Very solid Top List(s) this year. As always, they extend a diverse list of albums that I now binge on for the next year and reevaluate my own 2018 list. Honestly surprised that Republic of Wolves didn’t end up on the list of contributor lists considering it placed on a few for the mid year round up.
I feel more removed to this list by the year. Maybe I just listen to shitty stuff. Per my name, I'd be remiss not to mention the new Dessa, Dangerous Jumps and Four Fists albums were all solid releases this year. All in my Top 30. I also appear to be the only one that liked Saves the Day? And Vacationer... and TDS... and... hold up, people actually liked the new Twenty One Pilots?... Dang.
Everybody in here knows Kamikaze > Trench and you’re all afraid to admit it! —said with love, no hate.
I have to be honest, Kamikaze was the worst album I listened to last year by a country mile. I'd listen to Bhad Bhabie's album 100 times over it. I know that sounds like an exaggeration and I'm not saying that to be a jerk, but it is what it is. Worst part about the Venom movie, too.
Brian was #1 at the mid term list and dropped to number #9 by years end. Fallon ‘Sleepwalkers” is still my favourite from this years. Also, I find less and less albums and bands I listen to making it on these lists. Maybe a sign of the times, my tastes or the website tastes. These lists are always good for musical discovery though which is nice.
Can’t speak for the other artists mentioned, but Vacationer was definitely on my personal list! Endless bops on that record. editing my personal list in here because I stopped running my old blog:
Really liked the intro blurb and I guess it partly explains my next thought: the list is usually well praised (and rightfully so) for its genre diversity, but I appreciated that this year’s felt noticeably more scene-heavy than usual, especially at the top. Not that there’s isn’t diversity within the scene itself too, but it was kinda nice in some way to not see site favorites crowded out by big names. Also glad to see underoath make it!
It ended up at 31, which made me super sad. I wanted to write the blurb for it. (I wrote a blurb for it on my personal list, but hoped it would show up on the staff list.) Hell yeah! Got a 100-point boost from me! I also thought it was interesting that Brian dropped that much. Held strong in my top 10 all year (and then some, since I think I got it in early December 2017).
Was PANIC in the mix at all? I loved the album, but i could see why it wasn't included i suppose. Not really groundbreaking, it was just super fun, catchy, and really cool production.
Awesome list! It's cool to see three of my personal favorite albums from this year (TWY, Thrice, and Underoath) on it!
Great list! Spanish Love Songs' Schmaltz was my #1 of the year. Probably my #1 of the last three years. Great album.
I am really surprised by the absence of Jeff Rosenstock’s POST- on these lists. John is the only chorus.fm writer who had it ranked, and it seems appropriate to quote him here: “The fact that the larger ‘rock’ audience hasn’t caught on to the fact that Rosenstock is one of the best songwriters alive and releases multiple records each year is confounding. WORRY. remains one of the best rock albums of the decade, and POST- is a perfectly good follow-up.”
Worry is my favorite, and We Cool has some of his best singles, but there’s enough good stuff on POST (USA, Yr Throat, Powerlessness, Melba, 9/10) to keep it on my top of 2018 list.
What about The Republic of Wolves’ Shrine? My favourite and most listened album of the year. Came out in march, I almost thought it was on 2017
In my opinion, at least, it was way too reactionary and try-hard. Sure, the technique is still there, but if we only cared about technique, "Rap God" would be a much better song. Where is the substance? From my perspective, even Revival (which is not a very good album) is better than Kamikaze because it is, at the very least, seemingly genuine. There's some heart in it. Should be stated I'm not a huge Em fan to begin with, though. Not to mention... VENIMMMMMM IN MY BAD BOY DENIMMMMMMM edit: Re: Eminem, not sure why the quote didn't go through
Yeah, Revival at least had those last two songs on it. Kamikaze has some decent stuff in there, but there's mostly a fortysomething who won't grow the hell up
That and yolk in the fur are easily better than anything I listened to last year, and I thought last year was pretty great. Same here, at least since the early btmi stuff. 9/11 and Melba were the only songs I was really ever drawn back to I adored shrine on release but it didn’t stay with me the way I hoped
Needs more Snail Mail and Middle Kids. Two of my most listened to albums this year. I definitely need to go back and listen to Sister Cities. I was a huge fan of their previous albums but this one didn’t stick with me after the first few listens.