2018 has been such a bountiful year for incredible new music from favorites new and old that it's been almost impossible to keep up, but I'm doing my best. In addition to all the posts here on the site, I've been consistently updating our running "Best Songs of 2018" Spotify playlist, featuring some of the essential 2018 jams that may or may not be on your radar yet, from the likes of Avalon, Barrie, Sun June, oklou, Helena Deland, MorMor, Peggy Gou, Grouper, Amen Dunes, G Flip + more...
We are extremely proud to share the beautiful first song from the debut release on our new label Luminelle Recordings, from extraordinary Montreal artist Helena Deland. I was immediately taken by these songs after serendipitously happening upon them by mistake a couple months back, and Helena's elegantly sophisticated and layered songwriting is still revealing new magic after countless listens...
Before we even have time to second guess our albums of the year list, here are our favorite songs of 2017. While plenty of our old favorites are well repped -- including TOPS, Burial, Shabazz Palaces, SZA, Sufjan, Laurel Halo, et al. -- it was an exceptionally great year for exciting new artists, with Men I Trust, Yaeji, Playboi Carti, Kelly Lee Owens, Aldous Harding, Bernache, and so many more dropping some of the most essential songs of the year. Hit play on that 5+ hour Spotify playlist, and follow along with the list below:
As the internet's collective attention span continues to dwindle away and the clickbait economy slowly ruins everything good, we made a conscious effort this year to spend more time listening to fewer things. Discovering new favorites will always remain a priority around here, but it felt good to devote more quality time to absorbing ambitious, flawed, elaborately nuanced and layered masterpieces like Dust, Quazarz, Party, and The OOZ. And the more immediate records that we fell in love with at first listen -- TOPS’ Sugar at the Gate, the super charismatic Carti mixtape, and Kelly Lee Owens’ enveloping debut full-length, to name a few -- felt more like all-time favorites with each spin. While anyone in our top 5 could have staked a legit Album of the Year claim depending on the day, we had to put the two EPs that announced the arrival of dance music's brightest new star in their rightful spot at the top of our list. Here are our favorite records of 2017:
GvsB VI is going to be so good we can barely stand it. Starring + co-curated with Washed Out, one of our favorite artists for almost a decade now. Presented by the homies at Sound on Sound fest, and made possible in part by our friends at Modelo + Stem...
Ernest Greene aka Washed Out returns with a dazzling house hybrid and late-night jam of the summer contender that will sound absolutely massive in the club. "Get Lost" is a super lush and almost shockingly bold (unless you've been up on Washed Out since High Times) track that incorporates elements of hip-hop and a dizzying, kaleidoscopic array of classic dance music vibes, with those signature Washed Out vocals still in full effect...
The winter solstice is an astronomical event marking the shortest day and longest night of the year, a day on which the sun stands still, officially ushering in winter. It's a cold, dark time, and it feels that way this year more so than ever...
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