The Best Albums of 2018
Anxious Sound
10
We Already Lost The World
Birds In Row
9-Song LP
Released July 13 on Deathwish
Favorite tracks: Remember Us Better Than We Are, Triste Sire, Fossils
09
Hippo Lite
Drinks
12-Song LP
Released April 20 on Drag City
Favorite tracks: Blue From the Dark, When I Was Young, In the Night Kitchen, Greasing Up, Pink or Die, You Could Be Better
08
Loma
Loma
10-Song LP
Released February 16 on Sub Pop
Favorite tracks: Who Is Speaking?, Joy, White Glass, Jornada, Black Willow
07
Obey
Exploded View
10-Song LP
Released September 28 on Sacred Bones
Favorite tracks: Open Road, Gone Tomorrow, Sleepers, Letting Go of Childhood Dreams
05
New Material
Preoccupations
8-Song LP
Released March 23 on Jagjaguwar
Favorite tracks: Decompose, Disarray, Manipulation, Antidote, Solace, Doubt, Compliance
04
Phantom Thread (Original Score)
Jonny Greenwood
18-Song 2xLP
Released April 20 on Nonesuch
Favorite tracks: Phantom Thread I, The Hem, Sandalwood I, Alma, Catch Hold, Never Cursed, I'll Follow Tomorrow, House of Woodcock, Sandalwood II, Endless Superstition, For the Hungry Boy
03
Love In Shadow
SUMAC
4-Song LP
Released September 21 on Thrill Jockey
Favorite tracks: The Task, Attis' Blade, Ecstasy of Unbecoming
02
Divine Weight
Alex Zhang Hungtai
5-Song LP
Released June 29 on Boomkat
Favorite tracks: Pierrot, This Is Not My Country, Yaumatei, Divine Weight
01
Tangerine Reef (OST)
Animal Collective
13-Song LP
Released August 17 on Domino
Favorite tracks: Hair Cutter, Inspector Gadget, Airpipe (To A New Transition), Jake and Me, Hip Sponge, Palythoa, Best of Times (Worst of All)
Tangerine Reef is an audiovisual album by Animal Collective in collaboration with Coral Morphologic, an art-science duo and self-professed “pioneers of avant-garde coral macro-videography.” The project commemorates the 2018 International Year of the Reef. On this offering, Animal Collective (here consisting of Avey Tare, Deakin, and Geologist—Panda Bear did not contribute) creates languid, organic sound assemblages that evoke these past works: Meeting of the Waters (2017), Transverse Temporal Gyrus EP (2012), and ODDSAC (2010). I also hear a direct ancestral tie to Avey Tare's 2017 solo album Eucalyptus, one of my favorite albums in the Animal Collective family tree.
These compositions provide the ideal audio accompaniment to a visual project of oceanic themes because they themselves resemble water. Tracks flow in and out of one another. Errant sounds surface and then quickly fall away. Avey’s voice often sounds submerged, as if seeking you out from some murky depth. Like many AC efforts of the last decade, Tangerine Reef is heavy on electronics, synths, and vocal treatments, but even those sound aquatic here.
Having listened intently to Animal Collective’s kaleidoscopic, genre-defying output for nearly 20 years, I don't believe they could ever create something other than a genuine expression. Their sound is original and unapologetically distinct, and Tangerine Reef is another compelling example of the band’s unique fingerprint. Simultaneously haunting, ethereal, urgent, and beautiful, it’s as strange and endearing a record as any Animal Collective has made.
