audioexchange

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2018

I’m putting up an albums of the year list here, but, honestly, this has been the worst year for popular music that I can remember.

1. Villagers ‎– The Art Of Pretending To Swim
2. Bodega – Endless Scroll
3. Decemberists – I’ll Be Your Girl
4. Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
5. The Lemon Twigs – Go To School
6. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
7. Harmony Rockets With Special Guest Peter Walker – Lachesis / Clotho / Atropos
8. Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – With Animals
9. Hugh Cornwell – Monster
10. Ash – Islands
11. Jonathan Wilson – Rare Birds
12. Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending
13. Spiritualized – And Nothing Hurt
14. Gretchen Peters –  Dancing with the Beast
15. Pistol Annies – Interstate Gospel
16. George Ezra – Staying at Tamara’s
17. Prince – Piano & A Microphone
18. Richard Thompson – 13 Rivers
19. Parquet Courts – Wide Awake
20. Ry Cooder – The Prodical Son
21. Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer
22. Suede – The Blue Hour
23. Laura Viers – The Lookout
24. Elvis Costello – Look Now
25. MGMT – Little Dark Age

I enjoyed the following, but they are not of the same calibre as the artist’s best work:

• Muse – Simulation Theory
• Field Music – Open Here
• The Vaccines – Combat Sports
• John Grant – Love Is Magic
• Cowboy Junkies – All That Reckoning
• The Jayhawks – Back Roads And Abandoned Motels
• Paul Weller – True Meanings
• Cat Power – The Wanderer

JAZZ

1. John Surman – Invisible Threads
2. John Scofield – Combo 66
3. Tomasz Stanko  – December Avenue
4. Joshua Redman, Ron Miles, Scott Colley, Brian Blade – Still Dreaming
5. DeJohnette, Grenadier, Medeski, Scofield – Hudson
6. Andy Sheppard Quartet – Romaria
7. Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams – Vanished Gardens
8. Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams – Vanished Gardens
9. Kamasi Washington – Heaven And Earth
10. Lee Konitz & Dan Tepfer – Decade
11. Chick Corea – Chinese Butterfly
12. Sons of Kemet – Your Queen is a Reptile
13. John Coltrane – Two Directions at Once
14. Eric Dolphy – Jazz Prophet
15. Miles Davis/John Coltrane – The Final Tour (Bootleg Series Vol. 6)

I haven’t had a chance to listen to these but suspect that they are really good:

• Yo La Tengo – There’s a Riot Going On
• Phoshopescent – C’est La Vie
• Shame – Songs of Praise
• JD Allen: Love Stone
• Wayne Shorter – Emanon

For the life of me, I couldn’t get into “Double Negative” by Low, even though it was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. I’ll listen again, probably.

~ by Pat Neligan on December 10, 2018.

Posted in Uncategorized