Top 10 Songs of 2018
2018 was a tough year - full of lots of great moments, but some very difficult ones, as well (see my one previous blog entry from this entire year). Luckily for me, music is one thing I can always turn to in the tough times that helps me focus on the good in the world. Some amazing new music came out this year from some of my old favorites, and there was definitely not a lack of things to listen to at any given time this year. I had some great performance moments of my own, too: playing with Boynanarama at Make Music Hollywood and San Gabriel Valley Pride, to making my debut on guitar playing with Shitting Glitter, the first time we have played songs off our debut album "Post No Bills" in many many years (we plan to re-release it next year). I also ran my first two 10 K races this year, fueled by some of the music on this list. Here are the top 10 songs (plus a couple extra) that kept me going this year.
Honorable Mentions
"Under the Sun" - Roosevelt
Roosevelt is a young German musician who nobody I know seems to be aware of (other than my friend Liana, who turned me on to him), so it was quite a surprise when Dylan and I went to see him a few weeks before the end of the year and realized how many people are really, really into him! He definitely did not let us down, he has a great stage presence and a collection of really catchy self-penned songs and a great band to pull them off flawlessly live.
"Bloom" - Troye Sivan
I've always wanted to get into Troye Sivan because he seems like such a good role model for the baby gays and it's amazing how he is so out and proud right from the very beginning of his career, but I've just never cared too much for his music, until this album. "My My My" really broke him into the gay stratosphere but this song is just like, as my husband put it, "gay love-making music" (OK, I think he said it much more eloquently but I can't remember his exact description).
10. "Resting Bitch Face" - Boy George and Culture Club
So, Culture Club are back with their first album since 1999's "Don't Mind If I Do," which was not released in the U.S., but I was stoked to get a copy on import at Virgin Megastore shortly after I moved to LA. It showcased a new, more "mature" sounding Culture Club, which I was not particularly thrilled with. Sure, as a band, they always tended to be most comfortable in the ballad/slow jam/sparse category of songcrafting, but they had fun moments like "Karma Chameleon," "I'll Tumble For Ya," and "The War Song." Well, the not-so-surprising news is that their new album, "Life," continues the trend of being even more low-key and adult contemporary, but it's just so good to have them all back again, and you can't deny that "Resting Bitch Face" is a hoot!
9. "Have Fun Tonight" - Fischerspooner
Another band that I was just so happy to have back. Although, it's a sort of crappy reminder of how old you are when you start having nostalgia for a band that only got it started AFTER I had already graduated college. Fischerspooner were at the forefront of the beloved-to-me Electroclash movement, which was a burgeoning scene when Dylan and I first hooked up. Though there were other bands that I may have liked more at the time, Fischerspooner was able to appeal to a pretty large audience, therefore I have many memories of great shows with many friends in the audience. There was even the infamous show where Dylan and I tried to sneak backstage at House of Blues Anaheim and ended up getting escorted by security guards out of Downtown Disney. The new album "Sir" is hit or miss, but "Have Fun Tonight," although technically released in 2017, really hit the mark. It was awesome seeing them perform a rather big show at The Fonda (where I saw them way back on the Odyssey tour) and the next night getting to stand a few feet behind the show at the packed club Bootsy Bellows!
8. "Dancing" - Kylie
She needs no last name, and should NEVER be confused with any other less-accomplished females of the same name. Ms. Minogue is the real deal and she has been filling dance floors for decades. Now, she's beckoning us to put on our cowboy boots and do the two-step with her latest country-tinged album, produced in Nashville, and featuring this delightful mashup of Nashville and disco. When she sings "when I go out, I wanna go out dancin'," you're not sure if she means going out for the night, or like, buying the farm, but either way it's like, "ME TOO!" Kylie is paying tribute to Dolly and it's everything!
7. "Shooting Star" - Tom Bailey
After a vanishing act that lasted many years, the frontman from my first favorite band ever, The Thompson Twins, re-emerged in 2014. Initially us TT fans were just thrilled to be able to hear those songs performed live; many of us, myself included, never got to see the band back in the day. So to be able to hear all those classic songs, with Mr. Bailey himself singing them and bopping around the stage with his keyboards and his all-female backing back, was just incredible. But then he goes and takes it even further by releasing a brand new solo album, his first ever, of amazing songs that really sound like it could almost be a brand new Thompson Twins album. Of course, you have to miss the witty and clever lyrics by his former sidekick (and ex-wife) Alannah Currie, and the je ne sais quoi that only Joe Leeway could provide, but even without these two crucial components, "Science Fiction" is a great addition to any record collection, and "Shooting Star" is the song that sounds most like Thompson Twins in the twenty first century.
6. "Buzzkill" - Ash
Sometimes it's funny how you can discover a band and follow them for years, and then finally get to see them live, but you don't have anyone to really share it with because no one you know is even aware of the band! I don't know how that happened, but it didn't rain on my parade when I finally got to see Tim Wheeler and co. doing their thing at one of my favorite little venues, the Echo in Silverlake. Of course, I wouldn't have been as excited to see them were it not for their amazing new album, "Islands," which features this spunky little number that you just have to sing along to once you start listening to it... and jumping around the room... and playing air guitar.
5. "BB" - Daphne & Celeste
How bizarre is it that a joke band originally intended to be portrayed by anime characters almost twenty years ago, who had a couple of UK hits with school-ground taunts like "Ooo Stick You" and "U.G.L.Y." would end up making one of the best albums of 2018? Well, that's the bizarro timeline that we live in today, and Daphne & Celeste have come to save the world, so in a weird sort of way it all makes sense. Helped immensely by the mad genius that is Max Tundra, the manic duo of Karen DiConcetto and Celeste Cruz have crafted an utterly ridiculous, absurd, and momentous album that's a little difficult to get through the first couple of times, and then works its way under your skin and into your subconscious until you're wandering around outside yelling "they taste so good, I wanna eat 'em" at the top of your lungs. "BB" is a hilarious take-down of someone like Ed Sheeran (or maybe, just actually Ed Sheeran) but you really have to watch the lyric videos to get the full impact because as usual, their voices are distorted, sped up, pitched, and generally fucked with to the point of often being obscured, but it makes the whole thing kind of like a treasure hunt.
4. "Heaven" - Tiffany
It's no surprise that I'm once again including my very own red-headed diva here on my list once again, but what is pretty surprising is how amazing her new album, "Pieces of Me," is! For many of us in the True to Tiffany group (yes, that is a thing, and we don't care what you think about us because we have too much fun together!), Tiffany's second coming was the album "Color of Silence" back in 2000. That is when she shed the mall girl image and proved once and for all that she is a true singer, artist and songwriter. After that, she coasted for awhile and experimented with various genres including dance, country, and adult contemporary. But with her tenth album, she is back to rock and roll, the genre that her voice and persona are truly most suited to. While she seemed surprised and taken aback when I told her that "Heaven" was my favorite track out of the many stellar tunes on her new album, it does seem to be a fan favorite. It has sort of a modern hard rock sound with just enough hints of retro flavor to make it very of the moment and powerful. Other standout tracks include the singles "Beautiful" and "Worlds Away" and the freaking amazing closer, "The Fall."
3. "Get Out" - Chvrches
I've always been a little hot and cold with Chvrches; when they're good, they're amazing, and then other times they're just kind of there. But there is something about frontwoman Lauren Mayberry that is just so magnetic and mesmerizing that I keep coming back to them, and thank goodness because this year they really killed it. Their awesome third disc, "Love is Dead" is great from start to finish, but this was my jam!!! It's so fun when you realize that, rather than telling someone off, she's actually proposing a great escape, and it's a little tricky in getting that dark, foreboding sound that reminds you of the movie of the same title only to deliver a shot of euphoria with the chorus.
2. "Give Yourself A Try" - The 1975
This is the year I finally grew to love Matty Healy and The 1975. It's just that he's so darn cute, while at the same time, being painfully insightful and a truly brilliant lyricist. Like, his lyrics actually make me sit there and think so that I have to play the songs over and over again just to take it all in. Their latest album, which also happens to be their third, has myriad moods, textures, sounds and sentiments, which could be so random if constructed by another band, but in their hands, it all comes together to paint a frightening, heartbreaking, and slightly reassuring glimpse at who we all are right now. I'm also addicted to the earworm of "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME" and then there's the standout "Love It If We Made It," but I'm still just uncovering layers of this piece of art that will probably stay on the top of my record collection for some time. (And thanks to my hubby for giving me the vinyl for yuletide!)
1. "Dancing's Not A Crime" - Panic at the Disco
Again proving that we are living in a bizarre parallel dimension where things just don't make sense (or maybe that I'm truly just growing old and out of touch), the only crime here is that this was not the biggest single of 2018. Confounding the situation even further is the small matter of "High Hopes," which is a decent single but inferior to this one in almost every way, not only became the huge hit off Panic's sixth album, but it actually became their biggest hit... ever? I mean, it's a pretty kick-ass song, but when compared to some of the best P!ATD singles over the last decade, it's just weird to me what catches on and what doesn't. In my world, "Dancing's Not A Crime" would be blaring from every car that drives down the street, from every bar and nightclub, and there would be cover bands that just do this one song, again and again.
Honorable Mentions
"Under the Sun" - Roosevelt
Roosevelt is a young German musician who nobody I know seems to be aware of (other than my friend Liana, who turned me on to him), so it was quite a surprise when Dylan and I went to see him a few weeks before the end of the year and realized how many people are really, really into him! He definitely did not let us down, he has a great stage presence and a collection of really catchy self-penned songs and a great band to pull them off flawlessly live.
"Bloom" - Troye Sivan
I've always wanted to get into Troye Sivan because he seems like such a good role model for the baby gays and it's amazing how he is so out and proud right from the very beginning of his career, but I've just never cared too much for his music, until this album. "My My My" really broke him into the gay stratosphere but this song is just like, as my husband put it, "gay love-making music" (OK, I think he said it much more eloquently but I can't remember his exact description).
So, Culture Club are back with their first album since 1999's "Don't Mind If I Do," which was not released in the U.S., but I was stoked to get a copy on import at Virgin Megastore shortly after I moved to LA. It showcased a new, more "mature" sounding Culture Club, which I was not particularly thrilled with. Sure, as a band, they always tended to be most comfortable in the ballad/slow jam/sparse category of songcrafting, but they had fun moments like "Karma Chameleon," "I'll Tumble For Ya," and "The War Song." Well, the not-so-surprising news is that their new album, "Life," continues the trend of being even more low-key and adult contemporary, but it's just so good to have them all back again, and you can't deny that "Resting Bitch Face" is a hoot!
Another band that I was just so happy to have back. Although, it's a sort of crappy reminder of how old you are when you start having nostalgia for a band that only got it started AFTER I had already graduated college. Fischerspooner were at the forefront of the beloved-to-me Electroclash movement, which was a burgeoning scene when Dylan and I first hooked up. Though there were other bands that I may have liked more at the time, Fischerspooner was able to appeal to a pretty large audience, therefore I have many memories of great shows with many friends in the audience. There was even the infamous show where Dylan and I tried to sneak backstage at House of Blues Anaheim and ended up getting escorted by security guards out of Downtown Disney. The new album "Sir" is hit or miss, but "Have Fun Tonight," although technically released in 2017, really hit the mark. It was awesome seeing them perform a rather big show at The Fonda (where I saw them way back on the Odyssey tour) and the next night getting to stand a few feet behind the show at the packed club Bootsy Bellows!
She needs no last name, and should NEVER be confused with any other less-accomplished females of the same name. Ms. Minogue is the real deal and she has been filling dance floors for decades. Now, she's beckoning us to put on our cowboy boots and do the two-step with her latest country-tinged album, produced in Nashville, and featuring this delightful mashup of Nashville and disco. When she sings "when I go out, I wanna go out dancin'," you're not sure if she means going out for the night, or like, buying the farm, but either way it's like, "ME TOO!" Kylie is paying tribute to Dolly and it's everything!
After a vanishing act that lasted many years, the frontman from my first favorite band ever, The Thompson Twins, re-emerged in 2014. Initially us TT fans were just thrilled to be able to hear those songs performed live; many of us, myself included, never got to see the band back in the day. So to be able to hear all those classic songs, with Mr. Bailey himself singing them and bopping around the stage with his keyboards and his all-female backing back, was just incredible. But then he goes and takes it even further by releasing a brand new solo album, his first ever, of amazing songs that really sound like it could almost be a brand new Thompson Twins album. Of course, you have to miss the witty and clever lyrics by his former sidekick (and ex-wife) Alannah Currie, and the je ne sais quoi that only Joe Leeway could provide, but even without these two crucial components, "Science Fiction" is a great addition to any record collection, and "Shooting Star" is the song that sounds most like Thompson Twins in the twenty first century.
Sometimes it's funny how you can discover a band and follow them for years, and then finally get to see them live, but you don't have anyone to really share it with because no one you know is even aware of the band! I don't know how that happened, but it didn't rain on my parade when I finally got to see Tim Wheeler and co. doing their thing at one of my favorite little venues, the Echo in Silverlake. Of course, I wouldn't have been as excited to see them were it not for their amazing new album, "Islands," which features this spunky little number that you just have to sing along to once you start listening to it... and jumping around the room... and playing air guitar.
How bizarre is it that a joke band originally intended to be portrayed by anime characters almost twenty years ago, who had a couple of UK hits with school-ground taunts like "Ooo Stick You" and "U.G.L.Y." would end up making one of the best albums of 2018? Well, that's the bizarro timeline that we live in today, and Daphne & Celeste have come to save the world, so in a weird sort of way it all makes sense. Helped immensely by the mad genius that is Max Tundra, the manic duo of Karen DiConcetto and Celeste Cruz have crafted an utterly ridiculous, absurd, and momentous album that's a little difficult to get through the first couple of times, and then works its way under your skin and into your subconscious until you're wandering around outside yelling "they taste so good, I wanna eat 'em" at the top of your lungs. "BB" is a hilarious take-down of someone like Ed Sheeran (or maybe, just actually Ed Sheeran) but you really have to watch the lyric videos to get the full impact because as usual, their voices are distorted, sped up, pitched, and generally fucked with to the point of often being obscured, but it makes the whole thing kind of like a treasure hunt.
It's no surprise that I'm once again including my very own red-headed diva here on my list once again, but what is pretty surprising is how amazing her new album, "Pieces of Me," is! For many of us in the True to Tiffany group (yes, that is a thing, and we don't care what you think about us because we have too much fun together!), Tiffany's second coming was the album "Color of Silence" back in 2000. That is when she shed the mall girl image and proved once and for all that she is a true singer, artist and songwriter. After that, she coasted for awhile and experimented with various genres including dance, country, and adult contemporary. But with her tenth album, she is back to rock and roll, the genre that her voice and persona are truly most suited to. While she seemed surprised and taken aback when I told her that "Heaven" was my favorite track out of the many stellar tunes on her new album, it does seem to be a fan favorite. It has sort of a modern hard rock sound with just enough hints of retro flavor to make it very of the moment and powerful. Other standout tracks include the singles "Beautiful" and "Worlds Away" and the freaking amazing closer, "The Fall."
I've always been a little hot and cold with Chvrches; when they're good, they're amazing, and then other times they're just kind of there. But there is something about frontwoman Lauren Mayberry that is just so magnetic and mesmerizing that I keep coming back to them, and thank goodness because this year they really killed it. Their awesome third disc, "Love is Dead" is great from start to finish, but this was my jam!!! It's so fun when you realize that, rather than telling someone off, she's actually proposing a great escape, and it's a little tricky in getting that dark, foreboding sound that reminds you of the movie of the same title only to deliver a shot of euphoria with the chorus.
This is the year I finally grew to love Matty Healy and The 1975. It's just that he's so darn cute, while at the same time, being painfully insightful and a truly brilliant lyricist. Like, his lyrics actually make me sit there and think so that I have to play the songs over and over again just to take it all in. Their latest album, which also happens to be their third, has myriad moods, textures, sounds and sentiments, which could be so random if constructed by another band, but in their hands, it all comes together to paint a frightening, heartbreaking, and slightly reassuring glimpse at who we all are right now. I'm also addicted to the earworm of "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME" and then there's the standout "Love It If We Made It," but I'm still just uncovering layers of this piece of art that will probably stay on the top of my record collection for some time. (And thanks to my hubby for giving me the vinyl for yuletide!)
Again proving that we are living in a bizarre parallel dimension where things just don't make sense (or maybe that I'm truly just growing old and out of touch), the only crime here is that this was not the biggest single of 2018. Confounding the situation even further is the small matter of "High Hopes," which is a decent single but inferior to this one in almost every way, not only became the huge hit off Panic's sixth album, but it actually became their biggest hit... ever? I mean, it's a pretty kick-ass song, but when compared to some of the best P!ATD singles over the last decade, it's just weird to me what catches on and what doesn't. In my world, "Dancing's Not A Crime" would be blaring from every car that drives down the street, from every bar and nightclub, and there would be cover bands that just do this one song, again and again.
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