Swim Into The Sound’s Year In Review

2018 was a banner year for Swim Into The Sound. If you’d allow me to pull back the curtain for a minute and wax poetic, I would love to dedicate this decidedly non-music post to the year that was and express my profound gratitude to you, the reader. 

Swim Into The Sound began in my backyard when a burst of inspiration convinced me to jot down my thoughts on a Mogwai record. I probably spent a week on that post, manically editing the Google Doc until it was as good as I could make it of my own devices. I pasted it into a Tumblr page, posted it, and then let the account sit there for about a year. 

The summer after that I had graduated from college and found myself in need of an outlet. I remembered I had that Tumblr stashed away along with (what I thought) was a fantastic post already loaded up into it. I ventured back into the app and spent the remainder of the year posting a wide range of long-form music-related thoughts. Whether it was deconstructing my love of hip-hop or discussing my embarrassing pre-gym Taylor Swift rituals, I found a strange sense of relief in getting these thoughts out of my head and onto the (somewhat) permanent page of the internet. 

Throughout 2017 I continued to post on Swim Into The Sound more regularly and began promoting my blog on the /r/indieheads music subreddit since that’s where I was already spending most of my time. The support, affirmations, and love I received from the community there was unlike anything I’d ever felt before as a creator. It only fueled me further and confirmed that this whole endeavor was worth it. Seeing other people enjoy my words made me feel like that this site wasn’t just a hobby, but my passion. 

2018 is the first year I’ve had enough to warrant a recap of the blog’s year, so I’m going to lean into it, modesty be damned. To think that Swim Into The Sound has grown from one amateur-ish album review I wrote on my phone into this is mind-blowing. This is undeniably self-congratulatory, but I also hope this post captures my gratitude because this site would not be what it is without you.

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One of the most significant changes Swim Into The Sound saw in 2018 was a complete redesign as we moved to Squarespace and escaped the clutches of Tumblr. Tumblr was wonderful as a free blogging tool, but over the past two years it became something that lacked the flexibility I really needed. It was an excellent way to dip my toes in the waters of public writing, but now I’m committed. 

Aside from the fresh coat of paint you’re now seeing, moving to Squarespace also gave me access to back-end information and analytics. For example, between the months of April (when I moved the site to Squarespace) and December, precisely 16,668 unique people visited Swim Into The Sound. That blows me away.

It’s unfortunate I have no way to measure how many people were reading for the three years when the site was on Tumblr, but I never in a million years would have thought sixteen thousand people would be interested in my thoughts.

Last year I posted 45 articles. That’s 73,899 words. More than I’ve ever done in a calendar year. Amongst those 45 posts, I broke into new and unfamiliar territory with my first interview, first concert review, and first visual piece. An artist walked me through his album track-by-track, and a Portland-based designer let me host his piece on my site. Those posts all broke format but felt incredibly fulfilling to get out into the world.

That said, I can’t take all the credit for those 74-thousand words, because 2018 also marked the appearance of our site’s first guest writer. We also bookended the year with another post from a different guest writer, both of whom I had met through the /r/indieheads subreddit… proof that wasting your time online can pay off. 

On the goofier side of things, I was interviewed by @SMALLALBUMS (in case you ever wondered where I stood on emojis), and a friend photoshopped the blog’s logo into a terrible pun which I’m officially dubbing our first fan art. 

In 2018 I also did “real” businessey things. I started a Fiverr page in a desperate attempt to stave off joblessness. While the model didn’t quite work for the site, it opened the door to many firsts of its own from my very first paid review to my first review quote and the first time I got to hear an album early. When all was said and done, I made money from the venture, not much, but if you’d told me back in 2015 that I’d get $200 from this site I would have been astonished. 

On the social front, I rounded Swim Into The Sound’s online presence (which previously only consisted of Twitter) to include Instagram and Spotify. I also created an email dedicated solely to the blog. While this email was initially designed to catch all the spam from these social accounts, I soon started to receive music submissions, something I never would have dreamt of in a million years. I had artists sending me their life’s work, and that’s an incredibly privileged position to be in. To express my gratitude I collected ten of my favorite submissions from the first few months and plan on doing it again whenever time allows. In fact, there are no less than 50 emails waiting unread in my inbox, so if you’ve submitted something recently, sorry, life and List Season got in the way. 

Speaking of which, Swim Into The Sound’s end of the year posts went off without a hitch. We attempted to recreate past glories with our Ancillary Diamond Platter Awards, we called out hack lyrics and bad behavior in our 2018 Un-Awards, and (of course) we ran through some of our favorite albums of the year. 

One of the things I’m most proud of in 2018 was listening to (and writing about) 454 new releases throughout the year. I went into more detail here, but writing about dozens of new releases each month was an interesting challenge that I didn’t even set out to do… it just sort of happened. Through that monthly process, I expanded my musical horizons and wrote about more albums than ever before. It was a grand experiment that took way more time than I could have imagined, but it was fun to see if I’d make it to the end of 2018 despite all that’s happened throughout the year. 

In addition to moving the site to Squarespace and keeping up with the music world through those monthly roundups, 2018 was also the year of the site’s first merch. I designed and ordered 250 4x4 stickers which were the sole content on our Instagram for some time. I also ordered 100 guitar pick “business cards” because I realized this blog’s name is hard to shout when networking at concerts.

Finally, this holiday season also saw the launch of A Very Sufjan Christmas which, while not entirely written by me, is still a side-project I’m running with the help of my equally-fanatic online friends. The site was a daily advent calendar with new posts each day throughout the month of December. As you could imagine, that blog had its own demands and challenges, but I still view it as a sister site to Swim Into The Sound. I had my hand at a post, but running social media promotion, wrangling posts from writers, editing them, and designing the site was enough of a job for me throughout the holiday season. 

If nothing else I’d like one thing to be clear: I could not have done this without you. I’m not doing this for money, I’m doing it for love, and every time someone clicks on an article, gives me a like, retweet, or message of affirmation, it fuels me for another thousand words. 

It’s people like you that keep this site running and my sole afloat. I wouldn’t have done any of this if I didn’t think that someone out there was benefitting from it in some way. I wouldn’t have spent all the money on stickers or a new website if I didn’t feel like I’d received that monetary amount back through some sort of spiritual love being sent my way. 

I wouldn’t have opened an email for music submissions if I didn’t want to support small artists. I wouldn’t have spun thousands of words about new music every month if I didn’t think someone else might find those posts helpful. 

So from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to send a profound thank you to anyone reading this. Your support, your attention, and your love are what has kept this blog afloat for another year, and you’re why I plan on charging into 2019 with more fire than ever before. 

Thank you for everything, thank you for this site. 

The Year In Music: 2018 Month By Month

I saw someone online call 2018 “The Year of Forgettable Music,” and, while I understand where they’re coming from, I must disagree. Much like 2017, I feel like there was no breakaway “unanimous” album of the year. There was no Blonde, no Carrie & Lowell, not even a DAMN. No single album swept through every major publication’s AOTY lists, and that’s a good thing. Despite the lack of a clear AOTY winner, I found myself impressed by 2018 because I was keeping track of new releases more than any other year before.

Back in January I felt overwhelmed with the amount of exciting new music that had come out in a month that’s typically quiet for new releases. Inspired by this wealth of new music, I sat down, wrote a few thoughts on some of the month’s best albums, and published it in the same day. In truth, that post was as much for me to help remember what I was enjoying as it was a genuine “roundup” of new releases. 

While I didn’t know it at the time, the decision to publish that one post would have an impact on the rest of my 2018. From that month onward I took note of every new release I listened to throughout the calendar year. I kept a long-running Google Doc of upcoming albums and even went as far as noting when artists put out new singles. 

In 2018 I listened to and wrote about 454 new releases. Some of those were full reviews, some of them were a paragraph or so, and some were only one sentence. While I would never have expected it back it at the beginning of the year, this monthly recap became a self-imposed tradition. What began as a one-off post about albums I’d been enjoying that month soon became an institution that I enjoyed doing. It was a challenge, but it also helped me feel more tapped-in to new music than ever before, and now you get to reap the benefits. 

While this may feel like a lot of backstory, this post is merely a collection of every monthly roundup I posted last year. It’s a comprehensive list of everything I listened to, enjoyed, and wrote about throughout all of 2018. Collectively, this post represents hundreds of albums, thousands of words, and countless hours of time. Please enjoy, bookmark, and feel free to use this as a guide to venture back through 2018 month-by-month to catch a release you may have missed out on. 

I choose to think of 2018 not as a year of forgettable music, but a year of hidden gems. Sure you may have to dig a little bit to find them, but the truth is the year is only as forgettable as you allow it to be. 

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January Roundup

Featuring Tiny Moving Parts, Lil Wayne, Ty Segall, JPEGMAFIA, Jay Some, Migos, No Age, Drake, August Burns Red, Jeff Rosenstock, and Shame.

February Roundup

Featuring Cameron Boucher, Field Medic, Hovvdy, MGMT, Turnstile, Kendrick Lamar, 2 Chainz, Justin Timberlake, and Car Seat Headrest.

March Roundup

Featuring Soccer Mommy, Camp Cope, Sorority Noise, Jack White, Earthless, Yo La Tengo, and Haley Heynderickx.

April Roundup

Featuring Fiddlehead, Hop Along, Saba, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Underoath, Half Waif, The Wonder Years, and Janelle Monáe.

May Roundup

Featuring Parquet Courts, Rae Sremmurd, Beach House, Arctic Monkeys, Pusha T, Courtney Barnett, Ministry of Interior Spaces, and Illuminati Hotties.

June Roundup

Featuring Kanye West, Dance Gavin Dance, Nas, Colin Stetson, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Nine Inch Nails, Father John Misty, Snail Mail, and Kids See Ghosts.

July Roundup

Featuring Mom Jeans, Future, Bongripper, Deafheaven, The National, Denzel Curry, and Wild Pink.

August Roundup

Featuring Travis Scott, Tides of Man, Foxing, Jesus Piece, Young Thug, IDLES, Justin Vernon, Aaron Dessner, and Mitski.

September Roundup

Featuring Noname, Yves Tumor, Shortly, Young Thug, BROCKHAMPTON, This Will Destroy You, Microwave, Pinegrove, and Lil Wayne.

October Roundup

Featuring TTNG, St. Vincent, Kurt Vile, Haley Heynderickx, Max García Conover, Destroy Boys, Gunna, Lil Baby, This Will Destroy You, The Wonder Years, Shortly, Oso Oso, Have Mercy, and Minus the Bear.

November Roundup

Featuring Metro Boomin’, boygenius, Sufjan Stevens, August Burns Red, Vince Staples, Liance, Takeoff, Fleet Foxes, and Earl Sweatshirt.

December Roundup

Featuring Vulfpeck, Field Medic, Bay Faction, 21 Savage, Dan Campbell, Ace Enders, Bruce Springsteen, and Catholic Werewolves.

December 2018: Album Review Roundup

It’s our final roundup of the year, and it’s been an eventful month both in music and in life. This December I flew across the country, enjoyed the holidays with my family, and reconnected with all of my old friends back home. As far as this blog goes, I’ve been writing a ton in order to get our various end of the year lists and awards up before the year actually ended. Meanwhile, as with most other industries, new music seemed to slow down to a trickle in December for the most part. Even though there were less new releases this month, there was no shortage of quality projects worth enjoying through the final weeks of 2018.

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Vulfpeck - Hill Climber

On May 26th of 2016, I saw Vulfpeck in concert, and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to in my entire life. I’ve been to rowdier concerts, louder concerts, and maybe even more “technically” impressive concerts, but there was a magic in the air that night as the ever-shifting funk group laid down a two-hour-long set of greatest hits and unforgettable spur-of-the-moment improvisations. While I respect the band’s hustle (one project a year from 2011 onward is nothing to sneeze at) even the most hardcore of Vulfpeck fans will admit that the band has gotten away from their instrumental roots. While the group’s “vocal” tracks have become some of their biggest hits, I was ecstatic to find out not a word is spoken on the back half of Hill Climber. There are still some catchy and funky cuts on Side A, but nothing quite beats the deep groove of the songs like “Soft Parade” or the fourth installment of “It Gets Funkier.” Despite my personal feelings on the group’s non-instrumental work, Hill Climber is yet another entry in an almost-flawless discography.

Field Medic - little place

Field Medic has been one of my biggest loves of 2018. From discovering Songs From The Sunroom at the very beginning of the year to saving his hat from mosh pit peril at a Remo Drive show, my year has been marked by the musical presence of Kevin Patrick Sullivan. I showered Field Medic with multiple awards in this year’s Diamond Platters, but right when I thought our year together was over he surprise-released little place in the twilight hours of 2018. Short and poetic as ever, little place features six songs, all one-minute a piece. The mini-ep is like a sketchbook put to music, and as invasive as that may sound, it feels more like a peek inside your own head than that of our narrator. Personable, charming, and poetic, there’s no better way to kill six minutes than a little listen to little place. 

Bay Faction - Florida Guilt

Back in 2014 Bay Faction uploaded a four-track demo of their songs to reddit and a man named Jake Sulzer liked them so much he decided to start a record label just to help them release their first full-length. That label was Counter Intuitive Records which is now home to the likes of Mom Jeans, Prince Daddy & The Hyena, and more. While the band put out their self-titled emo debut on Counter Intuitive, they’re now self-released their long-awaited follow-up Florida Guilt, and the record is a bold and emotional step in a new direction. Moving away from the overwrought sentiments of their debut, the band now finds themselves placing a greater focus on catchy melodies, bouncy hooks, and memorable moments within the songs. There’s cleaner production, but the minds behind the words are still the same. Exploring a similar territory of youthful emotion and over-action, Florida Guilt is an unexpected but beautiful pivot.

21 Savage - i am > i was

While I would never have expected it back in 2016, 21 Savage seems like he’s on a warpath to become one of the rap game’s biggest stars. Between high profile collaborations, chart-topping singles, and a hearty helping of meme-worthy moments, 21 seems to have been making all the right moves recently. On top of all this, he’s spent the last two years honing his craft and becoming both a personable and proficient rapper while racking up hits along the way. i am > i was is the latest in 21’s string of increasingly-quality releases, the album boasts soulful beats, opulent flexes, and a star-studded feature list. While some spots lack substance,  i am > i was is just excellent trap music, and sometimes you don’t need much more than that. 

Clear Hearts Fanzine - Season 1, Episodes 1-6

Clear Hearts Fanzine is a collaborative project headed up by Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years and Ace Enders of The Early November Men. Bonded by their love of the mid-2000’s hit TV show Friday Night Lights, Season 1, Episodes 1-6 is a concept album centering around the occupants of Dillon, Texas and their day-to-day lives. While the two have collaborated before on Aaron West and a tearful Bruce Springsteen cover, this project represents the first full release the duo has teamed up to craft from the ground up. Preceded by an in-depth interview with the two artists, their passion for the show is deep, their creation is earnest, and their fandom is endless. 

Bruce Springsteen - Springsteen on Broadway

In a move that harkens back to one of the greatest live albums of all time, Springsteen on Broadway is the audio version of Springsteen’s Broadway residency which spanned from 2017 to 2018. The format is simple; The Boss himself is on stage alone with nothing more than a guitar and mic. As he runs through some of the greatest hits of his five-decade-long career each song is accompanied by an introduction in which Springsteen details the backstory that led to its inception. Pulling largely from his 2016 autobiography, the tales are earnest, confessional, inspirational, and intimate. There’s a reason why Springsteen is our country’s greatest classic rock act, and we should all be honored to have him tell the story of our lives. 

Catholic Werewolves - You're Gonna Miss Everything Cool And Die Angry

I’ve fallen back in love with emo this year, and bands like Catholic Werewolves are the reason why. Sure, moving to the midwest lends itself well to frigid, inward thoughts, but I’ve felt a real sense of pride uncovering the bustling underground scene of a new city. In the case of You're Gonna Miss Everything Cool And Die Angry I found Catholic Werewolves through Stars Hollow who I found through Jail Socks who I found though Absinthe Father. The point is, there are dozens of bands like this in every city who are making incredible music that’s worth yelling out in someone’s sweaty living room. Yes, this record rips, but it’s also symbolic of the hungry acts in your local scene and the brilliance lying in wait for those willing to look. 

Quick Hits

• Gucci Mane - Evil Genius: The prolific godfather of trap rounds out the year with a star-studded 18-pack of hip-hop bangers.

• Irk - Recipes from the Bible: Soul-disintegrating noise rock from Leeds with the power to make you feel infinitesimal and infuriated all at once.

• Liminal - Liminal 3: An ambient Sigur Rós side-project designed to be an “endless mixtape” akin to a musical soundbath.

• Valleyheart - Everyone I've Ever Loved: Bass-drenched emo rock from Rise Records of all people.

• Domo Genesis - Facade Records: The ex-Odd Future member delivers a satiating EP of six hard-hitting hip-hop tracks with Wu-Tang-like confidence and flow to match.

• Lil Aaron - Worst Christmas Ever: The green-haired sample-loving emo rapper dishes up a Travis Barker-produced EP of lude auto-tuned anti-Christmas anthems. 

• Walter Etc. - Chaparral: Thirteen minutes of bombastic and heartfelt indie rock that tears at its own soul.

• The Decemberists - Traveling On: Groovy and rain-soaked indie rock that almost makes up for their middling eighth album from earlier in the year.

• Kodak Black - Dying To Live: Bolstered by the smash hit “ZEZE,” Florida’s favorite son managed to push out 47 minutes of sunny hip-hop in between jail stints.

• Various Artists - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack From & Inspired by the Motion Picture): Following the path blazed by Black Panther and Creed II, this is a soundtrack that promotes the newest marvel adventure while also managing to feel artistically-fulfilling at the same time.

• Big K.R.I.T. - Trifecta: Three highly-proficient and lyrical hip-hop songs that keep their feet on the ground and their mind on the world around them.

• Vic Mensa - HOOLIGANS: To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on with Vic Mensa anymore.   

• A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie - Hoodie SZN: Following an impressive debut album, the streetwise rapper is back with an hour of grimy and fast-paced hip-hop.

• Hot Mulligan - YSG Years: A remastered compilation of every original song the band put out through Save Your Generation Records. 

• The-Dream - Ménage à Trois: Sextape Vol. 1, 2, 3: In a move that echoes The Weeknd’s trilogy of breakthrough mixtapes, Ménage à Trois is a dark and sensual three-disc album of late-night PBR&B.

• Barely March - Marely Christmas: A holiday-themed rerecording of Chris Keough’s impressive pop-punk debut.

• Soulja Boy - Swag 2: In between winning Fortnight matches, releasing unlicensed video game consoles, and unwittingly recording anti-semitic propaganda, Soulja Boy managed to mumble into a microphone long enough to try to stay relevant through an actual musical release. 

• Waka Flocka Flame - I Can't Rap Vol. 2: Some hard-as-bricks bars delivered directly to mixtape sites around the world on Christmas day.

• Palisades  - Erase The Pain: Palisades jump straight to the “radio rock” phase every vaguely-hardcore band seems to feel is a requirement now. 

This month we also heard new singles from Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Toro Y Moi, La Dispute, Illuminati Hotties, Pedro The Lion, Fucked Up, CZARFACE, Phoebe Bridgers, Deerhunter, Xiu Xiu, Copeland, Broken Bells, Anna von Hausswolff, Ice Cube, Ezra Koenig, Danny Worsnop, Joshua Homme, Saba, Max Bloom, American Football, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Jay Som, Matt Berninger, Growlers, Saba, Amine, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Cane Hill, Cigarettes After Sex, Kelso, Swae Lee, 6Lack, The Voidz, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Post Malone, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Mac Demarco, The Raconteurs, and Noname.

Focus / No Angel: Charli XCX’s Two-Track Masterpiece

Charli XCX has two careers. Her top songs on Spotify are “Girls” (by Rita Ora, featuring Charli, Cardi B, and Bebe Rhexa), “Dirty Sexy Money” (by David Guetta, featuring Charli and French Montana), and “Moonlight” (by Lil Xan, featuring Charli). Her most successful album was 2014’s Sucker, which I enjoy, but sounds just about the same as every song on the pop charts at the time. This year, she toured with Taylor Swift (I love Taylor, but I wouldn’t exactly call her innovative), playing her hits like “I Love It,” “Boom Clap,” and “Fancy,” which were all bolstered by soundtracks or memes. Despite what this list of features may look (and sound) like, Charli XCX is also one of the most innovative and unique popstars making music today, and there’s no better proof of this than her two-track pop masterpiece “Focus / No Angel.”.

In 2017, Charli XCX released two mixtapes largely produced by PC Music’s A.G. Cook and SOPHIE, which harken back the more experimental bent of her early mixtapes and debut album, True Romance. The tapes sound like the pop music of the future and heavily feature other loves of the alt-pop scene including Carly Rae Jepsen, Cupcakke, Brooke Candy, Tove Lo, and ABRA. This year, she has expanded on this alternative catalog with a series of singles including “5 in the Morning,” “Girls Night Out,” “1999,” and finally, “Focus / No Angel.” This two-track single is my 24th most listened to “album” of the last year with 122 plays and counting. Again, it’s only two tracks. And it’s only been out since late June.

“Focus / No Angel” is fiercely infectious. “Focus,” the A.G. Cook-produced opener, is repetitive in the best way. There are only 65 unique words in the songs three-and-a-half minute running time, but somehow Charli’s delivery (combined with the instrumental) make it equal parts catchy and captivating. I played it in the car for my 58-year-old dad, and his only response was “I don’t think this was made for me.” That’s right, Dad. It wasn’t. It was made for me. It’s great in a DJ set—the DJ played it during my college’s LCD Soundsystem-themed ball this fall, and I absolutely lost my shit. It’s also great just blasting in my headphones while I do homework, because I know it so well at this point that I can listen to it even while I’m reading—though there are no guarantees that I won’t put down my work at any point because the urge to dance is too strong.

“No Angel” has a bit more mythos attached to it than “Focus,” as it is one of the Charli XCX tracks that has alternately been leaked and performed live over the last few years, compelling fans to beg for its release. I, by principle, do not listen to leaks, so I hadn’t actually heard the track before its release, but I was aware of its legendary status, and it fully lives up the hype. It shows off a bit more of Charli’s party-focused songwriting mentality and the hook, “I’m no angel, but I can learn,” references the more self-reflective parts of her 2017 mixtapes. All I can say is, she’s got me and she won’t let me go.

I hadn’t really kept track of Charli XCX until 2018. I’ll admit, I was one of those teens enchanted by “Boom Clap” on the Fault In Our Stars soundtrack, but by last year and the disappointing release of Taylor Swift’s reputation, I’d drifted a bit from my poptimistic roots. Charli was all I needed to get right back into it. I listened to Number 1 Angel for the first time around January, and then Pop 2 a couple of months later. I quickly became enamored with Charli’s future-forward pop, but I found myself disappointed with the first of the 2018 singles. The hip-hop-flavored “5 In The Morning” seemed sort of formulaic, repeating the ‘party all night’ sentiments of previous songs like “Die Tonight” and “After The Afterparty.” “Focus / No Angel,” however, in its incessant repetitiveness and format as a two-track single, is the kind of project that begs to be left on repeat. Just when you might get bored by “Focus”’ chorus, you’re drawn in once again by the hook of “No Angel.” The two tracks balance each other out perfectly and not only prove that Charli XCX is the future of pop, but also work together to form one of the best “albums” of the year.

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Delaney Neal is a college student splitting her time between Portland, OR, and the Bay Area. You can usually find her listening to Car Seat Headrest and thinking about her dogs. She’s on Instagram @laneyrse.

Swim Into The Sound’s 10 Favorite Albums of 2018

All Hail The Algorithm

If there was any sort of theme to 2018, it was Discovery. Discovery on a personal level, discovery on a professional level, and (most importantly) discovery on a musical level. This year I landed a new job, moved across the country, and started a new life three thousand miles away from everything I’ve ever known and loved. I met people I would never have crossed paths with otherwise and experienced things that only this opportunity could have afforded me. 

On the blog front, I kept up to date by writing about new releases each month. I conducted my first interview, got paid actual money to write reviews, and hit dozens of other landmark firsts that made running this blog feel like a fresh, rewarding, and challenging endeavor all throughout the year. 

As 2018 ticked on and my album of the year list began to take shape, an interesting trend emerged: most of my favorite albums of 2018 were from band’s I’d never listened to until this year.

Discoveries can be found in the most unexpected places, and sometimes coming into something entirely fresh leads to the most impactful results. Whether it’s discovering a band live in-concert, reading a compelling review, or hearing them pop up in a Spotify playlist, there’s something rewarding about that feeling of discovery. 

These are the albums that helped me. The projects that brought me joy, sorrow, pain, and everything in between in a year when emotions ran high, and everything seemed bound for cosmic change. These albums are the soundtrack to the development of my life. A year in flux and a life in motion. These are my favorite albums of 2018.

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10 | Advance Base - Animal Companionship

On some level, it’s easy to make songs that anyone can relate to. The biggest pop songs in the world are all about falling in love, or breaking up, or hanging out with your friends. Those are universal experiences. They’re songs written so broadly that’s you have to go out of your way to not connect with them. What’s more difficult than that is instilling that same feeling of connection through a life that the listener hasn’t experienced. To convey a sense of empathy through a portrayal so specific that, while not experienced first-hand, it loops back around to being relatable. That’s what Advance Base has done with Animal Companionship, and it’s a marvel. 

A loose concept album centered around pets, Animal Companionship finds Owen Ashworth rumbling through a series of ten tales all depicting a handful of ordinary Midwesterners. While their stories would sound bland being told in any other way, the Chicago folk singer has a way of delivering them which such gravitas and specificity that they become extraordinary. His vocals never rise above a steady barrel-chested hum, but emotions run high throughout the record.

Often accompanied only by keys or a solitary drum machine, Ashworth’s voice (and words) are almost always front and center for the listener to ingest and ruminate upon at their own pace. The tales are crystalline, realized, and lived-in as if Ashworth himself has lived all of these disparate timelines and experiences of the album’s fictional characters. Whether it’s running into an ex’s dog tied up outside of a coffee shop, or a friend who still has an answering machine just so they can leave their pet voicemails, every word is measured and impactful. It’s a frigid-sounding record that, yes, is sad, but is also sprinkled with moments of hope and even joy. It’s a portrayal of humanity framed through the animals who, through their proximity to us and our lives, make us a little more human in the process.  

9 | Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog

I’ve spent about three years trying to understand the appeal of Hop Along. Between the time they released 2015’s Painted Shut and this year I’ve listened to every one of their albums multiple times and even seen them live, but for some reason, the band never stuck. Right when I was about to write them off telling myself “you don’t have to like everything” the group released Bark Your Head Off, Dog and everything finally clicked into place. 

While it took me a while to figure out, my biggest problem with Hop Along has always been that Frances Quinlan’s vocals are so good they overshadow everything else in most of their songs. There’s nothing wrong with the group’s instrumentals; I would just rather hear Quinlan sing over something that rivals her intensity. 

I gave Bark Your Head Off a few cursory listens before the final stretch of three songs began to sink their teeth into me. They were biting, fast-paced, and had enough ornamental flourishes that they rewarded repeat listens. They felt emotional and heartfelt while still retaining the personable stories Quinlan is known for. In short, the final three songs on this record were everything I’d been waiting to hear from Hop Along for years. 

Something about those three tracks must have opened my eyes because I eventually found myself listening to Bark Your Head Off, Dog front to back and being captivated by every track. I now realize the fault in my prior attempts was not the band, but me. I was looking for aggressive smoldering pop-punk songs, but in truth Hop Along is crafting loving (if not a little damaged) indie rock with a folk bent. It’s the musical equivalent of a glass of red wine, and either my taste was not refined enough to enjoy it before, or I came into their music thirsty for a cheap beer when I should have been savoring the complicated notes. Bark Your Head Off, Dog is a triumphant and passionate record that’s beautiful, rich, and worth savoring.

8 | Turnstile - Time & Space

Clocking in at a grand total of 25 minutes, the longest song on Turnstile’s Time & Space is three minutes and 15 seconds. With every other track hovering between 46 seconds and two minutes, the album ends up feeling like an exercise in violent minimalism.

Making a name for their photogenic live shows, engaging crowds, and hard-hitting songs, Time & Space vaulted Turnstile to the forefront of the underground rock scene. The record itself is picture-perfect hardcore and irrefutable proof that you don’t need anything more than a solid riff and a driving chorus to make great music. 

Not only that, the band’s sophomore effort proved to be surprisingly-accessible, gaining them coverage, accolades, and glowing reviews from dozens of mainstream publications. Walking an intoxicating balance of punk and thrash, Time & Space is an outpouring of emotion. It’s barebones, straightforward, and efficient. It’s artistically-fulfilling, temperamentally-satiating, and even surprisingly catchy at times. It’s everything hardcore needs in 2018, and proof of what it can one day be.

7 | The Wonder Years - Sister Cities

When I saw the Wonder Years back in May, lead singer Dan Campbell took some time between songs to make sure everyone had heard their newest album. After the resounding swell of voices quieted, he went on to explain a bit about the concept behind Sister Cities, specifically how the opening track “Raining in Kyoto” embodies many of the LP’s recurring themes. “It’s a record about connectivity, commonality, and empathy” Campbell explained to the rapt Portland audience. 

Sister Cities is a record about distance, but it's also a record about lack of distance. It's about the commonalities of man and the universal things that bind us as a race, about how little the physical space between people really matters when it comes down to it. Sister Cities is an album about human connection on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level.

While it's reinforced by music videos and lyrics throughout this album, this concept of connectivity is exemplified best by the record’s 6-minute closer “The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me.” In the song, Campbell uses the ocean as a stand-in for multiple important entities in his life. At first, the ocean is spoken of literally as a physical body of water that we're all attached to in some form or another. As the song plays out, the ocean becomes a metaphor for the brotherhood of humanity and the salvation we can find in our loved ones. 

Thematically, “Ocean” ties back to the opening track by referencing the passing of Dan's grandfather, but even that specific event is just a larger allusion to life, death, regret, and other inescapable human feelings that bond us together. The final verse of the song discusses illness and religion (two recurring topics for the band) but quickly moves onto real people in Dan's life. He talks about finding support in others when he needs it and learning to embrace that. Before a grandiose swell of music carries the record to a close, the final message of the album is a vital one: humanity is everything. Campbell explains there’s no fault in feeling defeated or asking for help. In fact, learning to give in when things are out of your control and growing to rely on those around you is an important part of life because sometimes that’s all we have.

6 | Mom Jeans - Puppy Love

If you were to ask Eric Butler what type of music Mom Jeans makes, he would simply answer “pop.” Not emo, not indie, not pop-punk, but straight-up pop music. In truth, Mom Jeans is a little bit of all these things, but if you go into Puppy Love with an honest heart and an open mind, you’ll quickly understand exactly what he means. 

The band’s sophomore album is a release that appears unassuming on first listen. You might hear it a few times and think nothing of it. Then you may find yourself humming a melody that subconsciously embedded itself somewhere in your brain. Then on a relisten, a chorus from a deeper cut will grab you, and you’ll find yourself queueing that song up too. Then you find yourself identifying with a lyric from the opening track about staying in, eating Cheetos, and drinking chocolate milk because that’s exactly what you were doing this weekend too.

Puppy Love is my most-listened-to album of 2018, and that’s because Mom Jeans truly are creating pop music. It’s pop-punk perfected. It’s catchy, melodic, relatable, and keeps you coming back for more. Whether it’s screaming about moving out of your parent's house, or getting confessional with your dog, Mom Jeans have found a way to get to the heart of it all.

5 | Lucy Dacus - Historian

Historian is the soundtrack to a life in decay. Opening track “Night Shift” starts calm and collected as a slow-moving folky jam extending a middle finger to evil exes. Gradually, the song builds without the listener realizing it, and suddenly Dacus is belting out the track’s namesake in a piercing Julien Baker-esque cry that pulls on your heart like an anchor. It’s a stunning moment that commands your attention and rips you into the reality of the song, if only for a moment. 

This jaw-dropping performance is just one of many surprises packed on the follow-up to Dacus’ impressive debut No Burden. Topics range from relationships in collapse to the imperfect nature of the self. It’s as disquieting as it is engaging, every word hinged around expert instrumentation and melodies that alternate between lying bare and exploding to life.

“Pillar of Truth” is the record’s monumental penultimate track, an ode to Dacus’ dying grandmother who faced the unknown head-on with level-headed composure. The song peaks with a volcanic guitar solo that paves the way for the more pensive title track which acts as the record’s thesis statement and end credits. Historian is an album about failure. About collapse. About annihilation. More importantly, it’s about finding the power to recover from those feelings even when life leaves you feeling ragged and profoundly-alone… which is more of an inevitability than any of us would like to admit.

4 | Caroline Rose - Loner

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that rock music is supposed to be fun. And throughout all of 2018, I found no single album that embodied “FUN!” (caps, exclamation point and all) than Caroline Rose’s Loner. 

Loner is an album about being your uncool self and learning to embrace it. About saying ‘fuck you’ to the people that tell you to smile when you don’t want to smile. About sexism, bad decisions, and menial jobs. About being the one person at the party without a cool haircut. It’s a blend of hyper-specific yet universal songwriting that hits home for me, all of which is packed in an easily digestible 30-minute record. 

While the album itself is a wonderfully-varied and full-throttle romp, Caroline Rose’s live show adds a different level onto the proceedings entirely. From executing a flawless Macarena on-stage during an instrumental break to a rockin’ recorder solo, and even a loving cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” I’ve never seen a band have this much fun on stage making music, and that’s something we could all use more of in 2018. 

3 | Bambara - Shadow On Everything

You wake up. A light breeze has blown the covers off of your body. You reach out to grab your sheets and pull them back up, but as your eyes open you notice you’re no longer in your room. You sit up, look around and see the horizon in every direction. You’re in the middle of a desert. It’s 3 in the morning, and you don’t know how you got here. That’s what listening to Shadow On Everything is like. 

Rumbling, snarling, and demonic, Shadow On Everything is a post-punk record with a southern twist. Described by the band as a “western gothic concept album,” it only takes one listen to see what that means. From front to back, Bambara’s sophomore effort is a morbid, disorienting, and dream-like exploration of humanity’s dark side. 

Shadow on Everything sounds like an episode of True Detective come to life, complete with all the violent self-destruction, overwrought sentiments, and foreboding imagery. Each song serves as a disturbing vignette, bonded together only by the ever-present sense that something horrible is lurking in the shadows just out of sight. It’s terrifying, engaging, and striking in a way that grips your attention and punishes you for looking away. A character study of humanity’s dark side and we have no choice but to stare into the reflection. Unforgiving desolation and absolute obliteration of the soul.

2 | Haley Heynderickx - I Need To Start A Garden

We tend to measure our lives based on major events. When we tell ourselves our own story there are act breaks and demarcation points that signal a new phase of our ongoing story. While it feels like we’re perpetually in the most “important” period of our own existence, not everything is that life and death. Sometimes directionlessness and absence of action are just as harrowing as loss or heartbreak, and that sort of millennial malaise is the exact sentiment at the heart of I Need To Start a Garden.

The abundance of choice that comes with the first phase of adulthood is overwhelming. The sprawling omnidirectional decisions can feel endless, and sometimes failing to take that first step can lead to a cataclysmic avalanche of self-doubt and paralysis.  

Garden is a folk album. It’s instrumentally-simple, lyrically straightforward, and emotionally-bare. Despite the simplicity of its base components, the end result feels like something much more complex and grand than the sum of its parts. 

I first heard of Haley Heynderickx one week after her album was released, and even then I felt immediate guilt of not having listened to it even earlier. That’s how badly I needed this record in my life in 2018. I turned around a full review of the album within a month of its release, but Heynderickx’s messages of listless 20-something pain cut a path directly into my heart at a time when I was experiencing all of these exact feelings. To hear these struggles put to music was not only reassuring, it was spiritually-affirming. 

I now realize the difference between childhood and adulthood isn’t a feeling of assurance or confidence in your actions because that fear of the unknown never truly goes away. I may have felt listless, disheartened, and directionless this spring, but now having moved across the country, starting a new job, and embarking on new artistic endeavors, I’m just as unsure of myself as ever before. Adulthood is not knowing what you’re doing with one-hundred percent certainty. Adulthood is knowing that feeling of uncertainty is always going to be there, acknowledging it, and being okay with it as much as you possibly can.

1 | Fiddlehead - Springtime and Blind

Sometimes music is the only thing that makes sense. Even when the world is changing, even when nothing works the way it’s supposed to, even when life throws everything it has at you, music is always there. Music has no judgments and no preconceived notions. It’s an objective outlet that exists to execute, quell, accentuate, or invert whatever mood you’re feeling at that time. There’s music for happiness, music for long drives, music for love, and sometimes there’s music for grief. 

Some of the greatest records of all time deal with insurmountable pain. 40-minute voyages into an artist’s psyche in the wake of a great loss or seismic shift of their day-to-day existence. Alums like Carrie & Lowell, A Crow Looked At Me, and Skeleton Tree are not only albums about death, they also happen to be some of the best in their respective artist's discographies because they feel the most human. While Springtime and Blind might not initially sound as “sad” as any of those records listed above, it deals with the same topic from a unique perspective that ends up making its message all the more powerful.

Springtime and Blind begins with a slowly-mounting drumline that’s soon joined by a grief-ridden cry of “YOU LIE AWAKE / to pass the time / Lose all your love? / Want some of mine?” Allegedly improvised in the album’s recording session, this first message bears the brunt of the record’s emotion and ignites the path for the remaining twenty-some minutes.

They’re not the same genre, but if I were to compare this album to anything, I’d name Japanese Breakfast’s 2016 breakthrough Psychopomp. Both records are under 25 minutes, segmented by meditative instrumentals, and waste no time jumping straight into heart-wrenching lyrics. Just as Psychopomp is an album about a daughter losing her mother, Springtime is an album about a son losing his father. They’re inverted experiences, yet still one and the same; two alternating approaches to the same universal experience of grief and loss that we will all must go through at some point. 

On some level, screamed frustration is a more accurate depiction of loss than sad, reserved folk music. Not to discount the inherent beauty of Carrie & Lowell, but everyone experiences loss differently, and Springtime and Blind offers a very authentic and genuine version of loss that I identify with. 

Sometimes change is a choice, but more often than not life forces change upon you. You’re forced to adapt and overcome or risk collapsing in the process. Some things can’t be changed or reversed, and all that’s left is to pick up the pieces and cling tightly to what’s left. That’s what Springtime and Blind offers. A family recovering. An explosion of grief followed by the first step of many toward recovery. It’s the sound of everything happening at once. The sound of birth and death. Of love and life. Of spirit and demons. And then it ends.