Here are my top 10 songs of 2018 (#s 11-30 here). There's a Spotify playlist of 1-30 at the bottom.
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10. Fantastic Negrito – Transgender Biscuits
I don't have a clue what this song is about but it's so much fun. Maybe it's about how stuff's tough all over for everybody, so we might as well have a good time and love everybody while we're at it. Maybe it's about biscuits. Whatever.
9. Jamie Lin Wilson – Death & Life
8. Caitlyn Smith – This Town Is Killing Me
7. Father John Misty – Please Don't Die
6. Ashley McBryde – Tired of Being Happy
5. Cody Jinks – Colorado
4. Lori McKenna – The Lot Behind St. Mary's
3. Lucie Silvas – My Old Habits
Expertly crafted, well -produced, strongly performed bar rock is one of my musical sweet spots and this gets right in there. It was stuck in my head for days on end and that never became annoying. Lucie sings the hell out of this song. It gives me some Bonnie Raitt vibes, and that's never a bad thing.
2. Ruston Kelly – Faceplant
Catchy misery is one of my musical sweet spots and this is a bullseye. "Not even angels came around" really drove it home.
1. YOB – Our Raw Heart
Epic, emotional, visceral, tortured. "Our Raw Heart" conjures images of mountains rising, of ice cliffs smashing into one another, of 90 foot waves falling against the shore, continents sliding into the sea. It's gigantic, ugly, and beautiful all at once. YOB nearly didn't exist into 2018; its singer Mike Scheidt almost died of intestinal issues in 2017. The album was a statement of survival and growth after trauma, and this, the title song, was its raw, beating heart. A cathartic masterpiece.
