The 10 Best Albums of April 2018
Our favorite records included Speedy Ortiz, Neil Young, Kali Uchis and more.
Photo: Getty Images
Now that it’s almost over, we’re getting nostalgic for the great new records released this past month, from vintage live collections (Neil Young) and the latest from living legends (Willie Nelson) to debuts from across the globe (Busan, South Korea’s Say Sue Me). In April, we also met a fresh new face in pop music (Kali Uchis, pictured above) and went a little bit country (Ashley Monroe, Joshua Hedley). It was a diverse month here at Paste, but a fun one, too. Check out our 10 favorite albums from the past 30 days.
10. Okkervil River: In the Rainbow Rain
Rating 7.8
Ambition has never been in short supply where Okkervil River are concerned. Band leader Will Sheff has found inspiration in all manner of seemingly unrelated subjects, from the struggle with substance abuse that plagued folk singer Tim Hardin to the recollections and relationships nurtured in the tiny New Hampshire hometown where he was raised. With Sheff and his colleagues rarely appearing unwilling to take a wholly inward glance, the band’s emphasis on illuminating melodies is a constant, even though the music’s been occasionally tempered somewhat by evocative emotion and winsome reflection. In the Rainbow Rain offers plenty of both, with songs such as “Human Being Song,” “Love Somebody,” “Family Song” and “Famous Tracheotomies” being especially striking in that regard. —Lee Zimmerman
9. Speedy Ortiz: Twerp Verse
Rating 7.8
Sadie Dupuis and her bandmates (Mike Falcone on drums, Darl Ferm on bass and Andy Moholt on guitar) have a knack for pairing sugary hooks with chaotic musical accompaniment, resulting in a push-pull effect that is occasionally disorienting and just as often exhilarating. Dissonant lead guitar careens through opener “Buck Me Off,” as if playing all the right notes in the wrong key, and Dupuis’s catchy melody on “Moving In” floats through a dense wash of spiky guitars and crashing drums. More noisy guitars wander in circles around her voice on “Backslidin’,” and the music lurches so much between stops and starts on “Lean in When I Suffer” that it’s easy to lose track of the melody. The melody is definitely there, though. —Eric R. Danton
8. John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness
Rating 8.2
With The Tree of Forgiveness, John Prine’s first album of all-new material in 13 years, the 71-year-old songwriter doesn’t miss a beat, doling out material that highlight every facet of his still-underrated talent. “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door” and “Egg & Daughter Night, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone)” deliver Prine’s sly, homespun humor. The first, a song about a lonely man looking for some neighborly attention, delivers it with a win. His talk of laundry on the line, a can of pork and beans, and a family that left him “With nothin’ but an eight track / ‘Another Side of George Jones’” are made light by an upbeat acoustic rhythm and a nosey-neighbor attitude. The second is a charmer that intercuts the nostalgic memories of the big night when farmers would bring their eggs (and their pretty daughters) into town, with a frequent allusion to a “crazy bone” that makes men do mischievous things—the kind of excusable naughtiness that is usually accompanied by an embarrassed, half-scolding, half-laughing, “Grandpa!!” —Madison Desler
7. Joshua Hedley: Mr. Jukebox
Rating 8.2
With his voice as centerpiece, Joshua Hedley spends all of Mr. Jukebox exploring the basic forms of his chosen field. Most of these songs are about love, or more precisely, the end of love. “Counting All My Tears” is a classic heartbreak ballad built on a subdued piano part and embellished with choral vocals. Harmonica and tic-tac bass color “These Walls,” a paean to a stumble-home bar by “a man who can’t move on” from a woman. In “This Time” and “Don’t Waste Your Tears,” on the other hand, it’s the man who’s ending the relationship. But that’s where the similarity ends: the former is a twangy traditional country song, while the latter brings a heavy dose of steel guitar and high string-section drama. —Ben Salmon