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!