10 Best Albums of 2018.
Arctic Monkeys returns after five years hiatus, while young artists like Michael Seyer, Boy Pablo, and George Ezra's ascendence are one of the many highlights of 2018.
“Nation of Two” by Vance Joy
The Aussie singer James Gabriel Keogh remains surfing through folk summer and bubblegum pop with ukulele and acoustic guitars but empowered by the rising horns in harmony to your sweet melodic voice illustrated on the (“new Riptide”) track Saturday Sun.
Following the Dream Your Life Away master success, Nation of Two is a creative painting of Joy’s message about relationships and childhood memories. It’s a good album at all as I’ve prospected Lay It On Me as number two best single last year.
“Midnight In A Moonless Dream” by The Buttertones
Dark, noisy, and experimental new Buttertones record Midnight In A Moonless Dream came out less than one year after the latter Gravedigging. Wild Guzmán’s sax, Araiza’s whispers, and Dak ’50s rockabilly, surf, and spaghetti western influences built a perfect match between psychobilly and avant-garde performed on Winks and Smiles. Click here to read my full album review.
“The Diet” by Cullen Omori
The former Smith Westerns frontman Cullen Omori, and your brother Cameron Omori released their sophomore record through the Seattle legendary Sub Pop. Although the New Misery was attached to the Smith Westerns noise (which is not bad at all), Omori’s maturity reached an explosive, harmonic and accurate sound through The Diet without loose ’70s glam rock roots with gleaming guitars and soaring keyboards as he used to do at the SW.
The Diet says a lot about Omori’s new way of life, and he recalls it in a Billboard interview: “And it was never that I thought I was better, it was more like, I was 18, 19 or 20 years old, and I was really insecure about myself, and so in a very kind of idiot way I tried to exude this overconfidence. But now that I’m older I mean, yeah, I’m the first one to tell you that I’m not perfect.”
The album title represents how he is managing his career project from mistakes and downs over the last few years: “Things are way more DIY, and I’m much more involved these days. It feels in a way kind of the vibe of Smith Westerns at the very beginning. I am my tour manager, I have to take on a lot of things [his homemade merch is something to see], which is fine.”
I was worried about what happened to him after SW split and now I am excited about New Misery and The Diet results due to Cullen Omori's music devotion.
“Staying at Tamara’s” by George Ezra
My stakes of Staying at Tamara’s were high since I’ve elected Don’t Matter Now as the Best Song of 2017. The joyful summer vibe that goes through to modern context situations such as anxiety battles, Don’t Matter Now and Get Away, happiness throughout a car traveling, Pretty Shinning People, Paradise, and Shotgun, number one on the UK Singles Chart and Rick Astley covered live at BBC Radio 2. The latest Ezra record is not about poppy happy tunes, but are songs concerning our stressful, depressive and disruptive society.
“Bad Bonez” by Michael Seyer
The Phillipinian based in Los Angeles Michael Seyer, a prolific pupil of the new DIY synth-pop generation and bedroom pop, drop out Bad Bonez inspired by the 50s sounds with jazz and R&B hints.
The highlight Ring Around the Rosie smooth guitar riffs blend with synth flirting with HOMESHAKE influences and Banes World's introspective mood. The biggest hit Lucky Love is a ’50s high school prom ballad homage to the untruth behind the “idealized magic love”.
In the midst of the college degree, Seyer’s growth results in a matured record produced by himself featuring new jazzy elements than the previous one, the lo-fi full-length Ugly Boy. Take a good glass of wine (even though I don’t like it shh) and chill on your couch with your head up enjoying this new masterpiece.
“Encore” by Anderson East
The Alabama singer Anderson East started the year with an astonishing full-length emotional transcending through R&B, Gospel, Soul, and Southern Rock. His impressive pure soulful goosebumps voice on If You Keep Leaving Me and Girlfriend.
Featuring Chris Stapleton and Morgane Stapleton on the writing process, King For A Day is about a relationship's rough times. The album reaches its peak with the explosive All On My Mind in the company of Ed Sheeran as a co-writer, and Somebody Pick Up My Pieces with choirs floating in the sweetest, quaking, and harmonic East’s voice. Encore it’s about American Music, and a few artists can lead this legacy than Anderson East does.
“And even if your heart can’t look my way, Even if our love can’t stay together, I’d rather be king for a day, than a fool forever” — King For A Day
“If life is a lesson if love is an action, If the pain is a weapon, sorrow’s attraction If you got our heartbeat, you know you got me, If a house is a building, home is a feeling” — House is a Building.
“Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino” by Arctic Monkeys
The Arctic Monkeys have been composing different things since Favourite Worst Nightmare. The third album Humbug settled a creative path for Alex Turner that culminated on AM and The Last Shadow Puppets' latest tapes with Miles Kane.
However, the aesthetic of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino waves on Fellini influences, Stanley Kubrick science fiction, lunar surface, technologic futuristic, Jamie Cook’s guitars tearing up, and Turner’s voice reaching different notes.
The sixth album composed entirely by Turner on the piano is a sign that his creativity has no boundaries, which makes every fan delight and question what comes next.
“Jubilee Road” by Tom Odell
After an exuberant debut and the Wrong Crowd, the third record Jubilee Road, based on a real street although it’s a fictional name in East London, is another piece of art that is melancholic and vibrant on the same track.
Tom Odell wrote most of the songs on his neighborhood visions for example Son of an Only Child, Queen of Diamonds, and his sister’s wedding results on Wedding Day. Tom Odell’s emotional balance sustained consistent on this latest album it is something that I don’t see since Billy Joel.
“Soy Pablo” by Boy Pablo
2018 was an astonishing year for Nicolás Pablo Rivera Muñoz, the headmaster of boy Pablo, following the YouTube viral Everytime, his sophomore EP Soy Pablo provided a North America and Asia Tour.
The 19-years-old musician expresses through 21 minutes anguishes about relationships collapsing. “I woke up this morning feeling lonely … I miss you so bad, the thought of you makes me sad” on Feeling Lonely reflects the regrets and nostalgia of the past, while deterioration on tkm “I’m tired of everything, let me know, oh, do you feel the same?” figures the overcoming stage.
Experiences that everyone uses to go through, Pablo’s simplicity on lyrics, catching guitar riffs, as a spontaneous and original role model artist just being himself made him find the perfect formula to connect fans around the world.
“Angel Youth” by Vansire
The duo from Rochester, Minnesota, released Angel Youth via Spirit Goth Records, Josh Hwang DIY label. Delightful seventeen tracks of pure abstract hallucinatory dream-pop guitars blend on hip-hop beats featuring many artists such as Mellow Fellow, Chester Watson, Sophie Meiers, Fog Lake, Jeremiah Jae, and others. The lo-fi synth-pop turns into an introspective whirl dreamy that throwback back to ’90s television grainy programs. One of the most underrated and sophisticated Vansire albums that exceeded the 2016 debut Reflections and Reveries.
