As 2018 closes, we reflect on our favorite albums of the year. Some made us feel proud like Janelle Monáe and Christine and the Queens; others introspective like Blood Orange, Edge Petal Burn, and JPEGMAFIA; and others like Hop Along, Kacey Musgraves, and Mitski just straight up bop front to back. Regardless of what you think are the “best” albums of the year, let’s celebrate what 2018 did for music and to help us get through this trash fire together.
Check out 50-21 of this year’s list here.
*=Local
20. JPEGMAFIA, Veteran
Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks aka JPEGMAFIA aka Peggy aka Darkskin Manson covers a lot of ground on Veteran both sonically and lyrically. Sometimes the album feels like a throwback to ’90s hip-hop and other times it feels like 2018 could be the only year this album could have possibly been released. He’s a pissed off millennial like the rest of us, fed up with our government, America in general, gentrification, and racism. But what Peggy has over most of us is the experience of being a literal veteran in the war in Iraq. In songs like the standout “Baby I’m Bleeding” he weaves a noisy tapestry of all of these themes from discussions of how people judge him based on his looks to talking shit about men who treat women poorly. He’s pretty full of himself in the song, but he deserves it as one of the most prolific and exciting newer voices in hip-hop to come on the scene in the last few years, all while working on his masters degree in journalism.
–Christine Varriale
19. Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Sex & Food
Sex & Food is Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s first and longer release of 2018. Ruban Nielson, the mastermind behind UMO, seeks to enter a new musical dimension with his work, and with Sex & Food he gets close. Sex & Food carries over the same lo-fi sounding psychedelic rock of Multi-Love while feeling heavier, both in content and sonically, than its predecessor.
“Hunnybee” and “Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays” are funk-influenced tracks you can find yourself singing along to with catchy melodies and an easy groove. My favorite track, “If You’re Going to Break Yourself” is a devastating plea to self-destructive friends that is one of a few songs with darker themes. Overall this album is diverse in sound and isn’t afraid to take risks. Sex & Food is an accomplished record that tackles the crazy world we live in while still bringing an appreciation for life’s simple pleasures.
–Alexis Burke
18. Edge Petal Burn, Glass Cannon*
Please note: although members of our staff were involved in the production of this album, we democratically came to a conclusion that it should be considered one of the best of the year regardless of that association.
At the heart of Allston Pudding is a love for our city and the artists thriving in it. As much as we gripe about the valid issues plaguing our city and its music community, we love Boston and the wide variety of creators who are shaping our arts scenes. Edge Petal Burn is one of those acts, making music that resonates across a diverse spectrum. They’re still a young act, most of the band is still in school and they are led by Washington-born Olivia West who just graduated from Berklee. West’s Korean roots influence the project musically, visually, and culturally. West’s stylings show off a mastery of various vocal techniques while her lyrics singe. The band is rounded out by Nick Owen, Lea Jaffe, and Jeff Crenshaw who straddle genre while throwing their musical weight behind West’s words. The rawness and brute force make their debut album, Glass Cannon, a standout. The music is crashing, dark, and dissonant, swelling with reflections on trauma, mental health, and acceptance of the unchangeable. The band is incredibly supportive of each other and others in the Boston music scene. Owen is one of the city’s youngest bookers and Jaffe is a new member of the Allston Pudding team while West put on the first AAPI or Die event, dedicated to spotlighting acts with Asian American/Pacific Islander members. Attendees of the Boston Music Awards could catch EPB cheering on their fellow nominees, grinning widely, and dancing their butts off.
–Kara Kokinos
17. Robyn, Honey
Robyn, the Swedish queen of dance floors since the mid ’90s, returned in 2018 with Honey, her first new album since 2010’s Body Talk Parts 1 & 2. Led by singles like the heart-wrenching banger (her specialty; c.f. “Dancing On My Own”) “Missing U” and the irresistibly gooey title track, Robyn has crafted an emotional party album full of electro-pop hits that keep feet moving and feels flowing. Plus with deeper cuts like the deep house-tinged “Between the Lines,” this album is sure to keep us going well into 2019.
–Harry Gustafson
16. Soccer Mommy, Clean
I was lucky to see Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison play a captivating, low-key solo show in a church in the Fall of 2016. We talked after the show about the TV show Nashville and discovered we had a random mutual acquaintance when I gave her a ride to the train station… Then I rushed back to the venue for a group photo with some friends and my hero, headliner Laura Stevenson, before her band finished loading out.
For better or worse, Sophie Allison’s days of low-key shows will be fewer and farther between for the foreseeable future. A few months after that show, she dropped out of school to hone her craft and pursue music full time, and Clean, the brilliant culmination of the hard work that followed, deservedly drew international attention. The much celebrated single “Your Dog” is one of the catchiest indie rock songs in years, and the rest of the album is as inspired. To many, Allison is now the hero you hope to get a photo with. And I suspect she has a lot better transportation options between shows these days than rides from strangers.
–Alyx Zauderer
15. Ariana Grande, Sweetener
Sweetener is a perfect pop album, and that’s all there is to it. On the heels of a hiatus after the Manchester Bombings of 2017, Ariana Grande returned this year with her strongest release yet. Though she delivers her signature club bangers like “No Tears Left to Cry,” Grande effortlessly swings from genre to genre. With R&B influences à la Brandy, an a cappella opening track showcasing her Broadway vocals, and a reworking of Imogen Heap’s “goodnight n go” this album is refreshingly innovative for a top 40 artist. What is so attractive about Sweetener is that even with its tight production, Grande’s candidness is able to shine through. Between the stream of consciousness “Pete Davidson,” and “breathin,” written about Grande’s struggle with chronic anxiety, it feels like we’re finally getting a glimpse of the Ariana we know and love in her music. Sweetener is the next installment in Grande’s steady progression as not just an artist, but a pop icon.
–Catherine Conley
14. Adrianne Lenker, abysskiss
When we first heard Adrianne Lenker’s work in Big Thief, it was immediately clear that we were hearing a new “one of the greats” in songwriting. And yet, somehow, abysskiss (her first solo release in years) manages to bring us to an even deeper level of understanding and intimacy with someone we already feel we know painfully well. Right from the opening track “terminal paradise,” Lenker welcomes us to watch her explore loss and introspection with brutal gentility with one of the most haunting lyrics of the year: “See my death become a trail/And the trail leads to a flower.” Her songwriting prowess matched only by her incredible gift for guitar composition, Lenker’s poised vulnerability placed abysskiss among the most grounding albums in recent memory, lingering long after first listen.
–Lea Jaffe
13. Christine and the Queens, CHRIS
Heloise Letissier is an inventor. After creating Christine and the Queens, Letissier embraced a character called CHRIS, which is raw and confrontational. This ability to take on, and embody personas is brilliant.
And it shows in the songwriting (the record contains both English- and French-language versions of the songs, which Letissier wrote simultaneously). “The walker” and “Doesn’t matter” make up a one-two punch early on: The former describes the depth and shame of depression and how it isolates, the latter describes crisis and overcoming and getting out. Among intense and dark topics is bright and shimmering pop music. It’s one of the year’s most complex pop albums.
-Jeremy Stanley
12. Gouge Away, Burnt Sugar
Alright y’all, I tried to open this with more words than “I love Gouge Away” and yet….. “I love Gouge Away” is truly the most appropriate way to open this letter of appreciation to one of my favorite albums. Everything about this album is just *chef’s kiss* The lyrical prowess on this album is astounding. From the way paranoia is given a human form in “Only Friend” to acknowledging how difficult moving on can be in “Can’t Relate,” each track has a lyric that warrants an immediate rewind. Vocalist Christina Michelle has a range that really keeps a listener on their toes. See Exhibit A: the transition from “Can’t Relate” to “Stray/Burnt Sugar.”
You can feel the hard work that went into every aspect of this album and that comes across tenfold when you see them live. I saw them during their tour with Drug Church, and it was one of the best concert experiences of my life. The focus and care this band has for their music and for each other is truly lovely to witness. It’s also tight to see the audience giving 110% at these shows; screaming the lyrics to “Only Friend” in a sweaty bundle of Gouge Away fans was a supremely liberating experience. The description of actual burnt sugar is the best way to describe Gouge Away’s album. The album is a very deep, rich syrup; an album that sticks to you long after the final track comes to a close.
–Lindsey Anderson
11. Tierra Whack, Whack World
It honestly seems silly to even list Tierra Whack’s Whack World in a list of best albums of the year, because it is so much more than that. Coupled with its companion video, Whack World is an art masterpiece. I’ve tried my best to tell every living soul I encounter to listen to this album this year and always get the response, “this isn’t an album. It’s 15 minutes long?” Those 15 minutes are jam packed with some of the catchiest lo-fi beats, mumbled raps, kooky verses, and more.
Tierra Whack brings so much to the table in just 15 minutes from the fun and poppy but also sad “Pet Cemetery” about a dead dog to the banging anthem “Fruit Salad” about eating healthy to the country-inspired “Fuck Off” telling off a shitty dude to the mid-album “Hungry Hippo” that perfectly encompasses every bit of talent Tierra Whack has inside her.
Please come play a show in Boston. I will book you.
–Christine Varriale