The albums that got us through 2018
Hip-hop’s women, local indie stars, and Polaris winners caught our critics’ ears this year
If you were to judge my musical tastes based strictly on this list, you would assume that I mostly like guitar-based indie pop (primarily of the local variety), but have a seemingly antithetical fondness for foul-mouthed female MCS. That’s not entirely inaccurate, come to think of it.
Old Man Canyon A Grand Facade A few things become quite clear when you listen to A Grand Facade. One is that Jett Pace obviously listens to a lot of Tame Impala, and another is that he smokes a lot of weed. Both of those habits have evidently shaped his aesthetic in wonderful ways, though, and this dreamy haze of an album is the sonic equivalent of floating in a warm bath.
dArt d’ecco Trespasser Just when you have Art d’ecco pegged as a glam rocker with an appreciation for a Phil Spector–esque Wall of Sound, the guy throws you a curve ball that makes you think you really don’t get him at all. Consider “Nobody’s Home”, which improbably sounds like . k
Marc Bolan and c u f s Joy Division a commandeering the dance floor at p i s Studio 54. Or “Dark a p d r Days”, a throbbing l i n e c h a r g e
We Are the City At Night salvo of synth-punk that On first listen, the fractured beats will have you digging out your and towering drones of “Ones You old Tubeway Army LPS. You might Love” and “When I Dream, I Dream never figure d’ecco out, but you’re of You” seem to suggest that We Are guaranteed to have fun trying. the City has finally let its experimental John Lucas tendencies overtake its pop sensibilities. At its core, though, this is a DRAKE AND POST MALONE collection of songs firmly rooted in owned Spotify this year, but $200 melody, and although the progressive and a classic 160 GB ipod says elements are more than mere window that neither of them would last 30 dressing, you don’t need an engineering seconds in an alley with Rico Nasty degree to love it. or Cardi B. As for the rest of this list, there’s a case to be made that—most of the time—women do almost everything better.
John Mellencamp Other People’s Stuff John Mellencamp is one helluva songwriter—as anyone who’s heard “Rain on the Scarecrow” knows—but I also love how he interprets other people’s songs. His powerful cover
Jeremy Dutcher Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa Utterly deserving of its Polaris Prize win, Jeremy Dutcher’s Wolastoqiyik
M i l Lintuwakonawa is e
s a brave and stunningly O beautiful voyage deep into the Indigenous singer’s heritage. Responding to archival recordings of the endangered Wolastoq language, Dutcher has enshrined this source material in a web of beats, shimmering string arrangements, and his own operatic tenor, and the end result exemplifies the notion that sometimes you’ve got to look back to move forward.
Danish String Quartet PRISM 1 I’ve been listening to more chamber music than usual of late, although primarily older recordings on vinyl. One of the new ensembles I’m following is the Danish String Quartet, which has just followed up an extraordinary record of Scandinavian music with the . first in a five-part d a series examining the links between Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and more i c i s a b a l m contemporary music, in this case that of Dmitri Shostakovich. Sublime playing; revelatory concept. sweet music, but that doesn’t take away from Frisell’s deep musicality and whimsical sense of the surreal.
Julia Holter Aviary From an opener that sounds like Björk jamming with Swans to other passages that oscillate between the best of prog and the haunting sound of a lonely trumpet, this music has huge ambition and a heart to match.
François Houle/ Alexander Hawkins/harris . h c t Eisenstadt You a m Have Options We o can’t show 2018 r a the door without h n d a nod to the contributions n a h a s a m b i t i o of the late Ken Pickering, whose discernment will continue to shape the local and global music scene for years to come—a case in point being this clarinet-piano-drums trio, which he put together for the 2014 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Compared to the group’s wild, freeform Ironworks debut, which I witnessed, You Have Options is a more contemplative undertaking, but still marked by extraordinary musicianship and near-psychic rapport.