NME's Best Albums of 2018 (So Far)

NME's Best Albums of 2018 (So Far)

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24.

Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
May 18, 2018
Critic Score
80
41 reviews

‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ is Courtney Barnett at her angriest and most vulnerable, but being a drinker of details means she can also blow the beauty of life’s little things up to full-size.

23.

Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!
May 18, 2018
Critic Score
84
35 reviews
If 2012’s ‘Light Up Gold’ woke the world up to a group that many touted as the latest answer to The Strokes, ‘Wide Awake!’ is an indelible underlining of their status as one of the most important bands in the world right now.

22.

Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
May 11, 2018
Critic Score
72
44 reviews

This record feels a lot like gazing into the night sky. At first it’s completely overwhelming ... But when the constellations show through, you’ll realise that it’s a product of searingly intelligent design.

21.

Jon Hopkins - Singularity
May 4, 2018
Critic Score
82
34 reviews

This time, on album five, the electronica mastermind wants you to have a blissful psychedelic experience, and he’s here to guide you through from beginning to end. Though ‘Singularity”s 62-minutes can get extremely heavy ... it’s still a near-perfect trip, and one that confirms Hopkins’ status as one of the genre’s brightest talents.

20.

Tove Styrke - Sway
May 4, 2018
Critic Score
85
3 reviews

Clocking in at just 26 minutes, ‘Sway’ is a succinct but comprehensive statement from Styrke – one that demands attention and declares her as a musical tour-de-force.

19.

Iceage - Beyondless
May 4, 2018
Critic Score
81
30 reviews

In their time away, Iceage have grown highly evolved – and a little more sensual.

18.

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer
April 27, 2018
Critic Score
87
41 reviews
Throwing in rap, soul, pop, R&B, space-rock and whatever the hell she wants with her fearless message, Janelle Monáe doesn’t believe in walls or limits: this is a fluid celebration of freedom, raging and raving against the oppressors. In fact, only one label sticks – icon.

17.

J. Cole - KOD
April 20, 2018
Critic Score
71
16 reviews

The North Carolina rapper goes from strength to strength with his powerful fifth album.

16.

Confidence Man - Confident Music For Confident People
April 13, 2018
Critic Score
84
10 reviews
With a Balearic pulse and horizontal attitude throughout, this record is ready-made sunshine – MDMAzing pretension-free fun for the masses. This is the album we need in these hard times, even if we don’t deserve it.

15.

Tom Misch - Geography
April 6, 2018
Critic Score
72
11 reviews

Made largely in his bedroom, the 13-track effort blends jazz, hip-hop and electronica into new and exciting combinations.

14.

Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy
April 6, 2018
Critic Score
82
23 reviews
Overall, this is a remarkably confident and compelling debut from a superstar who’s put in the graft.

13.

Kali Uchis - Isolation
April 6, 2018
Critic Score
84
24 reviews
Each song on ‘Isolation’ sounds wildly different from the last, but Uchis proves to be the constant, pulling and manipulating the strings in all the right places.

12.

Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo in Blue
March 23, 2018
Critic Score
76
28 reviews
With any justice, this’ll be the album that catapults them into being recognised as one of the most important artists in the game.

11.

Jack White - Boarding House Reach
March 23, 2018
Critic Score
71
40 reviews
That he’s produced such a full, lush sounding thing packed with personality and life is impressive – but not surprising.

10.

Soccer Mommy - Clean
March 2, 2018
Critic Score
79
21 reviews
The production trickery, paired with Allison’s lyrical nuances, make her songwriting, and this debut record, a dazzling and devastating triumph.

9.

Turnstile - Time & Space
February 23, 2018
Critic Score
71
11 reviews

8.

Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus
February 9, 2018
Critic Score
85
27 reviews
All round, a heavenly journey.

7.

Rejjie Snow - Dear Annie
February 16, 2018
Critic Score
74
9 reviews

It’s a record that should rightfully become one of the defining hip-hop releases of 2018.

6.

Various Artists - Black Panther: The Album
February 9, 2018
Critic Score
78
16 reviews
Marvel soundtracks have a new gold standard, and it’s this.

5.

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited
February 16, 2018
Critic Score
85
27 reviews
Powerful, potent and bloody good for dancing to, ‘In A Poem Unlimited’ might just be the soundtrack to the revolution.

4.

MGMT - Little Dark Age
February 9, 2018
Critic Score
76
33 reviews
MGMT’s return to pop is a ... welcome surprise.

3.

Hookworms - Microshift
February 2, 2018
Critic Score
84
23 reviews
In an ever-changing landscape for British ‘guitar music’ – hello Shame, farewell Wild Beasts – this is a sound, a set of songs, that deserves to expand the size of Hookworms’ hard-won community. It’s been well earned.

2.

Dream Wife - Dream Wife
January 26, 2018
Critic Score
80
25 reviews
Not since Yeah Yeah Yeahs burst out of Manhattan in the early 2000s in a blaze of fishnets and glitter has punk rock been as downright fun.

1.

shame - Songs of Praise
January 12, 2018
Critic Score
83
25 reviews
Well, the London five-piece is audibly indebted to Smith’s revered Manchester post-punk group The Fall – louche vocal delivery, abrasive and atonal guitar and barbed lyrics all present and correct – but debut album ‘Songs Of Praise’ courses with venom and a lithe vigour that is all their own.
Original Source: http://www.nme.com/photos/music-photos/best-albums-2018-2322657
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