best of Pink Matter's Best Of 2018 | Albums: 25-1 | FINISHED

[ChapelHooker]

Disclosure's tracks this year really were fantastic and a huge step up from Caracal for sure, it's offically titled Moonlight btw, there is a vinyl release of it

 

Iglooghost's are my favorite out of the EP's, Clear Tamei is amazing

[Navyofbadgals]

perched 

[Pink Matter]

Sup y'all. Today, I'm back to present to you all with what I felt were the biggest disappointments of the year , musically speaking. I generally felt this was a solid year for music and even found artists that I can see myself checking for more routinely in the future. However, there was music released, both from my faves and from artists that I had expectations from, that simply wasn't the tea. So let's get into it!

 

Disappointments of 2018

 

Justin Timberlake|Man of the Woods

 

 

I wasn't really on the cancel bandwagon like most of ATRL/stan twitter was at the beginning of the year (even though I do feel that the way he handled the Superbowl situation with Janet was incredibly foul), but even I can't really defend this album. Though it's not nearly as bad as some make it out to be, this undoubtedly is his worst album to date (which is saying something since his last album was The 20/20 Experience Part 2). I think at this point, JT needs to take a break from working with Timbaland. As much as Timbo is one of my favorite all time producers, the sound the two of them have crafted up until this point has gotten stale to say the least. You could throw these songs on any one of JT's last 3 albums and they'd fit just fine (many of the R&B leaning songs could've ended up on either of the 20/20 albums; Filthy is blatant copy of Sexyback, an extremely derivative and weaker one at that). It also doesn't help that the songwriting was generally poor throughout the album (Supplies being a good (or bad as it were) example). My, and many of the reactions to this album can generally be summarized by the can you come up with something else gif. Though there are a handful of songs on here that I enjoy a lot (one of which made my singles list), I haven't felt the need to listen to this album since February. Hopefully the reception to this album gets JT to work with other producers and songwriters to give him some new, fresh ideas to work with.

 

Kanye West|ye

 

 

This year had to be the worst year to be a Kanye stan. By far. After going on a several month long hiatus from social media, Kanye comes back to twitter to show his support for American conservative commentator Candace Owens, which later culminated in him expressing his love and support for President Donald Trump (not for his politics but for him as a person, which isn't all that much better but whatevs). To many, including myself, this came as a great shock. How could the man who said the iconic line "George Bush doesn't care about black people" consider a man like Donald Trump to be someone he should be rubbing shoulders and engaging with? I... understand why he thinks the idea of Trump being president is interesting, but to actually consider him a good friend was just unexpected. Though I don't want to get into how the year was politically, I feel it's necessary to bring up with regards to my overall disappointment with Kanye. There are many people who listen to artists and have the ability to remove the artists outside persona from the music, and enjoy it. Kanye is not the first problematic artist/the first artist to make problematic statements; countless other artists across different decades and genres have made flagrant comments just as bad as his, and have done things and made actions just as bad Kanye, or even worse. I felt I could be one of those people who could maybe stan the music and critique the man making the music at the same time. Here's where ye comes in. Over the course of the decade, I've felt Kanye's musical output has just been a tragic decline. MBDTF is one of my favorite albums of all time, but everything after has been lackluster. Yeezus, while a creative album at the very least, was not something I enjoyed listening to. TLOP was a chaotic mess, and not in a good way. I felt it was an album where Kanye was being influenced by other mainstream artists around him as opposed to being the one influencing everyone else. It became even more apparent that whatever level of lyricism manifested in his best work, was not apparent on TLOP. There was far too much filler and many of the beats were wasted on him (namely the Freestyle 4 beat; thankfully Tyler and Rocky snapped on it!). And finally getting to ye, it had about the least amount of thought put into it that I've heard a Kanye album have. It was very apparent he spent a week putting it together, because lyrically, this is his worst album. Usually his production is engaging, even if it's too influenced by mainstream rap, but here it was just subpar. The idea behind the Wyoming sessions seemed like a cool idea but in hindsight, it would've done him better to take his time making this album because this ended up being a huge miss for me. And what's really sad is he can still rap! All of the features he did for Pushat T,  Teyana, and Nas, + his bars on KSG show he still has it. Hopefully this next album he's got cooking up, whatever it's called, lives up to the standards that he's known for. But it's up to him to get it together and really focus on putting together a thoughtful album.

 

Lykke Li|so sad so sexy

 

 

To be honest, I had never listened to a Lykke Li album until this year. I was pretty excited because everyone was raving about her and saying her discography was flawless and I had to check this, this, and this album out, and... well you guys get the picture. I had listened to I Never Learn some time before so sad so sexy came out. Not to mention, deep end and hard rain were cute jingles so I was hyped going into this one. But man was this the complete opposite of what I expected. All I can remember from my first two or so listens of this album (because there was no way I'd subject myself to multiple plays of this), was that it was just so vastly different to I Never Learn, and not in a good way. The album's sound felt uninspired and amateurish that any type of deeper content she sang about was lost on me.

 

Nas|NASIR

 

 

 

I honestly don't have much to say. With a rapper of Nas' level paired with Kanye's beats, I expected a Daytona level album and ended up feeling like the song Nas Album Done **** on this entire project. If he still has that album he was working on before enlisting Kanye for help in his vault, hopefully he releases it in the near future, cuz this ain't it chief. At least the cover is cool.

 

serpentwithfeet|soil

 

 

This one really hurts to put here, because it has everything going for itself to be one of the best albums of the year. The only problem I had with this album, and by far the BIGGEST problem I had with this album, was his voice. The unnecessary quivering he does/did while singing damn near every song on this album made the entire listening experience unbearable. And when he layers his voice on top of itself in certain songs, it just magnifies the problem even more. It's sad because this would otherwise be a wonderful album. The production is one of the best and most interesting of the year and his songwriting is top notch. I made sure to check back to his blisters EP again cuz I remembered liking that a lot and I didn't want to seem like I was talking out of my ass, and while the vocal quivering was present there, it wasn't nearly as annoying as it was on soil. I'll say this though, I'd definitely recommend this album to anyone who's looking for some new interesting R&B music to listen to because his voice is most likely an acquired taste. If his voice doesn't bother you, then this should make for a great listen.

 

SiR|November

 

 

If anything is worse than being bad, it's being boring. At least I feel some type of way about a bad album. If it's boring, I just feel nothing towards it. Which is the case with this album. It sucks because his EP from last year, Her Too, had great jams on it that were in constant rotation throughout 2017. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, but he seems to have lost the sauce he had. I maybe listened to this album one time but I felt that was enough for me.

 

Tinashe|Joyride

 

 

I'd like to say I was disappointed at what we got, but the final product that is Joyride came as no shock to me. For anyone who has been aware of the state of Tinashe's career ever since she dropped Aquarius, this result seemed inevitable and shouldn't have shocked you as well. With constant pushbacks and failed singles one after the other, we were lucky Joyride wasn't shelved instead. Nonetheless, you can't make excuses for mediocre music. While I hate to see her going through this mess, that doesn't excuse the album for some of the insanely generic moments splattered throughout it (Miso Bad, Faded Love, Fires and Flames) mixed with a few mixtape leftovers that would have been Japanese bonus tracks at best on any of her other projects (Joyride, He Don't Want It, Stuck With Me) and useless interludes that took up space. All in all, this made for an album that only produced 2-3 tracks worth keeping. At least she's not signed to RCA anymore. Now with no label interference, the quality of her music will solely be on her shoulders (this isn't to disregard Amethyst or Nightride; but now with no label, she has full control of the music she wants to make and release and I'm excited to see what's in store!).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm delineating between these two albums and the one's I've discussed previously as I think there is a difference between not liking something because it's bad and not liking something because it's not for you. These two are the latter.

 

Beach House|7

 

 

I've come to the conclusion that dream pop music is just not for me. Or at least, Beach House's brand of dream pop is not for me. 7 was another album that I was excited for because they've received tons of critical acclaim throughout the course of the decade, and unfortunately I was rather disappointed by what I heard. Outside of a few songs on the album, I felt this album was just one long song with each song just bleeding into each other. And for the most part, the songs feel like soundscapes that you could lose focus of if you don't pay hard enough attention to. Even when I do, the music still feels aimless and without any form or definition. But maybe that's what they've always been going for? A comment made in Pitchfork's review of 7 says:

 

Quote

Inducing indefinable yearnings, tracing patterns in the air—this is the essence of Beach House’s art.

So maybe the whole point of 7 or BH's music in general is to create formless soundscapes the listeners are able to get lost in? If that's the case then that's great, because I feel they've certainly accomplished what they were set out to do, and if you're into that sort of thing, then you'd most likely enjoy this album. For someone like me, it just seems like good background music. The best songs were the ones that I sounded very distinct from the other songs on the album and had some oomph to them (Pay No Mind, Lemon Glow, Girl of the Year).

 

Kacey Musgraves|Golden Hour

 

 

Now in hindsight, I feel like I played myself. I already knew Kacey Musgraves was a country singer and that, as far country music made this century goes, I don't enjoy it at all. But the ATRL hype train/bandwagon hooked me in and for some reason I thought it would be more than what it was. It also didn't help that the ATRL gays were raving over Velvet Elvis and High Horse (which I did like), which for whatever reason made me think the album would sound like that. But no, I was just met with a country album. That's not to say this album was bad; it just wasn't for me. I don't really know if this is considered good country music or not (I'm not even sure if this is lyrically a good album; I listened to it once lol) but given the amount of acclaim it's received, if you're into country music, you should check it for yourselves.

 

Other general albums/artists that didn't really do it for me this year:
I didn't really have any expectations for Camila Cabello, but her s/t still managed to be one of the worst albums I listened to all year. NBTS is my guilty pleasure though  Drake has just been a major disappointment since WATTBA cuz it seems he only cares about putting out as much music as possible to secure as many hits/sales as possible, which is smart business-wise. But his music has suffered for it. I'll only ever check for his singles cuz I know at this point, his albums will always disappoint me. And remember when I said being boring was worse than being bad; well Yo La Tengo put out an album this year that literally bored me to tears. I actually disliked it more than Camila's album, which is saying a lot. At least I can use Havana and NBTS; I took nothing away from YLT's album  I would have thrown Rina on here as well but I gave her single's another chance beforehand and I had a change of heart. Hopefully she doesn't let us down with her debut album!

[Pink Matter]

10 hours ago, Wicked said:

I don't think Disclosure is for me, and that Summer Pack **** was a MESS but nice list overall. 

was it 2 generic 4 u?

 

9 hours ago, ChapelHooker said:

Disclosure's tracks this year really were fantastic and a huge step up from Caracal for sure, it's offically titled Moonlight btw, there is a vinyl release of it

 

Iglooghost's are my favorite out of the EP's, Clear Tamei is amazing

Ooh thanks. I'll make edits for the title. And Iglooghost's did what they had to do  

-

Come through y'all

 

 

@keerbyriri @Kang. @Tom Vercetti @Maddox @Navyofbadgals @Body Electrician @Wicked @artangel @TRF. @PrinceMichaelFan @Clueless @Superpower @Tsareena @theblackestday @Love Drought @Vilppu @K$Ellie @DAP @madonnas @mokitsu @Eeveelution @ChapelHooker @volition @Mark Rih @prézli @TheWayWeWere @Vxspertine

[Wicked]

I'm ready to put my cousins on the N train to beat your ass over the soil mention.

 

jk.

[Navyofbadgals]

Golden Hour and Beach House  

not okay ms thing

[Navyofbadgals]

14 minutes ago, Pink Matter said:

.

 

Other general albums/artists that didn't really do it for me this year:
I didn't really have any expectations for Camila Cabello, but her s/t still managed to be one of the worst albums I listened to all year. 

Well let’s celebrate that 

[theblackestday]

@ 7 and Golden Hour

 

[Wicked]

51 minutes ago, Pink Matter said:

How could the man who said the iconic line "George Bush doesn't care about black people" consider a man like Donald Trump to be someone he should be rubbing shoulders and engaging with?

Because he's a coon now along with the fact he wants to be a contrarian to seem ahead of the curve. Problem is this is the wrong thing to try and be a contrarian with. He's worse than Stacey Dash tbh (the irony re: All Falls Down video)

 

But I was still secretly here for the music, but then that turned out to be a dud too so....

 

I mainly agree with these though... I like Dream Pop but Beach House is like an extremely boring iteration.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Wicked

[Unoriginal]

you were making points until the line break   Camila is atrocious though you didn't lie 

[Eeveelution]

You made points until the last two  

 

It’s too bad dream pop isn’t for you, it’s one of my fav genres tbh.

 

At least you stan Velvet Elvis and High Horse the best songs on the album, same with BH actually.

 

As for YLT, I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One is a CLASSIC if you haven’t heard it yet.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Eeveelution

[Vilppu]

i'm only half joking when i say that RCA purposely delayed joyride so many times removing one decent song at a time so when it finally came out it had nothing worthwhile to offer which turned a lot of fans off and in the end no one was actually upset about her leaving the label/getting kicked 

 

as a lykke stan ssss was maybe almost as heartbreaking as i never learn... only in very different ways

 

ofc i don't agree on serpent/beach house but those are fair criticisms, it would be boring if we all thought the same. also re: cancel culture in JT write-up, it's worthless and generally does more harm than good. unless it's a really serious issue, "cancelling" someone is never the right option 

[Blue Rose]

Choices were made and extremely tragic ones.

[Pink Matter]

35 minutes ago, Wicked said:

I'm ready to put my cousins on the N train to beat your ass over the soil mention.

 

jk.

good thing I'm not in Queens

 

31 minutes ago, Navyofbadgals said:

Golden Hour and Beach House  

not okay ms thing

I hope you read where I said they aren't necessarily bad but just not my thing.

 

29 minutes ago, Navyofbadgals said:

Well let’s celebrate that 

The Crying in the Club chanteuse made exactly two points with her album and nothing more

27 minutes ago, theblackestday said:

@ 7 and Golden Hour

 

I hope you read where I said they aren't necessarily bad but just not my thing. [2]

25 minutes ago, Wicked said:

Because he's a coon now along with the fact he wants to be a contrarian to seem ahead of the curve. Problem is this is the wrong thing to try and be a contrarian with. He's worse than Stacey Dash tbh (the irony re: All Falls Down video)

 

But I was still secretly here for the music, but then that turned out to be a dud too so....

Oh I don't think he was being a contrarian about it. I genuinely believe he sees something in Trump that connects the two of them (Trump being an outsider in politics and Ye being an outsider in the rap world at the beginning of his career). He probably admires the fact that Trump was able to become President of the United States when everyone counted him out, just like when everyone said Ye would never make it as a rapper when he was first starting out. Thing is, that alone shouldn't be enough to make you want to be friends with someone like Trump, but I guess it does for him  

 

23 minutes ago, Unoriginal said:

you were making points until the line break   Camila is atrocious though you didn't lie 

I wish I could get into Beach House but I just can't  

15 minutes ago, Eeveelution said:

You made points until the last two  

 

It’s too bad dream pop isn’t for you, it’s one of my fav genres tbh.

 

At least you stan Velvet Elvis and High Horse the best songs on the album, same with BH actually.

 

As for YLT, I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One is a CLASSIC if you haven’t heard it yet.

BH and Kacey made several points with those songs. And I'll queue the YLT album for later.

 

5 minutes ago, Vilppu said:

i'm only half joking when i say that RCA purposely delayed joyride so many times removing one decent song at a time so when it finally came out it had nothing worthwhile to offer which turned a lot of fans off and in the end no one was actually upset about her leaving the label/getting kicked 

 

as a lykke stan ssss was maybe almost as heartbreaking as i never learn... only in very different ways

 

ofc i don't agree on serpent/beach house but those are fair criticisms, it would be boring if we all thought the same. also re: cancel culture in JT write-up, it's worthless and generally does more harm than good. unless it's a really serious issue, "cancelling" someone is never the right option 

Bye at the Ooh La La and No Contest shade  

With serpent, I'm sure if he sang with less quivering I'd enjoy it more. Hell it was kinda growing on me earlier since I wanted to give it one final listen before making a verdict. Same for BH too. 

And I agree, I think cancel culture works when the person being cancelled actually did something worth cancelling. Someone like R Kelly deserves to be cancelled. JT, as spineless as it was for him to throw Janet under the bus, doesn't deserve to be cancelled.

[Pink Matter]

8 minutes ago, Superpower said:

Choices were made and extremely tragic ones.

asfghjkl the controversy, the backlash

poor me eye suppose  

[World Eater]

Those whole ass essays  Ngl, haven't read any of them, but I have a boring lecture tomorrow so I'll catch up then  No points were made with including about half of these albums, though  But the other half absolutely deserves

[Blue Rose]

1 minute ago, Pink Matter said:

asfghjkl the controversy, the backlash

poor me eye suppose  

It’s not too late to delete  

[Wicked]

Cancel culture is way too selective and flimsy imo. Most human beings are messy to varying degrees, if they were really about the whole cancelling thing nobody would ever read books, listen to music or watch movies/tv ever again. People are cancelling R. Kelly but listening to Bowie who slept with a 13 year old; like...

 

JT is problematic though, like the stuff he's said over the years + the BLM commentary.

 

[Pink Matter]

22 minutes ago, World Eater said:

Those whole ass essays  Ngl, haven't read any of them, but I have a boring lecture tomorrow so I'll catch up then  No points were made with including about half of these albums, though  But the other half absolutely deserves

dd drag me  read them when you have the chance

I figure it's better to give a reasoning as to why I found them disappointing than just listing them. Just know BH and Kacey aren't disappointments because of their quality

 

21 minutes ago, Superpower said:

It’s not too late to delete  

dd I'll take my chances  

 

21 minutes ago, Wicked said:

Cancel culture is way too selective and flimsy imo. Most human beings are messy to varying degrees, if they were really about the whole cancelling thing nobody would ever read books, listen to music or watch movies/tv ever again. People are cancelling R. Kelly but listening to Bowie who slept with a 13 year old; like...

 

JT is problematic though, like the stuff he's said over the years + the BLM commentary.

 

With older artists like Bowie and the like, they kinda are immune to cancel culture since they're not really relevant so no one feels the need to dig up dirt on them. R Kelly still is somewhat culturally relevant so he'll always (thankfully) have his dirty laundry exposed to the world.

And I assume he's made some #AllLivesMatter'd kind of posts? I don't keep up with him tbh

[Tom Vercetti]

All i have to say is these are understandable. 

 

Based on the singles, I wasn't expecting much for both Joyride or MOTW. 

[collin]

I very strongly agree with these disappointments, and Golden Hour (seriously!?) aside.  

I also rather liked the Beach House LP - their other albums, for me, were very boring and same-y. This felt like a departure.

Joyride still clicked with me, but it was easily her weakest album.

I know people liked that serpentwithfeet album but god, I thought it was mostly unlistenable.  

The lyricism and voice combo was completely unbearable by the 1/3 mark.

 

[Tsareena]

man of the woods sucked but there were one or two interesting tracks
still didn't listen to ye or really plan to

no points on so sad so sexy
bitch not serpentwithfeet.... bye

also double bye for golden hour omg
 

[DAP]

That tea about Golden Hour. You better DRAG Kacey, we don’t stan talentless country artists in this house

 

[DAP]

You can have your space, cowboy
I ain't gonna fence you in
Go on ride away, in your Silverado
Guess I'll see you 'round again
I know my place, and it ain't with you
Sunsets fade, and love does too
Yeah, we had our day in the sun
When a horse wants to run, there ain't no sense in closing the gate
You can have your space, cowboy

 

What kind of Katy Perry’d lyricism?

 

 

[Pink Matter]

5 hours ago, Tom Vercetti said:

All i have to say is these are understandable. 

 

Based on the singles, I wasn't expecting much for both Joyride or MOTW. 

As much as I liked No Drama, I knew it was just gonna be a generic mess. Same for MotW (except Filthy was just trash). At least they gave us a couple of good tracks.

And thanks for not putting your boot on my neck king  

 

4 hours ago, collin said:

I very strongly agree with these disappointments, and Golden Hour (seriously!?) aside.  

I also rather liked the Beach House LP - their other albums, for me, were very boring and same-y. This felt like a departure.

Joyride still clicked with me, but it was easily her weakest album.

I know people liked that serpentwithfeet album but god, I thought it was mostly unlistenable.  

The lyricism and voice combo was completely unbearable by the 1/3 mark.

 

Glad I'm not going crazy! Beach House's album had some nice songs on it (the ones I highlighted) but beyond that I'd have to agree with you.

I'd probably stan serpent down if he sang differently lol

 

4 hours ago, Tsareena said:

man of the woods sucked but there were one or two interesting tracks
still didn't listen to ye or really plan to

no points on so sad so sexy
bitch not serpentwithfeet.... bye

also double bye for golden hour omg
 

serpent's voice is not the tea. Don't shoot the messenger  

And I just don't mess with country music. Kacey (outside of Velvet Elvis and High Horse) is no exception  

4 hours ago, DAP said:

That tea about Golden Hour. You better DRAG Kacey, we don’t stan talentless country artists in this house

 

 

4 hours ago, DAP said:

You can have your space, cowboy
I ain't gonna fence you in
Go on ride away, in your Silverado
Guess I'll see you 'round again
I know my place, and it ain't with you
Sunsets fade, and love does too
Yeah, we had our day in the sun
When a horse wants to run, there ain't no sense in closing the gate
You can have your space, cowboy

 

What kind of Katy Perry’d lyricism?

 

 

I wouldn't say I dragged Ms. Musgraves but oh wow at these lyrics

@ everyone this y'alls girl  

-

I feel like people saw "disappointments" "beach house" "kacey musgraves" and thought I said there albums were bad or something.

Reading is fundamental y'all.