Best of 2018: best EPs, videos, artworks & more!

The 3 best artworks of 2018

3. Peach Kelli Pop – Gentle Leader

2. PMS & The Mood Swings – PMS & The Mood Swings 

1. Thee Maximators – Dust Damages

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The ugliest artworks of 2018

As always, Thee Oh Sees:

• Is 2018 the year of a new paradigm? We remember that 2017 was largely dominated by the Australian slacker scene. This was not the case in 2018. Instead, several post-skate groups have emerged and/or confirmed, including Aborted Tortoise, Dumb, Priors, Shifters, Rips and Thigh Master. 2019 will tell us if the new decade puts aside the cool of the good old slackers and moves towards a new jangle pop/post-punk combo = post-skate. After all, in the absence of power pop, this would make sense.

• 2018 was back to the basics! Ty Segall, Wavves, the Oh Sees, Connan Mockasin, Kurt Vile… all went 1,000% in the direction we already knew. It’s a bit as if the end of the decade was forcing them to start over again with the best they can do, just to warp it up.

• They did it! A year without releasing an album must have been an eternity for King Gizzard. In their absence, psychedelic music has disappeared from radar screens – at least from Still in Rock’s radars.

• I do not recall a ranking of the best albums/tracks that was so dominated by such little-known bands. And yet, the big names have not disappointed. It is simply the creative destruction cycle at work, the Ty Segalls and Dwyers of tomorrow are gradually emerging.

Note: expect a very punk 2019 year from Still in Rock. The press praises this music – because it sounds chic – but takes no risks, never making any criticism of the industry. So I’ll take care of it.