The Independent's Albums of the Year 2018

The Independent's Albums of the Year 2018

Original Source →

40.

October 26, 2018
Critic Score
80
27 reviews

Yorke’s first ever soundtrack summons the darkness of horror, and the terror of blood and evil, over 25 tracks ... But Suspiria is not all creepy instrumentals. A handful of tracks stand out, and are among Yorke’s best solo work.

39.

August 24, 2018
Critic Score
72
37 reviews
They’re reinvigorated, brimming with energy and self-assurance.

38.

Brent Cobb - Providence Canyon
May 11, 2018
Critic Score
80
5 reviews

36.

October 26, 2018
Critic Score
78
10 reviews

35.

September 21, 2018
Critic Score
78
20 reviews

Though their themes remain in the gutter, Suede aspire to monuments, and The Blue Hour will stand as another sordid masterwork.

34.

October 5, 2018
Critic Score
77
37 reviews

Understated, beautifully crafted and always emotionally involving, Wanderer shows an artist who has found strength in her convictions, and a new pace of life.

32.

October 26, 2018
Critic Score
88
29 reviews

The singer delivers a series of hard truths with a voice that sifts over the synths like icing sugar.

31.

June 29, 2018
Critic Score
76
40 reviews

What she's come to realise, finally, on new Florence & The Machine album High As Hope, is that her voice is just as, if not more powerful when she holds back.

30.

June 23, 2018
Critic Score
73
12 reviews

Because Taylor’s releases are rare, she’s not restricted by genre constraints, and K.T.S.E. (Keep That Same Energy) is a pleasant surprise.

29.

November 30, 2018
Critic Score
83
44 reviews

On their third and best album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, The 1975 have created what so many post-Radiohead bands couldn’t: a coherent pop statement with enough hope, radical honesty and genre-spanning breadth to make sense across divided generations.

28.

June 22, 2018
Critic Score
84
33 reviews

In a decade of major black American LP statements to match the conscious soul and jazz golden age of forty years ago, Washington is, along with D’Angelo, the artist most steeped in that era’s rhythmically liquid language, and Heaven and Earth allows little let-up in slippery grooves and soulful uplift.

27.

April 13, 2018
Critic Score
74
8 reviews

25.

January 12, 2018
Critic Score
70
12 reviews

With Camila, the former Fifth Harmony singer pays homage to the culture and the core of who Cabello is. And for the first time, we can see her clearly.

24.

August 17, 2018
Critic Score
85
40 reviews

23.

July 6, 2018
Critic Score
81
19 reviews

He is offering his fans their own generational pop icon: a young man who has the courage to put all of that vibrant, dynamic character on full display.

22.

May 18, 2018
Critic Score
80
41 reviews

Her music has always been unfussy, and while the songs here lack the scuzzy charm of her debut, Tell Me How You Really Feel is a weightier, more direct record.

21.

August 24, 2018
Critic Score
83
34 reviews

While Negro Swan elaborates on Hynes’s best work, he remains grounded in cosy bedroom-pop by shambling drum machines, vocal compressors and gratuitous psych pedals.

20.

April 6, 2018
Critic Score
82
23 reviews

Her debut album Invasion of Privacy isn’t so much an introduction as her final word: she is here to stay.

19.

June 29, 2018
Critic Score
82
35 reviews

As a record that’s as lyrically compelling as it is sonically daring, I’m All Ears is an admirable follow-up to an impressive debut.

17.

September 28, 2018
Critic Score
71
10 reviews

Cypress Hill are the hippies of the hip hop world, making music surrounded by a green-tinged haze that takes more cues from classic Sixties and Seventies rock than anywhere else. Elephants on Acid is one hell of a trip.

16.

October 12, 2018
Critic Score
76
24 reviews

His brilliant fourth album Love Is Magic takes listeners on a ... thrill ride, dominated by swirling loops of grand, romantic melody, sly twists of sardonic wit and heart-stopping drops of sheer honesty.

14.

October 26, 2018
Critic Score
80
14 reviews

Saturn is a work in perpetual orbit, which leads the listener through NAO’s personal journey over the past few years. It’s an album that feels grounded and also futuristic.

13.

August 3, 2018
Critic Score
83
20 reviews
26-year-old artist offers a futuristic record with virtually flawless production, that lingers on the mind long after the final track.

11.

June 1, 2018
Critic Score
78
14 reviews

On Noonday Dream, he expands the Cornish landscape that has impacted his previous work and brings in sounds and instruments that spark the imagination for places further afield, in the most exquisite way.

10.

January 12, 2018
Critic Score
83
25 reviews

9.

July 27, 2018
Critic Score
74
11 reviews

On his debut album Basic Volume, Gaika breaks new ground on the UK music scene and asserts himself as one of the most provocative and multitalented young artists of this generation.

8.

Tamino - Amir
October 19, 2018
Critic Score
70
3 reviews

7.

August 3, 2018
Critic Score
77
21 reviews
Miller has turned his anguish into one of the year’s most disarmingly pleasant records.

6.

October 12, 2018
Critic Score
78
7 reviews

Wall’s songwriting is as stark as it comes: his plain-speaking manner is delivered in a slow, melancholy drawl that paints him as some lonely cowboy.

5.

February 9, 2018
Critic Score
78
16 reviews
Though not as powerful as Lamar’s own albums, it’s similarly diverse, with elements of boudoir R&B, sinister street creep and ebullient electro dancehall stippled with a variety of sonic detail, such as whistle and kalimba, reflecting the film’s African setting.

4.

March 30, 2018
Critic Score
79
19 reviews

At a time where mainstream artists seem almost forced into making some kind of statement against the state of the world, to dwell on the doom and gloom we hear in the news; Golden Hour is a reminder that sometimes - often, if you’re looking in the right places - life is still beautiful. You get the feeling that Musgraves could find the beauty in anything.

3.

April 27, 2018
Critic Score
87
41 reviews

Dirty Computer is Monáe’s gift to young girls, boys, men, women and non-binary people who are ostracised just for embracing their true selves; to black men and women. It’s a message of love and hope to anyone who fears what is different, but who has capacity to learn and know better. And it’s seemingly a gift to herself, as well.

2.

May 11, 2018
Critic Score
72
44 reviews

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino feels more like an interlude between AM and a seventh Arctic Monkeys album – a delve into the bizarre, where even the Steinway has its own character.

1.

September 21, 2018
Critic Score
86
36 reviews
On her second album, Héloïse Letissier expresses a strength, intelligence and sensuality that transcends gender.
Original Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/albums-of-the-year-2018-arctic-monkeys-christine-queens-the-1975-janelle-monae-a8661091.html
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February Playlist