timothy "i have better taste in music than u" drake wayne, ceo

Top 10 Albums/Songs of 2018

Top 10 Albums of 2018

10. Death Grips - Year Of The Snitch - All I could think about on my first listen of this album was Michael Jackson. It's pure theater, pure performance. Multi-layered and captivating. Metal af.

9. Olafur Arnulds - re:member - For the past couple years I've managed to slip a random soundscape/classical album into my list which I'm sure everyone greatly appreciates. Well, this year is no exception. I'll explain myself again - I live in a noisy-ass, toddler-and-baby world and my brain needs some quiet every now and again. I won't pretend to know the state of modern classical music, or what makes a classical album important today, etc. I'll just say that listening to this album makes me feel good. Olafur Arnulds never fails to give me my space.

8. Ashley Monroe - Sparrow - Maybe the saddest album of the year thematically. I don't know if I've heard a more powerful blend of poetry, soul, and country music. Sparrow feels like a crossover, but a crossover from what to what? Where did she come from? It's like Bill Withers and Carole King secretly raised a kid in Nashville. "Hands on You" is the sexiest jam of the year.

7. John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness - I think the last time I put John Prine on my Top 10 list, I said that I had a feeling it would be his last album. Thank god I was wrong. I can't remember where I heard this, but someone said that the genius of Prine is that he infuses the absolutely domestic with sacred meaning. It's so true: who else can sing about putting stuff on layaway and taking the garbage out and somehow make it seem like the meaning of love and life? And The Tree of Forgiveness proves that he hasn't lost a single step. Just listen to "Egg & Daughter Nite, Lincoln Nebraska 1967" and then "Summer's End". Laugh, cry, repeat. I will forever love John Prine.

6. Sarah Louise - Deeper Woods - Joanna Newsom has been on hiatus and I've been getting desperate for the sort of ethereal, naturalist root music that she does so well. Luckily I found Sarah Louise, who has a Grace Slick-meets-Joan Baez-meets-Nico thing going on. I'll always be a sucker for stripped down spooky Robert Frost folk, and this one covers all the bases. Haunting. 

5. Remember Sports - Slow Buzz - I actually really liked this album so thanks TZ for recommending it; I wish I had more time with it prior to now.  Lyrically it is excellent - it's unique, vulnerable, smart, and relatable all at the same time. The vocals have that indie Pinegrove guts-exposure that makes it so believable. I would absolutely go to a show and stand in the back in my Violent Femmes t-shirt and nod along unassumingly. That said though, I can't get it out of my head that there is something so heartbreaking about this album - it's world-weary and it dares to ask the universe to give back the prom queen angst and Nick-and-Nora breakup 'sad's that were par for the course before weekly school shootings and nazis part deux. I respect it for that.

4. Mitski - Be the Cowboy - Such great instrumental breakdowns, such strange melodies, such a well-crafted album from start to finish. The way Mitski blends synth with acoustics with electric strings is perfect. She manages to be obscure and 'out there' while simultaneously being so open and accessible; no easy feat.

3. Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog - Hop Along was a breath of fresh air this year and I think I listened to BYHOD the most of any album. It's light and airy, but cutting and witty also. It plays like a 90s femme alt-rock collection and it's glued together with poignant lyrics. The vocals of Francis Quinlan are fantastic, whose improvised repetition and early indie style rings with the urgency of someone who knows something big is going to happen but can't get anyone to pay attention.

2. Saba - CARE FOR ME - Remember a little album called Good Kid, M.A.A.D City? CFM is the Chicago version. Saba takes you to the honest extremes of his emotion, pulling out raw despair and depression at times and love and hope at other times. No other album this year had me hanging on every word, rooting for the artist throughout the entire track list. To say the album feels like a movie seems to cheapen it, though it has the dramatic peaks and valleys of a blockbuster. No, it's a memoir. Saba treats the listener like a friend, venting and raging on "LIFE", laughing and dreaming on "SMILE", utterly disassembling the music industry on "GREY", and storytelling like a master on "PROM / KING". Listen to this again and then go amend your lists. Oh yeah, Chance is on it.  

1. Snail Mail - Lush - I have a hard time putting my finger on exactly why I loved this album so much this year. Maybe it's the vocals - smooth and swaying, sort of pissed off, sort of disappointed. Maybe it's the space - tracks are minimalist, echoed, and beautifully bare. I tend to lean toward the personality of it all. It feels like Lindsey Jordan is breaking free of something, and that gives the whole album an optimistic, eyes-on-the-horizon vibe that is intoxicating. Top notch album that defined the year for me.

Worst Album of 2018

Decemberists - I'll Be Your Girl - I used to get pumped when a new Decemberists album came out - their stuff was interesting, smart, nerd fuel. These days when they release an album, I only find myself thinking 'ugh just please don't be complete shit'. And this album wasn't exactly that, but it wasn't exactly anything. It's just the last of the crinkled post-its on the bottom of Colin Meloy's weird poem trashcan. There's no real heart or message anywhere. Their last good album was The King is Dead (and it was a really good album), but the band itself is increasingly feeling like Meloy's jackoff mirror. I'm pretty sure he's holding the rest of the band captive in his grapevine garland-draped, all-too-rustic cellar.

Top 10 Songs (that weren't on my Top 10 Albums) of 2018

10. Parquet Courts - "Total Football"  -  "...and FUCK TOM BRADY!"

9. Metric - "Dressed to Suppress"  -  Great track on a really fun album.

8. Natalie Prass - "Short Court Style"  -  Now That's What I Call Music 1,563.

7. Old Crow Medicine Show - "Look Away"  -  OCMS still finding beauty in the rust of the south.  

6. Kanye West - "Ghost Town"  -  Most heartfelt track on a decent, but maybe a little lazy (?) album.

5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "American Guilt"  - Making Americans examine our own social presence.

4. Israel Nash - "Rolling On"  -  Big full-bodied sound wall.

3. Courtney Barnett - "Need A Little Time"  -  CB gettin' deep.

2. Leon Bridges - "Beyond"  -  Pure, wonderful love song.

1. Dawes - "Crack The Case"  -  Beautiful. One of the best current singer/songwriters.

Top 5 Players from MTV's The Challenge (so sue me)

5. Sylvia - I don't know why I like Sylvia so much. She headbutted that drunken, cig-smoking mom, Marie. She's just a little firecracker. A fiesty underdog with a lot of heart.

4. Shane - Shane is a self-titled bitch. He's the snakiest, slimiest player there is. He actually threw an entire challenge so that a certain player on his team would be voted out.

3. Wes - Arguably the arch-nemesis of Bananas before Devin came along. Always hatching schemes that are way too complicated and get him thrown out.

2. Devin - The way this dude fucks with Johnny Bananas is hilarious. Someone had to come in and usher out the old heads - Devin is the man for the job.

1. Cara Maria - She's a force and completely independent. She was the first woman to ever win The Challenge solo. She can be a bit cringey sometimes, but she's a beast.

Album: American Football (American Football)

    On the first, passive listen it was really pleasant. That being said, no moment ever stood out to me as amazing. There was no real moment that drew me back into the album from whatever I was doing. Perhaps that’s an artifact of the “math emo rock” genre it’s a part of. It’s nostalgic and downbeat feeling, though well done, lowers it’s “chill factor.” It strikes me as an album for a mood that you have to be emotionally ready for. In other words, it’s not something you can just have on, you have to put it on when you’re in the right mood for it. The passive listen gets about a 7.4.     On the second, active listen, there’s a lot more to appreciate. The first track, Never Meant, is absolutely devastating. The incredible, interweaving guitar riffs make for a beautiful track. The lyrics about the breakup of a relationship are extremely poignant without being melodramatic. The following track, The Summer Ends, is really an epilogue to the breakup. A “What are we now? What is our relationship like now?” track that, while not especially musically memorable, is a great followup to the first track.     The third track, Honestly, is extremely nostalgic--an attempt to remember what it was like being a teenager. This one hits close to home for me, and probably for most people, as I constantly try to relive my teenage years. The excitement, the novelty, the exploration, the failures, and the successes. This song seems to capture that nostalgia quite well, both musically and lyrically.         The fourth track begins much slower and more downbeat than the third (if you can believe that). It’s, honestly, fairly forgettable and a bit cryptic. Presumably, it’s a track about holding out a small bit of hope for the failed relationship.     The fifth track, You Know I Should be Leaving Soon, is an instrumental track in keeping with the tone of all the other songs on the album. I can only speculate as to whether or not (or how) the musical choices reflect a very specific sentiment. From the title of the song, a picture is painted of a reunion of sorts between them two, where one prompts an exit from a situation with romantic and emotional tension with “you know I should be leaving soon.” The song itself reflects the feelings that would exist in that motion. Though, to be fair, so do the musical choices of every other song on the album.     Track 6, But the Regrets Are Killing Me, are about the cessation of a four year long relationship, and the resentment/regrets the singer has about her leaving him. Tone and Lyrics are consistent with the other songs. To be honest, I’m not even entirely sure if all songs are about the same break up.     Track 7, I’ll See You When We’re Both Not So Emotional, is about exactly what you’d expect (though, in this one, it seems like he breaks up with her?). This song shows a slight departure from the tone and musicality of the other songs on the album--a bit more presence from the drums. This one is one of the best so far, next to Never Meant.      Track 8, Stay Home, has a really nice 4 minute instrumental intro that experiences a distinct musical shift before the introduction of the lyrics. This song is more depressing in that it highlights the monotony and blandness of life, encouraging the defeatist solution of ‘so stay home.’ Repetition of “But that’s life: so social” really drives home the message. The percussion on this track is really great too, and really brought out by the repetitiveness of the guitar riffs.     Track 9, The One With the Wurlitzer, is an instrumental track with solid trumpet. It honestly makes a big difference, especially given how much of a musical departure it is from the instrumental composition of the other songs on the album.     After a closer second look, the themes in the album are really sad, and the sound of the album strongly reflects that. The way the songs blend into each other is really great too, the continuity in song themes and sound making for good ‘albumcraft.’ This, however, also somewhat counted as a point against it, insofar as the album sounded fairly homogenous. It was hard to decide what songs I really liked from the album because they all sounded so similar. If you played a song for me right now, after having listened to it twice, I don’t think I could tell you what song it is. This is definitely a case of the whole being much better than the sum of its parts. All that being said, this album was really great. It did a great job of accomplishing what it wanted to, as now I feel depressed and lonely and nostalgic. The sound was great, and the lyrics were great too. Notable Songs: Never Meant Stay Home I’ll See You When We’re Both Not So Emotional The One With The Wurlitzer Rating: 7.6