This is my third year doing this. In both 2016 and 2017, there was one album that soared above the rest and made naming a #1 album of the year an easy, stress-free decision. Until the pressure of making a decision these past few weeks, I hadn't realized what a luxury that the lack of ambivalence the past few years had granted me was. I want to sincerely extent my gratitude to Thank You Scientist (2016) and Angles 9 (2017), for, aside from releasing all-time great albums, sheltering me from the perils of uncertainty that have plagued me in 2018. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every album in my top 10 this year was under reasonable consideration for the #1 spot. In fact, as I start writing my 2018 review today on December 26th, I'm still remarkably undecided on what album was my favorite this year. I'm hoping that as I write and listen the answer will become clear. We'll see how this goes...
Note: If you wanna get straight to the rankings and don't want to suffer through my thoughts and ramblings on each album, feel free to scroll down to the bottom where I've neatly listed my top 25 albums and songs of the year, along with my 2018 all-star band and superlatives. I do tend to mention other great albums and songs that didn't make the cut throughout my post however, so you might miss out on something good!
Top 25 Albums of 2018:
25. The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic
Over time there are certain bands you just come to expect ambition from. Over the course of their career The Ocean have stayed true to to a unique theme of geological eons, and in 2013, they released their most ambitious project yet, a concept album that musically depicted a descent into the deepest depths of the sea. But they've upped the ante even more this time and released their most progressive album to date.
There's some obvious reasons to say this. The song, Silurian: Age of Sea Scorpions, is their most instrumentally diverse experiment yet. They've incorporated cello and other bowed string instruments into their music before, but its even more prevalent this time around, and moreover, the song features a brass section in the closing minute.
A little less obvious, but more important in my mind however, is their more progressive approach to songwriting on this record. They've done long songs before, but for the first time on this album, the shorter songs are a brief exception to the norm of 7-11 minute tracks that make up the LP.
The longest song on this album, Devonian: Nascent, really sees them exploring great tension-building songwriting with its atmospheric intro and its gradual build up into heaviness. It features guest vocals from Jonas Renkse, who's uniquely solemn and rustic vocal timbre is a perfect match for the earthy concept of the album. I'm not usually crazy about random guest vocals in serious and intense music like this, as it can feel a bit forced, but this match is impeccable. I really like it when The Ocean's lead singer Loïc Rossetti doubles up Renkse vocals with his growls. This song also has one of the best musical moment on the album as well about 7 minutes in when they break things down to just drums and bass for a moment before introducing a gnarly eastern sounding guitar riff, and build that up into an extremely heavy sludge metal section. The bass tones on this album are so massive and dirty. It really sticks out as a highlight on this record, more so than I can remember on past releases.
In fact, the upfront role of the bass on this record, along with the longer songs, gave me impression that there is a very significant Tool influence going on here that I've never detected in their music before. The main contribution to that specific suspicion are the vocals however. Right off the bat, the first clean vocals that appear on the album in Cambrain II: Eternal Recurrence, immediately reminded me of Maynard James Keenan. Its consistent throughout the record, but most apparent on the final track, Permian: The Great Dying.
This song has some of the most stripped down moments of the record and Rossetti takes that opportunity to deliver some very memorable and eerie verses in that space. Aside from the similar melodic approach, I think his sort of 3rd person narrative lyric-writing style is what givens it that Maynard-esque sense of weight and importance, with standout lines like "Yes it's true what they say / I don't love humanity / Not a bit / But I do value empathy". I find it very odd that some people like The Ocean better as an instrumental band, as I find Rossetti's vocal performance on this song to be outstanding. The verses really drag you into their atmosphere, and the way the cellos and clean guitars layer in is sublime. And the final section of the song really seals the deal on the value that Rossetti brings to the band, as he closes out things with so much power and displays some formidable vocal prowess. Can't go without also mentioning that the drums in the last two minutes are magnificent; great fills.
The album ends on a rather sudden cliff-hanger type climax, as this is apparently only part one of a two part double album, with the second half slated for release in 2020. I for one, can't wait. Whatever they do with part two, one thing is for sure, it's going to be something ambitious, and the fact that I can be certain about that is why The Ocean is such a great band.
The double album thing is getting pretty popular, especially in the progressive metal community, possibly because of the short attention spans of people in the streaming age. Between the Buried and Me used the double album strategy to actually split up their release of an album in the same year. I've always had a bit of trouble getting into these guys even though I do really like some of their stuff, but I probably enjoyed Automata I and Automata II more as a whole than any other BTBAM album, and it was pretty close to getting on this list. I think that Blot is certainly one of the best prog metal epics of the year.
And finding themselves a little bit between the respective three-year and one-year double album strategies of the bands that I just mentioned, are the Icelandic sort of prog-pop rock band 22, who actually made my list last year with part one, and almost made it this year with You Are Creating: Limb2. Last year they had two of my favorite songs of the year which is why they made the list, but this new one is still a very solid release, with very catchy and intricate songs like Call me Trimtab.
24. boygenius - boygenius
Yes, I include EP's on my top 25 albums list. In the digital age it seems like the distinction between EP and LP is becoming less significant, with lots of artists in different genres releasing 30 minute albums, and some prominent hip-hop artists releasing "LP's" under 25. So when I hear an EP with six great songs, absolutely no filler, and a compelling sound, there's no reason not to put it on my list.
I love the idea of these type of collaborative singer-songwriter albums, but not because I'm a huge fan of all three of these women (yet). Julien Baker released my 3rd favorite album of 2017, so she's obviously on my radar, but I was more or less unfamiliar with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. I just love the idea of three independently creative singers with their own unique identity coming together. Singer-songwriter music is much more about the identity of the artist than most other genres, which can be great, but there's something to be said about the way multiple creative minds can create something totally distinct and multi-dimensional in more instrumentally focused music like rock and jazz, and taking that approach with singer-songwriter music has a lot of possibilities.
They do a very good job of playing roles throughout the EP. Needless to say, the vocal harmonies that grace each song are beautiful. But there's a lot of stepping in and out so to speak. The song Stay Down for example bares a lot of resemblance to Baker's solo work, as aside from taking the vocal lead, it features some classic Julien Baker reverby Telecaster, climactic structure, and depressingly hard-hitting lyrics like "I'm in the backseat of my mind".
Even though Baker is the big name, I feel that Dacus is the most vital member to the group. Baker and Bridgers have relatively similar voices and ranges, but Dacus' very warm and somber vocal delivery on a song like the opening track, Bite the Hand, is not only very moving, but with Baker and Bridgers backing her up with higher harmonies, it fills out the music so well. It doesn't hurt that the writing is extremely well done. The song has a really distinct progression from beginning to end with totally seamless transitions. The part of this song that I love the most is when they cascade their voices one by one over each other at the end. Again, I think it's worth noting that what makes boygenious work is how deliberate they are when choosing where to have one voice, where to have two, and where to have all three.
This EP benefits from being structured very well. Most of these track have quite dense production for singer-songwriter music, and that density culminates on the very bluesy balled Salt in the Wound, which upon it's climax features some great high-powered belts by Bridgers; something that distinguishes her a bit from her two counterparts in the context of the whole EP.
And then just as it seems that boygenius might be more of a altrock group than a singer-songwriter trio, they close out the EP with their most stripped down and folky song, Ketchum, ID, which is comprised of only vocals and acoustic guitar. It's a very special moment when all three of them match up for vocal harmonies on this song as it's the first time you really get to hear all three of them in a nearly secluded sonic setting, something that fits really well with the lyrics: "I am never anywhere, anywhere I go / When I'm home I'm never there long enough to know".
In fact, a big part of why this EP made my list I think is because of how well structured it is. Even though it's a relatively short listen, it does feel like a very thoughtfully and artistically constructed piece of work, and listening to it as a whole is very rewarding. I think certain styles of music may necessitate 35+ minutes but these three are really able to get a lot out in 22. Certainly enough to be one of my favorites this year. Who knows though - maybe we'll see a full-length from them in the future.
More in indie EPs - this time in the broad genre of indie rock, I really enjoyed Bat Brains by a band called Jakals. Extremely powerful vocals on this and some great guitar playing as well. I hate to even call it indie rock cuz it feels so much more sophisticated and dense. Maybe alternative would be more appropriate. Anyhow, there's a lot of variation and I like how kind of dark and heavy they get on the final track, It's All the Same. Very moving build up in that song. This EP was definitely only a few songs away from this list.
23. Night Verses - From the Gallery of Sleep
I'm actually a pretty big fan of heavy instrumental music, but I tend to lean more towards post-metal rather than uber-technical, guitar-centric prog; there's a lot of bands trying to ride the wave that Animals as Leaders set off, and while I like Tosin Abasi and company a lot, I'm not necessarily interested in hearing what everyone one else's take on that sound is, as it's getting a bid redundant and ostentatious, and no other band really does it as well.
I mean, complexity is cool. I'm not one of of those "David Gilmour is the best guitarist ever, man"-kind of person either, but I do find a lot of instrumental prog to be too focused on guitar technique and not on emotive songwriting, and to some extent, there's just so many incredible guitarists out there now that it takes more than skill and speed to generate interest.
What I'm saying is that I'm not actively looking for the next highly technical instrumental band, but what caught my ear about Night Verses is that while they are extremely technical in many cases, they write very intense, moving music and have a very particular sound identity. In a way, it's more like very advanced high-tempo post-metal, which is a way that you could describe all heavy instrumental prog in theory, but Night Verses really keep the spirit of emotive songwriting despite their technicality, in way that most bands of that nature don't.
One way that guitarist Nick DePirro distinguishes himself from other amazingly skilled guitar players is his use of effects and textures. Lots of great delay tones on this record, like in the clean section of the opening track, Copper Wasp. He uses a lot of wah-pedal on his guitar in this song too, and a lot of other points on the album. Wah is actually one of my musical pet peeves. I think a lot guitarists tend to abuse it and I tend to sneer a little when people bring out the wah pedal in rock and metal. But I have to give DePirro credit as he uses it really effectively to give these song an interesting feel. This song actually has one of the only real guitar solos on the album, in the sense that he uses a bunch of successive non-repeating patterns, but it's a really unique solo and interestingly one of the less technical guitar moments on the record, being more of a textural solo (by his standards). I really like the sort of whammy-esque sound he gets by sliding into the higher notes in succession with the closing of his wah pedal near the end. In fact, DePirro develops a sort of signature sliding sound with delay throughout the album. It's a very cool sound. It's sort of Adam Jones-esque in a way, along with the wah pedal use, but far more technical.
He experiments with effects even more on other parts of the album. On a song like No.0, he uses an actual whammy effect to get some really outlandish Tom Morello-sounding riffs. I think a lot guitarists in this genre are too concerned with technique-flaunting to dabble with effects and get creative sounds like this, so DePirro's is able to carve out a sort of niche and establish an identity by incorporating these effects so frequently. He doesn't depend on them exclusively however, and he does have some straight up great technical guitar sections, like at the end of this same song, where he breaks out a really magnificent riff with a very creative incorporation of natural harmonics.
The guy who really steals the show with his amazing playing however is drummer Aric Improta, who aside from having the coolest name ever, puts on an incredible and intense performance on nearly every track. I tend to appreciate more finesse-based, jazzier drumming and get a little tired of the hard-hitters, but for whatever reason I really like Improta's belligerent, no mercy-style on here. It's not subtle but it is very creative. If you listen to the climax of the song No Moon, you can really hear how much his style strengthens the music, as the way he double times and switches up the rhythm really raises the energy at that crucial point, not to mention a couple of absolutely savage fills.
I think there's something to be said for the drummer being the most lavishly technical member of an instrumental prog band, as when the guitarist takes that roll it often means sacrificing good melodies and riffs at the altar of instrumental proficiency. That's not to say that a drummer can't over do it, but I think a percussionist can get away with playing fast and complex parts more consistently because it's an atonal instrument, which means that changing the amount of notes has less effect on changing the overall feel of the part. It usually just has more of intensifying effect, whereas adding a bunch of notes to a great melody can easily diminish its emotional quality because you're cutting off the notes that make that melody special. You may not want to intensify a part, so I'm not saying that flagrant drumming is always okay, but these guys are clearly going for a very intense sound so Improta's style really helps. More to that point, there's a lot of space for percussive extravagance because they're only a three-piece band.
Another thing I noticed about having three members is that the chemistry between them is very tangible and helps to develop their distinct and characteristic sound. That's something you hear with Animals as Leaders too. Without a singer, that extra element of character is vital to making the music stand out, and something about each player having a very defined role and space in the music goes a long way in accomplishing that.
As incredible musicians continue to push the boundaries of technical and instrumental based music, I'm hoping that we get more releases with as much character as Night Verses have on this record, as there is a really unique sort of depth to this type of music when it's done as more than an exercise in complexity.
I did really enjoy the new Polyphia album New Levels New Devils, which seems to be the most celebrate instrumental metal/rock release this year. I'd never listened to them before but I was super impressed with their sound. Problem is I ended up glazing over the more upbeat, Chon-esque tracks a little bit. Not cuz I don't like them but just because that sound is a little played out I think. The darker tracks on this though... They're insanely good. Really twisted chords and intense jerky rhythms. Songs like Nasty, O.D., Bad, G.O.A.T. are some of my favorite songs this year period, probably giving the nod to the last due to the badass bass and drum duet section. The entirety of all these songs are badass though, and I especially love the brassy orchestration that's included. Really close to making my list, might even by 26.
22. Big Heart Machine - Big Heart Machine
I think that part of the reason that new instrumental jazz music is heating up and becoming exciting again is that modern jazz musicians and composers are less likely than ever to be exclusively interested in jazz as listeners of music. It's nothing new for jazz music to be mixed with other genres; fusion has been going on for a half-century, but what we're getting now is music that is more or less purely jazz in its instrumentation and sound, but it's different because the creators are looking for inspiration in other places. In a way it's like a fresh start for the genre.
If you follow composer Brian Krock on social media, in between posts about the next Big Heart Machine performance, you may see him posting transcribed saxophone covers of guitar solos from Meshuggah songs. I don't think I would immediately jump to assume that the unique rhythmic complexities of progressive metal and rock were a direct influence on this music, but listening to it with that knowledge you can definitely hear it. It's certainly a fitting match, since the rhythmic complexity of prog was inspired more by jazz than anything, but now that prog has been on its own it has sort of mutated into its own thing thanks to bands like Meshuggah, it feels totally different incorporating it back into jazz.
Right from the get-go in Don't Analyze, there are some mind-boggling time signature changes forming that foundation of its dark brassy groove. Granted I think it's safe to say that the rhythms in this song are more complex than anything Meshuggah and most prog bands have ever done. It's pretty crazy, and serious kudos to the drummer for taking a solo over it near the end. That couldn't have been easy.
But as the title of the first song implies, it matters not so much what Krock's inspirations are, but more so that these are some fantastically composed big band jazz tunes. The five part Tamalpais medley is a real rollercoaster of dynamic contrast. Tamalpais III: Stinson Beach in particular has a very powerful saxophone lead avant-garde climax. Amidst the medley are also the most non-jazzy parts on the LP, as there's a couple moments where the distorted guitar kicks in and you can really tell that he's pulling from elsewhere.
It's not really the occasional inclusion of distorted guitars, or the prog-esque medley transitions, or even the odd-time signatures that make me love Krock's unique approach to big band composition, so much as the degree to which he's willing to drag his songs into darker, dare I say heavier territory. It's a sound that I think needs to be explored more - heavy big band. Every time that they build up to one of those intense moments on this album it's awesome. Just listen to the end of Jelly Cat. The dark clashing brass that closes out that song sounds so uniquely massive. Chaos and heaviness go hand in hand I think, and well it's totally normal for experimental big band music to get very chaotic, it's not usually as dark as it is here. That sound is really special to me. In fact, I'm kind of hoping that if Krock continues this project, he really doubles down and just tries to create the heaviest, darkest, filthiest big band album ever. It seems like he'd be the guy to do it. Nonetheless, the prog-inspired heavy big band he's putting forth on this album is already an unprecedented achievement and I'm really looking forward to hearing more, no matter what direction he takes it in.
A little more explicitly rooted in rock, but also very good was an album called Another Shape of Psychedelic Music by Mythic Sunship, which features some great sprawling saxophone lead jazz fusion/hard rock. Check out the song Elevation. Pretty close to being on this list.
On the total other end of the jazz meets rock spectrum are The Reign of Kindo with their new album Happy However After. Already a really big fan of these guys. I actually really like the balled About Love, especially the powerful vocal performance and the sort of Radiohead-esque electronic direction it takes. Would love more of that from them.
21. VOLA - Applause of a Distant Crowd
It's totally common for a heavy band to embrace a more mellow and melodic sound as their career goes on and their tastes change - almost expected, and sometimes rather drastic. And yet, to do so on their second album is far more of an irregularity. While there's still some noticeable traces of their heavy origins, VOLA are really positioning themselves as a sort of alternative rock band on this new record. Although some bands get a hard time from their fans for that sort of change, even late into their career, I generally like to hear what artists that I respect can do with different sounds and visions so I'm typically pretty open to it. It's a tougher sell for me when a band changes this early though, especially since VOLA is (or was) one of those bands whose appeal circulates around a premise of two distinct styles coming together, that being synthpop/dream pop and rhythmic extended range metal, a.k.a. djent.
And I don't mean to say that they're "not metal anymore". There's still some Meshuggah inspired riffage on here, most notably on Smartfriend, which breaks down into some awesome polymeter based heaviness after the second chorus. It's definitely something you could categorize as djent, but the synth-laden catchy chorus really offsets that heaviness in a sublime way. Also sounds a bit like "Deadwing"-era Porcupine Tree during the verses to me. The Meshuggah meets Depeche Mode thing is a very compelling amalgamation of styles, which is why it's a bit surprising that they don't stick to it that closely on the LP as a whole.
I think they're taking an important step with this record though. You can only cash in on a great premise of two combined sounds for so long. What keeps a band making great music in the long run is great songwriting and artistic vision. They could've milked their initial sound for a while, but you have to respect how they're asserting themselves as something more than a compelling novelty.
For every song that harkens back to their heavy beginnings, there's a song that's so soft it probably can't even be considered rock. But what I enjoy most about this record is when they are able to consolidate all the diversity that they're capable of into a single track. This happens on the song Alien Shivers, which starts off with a pretty heavy riff, but ends up being a rather unheavy, yet beautiful song. The chorus in this one jumps out immediately - it's one of the best of the year I think. It's a simple quality, but one of the things that's really appealing about VOLA is that they can write a damn good chorus. Not everyone can do that. I really love on this song how when they double up the chorus for the second go-round they let it run through the first time without guitar or drums - just vocal, keyboard and synth. It's such a beautiful moment.
The keyboard and synth tones on this album are stellar and wonderfully prominent at nearly every point. They allow a lot more room in the mix for keys and vocals too by not going for the overpowering and over-compressed drum and guitar sound that's so common with extended range guitar-based metal now. The guitars actually have a pretty unique tone - they have a sort of washed out kind of distortion to them, especially when they're strumming chords. They sacrifice a little bit of bite during the heavier riffs with these tones, and a little bit of clarity when the mix is full, but at the same time, I think contributes to the vaporous sort of tone that this album has, even linking with the album artwork in a way, as I see it.
I mentioned before that songwriting and artistic vision are what a band needs to last - I specifically had in mind the title track when I wrote that. I love the lyrical concept of this song, one that of course ties into the whole album, it being the title and all. It deals with the modern quagmire of technological dependence and the lyrics in the second verse deal with social media very directly: "Watch me now I'm vanishing in the light / I'm filtering my loosing streak warm and bright / A history I've left behind, high on words / Of all the stupid things we said but never heard". I love the imagery of someone trying to liven up the mundane events of their life retroactively from their phone by brightening up the colors; really captures that sense of futility and provokes some interesting sociological questions. Along with great lyrics, this song is also an instrumental highlight, with a great energetic riff, a very smoothly pulled-off 12/8 chorus, and a really effective and climactic A-B-B-C-C-A song structure.
The title of this song and the album itself puts forth a rather profound idea regarding how our obsession with social media possibly promotes a sort of detached narcissism where we care more about the image and persona of us that circulates the online community of people we barely know or don't know at all, and that "distant crowds" approval, and care less about who we genuinely are and the connections that we make with people in real life. It's important to note too that VOLA do a great job of not being preachy or agenda-driven in any way with this, but rather they just sort of raise the issue with this vivid imagery. And that is really the way to go when it comes to these kinds of lyrical concepts, as it comes across as a lot more authentic and vulnerable, and less arrogant and pseudo-intellectual.
I had no idea going in that VOLA were capable of this kind of thoughtful songwriting and vision. It's a very promising capacity for them to reveal and along with the unpredictable diversity of the music I think they've made quite the bold statement with this record.
Another song that dealt with this same issue was the song Disillusioned by A Perfect Circle, off their much anticipated comeback album Eat the Elephant. The album's got some good moments though it didn't really grab like their earlier work for the most part. But this song is really special. Maynard James Keenan provides some characteristically wise and weighty lyrics about being "overrun by our animal desires" and admonishes us that it's "time to to put the silicone obsession down". It's got a great guitar driven alt-rock drive to it, but they take a big risk by breaking it down to a very understated and atmospheric piano interlude. It makes for a beautiful moment, and I think it serves as a very profound musical choice. The listener is probably expecting the song to get heavier and instead they defy those expectations and appeal to our most basic type of musical beauty - a sort of musical metaphor for embracing the natural beauty of the world and not being consumed by the instant and easy stimulation offered by technology. Or maybe they just liked how the piano sounded in that part...
20. HAGO - HAGO
With the modern popularity of progressive instrumental metal, I've heard a lot of people throwing around the phrase "jazz-metal", and I've always thought it was a bit contrived. Sure, plenty of metal musicians nowadays have backgrounds in jazz, and some of them are taking direct influence from it. But jazz has a sort of prestigious connotation for a lot of people, especially musicians and the kind of people that listen to complex and technical music, and it seems to me that people are a bit liberal with the word because it has some inherent value amongst us music snobs (yes, me included). What I'm saying is that I don't think a noticeable jazz influence is enough to justify calling something jazz-metal. Some degree of jazz influence is essentially inescapable in nearly every popular genre nowadays.
And so I've silently scoffed at people on the internet every time I've heard that phrase for a while now, but without knowing any positive examples of jazz-metal, that pedanticism was admittedly somewhat unjustified. Well thanks to HAGO, I can finally say, "no, this is jazz-metal", because on their debut self-titled album, that's exactly what they are.
It's not just a novelty mixing of the two however. HAGO establish a very distinct sound on this record, with some very prominent eastern melodic and rhythmic influences on display throughout. I think that distinguishing element is really important, as it makes their sound so uncomparable to anyone else. Listening to the song Gefilte Kabab, you'll notice how distinctly middle eastern the melodic themes are.
But aside from the innovation, some of the appeal of this album is just the pure level of musicianship that runs throughout the entire band. HAGO was conceived at Berklee College of Music, and that level of education is absolutely apparent. I could go on and on talking about the plethora of fantastic solos on this record; guitar solos, keyboard solos, sax solos, bass solos. Not to mention the rhythm section, who supply extremely tight complex foundations to nearly every track. This album probably contains the highest concentration musical talent of any album I've heard this year, and maybe the couple years past.
I do feel compelled to mention at least, on the song Antikythera, there is a sensational solo by saxophonist Nerya Zidon in the first half of the song. It starts off slow but the rest of the band makes several transitions during the course of the solo and by the time they reach maximum heaviness the saxophone is going completely berserk in avant-garde fashion. That specific part of the song is so wild, and it's offset so well when they then segue into a gorgeous isolated acoustic piano solo by pianist Tom Bar. What's important about these solos, on this song and the rest of the album, is that they have intent. I don't want to give the impression that this album is full of highly educated wankery. It's quite the opposite. Both the solos I just mentioned work wonderfully to move the track along and set up the massive and heavy climax. I love how the low piano notes sound doubling the chugging guitar riffs in the last portion, as well. There's so many elements to this album that make me think as I'm listening, "I wish more bands would do that".
But in the long run it is the composition that makes HAGO such a promising new band. As I talked about with the solos, they really show a consistent penchant for using their technical skills to develop their songs from one section to the next. They always have a point that they're building up to and it seems that every part is composed with that in mind.
I love how on a song like Aurora, they let the very atmospheric jazz fusion elements of their sound simmer for over 6 minutes before dramatically reintroducing the heaviness. This is something I talk about a lot, but the dynamic contrast between the mellowness and heaviness makes each respective mood so much more powerful. And as they do on most of their songs, this song has very clear melodic themes that are reintroduced several times throughout the song including the end. It's certainly a big plus that pretty much every second of this album is filled with interesting and intricate musical ideas, but the band's understanding that each idea plays a role in the grand scheme of each climactic composition is why I'm including this album on my list. Really excited to hear more music from these guys.
There was in fact a lot of brass in metal this year. An album I've seen on top of people's favorite metal albums of the year more than any is this technical death metal album by Rivers of Nihil called Where Owls Know My Name. There's a lot of saxophone on this album. I'm not a big tech death guy. I think the triggered kick drum blast beats get a little to grating, although these guys do it a little less than most. I do like this album. The title track is the most dynamic song on the record and it's one of my favorite heavy songs of the year. I noticed actually that some of the death metal parts on this record are pretty catchy too. Maybe I need to check out more tech death. The blast beats always turn me away before I get a chance to find anything catchy. I wish the saxophone was used in a little more of an avant-garde fashion, as they only do that once on the album and it's very brief. I think those sounds go so well together, anytime you have a sax in heavy music and it's not doing that I'll see it as a bit of a missed opportunity. But I'll definitely keep tabs on these guys and if they continue to experiment and get more dynamic I could totally latch on to their sound.
The black metal group Imperial Triumphant actually do get very avant-garde on their album Vile Luxury, with everything from a big band arrangement on Swarming Opulence to erratic jazz piano on Lower World. Some of the songs don't feature that element, so again, I wish they committed more to it. But where they do include the avant-garde jazz instrumentation it molds incredibly well with the dissonant and under-produced black metal sound. This is actually a pretty monumental release and I'm very excited to hear more combinations of the two.
19. Kadhja Bonet - Childqueen
There's not necessarily a shortage of psychedelic music coming out right now, but one thing I've noticed about a lot of modern psych is that while it has the weird sounds, and the dense soundscapes, there's one simple yet fundamental element that it tends to lack: the beauty.
If you listen to most of the 60's psychadelia, it doesn't rely exclusively on quirkiness and trippy production, part of what made that sound was the symphonic element. A lot of those records featured gorgeous string sections and other orchestral embellishments. That melodic classical influence is part of what distinguished psych from the bluesy basis of rock n' roll.
Fast-forward to 2018, this sophomore album from Kadhja Bonet, is some of the most beautiful psychedelic music I've heard. It's overflowing with gorgeous and ethereal vocal melodies, and it's chalk full of symphonic texture.
First off, I can't get enough of her singing. Her vocal style has a sublime sort of tenderness to it. It's dainty. It's delicate. She's one of those singers that sings quietly enough that you can hear her lips separating as she pronounces her lyrics. More importantly, she makes fantastic, very evocative melodic choices with her singing. There's so much to talk about in that respect. The dense harmonies that make up the opening track, Procession, along with the marching percussion, give off a sort of Jefferson Airplane, playfully-ominous vibe. On the other hand, the isolated verse vocals in the penultimate track, Second Wind, provide a very intimate moment, as she sings wonderfully hippie-tinged lyrics: "sometimes I forget / moss grows from my lips / I am fertile, I am rich / I am wise in mineral", sort of personalizing the human relationship with the earth.
But as I mentioned at the start, it's a lot more than her vocals. I was really impressed with the song, Joy which comes across as a classical-fusion piece, featuring some fantastic string arrangements of both soaring violin leads and pizzicato, as well as flute. Reminds me a bit of some of my favorite early 70's Italian symphonic progressive rock bands.
The following song, Wings, is also heavy on the strings, but this one brings back the smooth rhythm section. Kudos to the bassist on this album, as he really adds another dimension to songs like this with his intricacies. There's a very noticeable absence of individually polyphonic instruments for much of this album which leaves a lot of room for the fantastic, sometimes rather funky bass playing. That sound is really aided by the production too, as the bass and drum so sound warm and smooth on every track. Combined with the retro strings sounds and Bonet's serene voice it makes for such a pleasurable listen.
That groovy component of her music culminates to a climax on the eight track, Mother Maybe, which features what is probably the only genuinely high-energy section of music on the album. She doesn't miss the opportunity though. You know it's gonna be a bit different as soon as the James Brown-esque punchy staccato brass grooves kick the song off, but it builds up even higher from there into the end, where Bonet really unleashes her inner-soul and puts on a show of vocal acrobatics. It's a great moment, particularly because of how starkly in contrasts the peaceful nature of the rest of the LP.
18. Terminus - Fortune Looming
In the 2000's bands like Mastodon and Baroness successfully pioneered a great new subgenre of progressive sludge metal with really distinct guitar riffs and fuzzed-out harmonies. When I discovered Terminus in 2016 with their album Safe Travels, See You Never - one of my favorites that year - I definitely noticed that influence, but at the same time they had sort of retro sound, and so I likened them to more of a progged-up Black Sabbath. On this new album however, they really dig into that modern prog sludge and stoner sound, and they do a great job with it.
I did love the retro sound, but at the same time, there's not really many young bands carrying the prog sludge torch, and that was such a compelling sound, so it's really exciting to hear songs like Stoke the Flames and The Hotspur, which are based around a couple massive and distinctly Mastodon-esque sludge riffs and feature some totally Baroness-inspired harmonies.
I don't mean to pass them off a derivative though. The riffs and harmonies fall into that category, but the rest of the music it totally different, which makes them such an interesting band. Whereas sludge metal nearly always consists of gruff, masculine vocals, Terminus offer the complete opposite. The very obvious comparison is Geddy Lee from Rush - the singer has that very specific sort of cartoony, squeaky energy to it, where his voice is higher range but it's not really nasaly - on the verge maybe of sounding like a female voice even. It's a really interesting sound in that context. I can see fans of sludge metal not digging this because of that, but for me, and I'm sure a lot of other prog fans, this is a really cool mix. In a way, because of the singing, they sound more like Mastodon and Baroness' most recent albums.
But something that really surprised me on this album is that while it's noticeably heavier in spots, it's also got some really upbeat and catchy, dare I say poppy sections. A song like Believe Me, really caught me off guard on first listen. It's such a catchy song, with a sing-along chorus and tight, groovy drum beats. The coolest thing about this song is that it starts to get heavier after the second chorus, and then all of a sudden it gets extremely poppy - complete with a very creative rhythmic tremolo-effect (or very high noise gate and muting) guitar line. It strikes me even as being a sort of dance-rock tune at this point. Totally unexpected but it ended up being one of my favorites on the record.
But I don't want to give the wrong impression, they may borrow a lot from Mastodon and Baroness, they may have pop-elements, but Terminus are a progressive rock and metal band, and that's very apparent on the 7+ minute closing track, Renown, which displays Terminus in all their glorious heaviness and lightheartedness. The riffs, the harmonies, the singing, it's all there on this song. The ending does a lot for the album as whole, as it really helps to seal together the seemingly incompatible styles that are channeled throughout the LP. I really enjoyed the longer song on their last album too, so I can't help but imagine how much I would love for Terminus to really indulge their progressive nature and commit to longer songs on a future album. Either way, this band totally deserves a lot more attention as they've developed a really unique niche of music that is gold for people like myself, and I think that kind of stylistic differentiation is one of the best things anyone can say about a band or an artist.
17. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Deafheaven's popularity has always been really interesting to me. Their combination of black metal instrumentation and shrieking vocals with uplifting post-rock and melodic shoegaze is totally unusual and bizarre, and when I listen to it, I enjoy it as a lover of musical innovation and as someone that really enjoys hearing abnormal and seemingly unworkable stylistic mergers. When an artist takes multiple contrary genres and works them together, it creates a really specific feeling, and I've always felt that being able to create a really specific feeling that no other piece of art can fully replicate is the pinnacle of creativity.
But generally when I find music like that, it's because of how relentlessly I search for underground and niche music. I don't really expect those kinds of intriguing experiments in musical juxtaposition to appeal to most. If you showed me Deafheaven, and I was not aware of their existence, I would still love it, but I would just assume that they were just some unheard of band buried deep within the glossed over internet alcoves of unrecognized musical ambition and talent. Hell, some of the other artists on this list fall into that category, and even compared to a lot of them, I find Deafheaven rather inaccessible.
I know that I'm not just totally out of touch from the mainstream. I'm fairly certain that a high percentage of the population would still be turned-off by this album as soon as the vocals kick in, but somehow Deafheaven have found this very active niche occupied by indie fans and metal heads alike. I'm not sure if they got really lucky and took-off for some happenstance reason as the cool band to like or if they just struck gold with their particular stylistic formula. And to clarify, I do think they're awesome, it just seems odd to me that so many other people feel that way too.
I can explain why I like them though, but on this album, I feel that reason is changing a little bit. Something I've noticed a little bit on this album is they've incorporated some longer, more nuanced chord progressions into their music. Like a lot of metal, previously their music hasn't really even been based around evident chords progression so much as just melodies, riffs and ideas. But on the opening track, You Without End, they open up with a wistful piano part that honestly sounds like it could be the opening to a Beatles or Queen song. In fact, as the lead guitar kicks in later it reminds me a lot of Brian May.
That characteristic rock n' roll lead guitar style, or the pentatonic scale as you call it, is something that I would have considered totally anathema to Deafheaven's sound, but it's all over this LP - nearly every song, and they're the most prominent element in a lot of the most defining moments on the album. There's no way I would have expected Deafheaven to have one of my favorite guitar solos of the year, and much less would I expect that solo to be a soulful bluesy rocker, but that's just what they do near the end of the song Canary Yellow. It's definitely indicative of their songwriting prowess that they make this new sound such a prominent and distinguished aspect of the record, as I think that if they only included one or two instances of that style it would seem out of place, but because they really commit to it, it ends up being a sort of defining melodic choice for the whole project.
But aside from the solos, what really makes Deafheaven masters of song-craft is the way they compose these 10+ minute songs. Amidst all the twists and turns and dynamics, not a single transition on this album has even an inkling of inefficacy. I consume a lot of long-form music, and that's something you can't say for many full albums that focus on lengthier songs. There are so many great ideas, awesome riffs, harmonized leads, packed into the closing track, Worthless Animal, and yet it's easy not to notice how many parts there are becuase of how connected they feel. There's even great song-to-song transitions in between most of these tracks too which is something that always endears me to a record.
On their breakthrough record "Sunbather", there was a very palpable sort of melancholia to their sound. While it had an uplifting component, I felt that the screaming vocals symbolized a sort of deep-seated suffering repressed beneath a facade of happiness and well-being. In a way, it was darker than most overtly dark metal in that it represented a sort of trapped and subjugated emotion that was begging to be released. On their new record, in the song Honeycomb, they lay out a profound 11-minute progression from their signature blisteringly radiant heaviness to a meditative and saccharin post-rock resolution. The emotional development of this song just makes you feel so good. Amidst the rock n' roll guitar leads and gleeful post-rock passages, I find this album to be more explicitly uplifting, and even triumphant at times, than anything they've released before. The way the screams mesh with the music on this album, it sounds like a someone with a dark past finally breaking free from their demons and embracing the joys of life despite their flaws.
In the same way that "Sunbather" and other dark records serve as cathartic for our undesirable emotions, this album has a unique sort of post-cathartic vibe - like what happens after you've come to terms with all you are. I have this specific image of a grotesquely deformed and socially ostracized elephant-man type character finally finding happiness. And you know what? The fact that I'm inspired to come up with such vivid imagery when thinking and writing about their music is a testament to how powerful Deafheaven are as creators and artists, and it helps me to understand how despite their disparate combination of styles, this band continues to strike a chord with so many people of different musical interests, including me.
Deafheaven are on what is maybe my favorite label. They're called Sargent House and they have a number of phenomenal artists including Chelsea Wolfe and Russian Circles. One of my favorites is Emma Ruth Rundle, who actually had my 4th favorite song last year, so I had huge expectations for her on On Dark Horses. It's a good album. It's not as dark as her previous and not as rootsy as her EP from last year, that I was hoping would be indicative of her new LP. It's more upbeat and rock-oriented and that's just not where I wanted her to go with her sound so it's not on my list, but I love her sound so much and I'm glad that she is taking her music in a specific direction, even if it's not the one I want. I'm still super excited to hear what she does in the future. And there were some great cuts from this album; I love the song Darkhorse and the inflections she gives her voice on the chorus, as well as the epic instrumental synthetic drum break leading up to the end. There are a lot of great guitar tones on this and the drumming is great. I don't mean to be negative, this album was very close to being in my top 25. I just have astronomical expectations for ERR.
16. Reaching 62 F - Chronicles of a Dying Sun
At this point, it's very difficult for a post-rock band to stand out from the crowd. I love post-rock, so I don't want to say that it's an "easy" genre to make - making great music isn't easy - but there's definitely a particular post-rock sound that a lot of bands in the genre sort of default to emulating. Everyone wants to be Explosions in the Sky. But this debut album does stand out, and it doesn't do so by abandoning the post-rock playbook or rejecting that sound. Instead, what allows Reaching 62 F to create a very engaging post-rock album in 2018 is the earnestness with which they pursue their artistic vision.
What I mean is that Reaching 62 F don't just write melodic, luscious, atmospheric, climactic post-rock music - I mean, they do; but they use that music as a vehicle to tell a story, and most importantly, every sonic and structural element of their music is judiciously dedicated to that story.
And I'm not being liberal with the word story, I mean it literally. Two of the first three tracks on this record are spoken word narratives. I found it a bit odd at first that there's two narrative tracks in the beginning and then none for the rest of the LP, but now I think it's a brilliant strategy. They introduce a uniquely detailed premise to start things off, and then let the music do the talking, guided along by the track titles. I think this structural approach allows them to keep the focus on the music, and not give the impression that it's a legit spoken word album.
A lot of the time when bands pursue ambitious concepts like this one - even bands with lyrics - you have to read an interview or press release to really get it. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - there's plenty of very lyrical music that's greatly enhanced by being familiar with the artist's personal struggles or experiences, so needing some form of external insight in order to truly enjoy a piece of art isn't inherently bad, I don't think. But for an instrumental band to incorporate spoken word into the beginning of their record in this way really reinforces the story to an extent that I haven't heard before. Especially with the spacey, futuristic theme of this story, it really helps personalize and emote the narrative (for reasons I just laid out, I'm not going to explain the actual premise here, go listen to the album and find out!).
They do a fantastic job of catering the music to specific story points. On the 5th track, Incident, they open up with some quirky, staccato, heavy riffs that, together with the title, evoke a sense of mechanical malfunction or glitch. Then as the track builds back up in the second half, they introduce a very prominent and airy organ sound into the mix. This organ sound is used a couple times over the course of the record, and it reminds me a bit of the soundtrack from the movie Interstellar a few years back, which featured a really similar organ sound.
They use a number of different synth sounds on the album, but all really contribute very fittingly to the spacey sound that the story dictates. More than anything though, they rely heavily on acoustic piano in a lot of these songs. The piano passage in this song in particular is superb, and really helps to move the plot of the song along from the actual apparent "incident" that the robotic guitar sounds in the beginning elicit, and onto the implied aftermath and emotional impact this ambiguous event has on the loose characters of the story. At least that's how I interpret it.
Even though it's an acoustic sound, I think that piano can achieve a very spacey sound because it's not a vibrato based instrument like guitar or violin, i.e. the notes are more or less always on perfect pitch, so its beauty isn't necessarily in how human it sounds (close to the the natural vibrato and imperfections of the human voice), as it is with those instruments, but rather the beauty just comes from the melodies and harmonies, of which the piano has the more capability than anything, and so when they play something 'spacey' on piano, it fits perfectly into the theme of this album.
There's more very melodic piano playing on track eight, The Calm. I especially enjoy the little piano flourishes near the end of the track which serve as a counterpoint to the guitars. My favorite part about this song is the percussion, however. There's some very creative grooves in here, and I love how he builds the drum part up from a rather light and gentle groove to a more tom-based tribal march. Most of the movement in the first half of this song comes from the drum changes. I find this creativity from the drummer to be very consistent throughout the album, and I can't stress enough how important that is in post-rock, as there's so often little attention paid to rhythm in the genre, and yet there's so much space to experiment with the drums in this kind of music. This drummer is doing something interesting in every song it seems like.
In the penultimate title track, the drums stand out again, particularly as they transition into a kick drum roll in the final minute of the track, adding so much power to the climax of what is the longest song on the record. Aside from the drums though, there's just so much to love about this one; definitely one of the best post-rock songs I've heard this decade. It's got a fantastic dynamic ebb and flow, great guitar and piano melodies and counterpoint, and a huge finish. But what takes it over the top is the unique woodwind and brass orchestration that comes in and out through the song, especially at the end, when the aforementioned kick drum roll, the brass section, the organ, and the guitars all coming together is magical; one of my favorite moments of the year. I can't recall ever really hearing brass in a post-rock song like this but it works so well. It's so inspiring and triumphant.
I just love the ambition these guys are showing on all levels, from their conceptual commitment to their instrumental diversity. This album is a great example of how you can take a sound that's seemingly saturated and tried to excess, and reinvigorate it simply by coming at it with an ardent and passionate artistic demeanor. I do think that pretty much all music should be approached with this mentality, but in a genre like post-rock, it's totally essential as a distinguishing feature. It's just nice to hear a band acknowledging and embracing how important being an artist and having a vision is.
2018 was a great year for post-rock; some really inventive stuff. A band called Prynum came out with a debut album called Obstacles, which has a very unique organic sound to it, in contrast to the spaciness that most post-rock bands go for. It's also got a lot of great riffs and I think there's a prog rock influence. They kind of remind of Red-era King Crimson with riffier track like The Devil's Desert Den.
Then on other side of things a band called Sondrous released an album called Something Like Serenity, which is incredibly spacious and reverbed-out. This is one of the best flowing albums of the year and great to just put on for a relaxing vibe. Really like the inclusion of some colorful acoustic guitar playing amidst the ambiance in songs like the title track. Also one of the best album covers of the year.
15. Michael Moss & the Accidental Orchestra - Helix
After awarding my #1 album of the year last year to Angles 9's avant-garde jazz masterpiece "Dissapeared Behind the Sun", I was on the prowl for any new experimental big band music in 2018. There's not really a plethora of stuff coming out in this particular genre, so it took a little bit of research and effort, but I'm really glad that I looked because this album right here was a great find.
This record is a bit different from what I've come to expect from experimental big band and free jazz. My main interest in this style is in songs that have strong dynamics and use the big band sound to reach very intense, high energy points. Michael Moss doesn't really do that though. The basis of the music and its dynamics are pretty relaxed for the most part, although the music itself is less relaxing than a lot of jazz music that does have those dynamics. The way he makes this music evocative - and it is very evocative, has mostly to do with the harmonic density of the compositions. This music has an strangely mysterious and fairly frightening atmosphere to it. It could pass as the very engaging soundtrack to some wacky horror movie. In fact, saying that just now makes me really want to see a horror movie that incorporates a soundtrack like this.
I do really like my jazz music to be as outlandish and nutty as possible, but the dark tone they're conjuring up through most of this puts it on whole different level of insanity. It's less fun and more just straight psychopathic. But at the same time it's still pretty damn fun, just in a different way. I'm almost a little concerned with what the fact that I enjoy this so much says about my mental state, but we can leave that issue alone.
The opening track, Inception, has a very hypnotic ebb and flow to it, and it has a sort of classical rhythmic feel to the first half. With the inclusion of bowed strings and woodwinds in the Accidental Orchestra, the music does take on a sort of classical tone throughout. Even the generally dark atmosphere of the music seems somewhat unjazzy and more comparable to classical. Although the drums, piano and brass instruments weave in and out with a distinct free jazz unpredictability, contrasting the classical elements. In a way, it reminds me of Charles Mingus' great 1972 album "Let My Children Hear Music", which built a similar bridge between the two worlds. But Mingus never sound this creepy.
Adding to the mysticism of the music, a tabla part enters about halfway through, which then transitions the song into some tastefully cacophonous free jazz, before finally returning to the string-led theme to close things out around 9-minutes in. Because the music is so dense and melodically intriguing, it takes a little while to notice how well-composed a track like this is, but it does become clear after a while that despite the improvisational freedom that exists within these compositions, Michael Moss does orchestrate in a very thoughtful way. In fact, the first five tracks of the album are intended to be a part of a complete extended 35-minute composition entitled "The Old One".
The closing 15-minute movement to that extended composition, a track called The Mind of God / Streaming: Throne of Gold, is the most macabre of them all. It leaves a little more room for the individual instrumentalists to shine within its longer run time, and they each do a sensational job with it. The flute player that takes the first solo really nails the morbid feeling of the music; their breathy tone sounds like a dying hellish beast's last gasps for air. I also love how avant-garde and noisey the string players approach their isolated section near the end. I'm not sure if the Accidental Orchestra were assembled specifically for this project or if they play together in other settings, but they do certainly seem to have a lot of chemistry, and they all seem to really take Moss' vision and apply themselves to it with fervor.
The final 20-minute track, See Sharp or Be Flat, is actually a lot less weird than the five preceding tracks that make up "The Old One". But I really like how this piece keeps feeling like it's about to slip back into the gloomy hysteria that they explored so extensively in the first half-hour. After every solo the strings start to swell up like in the beginning track and the song starts to let go, then finally after the drum solo, it does actually give in to the darkness again for a few minutes to end the album.
It all feels very cohesive, partly too because everyone gets a solo opportunity in this song, and their solos this time are over a more familiar and sensible jazz grooves so each soloist gets to interject their own personality a little bit more for a 'this is who was behind the mask' kind of moment, rather than trying to warp their style to Moss' dark vision as they've done on the rest of the album, and so it feels like every character of this ambiguous story is getting one final bow before they close the curtains. Of course, this feeling is only possible because of how vehemently Moss dictated his vision for the previous five tracks. Still though, the song is building up to a point that helps conclude the album and recall how crazy of a story it was. And boy was it crazy. Seriously, why the hell do I like this so much?
The other very creepy release this year, this one a bit more justified, was Thom Yorke's soundtrack to the horror movie remake Suspirira, famously scored in the original by Itialian prog rock band Goblin. Most of this album is spooky ambient music, but he throws us Radiohead fans a couple bones with piano-based lyrical songs like the title track as well as the incredibly beautiful Unmade, in which he has some absolutely angelic choir vocals backing him up. I'm such a sucker for his voice and the distinct piano line and choral textures make this song really special.
14. Fantastic Negrito - Please Don't Be Dead
The album cover and title make this sound like a one of the years most depressing albums, but in reality, this is one of the funnest collections of music that I found in 2018. This charismatic congregation of rock n' roll, funk and soul has a little bit of everything, but most importantly, impeccable songwriting.
The high-quality songwriting that Fantastic Negrito is capable of becomes apparent early on, particularly on track number two, a song called Bad Guy Necessity. It's a smooth and funky rock track with a fantastic lyrical theme, centered around the "Everybody needs a bad guy" hook, and as the song progresses he adds a little bit to the chorus, singing, "Someone they can point the finger at and blame / Everybody needs a bad guy / So they can have a savior". I don't think people realize how hard it is to interject unique and profound lyrics into upbeat rock music like this without sounding like you're trying too hard. Most profound lyrics just wouldn't fit here. You have to be really clever.
This hook is the kind of hook that you could have seen being huge in the 70's and being seen as a classic decades later. Of course, because rock isn't at the top of the charts these days, that likely won't happen with this. But that doesn't mean I can't consider it a classic! What's crazy about this album though is that I could easily say the same thing about the closing track too - even more so maybe. It's called Bullshit Anthem, and the funky R&B chorus - "take that bullshit / turn it into good shit" is impossible not too sing-a-long too.
There's also some great instrumentals on here. The opening track, Plastic Hamburgers, is a rocking Lenny Kravitz-sounding banger. Definitely one of the best straight forward riff-based rock songs of the year. I really like how weird he's willing to get with his stuff though, and he really pulls out some unique rock n' roll tones on the song A Boy Named Andrew, which features some really wacky, almost Ennio Morricone spagetti western soundtrack sounding stuff, of all things to compare it to. And as if that isn't enough to distinguish this song, I love the kind of sinister jazz piano in the verses, especially when it breaks down to an extremely intimate point near the end, at which point his vocals are so expressive, especially when he throws an unexpected lyrical twist in with the line, "Somethin's got a hold on me, yes / Cause every time I close my eyes I see the face of the livin' dead". I don't know how he manages to go back and forth between "cowboy rock" and dark jazz so effortlessly, and with an excellent and tasteful bluesy solo thrown in the middle for kicks. And it's done so well that I didn't even notice how disparate the different sections of the song are until I'd heard it quite a few times. That's how you know it's good.
It's always a great surprise when you find someone this good on so many levels. I've already talked about his profound lyrics and great instrumental elements, but I have to mention as well that he's a just a remarkable singer with a burgeoning vocal identity, clearly rooted in soul, but also able to dial in some dirty rock n' roll rasp that reminds me a little bit of Steven Tyler at times, especially on the softer song Dark Windows. But at other times it's pure soul, like on the verses of The Duffler where he lets his smooth falsetto do all the work, offset by some really zany yet fun instrumental sections.
There's just so much to enjoy all throughout this LP; a ton of memorable moments and more than anything a indelible personality built on varied and unpredictable musical choice, magnetic vocal performances and even some uniquely cerebral lyrical concepts. Reading up on this guy, I guess he's been through a lot of shit, from being a drug dealer to almost getting killed and spending weeks in a coma. We often talk a lot about how disturbed and unstable people make great artists - I'm not sure what this guys mental state is, but I do see how when people get tossed around and beat up in life it can end up molding them into really expressive and extraordinary creators. This music is pretty wild and all-over-the-place, but it's held together by the strength of Fantastic Negrito's musical character and confidence, and whatever shit went into making that character, it's brought out something special that no one else can replicate. I wasn't even intentionally building up to this line, but you could say he took that bullshit, and turned it into good shit.
As far as more straightforward rock music goes this year, I did listen to Jack White's new album Boarding House Reach, and although I do enjoy some of the electronic elements he's bringing to the table it didn't blow me away. I did really love the song Over and Over and Over, which has a classic Jack White riff and lunacy to it, not to mention the buzzing fuzzed out guitar tone is one of the best I've heard.
An album I did really enjoy was the debut by a band called Miele titled Transience. Powerful female vocals on this one as well as some almost theatrical piano driven elements amidst the grungey rock n' roll, something that works best on the song Walking Away.
13. Lines in the Sky - Beacon
There's so many talented bands out there doing amazing things and getting such a small portion of the recognition that they deserve, it can be pretty discouraging for a musician. But at the same time, there's nothing like finding a truly incredible band with only a small following and being blown away by them.
Lines in the Sky are one of those bands. I'd never hear of them before this year, but listening to their new album in 2018, I was so impressed by the intricacy and quality of their songwriting. They're definitely participating in the progressive post-hardcore/alternative rock genre that The Mars Volta and Coheed and Cambria set off in the early 2000's, and that bands like The Dear Hunter and Thank You Scientist have expanded upon. What's great about that genre is that for whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be much of a barrier between being catchy and being progressive, and even more so than the bands that I just mentioned, Lines in the Sky combine those two worlds flawlessly.
It's immediately apparent on the opening track, Not About You, which is based around a very poppy love-song chorus. But that straightforward nature is drastically contrasted by the intricate guitar playing. It sounds to me like there's a lot of 2010's progressive instrumental guitar influences going on. I hear a lot of modern math-rock bands like CHON, along with some uplifting prog metal guitar like Plini. That modernity is enhanced too by the impressively crystal clear production.
But don't get the wrong impression about the subject matter in that song. They touch upon a lot of different topics while always somehow keeping it catchy. On the second track, A Great Deal, there's some very detailed lyrics that if I'm interpreting it correctly seem to address a situation that artists find themselves in where some people may not understand their artistic vision and are critical of them for not fitting into their own biases without fully comprehending the art, with lyrics like, "I've been so meaninglessly open to blatant disdain for the way that I like to create" and "I'm over the brink / You will never claim me".
But whether or not that interpretation is accurate, on thing is for sure, lead vocalist Jesse Brock absolutely kills it on this song, particularly with how he belts the pre-chorus lines "I've learned a great deal from this / The broken teachers have kindled flames of nonsense". He's got a really powerful and high-reaching voice and based on how often he uses it on the LP, I think he's pretty aware of it. I was utterly shocked when I went to research the band and found out that they're a 3-piece, and Jesse Brock handles the vocals and all of the guitars. Goddamn. This is one of the best guitar and vocal albums of the year and it's all one guy. I don't give out an MVP award on my year end list but if I did I'd give it to him this year. I really need to see them live so I can watch him pull this stuff off. And since I just gushed so much over one member, I do feel inclined to mention that the other two guys are also phenomenal, and I'm not just saying that, this album grooves hard in a lot of places thanks to the rhythm section. That's a lot of what makes this music so special is that rare combination of progressive instrumental intricacy and extremely powerful and memorable vocals.
His vocals aren't just strong and high though but also very emotional, and he makes use of that on the longest song on the record Library which stays in a mellow zone for the first 3-minutes or so before gradually getting heavier and more intense. Even though this song is a bit less instrumentally intricate, this structure of this track is very moving and progressive. The first half is beautiful, but the high points of the second are unreal, especially right at the moment the first belts come in and he nails the line "Your rage is unchecked!" And it's pretty remarkable how much release their is in the last couple minutes of the song. There's a lot of belting lines, but they feel totally justified because of the softer intro and all the tension that they built with it. This is a fantastically written longer song, and it definitely makes me curious to hear what they could do with more space if they tried their hands at an even longer 10+ minute-type composition. The lyrics are a bit ambiguous to me in this one, but the palpably weighty lines that end the song - "All is gone. The partner I loved, the god that we worshiped. All is gone. You've killed my children" leaves quite the final impression.
Lines in the Sky are in a bit of tough spot, because all the biggest bands that fall within this general style have some sort of other significant style that they consistently blend in that distinguishes them - Thank You Scientist have their jazz fusion component, The Mars Volta their latin and psychedelic influences, The Dear Hunter their orchestral and theatrical element, and Lines in the Sky have a more stripped down approach. It wouldn't be fair to say they don't have a distinguishing element like that however, as I mentioned, with the modern technical guitar stylings there definitely is a uniqueness to their sound that you don't hear in those other bands. I really appreciate as well that while the guitar playing is fantastic throughout the record, it's not ever really overly flashy. They wait until the penultimate song, Ancient Insult, to include the only actual guitar solo on the whole thing, and it's an excellent, electric and song-moving solo that serves a very powerful role in the grand scheme of the album due to the restraint they demonstrated in the first six songs.
In a way, the simple 3-piece approach they take is extremely exciting because it makes me wonder where they're going to take this sound in the future. Everything that I like about this album comes directly from their ability to come up with great musical ideas and string them together in well-written songs - there's no novelty element that their music is dependent on. Lines in the Sky have such a strong core sound that I could imagine them doing nearly anything with it - adding some other type of instrumentation, experimenting with electronics and production, getting poppier, getting progier, getting heavier, getting softer, etc. - I would be totally excited to hear them try anything or move in any direction, and I think that that indiscriminate excitement about whatever a band is willing to try is probably one of the highest forms of respect that you can express for an artist.
12. Haley Heynderickx - I Need to Start a Garden
I actually consider singer-songwriter and contemporary folk music to be some of my favorite genres of music. The problem is that there's a thousand singer-songwriters in every city, and so I feel like it's the one genre more than any that I'm probably missing out on a lot of stuff. With most genres you can immediately get an impression of the music because of the riffs, melodies, etc. and then from there the composition quality ends up determining how good it is overall. With this kind of music, it's usually pretty dependent on the lyrics how good it is, and so it's not as easy to just skim through artists and look for the best.
That's actually what Haley Heynderickx has in her favor, is that she has some excellent instrumentals forming the foundations of her songs. I can't stress how important this is. So many songwriters, many of them with great voices and lyrics, sing over the same guitar chords. There's this mentality that the instrumental aspect of their music is only a vehicle for what they want to do with their voice, and so it only needs to be just good enough to sing over. That's not how she approaches her music at all it seems. Track two, The Bug Collector, is based around some really gorgeous nylon string guitar playing and a touch of trombone as well. Just as much as she's got her own vocal and lyrical identity, which are very strong in their own right, she has a recognizable fingerpicking guitar style as well, and so all together she has such a powerful artistic identity.
Again her guitar playing on this record is a total highlight. It's pretty unusual for someone with her songwriting and vocal chops to also play guitar at her level. Not that she's shredding solos anywhere or anything - this music is profoundly subtle and she comes up with stealthily intricate parts to fit that mood, and I think she's got more of a distinct style on guitar than a lot guitarists who fancy themselves as virtuosos. She has a lot of little dissonances and tastefully unexpected notes she works into her fingerpicking parts, and on Untitled God Song, she comes in with an entrancing slide guitar section near the end and closes the song with a sort of psych-country jam. The electric guitar tones on this album are some of my favorite tones of the year too.
I'm curious if maybe she has some background in bona fide jazz guitar based on how good her right and left hand independence and interaction is. While this music is distinctly inspired by folk and country more than anything else, my suspicions of a jazz background are pretty well-justified I think, based on the consistent presence of upright bass and piano, the subtle drumming with tons of ride cymbal, and even the occasional brass. Show You a Body is the one song that is based around piano more than guitar, and it has a very dreamy sort of slow oceanic pulse to it with bowed upright bass. I hear classical, jazz, folk - the creativity on this record really blows me away sometimes.
Her song-craft really shines on the song Worth It, which is nearly 8-minutes long, and isn't drawn out with any unnecessary instrumental passage or redundant verses, it's simply an 8-minute long singer-songwriter song with multiple sections, great guitar parts, beautiful vocals, and powerful dynamics. There's a sort of rockabilly vibe that comes in at some point in this song that's broken up by very slow an emotive indie-folk verses. Because I'm so excited about these wonderful instrumental components that makes up every song, I haven't really talked about her vocals and lyrics that much. But they are of course the driving force behind her music, and on this song she leaves a lot of space for her voice to do what it can do. She has a little bit of that indie-quirkiness to her singing, but it's contrasted by what is at it's core, an Patsy Cline-reminiscent old-country voice, marked by an angelically emotive head voice and extensive use of harmonies. She's uses that emotive power to build a heartrending climax on this song, singing the lines "Maybe I, maybe I've been selfish / Maybe I, maybe I've been selfless / Maybe I, maybe I've been worthless / Maybe I, maybe I've been worth it". And if that wasn't enough, the final minute of the song ends on an almost shoegazy, kind of dreamy instrumental outro.
I was going to end this review by saying something about how checking out this album was "worth it" but that wouldn't go nearly far enough to express how much I love what she's doing on this record, so I'll spare you the pun and just say this is one of my favorite releases this year, and the fact that it's just a 30-minute debut album makes me so excited to hear where she takes her music in the future.
Something in the same ballpark that got a lot of press was Julia Holter's new album, Aviary. I wanted to put this album on my list but I found it a bit too cumbersome for me to fully digest in a reasonable amount of time. I do like the ambition however and I found it to be a great album to put on as I went to sleep with all it's dreaminess. Also, it's definitely got some of the best production of the year, striking an amazing balance between an organic and dreamy sound. I absolutely love the piano-vocal song In Gardens' Muteness, whatever the hell that means. This song has a sublime beauty to it and is one of the most stripped down songs on the album. It feels very 'underwater' and is one of those songs that puts you in a trance with the first note. What's really cool is that with just piano and voice she builds it up and transitions into a very dark climax with a Beethoven-esque sort of heaviness. Such a progressive and trippy singer-songwriter song.
11. Conjurer - Mire
I make a big deal about innovation and new sounds in these reviews, but there are some albums that just rip so hard front to back that I can't not love them. This debut by Conjurer is one of those albums. A fantastic offering in what is my favorite type of metal music - sludge.
Even though they're not making any new genres here, the music is still quite ambitious on multiple levels. It's very dynamic, and they incorporate all of my favorite elements of sludge metal. Some of the riffs on here are definitely pulling from a Mastodon influence (I'll note that I suspected this influence before I saw them covering "Blood and Thunder" in a live YouTube clip), which is no surprise for any modern sludge metal band. I think that Mastodon has really helped to popularize sludge - I know that they were my first exposure to the genre. But another crucial component of their sound is the emphasis of the hardcore roots that had such an important role in the development of sludge. The do break into some very fast sections that remind me a lot of Converge. There's a lot of very stark contrast between tempos in nearly every song, which definitely contributes positively to the chaotic feel of the music.
They hit you in the chin as soon as the bell rings with the song Choke, a song that features all these influences on full display, jerking between heavy sludge riffs and chaotic metallic hardcore. There's a lot of very well-done details to this album, one of which is the dual clean guitar sections, which sound a bit jazzy at times, and sometimes more along the lines of post-rock. They're usually not too long, often used as intros or outros, but they're pretty special, with interplay between the two guitars, and they use little embellishments here and there, like light whammy bar to give it a dark and twisted sort of 60's twang. On this opening track I really like the clean guitar outro, which has its own little evocative bends in it, and how it transitions into the next song. It's little details like this that create an atmosphere and help to endear an album to listeners, especially when most of the music is as abrasive as it is here.
That next song, Hollow, actually includes probably the longest clean section on the album in the verses, in which they still interestingly utilize harsh vocals. That's a pretty creepy combo. The harsh vocals on this record are really phenomenal, and one of Conjurer's trademarks is that both guitarists switch off doing vocals (maybe more Mastodon influence?), one with a deathier guttural growl and the other with a higher-range scream. They do a lot of "harmonizing" in this way, and it gives them a bit more of an identity as a band. On this song they get a little more creative with that style, doing a sort of call and response section yelling "tear it out / rip it out".
I adore how this song is written though as they introduce a massive riff to start out the song, one of my favorites of the year, and they eventually find their way back to the riff only at the very end of the song. I love that type of riff-sandwich structure, as it builds a lot of anticipation, especially with a riff as savage as this one. The whole last two-minutes leading up to the final repetition of the riff are outstanding. It slows down at about two-thirds of the way through and introduces a very post-metal sounding section, which builds and climaxes in very epic and heavy fashion.
Parts like that are what got this album on my list. Everything that I love about sludge - atmosphere, tension, dissonance, abrasiveness, chaos. It is all very present and very consistent, and whereas a lot of releases seemed to teeter out at the end this year, not this one, as they pull off one of the strongest finishes of the year with two ferocious and connected 7+ minute tracks.
The first of the two, Of Flesh Weaker Than Ash, starts with another atmospheric clean guitar section before unleashing some of the best riffs on the album. And again, this one's got its own sort of post-metal type build near the end. Some of the most powerful instrumental moments of the year are contained on this LP thanks to Conjurer's ability to build tension and release it with their gargantuan riffs so effectively. The whole second half of this song is just one non-stop exercise in compounding intensity. The wild yet tight staccato riffage at the very end reminds me a bit of Tool, and in that vein, the drummer ends the song with a fantastic fill. That's no surprise if you listen to the rest of the album however, as even aside from the skill and creativity it takes pull of these constant tempo changes, Conjurer's drummer swings his sticks like a madman for the better part of this record.
I'm getting the impression that there's been a lot of progress in the field of metal production of late, as this album sounds so much better than a debut sludge metal album would've sounded 10 or 15 years ago. The drums and bass sound phenomenal in particular, and they've really perfected art of having vey dirty, grimey guitar sounds without sacrificing much clarity at all.
It's so impressive that a band like this can pop up out of nowhere and offer such a complete piece of work as their first LP. It's one thing to have great riffs, but everything from the track to track transitions, and the clean guitar sections, and the extreme levels of movement, and structural variation they play around with - it definitely plays into a trend I'm seeing this year of bands sticking out because of how much artistic detail they put into making their work whole. Hell, take a look at the album artwork on this. It's actually the initial reason I decided to check them out. It's such an expressively dismal and cryptic scene. Sure, the music could have been boring or unrelated, but I get a feeling sometimes seeing album artwork like this that I'm getting myself into something special, and well sometimes I'm wrong, this time that suspicion was totally true.
10. Koenji Hyakkei - Dhorimviskha
Even though I am someone the listens to a lot of prog and sort of keeps my eye on that scene as much as any other, I can be pretty picky with it, and I especially tend to discriminate against music that I find to exclusively lie within the genre of prog. What I mean by that is that there are some bands who take an ironically conservative approach to progressive music and seem to create music with the objective of fitting the classification, i.e. the music is about long songs with complex time signatures and technical proficiency. All that stuff is attractive to me, but I make the distinction that those techniques are there to be used in conjunction with memorable melodies and thoughtful songwriting to create emotive music, and bands that rely on those tropes in and of themselves, and without simpler dynamics and contrast, kind of lose me. I'm not condemning those bands - I think it's cool, and I identify with that mentality to some extent - but it doesn't move me in the way that other music does, and I know that it's totally possible to incorporate those elements and still write moving music.
Alright, now that I've gotten that off my chest let me say that this 2018 album by Koenji Hyakkei is one of the wankiest, over-the-top, self-indulgent, ostentatious, records I've ever heard and I absolutely love it. It's in total contradiction to my normal reservations about prog, but these guys just commit so unrelentingly to making psychotically convoluted and absurd music that it's passes the point of being pretentious comes around full-circle to being artistic.
I think part of the genius of this band is that everything is composed by the drummer, Yoshida Tatsuya, and so to some extent you can tell these songs are designed for him to go berserk under and experiment with odd-time signature grooves. But regardless of how they came about, I really appreciate how meticulously composed and crafted these songs obviously are. On a song like, Phlessttighas, there's a really wild eccentric melody that repeats at separate points in the song. Somehow that melody ends up being pretty catchy even thought you wouldn't think it the first time you hear it. It's definitely because of how well-orchestrated it is.
Every song includes prominent guitar, synth, piano, saxophone and vocals so there's a lot of opportunity to really unify these crazy melodies, and ground them a little bit by giving them that very intentional and synchronized feel. The opening track, Vreztemtraiv, goes all over the place like every other song, but it's also noticeably reasonable in its construction, with a memorably wild theme to it that kicks off and closes the song. It's so incredibly important that they make these compositional choices as without them the music would fall apart under its own chaotic weight.
Major props the vocalist as she keeps up with very intricate melodies on this thing, varying between jazzy scat, operatic styles, and even a very impressive sort of bluesy section in the song, Levhorm, all while singing in a made up-language. But really everyone is killing it on this. The saxophone player goes mad in a couple spots, the guitar player has some excellent solos, everyone shines, but because of the relentless eccentricity of the muisc, even during the solos they don't really feel like solos so much as 'what's going on now!?".
It does make me chuckle listening to this album. It's pretty silly, but I think that they're totally aware of that. You take a band like Dream Theater - and I don't mean to pick on them cuz I do like some of their stuff - but where they fall a little flat for me is that they're always trying to contrast their craziness with very emotional balledry and meaningful lyrics, which I don't have a problem with on principle, but it tends to feel a little bit disconnected to me. I mean, I love contrast of dynamics and moods, but sometimes bands like that give me the impression that they think they can sort of 'get away with' the silliness of their really proggy parts if they bring it back to a really emotional level, but it ends up making it hard to take the emotional parts as seriously, in my opinion
This album does have a lot of contrast though, but it manifests itself as more of a conflict between light and dark. They frequently venture into darker territory on this record, and it sounds like they're taking from everything from progressive metal, to Beethoven-esque piano-banging classical, and chaotic avant-garde jazz. There's even a couple brief moments of quasi-harsh vocals on this record. The real centerpiece of the album in my opinion, and definitively the darkest, is track number five, Djeblaki Zomn. The saxophone led sort of jazz fusion metal riff that kicks off the song is very heavy in its absurdity and the song only gets crazier and more rhythmically complex from there. It also has some of the best solos on the record.
A lot of the solos on this record are pretty short, which I think lends itself well to how fickle and bipolar the music is. I mean they wouldn't really be short in the context of a 4-minute song, but amidst these 10-minute compositions they're noticeable restrained in length (though not in any other way).
As I was saying, I especially like the scorching guitar solo about halfway through this song, as well as the jazz piano section that follows. There's also a sort of saxophone solo around 3-minutes in but it's not really a solo because there's so much going on in the rest of the music that you have be listening very intently to latch on to it, but it's very avant-garde and like everything else it really serves to amplify the craziness of the music.
The ending to that song is perfectly insane and heavy too, though even at their darkest these guys never really lose that cartoonish vibe. Again, I think that Koenji Hyakkei are great in part because they're just totally okay with being silly. And although I can laugh a little listening to this, that laugh is accompanied by a sort of marvelous enjoyment at the craziness of the music. It's kind of trippy in a way - like your experiencing something so totally beyond you that it becomes fascinating in its own way. This album is like its own little world.
I did listen to the new Haken album, Vector, and I am a fan of them. I really like the song Puzzle Box, and this darker/heavier direction is definitely what I want from them. Still lacking a little bit in actual good musical ideas if you ask me, but excellent playing and production on this nonetheless.
9. Messa - Feast for Water
There's always a couple albums on my year end list that revolve around the compelling fusion of two or more disparate and somewhat unexpected styles, but this year it seems like I've ended up characterizing a very sizable potion of my list in that way. It makes me think, am I being a little to swayed by that aspect of progressiveness and neglecting the importance of actual core songwriting and quality?
Listening to how seamlessly Messa fuse doom metal and dark vocal jazz on this record softens those doubts quite a bit. It's enough to get my attention simply that Messa has a powerhouse female singer. You don't hear a lot of women in doom metal, much less women with her Janis Joplin-esque ferocity. The degree to which her vocals cut through and soar over the deep, earthy riffs has something very special to it in and of itself. She does not hold back on these songs, and I really love the kind strength she reaches on a song like Leah, specifically in the last line of the chorus where she nails the lyric "mother of abominations!".
But as I alluded to in the beginning, what really distinguishes this record is the contrasting sound they establish based on dark vocal jazz. They use a lot of very dreamy and spacious electric piano, with a very reserved rhythm section. It tends to have a sort of "Riders on the Storm"-vibe to it. Messa is an Italian band, and though you don't notice it during the louder parts, there is a noticeable hint of that southern European accent during the jazz sections that I think contributes to the elegant tone of those parts.
This album is written and produced with a very specific sound and vision. The heavy parts are very roomy and reverby, to a very noticeable and sort of artistically dictated extent. I think that that sound really works specifically because of how it interacts with the jazzier sections, and makes the transitions between the two smoother and more sensible. Listen to how effortlessly Messa switch between the two in a song like White Stains. It's almost as if combing these styles is completely normal. This song has an excellent Hendrix-inspired solo at the end too. Even though the heavier sections can get pretty sinister on this record, the leads and solos are extremely bluesy. There's no neoclassical shredding or anything of that sort, it's all very old school. I have to applaud the guitar player as he does such a great job throughout. The fittingly roomy and twangy tones he's getting on all his leads are so tasty. It's not something that I say often when talking about the genre, but with all the superbly executed jazz and blues stylings on here, this has got to be one of the classiest metal albums I've had the pleasure of listening to.
They do reach into some pretty heavy territory though. The song Tulsi starts off a an almost black metal-type jam before pivoting into an evil, Slayer-reminiscent harmonized riff. But even on a song like this, they find a way to end up back in that sort of classy territory, finishing off with a surprise saxophone solo. The riffage on this song is extremely strong, but that's something that you could say about every song, which is ultimately what makes the record worthy of being this high on my list. Aside from how compelling I find their unique contrast, the execution is just top notch.
This is most apparent on The Seer a track the contains everything I love about Messa's sound. This main riff in this one is huge and her vocals are equally so. And the lead guitar work is probably more engaging and intricate than any song on the record. But the development of this song over its course is how this one really gets me. The change-ups and resolution it the last few minutes of this 8-minute song are stellar. I especially love the guitar interplay that comes in around 5-minutes in. They have a sort Wishbone Ash-twin guitar element to their sound which I love. The song gets a lot darker and doomier after that though. I love that this track might simultaneously be the bluesiest and the doomiest on the album. After a great solo they return back to the huge riff in perfect compositional cohesiveness.
It's so gratifying to hear a band with such a compelling sound actually pull it off with such grace as Messa do on this record. There's so much to love from start to finish on this album. Even the final 5-minute instrumental, Da tariki tariqat, ends the album with a really interesting twist. It may seem just like an outro at first but it's actually a very darkly beautiful piece in its own right. A perfect sort of soundtrack-esque ending to the album, in its unique, sinister Americana sound. I would listen to a whole album of stuff just like that, but at the same time the vibe of this track works really well to sum up and ease you out of the whole album experience. And it is quite the experience. I'm very excited to hear where Messa take this sound next.
I have to mention another female fronted doom metal band, and that would be Gaupa, who released a self-titled EP this year. I'm sure they're tired of hearing this comparison, but this literally sounds like Bjork fronting a metal band. She sounds so identical to Bjork, right down to the gargley belts. Can't wait til they put out a full-length to hear more of this. It wasn't far from my top 25 just as an EP. Great riffs and instrumentals on this too. Love the eastern scale use in the first song, Febersvan.
8. Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
I was so goddamn excited to hear this record. I talked about Zeal & Ardor's last release when it came out in 2016 and the title track from that EP was one of my favorite songs of the year. It's unreal how much potential this band has with their combination of American slave spirituals and black metal. It seems like such an unthinkable merger, and yet if you do think about it, it's not so implausible, as spirituals are essentially a form of archaic folk music, and it's not so uncommon to hear metal contrasted with darker types of folk and traditional music. And certainly no type of folk music has as dark of a history as this proto-blues style.
What's really endears me to Zeal & Ardor, aside from the idea behind their music, is how incredibly well singer and man-behind-the-music Manuel Gagneux is able to emulate that type of music with such believable authenticity. Not to mention he pulls off the black metal scream really well too. I said this when I talked about their EP, but my first presumption when I heard their music was that they were just sampling old recordings. I didn't even consider that it was him until I realized how sort of satanic some of the lyrics were and figured that they weren't old recordings at all.
One important element in this is the vocal production, which includes a little bit of distortion to make it sound like an old recording, and I think that effect actually helps connect in to the harsh vocals. Notice how fluent the spirituals flow into the black metal parts in a song like Servants. The bridge in that song is so good but it seems like on its own that there's no way it could reasonably fit within the context of an extreme metal song, and yet it absolutely does. It's certainly somewhat due to good songwriting, but I think the tradition of under-production in black metal, and the more genuine sounding effect that distorting the spiritual parts to make them sound old has, goes a long way in connecting the two.
But you gotta just give most of the credit to Gagneux, and especially on this full-length it becomes apparent that the guy just really has a knack for creating those kind of vocal melodies. Maybe it's easier than I think, but I'm just totally fascinated with how well he does it. I'm curious if he maybe studied that sort of music very intently or maybe it's something he just listened to a lot when he was younger so it's a part of him. Whatever it is, it's so unique and special, and I was really happy to hear that once again he includes some non-metal songs, as my favorite on their EP in 2016 wasn't a metal song.
The first full song and second track, Gravedigger's Chant, was a song that instantly grabbed me because of Gagneux's vocals. But what I found really interesting was another track that features only tacit black metal influence. The song You Ain't Coming Back, really blew me away the first time I listened to it; not because it's necessarily the best song on the record, though it could be. This song shows a totally new side of Gagneux, as he pulls off some really smooth 70's soul vocals, highly dependent on falsetto. In and of itself these aren't the most amazing vocals ever recorded, but when you're dealing with black metal the melodic vocal expectations are starting off so low, and he already impressed me beyond belief with his gruff spiritual voice and extreme vocals, the fact that he can nail those soulful highs just means that he has even more of a mind-boggling level of talent.
I don't want to downplay the metal aspect of the album either though. There are some really good riffs on songs like Don't You Dare and Row Row. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised with some of the metal on this album, as knowing that the origin of this project was an online troll suggesting that he try to combine "n****r music and black metal", and it seems like the spirituals come so naturally, I wasn't sure if he would be able to complete the metal aspects with the same level of creativity. It just seems like too much talent for one guy. But I'm learning never to doubt the abilities of Manuel Gagneux.
They close out the album with another great soul song called Built on Ashes, which in spite of it's soulfulness features some very atypically dismal lyrics. It's definitely worth mentioning that every songs does retain some distinct black metal instrumentation and sort of subtle heaviness. In the closing track that black metal tremolo picking interestingly gives the song a sort of uplifting atmosphere to contrast the gloomy "you are bound to die alone" lyrics, giving the song its own sort of sublime melancholia.
It's all in the notes you play, and in recent years bands like Deafheaven and Astronoid have pioneered that uplifting and nostalgic sound known as blackgaze to great success. In fact, I like that style generally a lot more than regular black metal which I'm not too big on. Something about that style has a uncomparable emotion, something I discussed above in my review of Deafheaven's new album. I find it very interesting that as Zeal & Ardor have started touring around the world, they've actually starting sharing the stage with both those bands I just mentioned.
See, I love what Zeal & Ardor are doing, but among all the bands that I considered for the #1 spot this year, and these guys are certainly among that group, Zeal & Ardor gives me the impression more than anyone that this is only a fraction of what they're actually capable of. Gegneux's creative range is so abnormally wide. There's so many ways he could develop it, and the obvious one - the one that I'm crossing my fingers for - is that he tries his hand a some longer compositions with more varied structure, as this album consists of 16 songs with only one over 4-minutes. There's a lot of ways he could take it. I can just imagine what it would sound like if they took some of these black metal meets spiritual songs, added a little more instrumental space, maybe drew from a wider pool of influences from outside of black metal for riffs, and embellished it to a point where he could end on a really soulful, blackgazey part. There's a lot of bands who have done long dynamic songs like that with mellow folky contrast against extreme heaviness - I'm thinking Agalloch, Opeth, Neurosis - but with Manuel Gagneux's range and unique diversity of influences he really has an opportunity to do that better than anyone.
At the same he could ditch the metal element all together and just do a spirituals album and I would still be frothing at the mouth for his next record. I don't mean that to suggest that I think he should do that. I only mean to say that he's carved out such a unique niche for himself that he could focus only on one portion of it and still be making exciting music that sounds like no one else. There are very few artists out there you can say that about.
Another totally unique voice creating very dark and evocative music in 2018 was Anna von Hausswolff, with her album Dead Magic. There's a lot of extended ambient sections on this record, which gives it a cool vibe but makes it a little to unengaging for me. There's a song called The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra on here though, that is quite different from the rest, and that really blew me away with it's sort of doomy Americana vibe. It has this sort of repetitive war march groove to it for the first half, and Hausswolff does some crazy vocals over, but it's in the second half where the song kicks up a notch and she just goes insane. And I mean that literally. This song sounds like the soundtrack to someone escaping an insane asylum. Her vocal tone has a nasally distortion to it that can only be described as witchy, and she makes use of it with astonishing power in this track. More of this please.
7. Kimbra - Primal Heart
I have to admit, I ended up checking out Kimbra for the lamest reason. I'd heard about her for a while, and how abnormally thoughtful and well-done her brand of electro-pop music was, but that's generally not something that interests me so I wasn't to motivated to give her a shot. But I was watching one of those YouTube videos where they follow musicians around a record store and have them pick out vinyls and talk about their favorite albums, and somehow Kimbra came up as the next suggested video, and I watched it, and all of a sudden she started talking about how much she loves The Mars Volta and how much their unique approach to progressive rock and long songs impacted her perception of music. I feel like such a pretentious asshole - "oh she likes prog, OK I'll listen to her". But yeah, I started listening to this new record of hers and I love it.
It almost concerns me a bit because although she approaches things very artistically this is pretty much straight up pop music, there's not really any discernible hints of The Mars Volta here, but I still really really like it. I have to admit there is something really appealing about this mix of very upfront melodic vocals and thumping electronic beats - I realize I'm a little late to the party in that realization. I could imagine nearly every one of these songs on the radio in between Taylor Swift or Beyonce or whatever, the big difference is just in quality.
Last year my #3 favorite song of the year was a very explosive collaborative pop ballad between Steven Wilson and Ninet Tayeb called "Pariah", and I commented on how the uniquely powerful climactic approach to a pop song reflected the benefit of having an artist with a background in progressive styles take a shot at pop; I think this might be the way that Kimbra's Mars Volta influence creeps out in places.
On the song, Everybody Knows, Kimbra takes a very climactic approach. The song follows a sort of ABABCD structure, where the first verse and chorus are more restrained, and the second more open. Then instead of going back to the chorus, the song moves into a gorgeously spacey instrumental section which eventually breaks out into a loud instrumental synth section, and it never returns to the chorus. She does something similar on the song Right Direction too, although opposite in a way, as this dreamier song climaxes with about a nearly two-minute symphonic instrumental build. And on a song like Lightyears, the whole track is just building anticipation to the point where the bridge transitions out, and instead of repeating the chorus verbatim, she pulls off a totally mind-boggling belt.
It's not unusual for pop singer to have incredible vocal range and ability. But something that separates Kimbra from others is that she's so comfortable using her voice as an instrument, both in how she articulates her lyrics and how she actually forms the musical foundations of her songs with melodic singing. I've heard that Michael Jackson used to write his songs entirely by recording every single instrument with his voice first, chords and all, and then having instrumentalists replace them after. I think there's something to be said for a singer than can use their voice to compose and not just be the the last ingredient of the meal so to speak. It definitely allows the artist in question to pursue a more directed artistic vision and insert more of their own personality into it. You hear this right from the get go on this album, on the song The Good War, which has a lot of great vocal interplay, and like I said, has the effect of really pronouncing Kimbra's artistic personality.
That style of writing is even more apparent on the song Top of the World, which layers her vocals against a very tribal drum beat, producing a sound that fits very well with the "primal" theme of the album. This song is pretty unique though, as it's got a very tangible hip-hop influence, both in her rhythmic singing and the sort of shamelessly hedonistic lyrics, which I think touches upon her resilience in making it as a pop artist while not compromising her artistic integrity. It's an interesting song because I'm not sure if you could even really consider it to have a chorus, yet I believe it was the most popular single from the record. That's no surprise though, as the seemingly African-inspired groove this song is centered around is absolutely infectious.
Something I noticed about this album though is that well songs like that exude a lot of confidence, as the LP goes on I feel as though her lyrics get more vulnerable and the music more subtle, culminating in the penultimate track, Version of Me, which might be the best Radiohead song of 2018, in it's dreamy piano progression, floating symphonics, and trippy vocal effects. It's a gorgeous and understated balled with a very self-deprecating and desperate lyrical theme. Kimbra clearly puts a lot of thought into this album as a whole artistic project, and even though that last track, Real Life, is pretty strange and out of left-field, as it's essentially a vocally-exclusive demonstration of odd vocoder and pitch-shifter type vocal effects, I can appreciate how the juxtaposition of that repeating line of "real life" as it's perverted by robotic effects and closing out an album entitled "Primal Heart" has a particular profundity to it. And that attention to greater meaning and depth goes a long way in endearing an artist like Kimbra to someone like me who goes into this genre of music with a healthy level of snobbish cynicism.
But even when I can't explain why I like this album so much in terms of it being in different or profound, I do just sort of get the impression that these pop songs are outright better written, and use better musical ideas, than all the stuff I'm used to being exposed to from the pop world. Admittedly I'm not an expert, but just because I'm so interested in music, I do like to keep somewhat on top of the current musical trends in pop, and if someone can show me a pop song better than the song Human that's topped the charts this year, or any other recent year, I'll be happy to listen to it. But I don't think anyone's gonna do that, because this song is just so well put together and based on such great ideas. The main melodic theme and the badass instrumental hook that bring the verse into the chorus in this song are outstanding. And the melody in the chorus itself, especially with the head voice lines she does, is just impossible not to love.
With all the criminally underrated bands out there, I do tend to have a good deal of skepticism about the music industry and how much autonomy your average person has in making choices about their preferences as opposed to just accepting whatever boringly straight-forward and dumbed-down music they hear and latching onto it. You'd think that coming to love an album like this would soften that perspective a bit, but listening to this album has enhanced that pessimism more so than anything. I mean, Kimbra is a big act, and getting bigger for sure, but when I hear songs like this it just totally dumbfounds me as to why the hell Kimbra isn't the biggest pop star in the world.
Thank god there is someone like her that's actually taking this style of music and coming at it in way that a pretentious person like me can appreciate. We need more pop artists that listen to The Mars Volta, that's for sure.
From New Zealand (Kimbra's homeland) and across the river to Australia, I checked out this debut album by Cloves called One Big Nothing, which is definitely a pop album as well but more along the lines of jazzy soul pop like Adele or Amy Winehouse. She's definitely got the voice to match. Some of this is a little to sanitized for my ears, but a couple of these song are pretty damn good, especially the title track, which, like I just talked about with Kimbra, is great because it follows a very climactic stricture. And the payoff in this song is huge, with massive orchestration as she soars over with her head voice.
6. Tesseract - Sonder
I really don't have much to say about this new Tesseract album, and not just because it's getting pretty damn close to 2019 and I've still got a couple albums to go.
Partly due to the fact that this is their first album in their discography to feature the same vocalist as the previous album, this record kind of feels like the first time Tesseract released an album that's "just another" Tesseract album. For a lot of bands, that would mean an inferior rehashing of old ideas. But Tesseract is different. With their unique blend of cinematic atmosphere, rhythmic complexity, compressed extended-range heaviness, and emotional vocals, Tesseract have just developed a transcendent sound of their own. They really struck gold. And a lot of bands strike gold but keep shoveling in the same spot even after the gold's long run out. But this is only Tesseract's fourth album, and with all the vocalist changes and evolution through their first three albums, there's plenty of gold left in the Tesseract mine.
There's a little bit of every album on this. I think this one even sounds closest to their debut album, which was their heaviest, on songs like Smile, which has an absolutely crushing riff. I do love how they back the riff with what -sounds like some dance-synth strings (although they could be real, it's hard to tell under the compressed multi-tracked guitars). That's something new for them. And the production is heavier than ever, something that's immediately apparent as soon as the opening track, Luminary, kicks in.
Juno, feels right off of their second album with it's signature groovy riffs, classic Tesseract slap bass, and emotional vocal climax. Even right down to the ending, Tesseract stick to their formula of ending on very emotional note, as singer Daniel Tompkins belts out the poignant "You wasted so much damn time on it / You've wasted half your damn life".
And as usual, it's the longest song on the album that's the highlight for me, with Beneath the Skin / Mirror Image. It is essentially two songs connected with ambiance, and that bothered me a little at first cuz I saw the track list and was expecting a bona fide epic. But after being forced to listen to it as a single track, I realized that it is a bona fide epic - ambient music is music and there are songs with shottier transitions. It may be an easy transition, but who cares? It still sounds sublime, and the two parts are totally connected in their lyrical content and musical progressions. In fact, I actually very specifically enjoy how the ambient break brings the song to very mellow dynamic so that it can be built back up to the huge climax, where Tompkins dramatically repeats the lines "I've been dreaming / Love is not a dangerous thing / Anxious to let go of being / Love is not a dangerous thing".
The album is a little short, as some people have noted. But hey, if they need to write short albums in order to keep mining this golden sound then more power to them. Tesseract are right up there as one of the best bands of the decade, and if this album proves anything, it's that Tesseract are just about as likely as anyone to secure a high spot on my albums of the year list whenever they put something out.
5. Binker and Moses - Alive in the East?
The toughest thing about ranking albums at the end of the year is probably trying to reconcile the strength of individual tracks vs the attractiveness of the album to be listened to as a whole. On one end of extreme, you might find that one album has a couple of your favorite songs of the year but the other songs may just feel inferior to your favorites so you're not really motivated to listen to them, or they may stray from the strongest elements of their sound on other tracks and so they're not as appealing to you as your favorites. On the other end, you might have an album where you can't even name the individual songs and there aren't any tracks competing for your favorite of the year, but the album as a whole flows so well and creates such a distinct and compelling atmosphere when played uninterrupted that you listen to it again and again. Which album do you like better?
The reason I bring this up is because this new Binker and Moses album has the best flow out of any album this year, and it's been right at the top of my favorite albums to throw on and listen to all the way through in 2018. But this album is essentially a single continuous live improvisation. So much so that you can even tell the separate tracks are just cut in post at an arbitrary time where things seem to change enough to justify a new song. And so the album flows so fluidly that it's hard to compare to other albums that are ranked more on the strength of their individual songs.
The question wasn't about whether or not to rank it, there was no way I wasn't going to put this album high on my list. I was just going back and forth on how high. These guys have so much going for them. I think that Moses Boyd may be my favorite modern drummer. He blew me away last year on their studio record and I named him the drummer of my 2017 All-Star Band. He actually teams up with another drummer named Yussef Dayes on this album for some fantastically encompassing dual drum parts. In fact that component of the album is used as a sort of motif, as the record begins with a double drum track called The Birth of Light and brings back that sound on the second to last song, Beyond the Edge. Both feel like you're caught up in a hurricane of percussion, and the fact that they use it to sort of open and close the album make it a very important part of the recording.
The melodic instruments shine all throughout the album as well. There's actually two saxophonists on the album, as British free jazz legend Evan Parker joins them and offers fantastic counterpoint to Travis Binker. This album takes on much more of an avant-garde nature because of this added harmonic depth and I'm so happy about it. I loved what Binker and Moses were doing last year with their duo work, but this album is more down my alley. It's really too bad there's no live video of this performance as I'd really like to hear whose playing which parts.
The most interesting addition to the Binker and Moses team for this performance however is electric harpist Tori Handsley, who as the only polyphonic instrumentalist, plays a critical role in the music, as she's often supplying the chordal direction of the songs, as well as the closest thing they have to a bass. She doesn't just sit behind and lay chordal foundations though, she has quite the 'riffy' approach and really takes command sometimes, pulling the improvisations in her direction. If you listen to the end of The River's Tale and the transition as it turns into How Fire Was Made, you can hear her getting some sort of avant-garde type scratching noises from her harp, which I'm sure the saxophonists loved. She then pulls out some really interesting chords in the second half of the song as Binker and Parker are going off over each other. Everyone does a phenomenal job giving each other space over the course of the improvisation.
With the double drums, double saxophone and electric harp, they really achieve a unprecedented sound with this album. That is part of what makes it such a great record, and being that it is an improvisational performance, that fresh mixture of sounds just makes it exciting. I have a very vivid memory of listening to this album for the first time, and how on the edge of my seat I was the whole time. This record just has such unique energy. There's a lot of crowd noise on this thing. Normally that would be annoying, but it's incorporated intentionally in such an innovative way. There's certain big moments on the album that are accentuated by the crowd cheering and reacting to what they hear. Take the song Children of the Ultra Blacks for example, when the song breaks into it's groove a couple minutes in, the crowd goes wild and it works almost like a live audience recording for a sitcom, accentuating an emotional reaction where it's intended, but instead of laughter it's awe and gratification. I love how they build up to the groove in this song too. You can really hear them gradually figuring out where the improvisation is going and this is definitely a moment where the electric harp is a highlight, as it sounds surprisingly badass.
I love that they close things out on the last track with a very mellow harp-lead piece titled The Death of Light, embellished by simple melodic phrases from the saxophonists and only subtle ambiance from the percussionists. It would be totally expected for them to end with the actual two core members of the band in the spotlight, and knowing their creativity and how much capability they have just as a two-piece I'm sure they could have come up with something for a finale. But I think they realize that the electric harp is the one really defining sound on this album, just because of how atypical it is for a jazz improvisation like this, and so they make an artistically modest decision to bow out and let Handsley have the last word. It shouldn't be any surprise though. These guys are master improvisers and the most important part of improv is knowing when to play and when not to. That discretion is present all over this album and it makes for one wild journey totally unlike anything else in 2018.
Another great instrumental jazz album that almost made my list was The Hands by Fire!. This is a really simple album in concept with just saxophone, upright bass and drums. But everyone has a very distinct role. Notably, the upright bass has some dirty overdrive on it. The drums have a Bonham-esque meat to them and the sax player goes off for the whole thing. Just ferocious, violent, abrasive sax playing all over this. If that sounds appealing to you check out the song To Shave the Leaves. In Red. In Black.
4. Sumac - Love in Shadow
This was the second album that Sumac released this year. The first was an album called American Dollar Bill - Keep Looking Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On - a collaboration with renown Japanese noise artist Keiji Haino, and a revolutionary exercise in heavy metal free improvisation. Heavy music, and in particular Sumac's brand of sprawling sludge metal, has always been identified in some part by chaos and turmoil, and so combining it with free improvisation seems like a natural path. That collaborative record was surely one of the most interesting releases of the year, but at the same time, it was a remarkably challenging piece of art to consume, consisting entirely of on-the-spot improvisations and not throwing any bones to those who desire a healthy balance between that formless noise and evidently coordinated music. In many ways it reminded me of John Coltrane's celebrated and infamous 1966 free jazz LP "Ascension", in it's willfully bottomless discombobulation. Sumac drummer Nick Yacyshyn specifically seems to follow in the Elvin Jones sort of methodology of perpetual fills that keep the music rolling towards profound nothingness, and you have to give him a lot of credit for finding a way to provide some sort of percussive anchor to the noise.
Still, in a similar vein to Coltrane's record, it wasn't a piece of music that I necessarily felt compelled to listen to for pure enjoyment. I don't think that it was intended to be either. This new record however, is completely different in that sense, and the same in others.
This album is over an hour in length but only consists of four separate tracks. This is an extremely important attribute of the music, and it allows Sumac to formulate synchronized and premeditated riffs and sections well also leaving room for them to incorporate the improvisational madness that they honed in their collaboration with Haino.
They do not pull any punches in introducing this album. Whereas their collaborative record eased in with uncertainty, the opening 21+ minute song The Task storms out of the gate with a violently rapid and tactically coordinated barrage of riffage. It has a little bit of a death metal vibe, especially with the deepness of Aaron Turner's growls, and this aggressiveness doesn’t break for about 4 minutes. It's quite a bold way to start the album, and it feels very much in contrast to their work with Haino.
That contrast fades as the song continues however and the improvisational elements come creeping in. They have these very sort of unpredictably free and melodically idiosyncratic, somewhat clean and restrained guitar sections that break up the heavier parts. These sections are very evocative in their own way. They're totally strange and anti-beautiful. They sound like the soundtrack to a nature documentary about some predatory desert insect. They even use this sound where it sounds like the guitar has a bad connection and guitarist Aaron Turner is continuously adjusting it in between picking notes. It actually gives the guitar work a very human touch and sense of raw spontaneity. When people talk about the extent to which computerized and programmed music loses the dynamic imperfections of human music, this isn't necessarily what they're usually talking about, but it's just about a perfect example as I can think of.
What's so interesting about this song is how it deconstructs itself over the course of twenty minutes. The song gets slower and sludgier over time. They use some very long and slow riffs on this album, which impresses a deceptive sense of disarray, in that it's difficult to grasp where the riffs actually begin and end. To some extent the riffs seem to be composite of several different riffs, and so you can have a section that repeats for a few minutes and only repeats a couple times. Still the riffs are so heavy and remarkably memorable given their convoluted length. The song continues to become even drearier and slow-paced with a crawling 11/8 riff, and over it an incredibly bizarre clean guitar "solo", with two guitars panned left and right doing different things, sort of calling and answering but overlapping as well. And instead of building back up to anything close to the the extreme heaviness of the intro, the instruments ring out into a despondent section of exclusively organ and harsh vocals. You can tell that Sumac deliberately composed this song as sort of an anti-epic, as the whole monster of a song is just gradually deteriorating the entire time. I can't say that I've ever experienced a song conceived with sort of ambitious and counterproductive structure.
I found that the unique structure of the first track actually informs the rest of the album, as each song seems to respond to the structural methodology of that song with their own conflicitng form. Track number two, Attis' Blade, starts of fast and heavy as well, featuring some primal tom-heavy Danny Carey-esque drumming. This track is noisey and more sonically experimental than the previous one. There's more and more noise and improvisation as the album goes on. The noisey guitar solo sort of build up in this song is really captivating, as everyone just gets more intense in perfect unison, before it ultimately breaks down in scratching and feedback. Aaron Turner is really a master sound-smith. I adore the twangy guitar tone he's using on this record - there’s a bunch of riffs on this album that sort of bounce really dissonant chords off of little guitar licks and fills, and the twangy sound gives it such a distinct vibe. I'd be curious to hear what guitar he's using, though I would guess it might be a Fender. Interstingly, the ending to this song feels like a resolution to the deconstruction of the first song as it rather abruptly transitions back into the uptempo intro section as the outro. This contrast between tracks one and two must have been intentional.
Arcing Silver then, in contrast, is the one that starts off with a lot of space. It's still pretty noisey, but it starts with just bass, then drums, then higher range guitar solo, then just vocal, bass, and drum. And then features the only really long-droney, nearly non-musical portion of the album. The ending riff on this song is crushing and it has the noisiest, most tortured ending of all the songs. It seems like each track recalls the theme of the previous one at the end.
Ecstasy of Unbecoming is the slow build up song. The opposite of tracks one and two, and distinct from track three. It takes about 4 minutes to break into a groove, but the groove is the best on the album with it's war march vibes. And then after all the distinctions of each song, the last stretch of this perfectly incorporates everything that makes the album great and does so in the most poignant way - there’s a long isolated unsettling clean guitar interlude (this one features particularly exceptional playing an expressive melodic choices), then a hastily introduced blistering fast paced section, and finally a huge, long, dissonant riff. The transitions between these parts are really abrupt, but they're not abrupt. They really make you feel each part come to a screeching halt and then take a sharp turn, like they’re very purposely picking you up and tossing you around and shaking you; it has a pretty cathartic effect I think.
There's so many elements to this album which evoke and accentuate the thematic chaos and turbulence of Sumac's vision. Nearly everything I just spoke about in regards to the sounds that make up this album is something that very specifically and purposefully contributes to that end. I believe that this is what you need to understand in order to be a great artist - that everything you do must contribute to a unified ambition, whatever that may be. Not only does Sumac do this with 100% dedication in every song, but each subsequent track on the album responds directly to the theme of deconstruction that's laid out on the first track. I don't think anyone else in the world is approaching heavy music with this sort of unflagging artistry and ambition, and pushing forward that sound into new territory. Not only is this a phenomenally crafted and performed album, but I expect that in the years to come it will be seen as a monumental and influential release in heavy music.
While on the subject of noisy music I can't not mention literally everyone else's favorite album of the year, You Won't Get What You Want by Daughters. This album was pretty close to making my top 25, so don't crucify me. I acknowledge that it's an outstanding record and I love the sinister vibe that it gives off. What keeps me from loving it is the vocals. Coming from someone who is very non-picky about vocals, the atonal shouting just gets a bit bland for me over the course of a whole album. I feel the same way about harsh vocals with little variation but a lot of albums like that have very long passages without vocals so it's not a big deal. The vocals are pretty consistent on this album though. I do really like them at times, like on the closing song Guest House, where he sounds very desperate. But for the whole thing it ends up sort of blurring the songs together and making it harder to appreciate. Especially when I'm such a fan of great singers that utilize dark, noisey, industrial type music to sing over. Like I just imagine if you put someone ilke Chelsea Wolfe over this how amazing it would be. I'll stop though cuz I feel like I'm going to upset some people. It is really encouraging to me that such a grotesque and heavy record can receive so much positive support, especially from places like the indie rock community. Again, I do think it's a great album. Just not in my top 25.
3. Avantdale Bowling Club - Avantdale Bowling Club
When superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar came out with his jazz and funk inspired magnum opus "To Pimp a Butterfly" in 2015, he sent waves through the music community, turning musicians and music nerds of all kinds onto hip-hop in a way they hadn't ever been before. I think that for a lot of us, we were hoping that that album would set off a long-awaited and necessary revolution of real instrumentation and musical creativity within rap, and initiate the tearing down of the wall that has long stood between hip-hop and genres with more melodic variation and harmonic progression. But it's been 3 years and, for me at least, it seems like Kendrick Lamar was only able to take a single brick out from that wall, and it has otherwise remained unblemished. Even when it comes to Kendrick himself, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I was dissapointed last year when he didn't continue in the direction of his previous record and instead embraced more modern tropes of trap and pop rap for the most part. Even though he had my favorite song of the year in 2017, it's the only hip-hop song to make my Top 25 list in the two years that I've been doing this, and at number #25, his album last year was the only rap album on my lists the previous two years also.
But it does seem like someone was listening. This debut album by Avantdale Bowling Club not only continues where To Pimp a Butterfly left off, but it takes what I thought were the most compelling elements of TPAB, namely the live jazz instrumentation, doubles down on that, and makes it significantly better. This album is filled with real, good, brassy, 50's and 60's sounding bebop, big band, and avant-garde sounds. And when I say that there's jazz on this I'm not talking about looped jazz samples. I'm talking about live jazz music that progresses and changes throughout the track.
Track number two on this album, Pocket Lint, is probably the best example of this, as it features a modal jazz, piano-driven instrumental. I love everything about this instrumental, from how the upright bass kicks of the song with a Charles Mingus-esque lick, to how the saxophone and the rest of the instruments kind of swell in. I love the saxophone parts that weave in and out throughout this one.
The modal jazz approach I think is maybe the most compelling element of the entire album, as while that kind of unpredictability is normally tough to follow, it takes on a very particular role when mixed with hip-hop because the melodic attributes of the vocals are so fixed and unvarying, the constant piano changes really move the song along and gives it some much needed variation. For example, there's a moment in this where everyone else rests and it's only piano and vocals, and during the line, "Everybody wanna take the piss and talk shit / None of them have had to clean the toilet", the piano player geniusly accentuates both syllables of the word "toilet" with an unexpected and jazzily-dissonant chord change. That kind of very specific detail is one of those things that you can only really achieve with live musicians, and very creative and proficient live musicians at that.
Like a lot of songs on this album, that song not only features live instrumentation - it features exclusively live instrumentation. Yes, that includes the drums. In fact, a lot of the drumming on this record is very creative, and is used very effectively to move the songs from part to part. That's totally normal in most music, but in a genre that nearly always relies on drum samples, and even when there is live drums it's just the same part looped over and over, this is revolutionary. In Pocket Lint, there's a sort of free jazz lack of distinct rhythm to this song, which is really unique in a rap song. That's not indicative of the rest of the album though. There's fills and dynamics galore in the drumming, and there's even lots of space left for the instrumentalists to solo. In fact, the last two minutes of the second to last song, Quincy's March, features a great instrumental build up with fantastic drumming, and then the final track on the album even is a 4-minute instrumental, which fades into a short tabla solo.
They do mix it up a little bit and bring on some suby-bass on the third track, Friends, but there's no electronic high hats or hand claps filling out the beat, but rather a live ride cymbal and quick and eccentric snare tapping. They never stray very far from the organic sound. The farthest they go is on track number four, Water Medley, but in a way it's the most ambitious track on the record as it spans a little more than 9-minutes and mixes the trademark jazz sound of their debut with some very psychedelic production.
OK so the music is great and innovative - but Kendrick Lamar is probably one of best rappers ever in terms of lyrics, word play, and especially vocal inflection - how is the rapping on here? - you may be asking. I'd heard that this was the jazziest rap album ever before I listened to it so I was wondering that exact thing going into it, and I was worried, because if you think about it, there's probably millions of people calling themselves rappers out there, and any of them could conceivably gather enough money to pay some jazz musicians to jam at a certain BPM for them to rap over. If you listened to TPAB, you may recall that Kendrick had a song called "For Free?" which featured the most compelling live jazz instrumentation on a rap song I'd ever heard before this album, but the song itself was little to silly to really love in my opinion.
All that is why I was so happy the first time I threw on this album and heard the opening track, Years Gone By, which is marked by some of the most emotional rapping I've ever heard. Certainly a lot of that has to do with how sublimely authentic and emotively complex the live jazz music he's rapping over is, but you gotta give emcee Tom Scott credit, the way details his life and talks about his struggles and personal tragedies and how the birth of son affected him and brought him to where he is now so moving. So many heart-wrenching lines in this, like "In '92 my drunk dad jumped ship on mum / In '93 I won my first fight, like a D O double G / Still mad at the man I wanted to be". The lines themselves aren't only incredibly emotional, but the theme and structure of how he runs through the years chronologically and varies between more descriptive lines and tragic ones turns it into an extremely engaging story. Early in the song he has a line that goes, "Looking back on old days, glassy-eyed / Watching years go, like my aunties mind" but he says the last part with a very soft spoken subtlety, which has a powerful sort of callousness to it.
In a similar way to Kendrick, Tom Scott explores a starkly contrasting lyrical style from most other rappers by being extremely vulnerable. There's not a hint of your stereotypical hip-hop egomania on this record. In fact, the song Home has a line that's so contrasting to your standard self-aggrandizing rap that it's palpably ironic: "I was so young then / So naive I thought I'd be / A millionaire by now / Turns out, didn't work out / Like I thought it would". You could say that line even implies how someone with ambitions of being a rapper can be deceived by wealth-flaunting lyrics of popular artists into expecting that outcome. Remember, this is a debut album, so when this guy talks about not being a millionaire and living in New Zealand with his family and raising his son, it's real.
But going back to Years Gone By, because that song is just astonishingly good, the most moving section of the song - I'm just going to paste a half-verse - are these lines:
Yeah the year was 2001, I bumped that 2001
Moved out of my mum's house, flunked out like a bum
First year I got something was that first year I got sprung
Next year I got dumped, and that whole year I got drunk
That was '02 then '03 my old man got done
For some dumb shit, got one year and that year I got numb
Then '05 he got out and got out of it at once
Then '06 my homie hung in the park where we all hung
Yeah my shit got fucked up that year, my shit got real rough that year
Horsed it on my bruv that year, fuck that year
Those last two lines where he talks about his friend hanging himself and says "fuck that year" really gets me. I don't really think I've ever heard a rap song that's given me this much of an emotional response. This song has a very profound moral about how as things happen over the years they have permanent effects on who you are and how you think.
Both the music and vocal delivery are so dynamic as well. As he builds up and passes time with his lyrics the band does a phenomenal job of building with him, especially the drummer, Julien Dyne, who's creativity is electric on this track. It's amazing how much it adds to the emotion. Not only is this far and away the best drum performance on a rap song ever, this is maybe the best drum performance on any song this year.
This is why I'm so keen on live instrumentation in rap, because since they don't have to worry about conflicting with the vocals so much since they're atonal for the most part, there's so much room for dynamic and melodic experimentation and creativity, and when that creative opportunity is taken by live musicians, it creates an unprecedented level of emotional response for both the genres at play.
I love jazz, but it usually doesn't hit you in the same kind of direct way that other music does - I mean that's sort of the point of jazz, that it sounds different because of the chords and melodic choices, and it has a more emotionally complex and ambiguous feel to it, which reflects the complexity and ambiguity of life in a very moving way. At least that's how I see it. But with these kind of hard-hitting, honest, emotional lyrics you get the best of both worlds. Hearing this album is almost like never hearing a minor key string quartet piece, or rock ballad with soulful belting vocals, or an intimate singer-songwriter song about lost love. We've all heard these things, and even if we don't listen to stuff like that often, we all recognize the kind of emotional responses that that music dictates. The idea that you can combine certain styles of music and find a way of creating similarly undeniably convincing emotional responses is just about as compelling an idea in regards to music as there is to me. That's the goal of the innovate and progressive ideology that I subscribe to as a musician and consumer of music. It's like Avantdale Bowling Club were able to conjure up some secret, unknown style of music comparable to the ones I just mentioned. But actually they just committed to something that's rather obvious, in a way that no one else has had the artistic foresight to do, and it turned out even better than I would've imagined, because I didn't anticipate it would be this moving.
I did check out all the most acclaimed rap albums this year and give them a fair shot. Still pretty negative on the whole scene, and I know how it looks picking this album exclusively and discounting nearly all the rest, but I do maintain that I really like hip-hop I just don't think it's living up anywhere close to it's potential. I did enjoy that Pusha T album Daytona though. That guys got some really great voice inflections and noises, especially on a song like Come Back Baby. This could've made my list if it was longer than 7 short songs - another modern rap trend that I don't get.
2. Sisare - Leaving the Land
Sometimes I think I'm a little too obsessive in my constant search for music. Even as we enter December I'm scouring social media and all the music websites I know looking to make sure that I didn't miss anything. Well I'm glad I did this year, as this was literally the last album I decided to give a listen to this year. Ironically it was released in January 2018.
I haven't heard any buzz about this album in the prog community and I don't know why. This is such a gratifying release for someone that's into that stuff. They're a Finnish band, with a sort of Nordic folk basis for their sound. This isn't over-the-top flashy prog. It's subtle. It's sensitive. And it's mellow in all the best ways.
There are some modern references I would throw out there, the closest being Opeth. But not Opeth at their heaviest - more like a Damnation era Opeth. Again, the music is very mellow. If anything it sounds like a modern incarnation of Pink Floyd. Very tasteful and emotive playing all around, very somber atmosphere. A song like Pace, even features very Floydian lyrical subject matter about passing time. And the chorus floats in with a sort of Roger Waters lethargy. But it's not all soft, as they juxtapose their somberness against some really exuberant grooves. This song builds up through a fantastic guitar solo and ends on a great groove.
The grooves in the song Geno are really stellar too, and I very much like how the vocal plays off of them. The transitions in all their songs are unbelievably smooth. A lot of the time you don't even notice that the songs progressed to a different part because the subsequent section feels so naturally connected. That happens in this song as the groove continues under a guitar solo which leads the song astray and then back to the groove.
The guitar solos in this are phenomenal. Again, not too flashy. I hear a lot jazz influence in them. In fact, I'm nearly certain that there's a fair amount of bona fide jazz background in at least some of these guys. It's a lot more pronounced of a jazz influence that you usually get in this type of music. In a way it sort of replaces the heaviness, as although I think there's some metal influence going on, there isn't really any metal to be heard. That could be part of what makes them so unique. All the modern bands that I would compare them too - Soen, Caligula's Horse, etc. - are heavier than them. And I think that since none of those bands are extremely heavy, it actually is more compelling to me without any of the heaviness because you're left with this very melancholic blend of Nordic folk, jazz, and rock.
The rhythm section really sets the tone on this album. There's a very tangible sort of earthy quality to the music, a lot of nature reference in the lyrics, and of course the title and album cover indicate that as well. The guitars both do a lot of chords playing and soloing, there's not a whole lot of riffs, so there's a nearly constant opportunity for the bass and drums to be creative. I really love the bass work in the begging section of the song Shattered, which fits very warmly in between a spacey electric guitar lead and strummed acoustic guitar. It's one of those albums where you can turn your attention to the bass at anytime and it'll be playing something interesting. And later in this song there's room for a very tasteful bass solo that leads very effectively into a really powerful guitar solo. Bass solos do often seem a bit unnecessary since you lose the low end of your song, especially when you have a guitar available, but I'd never thought of leading into a guitar solo with a bass solo. That seems to make so much sense, as a big part of building a guitar solo is starting low and working your way up. You'd think bands would do this all the time but I'd never thought of it and I can't think of any other instances. Just another little way that this album stands out.
This album is the definition of solid. I'm finding it a little bit hard to review because I want to mention every song. I think that my favorite is the opening track, Escape, as it just seems to exemplify everything that's so great about the LP as a whole; it's got a great groove, a fantastic solo, and excellent transitions, and I love how it welcomes you into the album with some very tender finger-picked electric guitar and some of the best opening lyrics of the year: "We leave the land behind / Grow our wings and free our minds / Farewell humanity / We will fly above the sea".
On the other hand, the second track, Mountains, features some great vocals - he is pretty reserved in a fitting way with his voice for most of the album, but he pulls off some gorgeous falsetto in this song. And more importantly, this track has the most powerful climax out of all the songs, with some phenomenal drumming at the very end.
They just really work wonders with this particular sound. It's a shame it took me until this month to discover these guys cuz I'm still not ready to stop listening. I'm still picking up details in every song - a bass-line here, a lyric there. They packed this album to the brim with great ideas, but most importantly, there's no overplaying whatsoever. In fact, now that I've heard all the details and know just how proficient they all are, I'd go as far as to say that they're willfully underplaying. They're very strictly going for a mellow and hearty tone on this and again, something that's come up in a lot of my reviews this year, they succeed in creating a great album because they establish an artistic vision and commit to it full-throttle. Next time these guys release an album, I won't be waiting 11 months to give it a listen. It'll take a lot to make me wait at all.
There were a few other albums in the realm of mellow modern prog rock. I really liked this album called Blissful Yearning by The Good Hand. Big time Porcupine Tree vibes on this one, although the singer's got a bit more of a rock n' roll rasp to his voice. I love the longest song on the record, Future Days. Great chorus and a kind of heavy section in the middle, plus a big climax with fantastic drumming.
The Pineapple Thief also released a new album this year called Dissolution, another band that always gets compared to Porcupine Tree, and since they have former Porcupine Tree drum-virtuoso Gavin Harrison it's probably justified. My favorite song on this is probably Far Below - really like how it slows down for the emotive chorus at the end.
1. Rosalía - El Mal Querer
I spoke a little bit about Rosalía last year in my 2017 review and included a song from her debut flamenco vocal and acoustic guitar album in my Top 25 songs of the year. When I mentioned her album, I said the following (yes, I'm quoting myself):
Her voice is stunning and she has a wildly beautiful natural vibrato. I’m surprised she hasn’t been scooped up by some industry executive and pushed into pop music... but whether she’s just flown under the radar up to this point or she’s doing this kind of music on her own volition, it's such a treat to hear.
And so if you told me last year that she was going to make a quick transition into the pop world, I would have been a bit disappointed but not surprised.
But I'm not trying to push forward some prophetic persona. In fact, on her sophomore album, Rosalía makes me look like a goddamn fool, particularly for implying that she could be "scooped up" by the industry. Rosalía has taken over the industry if anything, topping all of the Spanish charts and racking up over 47 million views on YouTube for her most popular song. Keep in mind this album is entirely in Spanish, and the population of Spain is about 46 million. She has seen an incredible ascension from traditional flamenco singer to Spain's biggest star in such a short amount of time, but what she has not done is sell-out her flamenco roots and embrace some sort of mass appeal formula. I mean, there clearly is a mass appeal to her music, but at the same time, this is one of the most experimental and artistic pop albums I've ever heard.
First of all, it's a concept album based on an anonymous 13-century novel about a women that is imprisoned by her husband out of jealousy. I don't speak Spanish but I've read the lyrics while listening and this concept definitely isn't just a little embellishment to the project. Every song deals very directly with the subject matter. Even with the language barrier, the developing narrative is still acutely palpable in the music, as you can feel all the scorn and sadness manifest itself as record progresses.
The lyrics notwithstanding, the musical elements of this album are incredibly progressive and distinguishing from any other pop music that I've heard. There's a lot of harmonic minor on this record. That alone is a massive plus for me. I've always thought of harmonic minor as the sort of 'sexy' scale. It gives this pop music a lot of edge. Malamente (Cap.1: Augurio), is the first track on the album and her biggest hit (the one with 47 million views), and I can understand why it's a hit for sure, but at the same time the harmonic minor lines in the verses and chorus are absolutely enchanting, and the ominous lyrical subject matter is overwhelming.
Noticeable too is the modern hip-hop influence that appears all over the record, with rattling electronic high-hats and 808s. What's so interesting is that they are mixed with intricately layered hand claps - and not synthetic hip-hop claps - but real organic flamenco style clapping. That may be the most genius singular idea on the album as that contrast has the effect of making the album sound both more rooted in traditional flamenco and also more sensibly connected to modern hip-hop production.
It's such an interesting rhythmic album. On the the third track, Pienso en Tu Mirá (Cap.3: Celos), the chorus switches between a bar of 12/8 and a bar of 10/8. There's a lot of 12/8 time on the album, which is a standard flamenco rhythm but definitely not something anyone is used to hearing in pop. As someone who listens to a lot of progressive rock where non-4/4 time is revered, something is very apparent in a song like this, and that is that Rosalía knows how to make these timings work on a level that most singers don't. Not to knock some of my favorite prog singers, but many of them just aren't able to flow with odd-time signatures the way she does, and I'm sure it's because she been singing in 12 all her life. The melodies she comes up with just connect to the rhythms so flawlessly.
I have to talk about the song De Aquí no Sales (Cap.4: Disputa), which at 2 minutes and 24 second may only be considered an interlude track to some, but very well might be my favorite song on the album, as it encapsulates the experimental nature that drives Rosalía's artistic vision. This is an avant-garde pop song if there ever was one, with totally insane and outlandish production. The second half of the song features the most hip-hop inspired section of the record, with a rather intricate looping vocal line and some thunderous groovy bass lines. More than anything though, the simple inclusion that makes this track an absolute banger is when Rosalía storms in with a bunch of rhythmic, boom-bap inspired shouting, basically just yelling "ay" over and over again. I don't think describing it with words will do it any justice, but it's one of the most genius musical ideas I've heard in 2018. Just the flagrant confidence the she exudes here is so invigorating. I only wish the track went on longer as I can't get enough of it. Looking through my music library I'm not sure there a song in existence under two and a half minutes that I enjoy more than this; she's going against some Madvillian and Converge tracks but I don't think I'd pick anything over this.
As much I don't want it to end however, the quick finish is actually a very deliberate choice in service to the album. The next song,
Reniego (Cap.5: Lamento), is a track consisting only of vocals and a string section. It's an utterly gorgeous track in it's own right, but it's so powerful coming in after everything that preceded it. She builds up to a point of extreme experimentation, seeing how far into the pop and hip-hop world she can push her flamenco roots, and then she drops us back into the 19th century and shows us from where all her inspiration is derived.
That track serves as a real turning point on the album, as most of what follows seems to tune down the hip-hop influences a little bit and proceed in a more delicate and melancholy direction. It seems to be a sort of transition form resentment and jealousy in the story to grief and helplessness.
The song Bagdad (Cap.7: Liturgia), really accentuates the remarkable beauty of Rosalía's voice. It was interesting for me to find out that the melodic motif for this song is actually knicked from a Justin Timberlake song called "Cry Me a River" (he's credited on the album). It's actually a great melody, and I don't want to sound snobby, but I listened to the original song, and it's a rather petty and cheap sounding pop tune. She takes the melody from that song and does it justice in a way that Timberlake couldn't, inserting her own markedly dark lyrics, translated from Spanish:
And she’s going to burn, if she stays there
The flames rise up to heaven to die
There’s no one else around there
There’s no one else, sitting and clapping
Suffice to say, much better than the, "You told me you love me why did you leave me all alone? / Now you tell me you need me when you call me on the phone"-lyrics of the original. Not only that but she advances that song beyond that melody and brings in an even better one for the chorus. I don't want to put words in her mouth but it's almost like she saying 'this is how you should do pop music'. The chorus features a church choir sounding background vocal, and like I said, the head voice melody she uses here is so graceful, magnificent, and vulnerable. I feel it goes without saying but her voice is out of the world.
Even a song like Di Mi Nombre (Cap.8: Éxtasis), which has the most repetitious and 'I-shouldn't-like-this'-style chorus on the album has a lot of very interesting elements. The verses in this song feature her erratic flamenco vocals in full force, and even in the chorus there's a very dark undertone to the piano and bass part that sit under the vocals. She even uses a little bit of autontune as weird effect on her vocals, which usually turns me off, but it's obvious that she doesn't need it so it serves as a sort of stylistic choice, and I guess it does it sound pretty cool the way she uses it.
And again, after she reaches that moment of distance from flamenco she immediately sucks you back into the old world with a haunting acapella track called Nana (Cap.9: Concepción). Even though it's just vocals this track has a lot going on. It has a beautiful spacious reverb and rain sounds that really help to put you into the story and experience the character's anguish. On top of that, there are some especially interesting pitch shifted vocal effects that go along with her.
The last two tracks follow this subtle and intimate style, ending the album on a very somber note, and really accentuating both Rosalía herself and the flamenco tradition that she represents. It's an interesting choice because none of these final tracks have any radio viability or anything like that. Hearing the end of this album, it's not totally surprising to me that when Rosalía is asked about her influences the first name she throws out isn't a pop-star at all, it's the legendary ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, a guy that I'm most familiar with from his collaborations with King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp. In fact, in the grand scheme of things it's probably only four of the eleven tracks on the album that have enough pop appeal to be legitimate hits. It's actually an incredibly dynamic and varied album, even in it's barely over 30 minute run time.
That shortness was actually what was going to keep it from being my #1 of the year. But I have to be honest, I enjoyed this album more than any other this year. And I see now that the 30-minute run time is a benefit to the album. The songs that have choruses only repeat them twice, which is a very important detail to me, as the song don't feel like drawn out desperate attempts at getting stuck in your head. And in 30 minutes she's able to get off 11-tracks with more variation and innovation that any other record released in 2018.
Going back to my premonitions of her pop-stardom that I had last year, it's been very enlightening for me to learn about her journey to this point. It turns out that this album was actually her final bachelor's degree project for her flamenco studies program. She's extremely well versed in the technicalities of flamenco rhythm and melody and a huge portion of the music for this album was composed by herself. She's credited with guitars, bass, keyboards and even the hand percussion. Before she blew up with the release of Malamente, she released a couple short documentary videos on her YouTube page about the making of the album. In it she talks about not have any outside support and going into debt to pursue the project she's dreamed about for years. It's so surreal watching this video knowing how big she's about to become. I copied down an excerpt, though I had to adjust some of the grammar from the video's English subtitles as it appears she couldn't afford a good translator at the time:
The most important thing to me is to experiment with music. What I really want is to keep growing as a musician. That is what I want to do. I want to find something I haven't found yet. Everything I have, I am investing it for that purpose. I'm in the red. I'm taking a risk. I'm taking a big risk. Nowadays, I've haven't signed with anybody. I've haven't done so. With "Los Angeles" (her previous album) I just licensed it. I think I'm lucky because I'm making a dream come true; a dream from many years ago. Ultimately this project is what I have always wanted to do. I have been thinking for a long time to make an album like this.
Amen. It makes me a little teary eyed just reading that. This is what music is all about and this is the kind of mentality that produces an album of the year. Gracias, Rosalía. You're an inspiration to all musicians.
Top 25 Albums of 2018 (Recap)
25. The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
24. boygenius - boygenius
23. Night Verses - From the Gallery of Sleep
22. Big Heart Machine - Big Heart Machine
21. VOLA - Applause of a Distant Crowd
20. HAGO - HAGO
19. Kadhja Bonet - Childqueen
18. Terminus - Future Looming
17. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
16. Reaching 62 F - Chronicles of a Dying Sun
15. Michael Moss & the Accidental Orchestra - Helix
14. Fantastic Negrtio - Please Don't Be Dead
13. Lines in the Sky - Beacon
12. Haley Heynderickx - I Need to Start a Garden
11. Conjurer - Mire
10. Koenji Hyakkei - Dhorimviskha
9. Messa - Feast for Water
8. Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
7. Kimbra - Primal Heart
6. Tesseract - Sonder
5. Binker and Moses - Alive in the East?
4. Sumac - Love in Shadow
3. Avantdale Bowling Club - Avantdale Bowling Club
2. Sisare - Leaving the Land
1. Rosalía - El Mal Querer
Top 25 Songs of 2018:
*No repeat artists for sake of diversity
25. Joy - Kadhja Bonet
24. Bite the Hand - boygenius
23. A Boy Named Andrew - Fantastic Negrito
22. Chronicles of a Dying Sun - Reaching 62 F
21. Library - Lines in the Sky
20. G.O.A.T. - Polyphia
19. Unmade - Thom Yorke
18. Built on Ashes - Zeal & Ardor
17. Children of the Ultra Blacks - Binker and Moses
16. Applause of a Distant Crowd - VOLA
15. Renown - Termnius
14. Worth It - Haley Heynderickx
13. Hollow - Conjurer
12. Antikythera - HAGO
11. Escape - Sisare
10. De Aquí no Sales (Cap.4: Disputa) - Rosalía
9. The Seer - Messa
8. Human - Kimbra
7. The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra - Anna von Hausswolff
6. In Garden's Muteness - Julia Holter
5. Djebelki Zomn - Koenji Hyakkei
4. Beneath the Skin / Mirror Image - Tesseract
3. Disillusioned - A Perfect Circle
2. Ecstasy of Unbecoming - Sumac
1. Years Gone By - Avantdale Bowling Club
2018 All-Star Band: (i.e. Best Individual Performers)
*Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Drums/and one other instrumentalist of my choice
Vocals: Rosalía (Rosalía)
Guitar: Nick DePirro (Night Verses)
Bass: Hermanni Piltti (Sisare)
Drums: Julien Dyne (Avantdale Bowling Club)
Harp: Tori Handsley (Binker and Moses)
Riff of the Year: Nasty - Polyphia (Guitar riff at 1:00)
Solo of the Year: Antikythera - HAGO (Saxophone Solo by Nerya Zidon at around 1:55)
Chorus/Hook of the Year: Bagdad (Cap.7: Liturgia) - Rosalía
Best Lyrical Song: Years Gone By - Avantdale Bowling Club
Best Album Art: Conjurer - Mire
*Selected very much based on the relevancy of the art to the music, i.e., how much the art enhances the music
Best Sounding/Produced Album: Rosalía - El Mal Querer
Wrap-Up:
Man, that was tough. I switched my top 10 around so much it's started to feel quite arbitrary for me, but this is what I'm sticking with.
Immediately noticeable - two pop albums on the list, both in the top 10, one at the #1 spot. In the two years prior there were no pop albums at all. Last year I put a song by Maggie Rogers in my Top 25 songs so that sort of planted the seed a little bit, maybe. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for more pop, as after how much I enjoyed Rosalía and Kimbra this year, I want to make sure I'm not letting my music snobbery get in the way of enjoying good music. Rogers is coming out with a new album in February, looking forward to hearing that, and hoping she stays true her folk roots in the same way that Rosalía did this year.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, after naming a jazz album my #1 last year there's quite a bit more jazz on my list this year. I did seek it out, but I still maintain that there's a new enthusiasm for jazz that I only expect to get stronger.
In many ways it was the year of the Saxophone. Dual sax on Binker & Moses' album. A sax-lead and composed big band album from Big Heart Machine. Every jazz album I listed this year had great sax playing, but not just jazz. Koenji Hyakkei's album had great sax playing throughout, though they are partly jazz fusion. But most notably there was a ton of Sax in metal, lead of course by HAGO. Really looking forward to hearing bands expand upon the link between heavy music and avant-garde jazz.
Sumac of course are taking notes from free jazz themselves with their revolutionary and chaotic improvisational approach. Really looking forward to hearing more bands foray into that realm. Maybe even both improvisation and saxophone? Either way it was a good year for metal, especially slower metal like sludge and doom - my favorites, and with Zeal & Ardor, Tesseract, and Messa all in my top 10, I'm noticing that we're getting a lot of great vocalists in heavy music lately.
Two years in a row my favorite song of the year has been a hip-hop song, with Kednrick Lamar's DNA at number one last year. But two years in a row, I've only had one rap song and album on my list. I'm not sure what that means. I can speculate that maybe I really like rap, but there's not enough variation so I end up loving one song and ignoring the rest? But I loved the whole Avantdale Bowling Club album. It was so close to being #1 and it might be the best rap album ever as far as I'm concerned. I'll take an optimistic view and say that hip-hop has gotta pick up and start being more consistent. It has to. Maybe we'll see more live instrumentation. Really hope so.
Also it was a fantastic rhythm section year. I didn't notice a lot of great bass performances in 2016 and 2017, but this year I had a plethora to select from for my all-star band. In fact, I had more bassists and drummers than guitarist to pick from, which it totally unusual.
I'm frightened for next year. There's so many great artists set to release albums in 2019, I don't know how I'm gonna rank them, knowing how brutal it was this year. Thank You Scientist, who had my number #1 from 2016, are definitely releasing an album. Bent Knee, who are one my current favorite bands are definitely releasing an album. Opeth have said they're coming out with something. And of course... TOOL. I have to eat the words I wrote last year:
Okay. I'll get excited one more time but if there's not a Tool album on my list next year then I give up.
But they've all been reporting their recording progress this year and even Maynard has said that we're definitely getting new Tool in 2019... Who was I kidding?
God, I hope one of those bands either releases the best album of all time or all but one drops the ball, cuz I do not want to suffer through what I just went through for this year.
Although, the past two years my #1 albums have been totally unexpected, both artist-wise and genre-wise. Maybe I'm trying to be a little to clairvoyant. But of course, that could just mean that there will be even more great albums from bands I've never heard of to compete with Tool and Thank You Scientist, etc.
Well, if you don't hear from me in 2019, you'll know what happened...
Thank you for reading! Hopefully you found something you liked as you skimmed through this unnecessarily long post. Feel free to share your own favorites or superlatives in the comments!
Happy new year!
