What a year for indie music. We received a boatload of review requests from around the world, and published reviews of nearly 1,000 CDs and EPs. We culled through those we reviewed first to pick our nominations for the LA Music Critic Awards, and now to compile our list of the 40 Best CDs of 2018.
Due to the sheer volume, we only considered full-length projects for this list, but that doesn’t mean that quite a few of the EPs we reviewed weren’t also worthy of distinction. We may yet put together another list of just EPs.
In the meantime, while we wait for the winners of the second half of 2018 for the LA Music Critic Awards to be announced tomorrow, here are our favorite CDs of 2018. You can find their individual reviews by searching for them on our blog.
40. Kate Reid – The Heart Already Knows
39. Deb Ryder – Enjoy the Ride
38. Jeffrey Foucault – War on the Radio
37. Katie Herzig – Moment of Bliss
36. Eric Tingstad – Electric Spirit
35. Fanny Walked the Earth – self-titled
34. Wily Bo Walker – Almost Transparent Blues
33. Buddy Guy – The Blues is Alive and Well
32. Walt Weiskopf – European Quartet
31. Mindi Abair & the Boneshakers – All I Got for Christmas is the Blues
30. YYNOT – self-titled
29. Peter V Blues Band – Shaken but not Deterred
28. Delta Moon – Babylon is Falling
27. The Textones – Old Stone Gang
26. Ronny Morris – Sweet Silence
25. Sydney Wright – Seiche
24. Gleeson – The Years Have It
23. Colin Devlin – High Point
22. Everlast – Don’t Complain
21. Zsuzsika – Start Again
20. Michael Peterson – From Here to Eternity
19. K. Michelle Dubois – Autumn
18. Broken Bellows – I, Kaleidoscope
17. Rachel Sage – Myopia
16. Janiva Magness – Love is an Army
15. John Flanagan Trio – Honest Man
14. Lee Ainley’s Blues Storm – Shoot me Down
13. Floods – Bad Times
12. Frank Hannon (From One Place . . . to Another, vols 1 and 2)
11. Keith Harkin – In the Round
10. Southern Halo – Just Like in the Movies
9. Cindy Alexander – Nowhere to Hide
8. Kari Kimmel – Gold & Glitter
7. Hymn for Her – Pop-n-Downers
6. Jordan Siwek – Sun Inside You
5. Slim Gambill – Fake Jazz
4. Gina Sicilia – Heard the Lie
3. Birds and Arrows – Arbitrary Magic
2. Brigitte Rios Purdy – Still I Rise
and the Best Album of 2018 goes to
Norway Reloaded – My Longest Mile