bgillesp's 2018 EPs/Lives/Archivals and Worst
I found this to be a really great year, especially for live albums in this section. The first 28 are the good stuff (rated 4+), then the 4 worst albums I jammed this year. The worst of list I'm sure could be worse but I didn't care to work on that one too hard. **Format** Rating.score (description) Number-of-Times-Jammed |
| 32 |  | Pop Evil
Pop Evil
*Worst of the Year*
1.7 (in their self-titled album they ironically manage to rip off every single one of their influences on each and every song, granted managing to write an album where each song has no truly original music but instead covers about a dozen songs from the 90s-2000s is pretty impressive, but it doesn't make for an enjoyable experience unless you make a game of it) 1 |
| 31 |  | Five Finger Death Punch
And Justice for None
*Worst of the Year*
1.4 (a slight improvement over 6 but still some horrible lyrics throughout, especially the opener, and nothing new musically as they've been ripping themselves off for a decade) 1 |
| 30 |  | Lil Xan
TOTAL XANARCHY
*Worst of the Year*
1.3 (super lazy, pretty boring, non-original, but not *quite* the worst thing I've ever heard) 1 |
| 29 |  | Escape the Fate
I Am Human
*Very Worst of the Year*
1.1 (because selling out to the emo crowd wasn't good enough, they sold out from the mainstream even more drastically, I didn't even know you could sell out from a mainstream audience) 1 |
| 28 |  | Gang of Youths
MTV Unplugged: Live in Melbourne
3.75 (I loved the LP last year to death but this is still good despite being far from it) 1 |
| 27 |  | Tigran Hamasyan
For Gyumri
3.8 (a really nice classical jazz EP) 2 |
| 26 |  | Chain Cult
Isolated
3.85 (short and sweet, not quite as potent as the demos, but still excited to see what else this band does) 2 |
| 25 |  | Animals As Leaders
Animals As Leaders Live 2017
3.85 (really great performances and some interesting new takes on a couple songs, especially Brain Dance, but the lack of crowd interaction, the nature of it being from so many different performances, and fact that CAFO doesn't live up to studio hurt it some too) 1 |
| 24 |  | Arcane Roots
Landslide EP
3.9 (so sad they're all done) 2 |
| 23 |  | Opeth
Garden of the Titans
3.9 (setlist wasn't bad, performance wasn't bad, and it's Opeth so overall that's pretty good) 1 |
| 22 |  | Currents
I Let The Devil In
3.9 (the slightly proggy metalcore newcomers are back at it with a solid, instrumental-heavy EP) 2 |
| 21 |  | Thou
Rhea Sylvia
3.9 (more along their classic sound, but it didn't work for me as well I guess, maybe it was the cringey lyrics of non-entity) 2 |
| 20 |  | Counterparts
Private Room
3.95 (short, sweet, packs a punch especially with opener and closer) 1 |
| 19 |  | Hammock
The Night You Caught on Fire
3.95 (so smooth and calming as their work always is, nice to have some of it in small packages too) 2 |
| 18 |  | John Coltrane
Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album
3.95 (some really great pieces but an unnecessarily large amount of repeat tracks, the different takes were nice on the Impressions 1-2-4 trio that got wilder and faster, but we didn't need that many takes of the untitled one, apparently there was a version without this but I didn't find it) 1 |
| 17 |  | The Nietzsche
Finals.
3.95 (wild, crazy, weird and varied vox, really just a whole lotta fun) 2 |
| 16 |  | Son Lux
Yesterday's Wake
4.0 (I freaking love this band and y'all should too, my top listened to artist on Spotify for the year, Sput's averages are just way too low for these guys) 2 |
| 15 |  | Sigur Ros
Route One
4.0 (just some ambient Icelandic music, interesting story as to how it was made) 1 |
| 14 |  | Sevdaliza
The Calling
4.0 (real nice trip hop stuff from a lesser known artist) 1 |
| 13 |  | Kamasi Washington
The Choice
4.0 (better than the full length because it's so much more digestible, and no that doesn't mean watered down, it just means it is within the reach of the listener for its entire duration) 2 |
| 12 |  | Ben Howard
Another Friday Night / Hot Heavy Summer / Sister
4.0 (great companion of presumable b-sides to the album) 2 |
| 11 |  | Fates Warning
Live Over Europe
4.05 (it's Fates Warning, they're still kicking, they actually include crowd interaction, no need to say more) 1 |
| 10 |  | Chevelle
12 Bloody Spies: B-Sides and Rarities
4.05 (great new tracks and great reimaginations) 1 |
| 9 |  | Protomartyr
Consolation
4.1 (Wheel of Fortune is a SOTY candidate honestly, the rest is still very good) 6 |
| 8 |  | Plini
Sunhead
4.1 (nothing wildly different from his previous work except maybe the jazzy third track with a French name I can't remember, but awesome work as always) 3 |
| 7 |  | The National
Boxer Live in Brussels
4.15 (better than the studio imo, so frustrating that he mumbles during crowd interaction though) 2 |
| 6 |  | Chain Cult
Demo
4.15 (punk stuff, this isn't anything much on technicality but it has really got some attitude) 3 |
| 5 |  | Fluisteraars/Turia
De Oord
4.2 (my first jam of 2019 was catching up on a rec from Papi in the SOTD thread, but I’m glad I got to it before I finished this up, 4.4/4.0 for each half) 2 |
| 4 |  | Iglooghost
Steel Mogu
[Steel Mogu/Clear Tamei both included] 4.2 (something about these being packaged as EPs made them so much more digestible and incredible even though the music isn't that much different from previous work, it is slightly more reserved which plays to its favor though) 4/3 |
| 3 |  | mewithoutYou
[untitled] e.p.
4.25 (just a freaking good band, idk how they keep doing it) 6 |
| 2 |  | The Slow Readers Club
For All Here To Observe
*EPOTY*
4.35 (acoustic sessions of songs from this year's album as well as cavalcade that were super nice) 7 |
| 1 |  | Devin Townsend Project
Ocean Machine: Live in Plovdiv
*Live-AOTY*
4.8 (I mean duhh) 3 |
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