2025

Albums of the year

  1. Hayley Hendrix’s and Max Garcia Conover “What of Our Nature”

    —singlehandedly revived my long dormant taste for folk music.

  2. Patrick Watson “Uh oh” 

    —had no idea who this guy was. Looks like a French Canadian popstar, or a fine European loafer. He lost his voice and then when it came back he made this album. It’s soft and beautiful and dark, and really far away from most of the stuff I listen tol.

  3. Armand Hammer “Mercy”

    —listened to this more than anything else. Woods bars are out of control (“might sell you a bridge but its no regrets when you examine the metalwork”). Very few people capturing that Rhodesian Bush War-to-Brooklyn vibe. The opening track is just like a whammy bar fiesta riff, starting by referencing Laraji (who seems as gentle as fluffy duck) and ends with I’M THROUGH RUNNING.

  4. Clarice Jensen “In Holiday Clothing, Out of the Great Darkness”

    —goddamn

  5. Horsegirl “Phonetics On and On”

    —If you told me this was from 1995 and I just missed it, I’d believe you. Glazed with delicious indie fuzz moss.

  6. William Tyler “Time Indefinite”

    —I imagine John Fahey would be listening to this, or making it, if he were still alive and not worried about sounding dead creepy.

  7. Viagra Boys “Viagr Aboys”

    —as good as rancid rock and roll can get. And funny as hell too. Very hard not to start the playlist below with “Uno 2”.

  8. Billy Woods “Golliwog”

    —keeping with the creepy theme, I think this is a legit horror rap album? Outside of that strangeness, a natural comp for Woods is Aesop Rock. But this album is most reminiscent of Yo la Tengo. I didn’t like it when I heard it and then it just grows on you (which is how most YLT albums work for me too).

  9. Tweedy “Twilight Override”

    —lets deepen the creepiness with dad rock king, Tweedy. I had a pretty great heuristic: every double album would be better as a single album. But what do you do for a triple album? We know that for a quadruple album the only way to listen to it is go full Zaireeka and have them on simultaneously. But a triple album? Seems destined to be mostly wankery. And yet! Somehow this is a pretty great triple record. Strange times

  10. Federico Albanese “Blackbirds and the Sun of October”

    —I don’t know anything about this guy but man did I love this album

  11. Stereolab “Instant Holograms on Metal Film”

    —I miss old Stereolab and…this sounds like it

  12. Kieren Hebden & William Tyler “41 Longfield Street Late 80s”

    —kinda sounds like being stoned in the late 80s, I think.

For my tracks of the year, here’s a playlist First, for song of the year, see this playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/02vNWObFxyO5nI2jaJZmup?si=ac856e7e2230486c.

Shoutout to the guy with the song about getting the yips, wondering if he’ll give it to his kids.

2024 Music

Well this is super late. Anyway here goes.

If you’d like to listen along, here’s a sampling of my favorite songs from 2024 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5aTnEqXUFbr521U5wY98nI?si=6a025a4d168e4e0d

2024

Albums of the year

  1. Shabaka “Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace” (a slithery blanket of music)

  2. Adrienne Lenker “Bright Future” (she is on a Dylan-esque run)

  3. Being Dead “EELS” (also the best title, yet far less slithery than #1)

  4. Ellen Reid “Big Majestic” (a real American album)

  5. Jim Nothing “Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn” (favorite throwback sound)

  6. Keaton Henson “Somnombulant Cycle” 

  7. Caroline Shaw Score to “Leonardo da Vinci”

  8. Doeichii “Alligator Bites Never Heal” (Catchiest rap album in a while)

  9. Ariel Sharrat “Never work” (EP but so good. Lyrics hauntingly autoplay whenever I go out to eat)

  10. Getdown Services “Crumbs”

  11. Anastasia Coope “Darning Woman” (such a haunting sound. That first track just sticks with me like an old cobweb)

  12. Blueprint “Chamber Music 2” (not chamber music, but so good)

  13. MJ Lenderman “Manning Fireworks” (Crowd pleaser)

  14. Pat’s Soundhouse “Khaen Solo vol 1&2” (No idea what’s happening here but I liked it)

  15. The Osees ‘Sorcs 80’

Favorite Music 2023

2023 Albums of the year

1. Billy woods “Maps”

Give my “NYC Tapwater” over Gershwin every day. “One sip of NYC tapwater and I’m dialed back in.” This album is more evocative of NYC than almost any other. Captures the city better than any Def Jux album. I hold it in the same esteem as White Light White Heat or Daydream Nation for most evocative of the city (a city I often despise but miss from afar). 

I cannot believe how much I listened to this album. Like all the best hiphop albums it demands a close listen because the lyrics are so good. Same holds for Aesop Rock but it’s easier to slip into a non-listening vibe with Maps because the vibe is so dark, grungy, wintry NYC. It is an amazing travel album: “I will not be at Soundcheck” is the vibe I feel all too often (as is the refrain for that track…). Skipping a conference banquet to go to the top of a hill in Prague to watch the sunset and hearing “I will not be in sound check. Might watch the sunset over your city from a parapet or a park bench.” Yes. After a million listens I finally realized that it’s an album after Bennett Foddy’s heart as it’s all about failure, like a bunch of my favorites are this year (like Aesop Rock’s). I particularly love: “Already knew the options was lose/lose Baby, that's nothing new /That just make it easier to choose.”. But it’s also just an album about an artist who doesn’t make that much money, grinding out on the road. Sometimes killing it (“The live show is t-shirt and jeans, but it's GWAR when I'm on stage”) and mostly just documenting surviving the process (“I actually took a $300 Uber to a show /Asleep in the back like Future, might as well be a Maybach /Showed up with nothing but a computer, let's go”). And after all that traveling? One sip of New York City tapwater (and a three pack of zithro) and he’s dialed back in…Let’s fucking go.  

The album is not a NYC hagiography. It’s also a NYC album that is 0% Manhattan. For people who wanna listen and imagine some NYC movie dreams and dream about brunching in the West Village, the last lyrics on NYC Tapwater will set you straight “Don't get it twisted boy, the city wicked, it'll crush you with its feet”

2. Killer Mike “Michael.” I never loved Run the Jewels, but I did really like Killer Mike’s last solo album (particularly “Reagan”). For me, this one is world better than RTJ. It is it a broken hearted, introspective, really difficult listen (if you listen to the lyrics). I do not have encyclopedic knowledge of hiphop albums but it hard to think of one that is more sad and uplifting. 

3. Aesop Rock “Integrated Tech Solutions” “Technology, focus on the other shit/ 3D-printed body parts, dehydrated onion dip/ You could buy a jet-ski from a cell phone on a jumbo jet/ T-E-C-H-N-O-L-O-G-Y it’s the ultimate”

4.Bug Club “Rare Birds: Hours of Song”. “Marriage” may be the track of the year for me. Grab a tambourine and join the band. 

5. Being Dead: “When Horses Would Run.” “Muriel’s Big Day Off” is a little poppy can of joy. Sounds like they come from a much sunnier place than the one I live in. 

6. Annie Hart – The Weight of a Wave Towards a better 90s

7. Sparks “The Girl is Crying into Her Latte” Somehow they keep getting even Sparksier, which rules. They may be America--or at least Los Angeles’s-- answer to The Fall

8. En Attendant Ana “Principia.” Secretly French. “Wonder” is a perfect fuzzed out 9os vibe. Today’s Stereolab 

9. Katie Von Schleicher “A little touch of Schleicher in the night”. Best title of the year. Jeanine was a true surprise in overtaking Bowie’s Janine for my favorite song about J(e)anine’s. 

10. Patio “Collection”

11. Wimps “City Lights”

12. Marc Ribot Ceramic Dog “Connection”

13. John Cale “Mercy”

14. Alchemist “Voir Dire”

15. A Savage “Several Songs about Fire”

16. Tony Molina “Embarrassing Times” Like Bob Pollard, if instead of putting out 100 tracks a year you did it once every 5 years. Got 12 minutes to spare? If so, you have time to listen to all twelve songs. 

17. Joseph Shabason “Welcome to Hell” Accurate

18. Baxter Dury “I thought I was better than you”. No banger like Miami on this one but he’s still great

Tracks of year

  1. “Soundcheck”--Billy Woods

  2. “Muriels big day off”--Being Dead

  3. “Marriage”--Bug Club

  4. “NYC Tapwater”--BW

  5. “Mindful Solutionism”--Aesop Rock

Shows of the year

  1. Killer Mike at the Apollo. The absolute friendliest place to see a show in NYC. Going to a hipster dive underneath the overpass in Bushwick? You will be searched upon entering. Going into the Apollo? They will give you a high five and let you in with your own bottle of water. My lord is that place smaller than you think. Go see a show there. 

  2. Secret Byrd. A troupe set up in Green-wood Cemetery catacombs holding a fake secret mass reconstruction of the type William Byrd had. Byrd’s compositions were performed while performers did the mass incorporating the crowd all in the catacombs. Weird as hell, totally ruled.

  3. Sparks at the Beacon. Giving James Dolan my money isn’t my idea of a good time but Sparks was so, so fun. They are approaching national treasure status.

  4. Kronos 50th anniversary set at Carnegie Hall (Perelman main stage). Really fantastic lineup, truly diverse with instruments I hadn’t heard from and sounds I couldn’t understand (particularly from the Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq). Laurie Anderson was there too and ruled as always

  5. Zorn at 70 at the Miller Theater. It’s not the Stone and man I miss that place. RIP Stone, RIP Tonic. Energy is never the same at these more sterile places. But the music was interesting and Zorn said “If I may quote myself: sometimes you just jump up a level. This is the greatest sextet yet written” The sextet was for his own new piece titled “Prolegomena to any future metaphysics that will be able to present itself as a science.” My lord. he really nailed the Wittgensteinian 

  6. A Giant Dog at the sultan room. Fuck everything and flop around in the slop rock and roll. Didn’t love their new album but second half of the set was older stuff and absolutely dirty magic. Bonus points for the drummer’s Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP cover, but as an advertisement for Billy Joel. show 9/10; t-shirt 11/10 

  7. Lamonte Young at the Dream House. Yes he’s still alive. Another national treasure.

  8. Lang lang at Carnegie Hall. Opening night at Carnegie Hall. Confession: I had no clue who Lang Lang was (and had never heard of Saint-Saens, though I knew some of his pieces by osmosis). “The Carnival of the Animals” was super fun to see live, even from the top balcony (smaller than basic economy seats on American Airlines, but at least binoculars help here). It all seems like it would be cheesy as hell but it was sorta perfect. Set and setting is undefeated

  9. Tim Fite: some gallery in Red Hook. If you get a chance to see him live, drop everything and do it. One of the best performers (and I say that bc his art is more than just music--amazing visual artist and he blends everything in his live show. “Over the Counter Culture” is still one of my favorite hiphop albums, and the best commentary on prescription drug culture)).

  10. YLT Hanukkah Show. Forever classic. This year David Sedaris opened with an absolutely filthy story about Santa. Alan Licht (downtown fave of mine, with maybe the greatest avant garde album title of all time, “The Evan Dando of Noise”) and Steve Gunn in a band called ‘Foggy Notion’, a VU cover band. Really fun for NYC music nerds. Damon & Naomi (from Galaxie 500) came out and covered Beastie Boys w/ YLT.

  11. Tim Hecker at Pioneer Works. Up here because of the space and the opener, who was never announced and whose name I otherwise didn't catch. Consisted of two people, one who was dressed as a ballerina and played the cello; the other was dressed as the bad guy from Hellraiser. Then the ballerina got naked and maybe had sex with the Pinhead and the cello? I have no idea what happened. 9/10 

  12. Pauly Shore at the Hilo theater. Mentioned for posterity. It was comedy (and not his epochal single “Lisa Lisa.” The comedy was god awful, so bad I left halfway through. But the experience was absolutely singular--the line to get into the theater went back blocks. Totally mystifying.

Honorable mention: Dry Cleaning at Pioneer works (No Wave lives!), Sunset Rubdown at Bowery (excellent fun proggy theater rock), Bug Club at whatever the new Knitting Factory is, & Together Pangea at BK Made (fun, empty calorie fist pumping rock and roll)

2023 was another greatest year ever for music. Top (92) songs of the year are here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2MuMW8Hv0Gm3ioCeutvJxd?si=40164fddaac042fe

Favorite Music 2022

2022 Albums of the Year

1) Bodega “Broken Equipment”

2) King Hannah “I’m Not Sorry, I was Just Being Me” (saw them play some unbelievably odd set at a Rough Trade exposition at Rockefeller plaza in full daylight. The dissonance was jarring. It was like seeing a show in an outdoor mall. Man Rough Trade is weird now. But at least they had an event for the bird album mentioned below).

3) Julius Eastman “Two extended pieces for four pianos” Damn

4) Hurray for the RiffRaff “Life on Earth” ❤️💔.

5) Kevin Morby “This is a Photograph” Cure for wallowing

6) Cate Le Bon “Pompei” Maybe my favorite living artists

7) Apollo Brown “This Must be the Place”

8) Joep Beving “Hermitism”

9) Dry Cleaning “Stumpwork” Could’ve been made in a lab specifically for me.

10) Wet Leg “Wet Leg” '“Man I had a lot of Wet Leg this year” is both a totally true and unbelievably gross statement. Saw them at a little club in London for 200 people and it ruled. (Bonus points because it was sold out and I talked my way in. Double bonus points because David Papineau almost came too. He probably would’ve talked us into the green room. Earlier in the day I had given a talk on LoT at the IP and before I could begin he said “YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS ERIC” as if I was about to engage in ritual animal sacrifice.) Anyway then I saw them in a big venue at Primavera and…yeah. But Pavement played there and having never seen them before it was definitely a highlight of my year. Even Malkmus described it as “so emo.” My jaded soul let some light in.

11) Porridge Radio “Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky” Good break up music

12) Aldous Harding - “Warm Chris” God I love Harding too. I bet this will keep sounding better over time

13) Yard Act “The Overload” “I’m Rich” is hilarious

14) Spiritualized “Everything was Beautiful” ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

15) Naima Bock - “Giant Palm”

16) Horsegirl - “Versions of Modern Performance” Saw them open up for YLT for a Hanukkah show and couldn’t believe how good they sounded. Like GbV.

17) Chick Corea/Maki Namekawa “Children Songs”--favorite album of his rerecorded by the unbelievable Maki Namekawa. Incredibly poorly named album. Creepy as hell quasi-jazz.

18) Gilla Band “Most Normal”--Dublin’s loudest. Their earlier track “Lawman” is unbelievable

19) Surprise Chef: “Education and Recreation”

20) R.A.P. Ferrera “5 to the Eye with Stars” Favorite hiphop album of the year. So many good rhymes.

21) Danger Mouse & Black Thought: “Cheat Codes”

22) Tomu DJ “Half Moon Bay”

23) SG Goodman “Teeth Marks”. WORK WORK WORK UNTIL I DIE

24) Diente de Madera “Sand”. This album moves me. And I’m not just saying it because I am the godfather of his beautiful porteñas. I miss playing with him. Drone heaven.

25) For the Birds: The Birdsong Project.

Tracks of the year:

Big Thief “Certainty”

Kevin Morby: “This is a photograph”

King Hannah “It’s me and you kid”

Hurray for the riffraff “Rhododendron”

Cate Le Bon “Pompei”

SG Goodman “Work until I die”

Playlist of my favorite ~70 tracks here https://t.co/ZWHqacTT4q

Favorite music 2021

Every year’s music is great. It’s easy to whine about everything and bemoan streaming just go back to listening to Laurel Canyon stuff. But we can get waaaay more music now than ever before and it’s freaking great. 2021 playlist could’ve easily been 150 tracks long but cutting it made it ‘just’ 135 or so. Playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3XqKRMgBEo02QTXsiJK6rF?si=5503d15402844035

2021 Albums of the Year

  1. Aaron Lee Tasjin “Tasjin! Tasjin! Tasjin!” Had never heard of him before this record but hot damn I loved this even though it’s not my style.

  2. The Goon Sax “Mirror II”. I loved their last album and this is even better. “In the Stone” maybe my favorite track of the year

  3. Wet Leg “Too Late Now” (EP but who cares). So good live, so rocking. All catchy hooks, no filler. “Chaise Lounge” is the rocker of the year and the least pandemic friendly vibe.

  4. William Parker: “​​Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World.” 10 album box set may be a little much for some in which case try Trencadis (the selections from there). Definitely listen to the first track “The Golden Light (Hymn)”. It’ll heal what ails you.

  5. Gustaf “Audio Drag for Ego Slobs”. No Wave renaissance continues

  6. Madlib “Sound Ancestors”. Twas the year of Madlib

  7. Nasimiyu “Potions”. Not generally the sound I go for but holy crap is it good

  8. Snapped Ankles “Forest of your problems” Cannot wait to see them live when that is a thing you can do again without wondering what the moral cost of it is

  9. Audiobooks “Astro Tough” How is each album of theirs weirder and better ? 

  10. Lael Neale “Acquainted with Night”. Vibbiest album of the year

  11. Sarah Neufeld “Detritus”. Well maybe this one is if the vibe is post-apocalyptic classical doom

  12. Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders “Promises”. Peak bath music. (Grouper’s album “Shade” gets second prize for it, but first prize if you’re bathing in the fog or walking through a redwood forest)

  13. Nala Sinephro “Space 1.8” Space bath.

  14. ​​Vikingur Olafsson “Reflections”. I know nothing about classical music but loved this.

  15. Mach Homey: “Pray for Haiti”

  16. Lump, Laura Marlin, Mike Lindsey “Animal”

  17. John Vanderslice “John, I can’t believe civilization is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love, DCB”. I miss DCB. So many suicides. I understand the epidemiological reading of why we shouldn’t talk about it but I still think it does more harm than good. The title of this album, and the tracks, are as good as anything else. Lost too many to this recently but if you’re reading this, Congratulations to all of us!

  18. Elizabeth & the Catapult “sincerely, e”. Found it really affecting. 

  19. Dry Cleaning “New Long Leg”. No Wave revolution continues. It’s great.

  20. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcut “ Made Out of Sound” All Wallace Stevens and experimental music. Wish I could see it live.

  21. Moontype “Bodies of Water”

  22. Nick Cave “B Sides- & Rarities Part II”--maybe my favorite Nick Cave album (/ducks). No, I am not a huge Nick Cave fan but I liked this a lot!

  23. Arlo Parks “Collapsed in Sunbeams”.

  24. Low “Hey What” Never been a favorite band of mine but this album caught me.

  25. Sharon Van Etten “Epic 10” (cheating as its a rerelease but what an amazing album to start and the covers of the songs by others are kinda cool).

2021 Show of the year: 

Wet Leg (at Omeara London). Sold out show right before they became Big. Thanks to the bartender who I chatted up who let me in. I was one of probably 500 people there, and the only one who wore a mask as if it were a blanky, or if I were clinging to a pole in a windstorm. Bonus points for being extra English in having your sold out indie punk show in the middle of the pandemic go on without masks yet still end by 9:30 for some reason. Your move Boston venues.

Best Music of 2020

What a year! I got to see 1 concert so…that counts as best. (It still was really great—Cheekface & Bad Moves). Otherwise, ummm, good year huh! At least there was great sounds (here’s the playlist, coming in at juuuust under… gulp, many hours) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bWZiqmfxkqPoLJbhAR0gf?si=5f4128ba1fe24077

2020 Albums of the year

  1. The Soft Pink Truth: “Shall We Go on Sinning so that Grace Can Increase” (amazing)

  2. Baxter Drury “The Night Chancers” (amazing)

  3. Anna Von Hausswolff “All Thoughts Fly” (so pandemic appropriate)

  4. Clarice Jensen “The Experience of Repetition as Death” (even more pandemic appropriate)

  5. Porridge Radio “Every Bad” (sad as hell)

  6. Bad Moves “Untenable” (a fun rock album! maybe not super 2020 appropriate)

  7. Seth Bogart “Men on the Verge of Nothing” (also fun as hell)

  8. Sorry “925”

  9. Olafur Arnaulds “Some Kind of Peace” (hope he found it)

  10. Fiona Apple “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” (my favorite release of hers)

  11. Open Mike Eagle “Anime, Trauma, & Divorce” (so good, so 2020)

  12. Theo Alexander “Animadversions” (beautiful)

  13. Deeper “Auto-pain”

  14. Lithics “Tower of Age”--No Wave as fuck. In my eyes it started the pandemic no-wave Renaissance

  15. Sweeping Promises “Hunger for a Way Out” (most 2020 track)

  16. Melenas “Dias Raros”

  17. Hiroshi Yushimura “Green” (rerelease). Unbelievably beautiful

  18. Moondog “Oceans” (rerelease). Moondog forever

  19. Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu “Heroin” (rerelease). Maybe the most touching album of all time. Or at least the one with the most effective bookended tracks

Favorite Music 2019

2019 Albums of the year:

  1. Cheekface “Therapy Island”. Exactly the fun stupid indie record we needed (especially now knowing what would come after)

  2. Leonard Cohen “Thanks for the Dance”. What can one say about Leonard Cohen? His last albums were his best somehow. If you didn’t get to see the LC exhibit at the Jewish Museum…well try to see it if it ever comes back. “The Goal” may be the best life/career advice and it only takes 1:12 to listen to.

  3. Five things you dont’ know about the gonks “The Gonks”. Cannot wait for this energy to return to the world. I have no idea of anything about them and that’s perfect (though yes, it is hard to not be reminded of the Monks)

  4. Moondog “The Stockholm 1981 recordings” Would’ve loved to see how Stockholm responded to Moondog wandering around the streets

  5. Mellotron Variations “Mellotron Variations”. You can listen to this album forever.

  6. Tracy Bryant “Hush” Has all the hallmarks of something I wouldn’t like but damn, really great LA indie.

  7. Matmos “Plastic Anniversary” Always interesting

  8. Cate Le Bon “Myths 004” She’s the best. (“Reward” was also great). No one sounds like mystery sewn up in fog like Cate Le Bon.

  9. Rapsody “Eve” 

  10. John Metcalfe “Otama” 

  11. The Hecks “My star”

  12. French Vanilla “How am I not Myself” Best International House of Coffee Flavor doubles as delicious No Wave

2019 Tracks of the Year

  1. Crack Cloud “The Next Fix”

  2. Cate Le Bon “Magnificent Gestures” My god yes.

  3. Matmos “Plastic Anniversary”

  4. Cheekface “Dry heat/nice town”. The sound of California

  5. Sharon Van Etten “Seventeen”

  6. Leonard Cohen “The Goal”. Unbelievable

And coming in at a svelte 4.5 hours, the 2019 best of playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2piVSqlmGLioeYy5J7GMcw?si=8f1b013e52d94e80

Concerts of the Year:

David Hasselhoff (Max Schmelling Arena). Maybe the best show I’ve ever seen. Seeing concerts in other cities should be necessary for anyone interested in learning the culture. Huge beer steins that you have to return? Everyone eating terrible German pizza in a smallish college sports arena? Everyone nonironically loving the Hoff, who apparently thinks he brought down the wall. Hell yeah.

Leikeli47 (Prospect Park) Maybe the best hiphop show I’ve ever seen. definitely the best outdoors one

Harlem (Baby’s All Right). What fun sloppy weirdness. What a band

Laurie Anderson (Russ & Daughters). Most delicious concert of my life

Jeff the Brotherhood at Industry City--awesome! Loved the album this was in support of: Magick Songs

Steve Reich opera performance at the Shed. amazing

Steve Reich performed by Ensemble Signal at the Wintergarden Brookfield

Bang on a Can Fest at MassMoca. Every BoaC fest is worth it.

Slothrust at Industry City--meh

King Kong (final week! It was the insane musical, not the band which was amazing)

Spring Lizard (ahh Berlin). Jonah drone forever

Surfbort & Bodega at Market Hotel (with 38 year old moshing). Bodega is one of the best live bands

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah night 2: just go every year

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah night 5: worth it even if it’s your 50th time seeing the Sun Ra Arkestra


Favorite Music 2018

I used to list what shows I was going to, what I thought was worth seeing coming up, etc. But that got creepy. Instead here’s a list of things that I think are worth listening to. Every year I hear people groan that there’s no good new music. That is such crap. People are just lazy and listening to new stuff has never been easier. So here’s a list of the best albums from 2018. I’ll add a Spotify playlist for particular tracks. (And yes I was inclined to just link to Billy Joel’s greatest hits and cackle my way off the internet).

2018 Albums of the year

1)    Bodega: “Endless Scroll.” Maybe the best art-punk album since Devo’s “Q: Are We Not Men. A: We are Devo”.

2)    Confidence Man: “Confident Music for Confident People.” Favorite dance album, probably ever.

3)    Attic Abasement: “Dancing is Depressing”. It's a rerelease but since I didn’t know about the original (and you probably didn’t either) I say it counts.

4)    Wimps: “Garbage People.” They rule. Their last album was great too.

5)    Parquet Courts: “Wide Awake!” Best album since their debut. Maybe even more fun.

6)    Fred Thomas: “Aftering.” Everything he puts out is the best and I’m tired of putting his albums in the top 3 every year. Excellent winter album. Really depressing, obviously. It’s not as great as his masterpiece “All are Saved” which I mention just so you’ll check that out.

7)    Courtney Barnett: “Tell Me How You Really Feel.” Definitely her best album.

8)    Haley Hendrickx: “I Need to Start a Garden.” Really fantastic but oh so depressing. Also docked because of the spelling of her name.

9)   Jeff the Brotherhood:  “Magick Songs” weird spacey move from the stoner southern rock band. Extremely chill album, also docked for spelling.

10) Lucy Dacus: “Historian.” A real leap forward and the album that received the most breathless reviews of the year.

Just missed the cut:

Spiritualized: “And Nothing Hurt.” Musical Xanax 

Vikingur Olafsson: “Johann Sebastian Bach.” What the hell do I know about classical (answer: nothing.) Nonetheless, it grabbed me.

The Glands: “Double Coda” maybe the best of the Athens college scene bands 

Goon Sax: “We’re Not Talking”: God, the highs are great here.

Also worth note:

Tierra Whack: “Whack World” the GbV of pop R&B

Brandi Carlisle: “By the Way I Forgive You.” B/c I’m an idiot I thought the buzz was about Belinda Carlisle turned into a country singer. Nope. This album is totally heartbreaking and super well-constructed. It’s not quite to my taste as the production swings poppy but it’s undeniably good

Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour

Swearin’: “Fall into the Sun”. I’m super happy they got back together and, like previous Swearin’ albums, it’s got some great highs but as a whole my interest wanders a bit.

Anna Meredith: Anno 4 Seasons. Vivaldi isn’t my favorite but Meredith is so interesting. Go listen to her track “Nautilus”, which is like the sound of a hot air balloon that’s about to explode in your face. It’s not from 2018 but who cares, it’s great.

2018 Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2ADhACX

Concerts of the year:

 1)   SXSW (Siren Sounds official showcase, last night): Bodega, Champagne SuperChillin, Faux Ferocious, Sloppy Jane. Sloppy Jane was completely insane and worth seeing live. Faux Ferocious translated amazingly well live and was super fun mathy Southern rock (maybe tongue in cheek? I honestly couldn’t tell). Champagne Superchillin was the best Frenchie rock I’ve seen and Bodega put on my favorite show of the year hands down.

2)    Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show (day 5, Bowery Ballroom): Matmos, (and Jim Gaffigan to boot). It was amazing. I was super jetlagged having just arrived back from a long trip so I missed the Lo Lo encore. Oh well.

3)    The Wimps (Alphaville). What a ridiculously fun band.

4)    Spiritualized (Kings Theatre): with Wordless Music Orchestra and the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir. Their new album was good and WMO is always great but wow seeing BIC live was insane.

5)    Faust (Murmurr Theatre): I didn’t expect too much from Faust. For one thing, they are very old, and generally seeing acts much later in their career is a huge letdown (this was my very painful experience seeing the Replacements, and X, and Wire, and…a lot of bands when I should know better. Even GbV this year was sorta like this). Also I was seeing them in my shul which turns from hilariously rundown synagogue during the day to appropriately dilapidated club at night. BK weirdness at its best. Faust was downgraded from the main space to a very small room. Somehow this enhanced their awesomeness.

6)    God Speed You Black Emperor. Super fun show, but docked points b/c it’s in Prospect Park and it’s always hard to focus on the music for one of those shows (I know this is my own fault and not theirs. At least it’s nice to have friends you want to speak to.)

7)    Yo La Tengo, Hanuakah show day 8: the final day and everyone was very tired. The set was less tight, w/ a lot of blah tracks (and I’m no big fan of guest Steve Wynn, or the Dream Syndicate). But the opener Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet was super fun (and did a great cover of The Modern Lovers “She’s Cracked” w/ YLT). There was a random guest appearance from the great Jeffrey Lewis, and Todd Barry did the funniest set I’ve ever seen. Just a really fun positive vibe throughout. Peter Stampfel came out and so did Ira’s mom, which was sweet.

Playlist for the best on 2018: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2idu6SzsIyLkwGgk2dgSca?si=0e59f5a05ab94951