{"id":16815,"date":"2018-12-29T13:45:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-29T11:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/?p=16815"},"modified":"2019-10-23T15:16:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T13:16:44","slug":"culturedarms-albums-of-the-year-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/culturedarms-albums-of-the-year-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Culturedarm&#8217;s Albums of the Year 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_19529\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19529\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-19529 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=696%2C464&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=370%2C247&ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=270%2C180&ssl=1 270w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=570%2C380&ssl=1 570w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=770%2C513&ssl=1 770w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=1170%2C780&ssl=1 1170w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/wp-content\/uploads\/Julia-Holter-Aviary-2.jpg?resize=870%2C580&ssl=1 870w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19529\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/juliaholter.bandcamp.com\/album\/aviary\">Julia Holter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/rickbahto.com\/\">Dicky Bahto<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">50. Helena Hauff \u2013 <em>Qualm<\/em> | 49. Georgia Anne Muldrow \u2013 <em>Overload<\/em> | 48. Princess Nokia \u2013 <em>A Girl Cried Red<\/em> | 47. Autechre \u2013 <em>NTS Sessions 1-4<\/em> | 46. Nicole Dollanganger \u2013 <em>Heart Shaped Bed<\/em> | 45. Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada and Friends \u2013 <em>Nue (FRKWYS Vol. 14)<\/em> | 44. Ian William Craig \u2013 <em>Thresholder<\/em> | 43. Ambrose Akinmusire \u2013 <em>Origami Harvest<\/em> | 42. Travis Scott \u2013 <em>ASTROWORLD<\/em> | 41. Kodie Shane \u2013 <em>Young HeartThrob<\/em> | 40. The Caretaker \u2013 <em>Everywhere at the end of time (Stages 4 & 5)<\/em> | 39. How to Dress Well \u2013 <em>The Anteroom<\/em> | 38. Cupcakke \u2013 <em>Ephorize<\/em> | 37. Mitski \u2013 <em>Be the Cowboy<\/em> | 36. Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet \u2013 <em>Landfall<\/em> | 35. JPEGMAFIA \u2013 <em>Veteran <\/em>| 34. Tim Hecker \u2013 <em>Konoyo<\/em> | 33. Janelle Mon\u00e1e \u2013 <em>Dirty Computer<\/em> | 32. Yves Tumor \u2013 <em>Safe in the Hands of Love <\/em>| 31. Kacey Musgraves \u2013 <em>Golden Hour<\/em> | 30. Neneh Cherry \u2013 <em>Broken Politics<\/em> | 29. Tierra Whack \u2013 <em>Whack World<\/em> | 28. Cardi B \u2013 <em>Invasion of Privacy<\/em> | 27. Teyana Taylor \u2013 <em>K.T.S.E.<\/em> | 26. SOPHIE \u2013 <em>OIL OF EVERY PEARL\u2019S UN-INSIDES<\/em> | 25. Objekt \u2013 <em>Cocoon Crush | <\/em>24. Rosal\u00eda \u2013 <em>El mal querer<\/em> | 23. Ariana Grande \u2013 Sweetener | 22. Kanye West \u2013 <em>ye<\/em> | 21. Kamasi Washington \u2013 <em>Heaven and Earth<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>20. serpentwithfeet \u2013 <em>soil<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"OYt-eYCDmps\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"serpentwithfeet \u2013 Cherubim | OFFICIAL VIDEO\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OYt-eYCDmps?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>19. Gazelle Twin \u2013 <em>Pastoral<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"anM7ZcNBoFw\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gazelle Twin - Hobby Horse (official video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/anM7ZcNBoFw?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>18. Earl Sweatshirt \u2013 Some Rap Songs<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"UCceUo94X1g\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Earl Sweatshirt - Nowhere2go (Official Audio)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UCceUo94X1g?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>17. Dizzy Fae \u2013 <em>Free Form<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"D-AhxD_cJwI\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dizzy Fae - Her\/Indica (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D-AhxD_cJwI?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Any preconceptions one might have going in to Dizzy Fae\u2019s debut mixtape \u2013 whether owing to her name, the ordinary nature of mixtapes, or the alternative R&B catchall she falls under \u2013 are utterly dispelled within the first few phrases of the opening song \u2018Her\u2019, which begins as a lush and airy piece of musical theatre. \u2018She taught me everything I know\u2019, Fae confides, her voice knowing and mellifluous, over glistening and swelling and seafaring synths which she swoops and swoons to meet and meld with, the crunch and drag of footsteps providing the percussion and her voice the contours as the song edges towards its crescendo and Fae repeats \u2018Can you feel the isle of snow carved beneath?\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>A classically trained musician who studied opera and dance at two Twin Cities institutions, the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Arts and TU Dance, a fledgeling solo star who performed with The Internet, Kehlani, Empress Of, and supported Lizzo and Toro y Moi before this first mixtape release, what really distinguishes <em>Free Form<\/em> beyond its freewheeling attitude to genre is the composed, performative approach through which Dizzy Fae roots the project. \u2018Johnny Bravo\u2019 is a sleek and urbane take on 80s synth-pop, replete with breezy insights and evocative imagery, like \u2018Lighthouse boy, you see that girl light up? \/ She always glows pink, so you can disguise the fact that she\u2019s always feeling blue\u2019. \u2018Canyon\u2019 oscillates inside a plasma globe, its wiry filaments, electric glow, and the steady snap of percussion sustaining a soaring soul vocal.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the tracks are lushly produced or co-produced by Minnesotan contemporaries Alec Ness, Su Na, Sen 09, and Psyum. There are wobbly basslines, funk and jazz and new wave cues on \u2018Booty 3000\u2019 and \u2018Baby Pillz\u2019, a zither-like, eastern-infused melodic line on \u2018Kosmic Love\u2019, and pensive late-night R&B on \u2018Temporary\u2019. \u2018Indica\u2019 \u2013\u00a0 a song about falling in love for the first time with a woman, transposed as the second half of \u2018Her\u2019 for Dizzy Fae\u2019s music video bow \u2013 makes use of pitch-shifted vocals to figure vulnerability, pitting Dizzy Fae right where she belongs, amid the alarums of synths and slow-throbbing bass, in the middle of contemporary trends with an unusual mastery of form and emotional register.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>16. Mount Eerie \u2013 <em>Now Only<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 150px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/track=2144236029\/album=3448073016\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>15. Laurel Halo \u2013 <em>Raw Silk Uncut Wood<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"cDeD4rz6orc\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Raw Silk Uncut Wood\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cDeD4rz6orc?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>14. Noname \u2013 <em>Room 25<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=syi60tUIP48<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>13. Tirzah \u2013 <em>Devotion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"c2EIDPpzXUE\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tirzah - Gladly (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c2EIDPpzXUE?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Trained in the harp, working a day job as a designer for a print agency, with production by Micachu which teeters and disorients and lilts, on <em>Devotion<\/em>, her debut album, Tirzah provides a model of intimate, understated, singer-songwriter R&B. The record works by a process of repetition: most of its songs are built around loping and stuttering, looping, low frequency keys, punctuated by hi-hats and the fuzz and rumble and occasional glimmer of synthesizer, music which serves to buttress Tirzah\u2019s lovesick and lovelorn themes. Innocent, clear-sighted, yet still with a touch of menace, again and again Tirzah ostensibly addresses a lover, although some of these songs double as messages to herself. Occasionally she seems to occupy both sides of a dialogue, or in the tumult and uncertainty of separation inhabits both spaces, one and the same: the gesture remains familiar, whether to hold on to something worth saving, or to finally let go, to say when or say forever, each in an attempt to make whole.<\/p>\n<p>It is difficult to say who conjures the better trick: Micachu whose production so thoroughly unsettles the plainspokenness of Tirzah\u2019s lyrics, or Tirzah who manages to straddle these loops with her frank and thin but still dexterous, modulating voice. \u2018Do You Know\u2019 circles the plughole, unsure whether to drain or let sink. On \u2018Gladly\u2019 a four-note synth loop and steady percussion sustain a song full of clarity and hope, Tirzah\u2019s voice hovering above the mix, the odd twinkling key reaching out before the lushly drenched bridge. Muted trumpets provide an air of cautious triumph on \u2018Holding On\u2019, with an instrumental interlude offering momentary resolution. The brashly gleaming opening to \u2018Basic Need\u2019 gives way to breathy percussion and a shape-shifting vocal which inhabits all of the spaces between R&B, gospel, and soul. Power chords and pitch-shifted vocals distort \u2018Guilty\u2019 almost to the point of incomprehensibility until the song is finally subsumed by guitar, pacing keys and a simple entreaty from Coby Sey provide the building blocks to the title track, \u2018Go Now\u2019 mines \u2018Are You That Somebody?\u2019 by Aaliyah and \u2018Bills, Bills, Bills\u2019-era Destiny\u2019s Child for a slightly grimy, funky, late-90\u2019s R&B sound but without the uplift, and the lurching, buzzing synths which give way to wet lubricated keys make album closer \u2018Reach\u2019 a dense and misty final plea for communication.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>12. Vince Staples \u2013 <em>FM!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"vz9-pXuvFEU\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vince Staples - FUN! (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vz9-pXuvFEU?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>11. Devon Welsh \u2013 <em>Dream Songs<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"mp7vmMWl2tI\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Devon Welsh - By the Daylight (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mp7vmMWl2tI?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>10. Kali Uchis \u2013 <em>Isolation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"9f5zD7ZSNpQ\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kali Uchis - After The Storm ft. Tyler, The Creator, Bootsy Collins\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9f5zD7ZSNpQ?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>From Motown soul to Brazilian bossa nova, from West Coast psychedelia to swinging sixties London with a tropical twist, on <em>Isolation<\/em>, her debut album, Kali Uchis glides and bounds through a palette of sounds rooted in and richly evocative of the past, globetrotting with one eye on home, lingering in the sun of the late afternoon. There are traces of Marvin Gaye (\u2018Body Language\u2019) and even Roy Orbison (\u2018In My Dreams\u2019), Amy Winehouse-inspired, schematized takes on vintage soul and R&B (\u2018Feel Like a Fool\u2019, \u2018Killer\u2019), Robyn-esque electropop (\u2018Dead To Me\u2019), while features bring their own flourishes to the mix: rapper BIA brings the flash to the sleek and bubbly \u2018Miami\u2019, \u2018Just a Stranger\u2019 with Steve Lacy moves with a warped and chopped funk, \u2018Tyrant\u2019 with Jorja Smith is kaleidoscopically transient, on \u2018Nuestro Planeta\u2019 amid dashes of disco Reykon offers his characteristic blend of reggaeton, and Bootsy Collins and Tyler, the Creator provide the star turns on \u2018After the Storm\u2019. There are instrumental plumes too, for instance in the flute on \u2018Body Language\u2019 or the brass ends which punctuate \u2018Killer\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>But though they play their part these features flicker in and then out, wafting on the breeze: it\u2019s in Kali\u2019s hands that the whole coheres. Aside from her impeccable taste and an ability to seamlessly blend genres, vocally she\u2019s always up to the task, mingling and melding with and sustaining her songs. \u2018Gotta Get Up\u2019, styled as an interlude, is a standout for its whoozy atmospherics and tangible daydreams. <em>Isolation<\/em> is on the one hand about the push and pull of family, home and the familiar, on the other about escapism, and reconstituting as a means of preserving the self. There are pensive moments, like on \u2018Tomorrow\u2019 where the sun strains to keep the clouds at bay; \u2018Flight 22\u2019 is a love song which forebodes disaster; on \u2018Dead To Me\u2019 she\u2019s a touch sarcastic, for she might be the one who\u2019s still obsessed; while \u2018In My Dreams\u2019 featuring Gorillaz is so hyper it\u2019s dizzying. In the end Kali Uchis comes through, showing that with sharpness, deft, and an easy disposition, she\u2019s more than capable of seizing opportunity on her own terms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>9. Skee Mask \u2013 <em>Compro<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"WrxXObHUyVg\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Skee Mask - Flyby VFR\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WrxXObHUyVg?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>8. Marie Davidson \u2013 <em>Working Class Woman<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"23Df3jHYTrs\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Marie Davidson - &#039;Work It&#039;\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/23Df3jHYTrs?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>7. Oneohtrix Point Never \u2013 <em>Age Of<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"qMQJF-7Y2h0\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Oneohtrix Point Never - Black Snow\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qMQJF-7Y2h0?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>After collaborating with ANOHNI, FKA Twigs, David Byrne, and Iggy Pop, and composing his first soundtrack, to the Safdie brothers\u2019 neon-clad crime caper <em>Good Time<\/em>, the first Oneohtrix Point Never album for three years has been described as folk horror, suitably cinematic while capturing its manner of composition and prevailing mood. Between work on his other projects, Daniel Lopatin retreated to suburban Massachusetts, to a glass-clad Airbnb out in the woods. He made much of his album there, alone and feeling under observation, the windowpanes at night alit with kamikaze moths. But you could just as well throw \u2018space\u2019 in front of the genre descriptor, because if there\u2019s something down-home and makeshift about <em>Age Of<\/em>, that doesn\u2019t halt or hamper its interstellar reach.<\/p>\n<p><em>Age Of<\/em> attains folk horror histrionics and palpable moments of dread, but as usual Lopatin draws from a broad palette of musical styles and cultural ephemera. In his hands ephemera become stranded in space, carved out or crystallised, detritus is redesigned or rediscovered as high culture, and prevailing trends, the spirit of the age, are spread out and made to go swimming. <em>Age Of<\/em> for the first time foregrounds Lopatin\u2019s vocals, usually autotuned so that they attain a robotic intimacy, with support from ANOHNI and Prurient. James Blake provides additional production and mixing, Kelsey Lu features on keyboards, and especially on the second half of the album, Eli Keszler takes over on drums. <em>Age Of<\/em> has another life as part of Lopatin\u2019s MYRIAD project, a multimedia stage production which played at Park Avenue Armory as part of the Red Bull Music Festival, an \u2018epochal song cycle\u2019 in four parts which figures a group of artificial intelligences who in the distant future lounge about parsing the history of human recording, seeking the banality in the beauty of our ongoing decay.<\/p>\n<p>Album opener and title track \u2018Age Of\u2019 springs to life with a synthesized cross between a koto and a lyre, before rapid arpeggiated harpsichords transport us and we wind up in a baroque, austere and stringent. Somewhere amid the boing-boing of the synths the baroque gets smoothed out, like a string quartet performing inside of a mall elevator, until the gloop and gunk and then a final barrage of sound overcomes the edifice. The track is typical of the album in being so forthright, while mining traditional forms for a queasy resonance. \u2018Babylon\u2019 is a pitch-shifted country ballad, both ode and elegy to the modern city, the looped guitar riff which shackles \u2018The Station\u2019 gives out and rolls off into the nether, and on \u2018Black Snow\u2019 descending bass and percussive clicks give way to an R&B vocal on televisual static, societal demise, and impending apocalypse.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Toys 2\u2019 swirls and swells inside its temple block beakers, a slow-moving, pensive instrumental composed as the score to an imaginary film, the sequel to the early-90s clunker <em>Toys<\/em> starring a CGI Robin Williams. As the sheen wanes in the second half, its sound is too inert to be described as ennui, too glazily abstract to be portrayed as melancholy. \u2018Warning\u2019 is all faltering breath under shimmering sitar, \u2018We\u2019ll Take It\u2019 wades through the radioactive wreckage, fiery sparks, industrial hammering and welding, squelching percussion and trammelling waves of synth interrupted by fragments of a <em>MADtv<\/em> sketch, where a minister-cum-car salesman exuberantly hawks his wares to a compliant young couple, and \u2018Same\u2019 stars ANOHNI, despairing and crashing, whose lyrics on the themes \u2018As above, so below\u2019 and \u2018Dust to dust\u2019 offer the most overt instance of the spiritual undertone to Oneohtrix Point Never\u2019s music. The slinky and radiant \u2018RayCats\u2019 refers to a scientific proposal around genetically modified cats, bred to change colour in proximity to nuclear radiation. \u2018Still Stuff That Doesn\u2019t Happen\u2019 is a quiet celebration of the household. And \u2018Last Known Image of a Song\u2019 is dark and stellar, but it abides rather than forebodes, for <em>Age Of<\/em> might be grim and sometimes isolated, but it\u2019s never desolate, always suffused with human inclinations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>6. Pusha T \u2013 <em>DAYTONA<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"L7-0ugujS2U\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pusha T - If You Know You Know (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L7-0ugujS2U?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>5. Grouper \u2013 <em>Grid of Points<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 150px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/track=3945017595\/album=3837097434\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>4. Blood Orange \u2013 <em>Negro Swan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Q0gG0DtbPcY\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blood Orange - Chewing Gum (feat. A$AP Rocky and Project Pat) (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q0gG0DtbPcY?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u2018First kiss was the floor\u2019, Dev Hynes sings on <em>Negro Swan<\/em> opener \u2018Orlando\u2019, and as he got up he seems to have carried some of the world with him. There\u2019s a weight to this music, feelings of anxiety and alienation and exhaustion, themes of black identity expressed through music, hair, and skin, of performative masculinity, of political and societal and psychic distress. Hynes discusses childhood beatings based on race and gender or sexual nonconformity, there are brief references to police brutality and mass shootings, and Hynes delves into personal locales from the run-down East London borough of Barking and Dagenham where he grew up to the covered-but-still-porous legacy of Manhattan\u2019s Minetta Creek. Yet none of this specificity and none of this darkness provides the right contour for the sheer pleasure of listening to <em>Negro Swan<\/em>. Dev Hynes seems able to reflect at the same time as he absorbs, to float on the breeze as a model for sturdy self-realisation: <em>Negro Swan<\/em> is yielding and unhurried even as it bristles with life, gently buoying its listener.<\/p>\n<p>The sonic palette is broad and encompassing: Hynes casually finds the connecting threads between the easy funk and celestial R&B of <em>Sign o\u2019 the Times<\/em>-era Prince and the shoegazing psychedelia of early Smashing Pumpkins, between the freewheeling soul of Marvin Gaye and the dreamy soundscapes of Air and the Cocteau Twins. There are robust rap features and one major coup in the appearances of A$AP Rocky, Project Pat, and Puff Daddy, with the train-track percussion and pitch-shifted samples of \u2018Chewing Gum\u2019 \u2013 a song about tiredness and ennui set upon images of oral sex, which loops the refrain from the mid-90s Memphis underground classic\u00a0 \u2018Lookin\u2019 for Da Chewin\u201d by Kingpin Skinny Pimp \u2013 providing that tune with its hard edge. But moments like these sit happily alongside the Robert Wyatt-inspired, woodwind infused \u2018Take Your Time\u2019, and the smooth opening to \u2018Jewelry\u2019, reminiscent of nothing so much as the Beach Boys\u2019 \u2018Cabin Essence\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Hope\u2019 \u2013 on which Puffy positions himself as hip hop\u2019s first purveyor of faltering intimacy \u2013 and \u2018Runnin\u201d,\u00a0highlighted by the soaring vocals of Tei Shi and Georgia Anne Muldrow, make explicit some of the lingering tensions on the album, anxiousness dispersed by messages of optimism and encouragement and self-belief. There are jazz flourishes notably on \u2018Saint\u2019 and \u2018Jewelry\u2019, and on \u2018Holy Will\u2019, a partial cover of the Clark Sisters\u2019 \u2018Center of Thy Will\u2019 featuring Ian Isiah and Eva Tolkin, high-definition gospel with on outro of glimmering synth. There\u2019s a choral quality to \u2018Dagenham Dream\u2019 which turns the tables on violence and coercion, while \u2018Minetta Creek\u2019 and \u2018Smoke\u2019 possess a sleek, urbane and chattering New York City feel. Finally acoustic guitar breaks through the din and Hynes repeats, \u2018The Sun comes in, my heart fulfills within\u2019, but whatever he\u2019s found, <em>Negro Swan<\/em> shows he\u2019s more than capable of giving.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>3. Robyn \u2013 <em>Honey<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Mru9GG3ur9U\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Robyn - Honey\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mru9GG3ur9U?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Robyn is one of the all-time great artists at conveying and embodying what\u2019s always seemed like a decidedly youthful form of romance. Let\u2019s put it between her and Ronnie Spector, separated by very different career arcs, Robyn starting especially young but finding her voice by seizing the sort of control over her music Spector could scarcely dream about, and by the fact that while Spector sung rhapsodically barely in the first flush of love, Robyn has borne instead love unrequited and on the way out. That\u2019s from coquettish yet caustic takes like \u2018Bum Like You\u2019 and \u2018Love Kills\u2019, to the forlorn anguish of \u2018Be Mine\u2019, to \u2018Every Heartbeat\u2019 which rapt in the throes of heartbreak stumbles and tumbles and barely holds on, and even to \u2018Call Your Girlfriend\u2019 which finds Robyn adopting dual roles, ostensibly the other woman but relating intimately through experience to the woman scorned, and \u2018Hang With Me\u2019, tender but ever wary.<\/p>\n<p>She hasn\u2019t been gone for so long: in the meantime she\u2019s released EPs with R\u00f6yksopp and as La Bagatelle Magique, featured on records by Neneh Cherry, Kindness, and Mr. Tophat, and her label Konichiwa Records has signed and released music by its sole other artist, Zhala. But though age is but a number and concepts of age changing fast, still Robyn\u2019s first solo album in eight years has been anticipated with eagerness as well as a sense of wonder, over the sort of Robyn we\u2019re going to find as she nears forty and grapples with the death of her longtime friend and collaborator Christian Falk. Does the popular love song have an expiry date, can a different sort of heartache still sustain moments of bliss?<\/p>\n<p>While Robyn\u2019s crystallised songs of young love and youthful ardour are universally relatable and intimately wrought, even as an artist Robyn has always held her reserve. In songs of longing it was never you she was looking at, and as you took surreptitious glances across the club floor she was alone wrapped up in thoughts about someone else, even if there was always the implicit invitation to dance. By contrast on <em>Honey<\/em> Robyn enters into more of a negotiation with her audience: its songs are unhurried, at times they bear traces of weariness and worry, but they are each suffused with an inviting warmth. Unafraid to mine a long history of dance trends and subcultures, Robyn intuitively melds their disparate pieces into a sturdy yet flexible, seductive and enveloping whole.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Missing U\u2019 eases its listeners in through shimmering electropop, vintage Robyn with a psychedelic twist, on a song whose meditation on loss doubles as a message to Robyn\u2019s fervent fanbase. \u2018There\u2019s this empty space you left behind \/ Now you\u2019re not here with me\u2019, Robyn sings breathlessly, but \u2018All the love you gave it still defines me\u2019, a message of courage and resolve, cuts quietly through the murk. Featuring Zhala, \u2018Human Being\u2019 inhabits a future of artificial intelligence, over fraying, distending synths and dull thudding drums Robyn still managing to find her sense of rhythm. \u2018Because It\u2019s in the Music\u2019 is pure disco, steady bass and Robyn\u2019s sinewy vocal preventing the confection from becoming sickly sweet.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Because It\u2019s in the Music\u2019 forms a sort of trio with \u2018Baby Forgive Me\u2019 and \u2018Send to Robin Immediately\u2019, the songs seguing into one another and affording different visions of the disco-led late night: \u2018Baby Forgive Me\u2019, whose backing vocal follows on from \u2018Because It\u2019s in the Music\u201ds song-within-a-song, sounds like a road song or saloon song in the manner of \u2018One for My Baby\u2019, detached but seeking intimacy, a mellow mood with a modern R&B sensibility on which wind chime synths are buttressed between back-and-forth cowbell; while on \u2018Send to Robin Immediately\u2019 the entreaty \u2018Baby forgive me\u2019 becomes less persuasive and more direct. Produced by Kindness, \u2018Send to Robin Immediately\u2019 interpolates Lil Louis\u2019 house classic \u2018French Kiss\u2019, amid the thick buzzing atmosphere offering tail-end twinklings of hope.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Honey\u2019 is a towering achievement that suffuses the rest of Robyn\u2019s work, trickling over and through the extent of the album, offering tactile and tensile support. Its synths come in waves, silky and fragrant, Robyn\u2019s brisk vocal surfing effortlessly over the top. \u2018Honey\u2019 really encapsulates a newfound softness and generosity to Robyn\u2019s music, as well as necessitating a new word, a new concept, a new process: something that figures a song which sounds like its foodstuff. \u2018Between the Lines\u2019 draws overtly from early 90s house music, \u2018Beach 2k20\u2019 offers a taste of the tropics through discrete parts, and the slick 80s synth-pop of album closer \u2018Ever Again\u2019 opens out with an upbeat lyric full of optimism and liberty hard-won. \u2018Never gonna be brokenhearted \/ Ever again \/ I\u2019m only gonna sing about love \/ Ever again\u2019, Robyn sings with a pulse, knowing full well that the two are inseparable, and that the pitfalls and passions of love have always been her theme. Love can be fickle, but in the moment of love its unsullied, pristine: love lasts, and art endures, and when Robyn moves the world gasps and ogles at her agility then strains to keep up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>2. KIDS SEE GHOSTS \u2013 <em>KIDS SEE GHOSTS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"G7hXE3_obWc\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kids See Ghosts\" width=\"696\" height=\"522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G7hXE3_obWc?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Kanye West\u2019s project over the early part of the summer seemed to be to take the zeitgeist for throwaways, for short attention spans and a sort of fickleness and contrariness to which he contributed more than most, and to capture its liberating qualities in forms resembling works of art. So \u2013 subsuming the world of EPs and mixtapes \u2013 we had five short albums in the space of a month, which aside from Kanye\u2019s own releases saw him produce for Pusha T, Nas, and Teyana Taylor. If Pusha T\u2019s <em>Daytona<\/em> was the stripped-back statement of intent, <em>KIDS SEE GHOSTS<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Kanye\u2019s collaborative album with Kid Cudi, a waif-like arthouse kindred spirit \u2013 sought to show that even a brisk twenty-four minutes could be mind-bending and inquisitive, an evolution in style at the same time as it\u2019s gloriously freeform.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s bold and brash in its production, full of buzzing strings, clattering drums, straining keys, and strummed guitar, its movements and interpolations strike at the gut rather than seeking to alter the mood, and its lyrics are for the most part playful and introspective. \u2018Feel the Love\u2019, with an extemporaneous verse from Pusha T and Cudi\u2019s self-assuring pronouncements, sees Kanye play the mad scatter, spluttering gunfire. \u2018Fire\u2019 features stunted brass and chain gang percussion, \u20184th Dimension\u2019 samples Louis Prima\u2019s \u2018What Will Santa Claus Say\u2019 to delirious effect, and \u2018Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)\u2019 abounds in staggered rock dynamics. \u2018Reborn\u2019 with its minor keys, melancholy but still sustaining, and chug-along percussion gives way to a couple of stark confessionals, Kanye forthright while Cudi blurs hauntingly into the music.<\/p>\n<p>The title track \u2018Kids See Ghosts\u2019 is all quivering spectres: amid the bubble and drip of the beat, and the oscillation of what sounds like synthesized castanets, the shiver and subtle change of rhythm midway through Kanye\u2019s sinuous verse marks one of the most thrilling moments of his career. \u2018Cudi Montage\u2019, with firebrand guitar courtesy of Kurt Cobain\u2019s \u2018Burn the Rain\u2019, wraps up the record on the note of a modern-day spiritual. All of these songs deal in some way with loss, with feelings of public condemnation and abandonment, with depleted and deteriorating mental health, and with the attempt to overcome and navigate some way out, an intermittent struggle but an effort always worth celebrating.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>1. Julia Holter \u2013 <em>Aviary<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"k5uwPaCvbhA\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Julia Holter - I Shall Love 2 (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k5uwPaCvbhA?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Amid glittering and straining strings, crashing rolls of percussion, plucked bass and buzzing brass, a cacophony of sound, on \u2018Turn the Light On\u2019, the opening song from <em>Aviary<\/em>, Julia Holter is stranded again: beaming brightly from the lighthouse, transfixed by memory, enveloped in a love which may be more imagined than real. \u2018In a high, vast, and empty distance\u2019, Holter\u2019s love light is a searing, ululating, reverberating supernova of the stars she would have her suitor eat. \u2018Turn the Light On\u2019 sets the tone for <em>Aviary<\/em>, an expandable enclosure with the lure of nature which for all its grandiosity and intimacy finds Holter at her most isolated. Its meditations are full of wariness as well as wonder, and its swirling rhapsodies speak of alarm, for even a love call is a call of alarm when it rises and falls suddenly and is keenly felt.<\/p>\n<p>At eighty-nine minutes, the length of a double album, <em>Aviary<\/em> might seem daunting, but its songs seem to gallop by even when they unfold with a stately march. Pop hooks and full-frontal auditory assaults subsist alongside elegant baroques, still characterised by the hocketing technique where a single melody bounces between two instruments or voices compete and cohere in rapid call-and-response. Each track is full of interest, and joyous in the ways that they play with sound despite the sometimes remote and lovelorn themes. These days people feel easily oppressed by the attention implied by duration, or by acquaintance to cultural forms outside their usual milieus. In this sense the fact that <em>Aviary<\/em> draws its title from a line from an Etel Adnan short story, \u2018I found myself in an aviary full of shrieking birds\u2019, already serves as a barrier to entry: at best it\u2019s something else to add to the reading list. But references no matter how erudite they might seem have always served as portals rather than hurdles on Julia Holter\u2019s records, and likewise on <em>Aviary<\/em>. It takes no effort whatsoever to immerse yourself in this.<\/p>\n<p>On \u2018Chaitius\u2019, whose soaring choral vocals mimic birdsong before progressing into something approaching new age, medieval strings and naif-like phonetics give way to synthetics and a spoken-word passage delivered in the manner of a self-help manual, with lyrics drawn from the Old Occitan troubadour poet Bernart de Ventadorn. \u2018Voce Simul\u2019 continues in the same vein, its automaton utterances over cool and sombre jazz eventually becoming tribalistic. Bagpipes sound like foghorns on \u2018Everyday Is an Emergency\u2019, before ominous keys and lyrics which once again function like sound poems figure the dim and circling pseudo-continuous. Some of these songs have long gestations, and \u2018Another Dream\u2019 with its jagged synths, spaciousness, and refrain \u2018In the sweet melody I can see your face\u2019, harks back to Holter\u2019s earlier works <em>Tragedy<\/em> and <em>Ekstasis<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I Shall Love 2\u2019 is a piece of blistering, beautifully distilled pop, with propulsive percussion and vocal trills reminiscent of 60s girl groups, a Dantean interlude in the lines \u2018Why do you squander? \/ Why do you hoard?\u2019, and whooping and hollering as the song reaches its impassioned climax. \u2018Underneath the Moon\u2019 offers a slight change of pace with its ramshackle drumming, \u2018Colligere\u2019 is an ornate evocation of memory, as it slips its bonds or disintegrates, and \u2018In Gardens\u2019 Muteness\u2019 is an aching, almost tearfully sad song about separation and incommunicability. \u2018I Would Rather See\u2019 is based on a fragment of Sappho\u2019s poetry as translated by Anne Carson:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2018I would rather see her lovely step \/ and the motion of light on her face \/ than chariots of Lydians or ranks \/ of footsoldiers in arms\u2019<\/p>\n<p>fitting for an artist so concerned with faces in turn or in silhouette, seen only in the brisk blurred moment.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Les Jeux to You\u2019 draws its inspiration from medieval memory games, slinkingly exquisite, its abundance of simple present forms forging an impression of intent which becomes wilfulness, swirling and heady. Quivering strings provide the panorama on \u2018Words I Heard\u2019, a sweeping song set in war time, present, ancient, or mythic. Droning bagpipes and strings, chomping bass and constant shakers sustain \u2018I Shall Love 1\u2019, a reprise figured as the first part, muttering, pleading, coupling, and dependent. And on the muted ceremonial close to <em>Aviary<\/em>, \u2018Why Sad Song\u2019 \u2013 based on a phonetic transcription of \u2018Kyema Mimin\u2019 by the Nepalese Buddhist nun Ani Choying Drolma and the jazz guitarist Steve Tibbetts \u2013 Holter inhabits a pensive mournfulness before shimmering out on the cymbal. <em>Aviary<\/em> is lush and exploratory, its sounds exulting in small triumphs, its moods and states lingering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>50. Helena Hauff \u2013 Qualm | 49. Georgia Anne Muldrow \u2013 Overload | 48. Princess Nokia \u2013 A Girl Cried Red | 47. Autechre \u2013 NTS Sessions 1-4 | 46. Nicole Dollanganger \u2013 Heart Shaped Bed | 45. Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada and Friends \u2013 Nue (FRKWYS Vol. 14) | 44. Ian William Craig [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4555,4018,3880],"tags":[4643,942,4644,4038,1735,1754,4639,4640,2336,4642,2712,4641],"class_list":{"0":"post-16815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-albums-of-the-year","8":"category-lists","9":"category-music","10":"tag-blood-orange","11":"tag-devon-welsh","12":"tag-dizzy-fae","13":"tag-grouper","14":"tag-julia-holter","15":"tag-kanye-west","16":"tag-kid-cudi","17":"tag-kids-see-ghosts","18":"tag-oneohtrix-point-never","19":"tag-pusha-t","20":"tag-robyn","21":"tag-tirzah"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Culturedarm&#039;s Albums of the Year 2018 - Culturedarm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/culturedarms-albums-of-the-year-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Culturedarm&#039;s Albums of the Year 2018 - Culturedarm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"50. 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