Emm Gryner and Tracey Thorn are as good as any bookends to summarize my musical tastes: in 2018, the former offered yet another in a decades-spanning string of brilliant pop singles, “Imagination” tapping into the neo-psychedelic wonder of Wendy and Lisa (or, to cite someone less cool, prime Bangles); the latter, ex-(and future!) Everything But The Girl vocalist capping off her solo career-to-date with the sort of epiphany all too rare in modern pop: “Someone’s singing and I realize it’s me,” she discovers while spending an evening with friends, drinking, dancing and thriving on the “Dancefloor”.

Plenty of great, late-career triumphs this year: Neneh Cherry, Inara George (of The Bird and The Bee), Robyn’s return, Sam Phillips applying her timelessness to an ever-relevant problem, Chaka Khan still very much the dancing queen, even Paul Frickin’ McCartney, still good for one great song per LP. Some nifty discoveries too, like Tracyanne & Danny (first overheard in a Pier One Imports!), an isolated track from former Vampire Weekend member Rostam, queer odes to losing one’s virginity both jaunty (Ezra Furman) and euphoric (Troye Sivan), crisp, ‘80s-revival jangle-pop from (take a deep breath) Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and sharp ’90s-revival alt-rock from the awesomely-named The Beths.

An earlier version of this playlist spotlighted Eleanor Friedberger’s “Make Me A Song” with its simple, indelible hook of “I could love you more” and I could easily do the same for my favorite Lana Del Rey track, dropped nearly a year before it resurfaced on her 2019 album (also my favorite of hers.) However, I can’t deny Twin Shadow’s “Too Many Colors”, an alternate universe number one hit buoyed by a killer hook and a sparkling arrangement. The man also known as George Lewis, Jr. has since branched out into other sounds and influences (reggae in particular on Twin Shadow’s self-titled 2021 LP); I don’t blame him since “Too Many Colors” is a perfect distillation of his previous retro synth-pop aesthetic.

2018: This Gorgeous Mess

1. Emm Gryner, “Imagination”
2. Lana Del Rey, “Mariners Apartment Complex”
3. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, “Talking Straight”
4. Kacey Musgraves, “High Horse”
5. Sam Phillips, “American Landfill Kings”
6. Eleanor Friedberger, “Make Me A Song”
7. Neneh Cherry, “Kong”
8. Chaka Khan, “Like Sugar”
9. Inara George, “Slow Dance”
10. St. Vincent, “Fast Slow Disco”
11. Christine and The Queens, “The Walker”
12. Troye Sivan, “Bloom”
13. Paul McCartney, “Dominoes”
14. LUMP, “Curse of the Contemporary”
15. Amen Dunes, “Believe”
16. Sunflower Bean, “I Was a Fool”
17. Jessie Ware, “Overtime”
18. First Aid Kit, “It’s A Shame”
19. Janelle Monae, “Make Me Feel”
20. Gruff Rhys, “Frontier Man”
21. Twin Shadow, “Too Many Colors”
22. Florence + The Machine, “Patricia”
23. Calexico, “Music Box”
24. Rostam, “In A River”
25. Natalie Prass, “The Fire”
26. Lake Street Dive, “Shame, Shame, Shame”
27. Metric, “Now and Never Now”
28. The Beths, “Not Running”
29. Lord Huron, “The Balancer’s Eye”
30. Ezra Furman, “I Lost My Innocence”
31. Field Music, “Daylight Savings”
32. Robyn, “Ever Again”
33. Neko Case, “Bad Luck”
34. The Decemberists, “Once In My Life”
35. Tracyanne & Danny, “Cellophane Girl”
36. Tracey Thorn, “Dancefloor”