We'll leave it up to you - is the fact that we have seven best songs for 2018 a reflection that the year has been so flat that we couldn't find 10 songs for a year-end list, or was it so good that we couldn't contain ourselves to 5?
The truth, at least to us, is actually both. Let's face it, 2018 isn't going to be remembered as one of the great years for rock or other music. The indie renaissance of 2005-2015 is over, and rock music actually fell by the wayside this year as both pop music and hip-hop have ascended to the top of the charts. No "Best Of" list we've seen so far has convinced us yet that this year produced ten, or even five, albums we'll fondly remember 10 years from now.
Having said that, if your ears were wide open, it was still possible to find a lot of good music, just like it always has been and probably always will be. All music, without exception, is a direct expression of the buddha-dharma. You just had to dig a little deeper in 2018 than you did in, say, 2008, to reach that nirvana.
So, starting our list, here's our Number 7 for 2018. We'll venture to say that not too many people have been following Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, or that many were aware that they released an album early in 2018 called YRU Still Here, or that a second album was released last September called Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 featuring Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Tift Merritt, Sam Amidon, Syd Straw and Meshell Ndegeoeocello.
To be honest, we knew Ribot from his '80's work with Tom Waits (Swordfish Trombone, Frank's Wild Years, etc.) but sort of lost track of him after that until we ran into him at this year's Big Ears Festival. His Muslim Jewish Resistance is exactly the unapologetic protest song we needed in 2018, and he electrified the Big Ears audience both with that performance and with a syncopated rant in the middle of his set.
To be honest, we knew Ribot from his '80's work with Tom Waits (Swordfish Trombone, Frank's Wild Years, etc.) but sort of lost track of him after that until we ran into him at this year's Big Ears Festival. His Muslim Jewish Resistance is exactly the unapologetic protest song we needed in 2018, and he electrified the Big Ears audience both with that performance and with a syncopated rant in the middle of his set.
Ribot is clearly what the mainstream missed this year (and other years, too, to be sure) and exemplifies what can be found when one looks a little deeper than the surface.
We'll periodically post the rest of our Top Seven (or so) list over the remainder of the year.
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