We All Want Someone To Shout For

We’ve let 2018 simmer for a bit and have spent time still revisiting some of our favorites albums of 2018 as well as our favorite songs. As fun as it is to pick my favorite albums of the year, there’s something much more freeing about choosing songs. It’s a chance to highlight even more artists, maybe an artist whose album you couldn’t quite get into but they had that one song that was simply too good to resists. Or a new artist that struck a chord with you out of the blue, who remind you of why you starting a music blog in the first place.

Below, find my favorite 100 songs from 2018 counted down from 100-1 and find your trusty Spotify Playlist right here. Blast it loud, share it with a friend, and thanks for sticking around with us for our tenth year. We couldn’t do it without all of your dedicated support.

100. Castle Pines – Woo Hoo
99. The Goon Sax – Make Time 4 Love
98. Linn Koch-Emmery – Wires
97. P.F. Phillip & The Night Riders – Call Me by My Name
96. Kero Kero Bonito – Flyway
95. Dawes – Feed The Fire
94. Flasher – Pressure
93. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige
92. Flyte – Moon Unit
91. Richard Swift – Broken Finger Blues
90. Grapetooth – Red Wine
89. Iceage – Thieves like us
88. Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
87. Kadhja Bonet – Mother Maybe
86. Caoilfhionn Rose – Awaken
85. Gorillaz – Magic City
84. Oh Sees – C
83. Darlingside – Hold Your Head Up High
82. BODEGA – Name Escape
81. Sharon Van Etten – Comeback Kid
80. Interpol – If You Really Love Nothing
79. The Voidz – My Friend The Walls
78. Mr Twin Sister – Jaipur
77. Molly Burch – To the Boys
76. U.S. Girls – M.A.H.
75. Phantastic Ferniture – Fuckin ‘n’ Rollin
74. Gang Gang Dance – Lotus
73. Spiritualized – I’m Your Man
72. Julia Holter – Words I Heard
71. Frankie Cosmos – Jesse
70. Forth Wanderers – Not for Me
69. Wild Nothing – Letting Go
68. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Hunnybee
67. Yumi Zouma – In Camera
66. Screaming Females – Black Moon
65. Earl Sweatshirt – The Mint (feat. Navy Blue)
64. Post Animal – Ralphie
63. Courtney Barnett – City Looks Pretty
62. Kamasi Washington – Street Fighter Mas
61. Dirty Projectors – Break-Thru
60. Gregory Alan Isakov – San Luis
59. Faye Webster – Kingston
58. Father John Misty – Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All
57. Kurt Vile – Loading Zones
56. Superorganism – Everybody Wants to Be Famous
55. Pusha T – If You Know You Know
54. Jim James – No Secrets
53. FUR – Angel Eyes
52. Jon Hopkins – Feel First Life
51. Sons Of Kemet – My Queen Is Harriet Tubman
50. Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo
49. Freyr – Over My Head
48. Pinegrove – Darkness
47. The Twilight Sad – I/m Not Here [Missing Face]
46. Low – Always Trying To Work It Out
45. Natalie Prass – Short Court Style
44. We Were Promised Jetpacks – Someone Else’s Problem
43. Kacey Musgraves – Slow Burn
42. Khruangbin – Maria Tambien
41. Anna Burch – Tea-Soaked Letter
40. White Denim – Fine Slime
39. The Raconteurs – Sunday Driver
38. Young Fathers – Toy
37. Kids See Ghosts – Reborn
36. The Good, the Bad & the Queen – Lady Boston
35. Haley Heynderickx – Worth It
34. The Beths – Future Me Hates Me
33. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – Shallow
32. Franz Ferdinand – Lazy Boy
31. Helena Deland – There Are a Thousand
30. Beach House – Lemon Glow
29. Amen Dunes – Miki Dora
28. Hop Along – How Simple
27. Snail Mail – Pristine
26. Jeff Tweedy – I Know What It’s Like
25. Shannon and the Clams – The Boy
24. boygenius – Bite The Hand
23. Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
22. Parquet Courts – Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience
21. Soccer Mommy – Your Dog
20. Jack White – Over and Over and Over
19. deafheaven – Honeycomb
18. Idles – Danny Nedelko
17. MGMT – Me And Michael
16. Helena Deland – Claudion
15. Lucy Dacus – Night Shift
14. Shame – Friction
13. Parquet Courts – Wide Awake
12. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – An Air Conditioned Man
11. Mitski – Nobody
10. Snail Mail – Heat Wave
9. Caroline Rose – Soul No. 5
8. Thom Yorke – Suspirium
7. Arctic Monkeys – Four Out Of Five
6. Shame – Lampoon
5. Amen Dunes – Believe
4. Idles – Never Fight A Man With A Perm
3. Car Seat Headrest – Bodys
2. Arctic Monkeys – Star Treatment
1. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Talking Straight

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Another year has passed us and to be quite honest, we aren’t sure where it went. But there was plenty of good music to help us get through the year, which was a trying one in many regards.

But despite the proclamations of the most pessimistic listeners out there, there was plenty of great albums released this year. You also may have heard that this was the year of women making killer records and we are proud to notice that nearly half of the albums on this list are either from solo female artists or a female-fronted band. So they weren’t lying.

Without further ado, here are my 50 favorite albums of 2018, along with a few honorable mentions.
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When I started this blog 10 years ago (yes, it’s really been that long), my goal was just to share some new music with my friends and anyone that would listen. It turns out a few people ended up wanting to listen. But the goal was never more than that, which makes our transition to live music photography and coverage such a surprising development, even today. It’s funny to think that we primarily operate in that format now.

Thinking back at those days running this on Blogspot, I never saw any of this in the plans, let along anyone else joining the team, as it was just me. But here we are in 2018 and we now have over 20 photographers who contribute to the site – a number that is spectacular and stunning.

This isn’t a way to pat ourselves on the back, but rather a way to celebrate all the hard work and passion that all of these people have put into this site. We covered a lot of ground in 2018, more so anyone, including myself, ever thought possible.

Below you can find a huge selection of photos from throughout the year posted in chronological order, some of our favorites photos that were taken by our tired shutters throughout 2018. A huge thank you to all the photographers on our team, we look forward to whatever 2019 brings our way.
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I spent a good chunk of 2018 at concerts. Try nearly 58% of the entire year was spent in some of the best places on earth: concert halls. From festivals and the big rooms like MSG and Barclays Center to the smaller clubs and intimate venues, some of the best memories I had all year were made in those rooms.

I saw over 200 shows this year, so you can imagine how hard it was to pick a top 50, and to find some way to rank them all. But I widdled it down and without further ado, here are the best 50 shows I saw in 2018:
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[artwork by Anthony Bauer]

And the time has come for the one post that all my friends actually read on these here pages, my best (or favorite) songs of 2017. These are the songs that I obsessed over throughout all of last year and many are still getting heavy rotation into the new one.

You’ll find select highlights from many of the albums that appeared on my best albums list but also a few new acts who blossomed or select songs that stood out on albums that didn’t quite shine as bright. Either way, I hope that you find at least one new song or artist that you didn’t know beforehand and that they make your day that much brighter. Thanks again for sticking around with us for another year and here’s to a bigger and better year in 2018.

As usual, the list is posted in a countdown format from 100-1 and I have made a Spotify playlist which you can find here or embedded at the very end of the post. All the songs are in there except for Ty Segall’s “Orange Color Queen,” as the album is not on Spotify.

Without further ado, here are my favorite songs from 2017:
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Before we dive into my favorite albums of 2017, lets quickly visit some of the years best EP’s.  There were a lot of really fantastic EP’s released this year but that doesn’t mean any of these skimped out on quality.  Here are my favorite, or most listened to EP’s of 2017:
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This ‘top 100 songs of 2017’ post could have easily been ‘top 200 songs of 2017’ due to the insane (yet absolutely amazing) amount of great music that was released this past year.  While it is near impossible to listen to it all, here were my favorite 100 songs from 2017 (with a bonus 5, because… why not?):
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[Artwork by Anthony Bauer]

Was 2017 a good year for music? Was it a bad year? Who knows, it seems like every year your social media pages are bombarded with think pieces about it being the best year of music ever, the worst year, the end of rock music, or the album as we know it. But every year I seem totally and utterly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of musical releases in a year. It’s one thing to keep up with the high volume of new releases that seem to come out at an increasing pace with every passing week. Before you know it, the year is over and you’re somehow trying to rank all the stuff that occupied your ears.

Whether it was alone in your room, on the subway, stuck in traffic on the highway, or at a party with friends, albums have the power to create literal soundtracks for our lives. While these rankings are where I am at during this particular moment in time if you checked back in with me in a couple of weeks who knows how it would change. But rankings aside, these are a bunch of albums that had some sort of effect on me throughout the year.

Using the word best is course objective, so if you will, these are my favorite albums of 2017: Read the rest of this entry »

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[Artwork by Anthony Bauer]

Trying to put words to my feelings on these albums has proven hard when much of my emotional connection comes from my experiences of seeing them performed live. Finding an order was as difficult of a task when 2-6 each grasped me to the same deep level but in different ways. It’s all subjective but here’s my 10 favorites of 2017. Read the rest of this entry »

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[Artwork by Anthony Bauer]

First, this isn’t going to be your run of the mill, “Here are your best albums of the year in a specific order,” type of list. I’ve never done one of these before and who the hell am I, mostly a photographer, sometimes reviewer, to say who has the “best” record of the year. If a song moves me or makes me feel something, I enjoy it. Yes, in my eyes St. Vincent’s Masseduction is definitely in my top three, but even for me, I don’t know if it’s number one. Regardless, I hope you enjoy these little blurbs about some of my favorite music that has come out in the calendar year of 2017 that I can’t stop playing. Also, there were, of course, other great albums released this past year that while I listened to, I just didn’t come back to. It may not appear on this list, but doesn’t mean I didn’t find something fantastic about it and didn’t enjoy it throughout the year.
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