#i broke my own rule TWICE OVER by including multiple songs from the same album on my challengers playlist. but how could i not

[holdoncallfailed]

[thisisnotacomp]

Best albums of 2018 11-20

11. Leon Vynehall - Nothing Is Still  - This is easily the most underwhelming release in the top 20 of my list. That is not to undersell the record, I just went into it with the expectation of hearing a follow up to his 2014 release Music for the Uninvited. That album is one of my favorite house releases of all time. I wanted more of that. I didnt get it... I was disappointed. It wasn't until I revisited it a few months later that it sunk its hooks in me. Instead of a house record Leon released and Ambient / Modern Classical concept record soundtracking his grandparents journey from the UK to New York City in the 60's. I reset my expectations, got over the fact that I wasn't getting a shiny new house record and pressed play. By the time I made it to Envelopes (Chapter VI) the 7th track on the record  I understood. This album has so much more gravity than any house record could. It is a deeply personal statement. A thing of beauty. 

12. VA - Black Panther OST  - Whelp, I broke another one of my rules. I included a multiple artist soundtrack on my end of the year list. That note was for posterity. Anyway, this is more than just a soundtrack, it is a great album and the songs were everywhere in 2018. Kendrick can do no wrong. This is how you do a Soundtrack. I had to see the movie in theaters just to hear how they integrated the songs into the movie. Honestly, not to many make the cut. I think that is why it works. It stands alone as an album, as its own work of art along side the movie. Let's hope Kendrick blesses us with another LP in 2019. Side note, one of my highlights of the year was seeing him live. 

13. Snail Mail - Lush  - This LP is just good music. If it's not on your radar you aren't paying attention. Change that. For more info check out Pitchforks end of the year write up here.  These beautiful songs will get stuck in your head for weeks. 

14. Proc Fiskal - Insula  - When I first listened to Insula it knocked my socks off. Usually when albums make their way onto my radar I either read a blurb about them or have a general idea what to expect. That wasn't the case here, all I knew is it was Resident Adviser rated it a 4 out of 5 and they listed Grime as the style. When I hit play I had zero expectations and it knocked me on my ass. I should have known it would be good since it is a Hyperdub release. This album fits in a long lineage great LP’s by glitched up beat makers. Albums like “Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives” & “One Word Extinguisher” from Prefuse 73, “ Room(s)” & “Vapor City” from Machinedrum and “Severant” from Kuedo. Now the albums sound is admittedly much different than all of them but the feel is very similar. 

This is obviously the product of hours tinkering away in solitude. At times it feels like it will burst at the seams with ideas, but it never overwhelms the listener. Instead he pulls back with moments like “Achiltibuie” which give you that feeling when everyone gets off a crowded bus and you have it to yourself, out of the madness of the city and the masses. The track and Scotch Precog which follows wouldn’t feel out of place on an album released by The Books. After the pause, the album gets back to its overstimulated core but never lets go of that sense of balance. It's a beautiful work by a 21 year old artist far removed from any of the artists mentioned above. If you liked the early work of Four-Tet & Mount Kimbie, the artists pushing the edges of footwork or really any beautiful electronic music make sure to track this down. Person favorites are Scotch Precog & Punishment Exercise.

15. A.A.L. (Against All Logic) - 2012-2017  - This LP is by far Nicolas Jaar's most accessible release to date. Jaar's output up until this point has been extremely heady stuff. Less songs and more thoughts put to music. 2012-2017 goes in the other direction. It is a collection of house tracks that feel equally at home on the dance floor as they do on a home stereo. It sounds like a version of the album you would have expected from him after the success he gained from the debut release. These are house tracks for sure, and while they are not nearly as off kilter as his music usually is, just listed to I Never Dream and tell me that isn't undeniably a Nicolas Jaar track. After hearing this album I wish James Blake would do the same thing... 16. Shame - Songs of Praise  - Songs of Praise is the fantastic debut LP from Shame, an upstart rock group out of the UK. It reminds me of a the following debuts from the last few years. 2017: Sheer Mag - Need To Feel Your Love & Idles - Brutalism 2013: Savages - Silence Yourself & FIDLAR - FIDLAR 2012: METZ - METZ 2011: Iceage - Brigade

If you liked any of those releases check out Shame. 

17. Galcher Lustwerk - 200% Galcher  - I held out for as long as I could but in 2018 I finally caved. I now listen to the majority of music via a streaming service (I went with Tidal due to quality). While I miss the MP3 game (tracking down and buying albums does have its benefits) the time required to keep everything organized just wasn’t worth it. Why is this worth mentioning now? Well, when you stream the 200% Galcher in Tidal it plays the album one time through with lyrics, then again with instrumentals. I found myself listening to both versions whenever I had time. That is saying a lot as I rarely listen to an album twice through. That alone should speak to the quality of this release. This is a electro-house record with a sprinkle of hip-hop. Solid stuff. Start with Life and go from there.

18. Altopalo - frozenthere  - What is Altopalo’s sound? What genre box can you paint them into? Who are the? Where did they come from? All good questions that I can’t or more accurately don't want to know the answers to. I just want to listen to listen to Mono on repeat and pretend that I live in a world where all music sounds as beautiful as it does.

19. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs  - Some Rap Songs is influenced by so many great Rap LP’s but also stands among them. In a year where Soundcloud rappers seemed to take over, Earl goes in the complete opposite direction. Its great, its pure and in 10 years we will look back and it will stand alongside the most important rap LP’s of its time. All Killer, No Filler.

20. Tirzah - Devotion  - In one sense Devotion captures the sound of 2018 better than almost anything thing else released this year. At its core it’s pop music but the songs are not made for the radio. It's beautiful and imperfect. 

[chitarra10]

I was tagged by @penaltywaltz... well, sort of... I just stole it from her. X-)

Rules: tag 20 people

The Last:

1. Drink: Milk

2. Phone Call: My mom called me to tell me that my grandpa was coming home from the hospital today.

3. Text message: My friend in TX... I wanted to make sure he was gonna be OK since he’s in the path of Hurricane Harvey... he says he’s OK right now, thank God.

4. Song you listened to: “All the Wrong Things” by Branan Murphy ft. Koryn Hawthorne... it’s a beautiful song about admitting your faults and the sincere desire to change... give it a listen, I think you’ll love it. :-)

5. Time you cried: Yesterday... my boss ripped into me for telling him I was too sick to come into work, and he demanded I come in anyway, so I sucked it up and went to work, and it was a living hell of pain and nausea, then I stopped at my mother’s house because she picked up my prescription refills from the pharmacy for me, and I was greeted by my sister ripping into me because for some God-forsaken reason, she decided that my mother should come home from work and clean the house instead of visiting her own father in the hospital, and she decided that I’m selfish and narcissistic and that I don’t care about anyone else but myself for not stopping my mother from going.  I just took the prescriptions, left the house, and broke down when I got back into my car.  And I ended up missing work today because I’m still sick AND depressed out of my mind today.  Way to lead up to my next mission trip in 3 weeks, eh?

Have You:

6. Dated someone twice: No

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Yes

8. Been cheated on: Yes

9. Lost someone special: Yes

10. Been depressed: In the long list of diagnoses I have going on right now, depression and anxiety are among them.

11: Gotten drunk and thrown up: No... I don’t drink.

List 3 Favorite Colors:

12. Sapphire Blue

13. That teal color that you can’t quite tell if it’s blue or green

14: That indigo color that you can’t quite tell if it’s blue or purple

In the last year, have you…

15. Made new friends: Yes

16. Fallen out of love: Was never in love

17. Laughed until you cried: Yes

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yes... one of my co-workers has been reporting every single thing I say to my boss behind my back, including the fact that I’m currently in the process of getting a concealed carry permit, which lead to a loud shouting match between me and the boss.

19. Met someone who changed you: Yes

20. Found out who your friends are: Yes

21. Kissed someone on your FB list: Sort of... Rocco isn’t technically on my FB list, but I have an entire album dedicated to pictures of him because he’s my little “fur-nephew” and I love him so much, and I kissed him on his little Beagle head when I saw him yesterday. :-)

GENERAL:

22. How many Facebook friends do you know in real life: Probably about 85%.

23. Do you have any pets: I have a “fur-nephew,” Rocco, does he count? :-)

24. Do you want to change your name: Sometimes I’d like to... I’m not exactly keen on being named after my abusive father.

25. What did you do for your last birthday: I had to work, and then I went to a local coffee house afterwards with my friend from church, and she gave me a Sherlock Holmes book for a birthday present. :-)

26. What time did you wake up: I got up at 11 because I was supposed to be at work at 12:30, but I was way too sick to do it, and I ended up spending the next 5 hours sitting on the floor in the bathroom with my phone and tablet in case anyone tried to contact me.  No one did, of course.

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: The same thing I’m doing right now... Tumblring with the TV live streaming in the background.

28. Name something you can’t wait for: My next mission is happening in 3 weeks, and I can hardly believe it’s that close already!! :-D

29. When was the last time you saw your Mom: Actually saw her?  Two days ago.  But I’ve talked to her on the phone multiple times since.

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: My health first and foremost, and a close second is my financial situation.

31. What are you listening to right now: “Salvation” by Skillet... it’s the Eurus and Sherlock song, seriously, check it out, it’s the perfect theme song for The Final Problem.

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: My grandpa goes by Tom because his middle name is Thomas, I work with a sales guy named Tom, and I know two Tom’s from church.

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: My current situation in general.  The stress is just piling on again when I’m trying to get packed and ready for my mission, and I need it to stop so I can concentrate on this.

34. Most visited website: Probably a tie between Tumblr and Facebook.

35. Mole/s: I have freckles of various shades of brown all over my paper-white skin, but only one on my left forearm is slightly raised like a mole.

36. Mark/s: My entire body is full of scars from the acne I had when I was a teenager, multiple cysts I had removed, and a significant amount of self harm in the form of stabbing my arms with sharp objects when I was in my late teens and early 20′s.

37. Childhood dream: I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer and an actress.

38. Hair color: The same as Benedict Cumberbatch’s natural hair color.

39. Long or short hair: A pixie cut that was supposed to look like Jennifer Lawerence’s, but because my hair turned curly once it got cut short, it actually looks like a cross between Daniel Jackson and Sherlock having a bad hair day. X-)

40. Do you have a crush on someone?: A fictional someone... X-)

41. What do you like about yourself: I dunno... the older I get, the more I feel like my greatest talent is the ability to take levels of abuse that other people could never handle.

42. Piercings: 3 in each earlobe and one 90′s cartilage pierce in my right ear.

43. Blood type: O+... as most people of Western European heritage are. X-)

44: Nicknames: Up until I was 30, everyone used to call me this particular word that used to make me blazingly, furiously angry, and I never understood why it did, but the angrier I got, the more people would say it because they thought it was funny to make me cry.  Then when I was 30, my sister started questioning me as to why I got so infuriated at the sound of that word, so I started researching a few linguistic things online, trying to see if this word was truly made up as they claimed or if there was actually something to it.  I managed to find the linguistic roots of the word, and it turns out it was actually an Albanian-influenced Italian curse meaning, “The Devil’s Ass,” with “ass” being in the context of a slave or a work donkey.  Basically, they were cursing me to be a slave to the devil every time they called me that.  Needless to say, I proceeded to angrily confront my family with the evidence I found, and told them that if any of them ever uttered that word to me, about me, or in any way, shape, or form of connection to me, that it would be the last time they ever see me for the rest of their lives.  No one’s ever used a nickname for me ever again.  And after that, they dang well better not.

45. Relationship status: Single... have been for 13 years, and honestly, I stopped looking for a relationship a looooong time ago.

46. Zodiac: Ophiuchus

47. Pronouns: She/Her

48. Favorite TV show(s): Stargate SG-1, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Star Trek in all it’s incarnations, Psych, and Saving Hope.  I might be forgetting a couple, but those are the top of the list.

49. Tattoos: None yet, but I think I’m gonna get one for my 40th birthday in 2019... I wanna get an American eagle with it’s wing around a Central American quetzal to represent how much I love Central America and doing missions work there, and underneath them, “Mark 16:15-16,” which is what’s known as “The Great Commission” from the Bible.

50. Right or left hand: Right

51. Surgery: I had all the baby teeth and 4 permanent teeth removed from my mouth when I was 11, and I had 2 pilar cysts (so far) removed from my head... but there are 3 more cysts forming on my head, and they’re gonna get removed if/when they get big enough.  Dermatologist said I’m gonna have to deal with the cyst problem for the rest of my life.

52. Hair dyed a different color: Never permanently, but I have done temporary dark brown and eggplant purple a few times.

53. Sports: Never was a sports fan... the only sports I actually like to watch is the Olympics and American Ninja Warrior, if that counts. X-)

54. Vacation: The last thing that could actually be described as a vacation was when my friend took me with her to NYC for 5 days because she was eager to cross it off her bucket list.  Before that, it was in 2001, my mother, my sister, and I took a road trip to 2 states that were an 18-21 hour drive away just for two particular food festivals, and before that, my grandmother took my sister and me to Italy after I graduated high school in the summer of 1998.  Every other place I’ve been to has been for mission work... missions are no vacation, they’re hard work, but they’re the most worth-it thing you’ll ever do in your life. :-)

55. Shoes: I have Sketchers work-shoes, a few pairs of canvas shoes, a few pairs of ballet flats, and 2 pairs of heels that I haven’t worn in over 5 years.  But all the shoes that lace up, I laced them with either black or white elastic, so now all my shoes are slip-ons. :-)

56. Eating: I ate a bowl of vanilla yogurt with some chocolate BelVita biscuits about an hour ago.

57. Drinking: Nothing... I had a glass of milk earlier.

58. I’m about to: Back to Panama for my 9th mission in about 3 weeks... this has been the most disorganized and closely cut mission I’ve ever done, but the money came in, so now it’s actually happening!!

59. Waiting for: September 16th because that’s when we’re leaving for Panama... :-)

60. Want: My health back, and my finances in order.

61. Get married: If it happens, it happens.  If it doesn’t, that’s fine, too.  Either way, I’ll be perfectly OK.

62. Career: I’d love to be able to do this missions thing for a living, but the financial support isn’t there right now.  I hope someday (soon!!) that it will be.

WHICH IS BETTER:

63. Hugs or kisses: Hugs

64. Lips or eyes: They’re both pretty essential for a functioning face, but I’d say eyes serve a more necessary function.

65. Shorter or taller: I’d like to be a couple of inches taller, maybe I might be if the scoliosis in my spine can ever be straightened out.

66. Older or younger: Physically I’d like to be younger, but intellectually, I’d like to be older and wiser.

67. Nice arms or nice stomach: My stomach has never been nice, even when I was at my skinniest, and I’ve always been OK with my arms, so I’d say I’d rather have my stomach be nicer looking.

68. Sensitive or loud: These aren’t mutually exclusive, so I think each has their place in the appropriate situations.

69. Hook up or relationship: Relationship.  I don’t go for that momentary fun and then dump them off bull crap.

70. Troublemaker or hesitant: Actually... once again, not mutually exclusive, but... neither of these are characteristics I’m OK with.

HAVE YOU EVER:

71. Kissed a stranger: Not by choice.

72. Drank hard liquor: No

73. Lost glasses/contact lenses: An unfortunate number of times in my life.

74. Turned someone down: Yes

75. Sex on first date: Never

76. Broken someone’s heart: Once... but if he truly did love me and want to marry me, then he should’ve learned sooner that I wouldn’t stand for taking a backseat to his BFF for the rest of my life.

77. Had your heart broken: Yes

78. Been arrested: No

79. Cried when someone died: Yes

80. Fallen for a friend: Yes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

81. Yourself: There is, in fact, empirical evidence that I exist, despite so many people’s opinions to the contrary.

82. Miracles: Yes

83. Love at first sight: No... you can’t possibly learn what you need to know about a person in order to make the choice to love them from just one look.

84. Santa Claus: Every parental figure is a Santa Claus. :-)

85. Kiss on the first date: Not anymore.  He’s gonna have to earn that.

OTHER:

86. Current best friend: I’m actually not sure.  I hate to call someone a best friend who doesn’t think of me the same way, and I don’t believe that anyone thinks of me that way at the current moment.

87. Eye color: The same as Benedict Cumberbatch

88. Favorite movie: Probably a 3-way tie between Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond, and The Force Awakens.

I’m tagging everyone who sees this. Everyone, please copy, paste, fill it in, and tag me!! :-)