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1. Pup - Morbid Stuff 2. Billy Woods - Hiding Places 3. Emily King - Scenery 4. Moho Hazama - Dancer in Nowhere 5. Big Thief - UFOF 6. Charly Bliss - Young Enough 7. Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness 8. Dave Harrington Group - Pure Imagination, No Country 9. Nocturnus AD - Paradox 10. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising Also, Christian Scott, Alaskalaska, Chris Potter, Potty Mouth

The article implies that the first album is the standout, but no, it’s Red, an absolute masterpiece and probably the heaviest album of the 70s.

My wife gets it.

I’ve never heard the “Purple is their best” take before. That is...something.

Boz Scaggs fucking rules.

Agree, I found the self-titled album to be quite intrinsically flawed. Like no song could get out of its own way. Good songs with bad ideas, or bad songs with some great ideas. Lamp Lit Prose, on the other hand, is a breezy delight. Still feel like Swing Lo Magellan deserves the same rapturous praise as Bitte Orca.

Excited about the new Matt Mitchell. A Pouting Grimace really impressed me and of course he was one of many great players on John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble's All Can Work, which was a masterpiece.

Pageant Material is good, but it did kind of expose Musgraves as having a schtick that was approaching its Best Before Date. That's why I think Golden Hour was so well-received since Musgraves mostly side-stepped her brand of winking cleverness for something more direct.

1. Pup - Morbid Stuff 2. billy woods - Hiding Places 3. Emily King - Scenery 4. Miho Hazama - Dancer in Nowhere 5. Dave Harrington Group - Pure Imagination, No Country

1974 the worst year for music??? King Crimson’s Red, Gene Clark’s No Other, Big Star’s Radio City, Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark, Richard and Linda Thompson’s I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight, Sparks’ Kimono My House and George Jones’ The Grand Tour we’re all 74. And those are just my personal 10s. You also have On The Beach, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Jolene, Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain, Pretzel Logic, Perfect Angel, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta, Rock Bottom, Crime of the Century, Rejuvenation, Sheet Heart Attack and Phases and Stages. 1974 is stacked.

Yeah, Lowdown rules. Actually, nearly all of Silk Degrees rules. Tom needs to get with it.

I sometimes get annoyed when a band laps their own highwater mark. It's like, "Hey, I already have a favorite, don't make me disown it." This thing, though, this is another level.

I'm whatever on Parquet Courts, but the other four are probably the four most consistent bands of the decade. Screaming Females alone released four classics.

After the Gold Rush has something that represents nearly every aspect of Neil’s sound. It’s perfect. Harvest is great, with some of Neil’s most likeable songs, but it also has filler and a couple complete duds.

The Centennial Trilogy is truly a marvel, probably the best triple album of the decade. Can't wait for this new one.

Sky Blue Sky's icy reception is reason No. 1 why I can never fully trust music critics.

I think you meant *John* Belushi. Post-Pinkerton Weezer is basically a musical Jim Belushi.

Cupcakke>>>>>>>>>

I feel like last year's Dirty Projectors album is kind of skewing the perception of Lamp Lit Prose. It's like Longstreth got all his worst instincts out of the way in 2017 and gave into his most playful (sometimes too playful) instincts on his new one. I miss the female vocals, but for a Longstreth only project, it's about as good as it can possibly be.

That Hailu Mergia album is so warm and inviting. Experimental but super playful. The most winsome album of the year.

I really could not get into Horrendous at all before this, but something about this ( I think it's the Jaco Pastorious-style bass) made this album SO addictive. The Rebel Wizard album provides a nice contrast to the Deafheaven album in exploring how malleable black metal can be, on one hand you're seeing the history of metal filtered through black metal aesthetics and on the other you see black metal as the foundation for massive pop rock. Frankly, all this blackgaze stuff tends to bore me a bit, but Deafheaven have this Slash-soloing-in-an-open-field element that really gets me. I have it behind New Bermuda, which is the Deafheaven album that hits the hardest, but they really do have the knack. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE listen to Xenoblight and Kevin Hufnagel.

Sorry about the typos, wrote this on my phone

1. Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog (a strange, but deeply hooky puzzle of an album) 2. Horrendous - Idol (the first album I’ve ever liked by these guys, but it’s amazing) 3. Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams (damn bear as good as David Comes To Life) 4. Pinegrove - Skylight (sorry, it’s actuallu good) 5. Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Respone (deeply compelling cross-section of early black metal and NWOBHM) 6. Screaming Females - All At Once (we knew they were a great punk band, but this one confirms the screamales as a great ROCK band) 7. John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble- All Can Work (strangely addictive and wide ranging jazz) 8. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (still pretty sick band, those corn all solos are perfect) 9. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour (Kacey mostly drops the cutesy couplets for something astounding) 10. Hailu Mergia - Lala Belu (likeable and adventurous Ethiopian jazz) 11. Cupcakke - Ephorize/Eden (no one rapped better in 2018) 12 Ty Segall - Freedom’s Goblin (i finally GET Ty Segall) 13. Kevin Hufnagel - Messages to the Past (if Pat Metheny only listened to Carcass) 13. The Beths - Future Me Hates Me (butter than almost all indie rock on the Stereogum list) 14. Xenoblight - Xenoblight (will rip your face to shreds) 15. Pusha T - Daytona (economic rap albums, what a concept) 16. Dirty Projectors- Lamp Lit Prose (Longstreth acts on his better musical instincts to help us forget the last album) 17. Turnstile - Time and Space (actually delivers on their promise) 18. Tom Barford - Bloomer (thrilling jazz newcomer) 19. Tribulation - Down Below (big hooks, great gothic vibe) 20. Maisha - There is a Place (better than Kamasi)

Tom painting the capital city of Nova Scotia as "cold and remote" seems like a weird characterization. Like, it's not a metropolis, but it's a pretty potent cultural spot in Canada and home to the best Canadian indie rock of the 90s.

I know recent Cam'ron/Dipset albums have been super meh, but man that first Diplomatic Immunity album is so much fun.

Great record and absolutely out of time. Interesting that it has managed to escape "the canon" for so long.

Incendiary

This album is blowing me away!

This is quite good.

That was my first thought too. Lorne and Jason?? What?

Freedom's Goblin is the first Segall album to really do it for me and it took my wife playing "My Lady's On Fire" to kickstart everything. He's so easy to skip over, but this one really has staying power for me.

That Partner album was great, but no Propagandhi means that the best Canadian album of 2017 won't win.

I...like...Uncanney Valley. There's some lyrical gaffes and it's not as good as All Y'All, but I'm pretty charmed by that record. It's probably the kind of album one would have to be an apologist for, but yeah, I enjoy the songs on there.

I was always bristled at the notion that Deafheaven were doing something different. Like, I think they're great because they're doing something great and are better than bands of a similar ilk, but even among their very narrow microgenre of blackgaze Sunbather is preceded by a masterpiece in Alcest's Souvenirs d'un autre monde. And even among the last decade, there have been more progressive or immersive metal albums that move me even more deeply - namely Cobalt's Slow Forever, Vektor's Terminal Redux and Agalloch's Marrow of the Spirit.

Good Lord, does the word "masterpiece" not mean anything anymore???

It really needs to be stressed that Rapture is just an absolutely stellar album. Even with the 80's flourishes, those songs still groove and Baker is such a refined singer.

Eh, they actually put out some killer albums back in the 90s.

Phil, appreciate your writing on this. I initially had a hard time with The Epic. Like, first off, how did all y'all motherfuckers gobble up this three hour album so easily??? But the Harmony of Difference EP was a better guide for me, absorbing Washington's music in bite sized chunks has allowed me to better appreciate the power of his music (though I will always prefer Carmeron Graves' Planetary Prince - goddamn that album COOOOOOKS). I also liked absorbing Christian Scott's Centennial Trilogy as three distinct albums. I'm better able to put each piece within a proper context and see the progression after absorbing the albums as separate entities. Now I'm able to see the whole trilogy as one of the truly stunning jazz works of the decade (I probably have it ahead of the Epic, which I have also learned to love). Anyways, fan of the work you do, Phil, and I'm excited for this new one.

I am HERE for that Mr. T Experience shoutout. Great band. Love Is Dead is probably the best pop punk album of my lifetime.

I mean, the run from Today's Empires on is just massive.