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Dec 30, 2018 By Mark Redfern Best of 2018

Most music publications and websites do a Top 50 when compiling the best albums of each year. Here at Under the Radar we’ve traditionally done a Top 100, but even then there are albums we like that don’t make the main list. To come up with our Top 100, 27 of our writers and editors (including myself and my co-publisher/wife Wendy) each submitted a list of their favorite albums of the year and were encouraged to turn in at least a Top 45. All-in-all 473 different albums were submitted for the vote, but to make the Top 100 an album had to be picked by at least three or more separate writers (the Top 6, for example, were all picked by at least 20 or more of our writers). Below are those albums that got some love from our writers, but didn’t get quite enough votes to make the Top 100.

Some albums were ones our critics actually didn’t review all that favorably this year, but still found favor with some of our other writers, including the 2018 albums by Death Cab for Cutie and Interpol (two artists we’ve been covering since the early days of Under the Radar and have interviewed in the last year). Two were actually our Album of the Week when they were released—the new solo album by Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire and the debut album by Tomberlin—but for whatever reason did not connect with enough of our writers to make the Top 100. Ryley Walker’s Deafman Glance already made our Top 100 list, otherwise his Dave Matthews Band covers album The Lillywhite Sessions might have had a chance of making the main list. If Car Seat Headrest’s Twin Fantasy had been a brand new album, rather than a rework of a 2011 album, it might have placed on the Top 100. The same goes for St. Vincent’s MassEducation, which is a stripped down version of her 2017 album MASSEDUCTION. Some of our honorable mentions are EPs, which often don’t make our Top 100 (although two did make this year’s list). And although I made every effort to make sure our writers heard as many of 2018’s best albums as possible, many of them probably simply didn’t get around to hearing some of the albums below.

Overall, just because the 36 below albums didn’t make our Top 100 doesn’t mean they aren’t still worth hearing. They were still liked by enough of our writers to at least make the honorable mentions list (there are hundreds others that didn’t even get that far in our voting). A few of them also made our Top 25 Debut Albums of 2018 list and some were also in my personal favorite 100 albums of 2018 list. In the very near future we will be posting our Top 100 Albums of 2018 list, but in the meantime consider the below.

Amber Arcades: European Heartbreak (Heavenly)

The Beat Escape: Life is Short the Answer’s Long (Bella Union)

Bernice: Puff LP: In the air without a shape (Arts & Crafts)

Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy (Matador)

Matthew Dear: Bunny (Ghostly)

Death Cab for Cutie: Thank You for Today (Atlantic)

Dirty Projectors: Lamp Lit Prose (Domino)

Joey Dosik: Inside Voice (Secretly Canadian)

First Aid Kit: Ruins (Columbia)

Frankie Cosmos: Vessel (Sub Pop)

Gorillaz: The Now Now (Parlophone)

Gulp: All Good Wishes (ELK)

Haley Heynderickx: I Need to Start a Garden (Mama Bird)

Interpol: Marauder (Matador)

Jim James: Uniform Distortion (ATO)

Jungle: For Ever (XL)

Justus Proffit & Jay Som: Nothing’s Changed EP (Polyvinyl)

J Mascis: Elastic Days (Sub Pop)

The Love Language: Baby Grand (Merge)

Mass Gothic: I’ve Tortured You Long Enough (Sub Pop)

Matty: Déjàvu (Matty Unlimited)

Metric: Art of Doubt (MMI/Crystal Math Music)

Okkervil River: In the Rainbow Rain (ATO)

Peluché: Unforgettable (One Little Indian)

Richard Reed Parry: Quiet River of Dust Vol. 1 (ANTI-)

Pram: Across the Meridian (Domino)

Ride: Tomorrow’s Shore EP (Wichata)

Say Sue Me: Where We Were Together (Damnably)

SOPHIE: Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides (MSMSMSMS)

St. Vincent: MassEducation (Loma Vista)

Tomberlin: At Weddings (Saddle Creek)

Laura Veirs: The Lookout (Raven Marching Band)

Ryley Walker: The Lillywhite Sessions (Dead Oceans)

Tierra Whack: Whack World (Self-Released)

Yumi Zouma: EP III (Cascine)

Yves Tumor: Safe in the Hands of Love (Warp)

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