The best foreign albums of 2018 according to Lifehacker

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Releases from IDLES, Kids See Ghosts, Arctic Monkeys and other artists we liked.

70 tracks from 2018 releases

Dozens of interesting albums were released in 2018. We took one song from 70 releases that we remember and put them into one big 4.5-hour playlist.

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10 albums to remember

Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Before 2018, Arctic Monkeys' discography had an unprecedented break of five years: after the release of AM with a pack of stadium hits, the group went into a lull, and the participants started working on other projects. In 2018, Turner returned with an album that stood out from the rest of the band's work. Guitar riffs were replaced by pianos, simple melodies - more intricate, and rock energy - thoughtfulness and delicacy.

There are almost no stadium hits here and there are not so many songs that you want to play on repeat, but there is depth, aristocracy and the author's desire to rediscover himself in music. Arctic Monkeys are one of the most popular bands in the world, and not every frontman of a band of this level will dare to completely reset the project, change the vector and do something completely different. In the case of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, the prank seems to have worked well.

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Soccer Mommy - Clean

The predominantly acoustic first studio album Soccer Mommy is 20-year-old Sophie Ellison's revelation of love, recognition and complexes. In music - indie pop with a fragile girlish voice, beautiful melodies and a lot of air. In the lyrics - laconic and capacious lines that sink into memory from the first listening.

Clean is a peaceful, sad and very honest album. And Soccer Mommy is one of the main discoveries of the year, which we will definitely hear about.

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Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

One of the most important releases of the year is the debut album by the duo of hip-hop artist Kid Cadi and the main musical visionary and trend-setter of our century, Kanye West. The musicians' history of long and difficult friendship led to this album. Perhaps that is why the statement of the tandem participants turned out to be especially convincing. Kanye here acted primarily as a sound producer, losing the main role to Kadi.

This is an album about public censure, drugs, self-criticism and fear. The album is biting and laconic, with the best sound and strong drama. And there is also a collaboration with Pusha T, who released an excellent album Daytona in 2018. We also recommend listening to it.

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MewithoutYou - Untitled (LP)

Of all the post-hardcore of the 2000s, I don't want to remember almost anyone, almost no one stayed afloat by 2018, and only a few continue to write interesting music. MewithoutYou is a Philadelphia band that already stood out among dozens of bands of varying degrees of similarity. Her music is always experiments, non-trivial guitar parts and philosophical texts with a bunch of references and semantic layers.

This year the group has released two releases with the name Untitled, and if the mini-album turned out to be rather faded, then the full-length is simply wonderful. One gets the feeling that MewithoutYou has accumulated all its previous experience, got rid of all unnecessary things and set the goal of releasing a release without a single walkthrough track. So, in general, it happened. Anyone who misses the emotional zeroes with Alexisonfire, Thursday and As Cities Burn should definitely listen.

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Peter Bjorn and John - Darker Days

There are albums that are unanimously recognized as significant. They become a loud statement, create genres or change the rules of the game in existing ones. Darker Days is just a pleasure to listen to and do whatever you want with it.

Peter Bjorn and John is a Stockholm trio that is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. They are still considered a one-song band: Young Folks, with the most recognizable whistling in the world, hit all kinds of soundtracks and became one of the iconic songs of indie pop of the 2000s. After more than ten years of rather passive and for some reason experimental releases, Peter, Bjorn and John returned to the recipe for success from 2006 and recorded just a good and a little sugary melodic pop record. The critics who make up the ratings habitually ignored it, but we won't. This release will hardly be remembered in a couple of years, but it's nice to listen to it here and now - we recommend it.

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IDLES - Joy as an Act of Resistance

From the very first notes of the Colossus interlude, the album of British post-punkers IDLES holds and does not give any respite to the brain or limbs.

"Fun as an Act of Resistance" is a very accurate title for this release. It starts with a high pretense - some completely fateful interlude of Colossus, which towards its end turns into a dashing punk banger. This is how the whole album is listened to. Often he seems frivolous, ironic, funny, and sometimes only the texts give out that this laugh is actually hysterical, barely hiding pain and anger. Every song on the album, be it the anthem of Danny Nedelko immigrants, the manifesto against the toxic masculinity of the Samaritans, or the tribute to the stillborn daughter June, is a powerful emotion and a real experience.

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Iceage - Beyondless

Iceage is a Danish band that combines the features of punk rock, post-punk and art rock, whatever that means. The main thing is that here you can hear all the color of dark, cold music from Joy Division to Nick Cave.

In the discography of the group, Beyondless stands out as some kind of pop release: Iceage does not hesitate to combine expressive riffs with catchy melodies, now she is even more loved at Pitchfork and is called on KEXP, and the rock diva of the 2010s noted guest participation on the album Skye Ferreira.

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Smashing Pumpkins - Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun

Classic Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins are almost like the 90s. Old fans were satisfied with the release, new ones got an excellent versatile release for easy getting in the know.

An album with a terribly complicated title is only half an hour long, but so much the better. It turned out to be bright and concentrated, and almost every track from it can be left in the playlist for a long time. If you are not aware of the Smashing Pumpkins, then we recommend listening - after all, this is one of the greatest rock bands of the last 30 years. First a new album, and then a classic - Siamese Dream released in 1993 or, for example, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness released in 1995.

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Nothing - Dance on the Blacktop

Dance on the Blacktop is a traumatic and painful release with a difficult background. If on the first album vocalist Dominic Palermo talked about prison, and on the second he was recovering from an attack, now he is trying to live with chronic traumatic encephalopathy - a progressive degeneration of brain cells that can lead to dementia.

It is a dark release that speaks of tragic things both lyrically and musically - nine songs that exist at the intersection of shoegaze and post-strings. Such albums never lift your spirits, but for some reason they are more often remembered and become important.

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Jungle - For Ever

Jungle is a duo of Britons Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland, performing sunny and slightly sad pop funk. As the musicians say, For Ever is what sounds on a post-apocalyptic radio station that plays breakup songs non-stop.

If any collection should have a summer, light and non-binding release - let it be the Jungle album.

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What foreign albums did you like? Share your answer in the comments.