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Every year we hear about how the album is dead, a victim of an online world and a collective attention span geared more for single songs than full records. Then the end of the year rolls around and, well, we see a very different story.
Great albums in 2018 hailed from all sorts of different genres — from pop and hip-hop to country and rock.
Here are the Top 10 albums of the year:
1, “Tha Carter V,” Lil Wayne
Welcome back, Mr. Carter. It’s clearly been too long. But talk about making up for lost time. This long-anticipated fifth installment of “Tha Carter” series, released seven years after the last one, is the comeback of the year, reminding fans through 23 diversely appealing tracks why we fell in love with Lil Wayne in the first place. No doubt, Weezy needed this, having been written off as past his prime by many after years of releasing (at best) so-so material. Now we can forget all that and just listen to Lil Wayne sling rhymes like daggers and move with untold swagger through what is his best album since 2005’s landmark “Tha Carter II.”
2, “Look Up Child,” Lauren Daigle
Fans of contemporary Christian music have long known that this Louisiana native possesses one of the best voices in the business. Now, the rest of the world is starting to catch on as well and Daigle has found great crossover success with her glorious third studio offering, which debuted at No. 3 on the pop charts. “Look Up Child” is a sophisticated, pristine collection of Adele-style pop balladry, collectively delivering what might just be the single greatest vocal showcase of 2018. It also boasts the year’s best single in “You Say.”
3, “All That Reckoning,” Cowboy Junkies
Just another stellar outing from arguably the most reliably excellent act of the last 33 years. Margo Timmins’ vocals are as hauntingly beautiful and powerful as ever, delivering lines with such a range of emotion over the band’s patented and convincing mix of folk, blues, rock and country. Michael Timmins, Margo’s brother and the band’s primary lyricist, paints an unsettling, uneasy landscape through the songs, both reflecting and commenting on the world we live in. The words are often underscored with muddy, distorted and anguished electric guitar, reminiscent of primary Junkies influence Lou Reed.
4, “The Tree of Forgiveness,” John Prine
The world-class songwriter, responsible for such all-time-great tunes as “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone” and “Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone,” finally returns with his first album of new material since 2005’s “Fair & Square.” Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. “The Tree of Forgiveness” is chock-full of memorable tunes, mixing humor and heartbreak in ways that only Prine can. So many great lines. So much fantastic wit. Chalk this album up as further proof that John Prine is a national treasure.
5, “Golden Hour,” Kacey Musgraves
Musgraves would surely be honored to follow Prine on this list. She’s been vocal about Prine’s huge influence on her songwriting, which helped make her first two albums – 2013’s “Same Trailer Different Park” and 2015’s “Pageant Material” – among the most enjoyable country music recordings of the decade. But she’s far less Prine and far more pop on her third batch of original material and still manages to come up, well, “Golden.” Her songwriting is as sharp as usual and her voice is brilliant on a collection that dances through disco, soft-rock, country-pop and other sounds.
6, “Invasion of Privacy,” Cardi B
Not sure how Cardi B finds the time to actually record music. One would think that her schedule would be completely full with all that she does to keep TMZ in business. Say what you want about Cardi the Celebrity, but there’s no knocking Cardi the Rapper. She delivers the year’s most convincing debut with “Invasion of Privacy,” a wonderfully confident and versatile rebuttal to all the haters who thought Ms. B would be quickly forgotten after the VH1 reality TV show “Love & Hip Hop: New York.” Hardly. She’s got the talent to stay in the game for years to come – and the game will be better off for it.
7, “Vicious,” Halestorm
“What doesn’t kill me makes me vicious,” Lzzy Hale snarls on the title track. And without a doubt, you believe her. Hale is in definite take-no-prisoners mode on her namesake band’s fourth studio album, defiantly raging against anyone and anything that stands in her way. There are anthems of lust and indulgence, hate and confusion, outrage and courage, usually delivered with the subtlety of a flashing neon sign. Really, it’s what we’ve come to expect from the best hard rock act in the world today.
8, “Hiding Place,” Tori Kelly
The California native avoids the dreaded sophomore slump in a big way with her follow-up to the 2015 full-length debut “Unbreakable Smile.” “Hiding Place” is a definite step forward, even for a woman who managed to score a Grammy nomination for best new artist off her first record. We’ve long known about her big voice, yet she comes across more at home – and self-assured – than ever before on this gospel-powered collection, which was co-written and co-produced by gospel star Kirk Franklin.
How much of an overstatement is it to say that this is Pusha-T’s finest hour? Oh, by about 39 minutes. “Daytona,” the Virginia Beach rapper’s third album, runs just over 21 minutes. But there’s not a wasted moment to be found among the disc’s seven strong tracks, which are fueled with equal parts muscle, soul and wit. Taken as a whole, “Daytona” serves as a powerful argument that this Mr. T – who is also the president of Kanye West’s GOOD Music imprint – deserves to be ranked among the finest rappers in the game today.
10, “Firepower,” Judas Priest
There are a lot of worthy options that could go here (see honorable mention list below). But I’ll give the final spot on our Top 10 list to these heavy metal titans, who indeed deliver plenty of “Firepower” on their eighteenth studio album. The band, which was on the verge of retirement at the start of the decade, comes across as fully re-energized and in vintage form on this impressive collection of new songs. It seems there’s still some “Living After Midnight” left to do for Judas Priest.
Honorable mention:
“Desperate Man,” Eric Church
“Ruins,” First Aid Kit
“7,” Beach House
“In a Poem Unlimited,” U.S. Girls
“Twin Fantasy,” Car Seat Headrest
“Living Hope,” Phil Wickham
“Astroworld,” Travis Scott
“Lush,” Snail Mail
“Friendship Music,” Surfbort
“KOD,” J. Cole
“The Sciences,” Sleep
“I’ll Be Your Girl,” the Decemberists