A blog with a tracklist of the best Electronic albums released in 2018.
The Best Albums of 2018
2018 was a great year for Electronic music. Below is my list of the best albums released this year, which I’ve been working on since September. These are albums that I personally enjoyed and that I think were influential in some way to the genre. The main reason I made this list was because I wanted to see how many of these albums I had actually listened to in full, and it turns out 17/30. Not bad!
1. Sleeparchive – ZZZZ (Tresor Records)
2. John Tejada – Dead Start Program (Kompakt)
3. Fluxion – Ripple Effect (Echocord)
4. Skee Mask – Compro (Ilian Tape)
5. Stenny – Consumer’s Guide (Ilian Tape)
6. Norde – Home EP (Apollo Records)
7. Regis – Manbait (Blackest Ever Black)
8. Anthony Linell – A Sense Of Order (Northern Electronics)
9. Minor Science – Second Language (Whities)
10. DeepChord Presents Echospace – Liumin Redux (Soma Records)
11. Dasha Rush – Sleepstep : Sonic Diary
The Best Albums of 2018.
I have written about new music for the better part of two decades, particularly for Rolling Stone. I’ve been lucky enough to interview a lot of great artists, both emerging and established, and I’ve heard a LOT of fantastic albums along the way. I’ve also been fortunate to see many bands perform live in my travels across the country – and around the world.
With that in mind, here are my Top Ten Albums of 2018. These are not just my favorite albums released this year; they’re also the ones that made me pay attention – and made me think, dance and sing along.
They are listed in alphabetical order by artist name:
BEST OF 2018: ALBUMS
1. Tycho – Weather
2. Autechre – NTS Sessions
3. Fennesz – Agora
4. Nils Frahm – All Melody
5. Floating Points – Crush
6. Jon Hopkins – Singularity
7. Björk – Utopia
8. Objekt – Cocoon Crush
9. Shigeto – The New Monday
10. David Byrne – American Utopia
11. Four Tet – New Energy
1. Bonobo – Migration
2. Nils Frahm – All Melody
3. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
4. Bicep – Bicep
5. Apparat – LP5
6. Kiasmos – Blurred EP
7. Jon Hopkins – Singularity
8. Rival Consoles – Persona
9. Max Cooper – One Hundred Billion Sparks
10. Tycho – Awake
1. Rival Consoles – Persona
2. Max Cooper – One Hundred Billion Sparks
3. Bicep – Bicep
4. The Blaze – Dancehall
5. Jon Hopkins – Singularity
6. Leon Vynehall – Nothing Is Still
7. James Blake – Assume Form
8. Mount Kimbie – Love What Survives
9. Lorenzo Senni – Quantum Jelly
10. Four Tet – New Energy
Its three singles are among the most distinctive songs of the year, and even though the album is a couple songs too long, it includes some of his very best work: “Make Me Feel” is a horny, deliriously fun genre-buster; “Crazy, Classic, Life” is a rousing sermon on self-love; and his cover of “I Got the Juice” by fellow Atlanta native Jeremih is so good that it makes you hope that one day Monáe and Jeremih will record an entire album together.
There’s a lot to love about this album. Monáe’s voice sounds better than ever and she has crafted yet another brilliant concept album full of extremely catchy pop songs. But more than anything else, Dirty Computer feels like an act of political defiance. The album was released at a time when the LGBT community was under attack from the Trump administration and Monáe’s queer black womanhood is front and center.
The album’s danceability makes it great for parties or exercising but I actually prefer to listen to it in my headphones while going for long walks alone at night. For me, that’s when it really shines as Monáe’s voice fills my ears and her lyrics provide the soundtrack to my thoughts as