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Recommended Music

A Totally Scientific View on 2018’s Best Albums (Part 2)

Here we go again – the remainder of this year’s best albums, according to a whack of publications and somewhat haphazardly assembled!

Let’s start with this – this article may take a while to load on your device. There are a LOT of embedded links below.

If you’re like me, you love this time of year. Endless best-of lists make for great listening/reading/watching, but keeping track of who recommended what can be tough. This year, I made it easy for myself – I compiled a big ole Google Doc containing every Best Albums of 2018 list from my favourite publications, averaged out all the scores, and slapped some numerical sorting on them.

Did I basically just waste my time creating a manual, watered-down Metacritic? Yes.
Do my rankings make any sense? Well, they hardly account for ties and I wasn’t sure how to quantify a publication not including an album on their list, so hardly.
Do I plan on listening to every single one of these records? You betcha.

So, if you’re curious to see the best albums of the year according to Noisey, Pitchfork, NPR, NME, Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound, KEXP Seattle, and Anthony Fantano, this monster list is a rough aggregate of each of those fine outlets’ top 50. I guess.

It’s all for the love of music – and only the music, because adding blurbs/photos/extra links for over 200 albums is way too much effort! OK, let’s keep going – this is part two of two!

(Tie) 102. Halloween OST by John Carpenter

(Tie) 102. Acts of Fear & Love by Slaves

(Tie) 102. Harder Than Ever by Lil Baby

(Tie) 102. Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa by Jeremy Dutcher

(Tie) 99. Idol by Horrendous

(Tie) 99. Master Volume by The Dirty Nil

(Tie) 97. Prequelle by Ghost

(Tie) 97. High as Hope by Florence + The Machine

(Tie) 93. Ruins by First Aid Kit

(Tie) 93. The Now Now by Gorillaz

(Tie) 93. American Utopia by David Byrne

(Tie) 93. WASTEISOLATION by Black Dresses

(Tie) 89. ye by Kanye West

(Tie) 89. Single Rider by Jenn Champion

(Tie) 89. God Level by 03 Greedo

(Tie) 89. Dreamers by Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider

88. Thunderpussy by Thunderpussy

87. Dream Wife by Dream Wife

(Tie) 85. Thank You For Today by Death Cab For Cutie

(Tie) 85. Black Panther OST by Kendrick Lamar

(Tie) 81. Boarding House Reach by Jack White

(Tie) 81. Our Raw Heart by YOB

(Tie) 81. Egypt Station by Paul McCartney

(Tie) 81. Ephorize by cupcakKe

(Tie) 75. Your Queen Is a Reptile by Sons of Kemet

(Tie) 75. Scorpion by Drake

(Tie) 75. Future Me Hates Me by The Beths

(Tie) 75. A Whole Fucking Lifetime Of This by American Pleasure Club

(Tie) 75. Beyondless by Iceage

(Tie) 75. Safe in the Hands of Love by Yves Tumor

74. Year of the Snitch by Death Grips

(Tie) 70. TA13OO by Denzel Curry

(Tie) 70. MassEducation by St. Vincent

(Tie) 70. A Star Is Born OST by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

(Tie) 70. Only Love by The Armed

(Tie) 68. harutosyura by harunemuri

(Tie) 68. The Sciences by Sleep

67. Swimming by Mac Miller

(Tie) 63. Musas Vol. 2 by Natalia Lafourcade

(Tie) 63. Superorganism by Superorganism

(Tie) 63. Twentytwo In Blue by Sunflower Bean

(Tie) 63. Magus by Thou

(Tie) 59. God’s Favorite Customer by Father John Misty

(Tie) 59. Hope Downs by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

(Tie) 59. Camila by Camila Cabello

58. Bloom by Troye Sivan

57. The Tree Of Forgiveness by John Prine

56. Vibras by J Balvin

55. Con Todo El Mundo by Khruangbin

54. Hell-On by Neko Case

53. Singularity by Jon Hopkins

52. And Nothing Hurt by Spiritualized

51. 2012 – 2017 by Against All Logic

50. Hive Mind by The Internet

(Tie) 48. You Won’t Get What You Want by Daughters

(Tie) 48. Cocoa Sugar by Young Fathers

47. Little Dark Age by MGMT

46. Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt

45. Iridescence by BROCKHAMPTON

44. Veteran by JPEGMAFIA

(Tie) 42. CARE FOR ME by Saba

(Tie) 42. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love by Deafheaven

(Tie) 40. Songs of Praise by Shame

(Tie) 40. Freedom by Amen Dunes

(Tie) 38. Twin Fantasy by Car Seat Headrest

(Tie) 38. Devotion by Tirzah

(Tie) 35. Die Lit by Playboi Carti

(Tie) 35. Bark Your Head Off, Dog by Hop Along

(Tie) 35. Double Negative by Low

(Tie) 32. KIDS SEE GHOSTS by KIDS SEE GHOSTS

(Tie) 32. Bottle It In by Kurt Vile

(Tie) 32. Interstate Gospel by Pistol Annies

31. Knock Knock by DJ Koze

30. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys

29. Clean by Soccer Mommy

28. Negro Swan by Blood Orange

27. Aviary by Julia Holter

26. A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships by The 1975

25. OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES by SOPHIE

24. 7 by Beach House

23. Heaven and Earth by Kamasi Washington

22. In a Poem Unlimited by U.S. Girls

21. By The Way, I Forgive You by Brandi Carlile

20. Tell Me How You Really Feel by Courtney Barnett

19. Joy as an Act of Resistance by IDLES

18. FM! by Vince Staples

17. Wide Awake! by Parquet Courts

16. El Mal Querer by ROSALÍA

15. Chris by Christine and the Queens

14. Historian by Lucy Dacus

13. boygenius by boygenius

12. Whack World by Tierra Whack

11. ASTROWORLD by Travis Scott

10. Sweetener by Ariana Grande

9. Isolation by Kali Uchis

8. Room 25 by Noname

7. Lush by Snail Mail

6. Daytona by Pusha T

5. Honey by Robyn

4. Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves

3. Invasion of Privacy by Cardi B

2. Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe

1. Be The Cowboy by Mitski

And that’s it! So many albums, so little time – better get listening!

Were you surprised by some of the choices? Think the methodology of this crazy list compilation could be better? Missing your favourite album from this year? Sound off in the comments below, and maybe I’ll get around to it by 2020!

Mathew Kahansky

Once upon a time, Mat studied journalism. That's how he became Alan's one-time intern and current-time contributor, and the rest is ongoing history - get it? Mat also studied biology and music, so he has a strangely specific knowledge set that doesn't really apply anywhere other than useless fun facts. He currently works for a music tech start-up in Halifax, and is a big fan of the em dash.

Mathew Kahansky has 286 posts and counting. See all posts by Mathew Kahansky

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