QuickCrit's Top 16 Albums of 2018

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Serena's Top 9 Albums from 2018

1. Rhye-Blood   

This is the chillest, sexiest album. Sometimes I watch their Tiny Desk concert because my brain can't wrap itself around the fact that the whole band is just two white dudes.

2. Lykke Li - So Sad So Sexy        

3. Blood Orange - Negro Swan  

If Janet Mock's gorgeous take on family doesn't get you, then maybe a Puff Daddy spoken word track? How about a gospel song? This album crosses genres, talks about being different, and is cool as hell.

4. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy  

5. Twin Shadow-Caer    

6. The Carters - EVERYTHING IS LOVE   

 

Someone described this as a Beyonce album featuring Jay Z, and I think that's both accurate and not a problem.

7. Black Panther Soundtrack    

 

Wakanda forever.

8. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter V  

       

9. Drake-Scorpion          

I bet you thought I'd pick "Nice For What," didn't you? Just kidding, "Nice For What" is my favorite song, it's my song of the year!

War Machine's 2009 Summer 5

I just got 95% of the way through this post only to accidentally lose it, so I'm going to begrudgingly try it again. It's going to be shorter this time, though.

Apologies for not embedding the video. Keep up the good work, those that do, it makes it so much easier to decide for myself when I can just click a button and listen. I'd do it too, but I don't know how. Links will have to suffice. [Update: videos added]

"Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit

Passion Pit is on every one's list this summer, so no new ground here. But this song is a standard deviation better than every other song on the album, and there are some other great ones. Video rocks too.

Here's a thought. Most of us have heard the story where Michael Angelakos, who was not in any band at the time, made a Valentines Day CD of six songs for his college girlfriend. (Not a shitty mixtape, mind you, his songs.) The songs got passed around campus, picked up locally, they turned it into an EP and formed a band and turned the EP into an album and here we are. Sleepyhead, as I understand it, was on that first CD. Here's my question, did that song on the CD sound like the song as I hear it on "Manners?" Because if it did...holy shit! Can you imagine being that girl? Or even, being the dorm room roommate of that girl? I suspect, on that particular Valentines Day, there wasn't a whole lot of sleepy, but a hell of a lot of...well you get it.

I'm just saying she owed him. Big time.



"Nothing to Worry About" - Peter, Bjorn and John

This song is a little long in the tooth but I just discovered it. It makes me want to dance until my ass falls off...or until two minutes and 58 seconds are over. Whichever comes first.

I've got to get me to Sweden at some point. There's too much coming out of there right now that I love...except for the IKEA tool. I hate the IKEA tool.



"Arlington. The Rap."

You don't really have to have lived in Arlington, VA to understand this. It makes it funnier, but it's not required. Could have just as easily been Annaheim or Schaumburg. Except for the Green Line joke.

I can't believe I lived there for 5 years. Sigh.



"Gifted" - N.A.S.A. (Featuring Kanye West, Santogold and Lykke Li)

Look at that lineup. Do I have to even explain why the song is awesome? The best part is, it is awesome, as opposed to, say, "The Best of Both Worlds."Decidedly not awesome.



"My Girls" - Animal Collective

This is as catchy an Animal Collective song as I am aware of. And I love catchy. The album is pretty great too. Very accessible, which means I can like it. Close runner-up is the Camera Obscura song French Navy, another great song off an album I'm loving.