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
10. Noname, Room 25
Fatimah Warner set up her rap career to defy expectations. Her tongue-in-cheek stage name of Noname concisely reflects her simultaneous humility and self-confidence. From her early days of being a “no name” feature on tracks by Chance the Rapper, to the surprise success of her solo album debut Telefone, Noname accomplished in Room 25 exactly what she said she’d do in a 2016 interview—“The next tape will sound different. I’ll tap into something heavier...I’m in this mindset of like, ‘Oh, you guys think I can’t rap? I’m going to come back with something that’s only rap so you can’t argue with me.’”
Room 25 triumphs with Noname’s signature soft vocal stylings. There’s no denying that her rapid-fire lyrics are anything but rap. Her clever lyricism weaves a tight tapestry of endless references about everything from Hillary Clinton pandering to the black vote, the Pinesol lady perpetuating the mammy trope, Penny Proud (from Disney’s early ‘00s “Proud Family” cartoon TV show) facing off with Betty Boop, and Twitter rants being rendered meaningless in the face of capitalism. “Blaxploitation” should be required listening in schools. (I highly recommend listening to the album several times over with the lyrics in front of you. You’ll discover new food for thought every time.) And while Noname isn’t afraid to tackle big subjects like gentrification and healthcare, she also delves into the (more) personal experiences of seeing a loved one go through chemotherapy or dementia. Her smooth voice over jazzy instrumentals is perfect for a quiet Sunday morning of contemplation, then her content will inspire you to take to the streets.
-Katie Ouellette
9. Snail Mail, Lush
In the avalanche of press coverage Snail Mail has received since Lush was released, the guitar instruction Snail Mail mastermind Lindsey Jordan received from Mary Timony (Helium, Autoclave) over the preceding two years has been particularly emphasized, perhaps as an explanation of her brilliance. But even Timony likely couldn’t have foreseen just how good Jordan would get at songwriting. 2018 has seen a wave of artists rise up from below into national consciousness, and Lush was deservedly the vehicle for Snail Mail’s ascension. It’s an incredible album and a landmark as this generation of indie rock matures and claws its way from basements to stadiums.
-Alyx Zauderer
8. Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour
Released at the end of March, Kacey Musgraves’s fourth and most impressive record yet imbues the warmth and allure of country twang with a glimmering pop sheen, mixing pedal steel guitar, vocoder, disco synths, and banjo to conjure up a world that’s brimming with potential and promise. Across Golden Hour, the singer-songwriter’s earnest takes on the twists and turns of everyday life unspool with a disarming clarity, whether she’s reveling over newfound love (“Butterflies”), choosing to slow down and take the scenic route (“Slow Burn”), or coolly dismissing an ex-lover in one of the most sweeping, quietly epic break-up songs of the year (“Space Cowboy”). Amid the hustle and bustle of work and responsibility, Golden Hour is a warm, welcome reminder that there’s a world out there waiting to be endlessly experienced, if one is only willing to look up and notice.
-Patricia Guzman
7. Courtney Barnett, Tell Me How You Really Feel
There were heavy expectations for the lyrically gifted, modern-day dad-rocker Courtney Barnett after her 2015 debut LP, Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit. Last year’s collab album with Kurt Vile, Lotta Sea Lice, while charming, felt like one for the hip dads and didn’t fill the Barnett-sized void in my lil’ gay heart. When Tell Me How You Really Feel dropped at the end of Taurus season (May 18th), I wanted so badly to be immediately satiated. But, in all transparency, I wasn’t.
Maybe it was the air of highly specific expectations, or maybe it was the true Taurean in me, but I did not want to accept Barnett's shifts in sound and form on her 2018 album. I wanted ultra-personal, wordy, story-telling lyricism, catchy, beachy riffs and Barnett’s signature self-drawn album art. Instead, we got a close-up, photographic cover, a darker, more experimental sound, and wide-spanned, general criticism of our political, patriarchal climate. I initially perceived it as trite lyricism from a Grammy-nominated musician. But as 2018 dragged on, Tell Me How You Really Feel revealed itself as the sarcastic, grounded, cathartic album we all needed. I mean, how could you not sing/scream along to lines like “Put up or shut up, it's all the same/ It's all the same, never change, never change” on “I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch?” Not to mention her iconically quoting Margaret Atwood in “Nameless, Faceless”: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them.” What’s more, Tell Me isn’t all pessimistic. In songs like “Sunday Roast” and “Help Your Self,” you’ll hear that Barnett is writing as poetically as ever—she’s telling you how she really feels.
-Jackie Swisshelm
6. Blood Orange, Negro Swan
Following up an instant classic like Freetown Sound is tough, but Dev Hynes just about pulled it off. Where Hynes used Freetown to introduce a multi-faceted look at his identity as a black man, on Negro Swan he uses a similar lens to tackle his struggles with depression. He once again displays his incredible poetic ability to convey very specific experiences in accessible manor, effortlessly communicating pain and anxiety without sanding away any of the individuality of his own outlook.
Much more grounded in its fuzzy funk and bedroom pop roots than its predecessor, there’s nothing here coming close to the groovy heights of Freetown’s “E.V.P.” Given the subject matter, however, that feels like a good decision, allowing for a great flow between emotional peaks on tracks like “Charcoal Baby” and “Nappy Wonder.” The album is not without its missteps, A$AP Rocky’s lazy verse on lead single “Chewing Gum” chief among them, but overall this is another excellent effort from one of the industry’s strongest voices.
-George Greenstreet
5. Lucy Dacus, Historian
Historian is one of those albums that feels like it has been with me forever, but somehow, it only came out this past March. It occupies that cozy space of summer cascading into fall. Lucy Dacus’ voice is that first crisp day where you can don a scarf, married with sunshiny warmth. Yet her lyrics make you ache with longing to know your grandmother better (“Pillar of Truth”) and come to peace with your own death (“Next of Kin”). She captures that 2018 feeling of time passing quickly and slowly all at once, with the urgent immediacy of the present and the timelessness of the past. This sophomore effort burns with the intensity of fiery foliage. We're not sure how Dacus siphoned the creative energy to collaborate with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers for boygenius within the same year, but we're so glad that we got two albums from her this year as a result.
-Katie Ouellette
4. Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer
Janelle Monáe’s first effort outside of her top-notch Metropolis cycle, Dirty Computer finds her at a creative peak. Shirking any sense of metaphor from her previous projects, her lyrics are straight to the point, a bombastic celebration of sexuality, queerness, fluidity and the strength that comes with all three. The bluntness of it all could have been grating in the hands of a lesser artist, but Monáe’s balance of fun and biting hooks you almost immediately, seamlessly moving between deeper moments exploring her views on inclusiveness and over-the-top fuck anthems. Finding novel takes on neo soul while bringing in collaborators from Grimes to Zoe Kravitz to Brian Wilson, Monáe gives us some of the year’s best pop music without losing a strong ideological through-line.
Computer’s mix of explosive sonics, catchy melodies, and lyrics unbound in their celebration of identity and freedom make it a vital and timely album. Here’s hoping it gets the Grammy.
-George Greenstreet
3. Hop Along, Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Editor's note: Read our interview with Frances Quinlan of Hop Along here too!
Hop Along remains undefeated. Bark Your Head Off, Dog is the latest proof. Having built up plenty of goodwill from Get Disowned and Painted Shut, Hop Along might have gone and topped themselves on their third offering. Frances Quinlan continues to have one of the best voices in any genre, and the band behind her gets tighter and tighter. The album takes plenty of twists and turns that highlight the beauty of this band. Oh, and album starter “How Simple” might be the song of the year, too.
-Matt Ellis
2. Sidney Gish, No Dogs Allowed*
Sidney Gish's "Bird Tutorial" was the first song I heard in 2018, and as soon as I heard the vintage sample (“teaching a parakeet to talk is fun!”) I knew I had already found my album of the year.
On No Dogs Allowed, Gish puts words to the universal experience of feeling like an outsider looking in, earnestly approaching the feeling from every possible angle with infectious pop songs and unshakable melodies. Gish's unique songwriting has been a bright spot on Boston's music scene for the last few years, and though the production on her second New Year’s Eve release has stepped up, the lyricism is more raw and honest than ever. From a peek into her iPhone notepad on “Mouth Log,” to the tender ownership of mistakes on “Persephone,” No Dogs Allowed is a specific, deeply personal account of a feeling everybody knows.
Turns out the never-ending process of understanding the world around you, and finding your place in it, can make you feel a lot like a parakeet learning to talk. Watching the people who look like they have it together, and copying what you see in the hopes that this time, you’ll finally get it, can grind the best of us down after enough repetition. By cracking open her brain and letting us peek inside, Gish creates a space for everyone to feel less weird about feeling weird. Maybe we’re all just a bunch of parakeets stuck in one big bird tutorial, but No Dogs Allowed gives us a glimmer of hope that learning to talk can actually be fun.
-Kaera Wyse
1. Mitski, Be the Cowboy
There's a point in "Nobody," the disco-influenced bop, when Mitski sings "And still nobody wants me" followed by two handclaps. In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing. And everything.
Mitski's fifth full-length record Be the Cowboy is full of big and small moments like this. There's the horns that come in on "Why Didn't You Stop Me?" and there's the sigh that precedes the drums kicking in on "Me and My Husband." The sparse arrangement of "Two Slow Dancers." Her knack for painting beautiful vignettes with words is also present: "In the morning, in a taxi I'm so very paying for" and "If you'd meet me at Blue Diner, I'll take coffee and talk about nothing." It is Mitski's best songwriting to date.
At 14 songs and 33 minutes, only two songs are longer than 3 minutes. The songs unfurl over a short period, meaning every second is deliberate and assured – those blink-and-you-miss-it handclaps, that sigh and those lyrics. Be the Cowboy is the work of a great songwriter and musician destined to become a legend.
-Jeremy Stanley