I’ve had the great chance to listen to a lot more music this year, and I’ve made a concerted effort to expand my horizons not only with the genres that I listen to but especially trying my best to find artists that are underserved. This is a list of the 10 best albums I’ve heard this year that you probably didn’t. They all have under 250,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and I’ve talked to many people about artists I love with over 1 million listeners and they’ve never heard of them, so I’ll count 250,000 as low for a count.
Here is the link to a playlist that includes my 5 favorite songs from each of these albums!
https://open.spotify.com/user/121181476/playlist/2WS2uObVUwNONnqUoA1Mq0?si=Iz5SZIP3SE-4QKRdKuoNFw
https://open.spotify.com/user/121181476/playlist/2WS2uObVUwNONnqUoA1Mq0?si=Iz5SZIP3SE-4QKRdKuoNFw
For starters, I’d like to give quick shout-outs to a couple very small artists I love who released albums this year. Adron (1,132 monthly listeners) continued to show that small, quiet, gorgeous music can make for an incredibly calming experience that can’t be found anywhere else with Water Music. The Wilderness (555 monthly listeners) are personal buddies who make damn great music and are an awesome group of guys. Seminary Road is an EP for technicality’s sake, but Dancing in the Dive Bars is one of my favorite songs of the year and I expect nothing but the best from these randy lads.
2018 was an awesome year for female artists, and this didn’t change for smaller artists. I’ve got a soft spot for rock and roll girls and Elizabeth Stokes along with the rest of the Australian band are so much fun and have some very apt comparisons to Best Coast. Future Me Hates Me is a harsh, introspective album that focuses not only on the way we view ourselves but how it affects the people around us and our love lives in the process.
I was so happy to be able to see these guys live in the perfect setting: the second floor of a dive bar at 11:30 PM on a Tuesday. With their roots deep into the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Vista Kicks has a diverse and sprawling sound that can be roughly defined as rock, but it moves into funk, punk, and jazz at times. An 18-track sophomore album is an insane venture, but the sum of its parts becomes a crazy, madcap record that I couldn’t put down for a long time.
I may like the sounds of Hinds a little more than I like any of their music, but I think that makes for some of the best potential I’ve ever had from a fledgling band. A four-piece garage pop-rock band from Madrid, Spain, there isn’t anyone else who sounds like these girls. It’s raw and it’s fierce and it’s pure cool. Very much looking forward to anything else that comes from Hinds in the future. It also helps that I happened to see them on Edgar Wright’s list of his top 50 songs of the year.
I’ve been closely following Dan Auerbach (frontman for The Black Keys) and his production studio Easy Eye Sound, and they’re backing some really great artists. Sonny Smith has very classic influences, like most from Easy Eye, blending 60s guitar pop with modern values. The result is a fun blast from the past that harkens back to a time long lost without being too derivative of the works of the greats who came before.
This is the point where I started having a lot of difficulty including only five songs from each album on the playlist because Delivery is a powerhouse of a debut album. Pseudo country, rock, pop and a bunch of other things, Mikaela Davis throws everything and the kitchen sink into this album and it’s gorgeous. Soulful, slow ballads like Emily are surrounded by the funky beats of Get Gone, the rock ballad that is Little Bird, and a crazy assortment of other songs. The sheer variety of music sets the undertone for a rollercoaster of emotions that I came back to ride time and time again.
Continuing the trend of amazing women on this list, Cailin Russo moved from a poppy solo act with a modeling career to a full-blown rock star when she took on a band to flesh out her sound. House with a Pool keeps the California pop that Cailin innately has but adds some punky California rock and wraps it all in a layer of fun intensity that isn’t afraid to slow down sometimes. Sexy, crazy, and cool, Russo embodies the best women of rock and roll.
Breaking away from Shannon and the Clams, frontwoman Shannon Shaw’s solo album reminds me of a modern-day Elvis Presley crossed with The Supremes. No joke, about half of this album sounds like an awesome cover of a 50s or 60s hit, but I can assure you that these are all original jams. Slow, fast, and songs that somehow speed up and slow down, I couldn’t put down this album and was moved through it effortlessly. It’s a classical affair that really shows how genres may go away, but there is still ample room for great music to show up and wow us.
Last Dinosaurs got to fill the void of both a Phoenix and Walk the Moon album for 2018 and boy golly did they ever do it right. Poppy, electronic and full of rock and roll too (you may have noticed a theme for this list by now), Yumeno Garden is an awesome follow up to their last album. Last Dinosaurs is the band I feel has the most potential for enormous popularity out of anyone on this list, and that’s mostly because of how damn fun it is to listen to this album. It throws the listener along with reckless abandon and asks for the dance party of a lifetime to take place in your car on a road trip with the people you love.
Psychedelic and cinematic, The Brummies debuted as my favorite new band this year. The trio has said that they wanted people to be able to hear how much time and love went into Eternal Reach and it comes through so well. I was captivated by every song on this album, and there’s even a feature from Kacey Musgraves, who had an amazing album of her own release this year. This is the type of album that is best listened to with a great pair of headphones and 45 minutes of relaxation. Get lost in great music with The Brummies.
1. Early Eyes – Decorating (45,188 monthly listeners)
I keep a rotating playlist of new music on my Spotify account, taking albums off once I’ve got the gist and feel like I can move on. I’ve had Decorating on that playlist for the past six months because I can’t stop myself from coming back to it time and time again. I don’t think I’ve ever heard more well-composed indie rock music from such an unknown band. I can’t stress enough how much I love this album and how I knew all of the words to every song within a couple weeks from how often I listened to it, and I never grew tired of it. I haven’t found a person who hasn’t enjoyed this music yet, so it’s only a matter of time before Early Eyes takes over the world. Just remember who told you first.
Is there any underheard artist I missed this year? Let me know, as I'm always looking for great new listens!
I keep a rotating playlist of new music on my Spotify account, taking albums off once I’ve got the gist and feel like I can move on. I’ve had Decorating on that playlist for the past six months because I can’t stop myself from coming back to it time and time again. I don’t think I’ve ever heard more well-composed indie rock music from such an unknown band. I can’t stress enough how much I love this album and how I knew all of the words to every song within a couple weeks from how often I listened to it, and I never grew tired of it. I haven’t found a person who hasn’t enjoyed this music yet, so it’s only a matter of time before Early Eyes takes over the world. Just remember who told you first.
Is there any underheard artist I missed this year? Let me know, as I'm always looking for great new listens!
