My Top 25 Albums of 2018

Earlier this month, I gave you a list of our favorite TV series and movies that we watched this year; tomorrow, I’ll give you a list of my favorite books read this year; and today, I give you a list of my top 25 albums (mostly) from this year:

25. Double Negative by Low
24. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love by Deafheaven
23. Now Only by Mount Eerie
22. Sundays by Tanukichan
21. Yolk in the Fur by Wild Pink
20. Nearer My God to Thee by Foxing
19. Record by Tracey Thorn
18. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys
17. Hope Downs by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
16. Chris by Christine and the Queens
15. Room 25 by Noname
14. Devotion by Tirzah
13. Wide Awake! by Parquet Courts
12. WARM by Jeff Tweedy
11. Way Out West by Sonny Rollins
10. Piano & A Microphone by Prince
9. 7 by Beach House
8. In A Poem Unlimited by U.S. Girls
7. Historian by Lucy Dacus
6. Be The Cowboy by Mitski
5. Con Todo El Mundo by Khruangbin
4. El Mal Querer by Rosalía
3. Whack World by Tierra Whack
2. Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves
1. God’s Favorite Customer by Father John Misty

I select what I listen to usually from Pitchfork, with albums that normally are rated 8.0 or above, with a few exceptions. Surprisingly to me, Pitchfork didn’t have Father John Misty’s album in its top 50 albums of 2018! They did include in its Best Rock Albums of 2018. I also have another list of top electronic music albums from this year, but I thought most of you probably aren’t into what my wife calls “machine music.”

At the end of this post, I’ve included a Spotify playlist with excerpts from my top 25 albums of 2018. I only included from 22 albums, because the last three albums didn’t really fit for openers for the playlist. The band Low, for example, is very discordant; Deafheaven has death metal growls in it; and Mount Eerie…well, he’s just depressing (not that some of the rest in my top 25 albums aren’t depressing, but his last few albums were about the death of his first wife).

I will give a few other notes on the list:

• Jeff Tweedy, Arctic Monkeys, and Christine and the Queens are all late entries.
• None of the artists or groups were in my top 15 albums last year.
• Tierra Whack’s album is 15 minutes long with each song a minute. It is better heard in its entirety. It was envisioned as a video too, but unless you’re into “wack” videos, I’d say skip.
• The two Spanish titled albums just happened to end up beside each other on the list. I only noticed when typing out the list here.
• I’m not into a lot of modern country but I was pleasantly surprised by Kacey Musgraves.

What was some of your favorite music from this year or that you listened to this year? What couldn’t you stop playing? That No. 1 album is one both my wife and I had on constantly, in the car, at work, and at home.