Top 10 Worst Albums of 2018
10
James Bay - Electric Light
For this pop and singer-songwriter's sophomore album he delivers an atrocious mess of R&B, pop-rock and electropop. It's a blend that just doesn't work at all, with every song being more forgettable than the last. There is one massive standout and that's the song "Pink Lemonade" with its huge guitar riff and excellent production. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is completely different to this and utterly underwhelming. The mix is usually dreadful and there are far too many songs ruined by a persistent and frustrating chorus that backs almost every lyric and drowns out James's actually nice voice. This is an album to miss and forget.
9
Greta Van Fleet - Anthem Of The Peaceful Army
Yeah I get the appeal of the album, I get why people like it, I get Greta Van Fleet and what they're trying to do. Key word: Trying.
They are trying to bring back 70s and 80s hard rock, especially Led Zeppelin and their sounds, but a band has to deliver something new when creating something new, otherwise it isn't a progression from what's come before. With Greta Van Fleet, they have the voice and the instruments but they don't have the talent or the creatively to create anything with enough drive for me to be engaged. Their epic, extravagant riffs can be going on and I just don't care. When vocalist Josh lets out one of his howls I should be stopped in my tracks but I'm just not. There is no weight to these songs and nothing interesting is integrated into the old sounds. If they can't do anything differently to what's been done before, why not just listen to the bands they are so blatantly copying?
8
Lil Baby - Drip Harder
I wanted to avoid putting this on the list because of how worthless a listen it is but it keeps me annoyed just enough to hate it just enough to want to put it on this list.
SoundCloud rap and harsh trash, sorry, trap-rap is the genre and it sounds just like the majority of music in this vein; musically it's uninteresting and lyrically it's annoying and offensive. There's just not much more to say about it. The beats are generally blocky and hard but cheap and generic, the rest of the instrumentation almost always underwhelming or just insignificant in comparison to the beats, courtesy of the bad production. Lil Baby's rapping and flows are generally bad and don't hold up and did I mention that the lyrics are annoying.. And offensive?!
7
The Neighbourhood - Self-Titled
This is a tricky band, that's for sure. They've gone from releasing one of the most beautiful indie rock albums of the decade to releasing this abomination, an ambitious but lazy effort at blending indie, electropop and hip-hop together in one complete mess of an album.
You could say that the majortity of 2010s indie bands have gone in this same direction and that would be mostly unfortunately true but this particular album has got to be one of the worst ever. The synths are lifeless and repetitive, the vocals flat and boring, the instrumentals limited and forgettable and the atmosphere just werid and off throughout. There are so many songs here that just collapse and fail under their pseudo-serious guise. Honestly there are a couple of highlights like "Softcore" and "Void" but almost everything else is just atrociously bad music.
6
Maroon 5 - Red Pill Blues
Does a band this reliant on their producers and features really need seven members? The only true member is clearly Adam Levine and his appeal has long been redundant. None of the songs here are any good whatsoever and even with some of the most talented features, such as SZA, the songs are mediocre at best and crushingly boring. Why are people still listening to a 39 year old man singing the sort of teen pop that died over a decade ago? Repeat after me: We don't need Adam Levine in 2019!
5
Migos - Culture II
This album may not be as outright bad as some of the others on this list but it earns its place because of three key factors. #1 - This is the third album by Migos but it shows no progression or improvement from any of their older works. #2 - The general quality of songs is very low as almost every track sounds the same with their dull beats, flows and lyrics. Finally #3 - the extreme length of the album. There are 24 tracks and the total runtime is 1 hour and 45 minutes! That is far too long to be spending on one underwhelming rap album and really it's the deciding factor when considering the placement of the album. To actually listen through the whole of this you'd have to be asleep or very, very, very awake...
4
Eminem - Revival
This is another painfully long rap album but unlike Migos' it is consistently engaging - unfortunately that's because of just how bad it is. The lyrics and flows from this veteran rapper are simply disgusting. They're cheap, offensive, badly delivered and sound terrible, which could be said for the majority of this album. It may have tried to be Eminem's big comeback but it resulted in just proving that he's a rapper the world doesn't need anymore - some of the content is just unacceptable for anyone to be saying, especially in 2018. Though his followup album "Kamikaze" was an improvement, Eminem will never redeem himself from this album.
3
Thirty Seconds To Mars - AMERICA
This is an experience all right, just not the sort Jared Leto tried to sell it as. This album is undeniably one of the worst in recent memory.
The overblown lead single and album opener "Walk On Water" with its pumped up yet pointless feel is the best song here before the album takes a nosedive into unlistenable territory. The whole experience is just the worst pop-rock you can imagine, worse and more entitled than Imagine Dragons in every way. It panders to trends that Jared Leto as a 46 year old man should not care about but of course all Jared wants is relevance and popularity as always. Who would spent time on this, especially not on songs like "Dangerous Night" and "Hail To The Victor". It sounds like clichéd Thirty Seconds To Mars even just from the titles for goodness sake!
2
Pale Waves - My Mind Makes Noises
This is the most infuriating album the year for me in many ways, one I could rant about for hours and yet one I've not reviewed on my blog simply because I can't face listening to it ever again. How could someone that loves indie bands hate Pale Waves you might ask? Well...
Pale Waves are a Manchester fourpiece that have been making waves in the world of indie pop these past couple of years with singles like "Television Romance" and "There's a Honey", in my onion two mediocre songs that blatantly rip off The 1975's sound and aesthetic. This was followed by their debut EP and then debut album, "My Mind Makes Noises". Now, I'm all for discussing mental health in music but when Heather sings about it she just doesn't properly present the things she's going through. The lyrics are consistently overwritten and sacrifice meaning and deepness for pop whilst attempting to fein the meaning and deepness and get away with being a legitimate indie band. It isn't just the lyrics that feel restricted by pop, the instrumentation and production sounds too precise and is far too polished and predictable to be authentic. The album loses all that it strives to be by selling its soul to the pop machine at every turn - even the most personal songs don't hit hard as they should because of how obvious it is that they're copying The 1975's style. I don't want Pale Waves and I want them even less when sites like Dork are shoving them down my throat. Do they deserve a 5 star review? No.
1
Anne-Marie - Speak Your Mind
So... My least favourite album of the year. I hoped after the mediocrity of her early singles that Anne-Marie would fade away like so many other pop acts but instead she's turned around and released something really successful and just atrociously bad. There isn't a single good or great song on the album, they are all just basic pop songs, many with trap and EDM influences because it's trending, of course, and not one original sounding song. Try telling the difference between "Cry", "Alarm" and "Then" because I assure you it's difficult, near impossible even. The chords and structures are just so similar and the more I hear her voice the worse and less interesting it gets. I thought at first that she had some shred of unique personality but after hearing this album it sounds even less like that is true. The autotune is just so overdone and together with the manufactured lyrics and instrumentation she sounds even more like a lifeless robot. My least favourite song has to be "FRIENDS" and if you'd like to see me tear that one apart read my Worst Songs of the Year. It's a standout but not in a good way.
Overall, this album is a despicable piece of music that I hope I never have to hear ever, ever again. If you're curious of what I'd rate it.. It'd probably be a 0.5 out of 10.
Anyway, thanks for reading and making it to the end, I hope you are looking forward to the rest of my Year-End lists coming very soon!
8
Lil Baby - Drip Harder
SoundCloud rap and harsh trash, sorry, trap-rap is the genre and it sounds just like the majority of music in this vein; musically it's uninteresting and lyrically it's annoying and offensive. There's just not much more to say about it. The beats are generally blocky and hard but cheap and generic, the rest of the instrumentation almost always underwhelming or just insignificant in comparison to the beats, courtesy of the bad production. Lil Baby's rapping and flows are generally bad and don't hold up and did I mention that the lyrics are annoying.. And offensive?!
7
The Neighbourhood - Self-Titled
You could say that the majortity of 2010s indie bands have gone in this same direction and that would be mostly unfortunately true but this particular album has got to be one of the worst ever. The synths are lifeless and repetitive, the vocals flat and boring, the instrumentals limited and forgettable and the atmosphere just werid and off throughout. There are so many songs here that just collapse and fail under their pseudo-serious guise. Honestly there are a couple of highlights like "Softcore" and "Void" but almost everything else is just atrociously bad music.
6
Maroon 5 - Red Pill Blues
5
Migos - Culture II
4
Eminem - Revival
3
Thirty Seconds To Mars - AMERICA
The overblown lead single and album opener "Walk On Water" with its pumped up yet pointless feel is the best song here before the album takes a nosedive into unlistenable territory. The whole experience is just the worst pop-rock you can imagine, worse and more entitled than Imagine Dragons in every way. It panders to trends that Jared Leto as a 46 year old man should not care about but of course all Jared wants is relevance and popularity as always. Who would spent time on this, especially not on songs like "Dangerous Night" and "Hail To The Victor". It sounds like clichéd Thirty Seconds To Mars even just from the titles for goodness sake!
2
Pale Waves - My Mind Makes Noises
Pale Waves are a Manchester fourpiece that have been making waves in the world of indie pop these past couple of years with singles like "Television Romance" and "There's a Honey", in my onion two mediocre songs that blatantly rip off The 1975's sound and aesthetic. This was followed by their debut EP and then debut album, "My Mind Makes Noises". Now, I'm all for discussing mental health in music but when Heather sings about it she just doesn't properly present the things she's going through. The lyrics are consistently overwritten and sacrifice meaning and deepness for pop whilst attempting to fein the meaning and deepness and get away with being a legitimate indie band. It isn't just the lyrics that feel restricted by pop, the instrumentation and production sounds too precise and is far too polished and predictable to be authentic. The album loses all that it strives to be by selling its soul to the pop machine at every turn - even the most personal songs don't hit hard as they should because of how obvious it is that they're copying The 1975's style. I don't want Pale Waves and I want them even less when sites like Dork are shoving them down my throat. Do they deserve a 5 star review? No.
1
Anne-Marie - Speak Your Mind
Overall, this album is a despicable piece of music that I hope I never have to hear ever, ever again. If you're curious of what I'd rate it.. It'd probably be a 0.5 out of 10.
Anyway, thanks for reading and making it to the end, I hope you are looking forward to the rest of my Year-End lists coming very soon!
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