: "Servants", "Don't You Dare", "Row Row", "Ship on Fire", "You Ain't Coming Back", "We Can't Be Found", "Stranger Fruit", and "Built on Ashes"

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Sunday, January 26, 2020

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Monday, February 11, 2019

Top 68 favorite albums of 2018