Skip to main content

2018 Shortlist

Ahoy!

 What an amazing year we had for new music! Last year you may recall that The Wonderfish and I only released a top 5 before we announced our picks for Album of the Year. This year we genuinely couldn't just give you all 5 albums each. Instead, we revamped our Album of the Year process. You'll see below that we each listed our top 5, and one of those 5 will be revealed next week as our respective 2018 Album of the Year. The remaining shortlist consists of 15 albums that at one point were either in the running or just too good not to promote. Make sure to check out anything you haven't heard and stay tuned for next week's reveals for Album of the Year!

What's on your list?

Until next time,
Heard

Heard's Top 5 (in no particular order)
Lydian Collective - Adventure
Circles - The Last One
Rubble Bucket - Sun Machine
Donny McCaslin - Blow
Dave Matthews Band - Come Tomorrow

Heard's Shortlist (in no particular order)
Aaron Parks - Little Big
Ben Wendel - The Seasons
Brad Mehldau - After Bach
Brad Mehldau Trio - Seymour Reads The Constitution
Contrast Trio - Letila Zozulya
Now v Now - The Buffering Cocoon
Philippe Lemm Trio - City Birds
Shai Maestro - The Dream Thief
Mac Miller - Swimming
Between the Buried and Me - Automata I and Automata II*
Arianne Lenker - abysskiss
David Crosby & Friends - Here If You Listen
Hilary Hahn - Hilary Hahn Plays Bach
Andreas Varady - The Quest
Tom Morello - The Atlas Underground

The Wonderfish's Top 5 (in no particular order)
The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
George Ezra - Staying at Tamara's
Donny McCaslin - Blow
Leon Bridges - Good Thing

The Wonderfish's Shortlist (in no particular order)
Philippe Lemm Trio - City Birds
Dawes - Passwords
Jon Batiste - Hollywood Africans
Pete Thorn - Pete Thorn II
Black Thought & Salaam Remi - Streams of Thought, Vol. 2
Breaking Benjamin - Embers
Fantastic Negrito - Please Don't Be Dead
Brandi Carlile - By The Way, I Forgive You
Muse - Simulation Theory
Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel
Aaron Parks - Little Big
Tom Misch - Geography
Kendrick Lamar & Various Artists - Black Panther Soundtrack
Jon Bellion - Glory Sound Prep
Dispatch - Location 13

*Automata was disqualified as a true album of the year candidate because it's not technically one album. It was still too good to not include in the short list (although, admittedly, Heard greatly prefers Automata II).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Ahoy! Time for another edition of Fin Mail, Heard style. One of my favorite musicians of all time is Dave Matthews. On Wednesday of this week, January 9th, he celebrated his 52nd. In honor of him and what his music has meant to me over the years you’ll find my letter of appreciation along with a few links to help get you familiar with his music if you’re not, and will give you an inside look into my favorite tracks of his if you are. Who are you inspired by? Leave us a comment or shoot us an email and let us know! Dear Dave, Happy Birthday! I hope you got to spend your day relaxing with family and not on the road travelling to another show. You music has been one of the largest inspirational forces in my life both as a musician, and as a human. I remember countless hours as a teenager lying on the floor of my room blasting Under the Table and Dreaming , Crash and Before These Crowded Streets. No matter what was happening in my life your music always fit as the perfect b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lalah Hathaway Can Sing Two Notes At Once!

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. Lalah Hathaway is up for quite a number of Grammy awards this year with her new album, Honestly . The R&B vocalist is popping up more and more in our mainstream media. I do not profess to be a Hathaway expert by any means, but ever since I saw her sing with Snarky Puppy for their 2013 album, Family Dinner: Volume One , I've been following her career.  When we started this blog last year, I knew right away that I would want to post about Lalah Hathaway. I finally got around to watching Girls Trip and I caught a glimpse of her singing toward the end of the movie, so the time is now. Do you know what? Lalah Hathaway can sing two notes at once. That's right, you read that correctly. When I saw her video with Snarky Puppy, I kept rewinding it because I thought my ears were deceiving me. How was this vocalist singing two notes at the same time? I must have listened to that part of the song 10 times in a row. I finally ga...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Introduction From The Wonderfish

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm the Wonderfish. This is our first week posting, so some introductions are in order. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? Our story begins on a street called State. Heard set sail from Europe when he was just a wee lad. His family settled in the small village of Dolgeville, which is in upstate New York in the USA. As luck would have it, and unbeknownst to Heard, his family moved into a house on State Street, an infamously musical street in the town. Historically, quite a few residents from State Street used their musical abilities to make a living, but that is a post for another day. Heard's new neighbors happened to be one of those families. Enter the Wonderfish. That's me, I'm a Wonderfish! My younger sister and I were raised in a musical family. I knew from an early age that I would learn how to play musical instruments. I had my first drum set at age 4 (thanks, Dad). I also knew that someday I would be a writer because I ...
Post a Comment
Read more