At the end of 2017 I had a relatively easy time drawing up a list of my top ten albums for the year. But 2018 has seen such a steady flow of outstanding music that my list kept changing – even after I had begun writing the reviews! A bit of last-minute listening and position shifting and I am left with this —my ten favourite albums from a year that has made me fall in love with music all over again:
PETSEMATARY – PETSEMATARY Vol I
Through channelling a traumatic period into moody gothic blues, Gaby has created an utterly haunting EP. It’s a wholly absorbing sequence of songs, a stripped back production of raw emotion with a masterful sense of space and pace. In only five tracks and twenty minutes, Vol I manages to do more than some of my favourite musicians have managed to accomplished across numerous releases and many hours. This is a sublime, arresting release, and has the only song that has made me cry this year.
Key listens: ‘love letter from babylon’ and ‘end’.
Given the way the news keeps kicking up dirt in every direction, it’s OK to seek sanctuary fin an album like this. Melding the sparse and airy worlds of leon’s previous work with the away-for-a-day charm of Animal Crossing, this is an album that you can either visit for one track or for the whole offering – re:treat will be there for you when you need it: a palate cleanser for the world-weary.
Key listens: ‘coffee shop jam’ and ‘moss imp’.
Lorn practically rules the realm of grungy, atmospheric electronic music, and REMNANT is a reminder of that. Crafted during recovery from substance abuse and mental health struggles, this is Lorn’s equivalent of fight music. It’s hopeful, percussive and ethereal — a perfect concoction for the year that was 2018.
Key listens: ‘KOLD MIRAGE’ and ‘OUT OF THE FRAME’.
Let’s Eat Grandma – I’m All Ears
I’m All Ears is frankly one of the most cohesive albums I’ve heard for a while. Falling somewhere between CHVRCHES and Grimes, this is an essential listen. Punchy and brilliantly British lyrics delivered with a saccharine venom and a swirling, playful synthscape build and build to what just might be the track of the year. The Norwich duo interrogate their own gender identity, digital communication, and just being weird – in an album unlike anything else released since, well, the last Let’s Eat Grandma album.
Key listens: ‘Hot Pink’ and ‘Donnie Darko’.
With a career spanning 18 years, it would be natural to assume that mewithoutYou’s sound would have mellowed by now, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. [Untitled] is the post-hardcore quintet at their most vulnerable and diverse, but also at their most aggressive. It’s a poetic and abrasive record that deals with mental health, the struggles of being away from family, and the material value of things we treasure. If this is the band’s swan song, it’s a bloody loud one.
Key listens: ‘[dormouse sighs]’ and ‘Wendy & Betsy’.
The Back 5:
Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
twenty one pilots – Trench
deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Between the Buried and Me – Automata I & II
Lucy Dacus – Historian
