Best Albums of 2018

This year I listened to music for catharsis, for mornings, for joy, for calm, for breezy afternoons. Women have always been excellent creators of music though this year I think I was a little more inclined to seek it out or today's culture appropriately actually gave our female musicians the attention they deserved. Otherwise, I didn't have an album or two that I have totally fell in love with (such as Kendrick's DAMN., Chance's Coloring Book, or Sufjan's Carrie & Lowell). So my top five are all fantastic and favorites though they may not be not a classic in my personal connection to them. Regardless, strong showing of musical output.

Sidenote: here's a Spotify link to a bunch of my favorite songs of the year and then a link for my little Music Collective project's group of songs.

Here are ten of my favorite, most listened to, most life-giving albums which I deem the best albums of 2018. I included a one-sentence reason why. Then followed up with an honorable mention list.

10. Israel Nash - Lifted
Why?: Because I needed a lazy, laid-back album every now and then.

9. Mountain Man - Magic Ship
Why?: Because I needed a warm album to greet me in the morning.

8. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy
Why?: Because I needed the pure joy this album brings.

7. Leon Bridges - Good Thing
Why?: Because I needed the smooth, smooth vocals and hooks of another Leon album.

6. Kendrick Lamar & Co. - Black Panther: The Album
Why?: Because I needed more Kendrick to accompany my favorite superhero movie.

5. Snail Mail - Lush
Why?: Because I needed more hazy girl rock in my life.

4. boygenius - boygenius EP
Why?: Because I needed THREE MUSICAL GENIUSES TO UNITE THEIR POWERS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF HUMANITY.

3. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
Why?: Because I needed a perfect pop country album. (Who knew?)

2. Troye Sivan - Bloom
Why?: Because I needed an unapologetically queer pop album.

1. Haley Heynderickx - I Need to Start a Garden
Why?: Because I needed those vocals with those emotions. Wow.

Honorable Mentions (A bunch more, listed alphabetically)

Anderson .Paak - Oxnard

Ariana Grande - Sweetener

Beach House - 7

Big Red Machine - Big Red Machine

The Carters - EVERYTHING IS LOVE

Chvrches - Love Is Dead

Dermot Kennedy - Mike Dean Presents: Dermot Kennedy

First Aid Kit - Ruins

Jorja Smith - Lost & Found

Kimbra - Primal Heart

Lucy Dacus - Historian

Lykke Li - So Sad So Sexy

Niklas Paschburg - Oceanic

Noname - Room 25

Saba - Care for Me

Vince Staples - FM!

Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar

Best Television of 2018

Television: America's past time. There's a lot of it out there. Streaming continues to carve out its niche, premium cable is still doing its thing, and network television is just barely holding my attention. The last few years have produced some excellent half-hour comedies with dramatic elements that most speak to me. Just one hour long drama here.

These are the shows making me think, laugh, and empathize.

10. American Vandal (Netflix, season 2)
Netflix! Why would you cancel American Vandal?! Welp, season 2 came back with a whole new school and set of characters and kept the momentum going. While season 2's faux true crime documentary may not totally live up to the first go around, there were some classic hijinks and satire abounded. Turd burglar!

9. Bob's Burgers (Fox, season 9)
Bob, Linda, Tina, Gene, Lousie. Love 'em all.

8. The Americans (FX, season 6)
The series ended just perfectly. Satisfying and believable. These Cold War killers provided one of the most interesting and nuanced families over the last six years of television.

7. Bojack Horseman (Netflix, season 5)
Just when I think this show is too wrapped up in itself, there's a perfect animal/human joke, or a moment of transcendence. The show continues to explore new and uncharted territory for any show, much less an animated comedy.

6. The Good Place (NBC, season 3)
Network television isn't totally dead! The Good Place is just so smart and interesting with an ever evolving plot and framework. Daring in itself but then it's all moved forward by a cast of characters I affectionately care for. Jeremy Bearimy!

5. Big Mouth (Netflix, season 2)
An animated comedy cartoon about puberty. And it has a lot of heart. What ya gonna do?

4. Atlanta (FX, season 2)
This show keeps me on my toes. Surrealistic while not straying far enough to lose my attention. Perhaps benefitted by the half-hour format where it consistently makes its point then moves no. A wonderful artistic pursuit for Glover.

3. Homecoming (Amazon Prime, season 1)
This was just fun to watch. A tight-knit story told with incredible pacing. Inventive cinematography throughout in addition to creative use of aspect ratio depicting past and present. Great acting, music, script. All the above.

2. Killing Eve (BBC America, season 1)
Yes to this show. Detective and serial killer track each other down. It elevates my already beloved British crime drama genre to the next level. (More thoughts here.)

1. Insecure (HBO, season 3)
All of the characters in Insecure are perfect. Well-rounded, funny, flawed, relatable, annoying. This show is just so fun to watch. Also the music.

Honorable Mentions (A bunch more, listed alphabetically)

Arrested Development (S5); Atypical (S2); Barry (S1); Bodyguard (S1); Better Call Saul (S4); Brooklyn Nine-Nine (S5); Dear White People (S2); Forever (S1); Glow (S2); Jane the Virgin (S4); Love (S3); Mozart in the Jungle (S4); New Girl (S7); Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (S1); Silicon Valley (S5); Trial & Error: Lady Killer (S2); Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (S4)

Highly Anticipated (A few more, listed alphabetically)

The Assassination of Gianni Versace (mini-series); The Handmaid's Tale (S2); Sharp Objects (mini-series); West World (S2)

Best Movies of 2018

My 2018 movie experience was heavily altered by the rise and fall of MoviePass, where I saw a ton more movies in theaters. So this upped my overall consumption of movies though my top ten were all movies I would have pursued regardless. For example, I saw Skyscraper and Hotel Artemis in theaters but they didn't make it into this blog outside of this paragraph. But I enjoyed the ride. Once MoviePass imploded, I bailed ship and I assume I'll look back years from now marveling at the preposterousness that was MoviePass.

Otherwise, this year's lot provided a ton of variety in terms of movie format and diversity of cast though pushing the boundaries seems to be the norm these days. Searching showcased an entire movie through a computer screen, American Animals was a thriller and a documentary, Spider-verse mixed up the animation style (and Spider-mans). Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians starred majority actors of color and did alright for themselves in the box office.

All in all, a good year in film. Here are my favorites, a quick premise sentence, and a scene that really sold it for me.

10. Searching
Premise: A man tracking down his missing high school daughter.
Scene: Not a scene but the whole movie is shot as through a computer screen and that's just nuts because it's actually really good and not just a gimmick.

9. Can You Ever Forgive Me? 
Premise: Celebrity biographer and author Lee Israel, along with her friend Jack, forgers letters of famous writers to make ends meet.
Scene: At the conclusion of the movie, after betrayal and further failing, Jack says, "You're a horrid c*#%" and Lee responds, "You too, Jack."

8. The Dawn Wall

Premise: Climber Tommy Caldwell (+ buddy) seeks to climb Yosemite's The Dawn Wall after heartbreak.
Scene: When climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson try to talk about their feelings and instead say a bunch of half-sentences.

7. Eighth Grade
Premise: Anxiety ridden eighth-grader fumbles her way through her last week of middle school.
Scene: The tracking shot at the pool party following eighth grader Kayla, with all of her insecurity and anxiety.

6. The Hate U Give
Premise: High school protagonist Starr deals with witnessing a police shooting, code switching, taking on the responsibility of fighting for social justice, and just about everything else a modern teenager of color deals with.
Scene: When Starr's dad lines up his kids on the front lawn after they see him detained by police.

5. Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
Premise: NYC teen Miles gets bit by a spider, exhibits super powers, then meets a bunch of spider-beings from other universes.
Scene: When Miles (spoiler?) starts to fully utilize his powers, the music kicks in, he gets his new suit, and jumps off a skyscraper.

4. Annihilation
Premise: Trippy female led science-fiction "go on a mission" movie where reality is put into question.
Scene: Not a scene but rather the tone of this entire movie had me not knowing what was real.

3. American Animals
Premise: Four college-aged boys attempt to pull off a lucrative heist from their school's library, searching for meaning in their otherwise dull lives.
Scene: In a well executed quasi-documentary style, the actual men responsible for the heist reflect on their actions, especially those causing harm to others.

2. Black Panther
Premise: T'Challa (Black Panther) returns to rule Wakanda, you know the rest.
Scene: So many! The car chase scene in South Korea, Black Panther's sister Shuri acting like a boss in the R&D lab, Michael B. Jordan in general, the soundtrack.

1. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Premise: A documentary chronicling Fred Rogers life and work.
Scene: The final scene in which the documentarian asks the various people who has been impactful in their lives. Then just quiet shots of people contemplating. Ugh, this whole movie.

Honorable Mentions (A bunch more, listed alphabetically)

Beautiful Boy; Blackkklansman; Blindspotting; Crazy Rich Asians; Deadpool 2; The Favourite; First Man; First Reformed; Game Night; Green Book; Hereditary; Incredibles 2; Love, Simon; The Miseducation of Cameron Post; Mission: Impossible - Fallout; Ocean's 8; A Quiet Place; A Star Is Born; To All the Boys I've Loved Before; Widows; Vice

Highly Anticipated (A few more, listed alphabetically)

If Beale Street Could Talk; Bohemian Rhapsody; Boy Erased; Creed II; mid90s; Minding the Gap; A Private War; Ralph Breaks the Internet; Roma