Albums
of the year
2018
This was a strange year, in the sense that without even planning it I ended up listening to more new releases than any past year. I think it was a subconscious thing, being in the middle of a "oh yeah I'll just build my own house and it will go perfectly with no hiccups whatsoever" type of situation. I was looking for something new and perfect to replace the new home which has yet to arrive. Luckily all this listening paid off as there were some really excellent albums this year. It started off slowly, only for some of the best output to come out towards the end. Killer climax, man.
This year I have not put together a playlist, but instead included a song or video for each review as a taste for the rest. And even though these are numbered as you can see, they are not in any order whatsoever. Except for #1 - that one truly rises above all else this year.
8
Kraus
Path
Usually albums labeled as "noise" tend to have something abrasive to it, or something just dark enough that doesn't appeal to my ears. And no doubt, this album is loud, sharp, noisy and abbrasive. But there's something bright going on here. It's hard to pinpoint because it is still a blast of fuzz and noise, but this album feels optimistic, rather than dark, industrial, even depressing. This is a bright, shining, blast of noisy shoegaze for the beach set. That's probably not a thing. Or probably WASN'T a thing. But there's no better time and place to change that than with this album.
Label
Terrible Records
Released
09 March 2018
Running time
33:00
Tracklist
Figure
Bum
Games
Grow
Reach
Follow
Brief Skin
Outside
See
Big Blood
Watching
Mostly