As I started seeing year end lists getting published I thought it might be fun for the SDMB to create their own best of 2018 list.
Come on in and post your favorite albums of the year, tell us why and (if possible) link to a song or two. List as many as you want. I’ll try to compile the whole thing into one big ranked list based on how many votes everything gets.
Only music released in 2018.
I rarely buy music in the same year it is released, but just last week I bought a couple of newly released albums that I am really enjoying. One is Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco)'s new solo album “Warm”, and the other is Rhett Miller (of Old 97s)'s new solo album “The Messenger”. In both cases you would think, these guys are the primary drivers behind the bands they are in, what’s the point of a solo album? But they really are both departures from what you would expect to hear from their respective bands.
Here’s Jeff Tweedy performing “Let’s Go Rain” on Stephen Colbert’s show.
“I Used To Write In Notebooks” and “The Human Condition” from “The Messenger”.
Brandi Carlile–album “By the way, I forgive you”. Several great songs. This video’s cool though:https://youtu.be/8YeQj22Vw0M
I was just going to let this one die due to seeming lack of interest. But if people are posting ill come by with my top albums and links in a couple hours.
I really enjoyed “Twin Fantasy" by Car Seat Headrest, he has a distinctive, wry voice.
I buy a lot of music and listen to even more. Like, a LOT of music (just the stuff that was released this year that I bought is 1.3 days of music). So I think I prolly have a lot more favorites than most people; I apologize for the longish post for those looking for quick links and stuff.
That said, and keeping in mind that almost no one will like any of this music, the best stuff that I heard from this year includes:
Dr. Demento Covered In Punk - prolly self-explanatory, eh
Big Freedia - Rent is just a single, but my iTunes says I’ve listened to it 147 times so far, so it must totally fucking rock. This is bounce music, by the #1 practitioner, IMO.
Brutal Sphincter - Analhu Akbar is one of a handful of truly outstanding grindcore albums I got this year. This is groovy goregrind, for those interested.
Clown Core’s Toilet is pretty amazing; my favorite track is still Hell although The Area 51 Snack Bar Sucks is a close second.
Colin Currie Group’s Steve Reich: Drumming offers fantastic performances and excellent audio quality to really bring Reich’s work to life. Part 1. Steve Reich is one of my favorite composers; to hear his music performed so well AND recorded this well is simply amazing.
Cropdust - Purple Sabbath Diesel has been in steady rotation for months now; it’s only 4 tracks but they’re all winners (if you’re into some seriously heavy angry stoner sludge, that is).
Grindzilla - Toshinquandon is another phenomenal goregrind album from this year.
Nuclear Desolation is a young band from North Carolina that plays old school brutal death metal; their Pestilentia Deorum EP is great head-banging fun. Here’s the opener Acid; best line “dance for me you fucking puppet; I guarantee you’ll love it”!
Ona Snop - Geezer is the best fastcore/powerviolence album I heard all year; all 18 songs got 5/5 rating from me.
Can’t say enough good things about Sleep - The Sciences. The band was silent for nearly two decades and then dropped this near-perfect stoner doom masterpiece on us without warning on, of course, 4/20. 
Props to Slam Police for the best slam album of the year; hands down. 5 tracks, 6 and a half minutes, no waiting, no filler, just slam.
Sleep Terror is a one man instrumental technical death metal band that crosses so many genre lines and blurs the rest of them that it is pretty much its own thing. El Insomne is a dazzling and dizzying ride (and yeah, no cookie monster vocals). Highly recommend this one for the average rock fan who’s feeling adventurous.
Sons Of Kemet is a jazz band from the UK; their Your Queen Is A Reptile is truly outstanding. Conceived as a tribute to influential and important black women and a sharp rebuke to the monarchy, it is a tour de force, epic in scope and performance. My favorites, if you don’t want to plunge in for the whole album, are My Queen Is Harriet Tubman and My Queen Is Anna Julia Cooper.
But the single best album I heard from 2018 was not a metal album (insert murmured sounds of shock and bewilderment). I fell in love with it as soon it started playing in my car and it’s been my default driving music for 9 months now, ever since it was released in April. It’s a jaw-dropping display of composition and production, rapping and turntablism from a trio of artists who are all outstanding in their own right, but who come together to form a group that is in-fucking-credible. And this year, after a 22 year gap, Dan the Automator, DJ Q-Bert and Kool Keith dropped a new album that blew me away: Dr. Octagon - Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation.
All 11 tracks are winners, but if I had to pick a favorite, it’d prolly be Power Of The World (S Curls), despite how much fun Flying Waterbed’s video is.
I got that link wrong; it should be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAs95WJ7RnI&list=PLpcyWaXsvItiE00jNJ8uOSfeVLaccZiab
Lizzo blessed us with two stunners in 2018. Fitness and Boys.
Another vote for Big Freedia’s “Rent.” Introduced me to bounce!
Courtney Barnett put out another album this year, Tell Me How You Really Feel. It doesn’t beat out her older stuff IMHO but standout tracks to me are “Nameless, Faceless” (with Kim Deal on backup vocals) and the rocker “I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch” which has my vote for song title of the year.
I can’t let 2018 go by without a shoutout to my girl Noname, who keeps it funky and lo-fi. She put out a new album, Room 25, which I haven’t had as much time to love as her previous album *Telefone *but it’s still a great listen.
I liked Donald Glover’s “This is America” and Drake’s “In My Feelings”. Also Lil Wayne’s “Uproar”.
Wow. As an Olde Pharte who mostly listens to the same artists* I did back in the 70s, this is really helpful!
Huge thanks to ANYone who’s got recent music recommendations.
*Van Morrison has put out two near-perfect jazz albums… Born To Sing: No Plan B and one with Hammond Jazz Organ Master Joey Defancesco.
Oh, and a “hard blues” album with Jeff Beck!
I’ve said before that I think this has been the best year for Hip Hop in close to a decade, some great albums came out this year and I would like to represent some of them. I will probably add some other releases in a new post.
My top picks this year, No particular order
Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts
One of my favorite albums in a long time. It’s Kanye West and Kid Cudi doing what they actually do best and creating awesome awesome music.
It’s hard to pick what to link to because every song is great. Feel the Loveis probably the most weird and wild in the best way.
Daytona by Pusha T
the opening two tracks of this album have been played more than any other music I have listened to since the album was released in May, by a lot. The Games We Play is maybe, maybe, my favorite track of the whole year.
Book of Ryan by Royce da 5’9"
Royce has been working on this for years and finally put it out, and it was worth the wait. It’s probably his defining work as a rapper and it’s a shame it came out so early in the year because its fantastic and I think people are forgetting it came out this year because it was so long ago.
Sharing Caterpillarbecause it works best out of context and is just impressive as all hell.
Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt
Really recently released, but I have been waiting for this one for a long time. Earl is weird and dark and fantastic. It’s only a few weeks old but I love the production on The Mint. Earl produces his own stuff.
Redemption by Jay Rock
Just tons of fun. Jay isn’t the best rapper on this list by a long shot, but he might be the most fun. King’s Dead is an example of this. It’s just fun, even if it features Future. It also has Kendrick who is always a welcome addition and he and Jay pair really well together.
Drogas Waves by Lupe Fiasco
Just epic. Complex storytelling and musically. Doesn’t do what you expect ever. No idea where to cut into it but I think this track, WAV files, stands alone sort of. It’s about slaves on a slave ship sinking the ship rather than allowing themselves to arrive in America as slaves.
Streams of Thought vol 1&2 by Black Thought
Jay Rock wasn’t the best rapper on here, but Black thought might have a legitimate claim to the title after his pair of short albums came out. His first solo projects without The Roots letting him show off a range that he doesn’t have available to him when working as part of the band. 9th vs Thought shows this off.
FM by Vince Staples
Vince is great and the concept is light and fun and Feels Like Summer. Which is welcome from this late fall release.
I’ll second Snowboarder Bo and Throw Up Moosbumps. See what he had to say. Kool Keith is an alien and the world is lucky to have him.
and Kamikaze by Eminem
I hesitated to put it on the list because it’s just a really weird dis album to the whole world who didn’t like his last album, but it’s just so good to hear Em sounding like Em that it keeps me excited. Lucky You is the track you probably have heard if you have heard a track, but there is a reason for this.
Lots of other good to great stuff too. But this is what I listened to most.
Oooooo! How’d I miss that?
From this year? The Oh Sees’ Smote Reverser. Truly a great addition to their already fantastic catalog. I don’t know if it’s their best, but it’s certainly up there.