Round One took my 40 favourite albums of 2018 and forced them to fight down to 20, the winners being:
Round Two Contenders
1 . Amanda Shires – To The Sunset
2 . Amy Shark – Love Monster
3 . Bob Moses – Battle Lines
4 . boygenius – boygenius
5 . Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy
6 . Confidence Man – Confident Music for Confident People
7 . Dream Wife – Dream Wife
8 . Gaz Coombes – World’s Strongest Man
9 . Habibi – Cardamom Garden
10 . Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers – Bought to Rot
11 . Restorations – LP5000
12 . Mastersystem – Dance Music
13 . Matt Maltese – Bad Contestant
14 . Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
15 . Sloan – Twelve
16 . Soccer Mommy – Clean
17 . Twentytwo in Blue – Sunflower Bean
18 . Viagra Boys – Street Worms
19 . Vince Staples – FM!
20 . Wye Oak – The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
ROUND TWO
Match One
18 . Viagra Boys – Street Worms
vs
20 . Wye Oak – The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs
The one girl, one guy guitar and drums only style of Wye Oak might make it easy to label them Baltimore’s White Stripes but Jack White’s influence is more evident in the riff-heavy rock of Viagra Boys than it is in Wye Oak’s ethereal synth-rock. This one is a tossup but it seems 2018 was the year of rock for me so I’ll stick with the theme and go with the boys from Sweden.
Winner: 18 . Viagra Boys – Street Worms
Match Two
15 . Sloan – Twelve
vs
9 . Habibi – Cardamom Garden
Twelve is a better album than Cardamom Garden in plenty of tangible ways but when all the intangibles are added I prefer Habibi and have listened to it 10x as much as Sloan this year. Sorry guys.
Winner: 9 . Habibi – Cardamom Garden
Match Three
7 . Dream Wife – Dream Wife
vs
2 . Amy Shark – Love Monster
Dream Wife are cool and angry but Amy says the right stuff.
Winner: 2 . Amy Shark – Love Monster
Match Four
16 . Soccer Mommy – Clean
vs
19 . Vince Staples – FM!
Rough matchup for Vince, I hope the fact that I really like FM! means I start liking more rap/hophop but he doesn’t stand a chance here against Soccer Mommy.
Winner: 16 . Soccer Mommy – Clean
Match Five
12 . Mastersystem – Dance Music
vs
3 . Bob Moses – Battle Lines
Sorry Bob, Mastersystem has pathos.
Winner: 12 . Mastersystem – Dance Music
Match Six
8 . Gaz Coombes – World’s Strongest Man
vs
1 . Amanda Shires – To The Sunset
Amanda Shires is one of the new voices of Nashville Americana, part of the group kicked off by the work of Jack White’s Third Man Records, I love her album but….. Gaz’s album, while not exactly groundbreaking, is just so cool.
Winner: 8 . Gaz Coombes – World’s Strongest Man
Match Seven
17 . Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo in Blue
vs
10 . Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers – Bought to Rot
LJG is friends with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats and several songs on Bought to Rot show an interesting influence from TMG (The Airplane Song kicks ass) and the album has a great raw feel however it’s uneven and feels like the side-project it is, Sunflower Bean may sometimes sound too polished but Twentytwo in Blue is the better album.
Winner: 17 . Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo in Blue
Match Eight
5 . Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy
vs
4 . boygenius – boygenius EP
Noooooooo, boygenius is SO great, an indie super-group made up of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers singing soft little songs of love and pain and confusion, it sucks that the dice rolled them up against Car Seat Headrest.
Winner: 5 . Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy
Match Nine
6 . Confidence Man – Confident Music for Confident People
vs
11 . Restorations – LP5000
I realize now that the next set of choices are going to hurt, all the remaining albums are really special and impressive to me. Restorations are valuable and important and real, Confidence Man are silly and light and fun. I’m picking pretty arbitrarily here.
Winner: 6 . Confidence Man – Confident Music for Confident People (but holy crap I hope Restorations find an audience for LP5000, it’s painful and wonderful)
Match Ten
13 . Matt Maltese – Bad Contestant
vs
14 . Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
All these great rock albums and here they are all falling, I’m going with Matt here, mostly for how unique his album is, although RBCF’s “Talking Straight” might be my single of the year.
Winner: 13 . Matt Maltese – Bad Contestant
Ok, that is Round Two complete, stay tuned for the FINALS where we narrow down to the Top Five Albums of 2018.
DONE! https://deanbergen.com/music/best-albums-of-2018/best-albums-of-2018-final-round/
A Bit Gone 