Top 3 Albums I Reviewed in 2018

Let's start 2018 year end lists with the easiest one to put together, her are my three favourite albums that I covered on this blog during the year.


2018 has been my most successful year in terms of covering albums on this blog, covering over twenty in the year. I am aiming for at least fifty in 2019, that way I should be able to expand this list to ten rather than three. But the rules are simple: I must have reviewed it in 2018. Let's get on with the list.


3. MØ - Forever Neverland


This sophomore album by the 'Final Song' singer and songwriter was a force to reckoned with in 2018. The kind of album filled with the kind of youthful exuberance that I found infectious from the start and refused to let go. If there's one thing I learned about myself over the course of the year, it was that I love music that focusses on a longing for youth that is framed self-awarely, and there's so many underrated layers to this album that fill into that category that work for me on so many levels. From songs about the stupidity at the core of the glorification of depression ('Blur'), to more conversationally written songs filled with detail about teenage love ('Nostalgia').


The amount of tiny nuances that fill up this album is amazing, and it's all combined with some of the most intricate pop production that puts Chvrches's 'Love Is Dead' to shame. From outstanding pre choruses on songs like 'I Want You', the intriguingly disjoined vibe that 'If It's Over' and 'Imaginary Friend' offer, to the gorgeous vocal production on 'Blur' and 'Beautiful Wreck'. All of these are amazing moments and the album is a fascinating case study on teenage attitudes in today's world. In other words, one of the best albums I covered this year.


2. With Confidence - Love And Loathing


I had no idea I needed this album until I got it. I was hoping after 'Better Weather' that With Confidence would understand their strengths as a band and put together a heavier, more brutal pop rock album that took more risks instrumentally. Quite literally the last thing I would have wanted from them to do was put together a frailer, overall less abrasive and poppier album. I have no idea who suggested this would be an even remotely good idea, but, whoever they are, they are a total genius.


In no way should this album work, but the detailed authentic storytelling goes so far beyond what I could have possibly expected. Jayden Seely paints an emotional picture of the girl that meant everything to him leaving his life and the rush of conflicting emotions that comes with such a revelation. He spends the album confused. Emotional, but having no clear idea what to channel those emotions into. He blames himself for what happened on 'Better', before channelling those same emotions into raw hatred and disgust for the girl in question on 'Icarus'. But then the album pulls an 'Astoria'. The moment that Seely tries to commit to getting over her on 'The Turnaround', she comes back into his life, just as emotional, lost and confused as our protagonist. 'Spinning' is the turning point where an overjoyed Jayden Seely thinks his dreams have just come true (again).


But one song later on 'Bruise' you understand that the girl didn't come back in search of love, just somewhere to numb her own pain. Or, as Seely sings himself, 'pressing on a bruise just to feel something', leaving them both lonely once more as Seely regrets letting his emotion get the better of him.


All of this builds to an emotional climax on 'Dopamine', but then you get the stunning final song 'Tails'. The emotions have settled and Seely clearly knows that his emotions will linger, but after two failed relationships with one girl, instead of chasing his tail and trying desperately to make it work, he is focussed on setting his sights forward, and focussing on other challenges life will throw at him.


And that's all without discussing Mike Green's production on these twelve tracks, which is great. Green has this talent and production instinct, particularly around the bass, that is unparalleled by most working in his lane. What. An. Album.


1. Lori McKenna - The Tree


There was no other album this year. It might not have been the album I listened to most this year, and it's certainly not the easiest album to listen to, but Lori McKenna and Dave Cobb put together yet another masterpiece with the follow up to their collaboration 'The Bird And The Rifle', 'The Tree'. Not only is the production as rich and organic as ever courtesy of Dave Cobb, but McKenna is on another level in terms of her writing.


'The Fixer' is the first real sign that McKenna has lost none of her natural talent as she paints a picture of a title character who seems to have all the means to fix whatever you throw at him, but he can't fix his broken relationship, and has no cure for the heartbreak. But that does not prepare you for the quite incredible album centrepiece 'You Won't Even Know I'm Gone'. The song tells the story of a breakup where the girl is trying to make it go down as easy as possible for a nameless guy as she moves out, emphasising all the mundane details as she prepares to leave the house for the last time.


And, just like MØ, McKenna reflects on her teenage years on 'The Lot Behind St. Mary's' to amazing results, before 'Like Patsy Would' ends the album on a tear inducing note. It's amazing how little there is to say about this album, and yet it's the best I have ever covered on this blog.


Let's hope 2019 can measure up. More year end lists on the way.

Review of: 'A Brief Enquiery Into Online Relationships' by The 1975

It's always hard going into an album like this one. An album by a band that have had plenty of positive reviews thrown their way, and yet has slightly slipped through for you personally and you've ended up not giving them all that much of your time. That's The 1975 for me. An act I've only ever found the time to enjoy in small doses. That doesn't mean to say that I wasn't listening when 'Chocolate' and 'The Sound' were generating a lot of hype in the UK. And while those are great songs, they did not give me the motivation to check out either their self titled debut, or their follow up 'I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It'.

But then 'Give Yourself A Try' happened. It did take an awful long time to grow on me, but once it clicked, Matthew Healy's message to a younger generation that admire his music to forget about what other people think of them and stop trying to change themselves in order to fit in with what could be considered the social norm, and simply try and accept themselves for who they are ended up having a surprising amount of weight. Combined with having a lot of small, intricate details in the writing, and being a well produced song in its own right, I was actually kind of looking forward to a new album from The 1975.

But then you get the album title: 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'. I went from looking forward to this album, to being genuinely excited when I heard this is what they were going to be calling it. It almost sounds like it was made for me. A deconstruction of the online environment and how socially anxious teenagers can see it as an escape and an opportunity to bond with others outside of real life situations, and how venerable people (not just teenagers) can be prayed on by people looking to exploit them. See my review of MØ's 'Forever Neverland' to understand why that's a concept that is likely to appeal to me.


My only hope going into this album is that it wouldn't be brief as the title suggests that it will be. I was looking forward to a layered, well written deconstruction all framed to address the problems with the online teenage relationship. Did we get that with 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'?


Yes and no. This is not the first time this has happened this year. The 1975 have delivered an album that I did not expect, and am not sure if I even wanted, and, just like With Confidence before them, still manage to deliver a detailed, thematically dense if not cohesive album. You see, however much The 1975 discuss issues of youth culture and teenagers in their lyrics, the thematic arc of this album is broader than I was personally hoping for: relationships as a whole. Whether that be the typical teenager-social media relationship on  'The Man Who Married a Robot / Love Theme' and in the subtext of 'Give Yourself A Try' and 'Sincerity Is Scary', or how young minds can struggle to make the right decisions in relationships like how frontman Matty Healy admits to cheating on his girlfriend on 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME' or a few songs later on 'Be My Mistake' when Healy tries to hook up with another girl as he struggles to acknowledge the fact that in order to find 'the one', he is going to make some mistakes, even if those mistakes weigh hard on the young mind.


The album does get more distinctly personal in its final third. 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' tackles Healy's issues with heroine addiction before 'Surrounded By Heads And Bodies' where we get an underwritten, ambiguous look into the rehabilitation process.


But then you get the songs that more aimed at society as a whole like 'Love It If We Made It' where Healy lists everything he thinks is wrong with society, with the implication on the hook being that Healy would be impressed if humanity makes it through. 'I Like America & America Likes Me' falls into similar territory with a strong message as Healy voices his opinion on guns in America.


But then you get a song clearly directed at the band teenage audience: 'Give Yourself A Try'. The message being to trust yourself and who you are and what you stand for rather than some filtered version of yourself that you project onto social media. One line did stand out to me, though: 'Jane took her own life at sixteen / She was the kid who had the box tattooed on her arm'. What was in that box, no one will ever know.


But that moves us onto the production, and it might honestly be where this album lets me down a little bit. Don't get me wrong, the razer tight guitar that anchors the main melody on 'Give Yourself A Try' is awesome, but when the band use a similar tone on the sluggish 'Inside Your Mind', it doesn't fit anywhere near as well, no matter how many effects you throw on it. Or take 'I Couldn't Be More In Love', a song that could have worked if Healy wasn't pushed into a vocal range that really does not flatter his voice.


Then there's the instrumentally meandering songs 'How To Draw / Petrichor' and 'Inside Your Mind'. I would throw 'The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme' into that category, if the narrative itself didn't ring as true as it ended up doing for me.


I certainly don't love every song on this album, probably pushing it just short of greatness for me, but when the production clicks, this album is a force to be reckoned with. The slick watery groove on 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', the intimate vocal pickup emphasising the vulnerability on 'Be My Mistake', and the stunningly well balanced lush pop hook on 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' are all highlights here.


And I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't mention the closing track 'I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)' for it's comments on meme culture connected with the idea of death, and even if I'm not a fan of the blaring hook, the production on the first verse is breath-taking with it's minimalist melody partnered with Healy's almost hopeless vocal delivery. Moments like this are more than enough to redeem the stiff, lumbering tracks like 'Love It If We Made It' and 'Sincerity Is Scary'.


In conclusion, it's almost ironic that inconsistences across the board muted this album's impact for me. If the album was more brief (as the title of the album suggests) we could have got a more consistent and therefore more impactful project overall, but, as it is, I still enjoyed this album quite a bit, even for its floors.


3.5 / 5


Best Songs: 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)', 'Be My Mistake' 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', 'Give Yourself A Try'


Worst Songs: 'Inside Your Mind', 'How To Draw / Petrichor'