Stuck in the snow in Seattle gives me a chance to continue my amateur criticism. So here are my favorite albums from 2018.
5) Offerings by Typhoon
If you want to enjoy an epic storytelling concept album you had a lot of choice in 2018. But I recommend that you skip Murder By Death’s The Other Shore and The Family Crest’s The War: Act I. Instead, I would recommend you sit down with Offerings from Typhoon and open up Lyric Genius to follow along with the narrative. It is a great dark tale of exquisite loss and shouldn't be missed.
4) Love Monster by Amy Shark
Love Monster by Amy Shark is a perfect example how excellence doesn’t need weird sounds or gimmicks to prop it up. 14 tracks of well written, well performed songs, about love and longing is sometimes all you need.
3) All My Shades of Blue by Ruen Brothers
All My Shades of Blue is the result of two young guys from Scunthorpe, England falling in love with a earlier era of American music and playing their hearts out. From top to bottom I dug this album and its big big sounds.
2) I’m All Ears by Let’s Eat Grandma
My system of buying music and putting it into a year long playlist sometimes gives music room to grow on me. This system worked again this year with I’m All Ears by Let’s Eat Grandma. At first it didn’t sit right with me, but I discovered that if I skipped the first two tracks the album slowly grew to be one of my favorites of the year.
1) White Men Are Black Men Too by Young Fathers
Cocoa Sugar was a ton of fun. It was strange and unexpected and a blast to listen to and it totally deserves a place on a best of the year list. However, after hearing it I started poking at earlier albums by Young Fathers and encountered 2015’s White Men Are Black Men Too. It shares a lot of the strengths with Cocoa Sugar except that is is even better in every dimension. A strange and unstoppable juggernaut of an album that became the banner bearer of my musical year.