The year of 2018 was  an exciting time for any music fan. From the rise of new artists showing promising talents to the old artists making a comeback that no one was expecting. This year had a ton of music dropped, good and bad.

In this list, I will go from my least favorite to most favorite. I tried to pick an album from each genre. I don’t want this list to start an argument of which one is better musically. I seek to bring awareness of these artists that I believe you should give a listen too. For the first few albums, I’m just gonna give a brief overview of the album. Then later on I’ll give a deeper analysis.

12. MGMT Little Dark Age- My favorite synth pop record of the year. This album has everything, funny lines, catchy hooks, and interesting instrumentals. It kept my attention throughout the whole listen.
13. Leon Bridges Good Thing- This album possesses welcoming feel of classic R&B. From the infectious hooks, and  the amazing soul fuzed jazz instrumentals.
14. Louis Cole Time- An amazing pop record. From the funny tunes of “When your ugly”, which makes a serious social structure into a funky masterpiece. Cole is  truly your favorite artist’s favorite artists.
15. Judas Priest Firepower- This record was a pleasant surprise. I thought that this album was on the verge be boring due to Priest being very old and out of touch. But oh my god was I wrong. This is one of the best metal records I have ever heard. To Halfords singing sounding amazing still to this day.
16. Janelle Monae Dirty Computer- The queen of pop, nominated for a grammy, and empowering women. She is a wielder of many talents. She can sing her heart out to and to rap a very impressive set of bars.
17. Daughters You Won’t Get What You want- This record is just a trip to listen too. Even though I am not the biggest fan of noise rock, I found myself in awe when I finished listening. The amount of emotion you can feel with this album is insane. You can hear the amount of time and effort that went into this masterpiece.
18. Twenty One Pilots Trench- For me, this was completely out of left field. I remember listening to their previous record Blurryface, and feeling as if they are becoming a clichē pop rock band. But with the lead singles of this I was hyped to hear this record. Jumpsuit being a hard rock song and Nico Niner being one of the best produced songs I’ve heard in awhile. This album is just production done right. Each song having an unique sound but had a recurring theme.

5.Pusha T Daytona- From the controversial cover art being Whitney Houston’s bathroom and Kanye West being very unstable, no one was expecting this album to be this good. People were worried how this album was gonna work, with also it being only seven songs each. But this album was all killer and no filler. Truly a rap record that is on the path to be a classic in the future.

4. Denzel Curry Taboo- This album was separated into three acts. This album was the breakthrough Denzel wanted. This aroused the curiosity to recognize him as an artists and not just some SoundCloud rapper. To his incredibly beat selection on this record, to the hard hitting SUMO to the soft Sirenz. He also separates himself from his peers by his song writing. One of these was about him dismissing all the current trends going on in Hip Hop with drugs and gold chains.
5. Ghost Prequel- The group pulls it off again. Even though their fans were very skeptic, due to some of the members leaving the group. But somehow make an amazing metal record. To the song writing being placed in the medieval times. With the song Rats being about the bubonic plague, just the thought of this made me think no way is this gonna work. But it turned out to be one of my favorite songs of the year.
6. J.I.D DiCaprio 2- This record is about how J.I.D feels as if the people are sleeping on him. This record definitely woke up the game. He showed improvement of him not wearing his influences on his sleeves as much as the Never Story. There are so many lyrical gems it’s crazy, and his flow switches are just insane. I have no idea how he writes like this. The song “Off Deez” where he and J Cole rap their hearts out on the track. Also, to my suprise, J Cole kept up with J.I.D’s talent on this track.
7. Kids See Ghosts Self Titled- This album felt as a resurrection for Kid Cudi’s career for me. This album had the same format as Daytona with only being seven songs, but again it’s all killer no filler. To the opening track Feel The Love, Pusha opening up with a heated verse. Then with Kid Cudi singing over this booming beat and synths. Finally, Kanye comes out of nowhere yelling over these gunshot snares, while hitting each beat with each sound he makes. It’s really impressive actually, this shows how long this must have took them for each song. Every song after that kept raising the bar, and it never felt as if the bar has not been matched or raised.

This year has been amazing for every  genre of music. Every genre got a great album that will be remembered for years to come. The experimental hip hop comeback of Kid Cudi on Kids See Ghosts, Ghosts bringing back the old sound of rock and mixing it with a modern twist to it.