I like to highlight some of my favorite albums by writing some semi-coherent sentences going over my thoughts and feelings. Some people are very gifted at being able to creatively and eloquently describe music, but I don't think I'm particularly good at articulating what I like or don't like about music, especially in technical terms. I just like to give a little bit of insight into why I chose that album, some background info and what kind of impact it had on me.
I doubt many people are familiar with every album and artist on here so I highly encourage you to check out the highlighted songs if you're unfamiliar with them and if you like what you hear, then use the link I provided to listen to the full album (or look it up wherever you listen to music) and support the artists if you can. Buy the albums, go to shows, do whatever feels right.
For the first time ever, I've made a Spotify playlist featuring all of the "Check Out" songs linked below! You can check that out here.
EDIT: I realized far too late that I forgot to include "Epitaph" by God is an Astronaut, so I squeezed it in.
Honorable Mentions
Amaranthe - "Helix" Stream on Spotify
Bayside - "Acoustic Vol. 2" Stream on Spotify
Covet - "effloresce EP" Stream on Spotify
Bayside - "Acoustic Vol. 2" Stream on Spotify
Covet - "effloresce EP" Stream on Spotify
Brent Walsh - "Are You Even There At All?" EP Stream on Spotify
THE TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2018
20. Justin Nozuka - "Run to Waters"
17. Middle Class Rut - "Gutters"
Check Out: "No Sale"
Stream on Spotify
16. Kindo - "Happy However After"
Check Out: "Smell of a Rose"
Stream on Spotify
15. Meg Myers - "Take Me to the Disco"
13. Eric Hutchinson & the Believers - "Modern Happiness"
Check Out: "New Religion"
Stream on Spotify
12. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper - "A Star is Born Soundtrack"
Check Out: "Shallow"
But that's too obvious, everyone's heard that song. So if you already know that one, check out "Look What I Found"
Stream on Spotify
11. Eyes Set to Kill - "Eyes Set to Kill"
Check Out: "Break"
"Saved You With a Lie"
Stream on Spotify
10. Emma Ruth Rundle - "On Dark Horses"
- Emma Ruth Rundle's music sort of defies description, at least in terms I'm capable of writing. Few people are able of conveying such raw feelings and emotions as she is. "Darkhorse" is one of my favorite songs she's created so far. There's something about the rhythm of the drums that is captivating. The album also has a very inviting feel, despite some of the dark themes, probably thanks to the warm guitar tones. Emma's albums keep getting better and better, this is definitely my favorite solo album she's released so far which is high praise considering how great all of her music has been. In addition to listening to her albums, I'd highly encourage you to catch her live if you get the chance, she puts on an incredible show.
Check Out: "Darkhorse"
Stream/buy on Bandcamp
Stream on Spotify
9. VON GREY - "In Bloom : Acoustic" EP
- I don't typically include EPs on my list, a lot of times I'll even decide not to include albums just because their running time is too short. But what the VON GREY ladies have done here is, once again, just magnificent. Last year, I made their Trinity EP my sole honorable mention, but this year I felt I had to cave in and give them a spot on my list. In Bloom : Acoustic EP is half stripped down acoustic versions of songs previously released on last year's aforementioned Trinity as well as three newly released songs. The last two releases really showcase the versatility and musical mastery of these beautiful ladies. With Trinity being centered around more of a pop-type production to explore and expand the boundaries of their sound, and In Bloom : Acoustic is extremely raw and minimal. The instrumentation is very restrained, allowing the lyrics and vocals to be much more prominent. The opening track "Plans" is wonderfully delicate and emotionally vulnerable, so simple yet powerful enough to move you to tears. It starts off with just whisper-y vocals and soft piano and gradually builds to a powerful climax with violin, cello and vocal harmonies before pulling it all back away for the end of the song to underscore the sense of loneliness and sorrow. This EP also includes a new, stripped down version of one of my favorite songs from 2017, "Poison in the Water." The acoustic version virtually strips away all of the production from the original, leaving it much more reliant on Kathryn's haunting cello and Fiona and Annika's intertwining vocal melodies. It still delivers the same punch as the original, it just gets there a different way. Another one of the standout tracks for me is the acoustic version of "Unclean", I heard the girls play this song at a sound check a couple years ago and immediately fell in love with it. It's haunting melody imprinted itself in my head and I was yearning for the day that it would finally make it's way onto a release. I was certainly not disappointed even with years of buildup in my own mind. Since it is labeled as an acoustic version, I'm hoping this means that there's another version coming out at some point. The closing track "Dawn" is essentially the counter of the opener "Plans," it's brighter and more hopeful with a message offering help out of the darkness and a shoulder to lean on. Simply put, what VON GREY has done with In Bloom : Acoustic is nothing short of perfection. The only reason this isn't even higher is because it's an EP and under 20 minutes long. In my opinion, they are among the greatest artists and musicians active today and they never cease to amaze me. In all the years I've been following them, they have done nothing but improve grow. I love these ladies dearly and am tremendously proud of everything they have done/continue to do and I'm happy that I could have been a microscopic part of it.
Check Out: "Unclean (Acoustic)"
"Plans"
Stream on Spotify
8. Tonight Alive - "Underworld"
- This is Tonight Alive's last album to feature guitarist and songwriter Whakaio Taahi who departed from the band prior to its release. While I miss his presence in the band, I am happy that the future of Tonight Alive remains bright. The opening track "Book of Love" sets the tone for the record with distant sounding guitar and distorted vocals leading into pounding, driving drums beneath the incomparable Jenna McDougall's soaring vocals before everything pulls back for a second and the chorus kicks in, announcing "Burn our names under the stars, and we'll live until the sky gives up." It's a perfect opener for the album. Overall, there isn't a single weak spot on Underworld which really speaks to the strength of the songwriting from Jenna and Whakaio as well as the tremendous musicianship of guitarist Jake Hardy, bassist Cam Adler and drummer Matty Best. Every track brings something different to the table while still fitting into a cohesive collection of songs that make the album. There's the heavy tracks like "Crack My Heart" and "Book of Love" all the way to the beautiful ballad "Last Light." Tonight Alive added another magnificent entry to their increasingly impressive discography with Underworld.
Check Out: "Crack My Heart"
Stream on Spotify
7. Muse - "Simulation Theory"
- It's a Muse, what can I say? Simulation Theory seems like an amalgamation of the sounds they've been cultivating and experimenting with their whole career while continuing to push boundaries and evolve. As you can tell from the artwork, this album has some real '80s flair to it with a lot of synthesizers, which I much prefer to the dubstep they experimented with on 2009's The 2nd Law although I think they did incorporate the dubstep elements well. Being a Muse album, it's hard to not listen to it and imagine how the songs will translate to a live concert, since Muse is one of the greatest live bands of all time. I look forward to hearing a number of these songs in concert, but nothing on this album really stands out to me as a real showstopper, such as "Animals" or "Supremacy" from The 2nd Law, "Mercy" or "The Globalist" off of Drones, or any of the classics like "Plug in Baby", "Knights of Cydonia", "Stockholm Syndrome", etc. That being said, "Simulation Theory" is still a super solid album and worth your attention.
Check Out: "Blockades"
Stream on Spotify
6. Between the Buried and Me - "Automata I" and "Automata II"
- That's right, prog-metal legends Between the Buried and Me released TWO albums in 2018 and picked up a Grammy nomination along the way. BTBAM have created their own style and sound that is completely unique to them, but still somehow managed to make every album totally different from the previous ones. The slight issue with Automata I & II is that these are essentially two halves of one album, released months apart. At the time when Automata I was released, it felt incomplete and short (at just 35 and 33 minutes respectively, they're both barely longer than a standard EP) but after a few months, the second half dropped and the true album was complete. Listening to BTBAM music in general is far from a passive experience, you should really give as much attention as you can to the music and let it immerse you. Take in the dynamic shifts between calm and frantic, let the intricate musicianship fill your senses. As I mentioned before, BTBAM picked up a Grammy nomination for the album opener, "Condemned to the Gallows," which is certainly among the greatest album openers they have ever created. The first track on Automata II is also a standout, and at over 13 minutes long "The Proverbial Bellow" is the longest song on either half of Automata. Having the most time to work with, it ends up as probably the most meandering track featuring a lot of transitions within it, culminating in a stunning blues-rock style guitar solo at the very end. My favorite song on either half, though, has to be "Voice of Trespass." It might be the most stylistically insane track I've ever heard and I am all about it. The song starts out with an incredibly fast swing-metal section complete with blaring a blaring horn section, which is something I don't believe I've ever heard in any BTBAM song. It pulls back and Tommy is just singing over some piano and jazzy drums before it all comes back in full force, I definitely get some "Bad Devil" by Devin Townsend vibes in the best way. Between the Buried and Me long ago earned their place among the greatest bands of all time, but it's a treat to hear them still experimenting and trying new things, though maybe in the future no more half albums.
- Tides of Man's last release was my #1 album of 2014, Young and Courageous. Instead of just trying to replicate that masterpiece, they built on what worked and expanded it while also taking things in a new direction. On Everything Nothing, there's much more of an emphasis on minimalist soundscapes and slow-building pieces. Like with Young and Courageous, the best way to listen to this album is to put it on, close your eyes and just let it engulf you. The first track "Static Hymn" is one of the aforementioned slow-builds starting out with dreamy guitars soon accompanied by a melody on a loop then the drums slowly join as the guitars pick up steam and in the final third of the song things really kick into overdrive. "Everything is Fine, Everyone is Happy" is a pretty sarcastic title, from the get go the vibe is dark and moody with a lot of minor chords. This is finale of the track is also one of the heaviest segments on the album. I was always a little worried with how Tides of Man would follow up the modern masterpiece that is Young and Courageous, but they took their time and crafted a worthy successor.
Check Out: "Everything is Fine, Everyone is Happy"
Stream/buy on Bandcamp
Stream on Spotify
4.5. God is an Astronaut - "Epitaph"
Check Out: "Mortal Coil"
Buy on Bandcamp
Stream on Spotify
4. Night Verses - "From the Gallery of Sleep"
- Night Verses is a heavy and powerful instrumental band somewhat in the same vein as the likes of Russian Circles and Animals as Leaders; dark, melodic, proggy, and complex. Much like Tides of Man, Night Verses hasn't always been an instrumental band. In fact, this is their first album since becoming one. And I must say, as good as their previous work was, they definitely made the right decision moving in this direction. A testament to how great this album would be that I only first heard about this band on December 17 when they opened for Saosin. I was completely blown away by their performance and immediately started listening to their albums after the show. I thought I already had a good idea which albums were going to be at the top of my list, but I knew halfway into From the Gallery of Sleep that I was going to make room near the top of my list. I even briefly considered putting this even higher. But the last track of the album, while fantastic, left a little bit to be desired as a closer, in my opinion. That being said, this is still among the greatest instrumental albums I've ever heard, which is high praise considering this kind of music is absolutely in my wheelhouse. So much so, I'm upset that it's taken this long for me to discover this band. From the Gallery of Sleep will hook you from the opening track "Copper Wasp" with the intricate drum solo in the beginning feeding into some absolute guitar shredding before quickly pulling things back and slowly building up steam again. The next track, "Trading Shadows" starts off with a sort of calm-before-the-storm vibe, all of the instruments playing quietly while laying the groundwork for the face melting you're about to receive. Not everything on this album is super heavy though, the album is beautifully varied and never feels like it's relying on one sound or style too heavily. Night Verses have solidly placed themselves among the elite instrumental bands and I can't wait to see where they go from here. So give this album a listen and hopefully you're as blown away as I was.
Check Out: "Vice Wave
3. Hanson - "String Theory"
- String Theory is the first album from Hanson, besides a Christmas album, since 2013. It is a double album featuring re-worked songs spanning all of Hanson's studio albums alongside songs pulled from some of their annual fan club exclusive EPs as well as a couple of brand new songs making their debut on this album. I say re-worked because the "string" in String Theory stands for the orchestra. Hanson worked along side composer, and Beck's father, David Campbell to make new arrangements for the songs, incorporating orchestral elements. The result is simply breathtaking. It doesn't just sound like some more instruments were added to some old songs, but like this is how the songs were always supposed to sound. Of course Hanson classics such as "MMMBop", "Where's the Love", "This Time Around", "Yearbook", and "Something Going 'Round" are included with new life breathed into them, not only from the new arrangements but also from being recorded by Taylor, Zac and Isaac as adults since some of those songs were written and recorded over 20 years ago when they were children. "Breaktown" is a song that they wrote over 15 years ago and haven't been able to find a place for it on any album until now and it feels like it was written specifically for String Theory. As a long time die-hard Hanson fan, it was great finally seeing this song find its home after all these years and sounding better than ever.
Not only is String Theory home to a bunch of beautiful versions of songs new and old, but it is also loosely a concept album! They selected songs and placed them in order to use the lyrics, meaning, and feeling of each song to tell a story of a character going through a journey dealing with love, friendship, aspirations and conflict. Hanson did a series of videos on their YouTube channel that you can watch and there's also this track by track breakdown that strangely only covers about half of the album, but you can check those out if you'd like to learn more.
What Hanson has created here is so much greater than just adding a little bit of orchestral elements to some older songs, it's a jaw dropping work that is one of the finest things they've ever created in their 20+ year long career. The new arrangements seamlessly blend the orchestral instrumentation with the more traditional Hanson instruments of piano, guitar and drums as well as their legendary vocal harmonies. In my opinion, Hanson is one of the greatest bands ever and many of their songs are absolute classics, which I think gives some weight to my next statement which is: I think this album features the definitive versions of many Hanson songs. Whether you've never listened to Hanson, only heard one or two songs, or listened to all of their other albums, you should take some time and give this album your attention, it's worth it.
Check Out: "Where's the Love"
"Battle Cry"
"Tragic Symphony"
2. Ghost - "Prequelle"
- This is another year where the margin between the top two spots is very slim. A few years ago, Ghost narrowly edged out Coheed for the number one spot, this year it's the other way around. Prequelle is the follow-up to my #1 album of 2015, Meliora and it is yet another masterwork. It also heralds the arrival of the band's "new" frontman, Cardinal Copia. As the name Prequelle suggests, the theme of this album is a bit of a throwback. Quite a bit of a throwback, actually, the theme focuses on the medieval period and more specifically the Plague. The intro track "Ashes" features a distant, echo-y child voice singing (front man Tobias Forge's daughter) "Ring a Ring o' Roses" which some say dates back to the days of the Plague. After a seamless transition into the album's lead single "Rats," the Plague theme becomes much more apparent. (Just a brief history lesson for those unaware, the Plague or Black Death was spread through fleas that lived on rats.) However, the song isn't really about the bubonic plague, it's more about how beliefs can spread rapidly and wreak havoc and destruction. The opening lyrics of "In times of turmoil, In times like these, Beliefs contagious, Spreading disease, This wretched mischief, Is now coursing through your souls, Never to let go" more or less describes how beliefs, ideologies, etc. can spread like wildfire and cause damage, especially in times of turmoil. Later on "This devastation, Left your cities to be burnt, Never to return" spells out the path of destruction. The song uses the framework of rats spreading the bubonic plague to speak about how ideas and beliefs can quietly infiltrate people's minds and end up leading to upheaval, death and destruction, it's painfully relevant to the current social climate. It does all this within a hopelessly catchy tune that will be stuck in your brain for days.
The next track "Faith" is easily the heaviest on the album, and possibly the heaviest Ghost song to date up there with "Mummy Dust." This one takes the perspective of the Devil watching everyone dying during the Plague. It has some of Ghost's most aggressive guitar solos, particularly the one after the first chorus.
Around the middle of the album is the first of Prequelle's two instrumental tracks, "Miasma." This is another reference to the medieval/Plague theme, the Miasma Theory was when the people of the middle ages falsely believed the illnesses were caused by "bad air" which where the Plague Doctor masks come from, as they were supposed to filter the air through straw in the big nose/beak parts of the mask. Anyway, "Miasma" is a true testament to the greatness of the album. The whole song feels like a buildup to the end of it, but getting there is such a joy, from the guitars and synths all playing together to the keyboard and guitar solos to the most epic surprise saxophone solo I've ever heard. That's right, there's a saxophone solo on this record. If that followed by the sax and guitars jamming along with each other doesn't put a huge smile on your face then I'd worry about your sanity.
I could go on and on about this album but you get the gist. Prequelle is more or less Ghost's arena-rock record since they continue to play increasingly larger venues with shows at The Forum in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in NYC last year. Tobias Forge said he wanted to make big sounding anthems that held up to those kinds of venues and boy did he ever succeed.
- Anyone who knows me probably isn't too surprised to see Coheed at the top of my list, although it's not always a guarantee that they earn my #1 spot. After stepping away from The Amory Wars concept for the first time with The Color Before the Sun, they stepped right back into that glorious space opera with this album. Coheed tends to start their albums out with a real bang. In fact, every album starts out with an iconic track, and they definitely continued that trend with one of the best songs they've ever released, "The Dark Sentencer." At the beginning of the song the story of the album begins to take shape, "It begins with them, but it ends with me, their son, Vaxis." Since this is the first of the Vaxis pentalogy, naturally it starts with his parents, Creature and Sister Spider. The first few guitar riffs alone let you know how huge this song and album are going to be. From there we get to the title track of the album, "Unheavenly Creatures." The almost chiptune-like intro paired with Claudio very delicately and breathily singing the first few lines make you think this might be a more low-key song, then you get hit with a massive electric guitar riff and kick drum and the song really opens up. The chorus is incredibly catchy, I often find myself humming or singing it out of the blue. Although certainly not a direct comparison, "Black Sunday" gives me some vibes similar to "Al the Killer" back on In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, mostly due to it's heavy, chugging guitars and with it's big anthemic chorus. I'm particularly fond of the gang vocals towards the end of the song. "The Gutter" is one of the fan-favorite tracks and for good reason. The intro alone is enough to cause goosebumps. It's just a few twinkling piano chords spaced out with seconds in between then accompanied by the lyrics "Over my dead body, the stars will let you know, it's over." It's so powerful, it's hard not to stop whatever you're doing and give it your attention. Of all the catchy songs on this album, "Old Flames" is right near the top. It's unusually upbeat for a Coheed song, making it stand out even more. The bright, sunny chorus of "We all go up in flames, going out in style" will be stuck in your head for days at a time. It's difficult to not gleefully sing along to all of the "na na na's."
I could go through this album song by song and say how great each one is because the whole thing is so incredible, but instead of reading any more of my ramblings about it, you should just listen to it for yourself.
Check Out: "The Dark Sentencer"
"It Walks Among Us"
"Old Flames"
"The Gutter"
There it is! Did you agree or disagree with anything? What albums do you think I missed? Let me know in the comments!
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