Alternative Press's 50 Best Albums of 2018

Following their meteoric rise from suburban Sydney teens to one of the biggest rock bands in the world, 5 Seconds of Summer took a two-year break to focus on growth—as both musicians and people. The result is *Youngblood*, their third and most daring album to date. Full of anthemic choruses and big, bold sounds—buzzing guitars, gated drums, slick \'80s-production sheen—this is the boys aiming for the rafters. But they counterweigh that with lyrics that are as intimate as ever, pining for a lost love on \"Want You Back,\" keeping secrets on \"If Walls Could Talk,\" and promising teddy bears and eclairs on \"Valentine.\"

Disease is a painstaking, riff-driven examination of the unshakable throes of depression. While there are moments of positivity, this isn’t the sound of triumph. This is music about survival.

With an extraordinary voice and gale-force choruses, the artist born Sarah Grace McLaughlin casts a dazzling spell for her Pandora’s box of a debut album. As Bishop Briggs, a name she took after the Scottish town from which her parents hail (and to help avoid confusion with a certain Canadian folk-pop legend), the singer/songwriter earned her spurs on a musical journey that moved from London to L.A. via Tokyo. The result is sophisticated pop that calls forth bombastic, gothic-folk romance (“River”, “White Flag”) and bassy hip-hop grooves (“Hallowed Ground”).

What pushes Fall Out Boy after all these years is being open to change. *M A N I A* is filled with unexpected delights. “Young and Menace” drops steep breakdowns, vocal manipulation, huge drums, and an “Oops!... I Did It Again” interpolation into a confetti cannon. Even the most fervent fan won’t see “HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T” coming, with the guys locking into a tropical groove. “Champion” and “The Last of the Real Ones” are classic FOB: Patrick Stump’s proud, keening voice, catchy choruses, and heart and mind hurtling together toward the finish. Stump’s inner soul man comes out on “Heaven’s Gate” and “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes),” the latter blessed with the most perfect lyric: “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.” *M A N I A* is aptly titled, a riot of electronic pop and rock, color and conviction.

In 2017, Boston-area metalcore outfit Ice Nine Kills kicked off their fifth album cycle with the release of the single "Enjoy Your Slay," which was inspired by classic psychological-horror film The Shining (and even featured Kubrick's grandson Sam). A year later, they followed with the propulsive "The American Nightmare," an ominous ode to '80s horror series A Nightmare on Elm Street. Much like 2015's Every Trick in the Book -- which was based on classic works of literature -- the band revealed that this horror film theme would fuel an entire concept album: The Silver Scream. Arriving just in time for Halloween in October 2018, The Silver Scream found the band fully embracing their passion for horror by crafting 13 tracks inspired by 13 movies, such as Friday the 13th (the melodic brutality of "Thank God It's Friday"), Saw (the soaring "The Jig Is Up," featuring Finch's Randy Strohmeyer), and The Crow (the haunting "A Grave Mistake"). Additional guests include Stranger Things' Chelsea Talmadge on the sweeping An American Werewolf in London "ballad" "Love Bites"; INK's founding co-vocalist Jeremy Schwartz reuniting with the band on the Jaws number "Rocking the Boat"; Tony Lovato of Mest on the Edward Scissorhands anthem "The World in My Hands"; and Less Than Jake hornsmen JR Wasilewski and Buddy Schaub alongside Fenix TX vocalist Will Salazar on the riotously disturbing It send-up, "IT Is the End." Devilishly fun, appropriately campy, and indulgently satisfying for fans of both heavy music and scary movies, The Silver Scream expertly combines Ice Nine Kills' passionate execution with a dark sense of humor and love of pop culture on their strongest, most melodic, and enjoyable effort to date.

Like hearing a stranger overshare on the bus, it\'s impossible to ignore Juice WRLD\'s laments. On his major-label debut, and the first of just two full-length albums released before his passing December 2019, the Chicago rapper processed a nasty breakup by plunging into the depths of his grief and regret. Much like Lil Peep, who also passed away at age 21 two years earlier, he uses emo and trap as primary tools, with blown-out, sing-song Auto-Tune vocals accompanied by depth-charge beats and spare guitar. He lashes out on tracks like “All Girls Are the Same” and “Lucid Dreams” (“I was tangled up in your drastic ways/Who knew evil girls have the prettiest face?\") and numbed the pain with intoxicants and dark nihilism (“Candles,” “Hurt Me”), but ends on a hopeful note on “I\'ll Be Fine” (“Too busy making money to worry \'bout making memories”).

In January, LANY frontman Paul Jason Klein went through a bad breakup. Like, really bad. To heal, and maybe also to escape, he wrote the band’s sophomore album in just a few weeks. \"Way too much whiskey in my blood/I feel my body giving up,” he croons on the aching title track. “Can I hold on for another night? What do I do with all this time?” Even though LANY stands for Los Angeles New York, their sound has always felt distinctly Californian: big hooks, warm chords, and plenty of reverb. Trading their youthful ebullience for heart-on-sleeve despair (“Thru These Tears”), the band has never sounded more polished or grown-up. Producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, The 1975) is partly responsible; he adds a retro synth-pop glow to songs like “Thick and Thin” and “I Don’t Wanna Love You Anymore.” The best part, though, is that Klein hasn’t lost his signature optimism. By the time we get to “Valentine’s Day,” he’s putting himself back out there.

On their sixth album, Floridian pop-punk mainstays Mayday Parade strike a deft balance between heartbreak and humor. The upbeat “Never Sure” and singalong chant “Piece of Your Heart” offer the former, while emo anthems “It’s Hard to Be Religious When Certain People Are Never Incinerated by Bolts of Lightning” and “Looks Red, Tastes Blue” cover the latter—or at least their titles do. Meanwhile, the ballad “Stay the Same” and emotional acoustic title track underscore a wistful feeling that runs throughout the album.

Sixth studio album from Mayday Parade.

Theatricality has long been a part of Panic! At the Disco’s DNA. But following a 10-week run playing entrepreneur Charlie Price in *Kinky Boots* on Broadway, Panic!’s lone full-time member, Brendon Urie, has infused his unique brand of emo-pop with renewed song-and-dance-man vigor. Each track feels humongous, swirling with strings and shiny horns and topped with Urie’s now theater-tested voice. “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” and “(Fuck A) Silver Lining” are on par with PATD’s most grandiose hits, while “High Hopes” and “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” take inspiration for their brassiness from Urie\'s mother (“Mama said, ‘It’s uphill for oddities/Stranger crusaders ain’t ever wannabes’” goes one memorable line). Even the piano-and-strings ballad “Dying in LA” radiates enough charisma to reach the top deck.

He’s been labeled a hip–hop artist, but as the song says, Post Malone is a rockstar too. His second album regales fans with tales of the hedonism and excess that 2016’s astoundingly popular *Stoney* afforded him. The *beerbongs & bentleys* universe is one of partying, girls, money, and Saint Laurent clothes, but he makes no secret of the downsides to success. Money is everything—except true happiness, and this tenderness adds a dark depth to his addictive songs. This album, like his previous releases, proves that Post holds the recipe for the perfect chart-topper: a wild lifestyle, exceptionally catchy melodies, and the ability to fit Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and heartfelt acoustic ballads alongside fiery features from Nicki Minaj, YG, and 21 Savage.

With their seventh album, screamo stars Senses Fail deliver a nostalgic triumph in the sing-along style of their 2004 debut—and revered post-hardcore milestone—*Let It Enfold You*. For the first time, vocalist and sole original member Buddy Nielson wrote all the songs himself, tackling the American opioid crisis on the life-affirming \"New Jersey Makes, the World Takes,\" examining the foibles of consumerism on the hard-charging \"Gold Jacket, Green Jacket...,\" and offering an anthemic reflection on the band\'s own history with \"Double Cross.\"

“I’m making pop records,” The 1975 frontman Matty Healy told Beats 1 host Matt Wilkinson. “When I say we’re a pop band, what I’m really saying is we’re not a rock band. Please stop calling us a rock band—’cause I think that’s the only music we *don’t* make.” It’s a fair comment: Thanks to their eclecticism and adventure, attempting to label The 1975 has been as easy as serving tea in a sieve. On their third album, the Cheshire four-piece are, once again, many things, including jazz crooners, 2-step experimentalists and yearning balladeers. What’s most impressive is their ability to wrangle all these ideas into coherent music—their outsize ambition never makes the songs feel cluttered. “I hate prog, I hate double albums, I hate indulgence,” said Healy. “I hate it when the world goes, ‘Hey, you’ve got our attention!’ and someone goes, ‘Right, well, if I’ve got your attention, how many guitar solos…’” Crucially, Healy’s lyrics add extra substance to—and bind together—the kaleidoscope of styles. On the neo-jazz of “Sincerity Is Scary,” he rails against a modern aversion to emotional expression. Broadly an album about love in the digital age, *A Brief Inquiry…* offers compelling insights into Healy’s own life. “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” provides an unvarnished account of his heroin addiction, while “Surrounded By Heads and Bodies” draws on his experiences in rehab and “Be My Mistake” examines guilt and compulsion. “Honestly, you can look at your work and be like, ‘What did I do there that someone likes?’” he said. “Me, when I’m, like, really personal or really inward, really honest, that’s when I get the best reaction.” Introspection needn’t breed a somber mood though. From the tropical pop of “Tootimetootimetootime” to the spry electro-indie of “Give Yourself a Try,” this is an album full of uplifting, melodic rushes. “My favorite records are about life,” said Healy. “It may be a bit of a big thing to say, but I like the all-encompassing aspect of life: You can have these bits, the sad bits, but don’t leave the dancing out, you know what I mean?”

Serving as a follow up to 2017’s critically acclaimed I Don’t Like Being Honest EP, When My Heart Felt Volcanic is a collection of songs that exhibits confidence and polish that belies their young years.

'Master Volume' is released in September via Dine Alone Records. Want a physical copy of this album? Visit www.dinealonestore.com/collections/the-dirty-nil

Thrice has announced a September 14th release date for their new album Palms. The album is the first Epitaph release for Thrice, who are widely regarded as one of the most innovative rock bands of their generation. Co-produced by Thrice and Eric Palmquist and mixed by John Congleton, Palms encompasses everything from viscerally charged post-hardcore to piano-driven balladry. The most sonically expansive album so far in the band’s 20-year-history, Palms follows the critically acclaimed To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere (released via Vagrant Records in 2016).

Trophy Eyes’ third album forsakes their hardcore past for a brighter mixture of punk, rock, and pop. For all the album\'s softer moments, however, frontman John Floreani’s reflections on his history of drug abuse and violence make for a harrowing lyrical ride. After moving from Australia to Texas, he found that the physical and mental solace of his new surroundings provided him with a greater perspective on his past. The confessions continue with themes of addiction and self-loathing (“More Like You”), suicide (“Something Bigger Than This”), and the passing of youth (“Autumn”), making *The American Dream* the most personal and solemn Trophy Eyes album yet.

On their second album, young hardcore heroes Turnstile slice, dice, and defy genres at every turn. Leadoff ripper \"Real Thing\" cranks a turbocharged riff against melodic backing vocals and a loungey piano outro, while \"Generator\" spins a Helmet-esque groove into a psych-grunge bridge and hyper-metallic guitar solo. Bassist Franz Lyons takes over for frontman Brendan Yates on the soaring staccato groove of \"Moon\" (which also features subtle backups from Sheer Mag\'s Tina Halladay) and \"Right to Be,\" which boasts spacey production from Diplo.

Having vaulted to new heights with 2015’s *Blurryface*, followed by nearly two solid years of touring, twenty one pilots were in need of a break. Recorded primarily in the band’s Columbus, Ohio, studio during a yearlong public silence, their fifth album *Trench* picks up where the band left off in both sound and subject, exploring rugged emotional terrain in a style by turns cathartic and cryptic. If *Blurryface* was, as Tyler Joseph told Beats 1 host Zane Lowe, a “mirror” for his insecurities, *Trench* is a place where he could go to regain control—or, as he puts it on the tender, album-closing “Leave the City”: “But this year/though I’m far from home/In trench I’m not alone.” What continues to resonate is Joseph’s ability to turn his personal pain into shared experience, his inner dialogue into public art. “Surrounded and up against a wall,” he sings on the disco-ish “My Blood,” “I’ll shred ’em all and go with you.” Whoever he might be talking to (his fans, his wife, his friends), you get the sense the words double as a promise to himself. “I never would have turned to music if I didn’t feel like I need to change or cope with something,” he told Beats 1. “I was perfectly fine before music, and then something happened where I just felt a buildup of some sort. I didn’t know how to decompress that and to have an outlet for it—I was forced to learn how to play the piano.”

“Take me to the darkness/Hang me out to dry,” implores Underoath vocalist Spencer Chamberlain over the chiming keys and propulsive beat of “Rapture,” a particularly infectious track from the band’s first album in eight years. Embracing their shadow selves after disbanding in 2013, *Erase Me* finds the Floridian post-hardcore outfit reemerging with a kinetic set of pulsing pop anthems (“Wake Me,” “In Motion”), torrid industrial grooves (“Hold Your Breath,” “On My Teeth”), and soaring power ballads (“Ihateit,” “I Gave Up”), each amplified by expertly wielded electronics.

On their second album, the Aussie punk-pop band leaves teenage-crush stories behind, following blink-182’s and All-American Rejects’ paths in creating emo-tinged pop filled with stadium-ready hooks. Jayden Seeley’s vocal fry is gone, replaced by growing sophistication that extends thematically; There’s less, “she’s gone and I’m bummed” and more, “she’s gone but I’ll be better for it.” Tracks like “That Something,” “Moving Boxes,” and “Jaded” feel custom fit for the Warped Tour faithful, yet, unlike their darker-leaning contemporaries, With Confidence keep their chins up, especially on “Pâquerette,” a gentle ballad that’s a worthy heir to “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s.

On *21st Century Liability*, the adventurous Yorkshire artist takes the sounds bouncing in his head (electrified pop, ska, and hip-hop) and creates chart-friendly chaos. The songs leap from the speakers, YUNGBLUD lording over them like a mad professor with a handsome drawl. The title track stomps like “So What\'cha Want” Beasties, even vocally simulating a DJ scratch (you\'ve got to hear it to believe it). “I Love You, Will You Marry Me” lets his romantic side flex over an upbeat electro-ska groove. Yet it\'s the poignant “Polygraph Eyes”—a stern commentary on date-rape culture—that stands out the most; behind YUNGBLUD\'s wild, up-for-whatever persona beats a caring heart.