Is it that time already? Yes, it’s time for the annual look back at the new music releases that moved me the most. For years now, the choices have fallen into four buckets: Modern & Mainstream Jazz, Experimental Music (ostensibly called jazz, because that’s what people categorize the uncategorizable as), Fusion Jazz and Everything Else. That ‘everything else’ tends to be rock, folk and blues with a decided bent for music targeted at people over fifty. Not making apologies for that — all critics got their biases, after all — I’m just letting you know mine up front. The Everything Else aka ‘Non-Jazz’ list is also presented up front ahead of the other lists and in keeping with custom, only albums previously examined on this site are considered for inclusion on the proper list.
I wrote a fair amount of reviews in 2018 but much fewer than normal were outside the realm of jazz, broadly speaking. Thus, this list has only seven proper entrants. But to show y’all I hadn’t really ignored rock music that much, there are a few honorable mentions of new releases deserving shout-outs that never got a proper rundown on this site…but should have.
The album put above all the rest, though, is the most experimental of them all. There’s something to be said for gumption especially in a time when it’s so lacking in music and so when you see it, you appreciate it all the more.
BEST OF 2018 ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – YRU Still Here?: Marc Ribot is generally regarded as a jazz guitarist and to put his record on a list that is expressly about non-jazz music might seem odd to some. But that misses the point of his Ceramic Dog project, which puts no fences around what he, bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith can play, and they seem to play almost everything but jazz. This third record of theirs is no exception but on YRU Still Here?, they’ve fine-tuned their knack for using their mastery of disparate styles to create truly unique music that’s fun, funny, and still often virtuosic. Moreover, it makes you think. Ribot’s other big 2018 endeavor Songs of Resistance: 1942-2018 is designed to make you think, too (and is deserving for all the accolades it’s been getting) but most of the time I just want to be entertained, YRU Still Here? does the trick. And it still has a conscious some of the time, with an attitude all of the time.
It really is an LP that checks all those boxes you look for in a great album.
BEST OF 2018 NON-JAZZ – THE BEST OF THE REST:
Rita Coolidge – Safe In The Arms of Time: Strange to say this, but the 1970s adult contemporary star Coolidge actually outdid her with her first real album in twenty years.
David Phillips – Get Along: Philips is clearly that guy who is well suited for DIY, and now we know from ‘Get Along’ that even when he does something by himself two different ways, both ways are the ‘right’ way.
Thiago Nassif – Três: Apart from his collaborator Arto Lindsay, Thiago Nassif’s ‘Três’ much unlike anything else you’re likely to hear from a very broadly defined pop realm that includes its rogue elements.
Boz Scaggs – Out of The Blues: Long past the hit-making phenomena of the ‘Silk Degrees’ years, Boz Scaggs is still providing some very good reasons to keep listening to him with this third return-to-my-roots record in a row.
Eric Bibb – Global Griot: Bibb bites off a lot in visiting folk music traditions from around the world, but if there’s anyone who can pull all of this together, it’s this guy.
David Crosby – Here If You Listen: This vocally rich set of new material is Crosby’s most direct link back to his 1971 masterpiece, If I Can Only Remember My Name. While nearly all of his contemporaries have flamed out or ambled off into the sunset, David Crosby keeps charging toward the sunrise.
BEST OF 2018 NON-JAZZ HONORABLE MENTIONS
Arc Iris – Icon of Ego: Intelligent art rock that isn’t afraid to dabble into other idioms; Arc Iris stretches out but doesn’t lose its identity.
Ntjam Rosie – Breaking Cycles: Rosie has for years been making quality neo-soul music without much fanfare in the USA; a great voice who is like a somewhat more accessible Erykah Badu. This is her strongest set of songs thus far.
Jeff Tweedy – Warm: Gentle and a bit twangy, Tweedy makes country music that easily transcends all that with a lot of heart, hope and soul.
NEXT: S. Victor Aaron’s Best of 2018 (Modern and Mainstream Jazz)
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