#in general this album is so poppy and fun and so true to the haunted house theme and the transitions be sexy

[spacetravels]

so maybe who we were then is shattered but who we are in the end's what matters

[sonicawareness]

The Best Albums of 2018

This is a list of the 20 best records to come out in 2018, with “essential songs” from each album. This Best Of list was created after listening to more than 2000 new records, spanning quite a few genres and styles.

Nothing beats actually listening, though, so don’t just read! Follow and listen to a curated Spotify playlist containing all of these songs!

https://open.spotify.com/user/acax1985/playlist/7jmZc5avWiCd7y9MiXPeTh?si=wtsj8sKDTvas9lKy8cdXwA

And now the list!

20 – 11) Ten Honorable Mentions – Listed Alphabetically with an “Essential Song”

Alison Wonderland – Awake (“Happy Place”)

BROCKHAMPTON – iridescence (“NEW ORLEANS”)

Bun B – Return of the Trill (“Myself”)

Dashboard Confessional – Crooked Shadows (“Just What to Say”)

Eminem – Kamikaze (“The Ringer”)

Panic! at the Disco – Pray for the Wicked (“(Fuck A) Silver Lining”)

Punchline – LION (“Friend from the Future”)

Saves the Day – 9 (“Side by Side”)

Thrice – Palms (“Only Us”)

Vince Staples – FM! (“FUN!”)

10) The Knocks – New York Narcotic

New York Narcotic is a fantastic collection of hip-hop infused indie pop songs featuring performances from the likes of Foster the People, Big Boi, and Sofi Tukker, among others. The album’s highlights often come from bringing in outside talent, but the funky duo known as The Knocks stand tall on their own, too.

Essential songs: “Ride or Die”, “Brazilian Soul”, “Shades”

9) CHVRCHES – Love is Dead / Out of My Head

The third full-length CHVRCHES record is unquestionably driven by the unique vocal prowess of frontwoman Lauren Mayberry whose enormous choruses soar over the trio’s signature electronic compositions. While Loves is Dead is instrumentally sound, its Mayberry’s hooks and cadences that transform these songs from “good” to “great” at every turn.

Essential songs: “Out of My Head”, “Graffiti”, “Get Out”

8) Elohim – Elohim

Elohim is a delicate, entrancing world of electronic sounds and haunting vocals. Unexpected, quirky earworms frequently emerge throughout its 43-minute runtime, revealing themselves at surprising moments that are otherwise surrounded by walls of atmospheric noise and rhythm.

Essential songs: “Half Love”, “Hallucinating”, “Fuck Your Money”

7) Ballyhoo! – Detonate

For a good time, look no further than the energetic Detonate. Fusing the most pleasing blend of punk and reggae in recent memory, the Maryland natives successfully follow-up one of the best albums of 2017 (girls.) with a slight stylistic shift to get heavier than ever while retaining their playful charm. Detonate is an essential summer soundtrack.

Essential songs: “I Don’t Wanna Go”, “Maryland Summer”, “Riddled with Bullets”

6) Turnstile – Time & Space

Like temporal time and secular space, the second full-length album from Turnstile both is and is not. Overwrought with contradiction, the 25-minute album is both pure chaos and elegant beauty, perhaps exemplified by the airy “Bomb” interlude that quickly makes way for the foreboding “I Don’t Wanna Be Blind”. Stylistically grounded in hardcore punk, Time & Space is both simple and complex, an album that will either alienate or appease.

Essential songs: “Generator”, “I Don’t Wanna Be Blind”, “Big Smile”

5) Underoath – Erase Me

Erase Me is the best heavy record of 2018, a menacing, cohesive assault that wastes no time kicking things into gear with the appropriately titled lead-off, “It Has to Start Somewhere”. Imbued with the signature synthesizer-laced sound that Underoath helped pioneer more than a decade ago, the Florida sextet delivers wave after wave of a punishing metalcore / post-hardcore hybrid songs that live and breathe through dark, atmospheric tension.

Essential songs: “It Has to Start Somewhere”, “On My Teeth”, “ihateit”

4) Kero Kero Bonito – Time ‘n’ Place / TOTEP

The third full-length record from England’s Kero Kero Bonito refashions an idiosyncratic sound that the trio invented in 2014 (Intro Bonito) and perfected in 2016 (Bonito Generation), introducing fuzzy rock instrumentation into their quirky pop blend. Album highlight “Only Acting” epitomizes this reinvention, perfectly balancing the KKB’s uncanny ability to craft, re-craft, and deconstruct genres at will.

Essential songs: “Only Acting”, “If I’d Known”, “The One True Path”

3) Sofi Tukker – Treehouse

“I don’t give a fuck about they!” exclaims Sophie Hawley-Weld on the aptly titled lead-off, “Fuck They”, before Tucker Halpern’s pounding, jungle-driven rhythms take over and introduce the insatiable energy fueling Treehouse. Frequently channeling their worldly experiences and backgrounds, several songs feature extended Portuguese verses and choruses (often adapted from Brazilian literature), and the energetic “Energia” is entirely in Portuguese. Regardless of its lingual delivery, most of Treehouse consists of immediately danceable, instantly enjoyable songs that make for the perfect soundtrack to a bright, summer day.

Essential songs: “Fuck They”, “Energia”, “Batshit”

2) Poppy – Am I a Girl?

The sophomore effort from Poppy continues to expand the horizons of her indescribably bizarre and eccentric musical landscape. Genres – and perhaps genders (“Am I a Girl”?) and likely lifeforms (“Time Is Up”, “Hard Feelings”) – bend to their limits and frequently break, snapping to unveil the next inexplicable moment on Am I a Girl?. Throughout its 39-minute runtime, the only constants are truly masterful production and Poppy’s sugar-coated voice. Despite being exceptionally catchy, Am I a Girl? is not an immediately digestible album, and it may take more than a few listens to fall under its inevitable spell. When it finally clicks, however, there’s an entire world of introspective lyrics and all-too-important criticisms of humanity to explore.

Essential songs: “Play Destroy”, “X”, “Girls in Bikinis”

1) Logic – Bobby Tarantino II / YSIV

The best album of 2018 comes from Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, professionally known and credited as Logic, but performed as a mixtape by his alter-ego “Bobby Tarantino”. This follow-up to 2017’s Everybody (and more directly, 2016’s Bobby Tarantino) is masterfully crafted and packed with more than 40 minutes of the best hip-hop beats to drop in 2018. Logic annihilates each song with braggadocious bar after braggadocious bar, creating a hype-filled world of positive energy. As expressed by Rick Sanchez during the album’s introductory track, “Grandpa’s Spaceship”, this is a mixtape of “ATL style club rap” for when you are “in the mood to turn shit up”.

Essential songs: “Everyday”, “Overnight”, “Contra”

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SonicAwareness.net Best Albums of 2018

Top 10 Albums

Logic – Bobby Tarantino II / YSIV

Poppy – Am I a Girl?

Sofi Tukker – Treehouse

Kero Kero Bonito – Time ‘n’ Place / TOTEP

Underoath – Erase Me

Turnstile – Time & Space

Ballyhoo! – Detonate

Elohim – Elohim

CHVRCHES – Love is Dead / Out of My Head

The Knocks – New York Narcotic

10 Honorable Mentions

Alison Wonderland – Awake

BROCKHAMPTON – iridescence

Bun B – Return of the Trill

Dashboard Confessional – Crooked Shadows

Eminem – Kamikaze

Panic! at the Disco – Pray for the Wicked

Punchline – LION

Saves the Day – 9

Thrice – Palms

Vince Staples – FM!

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