Top Ten Albums of 2018 (Keith Law)

Keith Law is a baseball writer and board game aficionado and music obsessive with a good website, and I generally appreciate his taste in music.  He likes more dark metal than me, and a little more electronic pop than me, but we otherwise frequently agree on things.  Here is his top ten for 2018.

10. Artificial Pleasure – The Bitter End. Nah.  Kind of a dance rock thing that jams for bits and then bums for longer stretches.  Not terrible, but I wouldn't go back to it.

9. Snail Mail – Lush. Agreed - very good.

8. Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo in Blue. Yuck.  He says this album is better than their first, but I very much disagree.

7. Soft Science – Maps.  God, I've become entirely predictable.  Fire up a 90's alternative-rock-esque album and I'll start salivating like Pavlov's dogs.  Good groove, nice guitar wash, and pretty female vocalist?  I'm sucked right on in.  This one has a little British pop rock shoegaze type thing added in - its not straight grunge - like Teenage Fanclub and The Sundays mixed up in the opener "Undone."  Also has a heavy 80's synth vibe to it at times - see "Enough."  I've liked this one a lot.

6. Jungle – For Ever. They came to ACL this year, so I thought I would have reviewed this album, but it looks like my entire post was about the prior album and only mentioned that they might have a new album coming out soon. This one is good - I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between their two albums - the sound remains the same.  I won't keep it, but pretty solid.

5. Wombats – Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. Another ACL band - this album is good and their live show was high energy fun.  This is a good pick.  

4. Turbowolf – The Free Life.  I don't know Turbowolf, but I like what I hear right here.  The opening guitar bars sound like a fuzzy Queens of the Stone Age riff kicking in.  The whole thing is kind of sneering rock and roll jam session stuff.  I like it.

Rock and roll, baby.

3. Black Honey – Black Honey. Nah.  Way too Lana Del Rey - try hard - for me.  Also, 21 freaking songs?  C'mon man.

2. TVAM – Psychic Data. Again, nah.  Very electronic, very 80's synth stuff, but very dark and discordant.  Well, sometimes the tunes try to get pretty for a sec, but even then there is something tweaked or soured somewhere in the sound.  Not for me.

1. Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar.  Huh.  Law admits that this is not an album he enjoys from start to finish or comfortable, but is instead something that makes him uncomfortable and diverges from the confines of conventional popular music.  Which is think is BS - if the album bugs you, then it shouldn't be your favorite album, right?  If I could choose an album of a baby crying or R.E.M.'s Out of Time, would I ever actually pick the crying as a favorite?  Just to challenge myself?  Its insane.  This music is very odd.  Kinda rap (but only in that someone is speaking instead of singing over the music), kinda R&B, kinda electronic sound collage mess...  Sort of makes me think of the way I felt with TV on the Radio at first, except this is much less tuneful.  Dumb pick.  Don't like it.