20&18 in review

[cestuneblague]

Allright so it looks like were almost done with 2018 as it's highly unlikely anybody's... going... to.... drop an elevent-hour-release... now (GOD DAMMMITTTTTTTTT SKY), so I guess it's time for a bit of reflection. And given looking back on 2018 it's kind of hard to really give a lucid overview of what happened because it was a bit all over the place. I was rather numb on 2017, more so than any other year in the recent past, so I was ready to get into 2018 and from the get-go it looked really promising... but now at the finising line there still seems to be a bit of missed potential overall. There's something odd that the top album on BEA for 2018 (charts-wise) was a remade 2011 release.

Obviously Hip-Hop had a banner year, though perhaps that's why 2018 achievements superficially seem smaller than years past since it was the year of the 20-minute opus. Naturally there was some strong stuff going on in the worlds of more lo-fi basement recordings, improvised jazz, deconstructed-pop of the future (what dem youves are calling PC-music, I think?), sad folk-y supergroups, post-punk and as always a good host of electronica and dreamier pop outings and surprisingly a really teriffic year for good old-fashioned rock a/o roll, but I guess personally few albums that I really fell head over heels for and couldn't stop obsessing about. Even with a lot of the more well-know albums I liked I felt there was still a certain spark, or sth, missing that could make them great (Aviary, Be the Cowboy, Dirty Computer, You Won't Get What I Want Now or Ever or whatever the album title is) and others I feel may have been wildly over-praised by the scenesters looking for that wide-appeal zeitgest-hugging Big Album Masterpiece (*COUGH* here's looking you at 1975).

On the latter, while it wasn't as bad as say film in the different albums that were clearly trying to be a major State of Affairs address, but that could lead to a handful of overwrought clunkers or promising albums where the stilted sloganeering/polemical ambitions could overtake the music. Sometimes they just don't need to try so hard.

Anyways, I would see it as a good year plenty full of interesting releases but maybe thin on any enduring classics or blow-em-all-out-of-the-water head-turners. A good year for pop, guitar-boogie rock, classic introspective singer-songwriter affairs, progressive electronic, and a maybe great year for homespun hip hop, dreamy electronica and whatever genre Kacey Musgraves is now. BAGCs love the Kacey now, thanks P4k.

So yeah what is everybody else's thoughts? Strong all-around or more for niche genres? Any hidden masterpieces not enough people are discovering? Just want to vent about your biggest dissapointments or your hopes for 2019? Go nuts

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

I just feel honored to be a poll item.

To be honest, none of the albums on my list I'd rate higher than a B+. I think my biggest problem was burning myself out at the beginning of the year. I think I had 100 albums on my chart back in April, and I still have some that I have to sift through, but I don't feel like it right now. I'm deep into the 70s at the moment.

[Hayden]

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

[baystateoftheart]

[Tap]

I've heard like 273 releases from this year and there's like at least 80 that I think are great and I spent a good amount of time with and they all really enriched my year. Aviary made my all time top 10 and Everyone Needs A Plan got into the 100. I have been having the best time, there's so much. Like listen to the Jake Tobin song on here, Your Tongue Was Caught http://trulybald.bandcamp.com/album/1-3-5 music is amazing

[Hayden]

[craola]

[Fischman]

I spent much of the 2010s catching up on things I missed in the past and discovering a lot of new to me music. Consequently, I was largely a year or two behind on the new stuff. 2018 was the first year in a long time that I actually kept up with the music as it happened.

That said, my early impression is that 2018 was a lot like 2017. Lots of good music, but for me concentrated in a couple genres. For any given year or period of years, I find one or two genres comprise much of my preferences, but it's not always the same genres. What I discovered in 2017-2018 (and going back to 2016 as well) was a resurgence of quality prog. The tops of my charts from those years are dominated by prog with jazz a fairly strong second where in the few years before that jazz was at the top with additional strong showings by symphonic metal and resurgent classic rock artists, but a dearth of good prog.

Of course this is my personal impression of the year as prog and jazz are not popular genres. I'm not really in a position to give impressions of the larger trends across the music that reaches most as I have little interest in it and my time is limited.

I don't follow cinema enough to really comment there at all. As for politics, it was just plain ugly (an assessment people on opposite sides generally agree on), and looks like it might even get uglier before it gets better.

[RoundTheBend]