While it’s safe to say most of us want to forget all about 2018, there are hundreds of incredible albums by stellar artists across the complete spectrum of genres that are worthy of soundtracking your 2019 and beyond.

After writing and ranking this year’s list, I noticed an ominous theme; welcome to your survival guide for the end of days — here’s hoping we make it to 2020.

As you may notice, I actually bought these albums on CD. A few publicists sent me digital advances and I still wound up buying the good albums on CD. I might be the last person on Earth who experiences music this way, but it’s still preferred. More compact, reliable, and easier to use than vinyl. Better sound quality than streaming, without commercials, buffering, subscriptions, outages, or impact on my data plan. Plus, while driving in the middle of nowhere or between large buildings or mountain hills, I can still hear my music just fine. That said, with labels giving up on the format–gone are the days where any thought was given to artwork, liner notes or design–I think I will bow out too in 2019. So here you go, perhaps my last-ever CD roundup…

#1: Smoking Popes • Into the Agony

When most of us think about alternative music in the 1990s, Seattle (where I currently live) comes to mind, but let’s not forget the explosion of Midwestern talent to emerge simultaneously from Chicago (where I lived then). Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, Veruca Salt, and Material Issue all made a big splash, as did the Smoking Popes. While ‘Need You Around‘ was their biggest hit, thanks to plum placement on the Clueless soundtrack, the Popes were a live act to be reckoned with and their album Born to Quit was a ubiquitous as Cheap Trick At Budokan on the CD shelves of most of my friends at the time. The Popes full classic-era lineup is back on Into the Agony to clobber you with the one-two punch of singer Josh Ceterer’s Sinatra/Torme-esque croon and the pile driving rhythmic fury supplied by his brothers Matt and Eli along with drummer Mike Felumlee. In the darkest hours of 2018, ‘When You Want Something’ turned out to be the song that saved my life, a gift for which I will be forever grateful. ‘Little Lump of Coal’ is a spot-on global warming rallying cry, while ‘Melting America’ finally stands up and screams to the world what I (as an atheist) have been saying for years — the Republican Party is in complete defiance of the teachings of Jesus (love, compassion and inclusion). Perhaps Beto can use this as a campaign song next year.

#2: James • Living in Extraordinary Times

It’s been more than a quarter century since James started releasing epic singles, and here they are — more than a decade after their resurrection — releasing some of the best music of their career. Singer Tim Booth and bassist Jim Glennie have been on board since 1982, but most of the band has at least been around since the Laid heyday. Every performance on this disc, straight down to the best drums and percussion I’ve heard on any record in ages, is delivered with the passion and intensity of a fresh band on their first major label album; drenched in ambition with one shot only to prove everything to the world. But that’s just it, James are elder statesmen in this youth obsessed industry, taking on all challengers to the throne and showing em all how it’s done. If you’re going to go for it, go all in with deluxe edition of this album; it goes 16-tracks deep and never lets up on the torrent of melodic, cathartic, emotional, and urgent new pop classics.

#3: Johnny Marr • Call The Comet

I’ll be honest, when mom and dad got a divorce, I kinda lost track of dad; dad being Johnny Marr in this metaphor. But with mom, er I mean Moz, totally off the deep end, I’ve removed a Smiths reunion from my bucket list. Without such a dark cloud hanging over this record, I could finally, truly appreciate what a stellar singer and lyricist one of rock’s all-time best guitarists has become. While there’s no trace of the classic Morrissey/Marr sound on Call The Comet, it does sound a lot like what I imagine the Chameleons, Whipping Boy, and the Comsat Angels would sound like today if they were still evolving their sound and making new records.

#4: Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers • Bought to Rot

When the Against Me! singer announced she was signing to Chicago-based alt country powerhouse Bloodshot Records, I thought, oh wow, here comes her inevitable Lilith Fair record. The guess wasn’t too far off considering her homespun take of ‘Androgynous’ with Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus on Jett’s recently released Bad Reputation soundtrack. What Grace and her new band delivered was perhaps her most abrasive punk opus since Against Me! is Reinventing Axl Rose. But instead of treading back to that aggro-punk sound, Grace builds upon the songwriting craft she’s perfected across the past four Against Me! albums, three of which topped my year-end list in their respective years. Five of the 14 songs on the album have the word “song” in the title (‘The Apology Song”, “The Hotel Song”, etc.) bringing an almost poetry slam vibe to the mosh pit proceedings, with Grace in the spotlight venting, confessing, fooling and/or enraging her audience (case in point, one of the year’s best singles, ‘I Hate Chicago’).

#5: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper • A Star is Born

Holy crap! Did Gagaloo actually release a 34-track new album? Well, once you weed out the 13 spoken word dialogue segues and the five Bradley Cooper solo songs, you’re still looking at a damn fine full-length Gaga record, one that ranks among the best in her decade-long career. The bigger shock here is the suite of Cooper-tracks, solos and duets — the dude can SAANG. Not only that, true to his character, these songs sound like actual, well weathered, classic rock smashes. I haven’t even seen the film yet, but can still follow along with the story (let me guess, it has a happy ending with those two driving off into the sunset). It was a major gamble to build a movie on original songs instead of going the Mama Mia route, but boy did it pay off. These songs are big enough to make me believe a stadium full of people would show up to hear them. And that Gaga, a bonafide superstar, could make us believe her character is a struggling singer is a testament to her acting, the script, film direction and songwriting.

#6: Paul McCartney • Egypt Station (Target Deluxe Edition)

I’ll admit, I am not the typical Beatles devotee. I have the Stereo and Mono box sets, but listen to Wingspan and Tug of War WAY more often. Egypt Station is a glorious new Macca Classic; 18 instantly toe-tapping songs, near double LP in size once you factor in the essential bonus tracks ‘Get Started’ and ‘Nothing for Free’ found on the Target-exclusive.

#7: Fernando Perdomo • Zebra Crossing

Every time a child laughs, LA-based producer, guitarist, singer/songwriter Fernando Perdomo releases an album, appears on someone else’s album, or hits the stage and jams with some of the biggest names in prog rock or power pop. Zebra Crossing, recorded last summer at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, is jam-packed with bonafide hits… had these songs been released in the late 70’s or early 80’s at the height of Paul McCartney & Wings, ELO, the Beach Boys, or Todd Rundgren (with whom Perdomo has actually worked). In 2018, Perdomo’s classic pop FM-radio ready originals provide a melodic breath of fresh air in a world where actual radio is a algorhythmic mish mash of over-processed digital product churned out by reality TV and TMZ stars.

#8: Reverend Horton Heat • Whole New Life

The Reverend, Jim Heath, and his trusty bassist sidekick Jimbo, have never released a dud album in lo their many years, but Whole New Life surely breathes new life into their storied career. It’s by far their best since the Al Jourgensen-produced must-have, Liquor in the Front. The Heat has steadily cooled from their “Psychobilly Freakout” phase that mixed blistering punk with classic rockabilly sounds. Today, like and El Dorado cruising down main street, they are veering closer and closer to becoming the reigning kings of pure rockabilly. But just as Prince Charles awaits his time atop the throne, Jerry Lee Lewis has no intention of giving up the rockabilly crown and is still performing shows in his 80’s. No need to fear, there’s room in this here town for the both of em, and with new classics like “Got It In My Pocket” and “Wonky”,  plus a long overdue cover of “Viva Las Vegas”, the Heat ain’t cooling anytime soon.

#9: The Interrupters • Fight the Good Fight

After hearing this band’s breakout hit, ‘She’s Kerosene’, I bought all three of their albums at once and digested them at the same time. It’s probably the perfect way to experience the passion and exuberance of this band (Aimee Allen leading the three Bivona brothers: Jesse, Justin and Kevin). If you’re into Joan Jett, Rancid, Tim Timebomb, and the whole Hellcat Records scene, you know what you’re getting into here. Instantly catchy and danceable punk with traces of ska and reggae, uplifting messages, rallying cries and a sense that just by listening, you’re part of tight knit community. ‘Take Back The Power‘ from their 2014 self-titled debut is the anthem of the decade, a messaged carried forward in fury with Fight’s 12 blistering new tracks, including ‘Title Holder’ and the Kerosene single which was all over the radio and the charts this year.

#10: Frank Turner • Be More Kind

Speaking of anthems, there probably wasn’t a more urgent, relevant, and needed album in this Trump and Brexit era than Be More Kind the title track and full album by Frank Turner and his crackling band The Sleeping Souls. When Turner released a 29-track collection called Songbook at the end of 2017, I thought that would be enough to digest for the next three of four years, but then mere five months later in May, he released a collection of new songs, including ‘Make America Great Again’ which reclaims those words for the cause of good. Turner views the world with a wide lens and zooms out to put our shit show in perspective with what’s happening in the US, Europe, South America and just about everywhere joyless division and populism is taking root.

#11: The Motels • The Last Few Beautiful Days

Martha Davis is to The Motels what Chrissie Hynde is to The Pretenders; the lineups will constantly change, but glorious sound remains the same. Some 35+ years on from her heyday (All Four One, Little Robbers), Davis’s lovelorn, cinematic voice remains ageless, and this collection marks a true return to form in terms of dreamy, new wave-adjacent, pop perfection with the right dose of weirdness. ‘A Long As’ proves Davis is still a top-rate lyricist, able to flutter hearts and inspire teenage crushes in fans of all ages.

#12: Steven Page • Discipline: Heal Thy Self Part II

“Things are about to get real, fucking nice,” sneers the former lead singer of the very family-friendly Barenaked Ladies. Hot on the heels of the on-stage reunion with his former band (at the 2018 Juno Awards), Page returns to the bountiful springs of his solo career, one that has out-paced the Ladies on every creative front for more than a decade. Just like Part I, Part II delivers another trunkload of new Page classics, filled with his signature wit, untethered by the pressures to remain on-brand with his former band.

#13: Culture Club • Life

Boy George and his Culture Club cohorts Roy, Mikey, and Jon don’t always release new albums, but when they do, it is well worth the wait. Life, arrives 19 years after their last record, Don’t Mind if I Do (which itself arrived 13 years after its predecessor From Luxury to Heartache). Instead of cashing in on nostalgia, Life is an utterly modern album filled with groovy, trippy new classics. In many ways, they outdo the Arctic Monkeys in a quest to create the alt rock lounge album of the year, especially on the silky ‘What Does Sorry Mean?’. And just when you think Boy George is being remarkably restrained, ‘Resting Bitch Face’ shows he can still drop a cheeky radio hit.

#14: Dua Lipa • Dua Lipa (Complete Edition)

OK, the original release of this album topped my 2017 albums list, but 2018 was the year where it became a worldwide sensation. Lipa combines sultry Amy Winehouse-esque vocals with Lady Gaga’s ability to deliver a show to 100,000 festival goers. Much like Gaga’s The Fame Monster, Dua Lipa Complete Edition tacks on an additional mini album’s worth of one-off singles from the year, including collaborations with Mark Ronson, Diplo, Calvin Harris, and Sean Paul.

#15: The 1975 • A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

For me, the 1975 has been a half-baked Killers knockoff since they debuted, delivering pleasing but forgettable alt pop fare. But then, as this album loomed, they declared it would be the most important album of their year, and pretty much everyone agreed, including me. See, the power of positive thinking. Inquiry features some of the year’s best singles, but it’s also a compelling album to take in as a whole, with diversions at every turn, perfect music for long commutes or scenic road trips.

#16: Claudia Brücken & Jerome Froese • Beginn

Propaganda’s 1985 new wave opus, A Secret Wish, is the album that just won’t die, so much so that co-lead singers Brücken and Suzanne Freytag took it on the road in 2018, under the moniker xPropaganda, on a tour with Heaven 17. Beginn has little connection to Propaganda, it continues the path of Brücken’s 30+ year post-Propaganda career, pairing her with a consistently surprising, eclectic, and left-field array of partners (Andrew Poppy, Thomas Leer, and OMD’s Paul Humphreys to name a few). With each collaboration, Brücken creates some truly beautiful, sophisticated and daring European pop. This time out, it’s Jerome Froese of Tangerine Dream, creating some of the most pop radio friendly music of his career, more on par with Saint Etienne than Dr. Mabuse.

#17 (TIE): Little Mix • LM5 / Brandi Carlile • By The Way, I Forgive You

Alas, due to an F-up with Amazon, the Deluxe Edition of Little Mix’s LM5–one that I assume appears to be a mini coffee table book (similar to James, Kylie, and Culture Club’s releases this year)–arrived after I shot all my other CD jewel cases for this year’s profile image. So I placed LM5 with their other stellar releases in tribute to them making the official “5 Club” on my CD wall. Mainstream girl groups aren’t typically my jam. I had pretty much bypassed the likes of Spice Girls, Pussycat Dolls, and Sugababes, until I discovered Girls Aloud whose five Xenomania-produced albums rank up there with ABBA in terms of the best pop released in my lifetime. I never thought it would happen again, but here we are five in with Little Mix. I first heard them when their anthem ‘Salute’ was the soundtrack for NBC’s Women’s Gymnastics coverage at the Olympics. The four members of the group may lack the name recognition of Mel B, Cheryl Cole, or Camila Cabello, but their singing is just as angelic, ambitious, and worthy of plentiful #1 hits. LM5’s regular edition includes the hit ‘Woman Like Me’ featuring Nicki Minaj while the deluxe edition features an even better empowerment anthem, ‘Woman’s World”.

And speaking of anthems…

Perhaps my top musical moment of 2018 was seeing Carlile and her band bring the house down with ‘Hold Out Your Hand’ as a one-off musical guest on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. Thank heavens By The Way, I Forgive You is the title of the album from which the song came, because I have snoozed through much of my Greater Puget Sound neighbor’s storied career, including her hit album The Story (produced by T Bone Burnett) and the cover album it produced featuring Adele and Pearl Jam. I even missed her latest in-store performance at my local Easy Street Records (recently voted one of Rolling Stone’s 10 best record stores in America). Thankfully, she did not need my help for her career to reach new heights; the album reached #5 on the charts, the tour was a hit, and the rest is herstory.

#18: Maggie Rose • Change the Whole Thing

I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about Nashville’s Maggie Rose, but was told to drop everything and listen to her second album. I tend to hate country music, but this album reminds me just how good that genre can be when it’s full of heart instead of studio polish. Change also radiates with the glory and divine feminine energy of that first Indigo Girls album, you now, the one most dudes have in their record collections. As it steadily builds steam, it turns into a bonafide rock and roll record, reminding me of the days when Linda Ronstadt released bonafide rock and roll records. Perhaps with this album and it’s little bit of country, little bit of honey, and little bit of booty shaking, we finally have something everyone on the Right and Left can agree on.

And the rest…

Here are some short takes on the rest. Some of these records from early 2018 feel like they were released 2-3 years ago. I guess that’s because every week in the Trump era has felt like forever.

I intentionally skipped over some really good records that I bought from the likes of Arianna Grande, Kacey Musgraves, Bebe Rexha, Janelle Monae, and Camilla Cabello because they are already massive hits. I also skipped what I assume are solid records by Interpol, Franz Ferdinand and MGMT because I honestly forgot I had bought them and will rotate them back into rotation this month.

#19 • The Coral • Move Through The Dawn

We’re closing in on 20 years since The Coral, then a scrappy bunch of teenagers, released their psychedelic drenched, Mercury Prize-nominated, self-titled debut album (produced by Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds). That album remains one of the best debuts of all time and a total creative tour de force, viewing the late 1960’s through modern kaleidoscope eyes. Ever since, they’ve released totally charming, rootsy rock pop records that are occasionally brilliant but nowhere near the high mark they once set. This album is no different, there’s not a dud track in the bunch, each track is a joy — but it would be fun to hear them take some chances again.

#20 • The Longshot • Love is For Losers

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has enjoyed a stealthy side career throughout his reign fronting one of arena punk’s biggest bands. The Network, Foxboro Hut Tubs, and the prolific Pinhead Gunpowder are just a few of his side hustles with and without Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt.

Fresh on the heels of The Armstrongs, a one-off super group featuring Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, Billie Joe returned with a vengeance in 2018, releasing two albums worth of new solo material under the moniker The Longshot. Ever since juggernaut American Idiot made Green Day an “important” band and Billie Joe caved into his addictions (derailing the promotion cycle for their triple CD series (Uno, Dos, Tré), it’s more important than ever for one of rock’s brightest stars to find the joy in music without the burden of topping himself. The blistering and melodic song cycle of Losers amounts to one of the year’s most winning listening experiences. Dive deep into the three related EPs to find a triumphant rendition of the Plimsouls’ ‘Million Miles Away’.

#21 • Neko Case • Hell-On

Speaking of side hustles, Neko Case splits her time with the New Pornographers and her epic, genre liberated solo career, plus occasional one offs like The Corn Sisters and case/lang/veirs. Blacklisted, her first solo record after two with Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, remains one of the most haunting and beautiful albums of all time, and each platter since has taken listeners on dizzying adventures through her genius blend of folk, Americana, lounge, torch song, alt country, and rock and roll. Hell-On continues the trend, essential listening for Case diehards or a great entry point to her catalog.

22 (tie) Gorillaz • The Now Now / The Good, The Bad and the Queen • Merrie Land

If there’s any lingering doubt who won the Blur v. Oasis battle, the answer is Daman Albarn. In addition to keeping Blur on life support, with 2015’s epic The Magic Whip (arriving more than a decade after Think Tank), he’s fronted virtual band Gorillaz and a bonafide supergroup, the Good, The Bad and the Queen (featuring members of The Clash, the Verve, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Africa). The Gorillaz album is much more mainstream alt pop, while the Queen project is much more droll Britpop. Both albums soundtrack the further decline of the British empire, helping those of us in Trump Country to share their Brexit misery.

#23 (tie) • The Fratellis • In Your Own Sweet Time / We Are Scientists • Megaplex

Both of these bands were on my “Lost Bands of the 2000’s” list, alongside the likes of Hot Hot Heat, The Zutons, Bloc Party, and Ambulance LTD. Their early hits, alongside The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, and the Strokes, ushered in what I thought was going to be a new era of oxymoronic mainstream alternative rock. But then, one by one, these bands disappeared. Well, until now. Both of these records herald a true return to form before each band ascends further into their own form of greatness.

#24 • Anderson Paak • Oxnard

I’ll admit, I stopped taking rap seriously after the mid-1990s. After that, everything just seemed to be a twitter war set to cheap beats and every video boiled down to people with money partying hard in poolside mansions. I had no idea who this Paak man was until his slew of media appearances, and I was sold in an instant. Paak has genuine skills on the mic all while rocking the drums like a hip hop Phil Collins.

#25 • Manic Street Preachers • Resistance is Futile

I’ll admit — I am kind of hit or miss on the Manics. I could live without their critically adored classic, The Holy Bible (1994) and turn of the century albums like Know Your Enemy. But Resistance is Futile shimmers with the same glorious and dangerous BritPop shine as Everything Must Go (1996) and This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours (1998).

#26 • Muse • Simulation Theory (Deluxe)

It’s been ages since Muse released ‘Knights of Cydonia”, the greatest song and video of all time. As time passes, they keep slipping, slipping, slipping into a poppier sound, but this generation’s Rush still packs a punch.

#27 • Ken Sharp • Beauty in the Backseat

In a perfect world, power pop savant Ken Sharp would have had his own Saturday Morning super show featuring Syd and Marty Kroft puppets, his smiling mug would adorn embossed metal lunchboxes with built-in Thermoses, his hits would headline K-Tel compilations on K-Mart endcaps, and he’d be regularly featured on the cover of Tiger Beat and Scholastic’s Dynamite magazine. In Ken’s world, David Cassidy remains the true king of pop and the 1970’s never ended. Beauty in the Backseat yet again hits the sweetspot for fans of the Partridge Family, Sweet, Todd Rundgren, and the Babys; its a wall-to-wall shag (carpeting) fest of sunshine pop, ideal for vans with star-shaped rear windows and AMC Gremlins in day glo green.

#28 • Lily Allen • No Shame

Much better than Sheezus, not as brilliant as her first two albums, but damn close.

#29 • Halo Circus • Robots and Wranglers

American Idol’s Salvadoran Sensation, Allison Iraheta, returns with her third record, second under the Halo Circus moniker. For more about it, read my review of the Best Singles of 2018.

#30 • Moby • Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt

In 1995, Moby told us Everything Is Wrong, but now look where we are. This lush, soulful album is like a warm blanket to cover our shivering bodies as we huddle in the fetal position until the Dems get a bankable candidate to the stage for 2020.

#31 • Fionn

As I pine anxiously for the next Louise Burns record to arrive like Eric Cartman waiting for the next Wii, the ex-Lillix guitarist turned Echo & The Bunnywoman for the new Millennium produces the debut by this Canadian sister act (Alanna and Brianne Finn-Morris of White Rock, BC). Much like The Pierces (USA) and the Bloom Twins (Ukraine), Fionn mixes dark, romantic and utterly adventurous themes into their harmonic, David Lynchian, folk pop. Don’t love them just because they are utterly beautiful and magazine cover stylish, in fact the trappings of beauty are addressed throughout Fionn’s 12 mesmerizing songs (including standouts ‘Magazine Face’ and ‘Tell Me I’m Pretty’).

#32 • Jack White • Boarding House Reach

Before heading back to mainstream rock and roll with The Raconteurs (two singles just dropped, a 2019 album is en route), Jack White let his freak flag fly with the most adventurous and risk taking embodiment of every band and album he’s ever fronted in his adventurous and risk taking career.

#33 • Blood Orange • Negro Swan

The uber remixer gets deep on a trippy long player. In a way, it’s like PM Dawn meets Steely Dan meets those Operator segues from Prince’s The Gold Experience. 

#34 • The Struts • Young and Dangerous

England’s The Struts are hell bent on becoming the biggest band on the planet the same way The Darkness once were. They have the chops, but neither of their albums have dented the Billboard Top 100 yet (2014’s Everybody Wants hit #99; this album peaked at #102). That said, with giant “should be hits” on each platter and a relentless touring schedule opening for the likes of Foo Fighters, I have a feeling they will eventually have the last laugh.

#35 • Robyn • Honey

Body Talk was one of the most innovative and rewarding albums of all time. It’s follow-up takes fewer chances and is more along the lines of Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, but this clubby album still it has its rewards.

#36 • Smashing Pumpkins • Shiny and Oh So Bright Volume #1

Jeez — why not throw D’Arcy a bone and let her play on some tracks and appear in all the promotional pics? Her presence is why we could suffer through Billy’s bloated 33-minute live versions of ‘Silverfuck’. But with 3/4 of the band back on the B-train for the first time in 18 years, the vintage Pumpkins appear to be back… for now. While nothing here holds up to pre-Machina 1 greatness, it’s still Billy’s best new album since Zwan.

#37 • Belly • Dove

Holy crap, did we actually wait 20+ years for this album? I guess so. Well, we did have a lot going on. Dove splits the difference between 1995’s uneven King and 1993’s brilliant Star. 

#38 • Dream Wife and #39 • Thunderpussy

Similar sound, different sides of the pond. Unbridled, unabashed, unapologetic, and unforgettable riot girl punk for a new generation.

#40 • Blancmange • Wanderlust

80’s new wave darlings Blancmange released three epic albums in their heyday (each recently expanded to the gills within the 9-disc Blanc Tapes collection). Since then, Neil Arthur has been releasing on average of two albums per year under a variety of project names. They’re all enjoyable dark wave, minimalist electronic fare, including this one. Semi-Detached even topped my albums list in 2015.

#41 • Eminem • Kamikaze

I hate all the people who say they condone utterly offensive rap music because they like the beats. I love rocking out to this album but have yet to listen to whatever the hell Em is talking about this go round.

#42 • RSO • Radio Free America

I don’t think this relationship worked out (in the bedroom or on the stage), but their pairing finally put the first-ever Richie Sambora album into my record collection with this quite lovely collection of radio friendly arena rock. For the record, my only Jon Bon Jovi track to date is that Star Wars Christmas song. But I am a huge fan of guitar hero Orianthi, who has still yet to find the right album or project to realize her greatness.

#43 • Albert Hammond Jr. • Francis Trouble

Yet again, the non-lead singer of the once-bankable Strokes releases a better album than anything since his day job’s first two.

#44 • Kylie Minogue • Golden

I first heard of Kylie Minogue through a KMFDM diss track, but she’s steadily earned a permanent place in my heart. Golden goes a little bit of country with a healthy dollop of pop; it’s the perfect bridge for fans between Taylor Swift albums.

#45 • Arctic Monkeys • Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Sometimes I love this, sometimes I hate it. But bless the boys for spreading their wings a bit.

#46 • The Damned • Evil Spirits

The Damned are pretty damned near invincible when it comes to their brand of punk; I saw em in concert some two decades after their prime and they blew the roof off the joint. Now here we are some 20 more years later. Evil Spirits shows they have no signs of slowing down.

#47 • The Ting Tings • The Black Light

We Started Nothing is one of the best pop albums of the past 20 years (featuring mega hits ‘That’s Not My Name’ and ‘Shut Up and Let Me Go’). This album takes a dark visual and sonic dark, but still yields plenty of subtle rewards at every turn.

#48 • Andrew WK • You’re Not Alone

Breaking news! Andrew WK likes to party. He’s also a damn fine motivational speaker. And when he’s not talking for free (he can’t help himself), he’s started a new religion; so here it is, a full album to spread the gospel of partying. Speaking of gospel…

#49: Pistol Annies • Interstate Gospel

Perhaps it’s the harmonies from heaven. Or the gorgeous fashion. Or the fact I will always be on Team Miranda versus Team Sheltfani? Steffon? Gwake? Anyhoo, this album ends my post and year on a lovely, soothing, and uplifting note… oh wait, I have one more slot to fill…

#50: Ministry • AmeriKKKant

I pretty much gave up on weird uncle Al from Filth Pig onward except for his pretty good Buck Satan side project which would have been even better had he gone full country instead of making it a Ministry Semi-Unplugged record. After wasting loads of punny album titles on George W. Bush, none of which came close to the brilliance of sampling his dearly departed dad on ‘N.W.O.’, Al is back with a much bigger fish to fry up in his pan. The first half of AmeriKKKant comes off as some of the best Ministry this side of Psalm 69, before going down the rabbit hole of egg sucking over-production. Al is such a genius, less is always more, but with so many sounds in the mix, his songs can get tiresome fast. I would love to see what he could do with a mere 12 tracks and give us some beats we can dance to, words we can make out, and just enough brain splitting guitars to inspire a government overthrow.

Happy New Year!

During the holidays I decided to determine once and for all how long I’ve been writing this column. I searched the Popdose archives for that first column which I knew featured the King Curtis song that gave the column its name. And there it was, published on April 15, 2010. Soul Serenade is approaching its ninth birthday. In that whole time I’ve only taken a few weeks off (alright, one of them was last week) so simple math tells me that there have been well over 400 entries in this series. Phew! I must admit that occasionally it’s challenging to come up with something I haven’t covered previously but I’m going to press on into the New Year.

Aretha Franklin’s death was one of biggest, and saddest stories of 2019. And rightly so. She was the one and only Queen of Soul after all and her life and career were the stuff of legend. But in December we lost another great singer who was iconic in her own right, Nancy Wilson.

Wilson was born in Ohio in 1937. Her father was a foundry worker who loved music and Wilson grew up listening to his records by artists like Billy Eckstein, Dinah Washington, and Ruth Brown. From the time she began singing in church choirs as a child, it was clear that Wilson would become a professional singer. Her first break came when she was 15. Wilson won a talent show sponsored by a local television station and the prize was two appearances on Skyline Melodies, a local television show. Around this time Wilson was also working in the clubs around town.

Given the vagaries on show business, Wilson decided to go to college to pursue a teaching degree. But after a year she knew that she had to return to her true calling. Soon after that, she landed a gig singing with Rusty Bryant’s Carolyn Club Big Band. Wilson stayed with the band for two years, touring throughout the Midwest and Canada during that time. It was also with Bryant’s band that she did her first recording.

Somewhere along the way, Wilson encountered Cannonball Adderley who was taken with her talent and suggested to Wilson that she move to New York to jumpstart her career. Wilson made the move in 1969. She sang four nights a week at a club called Blue Morocco and by day she worked as a secretary at the New York Institute of Technology. With the help of Adderly’s manager, John Levy, she got a deal with Capitol Records in 1960.

“Guess Who I Saw Today” was Wilson’s first single for the label and it was so successful that Capitol released five Nancy Wilson albums over the next two years. Adderley advised Wilson to move from her pop music stylings to more of a jazz and R&B thing and the two collaborated on Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley in 1962. The album included the R&B smash “Save Your Love For Me.” Between 1964 and 1965, Wilson put four albums into the Top 10 on the Billboard albums chart. She also had her biggest single with “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,” which reached #11 in 1964. Wilson charted ten other singles from 1963-1971, but “Face It Girl, It’s Over” was her only other non-Christmas single to crack the Top 40. “Face It Girl” reached the #29 spot in 1968.

Wilson was a fixture on a variety of television shows in the ’60s and ’70s. In 1967, she finally got her own shown on NBC. The Nancy Wilson Show only lasted for two years but it won an Emmy during that time. Aside from her own show, Wilson appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Tonight Show, and numerous other variety shows along with dramas series like Room 222, Hawaii Five-0, and The F.B.I.

The 1980s brought more recording and touring for Wilson. She recorded with jazz greats like Hank Jones, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Ramsey Lewis, and Stanley Clarke. Appearances included prestigious venues like the Newport Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the Tokyo Songs Festival. By the ’90s, Wilson had 60 albums under her belt. From 1995-2006, Wilson hosted NPR’s Jazz Profiles and won a Peabody Award for her efforts in 2001. She continued to perform until 2011 when she made her final public appearance on a stage in, appropriately, Ohio.

“I’m not going to be doing it anymore, and what better place to end it than where I started – in Ohio,” Wilson told jazzcolumbus.com at the time.

Nancy Wilson won many awards and over the year. She was the recipient of three Grammy Awards, the Whitney Young Jr. Award from the Urban League, and the NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award among many other honors. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and honorary degrees from Berklee College of Music and Central State University. Wilson was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in 2005. The list of honors goes on and on, but you get the idea. Wilson was not only a great singer but a great citizen as well.

Nancy Wilson died in California on December 13, 2018, after a long battle with kidney cancer.

I don’t hate Christmas. I enjoy the time I get to spend with my family and the time I get to take off from work. I also enjoy seeing people opening the presents that I’ve given them and smiling, letting me know that I got it right.

But I hate the endless commercialization of Christmas. Immediately after Thanksgiving, our culture seemingly resets itself to some Norman Rockwell idea of 1955. All the music resets to pre-rock standards, everything on prime-time TV is at least 45 years old, we’re deluged with countless advertisements about shopping deals, and worst of all, there’s no escaping any of it.

The worst part of it all is how the constant repeats of our past is meant to create new emotional experiences for the next generation. And everyone automatically assumes that their child’s reaction will be the same as their reaction.

To combat this, many people have attempted to find “alternative” Christmas movies. These are films that are set at Christmas but don’t emphasize the traditional holiday spirit. Instead, they use it to explore darker themes about society and help explain why our myopic vision of Christmas is wrong.

I’ve tried to identify the best “alternative” Christmas movies out there. These are movies that are set or were released near Christmas and include cynical themes about the season. It’s impossible to present a straight-forward Christmas movie to a modern audience, so these films are trying to cater to a new audience that has no patience for Burl Ives.

Brazil – Terry Gilliam’s dystopian masterpiece has so many layers that it can be discussed as a part of any genre. But the film takes place at Christmas and there are several moments centered around Christmas traditions.

Brazil is, at its core, a satire of the distracted 1980s mentality. People, especially in America, had retreated to a more boring lifestyle where they didn’t have to face the world around them. They retreated into consumerism and be sold rubbish. Any attempts to break the mold would result in punishment.

Christmas is the best representation of this trend. Anyone who rejects its commercialist ideals is ironically considered a scrooge. Anyone who points out that a child sitting on Santa’s lap and asking for “my own credit card,” as happens in the film, is a sign of societal decay is just not celebrating the holiday properly.

Sam Lowery, on his surface, wants a boring lifestyle. But he dreams of being some vague hero who gets the girl. He seems to ignore each societal tradition – in one scene, he even refuses to give the date, thus failing to acknowledge Christmas is close – and is punished with a visit from the man who controls his torture. This man is even dressed as Santa Claus to comfort Sam but ends up being far more frightening than he intended.

Brazil is the most obvious alternative Christmas movie on this list, if only because it shows people engaged in the traditional yuletide activities. Yet the Christmas setting is inseparable from the film’s ideas of rebellion. Sam’s dreams of breaking the system seem even more poignant when set against the backdrop of an armed battalion singing “The First Noel.” Ultimately, people who want to rebel during Christmas are doomed, which may be the most important message of the holidays.

Eyes Wide Shut – Like every other Stanley Kubrick film, Eyes Wide Shut has been endlessly debated and people think it’s a code that must be cracked in order to be appreciated. What could the cult orgy sequence possibly mean? And what was the central mystery surrounding the death of the young woman who took part in it?

Kubrick was always more interested in the mystery than in the resolution. His films specialized in examining people who were not able to understand what was happening to them. That’s certainly the case with Bill Harford, a man who discovers that his wife may just have sexual feelings about other men. This leads him to a nighttime odyssey where he’s constantly overwhelmed by what he sees, be it an HIV prostitute who tries to solicit him to an upper-class party featuring masks and a weird religious ceremony.

But what does any of this have to do with Christmas? The movie does take place at Christmas and the final scene takes place in a mall as the Harfords go Christmas shopping. Obviously, there’s a reason Kubrick wanted to set this sexually explicit drama at during the self-proclaimed most wonderful time of the year.

Once again, Kubrick wanted to subvert expectations by showing us something new against a familiar setting. Very few people can relate to Harford’s night time odyssey. But everyone can relate to familial tensions at Christmas. Harford is looking for something familiar as he goes through the upper-class Christmas party ceremonies at the start of the film. But he’s blind to the reality around him, which is far dirtier than he could have imagined. It speaks to the child-like idea of Christmas, where good thoughts and deeds are rewarded while bad thoughts and impulses are punished.

Of course, that’s not how reality works. Harford has adulterous thoughts and ultimately learns nothing from his curiosity. Yet everyone else he meets in his nighttime odyssey commits worse actions and emerge unscathed. How can that be possible during the holidays?

The answer is because that’s how it works in real life. And the film ends on a positive note. Bill realizes that his salvation can only be found in his family. I suppose that’s sort of a positive Christmas message.

L.A. Confidential – Yes, I’m aware only the opening scene takes place at Christmas. But that opening is so good and underlines many cynical themes about Christmas and the buttoned-up post war conformity of the United States.

For those who don’t remember, the film starts with an office party for the L.A. police. As they imbibe alcohol, suspects in a police beating are brought in. The officers take it upon themselves to dole out some extrajudicial punishment, which is captured by newspaper photographers at the scene.

What does this have to do with the cynicism in Christmas? Part of it has to do with aging white people trying to control the culture no matter how much time passes. All the cops participating in the melee are white and the suspects are Hispanic. It also shows how the Christmas setting does not offer any promised peace on earth. Yet people are still shocked by the violence and the “Bloody Christmas” headline that appears the next day.

The point is that no should have been shocked then and we shouldn’t be shocked now when we hear about how the world doesn’t pause for Christmas.

The opening scene also underlines the main mystery of L.A. Confidential, which involves an enormous plot for police to take over organized crime in the city. What looks glossy and beautiful on the surface contains some dark violence and betrayal. Not even the people society trusts to uphold the citizens’ rights aren’t to be trusted.

But, as the opening scene shows, we copy annual Christmas traditions because that peaceful exterior provides people some ability to ignore the rot around them. Only when that façade is broken, as happens at the beginning of L.A. Confidential, do people start asking questions.

Mars Attacks! – It’s impossible to discuss alternative Christmas movies without discussing Tim Burton. If he’s not the director who invented the genre, he’s the man who popularized it by taking German expressionist trappings and adding them to the Christmas. But the films people usually think of – Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas – have already been discussed to death.

Instead, I’d like to look at the underrated satire Mars Attacks! While it doesn’t take place at Christmas (when it takes place is open for debate) – the film was originally released in December and it includes the same sort of themes that Burton included in his Christmas movies.

Burton’s take on Christmas is that we as a culture have built up an aesthetic that would seem weird at any other time of year. It can be beautiful, like the ice dance scene in Scissorhands. But it’s mostly about a culture that sends itself backwards and barely takes notice of any of its surroundings. How can we possibly deal with sadistic Martians that want to destroy the Earth? We’re too distracted building casinos, listening to Tom Jones music, wearing outdated clothing in a serious way, and electing a government that exists to generate positive poll ratings.

It makes the destruction of the planet that much funnier, which is the point. Like Dr. Strangelove, this film follows a culture that cannot process any flaws. It’s like watching a Black Friday crowd destroy each other. We may sit back and laugh, but we’ve lost the ability to examine why people are doing it in the first place. And the fact that so many of the characters seem excited for the Martians’ arrival on Earth mirrors the excitement the public has at Christmas. We must ignore everything that makes us feel bad and assume that everyone around us has the best intentions. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t stop spinning just because it’s Christmas.

Also, when a Martian kills someone, their skeletons end up as red or green. It’s obvious that the Martians wanted to spread a little holiday cheer to the doomed earthlings.

Metropolitan – Whit Stillman is a filmmaker who even people like Aaron Sorkin and Woody Allen find pretentious. Yet his films are incredibly captivating and his insight of popular culture, even if it’s limited to the popular culture of people who can afford to buy 1,000 square feet in Manhattan, is undeniable.

Metropolitan was Stillman’s first feature film and took four years to write. Stillman was one of the upper-class characters depicted in the film and was thus qualified to help us understand why people who attend debutante balls deserve sympathy and understanding.

The film is explicitly set at Christmas as rich young people meet and talk about random things. One of them doesn’t come from money and he’s constantly thinking up ways to fake wealth and impress people with his material possessions. Already we’re getting commentaries on the holiday season. How many times have we gone into debt in order to impress people with presents?

The characters also have a level of tragedy in them. As they go to hopelessly outdated “coming-out” parties, everyone seems to insist on copying their grandparents like we do every year at Christmas. They seem to realize that society has moved on from their obsessions. One character is even a titled nobleman. When was the last time that was going to impress everyone who wasn’t already in high society? The characters also endlessly discuss 19^th century socialist thinkers at a time when socialism was on a global downward spiral. Everything about these characters is quaint and ignores what’s happening in the world around them.

Again, does any of that sound familiar?

These individuals are spending their Christmas holidays essentially trying to repeat what their grandparents did. Turn on the holiday station and tell me that we’re not doing the same thing.

The film doesn’t exactly end on a hopeful note. Despite everyone having come together, they’re ending in the same way they began – going back to Manhattan to repeat the façade they’ve developed around themselves. It reminds me of the feeling I get when I see people taking down Christmas decorations. The show is over and instead of hope, we’ve not received anything from the experience.

Ronin – This movie served as the last great film that legendary director John Frankenheimer made in his lifetime. It was released after the disastrous The Island of Doctor Moreau and unfortunately followed up with Reindeer Games. It’s a thrilling heist film with car chases.

Strangely, the film also takes place at Christmas. Yet this almost becomes almost irrelevant. Only a few jokes are made about Christmas and there’s only one scene with Christmas carolers. Outside of an ice-skating show, there’s really nothing in the film that evokes winter.

So why set it at Christmas? Like every other film on this list, that had to be a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmakers.

I believe that, like LA Confidential, Ronin is set at Christmas to acknowledge that criminals still exist even as we talk about being naughty or nice. Also, the figure skater is killed by a sniper in the middle of her show. Violence destroys what’s supposed to be a happy Christmas moment.

And there are jokes about the characters all “working” on Christmas day. This throwaway line says a lot about societal expectations at the holidays. No one, even criminals, wants to engage in their usual activity. It should be a day for everyone to just relax and enjoy time with their loved ones. Not get involved in shootings with the Russian mob.