buffalo-tom

Serving up our editors’ eclectic selections from the year’s musical smorgasbord, and looking toward their most anticipated releases for 2019.

Call it a sonic smorgasbord, a recorded cornucopia, a mélange of melody, an aural abbondanza.…

Well, you get the idea. There were a lot of great recordings released in 2018. And while hip-hop and country continued to rule the charts, the electric crackle of creativity came from all corners—including our guitar-centric sector of the musical universe. Veteran artists and relative newcomers rub elbows among our editors’ picks for best albums, from country to metal to skronk to alt-rock to classic reissues to world music to dreamscape portraiture.

What’s interesting—at least to us, and hopefully to you as well—is that there is literally no overlap among our choices. Eight editors, 20 different albums. And sure, while we enjoyed and shared the experience of listening to many of the same recordings, these are the ones that found a genuine place in our hearts. Maybe some of these titles have found or will find their place in yours as well?

So read on, and we look forward to seeing your own picks for 2018, and your wish lists for 2019, in the comments section. Oh yeah … and Happy New Year!

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From left, Buffalo Tom is Tom Maginnis (drums), Bill Janovitz (vocals/guitar), and Chris Colbourn (bass).
Photo by Lily Garceau

Seasoned and wiser, one of Boston’s finest early indie bands proves it hasn’t lost its step.

Back in the not-so-distant days of the late ’80s and early ’90s, when “indie rock” was called “college rock,” a music revolution was taking place across the U.S. And, arguably, its two main epicenters were on opposite coasts in Seattle and Boston. Staggering is an understatement for the breadth of talent and sheer number of artists breaking new ground with fresh sounds emerging from the two locales.

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