RainyWoods
Croak-kay
2018 is coming to an end, and it's that time again where we look back and think "wow, what a great year for music", or bad year perhaps even. What have been your favourite songs and records released this year? [MENTION=13314]DaFlo[/MENTION] I know you got some (you were waiting for this topic so knock yourself out
). All of you are ordered to tell me and everyone else here your musical highlights of this year. 3, 2, 1...... GO! (you can make an album art collage here)For me personally it's been an amazing year. One of the best I can ever remember actually in terms of new releases by my favourite artists and bands. 2018 saw some of my biggest, most trusted favourites like Kurt Vile, Marianne Faithfull, Part Time and Dessa release new stuff. I also made a few great fresh discoveries *looks in Gavlyn, Demrick and DJ Hoppa's direction*. Can't forget randomly falling in love with Andrew W.K. as well, god bless him. I certainly haven't been perfect this year in terms of trying out new music, but I think i've been a bit better than usual. Still too much cherry picking for my liking. Next year my resolution is to try more music, and be more adventurous whilst doing so. Anyway, these are my favourite records of 2018, BEHOLD:
1. King Tuff - The Other
My favourite album of 2018 is a surprise. Not that I don't love King Tuff as he's always been one of my favourite American garage rockers. I just wasn't expecting a record of this maturity from him. Tuff is up there in the garage rock scene with Nobunny and Hunx in terms of craziness. He's a hugely eccentric character. He was also exhausted, lost and depressed. He reached a very dark point in his life and these songs deal with that in such an honest way without losing any of the character he's known for. We see King Tuff standing on the cusp of light here, and he does step through into better times but not before putting his heart on a plate for us with the brave opening track which also stands as the albums title. The Other is a glorious record. These psych rock bops are sunshine soaked, but everything is so weighty and beautiful. You can feel the emotions. King Tuff found himself again and nothing was lost. Just pure gains. Everything here is glistening. Taking that turmoil and turning it into something resplendently beautiful. King Tuff on!
2. Marianne Faithfull - Negative Capability
A new Marianne Faithfull release is always like a holy experience for me. This was my most anticipated release of the year, even ahead of Soap&Skin's new one, and it certainly didn't disappoint. If 2014's Give My Love To London was epic and jubilant, Negative Capability is the more mournful and melancholic cousin. In fact, it's a terribly sad record. Marianne has lost friends, continues to battle with poor health, and the terror attacks on the doorstep of her adopted home of Paris have been on her mind. It's a raw and very frank collection of songs. I must have listened to Don't Go about twenty to thirty times in a row on the day of the albums release. I was fixated and still am.
3. Soap&Skin - From Gas To Solid / You Are My Friend
I waited almost seven damn years for this thing. In 2012 Anja Plaschg released the album Narrow, a collection of mostly piano ballads, incredibly dark and sad. That record was a defining point for me and to this day it still probably remains my favourite album of all time. A lot has changed in these seven years for Anja, and From Gas To Solid / You Are My Friend is what happens when a very dark and tortured psyche finds some light. The lead single Heal sets the tone wonderfully. It's lush, it's achingly beautiful, haunting, raw, sincere.. all the things Soap&Skin's music was before, but it's hopeful now. Her music is so dear to me. From Gas To Solid / You Are My Friend is perhaps not exactly what I wanted after waiting seven years for the follow up to my favourite album of all time, but it's what I needed. It's a touching experience.
4. Sadistik - Salo Sessions II
In case you can't tell already from the scandalous cover art, this album is dark stuff, even by Sadistik's pitch black standards. It's macabre and twisted in a way that's suffocatingly so. The original Salo Sessions dropped a couple of years back. This new one was a rabbit hole I was a bit hesitant to go down at first, but I kept playing it and playing, and gosh I just couldn't stop. I even ended up loving a remixed version of his song Perseus that features a super weird verse by Slug † Christ. At first I was thinking ".... what's this?". Now every time I hear it i'm swaying. This mini album from Sadistik is so damn good. Try it if you dare.
5. Dessa - Chime
The latest gorgeous album from my favourite Doomtree MC. It's a record in which string sections and hard beats, with verses spat out more reminiscent of her Doomtree stuff, all breathe together as one. It's unpredictable. You've got lushly orchestrated songs like Velodrome, delivered by Dessa in a spoken word delivery, coexisting besides fierce shit like the gritty 5 Out Of 6. Somehow it all works in such an organic kind of way. I'm dumb but I feel like i'm getting brain cells delivered to my head courtesy of NASA whenever I put this record on. Dessa is so up there in terms of smarts but she's so fricking down to earth on the mother funking floor that it would be impossible to find anyone delivering this kind of stuff who is more welcoming and easy to appreciate. Chime is a tremendously likeable record.
6. Kurt Vile - Bottle It In | 7. Gavlyn - Headspace | 8. Part Time - Spell #6 | 9. Kali Uchis - Isolation | 10. Lemon Twigs - Go To School
Andrew W.K. - You're Not Alone | Poppy - Am I A Girl? | Shy Boys - Bell House | Aaron Lee Tasjan - Karma For Cheap
Shannon Shaw - Shannon In Nashville | Luluc - Sculptor | Demrick - Stoney Point 2 | Jorge Elbrecht - Here Lies
Yoko Ono - Warzone | Amerie - After 4AM / 4AM Mullholand | Jorja Smith - Lost & Found | Adam Ackerman - Autobiologist
Ty Segall - Freedom's Goblin | Silent Poets - Dawn | Michael Rault - It's a New Day Tonight | Mitski - Be The Cowboy | Teyana Taylor - K.T.S.E.
Andrew W.K. - You're Not Alone | Poppy - Am I A Girl? | Shy Boys - Bell House | Aaron Lee Tasjan - Karma For Cheap
Shannon Shaw - Shannon In Nashville | Luluc - Sculptor | Demrick - Stoney Point 2 | Jorge Elbrecht - Here Lies
Yoko Ono - Warzone | Amerie - After 4AM / 4AM Mullholand | Jorja Smith - Lost & Found | Adam Ackerman - Autobiologist
Ty Segall - Freedom's Goblin | Silent Poets - Dawn | Michael Rault - It's a New Day Tonight | Mitski - Be The Cowboy | Teyana Taylor - K.T.S.E.
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Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts
Annalisa - Bye Bye
Lali - Brava
Kali Uchis - Isolation
Ana Mena - Index
Ella Mai - Ella Mai
Vremya i Steklo - Vislovo
Gesaffelstein - Hyperion
Anitta - Kisses
But I like collecting, and love the music ofc, so it's definitely gon be worth it.
