The Sidekicks - Happiness Hours
When I saw The Sidekicks touring Happiness Hours earlier this year, I was convinced that this was the best album of the year while I watching them. I'm not sure about that now, but I also have no idea what the best was anyways. This is up and is a huge return to form for them. Really great power-pop songs with huge bass parts and vocal hooks and it takes you on a wonderful journey from start to finish.
I eagerly anticipated this album after reading a great interview with Damian in the Canadian music magazine Exclaim! It delivered on my expectations and I think that this is their best work since Hidden World and The Chemistry of Common Life. It's a drugged out British version of David Comes to Life that, I think, gives a more interesting and nuanced interpretation of that story. Has a hardcore band ever been on Fucked Up's level? Is Fucked Up the best band to ever come out of Toronto. This album makes me believe so.
Bonus content: Here's the Exclaim! article I mentioned. Also, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham and Mike Haliechuk, who are noted for clashing creatively in the band, did an episode on Damian's podcast Turned Out a Punk and it makes for a great companion piece to the album.
Turnstile - Time & Space
On the other hand, I love that recently everyone has stopped being afraid to love breakdowns and heavy chug parts in hardcore and I think that Turnstile has been a huge part of that. Heavy and groovy, but also channelling a lot of Give-esque counter culture influence. Great stuff and I love the direction they're taking as a band. Plus they got Atiba Jefferson to shoot a video! Worlds colliding!
The thing that interests me most about this record is how difficult it is to pigeonhole it. So often now, I find that band are purposefully working through a specific interest, or purposefully using a genre trope or sound. Fiddlehead is kind of hardcore, kind of punk, kind of post-punk, kind of poppy, but the songs never really sit in any of those categories, and I think that's what makes this record really interesting.
Culture Abuse - Bay Dream
Culture Abuse did the most difficult thing a band can do on Bay Dream, trimming off all superfluous parts in their sound and making a tight, succinct album that defines their identity as a band. Each song moves naturally through its construction and has great hooky guitars and choruses that gives the pieces character. The band sounds like their recognizing their influences and purposefully nodding to past artists, but do it in a way that seems natural and never hackneyed. On top of that, the lyrics are simple and to the point, but do a wonderful job of world building and drawing you into the life that Culture Abuse lives. As perfect an album as CA will make.
Out of all the albums I knew would be released in 2018, Tony Molina's was the one I was most anxious to hear. I would have liked a little more stoner fuzz on it, but I also appreciate that he's pushing himself to write 60's-style folk pop and allowing his vocals to carry the melody, which seems like a strip down to bare parts, but is very hard to pull off. One of my very favourite artists producing music right now.
The first time I listened to Ordinary Corrupt Human Love was while skateboarding to a park to hangout with my brother on a hot night in the summer. It was the perfect soundtrack for that.
Dan P and the Bricks - When We Were Fearless
Few things disappoint me as much as the fact that I continue going to bat for ska, but so few actually good ska releases are put out anymore. Dan P bucks that trend and makes up for everyone else dropping the ball by writing big band ska songs that still rely on pop song structure.
I'm pretty over shoegaze because I feel like most bands lean to heavily on having the right gear to make their guitar sound huge and atmospheric while forgetting to write a good song first. I don't care that you have a Twin Reverb. I care about your songs. On Dance on the Blacktop Nothing write wonderful Britpop songs and and then blow them up into huge dreamy gaze numbers. That's an important distinction to make and it's also why Nothing is the only shoegaze band I still listen to.
I was very shocked to receive a new Shook Ones album in 2018, as I was pretty certain they had broken up. But they had not! Body Feel builds on the moves the band started to make with The Unquoteable A.M.H,, establishing that they're more than a Kid Dynamite clone and have a depth to their music that most contemporary punk is sorely lacking. I always appreciated the personal/political bent of their stuff and that continues here. Happy to have you back.
Vince Staples - FM!
A downside of punk is that your mind gets used to every album being under 30 minutes and it becomes difficult to remain focused on things with longer run times. Specifically with rap, whose albums often hold 20-ish tracks, I always catch myself wondering why they don't trim the fat and sketches on longer releases. Fortunately for me, Vince Staples is here to deliver exciting and dense rap albums that don't give you time to get bored.
Yes, only a two-song single, but Oso Oso is my favourite band currently making music and these both fucking bang like a shotgun. Can't wait for the next release.
Other things I was into:
Buddy - Harlan and Alondra, Joyce Manor - Million Dollars to Kill Me, Lifted Bells - Minor Tantrums, Doe - Grow Into It, Drug Church - Cheer, Lil Wayne - The Carter V
Also, Daniel Romano released three albums this year. While none of them resonated with me the way that Modern Pressure did, you have to respect his insane drive and artistic vision. Three albums! All good! That alone mentions merit here, though it also helps that he's constantly evolving his sound and low-key turning into alternative music's equivalent of the Coen Brothers.
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