The 405's Top 50 Albums of 2018

For an album touching on such emotionally complex themes, At Weddings thrives on simplicity.

It's her sprawling vocal range and smart, sharp songwriting that holds everything together, making Premonitions a thoroughly enjoyable and dazzling collection from one of the more promising artists in recent years.

Some Rap Songs is not a casual record—it isn’t one to bump in your car, neither is it one to “enjoy” per se. Depression, a shared yet unique experience—is a topic to empathize with—and for Earl, it’s a festering reality—one he has finally been able to channel into his art most intricate and affecting.

We are on our own, and Half Waif knows there's beauty in that. A scary, fucked up kind of beauty. Consider Lavender a salve. Or, at least, an honest, genuine listen.

We’re ultimately left with the feeling that Parquet Courts are fighting their way through life on Wide Awake!; battling ignorance, standing up against inequality, staving off depression – and they want you to join them in their struggle. Their vocal frustrations make perfect fodder for their post-punk blasts, and in combination they add up to some of the most invigorating music currently being created, making Wide Awake! a valuable and vital call to arms.

They’ve experimented with vocals, concentrated their musical chemistry, further polished their production, and tweaked their songwriting so that the transitions between movements in their songs are less sheer cliff-faces of fury and more lithe passages. All this, combined with some of the best songs they’ve ever written, makes Ordinary Corrupt Human Love the band’s most irrefutable credential as a leader in modern Rock.

On Devotion, she cordons off her own corner of modern Rn’B with a statement destined to become a genre staple.

FM! further cements Vince Staples’ status as an artist who isn’t afraid to challenge societal norms - with the slickest production. Giving you the feeling of tuning into the radio in your car, Vince takes us on a drive through his hometown.

Hana Vu flawlessly mixes jaded youth with a surprising wisdom on the confident, addictive How Many Times Have You Driven By. Produced by Vu herself and boasting a lush and warm sound, it sets itself apart by striving to be something more ambitious and it shows in every little detail.

Queen of Golden Dogs is a bold and original statement that collides together emotions, textures and beats to gloriously dissonant effect. It’s also Vessel's best album to date.

As with The Epic, Heaven & Earth not only exemplifies Washington’s ability as a saxophonist and band leader, but also the band he has assembled. Every member gets their chance to shine. By drawing from a broader sonic palette, Washington brings a tenderness and intimacy to their big, bold music.

In a world where there is a progressive necessity of being vocal, regardless of cause-effect, Marie Davidson’s Working Class Woman is a critic of club culture, unconventional dynamics in the music industry and also a tool of self-reflection and incisive banter.

If Plowing Into The Field Of Love seemed like the peak of their creativity, then Beyondless is here to obliterate that notion: here they span the breadth of their punk roots all the way to monolithic shoegaze, with stops at elegiac odes and caustic show tunes along the way, throughout imbued by additional violins, trumpet, saxophone and trombone.

With Someone Out There Rae Morris has twelve tracks that stand her in early contention for the most unexpected pop triumph of 2018, and earns her the worthy pseudonym Slay Morris.

... this album is still going to be about the loss of his love, but one that shows a bit of distance, a new perspective, and the healing power of music, which is explored throughout the album’s six tracks.

Everything about You Won’t Get What You Want is carved out of sheer insert-synonym-for-unhappiness-here, from the guitars to the drums to the vocals, but there’s more than enough nuance and versatility to earn your respect, even if it’s not something you’re typically drawn towards.

Black Milk has quietly amassed one of the finest discographies of any producer/rapper in hip hop. FEVER is the most confident he's ever sounded, taking on the ills of the world in 2018, all while managing to create a consistently groovy, laid back sound.

Where Turmor's music normally thrives on chaos and unpredictability, here, he focuses on reigning in that unpredictability, and in the process, crafts some truly thrilling and engaging experimental pop music.

If he found his stride nearly three years ago with GO:OD AM, he’s now confidently in full control, guiding Swimming down a surprisingly restrained, subtle journey into a heart’s bleakest turmoil.

With Double Negative, Low maintain all fronts of their fanbase. All the elements of the bands chilling atmospheres are here.

IDLES deliver a thunderous and sharp state-of-the-nation address in their monumental Joy As An Act Of Resistance.

Our great-great-grandmothers’ voices resonate throughout Childqueen as vividly as our unborn children in a never-ending autophagic cycle, reminding us that we are all pure, beautiful and sacred, and that no dominating power is de facto dominating if not exerted with unconditional love.

Each time I’ve listened to Konoyo, there’s been one moment (of sorts) that catches me off-guard and cements it as one of Hecker’s greatest achievements.

While it undoubtedly packs in a humongous swath of influences and touchstones from today’s pop culture, the overall piece created is completely unique, unreplicable and ultimately undescribable. That, of course, is the only way that Daniel Lopatin knows how to create music, and Age Of now happily sits alongside his previous planets in Oneohtrix Point Never’s utterly individual universe.

Though it’s a record perspiring uncertainty and the fear of becoming stagnant, Be The Cowboy is Mitski’s most personal and confrontational thus far. It’s violently poignant and the mark of an artist who’s barely tapped into her singularity.

OIL is a triumphant celebration of identity that’ll mean so much to so many on an incredibly intimate level, but it’s also, objectively, a triumphant artistic achievement.

It’s evident that Pusha T is at his most confident on DAYTONA; his rhymes carry confidence and clarity paired with a high head and a release that was well worth the three-year waiting period.