LINER NOTES
1. Everything Is Recorded / “She said”
Not a bad cut on this album and most of them are ragers. I struggled whether to put this one on the list or “show love” so check that too. Top ten album for me in 2018. Possible top FIVE (whoa – I’ll get back to you on that). Tambourine mixed dead center such a big part of the magic of this track… and oh yeah sax solo at the end.
2. Prhyme / “Sunflower seeds”
Good to have you back #1. “But still I spit the shell out the window.” The faux Curtis Mayfield falsetto hook at the end makes me feel like I’m digging the scene with a gangsta lean ooh hoo ooh…
3. Tom Misch / “Lost in Paris”
Punk rock – in the old high way of say… The Ramones – seems so childish and stupid now that it’s almost hilarious in retrospect, and meanwhile disco is not only back but kind of feels like it never left. Would have been hard to predict that turn of events in 1979.
4. Pusha T / “The games we play”
Hip hop album of the year and no close second imo. Add to it that he just EVISCERATED Drake in their little scrap and well… lotta dubs for Push this year, lotta dubs. The scale never lies, he’s two point two incentivized.
5. Christine and the Queens / “Doesn’t matter”
Second time this act has made the Large List and I admit I never bothered to figure out the whole deal the first time around. I vaguely remember Frenchness being involved and a consortium of fluid sexuality and gender freedom and all sorts of other good stuff. Synth pop of the highest order is what I hear. Contagiously excellent pop music innit.
6. Sade – “Flower of the Universe”
Good to have you back #2. I imagine this movie was total trash but oh man no one can do that Sade thing like SharDAY! If you listen closely you can hear a slight whitneyfication of her voice but the soupçon of huskiness is working for me, adds texture (and to be fair she’s quite a-ways from The Full Whitney). By the way it took me a while but I have officially forgiven Sade for being permanently on the house system in every restaurant in the East Village from 1991-95 – wasn’t her fault after all.
7. LSD – “Genius”
Diplo and Sia – two folks who seemingly can do no wrong in the poposphere. This track lives up to the exact level of irresistible awesomeness I would expect from them, as did the other cuts they released in this guise. (Labyrinth though… how did he get invited? Not that he’s bad or anything it just seems like it should have been Hov or, I don’t know… Obama)
8. Parquet Courts – “Before the water gets too high”
If it’s the Large List and it’s some Williamsburgy Fall-inspired postrock then it must be… The Parquet Courts! One of these days I should really flex my Google bone and find out one single thing about this band because I listen to them all the time. For instance, are they from Williamsburg? Do bands still come from Williamsburg? (Most of this song the only instrumentation is a lazy bassline that sounds like crap, a very digital sounding organ pad and an even worse sounding drum machine… and yet it still brings the good craggy whiteboy funk.)
9. Lykke Li – “The deep end”
I generally like Lykke Li and I absolutely love this song mostly because of whatever the hell she’s singing in the chorus which upon numerous listenings still remains completely incomprehensible to me. I know I could just search up the lyrics but I have chosen not to know (and for the record I sing it – loudly – “so you dance with me dance with me dance with me dance with me doe dee doo bee poop oh baby I know where you been know where you been… in the deep end!” How this would make my son laugh if I told him about it but I’m not going to because the poop jokes are just out of control with that kid)
10. Shawn Mendes / “Lost in Japan”
Don’t look back Timberlake – they gaining on you. You were busy proving what a legit country dad you are with that unlistenable record of yours and this kid went and swiped your easy listening white boy R&B throne. This track is just… candy. Candy corn with a side of sweeties drizzled in chocolate rainbows.
11. Jason Aldean / “Rearview town”
“Stuck my middle finger in the sky… flipped off that ‘y’all come back’ sign.” He HATES that town. (Better Bruce song than any actual Bruce song of the last 20 years, could be a Darkness outtake.)
12. Kristin Asbjornsen – “You hold me while leaving me”
Best use of a harp across an entire album in the history of pop music. The harpist on this record has some truly face melting harp solos. New agey though it may be I loved the whole album – compelling vocals, genuinely moving and unexpected songs and excellent production. And like… harp.
13. Nels Cline 4 – “Imperfect 10”
I really like this band but I still don’t understand why it’s called the Nels Cline 4. I can only assume that Nels Cline can kick Julian Lage’s ass and that’s why because there’s no other reason. If Christopher Parkening and Julian Bream formed a band no way would it have been called the Parkening 4. Or what about, say… Buckethead and Yngwie Malmsteen? The Buckethead Quartet? I THINK NOT.
14. J Cole – “1985”
Aw man Cole Lil Pump and Tekashi both headed to county, sixnine doing a LONG bid. Go easy on the young and brazenly stupid. You won man – like a thousand times over you won. (Btw I generally am opposed to the whole respect-your-elders realm of hip hop but the way he just takes all the necktats out to the woodshed here is just… mwah!… perfection.)
15. Camilla Cabello / Kane Brown – “Never be the same”
“It’s like nicotine, heroeen, morphine… suddenly… you’re all I need” – dig if you will the picture of Large and both of Large’s grade school children belting this one out in the car. I felt kind of weird about it but then I just went with it and no one was any the wiser. The hook is so hooky it’s painful. Did they speed her voice up? They must have right? That’s some chipmunks shit.
16. Blood Orange – “Charcoal Baby”
Whatever that effect on the guitar that makes it sound like a really warped record… that is what does it. Synth pad and guitar arpeggios on the chorus a hair off key too in a way that tortures me. Sometimes getting it ever so slightly wrong makes it so so so right (not to mention that flute at the end oh man I’m just done at that point).
17. Kanye and T.I. – “Ye vs. The People”
Crazier year than usual for Ye (to put it mildly) and in the eyes of many he crossed the line into irredeemable territory. But hey… Daytona? Kids see ghosts? Some of the cuts on that Teyana record? And this cut – I tip my non-MAGA cap to him for releasing a track where T.I. takes him to task and completely destroys his whole “free thinking genius” position. “This shit is stubborn, selfish, bullheaded, even for you…” Damn straight Tip let him have it. Or how about this one – “The greater good of the people is first/ Have you considered all the damage and the people you hurt? / You had a bad idea and you’re makin’ it worse / This shit’s just as bad as Catholic preachers rapin’ in church.”
18. Joshua Redman – “Unanimity”
From an album called “still dreaming” dedicated to the late great quartet “Old and New Dreams” which featured Joshua’s dad, Dewey Redman, standing in for Ornette with the rest of the members of Ornette’s classic qt – Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell and Don Cherry. The Old and New Dreams records, two studio and one live (only the live one on streaming so you’ll have to start trolling the bargain bins if you want more – there’s also a reunion album from the late 80’s on Black Saint which was never released in the US and which I have never seen so if you find this record you are hereby legally bound to give it to me) are some of my favorite 70’s, early 80’s jazz records so this JR album was a welcome throwback for me. Really gets the spirit of the sound perfectly too (Ron Miles arguably just pretending to be Don Cherry) and it also has Brian Blade on drums for a big added bonus.
19 . J Balvin – “Cuando Tu quieras”
This J Balvin cat can really crank out the sinuous hooks and groovy grooves of the ilk that threaten a man’s sanity. Colombian Pharrell. I have no idea what the song is on about but I am guessing that it has something to do with sex.
20. Prince / “17 days”
Good (oh so good) to have you back #3. “Is that my echo? Give me the straighter one.” Man had his own echo. This got coughed up to me on some playlist and I heard the voice at the top and thought “is that Prince?” and then the piano kicked in and I was like “oh hells yes wtf is this.” One imagines there are like 7000 hours of recordings like this on veritable mountains of tape and hard drives at Prince’s house. I’m guessing the only thing that can stop the oncoming onslaught of posthumous Prince recordings is lawsuits, then global warming.
21. Sons of Kemet – “My Queen is Ada Eastman”
Over in London jazz is cool now. Not like “I know old people tell me that jazz is supposed to be important for some reason and consequently I will acknowledge that it’s ‘cool’ while also making sure to never ever listen to it because it’s so not actually cool.” No in London it’s like young beautiful people in hip neighborhoods go to clubs and sweatily dance to it all night type of cool. London is the epicenter of the scene where jazz is melding with afrobeat and hip hop and electronica and anything else you can think of and creating something that feels both old and new again at the same time. Sons of Kemet are one of the leading acts of the scene, featuring among other folks Theon Cross, the most significant (only?) jazz tuba player since ole Ray Draper.
22. David Crosby / “Vagrants of Venice”
Good to have you back #4 (kind of good… not in the territory of Prince or Sade good). True story – I heard this song on some playlist and I liked it so I checked to see who it was. Saw the name “David Crosby” and I thought “that’s funny, some hipster neofolk band is calling itself David Crosby… is that allowed? I guess it is.” Later on I read that David Crosby had recorded a comeback album and it was coming out soon and I thought “I wonder if he knows about that band using his name.” It took me a surprisingly long time to figure this all out.
23. Kids see ghosts – “4th dimension”
I debated whether to include a track from this, and from Daytona… AND Ye vs the people. But fuck it. In the purely musical realm I still got Ye on the iron throne and no Khaleesi’s or Jon Snows or Cersei’s even hanging around the palace. “Bought a alligator I ain’t talking LaCoste.” Contender for Large Line of the Year. The Santa sample too – the dude is just on another level. I question his judgment on having an alligator as a pet but look I think we can all agree that he has a lot of problems.
24. Neneh Cherry – “Deep Vein Thrombosis”
I feel like I write this in the Large List every year – the world doesn’t pay enough attention to Neneh Cherry’s endless string of incredible albums in the new millennium, each as striking and surprising and provocative as the last. This song is scary good, and actually scary. I wander around the city singing it and I think to myself “how exactly did she turn the words deep vein thrombosis into such a prophetic mantra of pre-apocalyptic anxiety?”
25. The Kills – “List of Demands”
That’s funny – I have a list of demands written on the palm of MY hands. (Oh oh oh this one ratchets up my elliptical game to eleven.)
26. Rich Homie Quan – “Understood”
Speaking of the elliptical… “I got these diamonds on my chain tunnel vision on my brain I’m just FOCUSED.” That right there is your boy Davey in the gym (when, that is, he goes to the gym, which is rarely). “I keep that heater under my pillow cause I can’t sleep when it’s cold” – contender for LLOTY.
27. Bob Dylan – “You’re a Big Girl Now”
I haven’t been interested in one of these Saint Bob from-the-vault multidisc extravaganzas in a long time but the Blood on the Tracks sessions are so mythical (and I spent so much time in my college years inspecting that record like it was the Dead Sea scrolls) that I was drawn back into the miasma. And… lo and behold. A few cuts, this one in particular, like nothing else I’ve heard from His Royal Bobness, reveal a glimpse of the actual man behind the sneering hipper-than-thou riddleslinger character study he’s been working on since the Don’t Look Back era. You listen to something like this and you realize that we hardly know the guy. Also sounds like he might have been a much better singer than he ever let on, which isn’t surprising and yet still bizarre somehow (this isn’t something one would think he’d want to conceal). Anyway this one gives me chills. Dylan maintains to this day (as of course he would) that Blood is in no way an autobiographical record. Clearly bullshit and this one outtake is my irrefutable proof.
28. Walter Smith III – “Adam’s Apple”
What a year for Wayne Shorter. Kennedy Center honoree (along with Cher, Reba McEntire and Philip Glass – those four should start a band). And his music seems to show up on just about every new jazz record that features a saxophone, including a new Sound Prints record, which is basically a Shorter tribute act (and you know when big dogs like Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas decide to form a tribute band in your honor that you are a serious baller). Of all the Shorter tunes I heard on various albums in 2018, this was my favorite, title track of one of Wayne’s great mid-60’s Blue Note records (featuring the first appearance of “footprints” which became a signature tune of Miles 2nd qt). Walter Smith manages to bring new life to this nugget while also capturing the spirit of the Shorter vibe at its best, not a wasted note, such depth achieved with so little, and of course a legato header backed by a stone cold bassline and fierce, abstract drumming that would make Varese proud (in this case not the dear departed Tony W but Eric Harland, quite a bandleading beast in his own right).
29. Khruangbin – “Maria tambien”
I’ve decided that “Tarantino” is an entire genre of music which consists of anything that is easily imagined playing in the background of a Tarantino movie when a bunch of the usual miscreants are getting SHOT THE FUCK UP. This track right here is straight up Tarantino.
30. Fucked Up – “Tell me what you see”
The venerable Canadian hardcore band returned this year after a long hiatus with a concept album called Dose Our Dreams (can’t say I’m down with them so hard that they warrant a “good to have you back” though). I listened to it a few times and while I couldn’t tell you what the concept is if you paid me I nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit (the quality of the recording is pretty shit which annoyed me – I guess that is the aesthetic but at this point in the history of recorded music it seems like having a shitty sounding recording to prove your authenticity is just… stupid). Gives me some Husker Du feelings, some Mekons feelings, even some heavens-to-betsy it’s Thee Headcoats feelings. All welcome feelings in Largeland.
31. Kandace Springs – “Fix Me”
This album is on Blue Note and there were some vague trappings around it that could lead one to expect it to be a jazzy scene. It ain’t. But it is some high level Alicia Keys/Lauryn Hill type R&B of the deeply felt and impeccably produced variety and I loved the whole record, listened to it many times. Could have gone for a real live acoustic bass (it is Blue Note after all) instead of that computer generated 20hz trunkbumpin boom fest but whatever. It is/was 2018 and certain things have to be accepted.
32. Smino – LMF
NOIR – late entry in the sweepstakes and I barely have my head around it but still prepared to say it’s one of the best rap records of the year. This track just can’t be denied. What a beast on the mic – kid can do everything. And the flute sample in the left channel, torturously good.
33. Bill Frisell – “Ron Carter”
A magical tribute to “Ron Carter” who as we all know him on earth is of course just a human manifestation of the spirit in the center of the universe that is holding it all down. (From the album Music Is which is just mesmerizing – I wonder if Frisell ever gets a Kennedy center honor? I really think he deserves it more than Reba McEntire.)
34. Natalia LaFourcade and Los Macorinos – “Derecho de Nacimiento”
From Musas Vol 2, one of my favorite records of the year and certainly the best sounding record of the year that I heard – get this one on your hi-fi, it’s exquisite. Follow up to the Grammy winning smash hit record Musas 1 and same concept, intimate but spirited arrangements of Latin American pop classics. (I think this particular track was originally released in 2013 but it’s on this album released in 2018 so I claim a 2018 Large List exemption because Large Really Likes It. )
35. Twin Shadow – “When You’re Wrong”
To help with whatever self-esteem/lack of achievement issues you may be facing right now, I give you the opening graf of Twin Shadow’s Wikipedia entry: “George Lewis Jr., better known by his stage name Twin Shadow, is a Dominican American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor based out of Los Angeles, California. He has written a novel, scripted TV series and released four albums.” As for myself… I have half of the garage cleaned out, planning on getting to the rest by the summertime. This track – I heartily recommend you put it on your elliptical mix because it is a mother (synth drum sounds just get better and better I have to admit).
36. Hinds – “New For You”
First of all you just have to check out this album cover. Vaguely Japanese sounding Raincoats inspired girlband pop punk with a real spirit of fun and conviction and overall lack of artsy bullshit. Always good to be reminded that you don’t really need to know how to play an instrument to kick some ass (still the essential point of rock music I think). Bet this band is ridonkulously good live.
37. Snoh Aalegra and Luke James – “Out of your way”
This one hits me right in my soft spot and makes me want to writhe on the floor and speak in tongues and permanently disappear into the valley of the sirens. Who is this Snoh me wonders. You can’t google everything. TREMENDOUS production – that snare sound (btw if that’s a computer snare sound the robots have officially won), the conga at the top, the Wurlitzer – possibly a real Wurlitzer? does real anything even happen anymore outside of like… Jack White and Jeff Tweedy’s house? Neil Young’s Winnebago? Anyway, just ear candy the whole scene.
38. Kimbra / “Top of the world”
Puts me in mind just a little of a new millennium edition of the breathless avenging psychoangel heyday of PJ Harvey. While I don’t quite get the sense that Kimbra is legitimately cray she does a convincing enough imitation that she scares me a little. Really it’s like if PJH had just discovered hip hop which now that I think about it would make for a wangdanger of a record (which, now that I think about it, has probably already happened – I should investigate that).
39. McKinley Dixon – “Announcing humanity”
Don’t know how I got turned on to this guy but something prompted me to seek out his album and I’m really glad I did. Sometimes when I’m wading through the endless morass of mean-spirited (and even worse, boring) moneywhipsandpussy SoundCloud nihilism that seems to constitute so much of current hip hop I decide that the music has reached the end of its life expectancy as a meaningful genre. Then someone like this pops up and I realize that I’m wrong.
40 Ben Howard – “Towing the line”
If I were planning to just straight up steal a melody wholesale from Elton John I don’t think Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters would have been in my top five options. But after I heard this song, it seemed like an obvious choice. Elton became such a parody of a parody of himself (like Liberace crossed with a friendly Disney ogre) that it’s easy to forget what a great run he had back (way way back) in the day.
41. Saweetie – “Icy girl”
The ladies are bringing new life to hip hop too. This track is fire, also makes me think that rap is increasingly becoming a vehicle for investment advice which I wouldn’t have predicted.
42. Khalid – “OTW”
Put trap drums on some Bone Thugs style R&B and then craft your most earnest booty call ballad and you got yourself some radio ready magic. I get to the end of this cut and I think “I could listen to that beat for another 25 minutes.”
43. Disclosure, Fatiumata Diawara – “Ultimatum”
Tracks like this just make me feel like the future of popular music has arrived and I absolutely love it. Maybe my #1 favorite cut of the year, just so contagiously alive and the vocals convey so much to me despite the fact I don’t know what any of it means (which is really what I want from vocals generally, sound not sense).
44. Jessie Reyez – “Body count”
I overlook a few big things in digging this song – the weird breathy gurlz from the hood vocal affectation (she hails from the mean streets of Toronto) and the banal Instaready message of “we don’t need no one trying to take our freedom!” (any illusion of freedom you have should be dispelled as soon as possible and whatever is telling you otherwise is likely the very source of the problem). But then… the groove is slinky af, she says “I dodge dick on the daily” (LLOTY winner!) with such effortless conviction and the track is so short that as soon as it’s over I want to hear it again. So onto the list it goes!
45. Russ – “Back to Life”
Sometimes it feels like this cut actually brings me back to life. I notice myself gravitating towards a brand of inspirational optimism in my pop music lately that used to be not my thing at all to put it mildly. I blame Trump. And global warming. And being like… almost 50. I blame a lot of things. (Btw don’t fish for retweets from Russ bc he AINT HAVING IT. He also used to work at Outback. I’ve learned a lot about Russ.)
46. Kelly Willis – “Back being blue”
Winner of the newly created wherefore art thou Dusty Springfield award for achievement in the field of female blue-eyed soul. Oh oh oh I do love me some Kelly Willis – that record she made a few (5? 8?) years ago with her husband – I still put that one on now and then and it wows me. Timelessly great. (String pad at the end of this track gives it just a scintilla of Gamble and Huffness which is always a big plus in Largelvania.)
47. Makaya McCraven – “Butterss’s”
This man is making some seriously heavy music and making it seem easy at the same time. His website describes him as a “beat scientist” and generally that would prompt a response in me of “let me make it a point to never listen to that asshole.” But with this dude I one hundred percent accept his job title, totally earned and deserved. I think at heart he’s a jazz drummer and his music still usually gets served up under the “jazz” heading but he’s just his own genre at this point. Jeff Parker on here too, guitar player, first team All-Large.
48. Camilla George – “Little Eight John”
People compare this woman’s playing to Cannonball Adderley all the time, and I guess that’s because she plays alto that has some of the gestures of the high old-school of hard bop, but on this cut and others too there’s something in the conviction and phrasing of her balladeering that makes me think of Coltrane on the soprano. More genre-stretching “jazz” from the UK though she is Nigerian born – her latest album is called “The People Could Fly” and it’s based on a book of African folk tales her mother used to read her as a child. I urge urge urge you to check it out – Large’s hands-down jazz album of the year (Cherise Adams-Burnett on the mic).