The 50 Greatest Albums of 2018, Compiled by Martin Canine

Length: 37:28
Tracks: 18

I considered not putting this album at this position. Not because I would in any way doubt it belonged there, but because of the entire situation surrounding it. If I rank the last album of an artist who died shortly afterwards, especially in such a tragic way at such a young age, the highest on my list, people would possibly say that it’s only up here due to the outer circumstances, and that the myth around it made me see it through pink glasses. To avoid such confrontations, I played with the thought of giving it another place on my ranking, but truth is, it was the clear winner ever since its release when he was alive (but not well), and nothing that came afterwards, no matter how good it was, could beat it. Tormenting angst, shocking self reflexion and bled out lyricism dominate the album, which draws from hip hop as much as from grunge and emo (the 90s genre even more so than the 2000s one), and his bleak, often apathetic vocals add to the emotional intensity that unfolds from the beginning on. You won’t get a joyous trap album about flexing, you are invited to the darkest of depths of a complicated and often troubled mind, and you can’t go back once you pressed the play button. Lasting 37 minutes, “? ” is the only proper album released by XXXTentacion, and it shows the full extent of his potential.

Length: 49:15
Tracks: 12

The 80s may be the decade in which the most pop cultural classics have been released, movie-wise and maybe also music-wise, and Kim Wilde, who also contributed a part to the characteristic sound of the decade with iconic hits such as “Kids in America” and “Cambodia”, did her best to bring these golden times back in 2018. “Here Come The Aliens” feels like a second coming of the criminally cool genre called new wave that is so much more than a mere attempt at a time warp for those stuck in the past. Her vocals, the drums, guitars, even the mastering and feedback, it’s as if not a single day passed since the genre's peak - and most importantly: at 57 years of age, Wilde still delivers the punk-ish energy and spirit needed to make the album a truly rocking’ little collection of tracks that all have at least the same quality as her classics.

Length: 49:19
Tracks: 15

With her newest album, Christina Aguilera, still a very likely runner for the title of the best female non-classical singer alive, demonstrates to the entire world of popular music what the genre is capable of apart from its major quality of being catchy. Drawing from soul (the classic one, not neo-soul), hard rock, hip hop and reggae, Aguilera’s comeback after a six year hiatus is as spectacular as it gets and manages to amaze through old fashioned, classic songwriting while still sounding very much up to date, especially in its strongly feminist touch and recurring theme of independence and freedom, personally and creatively. While the early 2010s were definitely a creative low point in her career, “Liberation” ranks next to “Stripped” as her strongest work to date.

Length: 56:02
Tracks: 15

Leaving his ties to the criminal Abou-Chaker Clan, as well as a few other fake friends, far behind and focusing on his future with his family and as the mentor of Capital Bra and Samra (who both had two and seven number one hits this year, respectively), Bushido released “Mythos” at a turning point in his extremely successful career that saw him the biggest German hip hop act ever. The music is the closest he ever came to his 2003 milestone “Vom Bordstein bis zur Skyline” again in sound and quality, his beats being mysterious, graceful and melodic, his lyrics somewhere between modern poetry and utter raw emotion, whatever fits the situation. He feels free of all expectations and now finally can only care for what he wants in his personal life, and this feeling is conveyed in the sound of his MPC and voice.

Length: 39:13
Tracks: 12

With barely any views and no chart position in any country whatsoever, Inner Tongue might be one of the biggest undiscovered talents to walk on Earth. Due to a risky vocal cord operation, his debut album almost didn't come to be, but with the result, we can be glad how well he recovered - his voice may still be weak and needs help of effects, but his musical vision is too huge to not be shared with the world. The first record of the Austrian independent singer-producer consists of soothing, offbeat synthie soundscapes that take you on a trip to a dreamy land of music where everything feels free and at ease, but where melancholic philosophizing on the world meets hope and imagination. It's one of those albums where you close your eyes and give in to the world that the songs open for you. It's never hectic, and never tries at all to please mainstream expectations.

Length: 42:30
Tracks: 10

In the 1960s, Marianne Faithfull was the young pop sensation on the side of Mick Jagger, much like Mary Hopkin was for Paul McCartney. When her debut album dropped, she was 18 years old - now she is 72, and comparing the record to her recent “Negative Capability” is like the defining life itself, and how each year passing changes a person. Age has weakened her body but strengthened her mind. Her voice and songwriting have been gradually altered by numerous experiences of both negative and positive nature (as the title suggests, the former even more so than the latter), and over the years she learned to turn the tragedies and rough times into art. She acknowledges her age, and unlike other singers who get older, doesn’t try to hide it, instead she decides to make it her music’s foremost quality by sharing her thoughts and wisdom with whoever decides to listen to her.

Length: 48:13
Tracks: 13

In 2017, before her massive breakthrough with “Bodak Yellow”, Cardi B released a great mixtape called “Gangsta B---h Music, Vol. 2” which revolved around different faces of independence and strength. A year, lots of media coverage and one entrance into superstardom later, she put out her debut album, and it kept all the promises of her tapes. Cardi B doesn’t waste her time with fillers and delivers a collection of hard hitting punchlines, often innovatively funny but always with that touch of female dominance, and at some points an emotional statement not to toy with her feelings that can really boost self esteem. She rides a selection of great and varied trap beats with numerous creative ideas using her flow and rhymes, claiming the title of best female rapper of 2018, beating Nicki Minaj and Cupcakke, as well as German rappers Pilz and Antifuchs, who all delivered good albums - but Cardi B takes the cake.

Length: 45:58
Tracks: 13

In 2018, Ufo361 turned from that one German trap rapper to THE German trap rapper, by releasing two studio albums that couldn’t be any more different within the boundaries of the same genre. “808” is the first one, and it’s a gloomy, atmospheric experience. Often, the rapper gives a completely drugged out and semi-unconscious performance, sometimes the lines range from complete boasting to utter paranoia. This is the soundtrack to a man’s trippy night as he reflects on both his fame/success, and his most painful inner feelings, and drowns both in a big sip of codeine. The beats are bleak, sometimes even a bit disturbing, and perfectly capture the tone of the lyrics.

Length: 36:40
Tracks: 11

Jaden Smith introduces the sound of the new bohéme, somewhere between utopian freedom, postmodern values, relationships delicate and vulnerable like a newborn, and a lifestyle between wealth and luxury. The tape is set in a world of self fulfillment, and best depicts the wishes and desires of his generation, especially that of his MSFTSrep movement, with the musical soundscapes underlining the calm delivery and (sometimes) introspective lyricism. Somewhere between trap, cloud rap and Kanye-ish experimentalism, “The Sunset Tapes” departs so far from the material you’d expect from the kid who starred in “After Earth”, as it feels as offbeat and freed from commercial trends as an indie artist.