The 23 Best Albums of 2018
Editor’s Note: Find all of The Atlantic’s “Best of 2018” coverage here.
Though Drake kept watch over the Hot 100 from the No. 1 spot for much of 2018, this year in music was not one of consensus. Rather, it saw squabbles and insurgencies, with the streaming-driven atomization of tastes—and the deepening of the overall sea of songs—reaching a crescendo. Accordingly, our best-albums list is a thing of chaos, with the personal picks of our three music writers all swirled together. Even so, some trends emerge. As Cardi B and Nicki Minaj warred, a breathtaking range of up-and-coming women kept widening the sound of America’s favorite genre. While A Star Is Born preached old ideas of authenticity, innovators wrung great truth from their computers. Amid ever-worsening political ruckus, rockers went noisier and brasher in their commentary. The list below isn’t definitive or all-encompassing, but rather a sampler that’s ruled by individual passions—just as the best music continues to be.
Nasty, Rico Nasty
Rico Nasty’s voice thrashes in fits of rage. On Nasty, the 21-year-old Maryland rapper’s sixth mixtape and her first since signing with Atlantic Records, Rico comes in swinging. “Bitch I’m Nasty,” the record’s first track, is a gloriously ferocious missive. “And I’m screaming, ‘Fuck Trump! Black girls, stand up!’” she raps, managing to avoid the corny pitfalls of so-called political music by remaining true to the same demographic she’s always repped hardest. Nasty is alternately brash, vengeful, and sweetly homegrown. Even as Rico addresses decidedly mature frustrations—money, men, industry drama, politics—the production from her longtime collaborator Kenny Beats lends the record a childlike feel. “Ice Cream” takes its cues from the telltale siren of neighborhood trucks, and Rico raps a nearly Kelis-esque chorus about her own appeal. Still, it’s “Rage”—a deliciously angry, punk-inspired anthem—that’s most alluring. It might be the closest thing I’ve got to a 2018 anthem. — Hannah Giorgis
The spoken-word savant Noname is always ahead of her listener. “Maybe this the album you listen to in your car / When you driving home late at night / Really questioning every god, religion, Kanye, bitches,” at the start of , and as advertised, her second full-length serves
