The Young Folks’ Top 50 Albums of 2018

50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1

10. Kendrick Lamar & various artists – Black Panther: The Album

Soundtracks for superhero blockbusters are rarely memorable.Black Panther: The Album is an exception—which makes sense, as Black Panther was an exceptional film, in terms of both its heroic black protagonists and its stunning artistic vision. Ryan Coogler didn’t request an entire curated album from Kendrick Lamar; this was his labor of love for a movie that he saw as culturally important. That sentiment shines through in the songs, which feature a myriad of 2018’s leaders in hip-hop, rap, and R&B. Who’s here, you ask? Who’snot here might be a better question—vocal powerhouses SZA and Jorja Smith, groundbreaking rappers Vince Staples and Travis Scott, Rae Sremmurd member Swae Lee, and radio favorite The Weeknd are only a few of the artists who contribute their talent to the record. Certain tracks, like Lamar and SZA’s “All the Stars,” capture the film’s themes of ambition and revolution, while others, like “Black Panther” and “King’s Dead,” feature lyrics spoken from the perspectives of characters like T’Challa and Killmonger, adding new layers of depth to the story. – Brittany Menjivar

9. Snail Mail – Lush

Few musicians have had a better year than Lindsey Jordan. 2016’s Habit EP garnered Snail Mail a sizeable following, but with the project’s dynamic debut studio album, Jordan became lauded by many as the savior of indie rock. From its sleek, crisp guitar licks to its astonishingly unfiltered lyrics, Lush is bursting forth with fertile life, allowing intricate layers of sound to take swirling melodies and textured meditations to a new level altogether (Before 2018, who was expecting to hear a French horn solo on a Snail Mail track?). Here, producer Jake Aron has sanded down the edges and further accentuated this gem of a performer. Propelled by her majestic guitar shredding and her heavenly gift of sincerity, Lindsey Jordan is the indie-rock prodigy all other will soon be imitating – assuming they aren’t already. Right out of the gate, she’s created a hazy, bedroom pop masterpiece, and we will all be waiting in anticipation for whatever comes next. – Brian Thompson

8. Boygenius – Boygenius EP

On their own, singer songwriters Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers are composing some of the most interesting and beautiful music in indie rock and folk, delivering three of the best albums of the last two years. With boygenius – their own on brand super group – and their self-titled debut they’ve combined their musicality and versatile, empowering voices to create a work that both transcends what they’ve done individually while never straying too far from what makes them all such evocative talents. Soulful with a sound that sweeps us away and lyrics that can devastate (“I want to be emaciated/I want to hear one song without thinking of you” in particular is a killer in “Me & My Dog”) boygenius rally’s the lovesick and forlorn, those looking for escape or salvation, those falling in and out of love and gives them a commiserating escape. – Allyson Johnson

7. The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

The first of two entries in the 1975’s so-called “Music for Cars” era sees the British group fully embrace the label of being a guitar pop band as opposed to anything with the words indie or alternative in it. As with their last album, Matty Healy and company act as musical sponges who absorb and reconfigure unjustly forgotten subgenres while putting their own spin on the affairs. While I Like It When You Sleep leaned heavily on sophisti-pop, the only representation here is the majestic, Blue Nile-influence “Love It If We Made It”. It’s of the year’s best songs and one whose brilliance gets unsold when it is referred to as the millennial “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. The rest of the album is just as fantastic too, telling stories of Healy’s drug addiction and rehabilitation (“Living Is Easy If It’s Not With You”) and his fascination with his American fanbase told through a trap beat (“I Love America and America Loves Me”), alongside a darkly funny update of Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier” (“The Man Who Married A Robot”). For such an ambitious album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is also a ton of fun, and it’s extremely rewarding for those who let go of their their preconceived notions of who The 1975 are supposed to be. – Ryan Gibbs

6. Noname – Room 25

When was the last time you could call a great hip hop album “cleansing”? After inducing the word “promising” from every music writer two years back with Telefone, Room 25 is the promise. And with the exceptions of the triumphant “Ace” and the swaggering “Part Of Me,” the entire album goes down so smoothly that on first pass you might not notice her effortless flow or her peculiar sense of humor. But Room 25 is the sort of album that keeps on giving, even the twentieth time you’ve heard it. – Joey Daniewicz

5. Ariana Grande – Sweetener

If 2018 belonged to anybody, it was Ariana Grande. Digging beyond her engagement, tabloids, her break up, her post-break up anthem and her post post-break up sex jam, you’d be forgiven if you forgot that she dropped the best pop album of the year. With the likes of Pharrell Williams and Max Martin behind the boards, Grande has never sounded more commanding or confident on record. The alluring presence she holds on “God is a Woman” is matched by the heavens her vocals reach on “Breathin’” or the joyous buoyancy she emotes on “R.E.M.” She also slides into some of the weirder beats Williams throws at her, like the kooky bounce of “The Light is Coming” and skittering tropical ticks of “Successful.” But it all comes back to her voice that soars beyond the Mariah Carey comparisons and finally becomes her own: equal parts graceful and powerful. Thank you Ari, next please? – Jon Winkler

4. Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy

2018 was a huge year for Cardi B. The rap artist broke out with “Bodak Yellow” and absolutely exceeded expectations with her album this year, Invasion of Privacy. Invasion of Privacy is intimate, funny, and emotional, an almost perfect reflection of Cardi B as an artist and social media star. She raps about everything from living her best life to cheating partners and moves through each emotional high and low effortlessy with this album. By Infusing her personality so tightly to the lyrics in this album it makes this album such an entertaining listening experience. While “I Like It” may be the biggest hit of the album with Latin artists Bad Bunny and J Balvin features, “Be Careful” is the gem of the album. Both tracks showcase Cardi’s latin roots, but “Be Careful” expands her emotional range, and the album slowly builds on that hurt she feels over being cheated towards the album’s end with tracks, like “Thru Your Phone” or “Ring.” Invasion of Privacy proves the naysayers wrong and cements Cardi B as one of the year’s best artists. – Gabrielle Bondi

3. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour

Upon the first thoughts you have when listening to Golden Hour, “is this… country?” rises to the top of the list. Because between existential questions and the unexpected use of vocoder, Kacey Musgraves managed to make a modern country album that transcended the often polarizing genre line. Crossing into unfamiliar territory when it comes to influences—like disco— Musgraves ties her lyrical honesty into a sonically cohesive body of work that sounds like a hug feels. It’s sleek, beautifully atmospheric, and is full of wisdom from Musgraves’ Texas roots. Going on to win the CMA Album of the Year award in a time where women were basically non-existent in country radio, Kacey Musgraves is basking in her definitely earned, golden hour. – Oleva Berard

2. Mitski – Be the Cowboy

Mitski’s biggest strength, perhaps more than any other artist on this list, is her ability to know exactly what she wants to say and to say it in the most immediate way possible. Only two songs of the 14 that comprise Be the Cowboy go over three minutes, but the songs never feel slight. Rather, each packs enough power to excite you and leave you wanting more without remotely leaving you unsatisfied. Mitski turns up her sound this time around, and it results in true guitar rock moments, particularly in “Geyser” and “Remember My Name,” as well as drily funny disco-pop tunes like “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?” and “Nobody.” The overall impression created is that of a woman unraveling in dramatically fantastic fashion, while the person telling her story is absolutely in control. Be the Cowboy is a buffet of expert instrumentation and vocals in the realm of rock, pop, disco, country, and torch songs and it signals the arrival of an undeniably essential artist. – Beth Winchester

1. Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer

We made it through 2018, and in a year where a song like “Screwed” seemed so necessary, that wasn’t a guarantee. “You fucked the world up now/We’ll fuck it all back down.” Much of Dirty Computer concerns sex—sex to numb the pain, to bring some goodness into the world, to piss off the bastards, or just because. Why let them keep your libido down? She’s Prince-like in her belief in the healing powers of getting freaky, as well as in her otherworldliness. After the best four-song run of this decade (Screwed”-“Django Jane”-“Pynk”-Make Me Feel”), the record mellows, with songs like “I Got the Juice” and “So Afraid” that are merely excellent instead of perfect, but she always keeps it funky. “Black girl magic, y’all can’t stand it,” indeed. Cue the violins and violas. – Matt Rice