Top 25 Albums of 2018

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If you’ve been following my blog at all, you could have probably guessed Kacey Musgraves’ "Golden Hour would be the #1 album of 2018. It is a flawless work of songwriting. Musgraves delicate dreamlike voice juxtaposes her lyrical vices, like smoking week and zoning out. Not coincidentally, it’s a total “zone out” of an album, one that flows perfectly from start to finish with stoner jams, funky beats, and her pristine tone. What an album.

Number two, perhaps surprisingly, is the late Mac Miller’s Swimming. I wrote about his death and created a Best Of in his memory, but needless to say, Swimming was his best work by far. It was the furtherst he’s pushed himself musically, as can be seen with songwriting credits to Thundercats, Pharrell, John Mayer, and many more. Ultimately, it’s a very sad album. Miller dives in and out of a lifeboat floating in a rocky ocean, tempting fate to stay alive. He knows he’s playing with the devil and all his drugs, and he really sounds like he doesn’t know which way it’s going to end. It all ended terribly for him, way too soon, too young a talent for Miller to create greatness and have people separate his real gifts from his class clown persona. I’ll miss him a ton.

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Top 100 Songs of 2018

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We finally made it! It’s my favorite playlist of the year, a playlist that I come back to years later to remember the highs and lows of decibels, depths, and soul. It’s a list that means so much to me because these songs shaped an entire year for me - a year that I spent listening to music for 68,780 minutes!

If you break that down, that’s 1,146 hours of music, which is either 48 straight days of listening to music or 143 days listening to music eight hours a day. I have to gloat, that is pretty cool! Though it doesn’t beat my record of a couple years ago of 103,000 minutes of music. I will NEVER top that.

ANYWAYS, you came here for music. As you can see, Mac Miller was my “Top Artist,” meaning I listened to him the most of any artist, and specifically, for 37 hours, according to Spotify. There’s a reason three of his songs from his last album, Swimming, are on the Top 100. Kacey Musgraves is the only other artist with three songs on the Top 100.

There are so many different genres and sounds to climb through on this list, I just know you’re going to have a great time exploring and investigating. PLEASE keep an open mind with this stuff, and if you don’t like it the first time, it doesn't mean it won’t warm up on you. I listened to Drake’s “In My Feelings” countless times, not loving it, but gradually getting there as time went on. There’s a lot of that kind of music on this playlist, so open your ears and your mind, people!

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Monday Mixtape, Vol. 121

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I don’t have a lot to say because I don’t have a lot of time!

The 1975 released their new album which I’m still digesting, Palace made an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL SONG, Anderson .Paak dropped a disappointing album but it’s still got this jam, some new artists to check out for ya, and a lil’ Hippo Campus unplugged.

Enjoy. More to come next week, and my Top 100 Songs and Top 25 Albums of the Year SOON!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 120

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We’re getting close to the end of the year, and per usual, I am super excited to make my Top 25 Albums of the Year and Top 100 Song of the Year lists. It’s a musical timestamp, and these playlists are not only a blast to curate, but I love looking back the many years (I’ve been doing these lists since 2012!).

ANYWAYS, this week’s mixtape has some new contenders to make the Top 100 list, and features one band I’ve really started digging recently, Maribou State. I saw that their 2018 album was on a list of Best of the Year (So Far), and the review mentioned their “masterpiece” of an album from 2015. so I started there. These guys are awesome and GREAT background music for studying, writing, etc. Their new album is pretty good too but definitely start with their 2015 release.

Speaking of great background music and new bands recently discovered, Bayonne released a new bouncy track from what I hope is on an upcoming album. Their 2017 Fallss was such a great album.

Oh, Robyn. Maybe the best pop artist out there. She released a new album, and my favorite track is the sultry lullaby, “Baby Forgive Me,” a track I have been playing on repeat.

A couple other tunes for you to discover and love on your own. Enjoy the week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 119

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We got a rap Monday Mixtape for you because Vince Staples released one of the best rap albums of the year, FM!, Logic dropped a really good album/mixtape, YSIV, with one of the best Wu-Tang collabs I’ve ever heard (it has EVERYONE), and Action Bronson’s new album has some cool live jazz inspired tracks that I included.

LET US ALSO NOT FORGET ABOUT EARL SWEATHSHIRT. His brief cameo track on Staples’ album comes in at 23 seconds, but it is straight fire. What a beat, what a flow.

Enjoy the week and all the good rap, people!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 118

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Apologies for my absence, it’s been a hectic few weeks, including a trip to NYC and a new puppy! Her name is June. Anyhoo, I got some great music for you, starting with the one, and truly only, Colter Wall, a young man of just 23 years with a voice of syrupy bourbon and bass. WOW when you hear this guy. Definitely check his new album out.

There’s an indie supergroup named boygenius comprised of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridges, and Lucy Dacus, and their album has little tinges of all of their sounds while being led by Baker’s (her looooooooooooNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!! words that she’s known to sing can stretch for over 10 seconds and the scream just gathers steam as it goes (listen to “Stay Down” at 3:11 where “down” is clocked in at about 11 seconds), it’s an equivalent “wow factor” to rappers who can do a verse on one breath because they’ve mastered how to breathe into through their nose while rapping) vocals and craftsmanship. The two tracks I put on this week’s mixtape were my two faves.

I’m so happy with Young the Giant, they just released their fourth album, and it’s got to be their second best album (it’s going to be VERY hard to ever top their first album which was close to flawless and had JAM after JAM and my fave YTG song, “Islands"). There isn’t any letdown on this album, it’s paced well and has a distinct sound and numerous great songs. My favorite might be their last track on the album, “Mirror Master,” what a catchy tune.

Fleet Foxes technically just released “Icicle Tusk." As you might be able to hear, this sounds like early Fleet Foxes, and sure enough, it was made back in 2006, two years before they even released their debut album. Beauty of a song. Robin Pecknold’s voice is in my Top 5 right now.

Empress of’s sophomore album is MUCH more poppy than her debut, a somewhat disappointing surprise. That’s not to say these aren’t good songs, but I’m disappointed because her last album was so weird and unique, whereas this album (and the song on this week’s mixtape “When I’m With Him”) could have be sung by so many different pop vocalists.

Finally, The Belle Game is a band I discovered years ago because their debut album, "Ritual Tradition Habit, was this somewhat dreary, reverb-soaked, distorted sound with beautiful vocals. I’m listening to “Wait up for You” right now, and what a song!

Have a great week all!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 117

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Shame on you! As in: Listen to Shame. These guys fucking rock. The youngsters from England scream and punish their instruments with no apologies. Raw bands have such a refreshing sound. I love this album. It took a little time to come around to the screaming, but this is punk at its best. While “One Rizla” and “Angie” are certainly there two most melodic tracks on the album with the least screaming, it shows their range and talents. I constantly picture Dave Grohl hearing this and just being like, “These guys fuckin’ ROCK!” as he headbangs away.

Speaking of Dave Grohl, if you don’t hear Nirvana’s sound in The Pollies track “You Want It” with Grohl’s thundering snare drum and lightning quick drum rolls, you aren’t hearing the right song.

Is it fair to compare Anderson .Paak to this generation’s Nate Dogg? He’s more talented than Nate Dogg because his albums are better, but it seems like every song with .Paak on it bumps. Anderson .Paak continues to release some good ass vibes, and I can’t wait for his new album which will will feature the head-bopping’ “Tints” with Kendrick.

Speaking of bands that have some awesome vibes, Holy Ghost! is back! Such an underrated band these dudes continually churn out great electro-pop while all sorts of worse wannabes win popularity contests.

SOAK is a young songwriter from Ireland who I’ve written about for a couple years, and this is one of her more accessible yet sad songs. Check her out!

BTW I’m seeing Lord Huron and Tame Impala tonight (it’s Sunday afternoon now not Monday, silly!) at Treasure Island Music Festival (Shame is actually playing here, but my wife is feeling under the weather, but she’s still a trooper and wants to see Tame Impala so we’re going late :) SO PUMPED!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 116

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A great Monday for music all! I stumbled upon Brent Cobb from Rolling Stone, and I’m sold. He will give you some Chris Stapleton vibes probably just because this is the way country should sound, some twang and rock and not the recycled bland pop stuff that you hear on the radio. His second album released this year is awesome, check it out!

I spoke about Hippo Campus last week. I love this album. More songs this week.

A couple newbies in Roosevelt and Yumi Zouma to get your BPMs up. Whether you like the song or not, you gotta give it to the intro for “Take Me Back”, it’s a little LCD Soundsystem-like with a bit of Disclosure and some 80s feels maybe INXS with the keys. Cool jam!

Not sure if you ever listened to Empress Of’s debut album, but it was really out there, using samples and electronics cycling around her vocals to create this loud atmospheric chaos. It was a really unique album, one of those you hear and just say, “No one else could have thought of that.” ANYWAYS, her new track, teasing for her new album, is VERY different and leans way more towards pop. It’s kind of a love ballad. Will be interesting to see what the album is like.

Happy Monday all!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 115

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The surprise of the weekend was seeing that Hippo Campus released their sophomore album, Bambi, on Friday. And what an album! The lead singer reminds me of Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, but their melodies are a bit more out there, I’m not really sure they sound like anyone else. Their second album shows some subtleties in songwriting that show the band’s growth. This is an album that flows from front to back with slow jams bookending the albums intersected by waves of rhythms and tempos. What I’m trying to say is just listen to it!

My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel released his second album and this “Wished Out” track immediately reminded me of The Allman Brothers Band. Never a bad thing.

I’ve gotten on a bit of a Jeff Tweedy kick recently, one because he’s such a great lyricist, two because he’s in one the best (and most underrated) bands of the past two decades, and three because his solo album of acoustic Wilco tracks is phenomenal (it’s called Together at Last - check it out!). Tweedy has a voice that finds a place in the hollows of the acoustic guitar. This is his most recent solo effort.

Speaking of voices I love, Thom Yorke released a track from what I hope is an upcoming solo album, and Bright Light Social Hour (whose vocalist’s solo album I had on last week’s mixtape) released a new track for all to hear, the spacey “Trip with Lola.”

Finally, the killer three-piece jazz band, BADBADNOTGOOD, who do a ton tracks with rappers and bands, have just released a track with Little Dragon, and it’s a “raise your lighters” type of jam.

That’s all I got folks, enjoy!