Best of 2018
Nick Poyner's Picks (2018)
nickEp
A few things I learned this year:
- Turning 30 is the same as turning 29, 28, 27, etc.
- While Never Gonna Die didn’t place on my top 20, I’m glad that Pennywise still make music.
- Donald Glover is very talented across every platform.
- Moby Dick is pretty good. Talking about finishing Moby Dick is better.
- Sometimes when you draw cartoons of people, they don’t like your interpretation.
- boygenius can be enjoyed as one or split individually into three glorious people.
- The Moroccan Lounge is a great spot to see live music in LA.
- “Talia” by King Princess is the best song of 2018… What’s up?
A few albums I liked this year:
20. Years & Years: Palo Santo
Polydor
Three years ago, Communication caught me off guard. It was clearly a pop album but Years & Years showed
they had an ability to go deeper in a genre infused with surface level intimacy. This year, Olly Alexander and co.
return with a concept album focusing on religion, sexuality and guilt. But like any good concept album, the songs
also stand on their own.
19. Cupcakke: Ephorize
Self-Released
Cupcakke is a twenty-one-year-old rapper from Chicago. She is graphic, sexual and pure fire. On her first of two
albums this year, Cupcakke knows no boundaries and doesn’t care about yours (see “Duck Duck Goose”). She takes
control over her sexuality and uses it as power, making music more visual and lyrical than any Soundcloud rappers
out there.
cult records
Anyone expecting The Strokes 2.0 was greatly mistaken. It seems Julian Casablancas has done everything in his
power to distance himself from his main band (former main band?) With Virtue he takes it two steps further.
He’s trying to make the strangest album he can but has such a natural gift for melody. And hey, if you’re looking
for your Strokes fix, there’s always “Think Before You Drink.”
17. Sleep: The Sciences
Third Man
I had never heard of Sleep until this year, so take that as you will. I have no investment in their history or how
crazy it is that this album exists. The Sciences is incredible stoner metal done by three guys deeply
entrenched in the genre. Super group of not, this album is 53-minutes of killer sludgy jams.
16. Ty Segall: Freedom's Goblin
Drag City
Ty Segall keeps getting better. As of this writing, I’m not sure how many albums, splits or collaborations Segall
put out this year. But Freedom’s Goblin is my favorite. Released in January, it remains heavy in my record
rotation. It’s rock and roll with a pinch of Captain Beefheart thrown in. Plus, “My Lady’s on Fire” is killer.
15. Screaming Females: All at Once
Marissa Paternoster has one of the most unique voices in music. On top of that, she’s a phenomenal guitar player
and songwriter. All at Once is fifteen songs of that.
14. Alkaline Trio: Is This Thing Cursed?
My all-time favorite band finally released their solid ninth album after a five-year break. At this point the band
are reliable for delivering giant hooks coated in darkness. There are some real gems here, especially “Demon and
Division” and the title track. But it’s acoustic closer “Krystalline” that really delivers. Almost a sequel to
“Sorry About That,” Matt Skiba is able to deliver a heartbreaker for old fans without sacrificing the current,
slicker sound.
13. Spanish Love Songs: Schmaltz
Schamltz wins the award for album sung at the top of my lungs in traffic the most. Dylan Slocum delivers
his words on the verge of crisis like most twenty and thirty-somethings who haven’t quite figured it out yet. The
one-two-three of “Sequels, Remakes, and Adaptations,” “Bellyache,” and “Buffalo Buffalo” is the best sing-along
you’ll find this year.
12. Self Defense Family: Have You Considered
Punk Music
Self Defense Family continues to evolve and change in all the strangest and best ways, both under-appreciated and
an acquired taste. Patrick Kindlon is a poet whose words wander and linger as the music follows suit. It’s
passionate. It’s intense. And it’s the strongest collection of songs this unit has ever put out. Luckily, with
their track record, there should be plenty more to come in the new year.
11. Antarctigo Vespucci: Love in the Time of
Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock are incredible on their own and unstoppable together. Antarctigo Vespucci write
some of the prettiest, catchiest and honest songs about loneliness without sulking in sadness. The pair (once again
joined by Benny Horowtiz on drums) are able to deliver wise words with a spirited youthful energy.
10. The Dirty Nil: Master Volume
This record rocks. The Dirty Nil make straightforward rock and roll with just the right amount of punk thrown in.
Seeing them live for the first time this year only makes me love the band more. No matter how you consume music
these days, Master Volume delivers on its promise, sounding like you’re listening to the biggest band in the
world.
9. Middle Kids: Lost Friends
Domino
A good friend recommended Lost Friends to me. Every song is delicate, beautifully crafted and so emotional.
The Australian trio have taken a genre stale and overcrowded and blown everyone else out of the water. Big things
in their future.
8. Fucked Up: Dose Your Dreams
Dose Your Dreams is a polarizing album, it seems, even within the band. If Glass Boys is your Fucked
Up album of choice, there’s a good chance you probably hate this. But Fucked Up have always shined brightest when
attempting grandiose artistic statements. Yes, Damian Abraham’s hardcore vocals often take the backseat to cleaner,
more melodic ones, but the ambition demands multiple listens.
What a beautiful punk/surf/emo record Culture Abuse has created with Bay Dream. With its emotional center,
the band’s stylistic change really paid off. The album is softer, no doubt, but it never sacrifices anything. These
ten songs take tragedy and make it positive, everlasting art.
6. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer
Bad Boy
Janelle Monae is an art kid able to take popular trends and create something pop adjacent. Dirty Computer
is her biggest, best statement yet, tackling sexuality, honesty, and like many other albums this year, politics.
When she sings, “I am not America’s nightmare, I am the American dream, just let me live my life” on highlight
“Crazy, Classic, Life,” she encompasses everything that makes her and this album so special.
5. Shame: Songs of Praise
Dead oceans
See 4.
4. IDLES: Joy as an Act of Resistance.
Partisan
IDLES and Shame are two hardcore punk bands making giant statements this year. These albums are so emotional and
tough sounding, turning a crystal-clear mirror on masculinity and the way society treats it. IDLES, the elder
statesmen of the two, delivers a more mature sounding sophomore album, turning tragedy into life lessons for all of
us. Shame, a group of early twenty-something British boys, have clearly taken cues from punk forefathers and found
new reasons to get angry. These are far and away the best two punk albums of the year. There are few faults with
either. I have a feeling 2019 will only see both bands getting even bigger.
3. Cardi B: Invasion of Privacy
Atlantic
Invasion of Privacy can be added to the list of immediately classic hip-hop debuts. Following the success
of “Bodak Yellow,” Cardi B could have easily coasted on singles for the next couple years and eventually become a
successful features rapper. Instead she released a tightly-crafted, addictive album. Opener “Get Up 10,” proves her
resilience with a four-minute origin story solidifying her as one of the best out there right now.
2. Deafheaven: Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
This album only gets better with each listen. The guys in Deafheaven are so good at balancing beautiful guitar
melodies with brutal screams and double kick drums. I don’t know how many bands are really attempting shoegaze-y
black metal but Deafheaven knows no boundaries. That freedom results in Ordinary Corrupt Human Love.
1. Foxing: Nearer My God
I can’t speak highly enough of this album. It’s glitchy and electronic. It’s emotional. It’s political. It’s all
over the place yet still so tightly contained. Foxing upended their sound and the results are spectacular. Nearer
My God is damn near perfect, every song standing out as its best yet easily fitting into the clear narrative
Foxing so carefully crafted. “Slapstick” is one of my favorite songs this year while “Gameshark” is one of 2018’s
strangest. Nearer My God is ambitious and exciting and my favorite album of 2018.