Top 50 Albums of 2018 - Ricky Lai

Snail Mail - Lush

Mmhmm.

Check out the video version of this list here.


#50: Angélique Kidjo – Remain In Light
(Kravenworks)
Afro-Funk, Art Pop

Angélique Kidjo's re-imagination of the Talking Heads' most essential and celebrated album returns the music to its African funk roots and is something to behold in its own right. The wonder of the original Remain in Light came with how the Heads and Brian Eno used bouncy, infectious loops of flashy, layered instrumentation, and Kidjo stays true to the enchanting quality of the original while breathing into Byrne's once cryptic and impenetrable passages a new, humane, spiritual life. The heat still goes on.


#49: Mitski – Be the Cowboy
(Dead Oceans)
Indie Pop, Singer-Songwriter

Often, I find myself disappointed that Mitski won’t write longer songs, but hearing them all in tandem helps me realise yet again that keeping each train of thought boiled down to their crucial words is actually a perfect format for her albums, and Be the Cowboy sees her songwriting potential blooming with roaring catharsis (“Geyser”), weeping country-twanged confession (“Lonesome Love”), nutty metaphors (“Washing Machine Heart”), the equivalent of moulding a slip ‘n’ slide ride out of your grieving tears in order to cope through the sadness (“Nobody”) and even more beyond. It’s a big risk to not have a particular mood or even musical style to stick to, as Mitski leaps between several, but it’s wonderful to hear not only that she’s making brave forays into unfamiliar and unpredictable territory, but that each little moment can still feel confessional and shattering regardless. I nominate "nobody fucks me like me" for the realest lyric of the year.


#48: Brockhampton – Iridescence
(Question Everything / RCA)
Alternative Hip-Hop

The hardest thing to do is let go. It’s been a turbulent year for your average highschooler’s favourite boy-band and there are so many reasons that Iridescence might have fallen apart. It did – just in no bad way at all. Brockhampton are unmistakably about emotional honesty as much as they are about having as fun a time as you can, so this album hits me tough when it builds up a passion to do both. At its core it is just a set of spectacular songs. Beyond that, it's a brave opening to new ideas. Considering the band’s transition into a new phase of their career, following the controversial departure of "the best member" (source: annoying fans), Iridescence, to me at least, feels like a journey of attempting to convince yourself that everybody is eventually going to move onto new and potentially better things, even if past sentiments are going to make that difficult to cope with. It’s only ironic that after seeing this album performed front to back live in Auckland the night of its release, forgetting an epiphany like that is just about impossible.


#47: Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
(Holy Roar)
Post-Hardcore, Screamo, Alternative Rock, Post-Rock

Don’t be at all fooled by the two twinkly and frankly beautiful tracks that open this record, they represent the turbulence and blackened vision of its remainder about as much as a Pale Waves album. They do, however, serve an exceptional purpose within the context of the album, and powerfully so, acting as the calm before the storm in which the latter provides guttural yells emphasising upon the words “doubt” and “suffocated”. So perhaps we’re not in the clear after all.

It is one of the more impressive mathcore efforts to invest your time into this year, if only because the enlightening streaks of awe that run through its second half are something to really behold. Uplifting!


#46: Mythic Sunship – Another Shape of Psychedelic Music
El Paraiso
Psychedelic Rock, Jam Band, Jazz Fusion

Admittedly I’ve found myself becoming bored of modern-day psychedelic rock. I’m sure it’s got a lot to offer, but most of what I end up being exposed to is the same jangly reverb-soaked guitar pop with four-note solos thrown in. The homogeneity of such a promising genre isn’t particularly helped by the fact that any five long-haired men in unironed shirts could come up to me, claim they’re Tame Impala and I would unhesitatingly believe them. Mythic Sunship aren’t anywhere near that stylistic vein, so it feels unfair to compare them directly but they’re the sudden promise that heavy and hazy psychedelic rock has the chance to feel refreshing again. The bulk of it is improvised solos but that much is bulked up by sheer sonic ambition, sounding dense, jazzy and thunderous. An hour of blaring head-spins.

#45: Heather Leigh – Throne

(Mego)
Avant-Folk

As one of the truly esoteric singer-songwriters around nowadays, Heather Leigh finds herself conjuring greater, sparser worlds than before, out of the echoing, lengthily drawn sounds of her guitar and the howls of her own voice on Throne, a truly spectral moment in time. Each awaited shift in melody is like a new weight being lifted off your chest.

#44: Khalab – Black Noise 2084

(On the Corner)

Afro-House, UK Bass, Afro-Jazz, Tribal House, Microhouse, Footwork

Although Khalab is an Italian producer, Black Noise 2048 is an unbound statement on behalf of African roots music, lovingly tributing the histories of Afro-funk, spiritual jazz and house music to create a sincere sonic collage, brave and breathtaking in both spirit and message.

#43: Florence + The Machine – High As Hope

(Virgin EMI)

Chamber Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Art Pop, Pop Soul

All things considered, High As Hope is the most extravagant album currently offered by Florence Welch and her acquaintances (or ‘The Machine’, as we so often know them as). Both garden-lush and perserverant, there’s a wonderful shift of focus to the scope of a song and the way that it builds up, as if it were a steady march where esprit de corps would raise with every next step. So while by no means is this a step into new territory for Welch, it is more of an intimate and optimistic embrace of what makes her music so special – no matter how larger-than-life it becomes, there’s always a visible heart at the centre of it to remind you that all of that noise is driven by the passion of one person.

#42: Storm{O} – Ere

(Shove)

Screamo, Post-Hardcore, Mathcore

I suppose Italy and volatile personalities go hand in hand. This was my first big favourite of the year, and one listen through its rather brief run-time will show you, not tell you, just why it grabbed my attention so well. It’s a menacing stew of urgent screams and thundering riffage; intriguely melodic and bass-driven beyond the storm of anxious noise and the hasty run-time ensures that it doesn’t tire out after too long.

#41: La Iglesia Atómica – Gran Muro de Coma

(South American Sludge Records)

Stoner Metal, Heavy Psych, Post-Rock

If this underground Puerto Rican band truly have been around since the early 90's, then their music must've been quite ahead of its time. Even if it wasn't, right now they're bringing the flames back to stoner rock in a way that is scarily apocalyptic. It’s been a while since I’ve had a head rush of excitement from listening to a heavy psych record – they’ve all been unmistakably good, just very predictable. This had something new to offer. From the moment that it begins, it feels like we've caught fire while hurtling through the stratosphere - dwindling from space to surface. The rest follows suit.

#40: Tim Hecker – Konoyo
(Kranky)

Ambient, Electroacoustic, Drone

Tim Hecker’s grasp of sound design here is worry unfolding. It wouldn’t be hard to call this the most distressing in a discography that has undergone tranquility, transcendence and tenderness over the course of many an album, but Konoyo is more on the edge of feeling trapped; futility and defeat spring to mind, and the detail in these phantom-like soundscapes prove yet again that Hecker is more in touch with raw human despair than most.

#39: Puce Mary – The Drought

(PAN)

Death Industrial, Electroacoustic, Drone, Spoken Word, Dark Ambient

Of all albums this year that are to be considered “unsettling” or “dark”, it was rather refreshing to hear one that genuinely did disturb the currents out of my nervous system and leave my face a frigid, arrested, glassed-over surface out of sheer worry as to what was going to happen next. I’m not ashamed to admit that, in fact, I give it all the props for being able to sculpt dissonant screeching, crumpled noise and powerful droning into something that is consistently distressing. I’m sure the cover artwork isn’t a huge help. Ben Frost would be stoked.

#38: Amuleto – Misztériumok
(Three:Four)

Drone, Electroacoustic, Avant-Folk

The power in this Italian duo's droning, glitch-laden music comes from their choice of instrumentation. Harmonium, cello, piano and guitar altogether bear a sense of soul-crushing dread, yet in ways that feel no need to overpower with booming noise. Amuleto pay close attention to contrasting tone of the instruments so that solo passages are just as potent as the brief moments of cacophony.

#37: Sleep – The Sciences

(Third Man)

Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, Heavy Psych

It’s a bit shameful of me to admit that Sleep are more aptly named than would be fortunate (I'm not as infatuated with Holy Mountain or Dopesmoker as I once was), but their first album in fifteen years happens to be a complete refresher for a band that has focused more on brooding slow-motion progressions over the course of an hour during the meatier phase of their career. Ironically, their bulkiest-sounding release yet is this one album they dropped in 2018, and The Sciences opposes the dreary, doomy tempo and stoned ethos of Dopesmoker and aims for a much more immediate, groove-heavy affair, with all burly guitar riffs buzz-sawing as if they were weaponised. But of course they decide to kick it all off with the sound of a bong hit.

#36: Lonker See – One Eye Sees Red

(Instant Classic)

Jazz Rock, Post-Rock

The Polish band Lonker See begin this album with what at first seems like it’s going to be a very peaceful and mystical ambient piece. Then, before you get too comfortable, they start blowing it up into one of the coolest jazz rock albums of the year. It’s hard to succinctly put into words how fierce the build-up and pay-off on “Lillian Gish” becomes, but I can sure as hell try: saxophone and drum go big fire and boom boom.

#35: Marie Davidson – Working Class Woman

(Ninja Tune)

Minimal Synth, Tech House, Spoken Word, EBM [Electonic 'Body' Music]

The sickest taunt I've heard. Swallowing bass-lines and repeating techno loops dripped with spoken-word verses full of snarky attitude and minute, glassy details like tiny chips in a marble sculpture. No matter how often a passage recurs, it continues to build on the utopian setting that only grows uneasier with each passing minute. It works. She works. All the fucking time.

#34: Brett Naucke – The Mansion

(Spectrum Spools)

Ambient, Electroacoustic, Glitch, Field Recordings

Realising that ambient glitch soundscapes aren’t what the locals are banging in Bar 101 nowadays (I swear Jim O’Rourke was such a big hit on the dance-floor at some point last decade, though…), I still have plenty of love to throw Brett Naucke’s way, especially learning more about how he pieces his music together. The Mansion is a tranquil yet mind-bending odyssey through digital space. Naucke’s layering of synthesisers is interspersed with field recordings of faint clicking and insect chirps, which is both fascinating and eerie as I’m not going to be keen about the prospect of a cricket hanging around the corner of my living room. It’s an evocative album, however, and to the point where each piece of the puzzle sounds – even feels – like an electric current circuiting a wire loop in your skull.


#33: Okonkolo – Cantos
(Big Crown)
Santeria Music, Avant-Folk, Chamber Pop, slight hints of Jazz

This is pretty incredible. Santeria music that pays plenty respects to the roots of its style while making progressive and modern steps forward with a transcendental chamber music and jazz influence. It's beyond description, though.

#32: Playboi Carti – Die Lit

(Interscope)

Trap Rap, Cloud Rap

Die Lit is a bit of an enigma. At once it manages to slide comfortably into the trap rap letterbox that’s been having vapid sludge mailed to it for the past few years, and yet it also manages to be utterly and fascinatingly exciting. I don’t hate trap rap at all, by the way, but its become increasingly clear that a stark majority of it is like a colander for lyrical value as anything insightful and meaningful falls right through the various holes, and I think that’s fine, I just also wish a lot of it did its best to sound far more different than its various contemporaries so it had some other appeal to rely on that doesn’t cause the rest of the genre to clump up into one giant musical ball of 808-strewn ennui. That’s where Playboi Carti comes in, not necessarily changing the norm but amplifying it to levels so hefty and dangerous I almost felt like I was minutes away from being trampled by a furious mosh-pit crowd. All of it relies on repetition and boiling an entire style of music down to its bare-bones essentials, but so does Steve Reich’s catalog, and we nerds love that minimalism flick. What’s wrong with a little bit of it in rowdy trap form to have a bit of fun?

#31: Kids See Ghosts – Kids See Ghosts

(G.O.O.D. Music)

Alternative Hip-Hop, Art Pop

ye’s whimsical, flirtatious and only comparatively better-behaved cousin. Kanye West and Kid Cudi stamping out the tension between them was among two of the most wholesome events to result in a new musical project (the other was Ichiko Aoba picking up an acoustic guitar again), and Kids See Ghosts finds its wonders in painting their grievances and troubles into larger-than-life portraits, chasing and defeating ghosts that haunt their psyches, saddling those who they love most and speeding off into the brave and optimistic future. It is home to satisfying verses from Yeezy who decides to actually make an effort this time around, Cudi’s unforgettable mantras in which he sounds the most charismatic that he’s been all decade, an opening track so riotously fun that it beamed a silly grin across my face, and otherworldly production that grapples a ridiculous amount of colourful ideas at once like a child in a jellybean shop. “Beautiful madness”.

#30: Black Dresses – WASTEISOLATION

(Self-Released)

Noise Pop, Post-Industrial

I needed something like this. Loud, distorted and the bombast of windows being smashed with a vexed fist. Through their bouts of frustration and adamant pleas to be treated without scrutiny and alienation, Black Dresses give a clear camera shot into the viewpoints of a transgender individual that has faced enough destruction of self-esteem and safety to take a toll on their composure, and it shows. WASTEISOLATION is anxious and constantly combating trauma with every loud, clattering hook as a means of screaming, often laughing, the pain away. Aside from a message that feels most like it absolutely needed to be expressed on record as a coping device, Black Dresses have also offered one of the most bombastically, powerfully produced industrial albums of the year, on the same wavelength of the early years of Nine Inch Nails' wave (Pretty Hate Machine is the go-to comparison, and I'm not even a profound fan of that one).

"IN MY MOUTH" is also a voring anthem, so there's that, too.

#29: Gnod – Chapel Perilous

(Rocket)

Noise Rock, Industrial, Experimental Rock

Anyone can make an unholy racket. Making one genuinely sound as if it’s ready to crush you into scrap tissue is another story, really. Before Daughers came forward to send everyone into a state of utter pandemonium (more on that later), this was the noisy no-wave stunner of 2018, sticking to rhythms that felt like your submission to a lumbering march and catching you off-guard in a swirl of disorienting… err, noise. I mean, “noise” is the easy way out, but perhaps Gnod are more convincing with it than most, tempering it into cavernous, raucous and steel-plated prisons of sound.

#28: Denzel Curry – TA13OO

(Loma Vista)

Hardcore Hip-Hop

Truthfully, when this album dropped, I was so caught up in the rampant, vicious energy of Denzel Curry’s aggressive cadence and staccato flow and the foggy, mysterious darkness of the album’s atmosphere that I completely brushed past the fact that TA13OO isn’t an album with subject matter to take lightly at all. Not solely because Curry’s aggression comes in spouts of threatening violence and self-harm, rather that these sequences are flashes of dark visions that come to his mind in moments where traumatic and violating memories haunt his psyche. It’s not an album here to yell grief and anguish for the sake of a theatre show (though those familiar with the video for “Clout Cobain” will have realised that idea already), much more that it has an extremely deep unhappiness causing all of it, and Curry spends the three ‘acts’ of this opus attempting to dig deep inside himself and deal with it. Ignore the occasional lyrical slip-up ("she's a plain slut that loves it in the anus" and "me at my lowest (Lois), no Peter Griffin" being the two that come to mind) and you have an exceptional set of tracks, perhaps Curry's best to date.

#27: Sons of Kemet – Your Queen Is a Reptile

(Impulse!)

Afro-Jazz, Dub, Jazz Poetry

A tribute in numerous ways; to the uprising of society in times of political and social turmoil; to the numerous Black women who are honoured and celebrated as vital leaders of movements and oppressed peoples; to the numerous Black musical styles that have had gigantic impacts on modern music and art in general, from dub to dancehall, Afro-beat to Afro-funk. These raised-fist protests and celebrations rallied by the adamant poems, raging brass and fiery grooves are the kind to flash the fancy of Fela Kuti.

#26: Anna von Hausswolff – Dead Magic

(City Slang)

Ethereal Wave, Gothic Rock, Drone, Neoclassical Darkwave

A cursed display of all that Anna Von Hausswolff was ever capable of. Being a fan of all three of her previous albums, I was swept in a wave of excitement seeing the crazy genre tags on this thing, and my word... I wasn't disappointed with how powerfully fierce and thick the purgatorial atmosphere on this is. If the opener gives you a sense of awe and blissful triumph, watch it all crumble and let you fall into a sonic pit of nightmarish church organs and abyssal wailing. There's a reason it's called Dead Magic, ol' pal of mine.

#25: Gurrumul – Djarimirri: Child of the Rainbow

(Skinnyfish)

Post-Minimalism, Indigenous Australian Music, Chamber Music

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is widely known as a performing icon in Australian indigenous music, spinning traditional songs of his native land into universally beautiful folk music. This posthumous endeavour isn’t a folk record as expected, however – it is instead a daring foray into minimalism with a grandiose symphony. At its foundation it is a fiercely moving soundtrack to Australian nature, erupting and weeping all at once, but there’s a strangely triumphant effect that this new, ambitious change in instrumentation for Gurrumul has shifted his voice into; in place of a voice that is close and humanly touching, it becomes one that boldly ascends and hypnotises as one final empowering call.

#24: Gazelle Twin – Pastoral

(Anti-Ghost Moon Ray)

Post-Industrial, Art Pop

MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY IT WAS MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY IT WAS MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY MUCH BETTER IN MY DAY JUST LOOK AT THESE KIDS NOW JUST LOOK AT THESE KIDS NOW JUST LOOK AT THESE KIDS NOW JUST LOOK AT THESE KIDS NOW NO RESPECT NO PROPER JOBS

#23: Park Jiha – Communion

(tak:til)

Post-Minimalism, Avant-Garde Jazz, Korean Classical Music

I am far too aware at this point that the true release date of this album was 2016 and only now have we seen an international distribution for Communion, but we’ve dug too far in and I’m not backing out now – especially as this album’s re-issue has been an awe-inspiring discovery for 2018, even as we move into its final moments of reflection.

It is amazing that an atmosphere can seem so thick despite there only being one instrumental playing at times, alongside the yanggeum and saenghwang, Jiha’s tranquil and forlorn soundscapes pop with more and more colour, plus grieving emotion, the further it moves on, like a sketch of a somber world slowly being drawn to life.

#22: Elza – Deus é mulher

(Deckdisc)

Vanguarda Paulista, Art Rock, Dance-Punk, Samba Soul

At age 80, the accomplished and celebrated Brazilian performer Elza Soares is fronting some of the nuttiest art rock with dance flavours from her home country. It is inspiring to think that age may not necessarily be a drawback or obstacle as many may perceive, but can instead be a display of all the experience and wisdom that the artist has acquired over many years, and in this case decades, of creating art. After being enchanted by the volatile, fierce and samba-inspired A mulher do fim do mundo in 2016, a record that provided a stern look into the social unrest and poverty-stricken conditions of urban Brazil, Deus é mulher (“God is a woman” in Portugese) takes a strong stand for women and the feminine with a new ferocity, even with a shocking dance-punk flavour that had me reeling in ecstasy ("Credo" being the big highlight). An essential listen for its idiosyncratic style and infectious attitude.

#21: Ichiko Aoba – qp

(Speedstar Int'l)

Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary (Acoustic) Folk

Sometimes, all it takes is an acoustic guitar and a voice to melt hearts. Ichiko Aoba’s been doing it for years, although each little installment isn’t a far cry from the last, it’s her ability to be consistently charming with what little she has that keeps me looking forward. As such, it’d be silly to expect much more from qp than what Aoba’s music has mostly been (though super-fans will know how much 0 and her live albums deviate noticeably from that norm): soothing acoustic folk songs where melody cradles the song’s beauty like the caring hands of a puppy’s owner. It’s difficult to be any more poetic about an album so ridiculously simple, so I’d rather let that music do the talking.

#20: Tropical Fuck Storm – A Laughing Death In Meatspace

(Joyful Noise Recordings)

Noise Rock, Experimental Rock, Post-Punk

Though it’s mastered with enough blast power to make Rick Rubin curl up into the fetal position, there’s something sourly intoxicating about A Laughing Death In Meatspace, the debut album from this strange and unafraid supergroup formed by members from Melbourne bands The Drones, High Tension and Palm Springs. Loaded with sardonic political fury and neurotic melodies (so really, standard fare for Gareth Liddiard) that almost emerges too loud and densely packed for comfort at times, the waves of ferocity are still relentless and somehow addictive, even if just one track offers much breathing room. There’s a point, maybe around the sandstorm-esque “Two Afternoons”, where the initial fun starts to feel a little bit stomach-churning and transitions into a realisation that – wow – this shit is actually damn scary. Submit this one for a prized rock record of the year.

#19: Avantdale Bowling Club – Avantdale Bowling Club

(Self-Released)

Jazz Rap, Conscious Hip-Hop

The rush of Tom Scott's (former member of New Zealand hip-hop fusion groups @Peace and Home Brew) solo debut as Avantdale Bowling Club finds him at his most honest and introspective, yet in a completely daring way, enlisting a jazz band to accompany his tales of young adulthood. The instrumentation swells and plateaus in response to aspects of his storytelling, with each shift in rhythm feeling like a new epiphany.

#18: Yves Tumor – Safe In the Hands of Love

(Warp)

Neo-Psychedelia, Hypnagogic Pop, Post-Industrial, Experimental Rock

It feels stupid to attempt to even push an album into several genre labels when it is one that is actively fuelling an effort to liberate itself from confinement. Granted, said confinement is likely to be more about the entrapment and trauma within love than some arbitrary music reviewer trying to keep their list entry structures consistent, but still, it’s worth pointing out that Safe In the Hands of Love goes about presenting those anxious and eventually erupting feelings within a series of highly eclectic and musically unpredictable vignettes, hopping from one dense and ethereal idea to the next like a game of surrealist’s hopscotch. The result is extremely hypnotic, and along the way, despite Yves Tumor’s enigmatic presence as an artist, we really receive a vivid though still impenetrable snapshot into their personal experiences and fears. You might think this is a surreal album in its presentation, but the message it hands to you, within blasts of sudden noise rock spittle and warped synthesiser post-punk inspired pop that’d make Public Image Ltd proud, is tangible and down-to-earth.

#17: Rosalía – El mal querer 

(Sony)

Flamenco Pop, Alternative R&B

Supposedly in Spain, every generation finds its Flamenco nuevo star, and although I’m sure that its revival is a lot more niche than us Western folk might initially assume, I’m glad Rosalía is the one that represents it considering her sudden rise in popularity. El mal querer isn’t anywhere near as intimate or skeletal as Los Ángeles but instead makes comfortable swerves towards the contemporary pop sound that dominates the mainstream. This sounds like a compromise in identity but it truly is not, as the same vocal power, especially those vibratos, are still put on display, and over the course of this brief but self-convinced half-hour, everything from catchy flirtations with auto-tune to Arthur Russell and Justin Timberlake homages opens the doors for Rosalía to experiment with pop flavours while channeling the foundations of her culture with traditional flamenco styles; two musical worlds she was brought up with and are now to be fused in exceptional ways.

#16: Pusha T – Daytona

(G.O.O.D. Music)

Hip-Hop

I’d love to give you a retrospective of Pusha T’s brief dose of controversy sparked this year following one of the most daring conclusions to a hip-hop beef ever since its victim took the victory for one of his own several years ago (for the unaware, see: “The Story of Adidon”), but I’m too busy still bumping this album on public transport wherever I go. Auckland transport doesn’t exactly get to places on time, but that only gives me a chance to press play and re-experience its brief 21 minutes all over again. Daytona has power in brevity, airtight in quality and razor sharp with witty lyric after witty lyric. The production is just as clever and cutting, handled by an enigmatic newcomer to the game, Mr. K. West. Not too familiar with his material as his name certainly hasn’t been one of those circulating the headlines this year, but all in all I must wish him a bright future indeed.

#15: Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar

(Ninja Tune)

Neo-Soul, Indietronica, Experimental Hip-Hop, Art Pop

Although Cocoa Sugar isn’t Young Fathers’ meatiest album, over time I’ve come to realise that it is probably their most honest and in honesty comes a lot more room for emotive framing, which the album has plenty of but with little time to bumble around for. Hypnotic, robust grooves that hum like bass-lines on an Alan Vega project and a chillingly transcendent take on spirituals result in songs that may take you several listens to realise that they are perhaps some of the best they’ve delivered so far. I suppose I am just glad that even following their Mercury Prize win in 2014, the Scottish trio haven’t fallen into an inactive dip of obscurity but rather have found exciting ways to push themselves, their musical ambition and personal statements beyond expectation. Find me clapping along with the boys on “Toy”.

#14: George Clanton – Slide

(100% Electronica)

Hypnagogic Pop, Chillwave

The vaporwave aesthetic is one of the most fascinating and evocative obsessions the Internet has clamped onto during this side of the decade, and here George Clanton is, sweeping up a little bit of it for himself and moulding something aqua-splash refreshing and groove-heavy catchy. Beyond the walls of sound akin to hearing Tears For Fears trapped in a SEGA Dreamcast, Clanton is a more than capable songwriter and vocalist when it comes to floating his vulnerabilities out for listeners to hear and feel engaged with, in fact I’d say the gushing emotions in the instrumentals and in his voice go hand in hand without letting one totally dominate the other. All it takes is a bit of confidence, which is probably a little tricky to muster up at times, but it can result in wonderful things, let me (or Clanton, rather) tell you.

#13: Rook – Shed Blood

(Self-Released)

Electroclash, Noise Pop, Post-Industrial

Both Ada Rook and Devi McAllion, known most perhaps as the two members of noise pop duo Black Dresses (hint hint, we will come face with them again soon...) were involved with a flurry of various projects in 2018, though perhaps one of my favourites was Rook's solo album Shed Blood, a wildly cathartic record facing the trauma and ostracism that a transgender individual experiences. Most glad that many with similar experiences find solace in Rook's confessional writing as well as ear for cathartic songwriting, I still see plenty to appreciate about such a daring set of tracks posed from the viewpoint of one single human being with a scary amount to come forward about. Compared to the heavily distorted output one familiar with Black Dresses may associate with their style, Rook's music is far easier and more melodic on the ears, but it certainly is no less adamant and fist-waving about its vital message.

#12: Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs

(Tan Cressida)

Abstract Hip-Hop

Earl Sweatshirt is known for voicing his personal grievances, but it is just as vital to note that his music marks his attempts to keep soldiering on and bettering himself. The circumstances of the aptly and passively titled Some Rap Songs are shattering (his father was meant to hear the tracks on this album as a musical letter of reconciliation but passed away early this year, leading onto the final two tracks which feel like a tragic outcome for Earl's familial connections), however, over the course of this album, he finds a way to tussle with the tense climate of the past few years while making personal movements forward for himself in daring epiphanies ("Azucar" being the triumphant highlight though made poignant upon discovering what comes afterwards). Admittedly, I see this album continuing to grow on me with further listens, as one which rewards patience but also open-mindedness to the expression of his own grief.

#11: Saba – Care For Me

(Self-Released)

Conscious Hip-Hop, Jazz Rap, Neo-Soul

It doesn't take very long for Care For Me to strike you with the grief that it is so clearly trying to come to terms with. On the opening track, Saba starkly addresses how his cousin, John Walt ("Walter"), was killed "for a coat". "Life" is an uneasy grappling on the volatility of life and especially now that it has been shaken by such trauma. He addresses how writing his troubles away is a catharsis on "Calligraphy". "Fighter" reminisces on familial memories and "Smile" wishes for an escape back to the South to find peace with his parents. It is only once the increasingly nerve-racking "Prom / King" arrives, that Saba lets loose with the details of the entire story that fuels his survivor's guilt and a crushing turning point in his life. Saba's confessions are paired with lush, fluid instrumentals well-versed in the soul and jazz they are so clearly inspired by, however, it wouldn't be the same were it not for his ability to breathe life into them with either pensiveness or urgency at just the right moments. Having given this enough time and listens, this is paired with Avantdale Bowling Club as the two most therapeutic and most beautiful hip-hop albums I listened to this year.

#10: Makaya McCraven – Universal Beings

(International Anthem)

Nu-Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz

Meanwhile attempting to convince myself that overlong jazz 'epics' aren't always necessary endeavours (Kamasi Washington springs to mind), Makaya McCraven manages to mesmerise for an hour and a half with a therapeutic jazz statement. Without words, McCraven raises the tension like roaring waves but what separates Universal Beings from many other ferocious jazz albums I've heard is its percussion and rhythmic section. Each rhythm is a sturdy but eerily mechanical base for a track, leaving a fascinating hip-hop-esque influence on the album, which only makes certain moments even more potent when one of these tracks begins to become so rampant and furious that even the rhythmic section of the band is struggling to keep up. These moments of disarray work wonders and never feel forced nor clumsy.

#9: Kimbra – Primal Heart

(Warner Bros.)

Art Pop, Electropop, Synth Pop

When Kimbra’s third album Primal Heart was delayed from early January until April 20th, I wasn’t so much disappointed as I was excited. Knowing the sheer boldness that had come into prior singles such as the triumphant, earth-shattering “Top of the World” and the waltzy, windy “Everybody Knows”, I had a lingering feeling that the rest of Primal Heart was going to follow suit by being creative, colour-splashed, emotionally strung, and above all, hooky to the nth degree, as I like a lot of pop albums to be. As I guessed correctly, this album sees the sparkly eccentricity and potent imagination spillage being given their catchiest form yet. The gorgeous cover artwork reflects the colour that pops with every next song, despite its relatively weaker ending that takes a page from James Blake (mind you, all throughout the record we're hearing pages from many another known art pop aficionado like Little Dragon or Peter Gabriel). It is not a consistent run of musical ideas, but honestly…? That matters so little when nearly every moment is uniquely infectious.

#8: Vein – Errorzone

(Closed Casket Activities)

Metalcore, Nu-Metal, Alternative Metal

If you informed me at any time before July that my album of the year would be a nu-metal album, I would have had a hearty chuckle. Mainly because most nu-metal albums seem to be able to evoke in me a similar reaction. Errorzone, on the other hand, wasn’t laughable, but instead a highly inventive channeling of old-school hardcore styles that gives metalcore the boost of creativity it’s been practically begging for. A dizzying whirlwind with wackily shifting instrumentals that simultaneously embraces and defies what metalcore is all about. Put on your windbreaker and get freaky.

#7: Niño de Elche – Antología del Cante Flamenco Heterodoxo

(Sony)

Flamenco Nuevo, Avant-Folk, Musique Concrète, Pasodoble, Zarzuela, Saeta, Rumba Flamenca

Astonishing. For nearly two hours, Niño de Elche, also known as the lead singer of peppery post-rock band Exquirla, strains his dystopian and frankly terrifying exercises of traditional Spanish folk and dance styles, and more importantly, never loses me. He does sound as if he loses his mind, though.

Haunting through and through, with the ghoulish and wispy currents of Disc 1, to the livelier, dancier, but no less unsettling Disc 2. In ways, it is as if one is listening to a mixtape of flamenco songs written to reflect a post-apocalyptic landscape. It only makes sense that we end up hearing a wildly agonised Tim Buckley cover along the way. I would also like to disclaim very boldly that there was a high note that Elche hits towards the end that nearly made me entirely shit myself.

#6: Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want

(Ipecac)

Noise Rock, Industrial, Post-Punk, No Wave

So this was it, huh? Even before its official release, the comeback effort from Daughters, a band that had previously dabbled in grindcore and manic post-punk, was making gigantic waves on the Internet in a way that was quite uncanny to me. It turns out that this pre-determined acclaim wasn’t a fluke, either, as such an album became the runaway favourite for noisy music on this side of the year for many, even decade in some excited minds. Sensibly (which this album is not, I should disclaim), You Won’t Get What You Want is predictably misanthropic in the lyrical sense (“with a face like sucking up concrete through a straw”), but its swirling hell-wind of sound proves a lot more of the album’s intended atmosphere than most that try to put up that same effect. It's actually rather poetic in how dread-inducing it wants to be. In other words – it’s not fucking around. It’s stomach-churning; a storm of suffering; yet, weirdly, if you’re into those dissonant monsoons of noise, it’s also a damn decent dance-punk album too.

#5: Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda & Mika Vainio – Live 2002
(NOTON)

Microsound, Minimal Techno

My gut feeling is to tell you as little as possible about this, but that defeats the point of a recommendation, really. Three masters of the avant-garde electronics build monumental soundscapes out of microscopic noises, with each groove feeling akin to fingers lightly tapping the inside of my skull. Terrifying, and it is constantly building and building to the final moments; a finale that leaves me utterly torn apart. One of the most unique musical experiences to hear this year, and even if you are familiar with work from either of these three artists that you could compare to this live recording (most notably Dataplex), the combined efforts of the trio culminate in something cold and calculated but to great effect, in fact, something soul-crushing in its own special way. It's actually astounding that it's all done live, really.

#4: Mid-Air Thief – Crumbling

(Self-Released)

Folktronica, Neo-Psychedelia, Progressive Pop, Dream Pop

I don’t know much about Mid-Air Thief and judging by the lack of information about them online, I doubt a lot of others do, either. They’re from Seoul in South Korea, and they make incredibly beautiful, tear-jerking music, and maybe that’s as far as we’ll go. That is fine. Crumbling doesn’t require a context to grasp the beauty of it as it magically fuses the homely sounds of folk music and chamber pop, with the otherworldly, outlandish tinkers of electronic and glitch music, but in ways yet unheard of to even the most dedicated Fishmans fan. It is poignant and pretty, like a song of romance between you and the last other person on a desolate planet Earth. Realistically speaking, that'd probably go terribly, but I think Mid-Air Thief would like you to escape reality for a moment.

#3: Serpentwithfeet – Soil

(Secretly Canadian)

Alternative R&B, Psychedelic Soul, Chamber Pop, Art Pop, Post-Industrial

Alluring and devilish in the way that most love-oriented albums aren't, Josiah Wise finds himself falling a slave to love, and in no pithy, hesitant way either. Wise's imagery is brutal and unforgiving which contrasts interestingly with his angelic voice, and while the album comes close to sounding heavenly, it subverts this suddenly by burrowing further into darker pits. It's a fascinating duality that ends up keeping me enchanted as well as completely unsettled, and the just-enough-going-on production inspired by gospel, chamber music and post-industrial of all genre combos allows the music to dwell in its own introspection. A truly unique R&B album, and that's if it could truly be classified as one.

#2: Elysia Crampton – Elysia Crampton

(Break World)

Latin Electronic, Digital Cumbia, Folktronica, Sound Collage

"...the older I get, the uglier I want my music to feel, to be."

After hearing this and reading about her underlying inspirations and messages to deliver regarding indigenous survival and queerness, I am extremely excited to hear what else Elysia Crampton has in store for the future.

At an airtight 18 minutes, Crampton wastes no time clashing together angular sound effects that tessellate in freaky, hypnotic ways. Quite frankly, I'm still perplexed at how well these rhythms are formed from the dense layering of sound effects (aaaiiiirhoooorn). It is so rich and dense that its short run-time compliments that; any longer and I'm sure it would've been a bit tiring. Crampton leaves these overwhelming and psychedelic concepts running for as long as they need to be, then moves swiftly onto the next wacky idea. The musical equivalent to bus seat patterns.

#1: Julia Holter – Aviary

(Domino)

Chamber Pop, Ambient Pop, Progressive Pop, Free Improvisation

[I wrote and edited together a 13-minute video attempting to unpack this album for what it is. 13 minutes doesn't sound like a lot compared to most album reviews online, however, considering how brief I keep my thoughts, it should be clear that I had a lot to say about Aviary in comparison. This makes sense; it is not an album kind to brevity considering the nature of its own presentation.]

It is difficult to recommend the album Aviary as a starter’s guide to the music of Los Angeles songstress Julia Holter, not because it doesn’t represent her therapeutic, threateningly involving approach to sound design well enough, more that it does exactly that, just so intensely. Encasing 90 minutes of Holter's own reckoning with her feelings and urges to bestow that passion upon the world, but struggling to find the means of doing so, Aviary feels like a volcanic expression that has been kettling inside her for far too long now. As such, it makes sense that the first minutes of this album are unapologetically overwhelming like a flood of twirling thought – Holter is a poet attempting to find means of expression via sound, pacing, layering instrumental voices including her own. It is a sprawling record so strongly gushing with the indescribable self such that even language begins to fail her – on "Les Jeux To You" she begins to stammer nonsensical dialect, selecting one word after the other, as if it were an attempt to try to gather up the words to articulate herself.

Holter balances tones, colours, moods on Aviary expertly; an achievement considering how unkempt it seems to be at first. Light and dark; peaceful and noisy; the pretty and ugly; one side is an essential compliment to the other just as it is in reality. Holter's music sounds just as alive and congruent to daylight as much as it reckons with the gentle and nocturnal, feeling equal always and never letting the music become too obnoxious nor flat-lined to let the atmosphere shatter. It's a wonderful moment on "Words I Heard", one of the concluding tracks on this album, where the strings are allowed to sing for themselves with little interruption and ultimately instilling a sense of complete wonder and appreciation for the scope of the world and humanity, or at least, in me, anyways...

Perhaps Aviary, understandably, is too long for some listeners, or too meandering, or too absurd, or even grating. "Everyday Is An Emergency" seems to be the split-off point for many in particular. To be honest, I find that all these moments are paramount to the effect of the album. Each soundscape intrigues me as much as the next, many even being powerful progressions from a previous moment on the album ("I Shall Love 2" into "I Shall Love 1" finds itself very effective). I couldn't blame anyone if they didn't find every separate moment as captivating as I did, however, I have to say that it all fell into place for me. A challenge worth the reward, and upon an epiphany it became one of the best albums I've had the opportunity to hold in my hands.