The dark politics of our era were imprinted all over music in 2018. And how could they not be? My favorite releases from the past year were either full-throated rock-n-roll protest anthems or quiet contemplations of how to find beauty amid all the ugliness, chaos and pessimism. And many of them once again were from women, proving that Kurt Cobain knew what he was talking about all those years ago.
Here are my choices for jams that won’t steer you wrong from 2018.
Neneh Cherry — Broken Politics
“Broken Politics” is a wonderful-sounding album in the literal sense, with Cherry sounding like a wise veteran closing out a late-night poetry slam over backing sounds courtesy of Ornette Coleman’s saxophone, flutes, shuffling beats, a diverse array of percussion, even an air horn. Taken together, it sounds like the blues, as on the sublime “Deep Vein Thrombosis.”
Yo La Tengo — There’s a Riot Going On
It’s not the only Generation X dad-rock album to make my list, but Yo La Tengo really surprised me with this one. Often associated with dissonant guitar noise, the three-piece band from Hoboken here embraces their quieter side, turning in a gentle and moving collection of diverse songs and sounds, from the Pharoah Sanders-inspired shuffle of “Above the Sound” and the ambient “Shortwave” to a mystical take on the band’s bread-and-butter propulsive subway churn in “She May, She Might.” It’s a quiet reflection on our troubled times that ends up embracing beauty.
Sleep — The Sciences
The first album in nearly two decades from these stoner doom-metal legends crackles to life in a wash of feedback and thundering drumbeats, and never lets up, delivering the heaviness in a heavy year. The song “Marijuanaut’s Theme” starts with the sound of a bong toke before delving into Sabbath riffardry and lyrics that meld sci-fi imagery and lines like “Through the hashteroid fields a transmission yields / now riff beacon signal is received.” I played this album louder than is advisable many, many times in my car in 2018.
Tropical Fuck Storm — A Laughing Death in Meatspace
I’ve already written about how devastatingly good the song “You Let My Tyres Down” is. The rest of the album offers plenty of diversity, from the veering-off-the-rails “Two Afternoons” to the jagged weirdness of “The Future of History.” In “Rubber Bullets,” ringleader Gareth Liddard sings one of my favorite lines of the year, “The world’s way too connected, and all anybody does is fight.”
Brandi Carlile — By the Way I Forgive You
I rarely agree with the Grammys, but even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? And they got it right by conferring on the veteran folk singer a whopping six nominations. “The Joke” is an anthem for the disaffected with a gigantic hook at its core, while “The Mother” is just impossibly sweet, an ode to her 5-year-old daughter. Throughout, Carlile’s voice is a force of nature.
Courtney Barnett — Tell Me How You Really Feel
Courtney Barnett takes a darker turn on her second full-length album, with lyrics that address Internet trolls and the #MeToo movement in chilling fashion (“I wanna walk through the park in the dark / Men are scared the women will laugh at them / I wanna walk through the park in the dark / Women are scared that men will kill them,” she sings on “Nameless, Faceless”). There’s also the barroom twang of “Walkin’ on Eggshells” and the melancholy of “City Looks Pretty.” Meanwhile, I’m not sure her backing band gets enough credit — or that the recording studio fully captures how devastating the four of them are live.
Janelle Monáe — Dirty Computer
Two Grammy-nominated artists on my year-end list? It’s true. “Dirty Computer,” up for album of the year against the likes of Carlile, above, runs front-to-end like a defiant affirmation of sexual identity and the soundtrack of the Resistance done up in pop guises. It manages to sound utterly of the future even as it mines the ghosts of pop’s past — in particular, Prince and Michael Jackson — for influences.
Hot Snakes — Jericho Sirens
On their first album in 14 years, San Diego punk veterans Hot Snakes drops a potent sonic bomb right into our volatile times, with impeccably crafted blasts of defiant, sneering rock-n-roll with huge hooks and surprisingly strong songs. “I Need a Doctor,” indeed.
Robyn — Honey
“Where to go? / The streets are so cold / Stay in my arms / Dance with me,” Swedish pop star Robyn sings in “Human Being,” summing up the mood of this album, her first since 2010: The world is unremittingly bleak, but at least we can still dance our troubles away.
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