Top Ten Singles & EPs of 2018

Hello hello to the few people that may or may not be reading this. I am not dead. But so much for whatever schedule I made for this thing hey? Look work is a lot and the last thing I want to do when I get home, after a long day of meticulously crafted help desk articles and email replies, is meticulously craft more writing.

That being said, ya boi is currently in the middle of his Christmas leave and has had enough time to focus on fun writing again. So over the next couple of days, I hope to post a couple things. My Top Ten Singles & EPs, and albums of 2018 because it's about that time again isn't it. I'd also like to post some more poetry but we'll see how that goes!

And I guess without further nonsensery, this is the first of those couple of things. My ten favourite singles & EPs of 2018.

10) Masochist // Blinded

Rad, shouty, pummelling, hardcore release from everybody’s favourite Aussie feminist hardcore band, Masochist. Also released on everybody’s favourite vegan straight edge hardcore label Life Lair Regret Records. Like Punch but with substantially more rumble on that low end. Blinded is seven and a half minutes of pure hardcore bliss.

9) Pagan // Silver

Pagan stole my heart at the start of this year when they opened for Rise Against. The Italiano of it all was simply on point and as their set went on my smile just got bigger and bigger. So naturally I went to see them on their own headline tour (and fuck man what a line-up they had with Masochist, Blind Girls, and Crave Death) and boy howdy was it an experience. No song more than this one. The last two minutes of this song are all instrumental and when it kicked in, all the lights went out except for the occasional black and white strobe and no shit it was honestly like when movies try to portray punk / hardcore club shows but in real life and it was fucking magical. This song is simply magical.

8) Touché Amoré // Green

At this point it’s pretty safe to assume that if Touché put out anything it will always become a fav. And Green has been a great little single between studio releases (that is assuming a new one comes soon). It has probably the most chorusy chorus of any song Touché have ever put out. And that bass tone is well sick.

7) R A I N // Just 4 U (w/ Dolly Daydream)

Okay this and the next single I maaaaay be slightly biased towards because housemate and all that but also not really because they’re actually really fun songs. Song one is Just 4 U featuring local singer songwriter Dolly Daydream on vocals. The song is poppy. It’s got some deep bass that would rattle some foundations if played on a decent sound system, it’s got those retro, chip-tuney samples that we have come to know and love from R A I N. And Dolly Daydream’s vocals are sweet and bring that whole dreamy, wistful vibe to the song. A very strong showing from R A I N this year.

6) Order Sixty6 // Bring It (R A I N Remix)

Song two is a remix of the Order Sixty6 song Bring It with a R A I N™ instrumental. Where the original is kind of darker and more vicious in tone, the R A I N remix brings more bounce. More light. This remix is a bop and just a whole lot of fun. And fun is indeed the new cool. Can also confirm that this song is hype af live. More songs and shows please Samuel Boi!

5) Twenty Øne Piløts // Jumpsuit

This just in, I really like Jumpsuit. THIS JUST IN, I REALLY REALLY LIKE JUMPSUIT. What planet are we on and what’s happened to the real James? My god this song is a fucking BANGER. That fuzzed up bass. That hype-ass screamy crescendo. That lovely quiet passage in the middle. Oh man I’m just so sad why wasn’t the rest of the album like this! Dear Twenty Øne Piløts, more Jumpsuit pls.

4) The 1975 // Give Yourself a Try

Once again, what has happened with the real James. Give Yourself a Try is a simple song with an electronic drum beat, a scratchy repeated guitar line, a nice bopping bass line, and Matty Healy doing whatever the fuck he’s doing. Something about getting STDs and going outside. It’s catchy. It’s not grating. They don’t disappear up their own ass. It’s a bop it’s an honest to god bop and I’m all about it.

3) La Dispute // Rose Quartz / Fulton Street I

HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE!!!!! There’s always one of these isn’t there. But good god damn this single has made me so excited for Panorama next year. Rose Quartz is a nice little intro track but oh my god Fulton Street I. Oh my fucking god. The intense build that this track is. It literally gives me chills. There are no explicit lyrical callbacks either but I feel like this song is the thread that connects songs like 35, Scenes from Highways, Stay Happy There, Sunday Morning, Baptist Church Blues, Safer in the Forest, and All Our Bruised Bodies. And it's literally the first proper song on the tracklist of Panorama. Imagine how stunning the rest of the album is gonna be if this is the first single they drop. HYPE! HYPE! HYPE! HYPE!

2) Architects // Royal Beggars

Royal beggars / royal beggars / do you, do you, do you wanna / live forever / live forever / alone, alone, alone? 

Fuck. Me. Up. With the cadence of them verses my dude. And I thought Doomsday last year was the best song they’d ever write. Good god did Royal Beggars just dethrone it like it was nothing. The calm of those verses. The bloody huuuge mountain-moving chorus. That searing breakdown at the end of the song. Brilliant.

1) Envy // Alnair in August

I love my Japanese post-hardcore / post-rock dads and hope that they never leave again. Dawn & Gaze is everything that makes the current-era post-rock influenced Envy brilliant + female vocals—a missing ingredient I never knew Envy needed. And Marginalized Thread is everything that made early-era v hardcore Envy brilliant but with the melodies of current-era Envy thrown on top. The perfect lead singles to their album due out next year that I can’t bloody wait for.