Critics' Top Albums of 2018
40. The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
592 PointsIncluded on 22 ListsAverage List Placement = 17.91"Of course The 1975 would make the album most representative of 2018, an album filled with contradiction, excess, overwhelming sincerity, intense vulnerability, and a willingness to make mistakes. An ambitious exercise that sidestepped easy formulas to pop success to instead delve into ‘80s power ballads, stadium rock, subdued lounge, and glitchy trap, Matty Healy aimed for superstardom fully on his own terms.Through extreme empathy, cunning wit, and a hyper sense of self-awareness, Healy and the band created rock anthems that spoke to a generation without generalization or patronizing. "
-via Consequence of Sound
39. Sons of Kemet - Your Queen is a Reptile
598 PointsIncluded on 17 ListsAverage List Placement = 13.59"The record is a sonic meeting place where communities from across time can gather, plan, console. It’s the creek by the woods at midnight, the rave, the church, the political basement. The naming of the tracks offers more than just passive remembrance: it’s deliberate veneration. Each queen represents a different mode of resistance - this is music to move to, in dance and in action."
-via The Quietus
38. Lucy Dacus - Historian
618 PointsIncluded on 24 ListsAverage List Placement = 22.83"'The first time I tasted somebody else’s spit/I had a coughing fit/I mistakenly called them by your name/I was let down/it wasn’t the same,' sings Lucy Dacus to open up Historian, which grabs your mind with an intimate lyrical image that develops into a dense portrait of heartbreak and youth. The music beneath the surface is equally enthralling, with everything from warm strings to hefty distorted guitars lifting the weight of varied storylines, and offering more than enough depth to warrant numerous repeat plays."
-via Digital Trends
37. Travis Scott - ASTROWORLD
622 PointsIncluded on 22 ListsAverage List Placement = 19.41"When you’ve released a record that’s as invigoratingly fun as ‘Astroworld’, then you’re surely allowed to turn your live show into an actual theme park, right? Travis Scott’s rollercoaster set-up is currently wowing audiences across North America as the rapper continues his annus mirabilis, which has also seen him co-headline Reading & Leeds and welcome his first daughter Stormi Webster with Kylie Jenner. The success of ‘Astroworld’ will live long in the memory, though: from thrilling collaborations with the likes of Frank Ocean and Tame Impala to the psychedelic might of cuts like ‘Stargazing’, this is an album which just keeps on giving. Strap yourselves in: it’s a wild ride."
-via NME
36. Jon Hopkins - Singularity
629 PointsIncluded on 26 ListsAverage List Placement = 25.62"British producer Jon Hopkins has fairly described this record’s heavy hitting 10-minute centrepiece ‘Everything Connected’ a 'massive techno bastard' (its thumping mid-section will squeeze your skull with mind-melding effect) but there are plentiful moments of quiet introspection (the ambient ‘COSM’) and joyous release (the chilled coda of ‘Luminous Beings’) to indulge in too. At once cerebral and appealing to your basic repetitive beat instincts, ‘Singularity’ – contrary to its name – is an album of endless layers, a rich soundscape of ideas to lose yourself in."
-via NME
35. Julia Holter - Aviary
635 PointsIncluded on 22 ListsAverage List Placement = 21.82"Sprawling and uncompromising, Holter burst the doors wide open and invited listeners to fall into her world of beautiful, experimental discord. Whether it’s the blaring horns of “Every Day Is an Emergency”, the swirling ecstasy of “Turn the Lights On”, or the grooving head-rush of “I Shall Love 2”, Holter’s psychedelic wonderment is overwhelming in all the right ways. Aviary is the chance to spend an hour and a half deep inside the mind of one of the most adventurous and talented avant-pop composers of a generation and the perfect kind of record to get lost in."
-via Consequence of Sound
34. The Internet - Hive Mind
644 PointsIncluded on 24 ListsAverage List Placement = 20.79"The Internet’s main bag has long been trying to keep a foot in so many genres that the genres themselves become useless. Here they still dip into smooth R&B, as in “Stay the Night,” and funky dance tracks like “Roll (Burbank Funk)” and bossa nova like “La Di Da,” but it all serves their greater, unified sound. Hive Mind is the full realization of what the Internet has been reaching for since their inception: They have finally become a genre unto themselves."
-via Pitchfork
33. Tierra Whack - Whack World
664 PointsIncluded on 22 ListsAverage List Placement = 15.41"It’s tempting to claim that Whack World is only worth listening to when viewing its visual counterpart. While it’s true that the 15-minute video is a stellar accomplishment by Whack, it’s almost more amazing that an album of 15 one-minute songs manages to be so cohesive, and it’s all thanks to her singular vision. There are biting tracks here (opener “Black Nails”) but, lord, it just doesn’t get better than the bittersweet “Pet Cemetery,” in which Whack sings about missing, and kissing, her dead dog."
-via Flavorwire
32. Rosalía - El Mal Querer
671 PointsIncluded on 22 ListsAverage List Placement = 15.36"Rosalía’s second album, El mal querer, is delightfully tactile on a purely sonic level. Her rich voice cascades through notes at a sometimes searing pace. Its production, cooked up in collaboration with El Guincho, is full of warm synths, woodblock percussion, and skipping handclaps, resplendent with the glow and thud of the Iberian sun and earth the artist calls home. Rosalía remains committed to reimagining flamenco, but swaps the traditional guitar thrashings of 2017’s Los Ángeles for immaculately constructed R&B, retaining the deep rhythmic swing of the genre she fell in love with aged 13. Even listening to the album as a non-Spanish speaker, the ambition of its narrative is clear: revving motorbikes theatrically punctuate “Disputa”, while the melodrama of “Lamento” details a tragic outcome."
-via Dazed
31. Amen Dunes - Freedom
694 PointsIncluded on 24 ListsAverage List Placement = 20.13"Amen Dunes’ energetic new album conjures up the ghosts of grand rock songs past and gives them new life. Tracks like Time and Dracula run with the kind of relentless intensity that recalls a wolf chasing its prey. The songs often build to thrilling climaxes, but the album also exhibits a surprising (and admirable) amount of restraint. Riffs are catchy but focused, with guitars never straying into flamboyant noodling, and every instrument serving the greater whole of the song. Overall, Freedom is an album of triumphant peaks and somber valleys that’s perfectly exemplified by singer-songwriter Damon McMahon’s voice, which wavers or soars depending on the mood."
-via Digital Trends
