This is now my sixth annual ranking of the top 100 songs of the year, and while I wrote yesterday on my ranking of my favorite albums of 2018 that I thought it was a down year for albums, especially ones by artists I already liked, it was still a great year for new music overall, with far more than a hundred songs I thought worthy of mention on this list. As always, this is subjective: It’s what I liked, so it’s probably not what you like, and that’s fine.

Previous lists: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.

You can view the Spotify playlist of all 100 songs here if you can’t see the widget below.

100. YONAKA – Teach Me to Fight. This Brighton quartet made my list last year with the snarling “Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya,” and continued this year with several more solid singles, including this similarly raucous, indignant rocker, along with another song further up the list.

99. Swervedriver – Mary Winter. Swervedriver returned a few years ago after a 17-year layoff with I Wasn’t Born to Lose You, but this track, from their next album Future Ruins, is the best thing they’ve done since 1998’s “99th Dream.”

98. HAERTS – Fighter. My second-favorite track from HAERTS’ solid yet safe second album New Compassion, a strong showcase for Nini Fabi’s voice with some urgency to the backing track.

97. whenyoung – Silverchair. This Irish trio recently dropped a cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams,” with singer Aoife Power doing a damn good impression of Dolores O’Riordan; this song is my favorite of their original songs so far, going from an almost dissonant line in the verse to a power-pop chorus with a hook that stayed with me all year.

96. Drenge – Autonomy. The duo are now a trio, still building songs around a guitar-and-drum skeleton, but adding enough additional elements, like this song’s electronic line, to keep their sound interesting and show real growth since their sophomore album.

95. Sarah Chernoff – You’re Free. Chernoff has one of the best voices of anyone recording today, but is still looking for that breakout song to get more mainstream attention; this new single from the summer showcases her range and ability to work in different vocal styles, with a solid hook in the chorus.

94. DMA’S – Break Me. I love DMA’S’ unapologetic throwback sound to late-90s Oasis, although their newest album, For Now, had too few rockers like this one and the title track, even though it’s what this Aussie band does best.

93. Wheel – Vultures. A new Finnish prog metal band with an English lead singer, Wheel plans to release its debut album in 2019, with this single a very promising debut. I think it’s the heaviest song on my top 100, although there were certainly some good metal tracks and albums in 2018 that didn’t make it (Riverside’s “Vale of Tears” comes to mind).

92. Darlingside – Singularity. The best track from this Boston-based indie-folk group’s latest album, Extralife, buoyed by gorgeous harmonies in the chorus.

91. Are We Static – Weight of Water. Featuring a guest vocal from Talitha Rise, this latest track from these Mancunian rockers also has that late-90s Britpop vibe, a little more pop-oriented than their 2017 album Embers was.

90. Lauren Ruth Ward – Blue Collar Sex Kitten. Ward’s debut album Well, Hell made my top albums of the year post, with this sneering track, showing Ward’s smoky, powerful voice, the best on the album. It’s the song Elle King wishes she had the talent to make.

89. Jungle – Smile. One of three songs from Jungle’s For Ever to make my top 100, this track thrives on the syncopated drum riff that opens the song and competes with the vocals for primacy until the track ends.

88. Anderson .Paak – Til It’s Over. I’ve never been a fan of A.P’s music but enjoyed this soulful, two-step track both on its own and for the video/HomePod advert featuring singer FKA Twigs, directed by Spike Jonze.

87. Speedy Ortiz – Lucky 88. I liked Speedy Ortiz’s album Twerp Verse but didn’t love it; I didn’t find enough of the tracks memorable or immediate enough to keep me coming back to it. But Sadie Dupuis’ off-kilter vocal style and lyrical wit are still as endearing as ever and when she hits on a good hook, like here or “Lean In When I Suffer,” it’s still peak Speedy Ortiz.

86. Drenge – This Dance. See above. I feel like Drenge’s next album will feel more like the first record plus something than their last album, which shifted direction too abruptly and lost what made their debut so compelling.

85. Sundara Karma – One Last Night on this Earth. Sundara Karma’s sophomore album, Ulfilas’ Alphabet, drops in March; this lead single brings a strong melodic hook and their now-familiar, slightly rough around the edges sort of sound.

84. Thrice – Only Us. Thrice’s album Palms just missed my top albums list, but put two songs on this top 100; this is the slower of the two, bringing almost a doom-metal note to Thrice’s post-hardcore sound.

83. CLOVES – Hit Me Hard. I love Kaity Dunstan’s voice in any style of song, although I think ballads suit her better (like 2015’s “Frail Love,” re-recorded for her new album. This is more upbeat, more overtly dramatic, but the constant sense in her voice that she’s about to let ‘er rip helps to highlight the tension beneath the vocals and the main piano riff.

82. Body Type – Palms. This Australian quartet calls their music “scuzz // rock,” but this song is pure jangle-pop with a little distortion in the deep background, building up to a tremendous chorus that comes back at the end of the song over staggered vocals, so that three of the women are all singing at once.

81. Art Brut – Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!. Never been a huge Art Brut fan, so it figures that when they write a song that, by their standards, feels like a ridiculous novelty track … but it’s also kind of fun in its own dumb way.

80. Ten Fé – Not Tonight. Ten Fé dropped this single in August, about eighteen months after their superb debut album, Hit the Light, appeared, and this is more of the same – it’s ’70s-influenced soft rock, just a little faster, a little more atmospheric, a little more timeless.

79. Acid Dad – Living with a Creature. Brooklyn psychedelia with a digital delay on the vocals to turn the whole thing into a sort of danse macabre, frantic and creepy, as if the Butthole Surfers decided to make a song you could dance to.

78. Port Noir – Old Fashioned. A Swedish trio making heavy rock with progressive elements, here with notes of groove metal, an ’80s synth line, and even hints at rap-metal in the verse (with a nod to the Beastie Boys, worth five extra points in my book).

77. Cut Chemist/Chali 2Na – Work My Mind. Cut Chemist was the primary DJ for Jurassic 5, and Chali 2Na was their strongest technical MC, so this collaboration on Cut Chemist’s solo record was a pleasant surprise, the best thing either of them has done since J5 split up.

76. The Twilight Sad – I/m Not Here (Missing Face). These Scots make being bummed out sound good, with driving keyboard and guitar riffs in minor keys to evoke a mood that’s mirrored in the simple lyrics here about the end of a relationship.

75. White Lies – Believe It. I’m not afraid to say I love ’80s new wave and alternative music, even now thirty-plus years after first discovering it on America’s Top 40 some Sunday morning. White Lies appear to share that affinity, and while their last album was lighter on hooks than 2013’s BIG TV, this lead single from their next record has a much more memorable chorus and keyboard riff to get it stuck in your head.

74. Broods – Peach. Broods became a pop act on their second album, which is a little disappointing given their quiet, pensive debut, but they do still craft some strong hooks and stick to their minimalist musical approach – although autotuning Georgia Nott’s voice ought to be a crime.

73. BILK – Spiked. A punk song about getting a spiked drink at a party. Sometimes simple is just better.

72. Belly – Shiny One. Another big comeback this year. Belly put out two albums in the early 1990s, after Tanya Donnelly left Throwing Muses, and then nothing for 23 years until this spring’s Dove, which felt like two decades had passed. The older, mellower sound wasn’t the Belly I remembered, but they did have some high points on this song and “Stars Align.”

71. YONAKA – Creature. I like Yonaka’s snarky sound, but this song lets singer Theresa Jarvis stretch out a little bit, showing a sultrier side to her voice without giving up the band’s harder rock edges.

70. Artificial Pleasure – I Need Something More. One of my favorite albums of the year, Artificial Pleasure’s The Bitter End draws on influences from post-punk to new wave to Britpop, all of which can be heard in this track, which gives me a strong Gang of Four vibe.

69. Wombats – Oceans. One of the two bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, Oceans is a very unfussy Wombats tune: simple melody, memorable synth lines, witty lyrics.

68. Alkaline Trio – Blackbird. A good Alkaline Trio song – nothing we haven’t heard before a bunch of times, but still a guilty power-pop pleasure.

67. Zurich – My Protocol. I get a lot of emails from indie music promoters, and try to listen to anything that looks interesting, but the truth is most of it just doesn’t grab me in the least. Zurich’s “My Protocol” came to my attention that way, and turned out to be very much to my tastes – post-punk, anthemic, with a baritone vocalist with some swagger to his voice in a way that reminded me of White Lies’ singer. Their second EP is due out in early 2019.

66. Courtney Barnett – Charity. The best song on Barnett’s second album, Tell Me What You Really Mean, is its most rock-oriented, uptempo track. I’d say upbeat but I don’t think Barnett really does “upbeat.”

65. San Cisco – When I Dream. An acoustic number from the band behind “Awkward” and “Too Much Time Together,” one I can only hope presages a 2019 album release. They remind me a good bit of the Wombats with their sunny melodies and darker-than-you-expect lyrics, which holds true on this track.

64. The Arkells – Relentless. I usually have a few unabashed pop songs on the list every year. This is one. How can you hear that opening keyboard riff and not move your feet?

63. St. Lucia – Walking Away. I heard this and was sure Nile Rodgers was involved – that guitar riff is in his signature style. It’s the most funk-infused song St. Lucia has released to date across three albums and I think a needed expansion to his sound.

62. Maisie Peters – Best I’ll Ever Sing. How is she writing songs like this at just 18 years old? Her voice is young, but her lyrics often aren’t, and the songcraft here is that of someone twice her age. There should always be a place in the music world for a singer who can play guitar and/or piano and has something to say.

61. Bicurious – Sleep. Instrumental, experimental, heavy rock. Or maybe metal. They remind me of Battles, but without vocals and with more purpose to their songs. Their EP I’m So Confused also has a track “Fake News,” with a (doctored) sample of Donald Trump saying “I am the worst president ever!”

60. Lady Bird – Spoons. Signed by the duo Slaves to their new label Girl Fight Records, Lady Bird had the misfortune to debut just as a movie of the same name appeared on the scene. This punk-oriented track with spoken lyrics might be the most British song I’ve ever heard.

59. Johnnyswim with Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors – Ring the Bells. A folk duo from Nashville who gained notice when one of their songs became the theme to some HGTV show based in Waco, Texas, Johnnyswim collaborated with Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors here on this rousing protest anthem that sounds like something you might hear in a southern church.

58. Keuning – Restless Legs. That’s Dave Keuning of the Killers, set free of the bombastic style of Brandon Flowers to produce this modest pop gem from his debut solo album, Prismism, which has similarly simple ambitions and channels the arena rock of guitarists like Billy Squier and Ian Hunter.

57. The Beths – You Wouldn’t Like Me. The Beths’ album Future Me Hates Me appeared on a few best-of-2018 lists on the strength of the New Zealand indie-pop trio’s combination of classic vocal harmonies and punk-ish riffing.

56. Brockhampton – Honey. Critics seem to prefer other songs on the band’s album iridescence, with “San Marcos” coming up most often, but this was easily the standout for me, with strong rhyming over a pulsing beat that gives way to a psychedelic bridge with new-age chanting.

55. Ghost – Rats. I think Ghost has finally given up the Satanic trappings that made it hard to take them too seriously, so while their new album Prequelle had some missteps – let’s not talk about the lyrics to “Danse Macabre” – this song is easily the most accessible thing they’ve ever done, a perfect encapsulation of the kind of early heavy metal they’ve always emulated behind the silly masks.

54. Van William – Cosmic Sign. Van Pierszalowski of WATERS released his first full solo album , Countries, under the name Van William this year, including the earlier singles “Revolution” and “Fourth of July” as well as this folk-rock track, which makes me feel like I should be driving down an endless highway somewhere in the flat middle of the country.

53. Beth Orton & The Chemical Brothers – I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain. Orton’s voice still moves me twenty years after I first heard “Stolen Car,” and the Chemical Brothers play to her strength here, with production that manages to feel sparse even as they add layers between her vocals.

52. Interpol – The Rover. Interpol’s Marauder was a step up from El Pintor for me, still kind of uneven but with more high points, including this lead single. I think I just keep expecting them to return to the sound of their first few albums, but that’s obviously never going to happen.

51. Radkey – Rock & Roll Homeschool. The three brothers in Radkey were indeed homeschooled, and obviously listened to some punk records along the way, which shows in the title of this song (I assume a Ramones homage) and high velocity.

50. Wye Oak – Join. Wye Oak’s lo-fi sound doesn’t always hit for me – I mean, a little more fi would be okay – but their latest album, The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, had some strong moments, including the title track and this swirling, melancholy track.

49. Young Fathers – Fee Fi. That piano riff is absolutely menacing, and one of the best examples of how Young Fathers’ experimental approach to music goes well beyond the confines of modern hip-hop.

48. Janelle Monáe – Make Me Feel. Monáe is ridiculously talented – she’s been a revelation on screen in her handful of acting appearances – but Dirty Computer felt a little mailed-in to me, certainly not the follow-up album we’ve waited five years to hear. This is the one track on the album I kept coming back to, especially because of the way that chromatic scale in the lead-up to each chorus defies your mind’s expectations, even after you’ve heard it before.

47. Hinds – Tester. Hinds are a bit of an acquired taste, since their entire appeal is how raw they sound, as if everything was recorded in a tiny garage rather than a studio, and it’s just four girls having fun with nobody listening. “Tester” might be the best distillation yet of that sound.

46. Drenge – Outside. Of all of Drenge’s singles this year, this is the one that most evoked their debut album for me, songs like “Bloodsport” and “Backwaters,” fast and loud and angry but still with a memorable hook.

45. Okkervil River – Love Somebody. It takes about 30 seconds to get going, but the way the song builds in sound and tempo as it progresses makes it my favorite OR song to date. The line “I get a tightness ’bout right here in my chest” just stuck with me the first time I heard the song.

44. Turbowolf – Cheap Magic. Turbowolf’s album is just a giant “fuck yeah” because of huge riffs like this one.

43. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – American Guilt. UMO put out two records this year – Sex & Food, a proper album released in April, and IC-01 Hanoi, a seven-track instrumental album that’s far more experimental. This track comes from the first album, built on a tremendous, heavy guitar lick that someone imported from 1972.

42. Post Animal – Ralphie. Featuring Stranger Things star Joe Keery on guitar, Post Animal released their debut album this past April, with this sunny, bouncy rocker the lead single and best track on it.

41. The Voodoo Children – Tangerines & Daffodils. Garage rock from a Nashville duo, both members of multiple other projects. It’s a real banger albeit a little too close to the Von Bondies’ 2004 hit “C’mon C’mon.”

40. Kid Astray – Joanne. Kid Astray have become regulars on my year-end lists for their consistent ability to churn out indie-pop earworms like this one, with another track from their five-song EP, Ignite, appearing further up this list.

39. Iceage – Hurrah. The first time I heard this song, I thought it was seven minutes long – not because I didn’t like it, but because the sound is so immersive that I was completely absorbed in it. If you remember the short-lived Norwegian band The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Iceage (from Denmark) builds on that group’s classic-rock sound with more of a post-punk or even post-hardcore lean.

38. Jungle – Heavy, California. Every good Jungle song sounds like a party is just getting started.

37. Soft Science – Undone. Soft Science’s album made my best-of-2018 list for its breadth; this opening track recalls My Bloody Valentine’s “I Only Said,” but with a stronger melodic foundation, comprehensible vocals, and less emphasis on the wall of noise that marked MBV’s output, instead leaning into that whinging keyboard line to turn it into something brighter.

36. Jealous of the Birds – Plastic Skeletons. Naomi Hamilton sounds like she’s reciting beat poetry over multiple guitar lines that spend the verses circling each other until they collide in the cathartic chorus.

35. Allie X – Science. Allie X’s EP Super Sunset was a mixed bag of ideas – but ideas mark her output, and I can’t fault an artist for being overly ambitious. This slower track has her usual electronica foundation but with the tempo and thumping bass line of classic R&B beneath her coquettish vocals.

34. Khruangbin – Maria También. Yep, that’s the theme to the superb Crimetown podcast’s first season (and you should listen to that if you haven’t). Khruangbin do instrumental music that combines genres from around the world, with their latest album, Con Todo El Mundo combining funk and jazz with Middle Eastern and Caribbean sounds. It’s a great trick to produce an instrumental single like this that never misses vocals for a second.

33. Everything Everything – Breadwinner. E2 are better when they go a little nuts, which is absolutely what’s happening here, the way they did back on their first two albums with songs like “Cough Cough,” “Kemosabe,” and “MY KZ UR BF.”

32. Snail Mail – Pristine. Lindsey Jordan recorded her debut album Lush at 18, although she rarely sounds close to that young, and evokes music recorded before she was even born. This was my top track from the record and reminded me most of a somewhat obscure ’90s band Lotion, who were probably best known for getting Thomas Pynchon to write the liner notes for one of their albums.

31. Sunflower Bean – Come for Me. Sunflower Bean’s album Twentytwo in Blue dropped in March, but they’re already back with a four-song EP due out in January, led by this strutting track that gets singer and occasional model Julia Cumming out in front where she belongs.

30. Wombats – Bee-Sting. The second of the two bonus tracks from Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life to make this top 100 should have been on the album proper, which has a solid six singles worthy of airplay (if anyone listened to terrestrial radio any more, that is).

29. Thrice – The Grey. Thrice get a little proggy here on this lead single from 2018’s Palms, and I love it. The opening guitar riff and off-beat drum line keep me off balance from the first few bars and it never resolves until all parts unite in the chorus.

28. Joy Williams – Canary. The former Civil Wars singer returned this fall with a few new singles ahead of her upcoming album Front Porch, led by this track that sounds like the anthem for a #MeToo march.

27. Belle & Sebastian – Show Me the Sun. If anything on How to Solve Our Human Problems (Parts 1-3) would have fit on their previous album, it’s this song, which is almost distractingly upbeat for these Scottish stalwarts – until they hit the bridge and abruptly downshift, like Hamlet walking to the edge of the stage to offer an aside to the audience.

26. Sunflower Bean – Crisis Fest. Julia Cumming channels some Debbie Harry here; in an earlier era she’d be a media darling, and maybe that’s still in her future if more people discover the reinvented post-punk Sunflower Bean have churned out through two albums and an upcoming EP. Is it terrible of me that I want Cumming to dye her eyebrows? The platinum blonde hair and dark brows looks always looks like a visual tritone to me.

25. Foxing – Nearer My God. The title track from this St. Louis band’s latest album soars on the power of the vocals, almost overshadowing the driving guitar work beneath them.

24. Gang of Four – Lucky. Granted, this isn’t really Gang of Four any more without Jon King on vocals, but this song effectively bridges that gap between their sound from Entertainment! – which turns forty (!) next year – and a more modern sound and level of production, while still raging against the machine as you’d expect Andy Gill to do.

23. Django Django – Marble Skies. The Djangos released their third record, also called Marble Skies, at the start of the year, and both this and last year’s “Tic Tac Toe” show off their ability to marry layered vocals, drum machines, and synth/guitar lines atypical for dance or electronica hits.

22. The Weeknd/Kendrick Lamar – Pray for Me. The Black Panther soundtrack was justifiably lauded on its release and has since been showered with awards praise, including eight Grammy nominations. The song getting most of that attention has been “All the Stars” (featuring SZA), rather than this, easily my favorite from the record, which really makes great use of the Weeknd’s voice over music that evokes images of water flowing or falling, a central motif in the film.

21. Spirit Animal – World War IV. The new Spirit Animal album is such a mixed bag – there are tracks that sound like Twenty One Pilots (not a compliment), and then a handful of crushers like this one that boast huge guitar riffs and traditional vocals.

20. HAERTS – New Compassion. HAERTS returned with their first album in four years, also called New Compassion, down two members and without including their best single from the interim, “Animal.” The new record has some highlights – this song, “Fighter,” “The Way” – but didn’t have the same urgency or consistent pop hooks of their debut. Nini Fabi’s voice shows off better on “Fighter” while this song has the better melody.

19. Black Honey – Midnight. Black Honey’s self-titled debut album is a cornucopia of indie-pop delights, with the deluxe edition boasting all of the great singles they’ve released over the previous two years plus new hits like this silly pop gem that shows off the quartet’s ability to craft hooks that grab you without overstaying their welcome.

18. TV AM – These Are Not Your Memories. TV AM’s album Psychic Data is mostly instrumental, and generally excellent, but this song’s huge riff, repeated on guitar and then keyboard, mirrors the pattern in the vocals as well for the album’s best track.

17. Death Cab for Cutie – Gold Rush. The best song DCFC has put out since “You Are a Tourist,” if not longer, envelops you with layer upon layer, from the backing vocal repeating the song’s title to the maracas-like percussion to the rich textures of guitar and keyboards throughout.

16. Joy Oladokun – Sober. This Arizona-born singer/songwriter had an album, Carry, that I missed back in 2016, but this one-off single shows the power of her voice, both its sound and her lyrics, with a ’70s soul vibe. I wish the song were two minutes longer so I could bask in her vocals for longer.

15. Kid Astray – Can’t Stop. The second song from their EP Ignite on my list. They really have a knack for catchy alternative-pop songs – “The Mess,” “Diver,” “Cornerstone,” “Joanne,” “The Roads,” and now this earworm over the last six years.

14. Christine & the Queens – 5 dollars. Héloïse Letissier’s 2018 album Chris received wide acclaim and is all over year-end lists for its smart approach to pop, with decades of influences apparent across the record, even when she deals with heavier or darker themes as she does here.

13. Spirit Animal – The Truth. Man, that opening guitar/drum line … just inject it right into my veins, please.

12. Young Fathers – Toy. The song is great, my favorite off their experimental hip-hop album Cocoa Sugar, but if any song this year was elevated by its video, it’s this one. It might have the album’s most straightforward rapping, although as with all Young Fathers tracks, it’s the interplay of vocals and music that makes it so compelling.

11. Wombats – Cheetah Tongue. The Wombats put three songs on this list from Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, although this is the only one that was actually on the original tracklist – the other two were bonus tracks added for Japan and the deluxe edition. (Why Japan always gets the bonus tracks is not clear to me.) Maybe this time the good stuff can last.

10. Hatchie – Sleep. The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan passed away in January, but the year ended up full of music that showed her lasting influence on other singers in the genre, including the Crab Apples’ “Open Your Eyes,” whenyoung’s cover of “Dreams,” and pretty much everything the Australian singer-songwriter Hatchie does. Harriet Pillbeam writes dreampop songs that feel like direct descendants of the Cranberries’ debut record, including 2017’s outstanding single “Sure” and this song from her debut EP Sugar & Spice.

9. The Internet – Roll (Burbank Funk). The Internet – I mean, really, is there a less search-friendly name this side of !!! – are a five-piece neo-soul and funk project out of California who received a Grammy nomination for their 2015 album Ego Death and further praise for this year’s Hive Mind, which is too heavy on the soul and light on the funk for me. This track brings the funk, though. Give me a whole album of this and I will stop making fun of the band’s name.

8. Cœur de Pirate – Prémonition. Béatrice Martin returned to singing in her native French for her latest album, a beautiful meditation on failed relationships and poor choices, highlighted by this one true pop track that gives the album its brightest moment.

7. Childish Gambino – This is America. NPR’s top song of the year and the moment when Donald Glover became President, “This is America” hit hardest because of its shocking video, which only served to accentuate what he’s already saying in the lyrics about gun violence in the United States and police brutality against African-Americans.

6. The DMA’s – For Now. This is the sound I want from Britpop revivalists who drank deeply of Oasis’s discography and recast it with just modest modifications for 2018. The opening riff sucks me in every time, like water swirling towards a drain, into a song that feels like it should never end.

5. Lemaitre featuring Betty Who – Rocket Girl. This song deserved a far wider audience than it received, although I don’t think either artist here was well-known enough in the U.S. to propel the song out of the shadows. It’s a feminist anthem over an updated disco backdrop that wouldn’t be out of place on a Daft Punk record, absolutely carried by Betty Who’s powerful performance in the chorus.

4. Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before. Bird just turned 21 in October, but sings like Janis Joplin and writes like someone twice her age, comfortably moving here between twee-folk and a harder chorus that suits the raspy character in her voice when she really belts it out.

3. Frank Turner – 1933. Don’t go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn.

2. Turbowolf featuring Mike Kerr – Domino. If this sound is a bit familiar, it’s probably because that’s Mike Kerr of Royal Blood bringing his distinctive bass-with-octave-pedal to Turbowolf’s already heavy psychedelia for a song that just absolutely fucking rocks from the first chord to the last.

1. Jungle – Happy Man. It was worth the four years wait for this song, which is Jungle at their absolute best, a song that simultaneously sounds like you heard it on a Soul Train rerun from 1979 and like it was just recorded last week. Revisiting the same theme of empty materialism they covered on “Busy Earnin,” Jungle employ their now signature layered falsetto vocals over a minimalist funk jam that seems better with each listen.

It was a year of huge disappointments, with albums from CHVRCHES and Arctic Monkeys that fell far short of their previous highs – or even their previous lows. Even Judas Priest returned with an album of one good song and a bunch of tracks that just made them sound old. HAERTS finally made it back, but their second album was just solid, nowhere close to the revelation of their debut. St. Lucia’s return was sort of in between his tremendous, unabashedly poppy first album and the inexplicable follow-up. A number of highly acclaimed albums (Mitski comes to mind) did absolutely nothing for me – and let’s not even talk about how the 1975 have suddenly become critical darlings.

In the midst of the wreckage there were a few albums I enjoyed, although I have to admit my little gimmick of pushing the list’s length to the last two digits of the year is getting harder as I go. Some other albums I did like, just not enough for the list, include the Black Panther soundtrack, Alkaline Trio’s Is This Thing Cursed?, Interpol’s Marauder, Khruangbin’s Con Todo El Mundo, Cœur de Pirate’s en cas de tempête, ce jardin sera fermé, Thrice’s Palms, Hinds’ I Don’t Run, Van William’s Countries, and Iceage’s Beyondless.

Previous years’ album rankings: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013.

18. Pinkshinyultrablast – Miserable Miracles. Formerly a shoegaze band, this St. Petersburg (Russia, not the one with the baseball tomb) trio made a hard left into spacey, electronica-heavy dream pop on their third album, which didn’t have a standout track for me (maybe the lead single, “Dance AM”) but works better as a cohesive listen across its nine tracks and 37 minutes.

17. Jorja Smith – Lost & Found. Shortlisted for this year’s Mercury Prize – which went to Wolf Alice’s sophomore album, a record I found very disappointing – Smith’s debut record blends her soulful voice with classic R&B sounds and contemporary electronic elements. Her vocal style reminds me of part Alicia Keys, part Erykah Badu, with her English accent seeping through at times. The album works well as a whole, rather than for individual singles, but I’d recommend the title track, “Teenage Fantasy,” and “The One.”

16. Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel. The Australian singer/songwriter’s sophomore album was less hook-filled than her debut, but her lyrics remain a highlight throughout, and her laconic delivery remains unique even in a music world where every other singer is trying to carve out her own distinct style. Highlights include “Charity,” “City Looks Pretty,” and “Nameless, Faceless.”

15. Django Django – Marble Skies. A bit of a return to form for the lads who were shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2012 after their debut album had a global hit with “Default,” here featuring a handful of radio-worthy singles, including the title track, “Tic Tac Toe” (released in 2017), “Surface to Air,” and “In Your Beat.” Their style of electronica doesn’t always crank up the BPM, often tending to minimal arrangements and layered vocals; the closing track, “Fountains,” has a simple vocal line, a drum machine, and maybe someone’s little Casio keyboard, but still manages to craft a compelling melody and enough depth to the sound so it doesn’t sound like your teenaged neighbor’s demo tape.

14. Belle & Sebastian – How to Solve Our Human Problems (Parts 1-3). Originally released as three EPs before the band packaged them together as one fifteen-song album, this Belle & Sebastian record is truly all over the place in style, format, even feel, a retrenching after the poppy Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance but still boasting some big hooks on songs like “The Girl Doesn’t Get It,” “Show Me the Sun,” “The Same Star,” “We Were Beautiful,” and the throwback closer “Best Friend.” Some tracks here just don’t work (“Cornflakes” comes to mind), but the positives outweigh the negatives.

13. Toundra – Vortex. This progressive instrumental metal band from Madrid released their fifth album this year, the first that didn’t have a Roman numeral as its title. Other metal albums I liked in 2018: Tribulation’s Down Below, Riverside’s Wasteland, Horrendous’s Idol, High on Fire’s Electric Messiah, and the fascinating Stranger Fruit from Zeal & Ardor, who blend Negro spirituals with blackened death metal.

12. Lauren Ruth Ward – Well, Hell. The last album on this list I heard this year, even though it came out back in May, Ward’s debut record showcases her smoky voice as she goes from slithering on the opener “Staff Only” to sultry on “Make Love to Myself” to snarling on the LP’s best track, “Blue Collar Sex Kitten.” She’s an openly queer singer who sings a lot about being openly queer, about coming to terms with her sexuality and being comfortable in her own skin. It’s a record deserving of a lot more attention than it’s received, especially given the (deserving) critical acclaim for Courtney Barnett, who produces similarly thoughtful lyrics and slides between indie-rock genres.

11. CLOVES – One Big Nothing. Kaity Dunstan finally dropped her full-length debut, three years after “Frail Love,” which appears on this record, made my year-end top 10. Her voice is stunning, even with some of her quirky intonations, although I think she’s best suited to minimalist songs that bring her vocals to the front, regardless of tempo. This includes a re-recorded version of “Frail Love” as well as “Bringing the House Down” and “Don’t You Wait.”

10. Artificial Pleasure – The Bitter End. They made my top 100 last year with “Wound Up Tight,” an upbeat dance/rock number that appears here after the slamming opener “I Need Something More” and takes us into the frenetic “All I Got,” a trio of high-energy songs that sound like someone rebooted The Human League and shot them full of coke. They dial the energy down on a few tracks, as in “On a Saturday Night” – for these guys, the drop in tempo makes it sound like a dirge – but most of this record gets the right blend of darkwave and danceable rhythms. The six-minute track “People Get Everywhere” even veers into a little classic funk for a perfect change of pace in the middle of the album.

9. Snail Mail – Lush. Lindsey Jordan recorded this when she was just 18, and it’s been all over best-of lists; Pitchfork and Paste both placed it fifth on their year-end lists, and it appeared on rankings by the Guardian, AV Club, and NPR. Her vocals might be an acquired taste, but her music feels surprisingly timeless for someone so young – something you’d hear on college radio in virtually any decade, varying just by the quality of production, although women singing and playing this kind of indie-rock is a more modern phenomenon. “Pristine” is the breakout single, although “Heat Wave” and “Golden Dream” are also strong.

8. Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo in Blue. Well, when one of your band members is a dead ringer for a young Bob Dylan, I guess you lean into it and title your sophomore album as an homage to “Tangled Up in Blue.” Their second record is tighter than their first, with better songwriting and a little more swagger on tracks like “Burn It,” “Crisis Fest,” and “Human For,” and more purpose to slower tracks like “Twentytwo” and closer “Oh No, Bye Bye,” which sounds like a lost track by the Church.

7. Soft Science – Maps. Soft Science’s third album was the first I’d heard of their music, ten short songs with one-word titles, adding up to all of 33 minutes that run the gamut of alternative music styles, from the smashing opener “Undone,” which redoes My Bloody Valentine for 2018 with audible vocals, to mid-90s Lush-like Britpop on “Breaking,” to ethereal post-new wave on “Diverging,” on to the country-tinged closer “Slip.” There isn’t a bad track in the mix, which is a rare thing in our era of two good songs and 45 minutes of filler; if anything, I find myself wishing the record were longer whenever I finish it.

6. Jungle – For Ever. Jungle first appeared on my 2014 year-end top 100 with “Busy Earnin’,” their debut single, but the rest of the album fell a little flat to me, lacking enough bangers to balance out the slower tempo neo-soul stylings of the remainder of the record. Their second album strikes that balance much more effectively, with plenty of upbeat, ’70s R&B/dance numbers like “Heavy, California,” “Happy Man,” “Smile,” and “Beat 54 (All Good Now)” along with slower jams like “Cherry” and the orchestral “House in LA.”

5. Wombats – Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. The fourth full-length from the wry post-Britpoppers was a bit short on hit singles, but the extended version, which included two bonus tracks I loved (“Bee-Sting” and “Oceans”), ended up with a solid half-dozen above-average songs, which is rare for me to find. The album also includes 2017’s “Turn” and “Lemon to a Knife Fight” as well as this year’s “Cheetah Tongue,” but there are a few absolute duds on here, which was definitely not true for their previous album, Glitterbug.

4. Turbowolf – The Free Life. Hard rock with occasional electronic elements from a Bristol quartet that seem delightfully anachronistic in their willingness to just rock out – similar in feel to The Darkness but not in sound. This album, their third, features “Domino,” “Cheap Magic,” and “No No No,” but most of the songs just flat-out rock.

3. Black Honey – Black Honey. The Brighton indie-pop quartet’s debut album was several years in the making, but the deluxe edition, which has 21 tracks now includes all the singles I’ve recommended over the last four years – “Midnight,” “Bad Friends,” “I Only Hurt the Ones I Love,” “Hello Today,” “Crowded City,” “Somebody Better,” and “All My Pride.”

2. TVAM – Psychic Data. Electronica, mostly instrumental, almost entirely weird … except every once in a while Joe Oxley, who records as TVAM, slips in an utterly memorable hook, as on my favorite track from the record, “These Are Not Your Memories,” or on the searing “Porsche Majeure,” or the massive six-minute closer “Total Immersion,” which feels like a huge hit in 1986 in an alternate universe where new wave spawned another generation of rock musicians.

1. Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar. The winners of the 2014 Mercury Prize returned with their best album yet, a genre-busting album with hip-hop elements that rest on a lo-fi foundation of neo-soul, dub, and experimental music. Pigeonholing these guys as a rap act does them and the genre a disservice, and since their debut album, Dead, they’ve moved even further into experimental territory, often dispensing with traditional song structures while playing with textures and sounds. Some songs have little to no rap content; some mix noises you might associate with late ’80s industrial music into lo-fi electronic jams. “Toy” was a modest breakout single thanks to a clever video, while “Fee Fi” isn’t far behind thanks to the menacing tone of the repeated piano riff. Sometimes my album of the year is comfortable, something I just enjoy start to finish because it’s full of strong melodies or reminds me of a particular style of music from when I was younger. Cocoa Sugar is the opposite: It’s great because it makes me so uncomfortable, diverging constantly from what I expect and from the confines of conventional popular music with which I grew up.