Artists' rankings

I'd like to thank the editorial staff for this kind invitation. It was a pleasure to look back at what I listened to over the past year, which, while not exactly memorable (much in line with the other post-"Kid A/Amnesiac" years — in my view the last generational masterpieces in pop/rock), still gave us a few nice surprises. First and foremost, the sumptuous "Dead Magic" by Anna Von Hausswolff. An album of real depth and musical craft, in which I hear ideas and atmospheres dear to sacred monsters like Dead Can Dance and Swans reshuffled with real personality. Worth noting is the young age of the artist (being 30 today is a bit like being 20 in 1977) at a historical moment when quality pop still seems to be firmly in the hands of the "grand old men" (among the best releases of the 2010s, who wouldn't point to the latest records by Scott Walker, Swans, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Iggy Pop?). Among the high points of a prestigious year's output, "Double Negative" by Low was the other big protagonist: inspired, intense and innovative.

It's hard to choose between the usual playful explosiveness of Ty Segall, the moving sensitivity of a genuine outsider like Micah P. Hinson, the timeless class of Thom Yorke tackling a film score for the first time (the track "Suspirium" is a brushstroke worthy of his greatest masterpieces), the post-punk freshness made in UK renewed by Shame, the energetic return of Disciplinatha, now Dish-Is-Nein, the multifaceted effervescence of Parquet Courts, and the darkest yet most refined ambient-drone of Zenjungle, a project I actually discovered in the pages of OndaRock.

So I preferred to put together a list of the best things I savored in music in 2018, without forcing it into too rigid a ranking. Time, in any case, will be the only true judge.

ALBUMS

Anna Von Hausswolff – Dead Magic

Low – Double Negative

Dish-Is-Nein – Dish-Is-Nein

Ty Segall – Freedom's Goblin

Shame – Songs Of Praise

Micah P. Hinson –When I Shoot At You With Arrows, I Will Shoot To Destroy You

Parquet Courts – Wide Awake!

Zenjungle – Fragment Lives

Thom Yorke – Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino film)

Senketsu No Night Club – Senketsu No Night Club

Current 93 – The Light Is Leaving Us All

The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land

Paul McCartney – Egypt Station

Sieben – Crumbs

Spiritualized –And Nothing Hurt

Preoccupations – New Material

Il Lungo Addio – Tutti Nuotammo A Stento

Dead Can Dance – Dionysus

Nine Inch Nails – Bad Witch

Underworld & Iggy Pop – Teatime Dub Encounters

TRACKS

Suspirium (Thom Yorke)

Ugly and vengeful (Anna Von Hausswolff)

Dancing and blood (Low)

Nera (Varunna)

Catch it (Iceage)

The Key of Freedom (Dish-Is-Nein)

Merrie Land (The Good, The Bad & The Queen)

Bells & Circles (Underworld & Iggy Pop)

Disarray (Preoccupations)

Murdrum (Liars)

MUSIC BIOGRAPHIES/ESSAYS

Fabio Zuffanti – Battiato. La voce del padrone. 1945-1982. Nascita, ascesa e consacrazione del fenomeno (Arcana)

Giovanni Rossi – Tu meriti il posto che occupi. La storia dei Disciplinatha (Tsunami)

Antonello Cresti – Solchi sperimentali kraut. 15 anni di germaniche musiche altre (1968-1983) (Crac) 

DVD

Non cercarti fuori – Docufilm su Juri Camisasca (Regia di Francesco Paolo Paladino)

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15/11/2025