Glitoris - The Policy (Part II) - 2018

"‘The video captures everything ‘The Policy’ is about: women and minorities having to work much, much harder just to be perceived as competent relative to their male peers. ’The Policy’ video is about breaking free from societal norms and expectations and working hard to achieve what you want in life. We included snapshots of some of some amazing female leaders for inspiration!"

Mikey Collins - West Coast - 2018

fikarecordings.com

Following the release of his debut solo album Hoick earlier this year, ex-Allo Darlin’ drummer Mikey Collins announces a series of remixes, which will appear over two EPs. Guest remixers include Johnny Winfield, Nicholas de Carlo, James Yuill, Jolyon Thomas, Ghost Culture and Ian Button (Death In Vegas/Papernut Cambridge). 

Best of 2018 - Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus

This is a collection of songs infused with the visceral, corporeal, often outright medical experience of transformation. Using the metaphor of humans becoming angels, hitting the road and fleeing society’s norms, Furman doesn’t shy away from expressing the pains that this process can entail.

You know I love you so bad

Like the kid skipping class in the bathrooms

Sneaking cigarettes underneath the football bleachers baby, so bad

You know I love you so bad

Like the kids growing up to be criminals

Tearing pages out the back of the hymnals

Love notes baby, so bad

Still remember so bad

Best of 2018 - Death Cab for Cutie - "Gold Rush"

Ben Gibbard waxes about the many ways his native Seattle has changed over the past two decades, mourning memories of old buildings and intimate moments under street lamps before sighing: “Please don’t change/Stay the same.” The accompanying video follows suit, a dorky-haircut take on the Verve’s iconic “Bittersweet Symphony” visual that features Gibbard getting knocked around by rude passersby during a daytime neighborhood stroll, ending up trapped in a sea of pedestrians glued to their phones.



Capitulating to nostalgia is often an unwise stylistic choice, but perhaps Death Cab could look back a bit more in the future. The past doesn’t always have to be a hindrance—sometimes it can just be a nice place to rest for a while.

(Gold rush) Digging for gold in my neighborhood
(Gold rush) Where all the old buildings stood
(Gold rush) And they keep digging it down and down
(Gold rush) So that their cars can live underground
(Gold rush) The swinging of a wrecking ball
(Gold rush) Through these lath and plaster walls
(Gold rush) Is letting all the shadows free
(Gold rush) The ones I wish still followed me

Sigrid - Sucker Punch - 2018

“Sigrid only deals in unforgettable pop bangers. 2018 is hers for the taking” – The FADER

 “A sound bigger than anyone else” – Elle

“From a tiny city in Norway comes a young woman with a powerful voice” –NPR 

“…her ability to transform  her  truths  into  perfect  pop  with  integrity  and  powerful  skill,  Sigrid  might  just  be  unstoppable.” -PAPER

“Sigrid is crafting inventive and ever-catchy pop melodies with every track she makes” 

– V Magazine

C. SHIROCK - "Stand With Me Tonight" - 2018

The new music from C. SHIROCK is an evolution and a distillation of his previous work, cutting to the core of his identity, with a power and clarity not heard before.  Blending anthemic choruses, musical builds and releases with heartfelt and personal lyrics, the new music from C. SHIROCK delivers a vulnerability, urgency and an aching vocal that is uniquely his own. Driving rhythms and bass are anchors to the soaring melodies, layers of keyboards, and programming that call to mind the emotive, intelligent pop music of artists such as Peter Gabriel and David Bowie.

Best of 2018 - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Talking Straight

http://www.rollingblackoutsband.com

The one thing that 2018 could not take from us is the pure joy of a pop song. And yes, there were bigger ones, more emotional ones, but with “Talking Straight,” RBCF provided us with a song that felt so perfectly fleeting that it was incomparable in terms of pure indie-rock pleasure. “Talking Straight” is the sound of ’70s and ’80s FM Aussie-pop distilled to its purest form, an expertly-crafted geode of a song that sounds readymade for blaring over the radio. But the band’s attraction lies in their veracity. For all its hooks, the song feels incredibly whole, full of hard-panned riffs and stratospheric harmonizing. It’s akin to world-building, in a way, all the song’s small details adding up to make it feel bigger than it really is. RBCF’s songwriting tricks you into thinking it’s effortless, which is something we all needed this year. —Justin Kamp

Best of 2018 - Camp Cope - The Opener

Over assertive guitar and drums, Maq reels off a litany of lies fed to her by a partner and critiques every male music industry figure who ever told her didn’t belong. “It’s another man telling us we can’t fill up the room/It’s another man telling us to book a smaller venue,” rages Maq. There’s no hook in “The Opener,” but it’ll get stuck in your head anyway; drummer Sarah Thompson and bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich provide a bullish backing, driving home the song’s lyrics. Maq has never sounded more powerful as she screams the band’s rallying cry: “See how far we’ve come not listening to you.” It’s the kind of conviction that takes a band from opener to headliner.

Best of 2018 - Dirty Projectors - Break-Thru

https://dirtyprojectors.net

This single from Dirty Projectors’ Lamp Lit Prose maintains the band’s trademark indie/art rock fusion while continuing the electronic/R&B sound from last year’s self-titled record. The song and album mark “a recommitment to the sounds and ideals of Dirty Projectors, embracing the band’s trademarks while pushing forward the sonic envelope” with guitars and intricate harmonies returning to the fold, as evidenced by “Break-Thru.”

Best of 2018 - BEACH HOUSE – "DRUNK IN LA"

“The immediate standout from Beach House’s magnificent 7 is “Drunk In LA,” a showstopper made stronger by everything else around it. The stuttering opening beat that opens the song blossoms into one of the duo’s most staggering songs yet.” 

Can't help seeking corners

Of dark and deadend roads

Where the drinks keep pouring down

And the candles keep me warm

Isolation tender

Something fragile coming soon

Skinny angels making eyes at cameras

Perched in every room

Best of 2018 - Best Music Of 2018

NPR 100 Best Songs of 2018

During a turbulent year rife with personal and political trauma, the most memorable songs pulled no punches in the pursuit of pop. 

#1 - Childish Gambino "This Is America"

Best of 2018 - NYT - The 65 Best Songs of 2018

65 Best Songs of 2018

Best of 2018 - boygenius - ‘Bite the Hand’

https://store.matadorrecords.com/boygenius

“When we met, Lucy and Phoebe and I were in similar places in our lives and our musical endeavors, but also had similar attitudes toward music that engendered an immediate affinity.”

I can't hear you, you're too far away

I can't see you, the light is in my face

I can't touch you, I wouldn't if I could

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus have formed a new band. Together, they are boygenius. 

Best of 2018 - Wussy - What Heaven Is Like

http://wussy.ella.net

The Ohio band has been quietly crafting one of the great rock catalogs of the decade. But their latest album, ‘What Heaven Is Like,’ is too good to be kept secret… What Heaven Is Like is their day-dreamiest and least-rootsy record to date, subsuming rock ’n’ roll into a broader, rainbow-colored sonic palette. But the formal experimentation is always intelligent and controlled. Wussy’s stylistic reach never exceeds its members’ ironclad grasp on the eternal verities of riff-verse-chorus structures. ringer

Glass Dove "Cigarette Sunset" feat. Liz Cooper - 2018

Website

Glass Dove, the new group led by Josh Benus (Modern Inventors), released today the video for their debut single "Cigarette Sunset." Produced by Grammy-winning producer and writer Owen Biddle (The Roots, John Legend), "Cigarette Sunset" features guest Liz Cooper (of Liz Cooper & The Stampede) and is the first taste of what's to come from the Nashville-based indie rock artist.

Best of 2018 - Quietus Albums Of The Year

The Quietus

The Quietus albums of the year chart returns, with our favourite 100 records released in our tenth anniversary year. Read the countdown and find out how you can support us in our work bringing you the best new music

Best of 2018 - wished bone - yellowstoned

dreaming of you in my head, dreaming of things that you said 

walking around, feet like lead and i just can't get out of bed 

watching the clouds go by, over and over again 

think i'll just stay inside, ever and ever again 

wished bone are an act we’ve mentioned in passing in the past, with their EP pseudio recordings representing one of the best experimental folk releases on Bandcamp. For the most part, they have remained something of a cryptic presence, keeping a low profile within a culture that seems to reward (or even demand) those willing to release as much music as possible in the shortest time possible…. read more

Best of 2018 - Rayna meets a "robot"

The best video.

Best of 2018 - Barbarisms - West in the Head

While the songs are described as brutal in emotional suggestion, it’s Faraone’s disarming confessional tones and the overall, cumulative lo-fi and often shimmering folk beauty that draws you in and keeps you in its arms.

Man kann sich dem liebevollen, Laid-Back-Singer-Songwriter-Charme der 70er-Jahre einfach nicht entziehen. Und so reihen sich zahlreiche Highlights wie Perlen auf der Schnur auf diesem Album. Beginnend mit dem schwelgerischen Auftakt von „Bone Beach“, wo smoothige Bläser auf sehnsüchtige und windschiefe Harmonie-Backing-Vocals treffen, über das elegante „Focus Group“, hin zu dem an Bob Dylan erinnernden Closer „Common Tongue“. Dazwischen der pittoreske Indie-Folk von „Moaning Teresa“, der ohrwurmträchtige Indie-Folk-Pop von „First Try“  und das romantisch-melancholische „Soulful Lingo“. Zehn neue Barbarisms-Songs zwischen Poesie und Humor, die von Herzen kommen und das Herz treffen.

Silent Forum - Robot - 2018

Robot is a jittering, adrenaline fuelled shot of energy. The song speaks from the perspective of a jaded and stressed office employee against an unlikely dance punk backdrop. "I feel a shortage of high pressure in my life/ I need the office chair/ I need spreadsheets I hold dear/ I love coffee, I hate beer".