Best Vinyl of 2018!

It's that time again when every cultural, entertainment, and music publication look back over the previous year and put together their "End of Year" lists. Some of these lists start populating our feeds and inboxes in early December. We always wait until January to make sure we get all the albums possible for the year. There are seventy titles on this years list!

This year, we also backed up these picks with The Best Vinyl of 2018 SALE.  Almost every title on our list is in our store and on sale for the entire month of January!

If this is your first year reading our list, here are the selection parameters we use that will help give context to the list. First, our list only considers music released on Vinyl. There are several projects that appear at the top of many "Best Of" lists that we did not consider because they were not released on vinyl in 2018.  

Second, although the albums were all chosen based on the music, we did use some of the aesthetic qualities such as album weight, multiple disc presentation, color variant, and album art to separate any close picks for the lists.

Third, we chose these titles from our previous curated efforts throughout the year but juxtaposed them with editorials we respect.

Fourth, you will see that our list is separated by genre. In most end of year lists, all the music is put together. We opted to keep ours separated to better represent B.T.R.C. and the curated design we present in our Record Store and to our subscribers throughout the year.

Lastly, these albums are presented in no particular order. All the albums on each list are considered one of the best vinyl releases of 2018.    

So, without further ado, we are very excited to present the Blind Tiger Record Club Best Vinyl of 2018!

Best Singer Songwriter:

Glen Hansard  Between Two Shores
Brandi Carlile  By The Way I Forgive You
Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite  No Mercy In This Land
John Prine  Tree of Forgiveness
Ray LaMontagne  Part of the Light
Amanda Shires  To The Sunset
John Hiatt  The Eclipse Sessions
Gregory Alan Isakov  Evening Machines
Cat Power  Wanderer
Various Artists (Joe Purdy)  American Folk O.S.T. 
First Aid Kit  Ruins
Matt Mays  Twice Upon a Hell of a Time
Ruston Kelly  Dying Star
Kacey Musgraves  Golden Hour
Joshua Hedley  Mr. Jukebox

Best Rock:

Justin Courtney Pierre  In The Drink
Muse  Simulation Theory
Kurt Vile  Bottle It In
Greta Van Fleet  Anthem of the Peaceful
Thrice  Palms
Arctic Monkeys  Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Jack White  Boarding House Reach
Brian Fallon  Sleepwalkers
The Glorious Sons  Young Beauties & Fools
Tom Petty  An American Treasure
Rhett Miller  The Messenger
J. Mascis  Elastic Days
Paul McCartney  Egypt Station
Albert Hammond Jr  Francis Trouble
Dave Mathews Band  Come Tomorrow
Frank Turner  Be More Kind
The Vaccines  Combat Sports
Aaron Lee Tasjan  Karma for Cheap
Dream Wife  Dream Wife
The Interrupters  Fight the Good Fight

Best Alternative:

Florence + the Machine  High As Hope
The Revivalists  Take Good Care
Mumford & Sons  Delta
Death Cab For Cutie  Thank You For Today
Record Company  All of This Life
Father John Misty  God's Favorite Customer
The Wombats  Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life
Anderson East  Encore
Twenty One Pilots  Trench
Spiritualized  And Nothing Hurt
Van William  Countries
Rainbow Kitten Surprise  How to: Friend Love Freefall
lovelytheband  Finding It Hard To Smile
Bishop Briggs  Church of Scars
Chvrches  Love is Dead
Twin Shadow  Caer
The Decemberists  Ill Be Your Girl
Mt Joy  Mt Joy
Courtney Barnett  Tell Me How You Really Feel
Passenger  Runaway

Best Jazz Soul & Blues:

Charles Bradley  Black Velvet
Marcus King Band  Carolina Confessions
St. Paul & the Broken Bones  Young Sick Camellia
Fantastic Negrito  Please Don't Be Dead
Leon Bridges  Good Thing
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats  Tearing At The Seams
Durand Jones & The Indications  Durand Jones & The Indications
Macy Gray  Ruby
The Suffers  Everything Home
Bettye Lavette  The 1972 Muscle Shoals Sessions

Check out the sale HERE!