The sheer volume of music at our fingertips these days is overwhelming; it’s impossible to keep up with. Streaming services like Spotify are a blessing and a curse. They make a vast amount (almost all) of music accessible, create opportunities for creative playlist creation, and allow artists to reach fans easily anywhere in the world. All good things.
But there are downsides too. The Spotify experience, I find, cheapens music by spreading the listener thin. Because there is always so much great stuff to listen to, masterpiece albums often don’t get the attention they deserve. They get lost in the glut; enjoyed briefly before music fans move on to the next week’s discovery. The art of sitting with an album for a long time, because it’s one of only a few new albums you’ve recently purchased, is a dying art. Now everything is there all the time, and thus the magic of an album event is lost.
There is a massive amount of great music being made today (and plenty of mediocre music), so one person’s list surely only scratches the surface. But for whatever it’s worth, here are the 2018-released albums, songs, and cover songs (in our overwhelming and confusing musical present, the past has become an important inspiration) I enjoyed the most. What were your musical favorites this year?
20 FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2018
30 FAVORITE SONGS OF 2018
Every year I keep a running Spotify playlist of good songs released that year. I’ve whittled down my “Best Songs of 2018” playlist to 100 songs, which you can listen to here. Below are the top 30 from that list… my overall favorite songs of the year.
“Lost in Time and Space,” Lord Huron
“Dive,” Beach House
“Atlas: Five,” Sleeping at Last
“Fool’s Gold,” Sandra McCracken
“She Waits,” The Gray Havens
“Kids See Ghosts,” Kids See Ghosts (Kanye West and Kid Cudi)
“Baby Forgive Me,” Robyn
“California,” Kina Grannis
“Over Rainbows and Rainier,” Damien Jurado
“For You Too,” Yo La Tengo
“Pray For Me,” The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar
“Your True Name,” The Radio Dept.
“Pay No Mind,” Beach House
“Just For Us,” Francis and the Lights
“God Is Still Here,” JJ Heller
“My Refuge,” Rivers & Robots
“Eschaton,” Darlingside
“Lover of My Soul,” Sandra McCracken
“Watch Fire,” Laura Veirs and Sufjan Stevens
“All the Stars,” Kendrick Lamar, SZA
“For Now (Reimagined),” Kina Grannis
“THE BLUES,” Toby Nwigwe
“Pitch or Honey,” Neko Case
“Sun on the Square,” The Innocence Mission
“Hold Your Head Up High,” Darlingside
“Drawn to You,” Audrey Assad
“Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays,” Unknown Mortal Orchestra
“Visions of a Different World,” Great Lake Swimmers
“If You Know You Know,” Pusha T
“God Save Our Young Blood,” Børns and Lana Del Rey
“Give Me Your Fire, Give Me Your Rain,” The Paper Kites
“The Man Who Has Everything,” Chance the Rapper
“What Chance Have I Got,” Yo La Tengo
“Love Together,” Holly Arrowsmith
“Believe,” Amen Dunes
“Auckland,” LANZ feat. James McAlister
“Digressions,” Lizzy LeBleu
“I Can Change,” Lake Street Drive
“Drift Away,” Liz Vice
“Oh What a World,” Kasey Musgraves
“Grows Old,” Thirdstory
“Attention,” Charlie Puth
“Sleepy Eyes,” Elohim
“Doesn’t Matter,” Christine & the Queens
“How Seriously You Take Yourself,” Ski Lift
“Let Go of Your Plans,” Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real, feat. Madison Ryann Ward
“Nina Cried Power,” Hozier feat. Mavis Staples
“Shallow,” Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper
“It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You),” The 1975
“Wanderer,” Cat Power