For this article, I was going to create a list of my top 5 albums that were released in 2018. Last year was a great one for music, and it wasn't hard for me to compile a list of albums that I appreciated and felt touched by in some way.
However, once I made that list, I realized that every artist was a white man or a band of white men. I was disappointed in myself. How can I call myself a feminist if I don't actively support strong women in music?
How can I ally myself with artists of color if I am not listening to their music and understanding their stories? I knew something had to change.
So, I went on Twitter and asked some of my followers to tell their favorite albums released by women, POC, and LBGTQ+ artists in 2018. I also did some research of my own and sat down to listen to some of these albums. I plan on eventually listening to them all, but I cannot do it in one day.
My new year's resolution is to actively seek out minority artists, whether they are singer/songwriters, authors, or put their art on a canvas. The world we live in places wealthy white men at the top in all fields, including music.
The only way we can make this change is to make the change in ourselves first. I am happy to start making this change.
So, as told by my Twitter followers (and myself), here are the 10 best albums released in 2018.
1. Be the Cowboy - Mitski
"Mikski's stunning new release, Be the Cowboy, collects 14 such stories in elegant, compact musical vignettes that explore the pain and folly and intoxication of building and losing connections.
For anywhere between one and four minutes (most songs are in the two-minute range), the musician grasps the listener's hand and plunges them into a self-contained world in which one narrator confronts her relationship with relationships. And it is addicting. Each track is a gem, reflective and complex and yet exactly as simple as it ought to be." - Kayleigh Hughes
2. Bloom - Troye Sivan
"The tender naivety in Sivan's voice pairs perfectly with an album that tackles a variety of First Times: sexual, emotional and otherwise. Bloom negotiates what it means to give and receive passion, and Sivan finds himself channeling both innocence and weary maturity as he navigates blossoming feelings, broken hearts and the personal growth that stems from both experiences." - Brittany Spanos
3. Ephorize - CupcakKe
"While she may have a stunning ease dishing out absurdist one-liners about affectionately brushing someone's pubic hair, it's clear that she wants to be known for much more than just "sex and killing," which she laments on her new album Ephorize. On the new record, she tackles self-esteem, LGBTQ issues, and the desire for genuine romance, while peppering her tracks with some of the funniest, absurdist one-liners to appear on a record since the heyday of Ghostface." - Claire Lobenfeld
4. Certain Kind Of Magic - REZZ
"REZZ's Certain Kind of Magic is the second long form release of its kind for the Canadian DJ and producer. Following the 2017 release of Mass Manipulation, her sophomore album clocks in at 8 tracks and features a variety of collaborations – one of its singles, "H E X" with rising 1788-L, "Life & Death" with Deathpact, "Teleportal" with Kotek.
But these collaborations are not what holds this album to its strengths – it's REZZ's ship to sail, and she has let her flag wave freely. On this album, her brand is so perfected and fresh that if we didn't know better, we'd call this a breakout moment for the electronic artist, but in reality, she's been grinding with her fans known as "The Cult" supporting her to reach a moment like this in her career." - Steph Evans
5. High as Hope - Florence and The Machine
"Her confidences may be performative, but they're palpable. "June" opens with a slow-drawn breath, upright bass tones, muffled piano chords, and a shivering admission – perhaps to a lover, or maybe just a drug buddy — of being so high that Welch can't help repeating "I'm so high." On "Big God," a Prince-like conflation of religious imagery and sexual innuendo, she gets rawer still, announcing "you need a big God/big enough to fill you up" in a guttural heave, gulping for air, amidst synth flashes and orchestral brass, unfurling an extended animal snarl right before a Kamasi Washington saxophone coda. In the spirit of Kate Bush, it's the tangible sound of a purebred hound of love." - Will Hermes
6. OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES - SOPHIE
"SOPHIE's debut album, OIL OF EVERY PEARL's UN-INSIDES, adapts many of the technical strategies heard on her previous work to looser, more sprawling compositions.
Instead of chaining together compact singles as on 2015's PRODUCT, the album builds and releases narrative tension. Beat-heavy romps like "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping" nestle together at the top of the tracklist after "It's Okay to Cry," giving way to celestial swells of synthesizer and voice. Where SOPHIE's early singles exhibited a keen feel for economy and a killer sense of humor, OIL makes a bid for transcendent beauty." - Sasha Geffen
7. Expectations - Hayley Kiyoko
"There's a lot riding on this. Hayley Kiyoko, the 26-year-old former Disney star, is one of pop's few openly gay female artists, whose fans have taken to calling her "lesbian Jesus." It's tongue in cheek, but speaks to the hunger for representation among marginalized fandoms—the hoards who flocked to Kiyoko's early music videos, which offered rare representations of relationships and flirtations between women.
Kiyoko now has to balance their interests against her own budding pop star identity, plus the demands of the mainstream that she (and label Empire/Atlantic) evidently want her to break into Expectations seems like a particularly loaded title." - Laura Snapes
8. Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe
"Still, to listen to Dirty Computer and look at Monáe's pallid chart history is to ask whether this is an industry willing to make room for black women who don't belt their wounds, those with slightly smaller, albeit gorgeous voices. What does it mean to be a newly out queer black woman of Monáe's stature making a pop album in 2018 when there is no precedent?
And how does that affect how we interpret her music and her willingness to inhabit spaces currently dominated by white acts? As an album, Dirty Computer is what happens when a prism is held to the blinding light of a free Janelle Monáe. Her status as an acolyte of Prince dovetails with her modern pop sensibilities uniquely, which is how we get a queer anthem like "PYNK," and its video brimming with defiant black women, saddled with a chorus that could slide neatly into most Taylor Swift records. It is why "Screwed" sounds like a hedonistic Haim track." - Rahawa Haile
9. Sweetener - Ariana Grande
"Sweetener is not the sad, serious ballad-heavy album many probably expected Grande to make, but it sure is the one she needed to. It's a refreshing, cohesive package, following three albums of sometimes messy but always fun attempts at placing her own personality in the pop landscape. She's let her ponytail down, metaphorically and literally (check the album's cover) and let joy lead the way. Whether she's flaunting her accomplishments (the gleeful "Successful") or relishing her "soulmate" on the sweet and tender "Pete Davidson," a song that gets the point across with its title alone, she's found her serenity." - Brittany Spanos
10. Us - Empress Of
"As a singer, Rodriguez is gifted and versatile, and she can convey a whole lot of emotion in one little mid-syllable dip. But she holds back. She keeps her voice as blank and matter-of-fact as she can, so when hurt or yearning does creep into her voice, it means more. She's got a sharp rhythmic intelligence, keeping her voice in the pockets of these beats that she co-crafted. (And a lot of those beats are great, too, skittering and pulsing in small and satisfying ways.) Rodriguez doubles that voice up when necessary, giving her already strong hooks an extra push that always helps." - Tom Breihan
