More Than Just Slacking Off: The Best Indie Rock Of 2018

I kept this list short and sweet for mainly one reason. This year was inundated with Indie Rock. So much so that I noticed when this list was longer all the albums toward the end of the list all started to blend together. Indie Rock is a very insular genre with very few people going beyond what I'll call "The Matador Blueprint". This is phenomenon I have noticed where musicians within the Indie Rock realm seem to be heavily influenced by 90s Indie Rock that the record label Matador helped popularize. This means usually a 3-5 piece with a vocalist, bassist, drummer and 1 or 2 guitarists. Synths may be sparingly used but mostly are not. There is very little experimentation. There is also a slacker mentality present in both the music and lyrics. Basically this is a long way of saying that the bands who do this kind of thing end up all sounding the same. Below are the bands who added a little bit of flair to their common Indie Rock sound. Therefore I am recognizing the Indie Rock musicians who put a little more effort in than the usual Indie Rock band. Now don't get me wrong those bands and those albums aren't horrible by any means. Those bands just weren't as interesting as these. Enjoy!!!

1. Ezra Furman-Transangelic Exodus(Bella Union)

2. Goat Girl-Self Titled(Rough Trade)

3. Rock*A*Teens-Sixth House(Merge)

4. Dumb-Seeing Green(Mint)

5. Parquet Courts-Wide Awake!(Rough Trade)

6. Caroline Rose-Loner(New West)

7. Courtney Barnett-Tell Me How You Really Feel(Mom+Pop/Milk/Marathon)

8. Hen Ogledd-Mogic(Weird World)

9. Frog Eyes-Violet Psalms(Paper Bag)

10. Mitski-Be The Cowboy(Dead Oceans)

11. Superchunk-What A Time To Be Alive(Merge)

12. Car Seat Headrest-Twin Fantasy(Matador)

13. Earth Girl Helen Brown-Four Satellites Vol.1(In The Red/Empty Cellar)

14. Laura Jane Grace And The Devouring Mothers-Bought To Rot(Bloodshot)

15. Ohmme-Parts(Joyful Noise)

16. Young Jesus-The Whole Thing Is Just There(Saddle Creek)

17. Ovlov-Tru(Exploding In Sound)

18. Cursive-Vitriola(15 Passenger)

19. Jo Passed-Their Prime(Sub Pop)

20. Tony Molina-Kill The Lights(Slumberland)