Here are 25 records and 25 movies that have lit up 2018 for yours truly – all come highly recommended for the end-of-year cultural catch-up.

[NB. The records list excludes Merge releases and those I’ve personally been involved with.]

  1. Ariana Grande – Sweetener (Republic)
  2. Black Belt Eagle Scout – Mother of My Children (Saddle Creek)
  3. Bodega – Endless Scroll (What’s Your Rupture?)
  4. boygenius – boygenius (Matador)
  5. Boy Azooga – 1, 2, Kung Fu! (Heavenly)
  6. Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy (Matador)
  7. Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy (Atlantic)
  8. Colin Stetson – Hereditary OST (Milan)
  9. Flasher – Constant Image (Domino)
  10. Hayley Heynderickx – I Need to Start a Garden (Mama Bird)
  11. Iceage – Beyondless (Matador)
  12. IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
  13. Jon Hopkins – Singularity (Domino)
  14. Mitski – Be the Cowboy (Dead Oceans)
  15. Mount Eerie – Now Only (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
  16. Nap Eyes – I’m Bad Now (Paradise of Bachelors)
  17. Niklas Paschburg – Oceanic (7K!)
  18. Parquet Courts – Wide Awake (Rough Trade)
  19. Pusha T – DAYTONA (GOOD Music)
  20. Shame – Songs of Praise (Dead Oceans)
  21. Sidney Gish – No Dogs Allowed (self-released)
  22. Snail Mail – Lush (Matador)
  23. Soccer Mommy – Clean (Fat Possum)
  24. Thom Yorke – Suspiria OST [but definitely not the film itself] (XL)
  25. Tirzah – Devotion (Domino)

  1. A Quiet Place (dir. John Krasinski)
  2. American Animals (dir. Bart Layton)
  3. Avengers: Infinity War (dir. Anthony Russo and Joe Russo)
  4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
  5. Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler)
  6. Blindspotting (dir. Carlos López Estrada)
  7. Cold War (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski)
  8. Eighth Grade (dir. Bo Burnham)
  9. First Reformed (dir. Paul Schrader)
  10. Hereditary (dir. Ari Aster)
  11. Isle of Dogs (dir. Wes Anderson)
  12. Jeune Femme (dir. Léonor Serraille)
  13. Leave No Trace (dir. Debra Granik)
  14. Let the Sunshine In (dir. Claire Denis)
  15. Loveless (dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev)
  16. Mary and the Witch’s Flower (dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
  17. The Miseducation of Cameron Post (dir. Desiree Akhavan)
  18. Mission: Impossible Fallout (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
  19. Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
  20. Shirkers (dir. Sandi Tan)
  21. Shoplifters (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
  22. Sorry to Bother You (dir. Boots Riley)
  23. The Tale (dir. Jennifer Fox)
  24. Thoroughbreds (dir. Cory Finley)
  25. You Were Never Really Here (dir. Lynne Ramsay)