Top 30 Albums of 2018

30. Noname - Room 25

29. Iron & Wine - Weed Garden EP

28. The Breeders - All Nerve

27. Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

26. Constant Mongrel - Living in Excellence

25. Slothrust - The Pact

24. Kendrick Lamar & Various Artists - Black Panther The Album: Music From and Inspired By

23. Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

22. Aphex Twin - Collapse EP

21. Guided By Voices - Space Gun

20. Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

19. The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer

18. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Sparkle Hard

17. Pusha T - Daytona

16. The Messthetics - The Messthetics

15. Christine and the Queens - Chris

14. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

13. Sheck Wes - Mudboy

12. Thom Yorke - Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film)

11. Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams

10. Julia Holter - Aviary

9. Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

8. Los Kowalski - Dejarte Ir

7. MGMT - Little Dark Age

6. Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspace

5. Beak - >>>

4. Richard Thompson - 13 Rivers

3. Iceage - Beyondless

2. Petal - Magic Gone

1. Screaming Females - All At Once

Related:

Petal - Magic Gone

Los Kowalski - Dejarte Ir

Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

A Parquet Courts album produced by Danger Mouse is a no-brainer on paper - the pairing of a band not content to release the same album twice and a producer who's a popular choice for artists looking to switch up their sound. The good news is that Wide Awake! is a triumph in practice. The album revels in previously untapped influences that the band leans into to the point where if, say, "Violence" was the first Parquet Courts song you ever heard, you might well assume that these four white guys were always this indebted to black artists of the past. That one is a rumination on numbness to violence as an unfortunate but necessary response to its prevalence in present day America. Andrew Savage sounds like James Murphy after 12 cups of coffee, while musically it recalls Funkadelic, both in its specifics (especially the pitch-shifted monologue in the final stretch) and the way it makes an inherently bitter pill palatable. Unfortunately the Talking Heads pastiche title track is a bridge too far, which is odd considering how well they sell the almost Jackson 5 bounce of "Tenderness". The idea of weighty themes appealingly packaged is not new to Parquet Courts, but with their most eclectic set of tunes and broadest emotional palette, Wake Up! is the band's most engaging album.