ND Critics Poll: Our Favorite Roots Music Albums of 2018
NO DEPRESSION
Posted On December 27, 2018
Around here, the Year-End Readers Poll (we call it YERP) is a highlight of the year. This time, 10,201 No Depression readers weighed in, creating a wide-ranging list of must-hear albums that came out in 2018. But we always like to give a special spotlight as well to the favorite albums of ND staffers, columnists, and reviewers who help sift through the pile of new music all year long.
Thing is, our list is all over the place. We all live in different places and hear different things and have different tastes, which is how we can bring you such a wide range of reviews and music-related thought in our columns. So we’ve highlighted a few that came up the most among our individual lists, along with an excerpt of the No Depression review of each one. From there, instead of a ranked list, we just made … a list. We hope you might find some new avenues for listening that maybe didn’t make the readers poll, and we look forward to turning you on to even more new finds in the new year. (Many of the albums on the list were reviewed by ND this year, so use that search field to find out more about each one!)
Contributing to this list are No Depression Managing Editor Hilary Saunders, Assistant Editor Stacy Chandler, Ad Manager Sonja Nelson, and Social Media and Marketing Manager Adam Kirr; columnists Chris Griffy, Amos Perrine, Ed Maxin, Henry Carrigan, and Isa Burke; and reviewers Jim Shahen, Michael Davis, Laura Stanley, Rachel Cholst, Mike Elliott, Bobby Moore, Cillea Houghton, Corbie Hill, and John Amen.
Common Ground
Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour radiates with beauty and love; its glorious sheen imbues the world around it with a sparkling message to embrace wonder, revel in love, and to hold onto transitory moments of beauty that settle on or near you. — Henry Carrigan
Brandi Carlile – By the Way, I Forgive You
On her haunting and ethereally beautiful new album, By the Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile delivers a stunningly powerful cycle of songs that illustrates the often-complex cycle of love and forgiveness. Carlile’s raw, emotional vocals go right to the heart of the matter, and the sparseness of many of the arrangements captures the aching desire arising out of ragged desolation and the longing for love for oneself and another. — HC
John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness
Thirteen years after one of the more stellar mid-to-late career runs in popular music – the trifecta of 1991’s The Missing Years, 1995’s Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, and 2005’s Fair & Square – John Prine releases The Tree of Forgiveness, integrating his penchant for whimsicality, homespun wisdom, and heartrending insights, 10 songs delivered via alluring melodies and the award-winning singer-songwriter’s unmistakable voice. — John Amen
The War and Treaty – Healing Tide
Healing Tide does more than flesh out the themes first explored on Down to the River. With the addition of gritty Southern soul to the sonic palette, a full backing band, and excellent production from Buddy Miller, Healing Tide takes like five leaps forward musically. The result is one of the most jubilant, entertaining albums of the summer. — Jim Shahen
(The War and Treaty was No Depression’s Spotlight band in August. Read the story here.)
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers – Years
Shook is perfectly framed by guitarist Eric Peterson’s honky-tonk twang and Phil Sullivan’s weeping pedal steel, a muscular framework that Shook swings from like a Bakersfield gymnast, a vocal blend of B-field’s own Stacie Collins and the wild and wooly rockabilly tonsils of Wanda Jackson. — Grant Britt
The three artists co-wrote the songs (save for one Gillian Welch tune) and harmonize, sharing instrumental duties and taking turns on the occasional solo verse. A fully collaborative effort from start to finish, See You Around never sounds like a solo record from any of the women, and instead feels like the product of a new band. We get each of their sensibilities combined into something rich and rootsy. It comes as no surprise that they would already have admired each other’s work and felt it a natural fit to create something together. — Maeri Ferguson
The Brother Brothers – Some People I Know
From the outset, the Moss brothers are in the shadows of many legendary country and folk brothers — Everly, Louvin, and Stanley, just to name a few — but The Brother Brothers on their own merits make their debut album luminous. — Laura Stanley
(The Brother Brothers were the No Depression Spotlight band in October. Read the story here.)
The List (alphabetical)
Aaron Lee Tasjan – Karma for Cheap
Adrianne Lenker – abysskiss
Amanda Shires– To the Sunset
American Aquarium – Things Change
American Folk (Amber Rubarth & Joe Purdy) – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Amigo – And Friends
Amy Ray – Holler
Ana Egge, White Tiger
Anderson East – Encore
Angelique Kidjo – Remain in Light
Anna & Elizabeth – The Invisible Comes to Us
Ashley McBryde – Girl Going Nowhere
Ashley Monroe – Sparrow
Austin Lucas – Immortal Americans
Barrence Whitfield & The Savages – Soul Flowers of Titan
Bettye LaVette – Things Have Changed
Blue Yonder – Rough and Ready Heart
Bottle Rockets – Bit Logic
boygenius – boygenius
Brothers Osborne – Port Saint Joe
Buck Meek – Buck Meek
Caroline Rose – Loner
Cat Power – Wanderer
Colter Wall – Songs of the Plains
Courtney Hartman & Taylor Ashton, Been On Your Side
Courtney Marie Andrews – May Your Kindness Remain
Cowboy Junkies – All That Reckoning
David Crosby – Here If You Listen
Dead Horses – My Mother the Moon
Dillon Carmichael – Hell on an Angel
Donna the Buffalo – Dance in the Streets
Doug Paisley – Starter Home
Erin Rae – Putting on Airs
Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer
Field Report – Summertime Songs
Frank Turner – Be More Kind
Gregory Alan Isakov – Evening Machines
Gretchen Peters – Dancing with the Beast
Haley Heynderickx – I Need To Start A Garden
Hawks and Doves – From a White Hotel
Hawktail – Unless
HC McEntire – LIONHEART
I See Hawks In L.A. – Live and Never Learn
Isla Craig – The Becoming
Jason Boland & The Stragglers – Hard Times are Relative
JD McPherson – Socks
Jeffrey Foucault – Blood Brothers
Jennifer Castle – Angels of Death
Jimmy LaFave – Peace Town
John Howie Jr. – Not Tonight
Joshua Hedley – Mr. Jukebox
Kaia Kater – Grenades
Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth
Kevin Welch – Dust Devil
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert – The Ledge
Leon Bridges – Good Thing
Lera Lynn – Plays Well With Others
Lindi Ortega – Liberty
Liz Cooper & the Stampede – Window Flowers
Loretta Lynn – Wouldn’t it be Nice
Lori McKenna – The Tree
Lucy Dacus – Historian
Malcolm Holcombe – Come Hell or High Water
Mandy Barnett – Strange Conversation
Mary Gauthier – Rifles and Rosary Beads
Mariel Buckley – Driving in the Dark
Marisa Anderson – Cloud Comer
Marissa Nadler – For My Crimes
Mark Knopfler – Down the Road Wherever
Marlon Williams – Make Way For Love
Martha Scanlan – The River and The Light
Mickey Stephens & Poor Blue – Wasteground
Milk Carton Kids – All The Things That I Did and All The Things I Didn’t Do
Motel Mirrors – In the Meantime
Mountain Man – Magic Ship
Mumford and Sons – Delta
Neko Case – Hell–On
Nellie McKay – Sister Orchid
New Respects – Before the Sun Goes Down
Parker Millsap – Other Arrangements
Peter Rowan – Carter Stanley’s Eyes
Pharis and Jason Romero – Sweet Old Religion
Phil Madeira – Providence
Pistol Annies – Interstate Gospel
Rosali – Trouble Anyway
Rosanne Cash – She Remembers Everything
Rosie & The Riveters – Ms. Behave
Ruby Boots – Don’t Talk About It
Ruston Kelly – Dying Star
Ry Cooder – The Prodigal Son
Sam Lewis – Loversity
Sam Moss– Neon
Shemekia Copeland – America’s Child
Shooter Jennings – Shooter
Slocan Ramblers – Queen City Jubilee
St. Paul and the Broken Bones – Young Sick Camellia
The Beths – Future Me Hates Me
The Jayhawks – Back Roads and Abandoned Motels
The Mavericks – Hey! Merry Christmas
The Stray Birds – Let it Pass
The Wood Brothers – One Drop of Truth
Various Artists – Chicago Plays The Stones
We Banjo 3 – Haven
Whitey Morgan and the 78’s – Hard Times and White Lines
Will Hoge – My American Dream
Yo La Tengo – There’s a Riot Going On
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