It's hard for me to keep up with new music since I've been broadening my aperture and I have so much catching up to do on the past, especially in jazz.
That said, I can safely say 2018 has been a banner year for prog, with excellent releases from:
NPR's entry feels like it was intended to be as much of a conversation-starter or sociopolitical statement as it was a year-end list. The writeup opens with the sentence "Art is identity, scream these best albums of 2018." That sets the tone for the list as a whole, in which representation of women and minority groups appears to be a priority, although according to NPR it was based on adding up votes cast by staff. There are no men in the top thirteen albums - all are by solo women or groups including only women.
There's a lot of good music on the list and some stuff I'll need to check out. I do wonder whether the methodology was more complex than they're letting on, or whether it was just a coincidence how it turned out.
Certainly a GREAT top 10. That Kali Uchis album will certainly be in my top 10 as will Kacey Musgrave's & maybe even Mitski's.
NPR's entry feels like it was intended to be as much of a conversation-starter or sociopolitical statement as it was a year-end list. The writeup opens with the sentence "Art is identity, scream these best albums of 2018." That sets the tone for the list as a whole, in which representation of women and minority groups appears to be a priority, although according to NPR it was based on adding up votes cast by staff. There are no men in the top thirteen albums - all are by solo women or groups including only women.
There's a lot of good music on the list and some stuff I'll need to check out. I do wonder whether the methodology was more complex than they're letting on, or whether it was just a coincidence how it turned out.
Certainly a GREAT top 10. That Kali Uchis album will certainly be in my top 10 as will Kacey Musgrave's & maybe even Mitski's.
For sure! I love six of those albums (including three currently in my top 10), and I like the other four. Cool to see Whack World at #10. After recently listening to it, I think it's one of the best and most unique records of the year, and it's definitely underrated on BEA. Now I need to go watch the visual accompaniment.
EDIT: I just did and the video is great too. Just like the album, fifteen songs of one minute each. Check it out:
I was surprised that I had to add this album to the site today.
I like this album as much as Dirty Computer (which is to say, I like some of it A LOT, and some I could do without). I’m linking the two albums in my mind, because there’s a Prince connection.
Can't argue with the fact that it's repetitive, though I find repetition strangely comforting. Whilst not revolutionary, I think the percussion is uniformly great - skittering, dense, propulsive - and there are some really cool sounds and tones set against each other throughout. It's not particularly melodically striking or structurally varied, but it cultivates a vibe I really relate to, one that's communal and yet intimate, a feeling of friends locking into a groove and applying new textures sporadically without ever trying to steal the spotlight. But the "small doses" comment makes a whole lot of sense; this record is basically four EPs stuck together, featuring four different bands who share tonal similarities but are all sonically distinct (barring the aforementioned percussion, which ties the whole thing together), showcasing some outstanding individual musicians in relatively humble 'team player' mode. It's also accessible, though, like a rawer take on trip-hop, only with jam band tendencies, but also slyly progressive in nature, a surprisingly natural mix of live performance and patchwork sampling that blurs the lines between both, providing innumerable exquisite moments but crucially never at the expense of the whole. But yeah, it's more manageable (and, probably, more enjoyable) when taken as four EPs.
Fair enough, I really think it's the comforting factor that helps you out there... I didn't find it comforting at all, but perhaps I was just being anxious for it to end I'll probably give it another spin before the year's up with the 4 smaller EP's idea. Being said, I still really appreciated the idea of a live-jam hip-hop session, and I hope to hear more albums with similar styles in the future. Think the only other thing coming to mind is The Roots' Dilla cover albums.
Quote:
NPR's entry feels like it was intended to be as much of a conversation-starter or sociopolitical statement as it was a year-end list. The writeup opens with the sentence "Art is identity, scream these best albums of 2018." That sets the tone for the list as a whole, in which representation of women and minority groups appears to be a priority, although according to NPR it was based on adding up votes cast by staff. There are no men in the top thirteen albums - all are by solo women or groups including only women.
There's a lot of good music on the list and some stuff I'll need to check out. I do wonder whether the methodology was more complex than they're letting on, or whether it was just a coincidence how it turned out.
Nah, I think that's just how it turned out. Looking at other lists, it kinda even makes sense. I'm not big on some of the records, but it's a fine top 10. Their song list is a little different (speaking of, where are all the song lists? And Gambino seems to be topping the only ones I've seen, almost by default)
And I am completely missing something with that Snail Mail record? I can't seem to give a single damn about it and haven't any idea what people are praising. She sounds like an incredibly dull PJ Harvey.
Also, I know they were mainly praised by P4k, but where's Jean Grae & Quelle Chris, Tim Hecker,and Against All Logic? They haven't been popping up at all. Even Beach House isn't getting a lot of love.
I'll start off my sharing some of my anticipated releases:
Earl Sweatshirt
Vampire Weekend
My Bloody Valentine
Sky Ferreira
Tune-Yards
Father John Misty
Chromatics (hopefully)
Blood Orange
Danny Brown
No Age
Iceage
SOPHIE
David Byrne
Natalie Prass
Lucy Dacus
Grouper
U.S. Girls
Speedy Ortiz
Andrew WK
Spiritualized
Rhye
&
a hopefully a slew of artists I know nothing about
And I am completely missing something with that Snail Mail record? I can't seem to give a single damn about it and haven't any idea what people are praising. She sounds like an incredibly dull PJ Harvey.
I was so baffled by the good reviews this was getting. Everyone kept praising her songwriting, but every song sounds the same to me. It's particularly confusing that it's getting more praise than Lucy Dacus's Historian, which is just fantastic.
This might change as more lists come out, but the aggregate list seems to be a lot closer than most years, as if there's no real consensus. And there are some albums in the top 10, like the Christine and the Queens one, that I heard almost nothing about until now. I can't complain about most of the albums topping these lists though, and I'm pleasantly surprised to see Low's album up there with a bunch of far trendier albums. _________________ And it's hard to be a human being. And it's harder as anything else.
I was so baffled by the good reviews this was getting. Everyone kept praising her songwriting, but every song sounds the same to me. It's particularly confusing that it's getting more praise than Lucy Dacus's Historian, which is just fantastic.
Me too. Both the Lucy Dacus and Soccer Mommy LPs seem way better than that snail Mail album which really sounded flat & boring to me too.
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