Welcome to our Best of 2018 series, in which we explore the year’s best albums, songs and extended plays.
Albums aren’t dead. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. In 2018, albums certainly mean different things to different people, but if you’ve been kickin’ around B-Sides & Badlands long enough, you’ll know all too well how much we admire and relish a cohesive, story-driven body of work. It doesn’t matter the genre; a good album is a good album. Now that the year has officially hit the middle mark, we are taking stock of the year’s best music. At the bottom, we’ve got a handy-dandy playlist for optimum convenience.
Below, B-Sides & Badlands has chosen the 30 best albums of 2018…so far.
Brandy Zdan, Secretear (buy)
Genre: Rock
Label: Tallest Man Records
Rocker Brandy Zdan (formerly of The Trishas) keeps her heart close to the chest with her sophomore record, Secretear, a Spanish word which roughly translates to “whisper” or “to talk secretively,” hammering home the album’s general beat, drawing lines between intimate relationships that have gone down in flames and her own enlightened self-love. “Cold and knocked out on the floor / The fears are always at my door / All that I hide kept me up in the night,” she sings on “Secret Tears,” bruised and caked over with fractured electric guitar. She wields her voice in splintered reverence, a stormy quiet branded in a furiously dire mental state. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Ronnie Eaton, The Hand That Mocked Them and the Heart That Fed (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Independent
Ronnie Eaton, originally from Post, Texas, just south of Lubbock, draws upon his personal life for a concept album titled The Hand That Mocked Them and the Heart That Fed, which illustrates a marine’s return home after war and inevitable conflicts with family, friends and himself. Initially intended as a collection of acoustic-style demos, the meager nine-track record reverberates off the narrator’s tortured memories, needled through stark production choices, mostly of guitar, oscillating drums and penetrating piano chords. Producer Aaron Dick (who also plays keyboard throughout) slams the listener with subtly, exchanging shrill rock uppercuts for gentle swerves and refined layering. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
The Winter Sounds, Maximum Reality (buy)
Genre: Pop
Label: Logica Sonica Music
Maximum Reality, based specifically on German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “conception of god (ens realissimum) being all realities, including actuality, in perfection, the ‘most real’ being,’” is welded with a “broad emotional spectrum of the last four years” and a crude stylistic adventure. Lead single “Heartbeats” is fused with metallic horn blasts, a finitely-polished hook and a florescent but cinematic undertow. Meanwhile, lead singer Patrick Keenan tip-toes dexterously between indie-rock and alt-pop, his bawling lower register glueing it all together, throughout the rest of the record. The Winter Sounds carry with them a magnificent resolve to examine other imperative philosophical themes inside various spellbinding musical honey pots. “Four Summers” goes down like twilight’s fleeting radiance, leading into the folk-spiral of “Nineteen,” dream-like and foggy; meanwhile, “Real Life is Hard” bends and dips around a jolly throwback groove, brooding on what life actually means. – Jason Scott
Ruby Boots, Don’t Talk About It (buy)
Genre: Blues/Rock/Country
Label: Bloodshot
Ruby Boots wields a steely gaze. Fists clenched. Heels planted squarely. A firestorm rages around her, but she never flinches. Instead, she digs in even more, poised and reserved. She’s waiting for the right moment to strike, and when she does, illustrated magnificently on her sophomore album, Don’t Talk About It, it is with precision, fearlessness and wisdom. Like many women before (and certainly after) her, Boots reveals a tale of heartache mercilessly, situating her voice around fevered alt-country, which bounces between stripped traditionalism, gutsy honky-tonk and unnerving indie-rock. “I am a giver / I’ll give you all that you need / No shame in the taking / Take every part of me,” she sings on “I Am a Woman,” a calming but affecting hymnal that serves as “the backbone of the album,” as she puts it. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour (buy)
Genre: Country
Label: UMG
Comprised of only 13 songs, Kacey Musgraves’ third album Golden Hour makes for a cohesive record that is encompassing of her musical talent. The magic of Golden Hour lies in how easy each song is to digest while still managing to be conceptually and lyrically beautiful, a simple lyric such as “You give me butterflies” followed by use of the word “chrysalis” or a love song that compares a relationship to the inexplicable wonders of the world keeps the record intelligent but genuine. Additionally, Kacey boasts her knack for melody writing on songs such as “Velvet Elvis” and “High Horse,” which will keep you from taking the needle off the record due to their addictive nature. – Galvin Baez
Erik Dylan, Baseball on the Moon (buy)
Genre: Country
Label: Independent
Erik Dylan is a modest singer, painting with clarity and precision and allowing the words to culminate in a vivid, breathtaking landscape. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and that forthright approach hangs ceremoniously onto his songwriting. “You know I wear my heart on my sleeve / Under a flannel shirt and this factory / Like my daddy did and his dad before / Building trains and planes and welding things through every single war,” he sings on “Funerals & Football Games,” unmasking a song that not only depicts the brutality of adulthood but also scratching into the roles of parents and their children. Dylan’s reflections of life and death, the ephemeral that gives us glee or nightmares, ebb and flow throughout Baseball on the Moon, which Dylan self produced, along with Paul Cosette as tracking engineer and Chad Carlson on mixing. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Big Little Lions, Alive and Well (buy)
Genre: Folk/Pop
Label: Far Flung/Blaster Records
The world is in shambles, and while everyone is fleeing, even the leader of the free world, Big Little Lions gallop directly into the fire. With their third studio album, Alive and Well, the folk-pop pair ⎯⎯ Helen Austin and Paul Otten ⎯⎯ maneuver to rally the world for one common objective: the resistance. Embellished with their classically-warm pop veneer, which often borrows from the Peter, Paul & Mary textbook, the 13 tracks wield a genius juxtaposition of acute songwriting and jaunty, chewy arrangements. With every turn, they are steely-eyed and determined, allowing the spew of venom to slide off their skin like oil. “I’d walk a mile in your shoes,” they avow in glossy grandeur with “Come This Far,” and then “Our Turn” fuels their resolve to never give up, never give in. “Broken” depicts their exhaustion with humanity, a fragile composition adorned with trembling piano and tight-bound, haunting harmony work. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Halo Circus, Robots & Wranglers (buy)
Genre: Pop
Label: Independent
Halo Circus ⎯⎯ founded on Allison Iraheta’s bone-crushing vocals and Matthew Hager’s striking harmonies and their joint warped production ⎯⎯ turn their furious gaze to the millennium. Robots & Wranglers, a dichotomy of images and notions, from the metallic savagery of machines and screens to the wasted echo of humanity, levels up on musical ambition. Previously, the two musicians handled the pop-rock hybrid (2016’s Bunny) and Americana-fluffed tunes (2017’s The East Lansing Sessions EP) with extreme precision. Their scope was almost magical. Bred amidst political, social and economic upheaval, the meager eight-song project rushes by in the blink of an eye, as Iraheta and Hager wager our downfall on technology’s exponential growth and utilize electronic-framed excursions as their new home base. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Courtney Marie Andrews, May Your Kindness Remain (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Fat Possum Records
Courtney Marie Andrews, who also rises out of the Arizona dirt from a city called Phoenix, just over 100 miles away from Linda Ronstadt’s birth place, cultivates a sprawling, thimble-pierced set with May Your Kindness Remain, a timely reminder never to discard our humanity. Trapped inside a pressure cooker of cultural, social and economic affairs, aggravated by fake news, photo shop hoaxes and disastrous policy changes, Andrews’ withering southern drawn and adept song craft offer a bit of solace, sun-baked from years of endless highway blacktops, grimy dive bars and couch hopping. She wraps her caramel-smattered voice around blazing torch ballads, often weighted with generous doses of misery. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Hayley Kiyoko, Expectations (buy)
Genre: Pop/R&B
Label: Atlantic
The LGBTQIA community’s “lesbian Jesus” rose to the occasion for her debut album, Expectations. Boasting singles from both last year and this year, the record is filled with rebellious power-pop and queer anthems that make for great additions to any pride party playlist. This collection of songs is not only special because of the high quality pop that is being provided but also because of Hayley’s fresh and necessary point of view. We expanded on the impact Hayley Kiyoko’s debut album has already made on our list of the most impactful LGBTQIA albums of the decade, so head over there to read about how Expectations will go on to become a blueprint for queer women in music. – Galvin Baez
Kasey Chambers, Campfire (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Essence Music Group
With her 12th studio album, Campfire, Kasey Chambers draws upon her own convictions from the barren and remote locale of the Australian outback for a set of deeply-moving testimonials, bred within the flames of a roaring, brilliant flame. The singer, songwriter and vocalist invites the listener into her circle, joined by her trusty and ragged band of players, who go by The Fireside Disciples. The performances are rather granular, organic and firmly planted in the earth’s rich shell. The soil has been well trodden by many pioneers and weathered foragers before them, but there is a certain magic Chambers casts into a swirling, witchy cast-iron pot. Her warble is as frighteningly heart-rending as ever, particularly when she weighs love’s violent force. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Gin Wigmore, Ivory (buy)
Genre: Pop/Alternative
Label: Island Records
Gin Wigmore could not have asked for a better visual representation of the album’s 12 groove-inflected tracks, which are so visceral, at times rather gutting, that it’s as if she is re-staging a Trump Era hellscape, timeless and boundless. “It’s not what you say or do / It’s all the many ways that you break us,” she sings on “Odeum,” soaked in spacious vocal distortion, calibrated as an “open letter of sorts to the misogynist that still believes it’s okay to act so poorly towards women,” she explains. Note for note, Wigmore is a monstrous storyteller. Her fearless intent is evident right from the start. Ivory is a merciless, explosive and altogether blistered pack of confessionals. Wigmore is nearly always manic, triumphing over misogynistic handlers who vowed to break her spirit in the most bloody of ways. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
R. Finn, Collecting Trip (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Heritage Recording
Singer and songwriter R. Finn supplies his own reflections of folk tradition, having mounted a makeshift collecting trip for his new record, aptly titled Collecting Trip. Over the span of 10 years, his journey is a bit more intimate, centered on personal heartache, pain, loss and observations of the world. “Life is just a lonely street / So, shake the dust off of your feet, and roam / Go it alone,” he describes on honky-tonk blues ditty “Lonely Heart Blues,” front-porch swingin’ with horns and saloon-style piano crescendos. “Come and go just as you please / Drink of all life’s pleasantries and get stoned / Go it alone.” Collecting Trip weaves in and out of pivotal moments of Finn’s life, from glistening delusions of grandeur (“The Show Must Go On”) to witnessing horror and absence of truth on the evening news (“God is on Vacation”). [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Inara George, Dearest Everybody (buy)
Genre: Folk
Label: Release Me Records
That day lives buried in her bones. “I live off the earth,” Inara George warbles quite serenely, in between crinkles of paper on “Crazy,” excavating the day her father, Lowell George, founding member and frontman of Little Feat, died ⎯⎯ for one last glance, a final adieu before settling into the middle years of her own life. Dearest Everybody is her first solo record since 2009, an intimately-hewn, lovingly-scrawled farewell letter to her father, whose story remains “sweetly intertwined with mine and yours and mine,” she parses on “Everybody,” its delicate edges twisted and broken against the swell of guitar. “I’ll just keep living and dying and living,” she holds steadfast, not in mourning but wiping the cracked tears away and looking up into the the wide, pool-like eyes of her three hopeful children. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (buy)
Genre: R&B
Label: Bad Boy Records
The saga continues on Janelle Monae’s third album, Dirty Computer, where her unique brand of futuristic soul brings us a delectable and introspective body of art. The Electric Lady brings a range of issues from equality to political corruption to the forefront and unabashedly bangs open the gates with her funky electric guitars and legendary collaborations (Brian Wilson? Zoe Kravitz?) to make these important conversations happen. Despite the social struggles brought to light, Dirty Computer is a celebration of all things black, queer and female with Monáe informing us that we’re all dirty computers at the end of the day. Chances are that if you didn’t enjoy this record, it’s not for you. – Galvin Baez
Fickle Friends, You Are Someone Else (buy)
Genre: Pop
Label: Polydor Records
Natti Shiner, who fronts synth-pop troupe Fickle Friends, doesn’t have anything to prove. She’s a fearless daredevil, navigating the toxicity of a music industry and her own mind with acrobatic precision. “In My Head,” packing on the heart-throbbing misery, opens up her excursions through the haze and torment of mental health. It’s a sobering and downcast and rather strained ballad, allowing Shiner to expose every laceration. “She,” “Hard to Be Myself” and “Paris” heave out a similarly evocative mood, plastered on the inside of her skull and filtered through frigid modulations and sending a remarkable subtlety to the veins. Then, such standouts as “Glue,” “Wake Me Up” and “Hello Hello” rely heavily on Cyndi Lauper-eschewed rhythms and melodies, hooking your eardrums like a rainbow trout lurking in the shadowy depths, fated for something greater. “Heartbroken,” allegedly about the band’s record label pulling them into tired circles, is the crown jewel ⎯⎯ owed in large part to Shiner’s cheeky vocal inflections and the beat’s pummeling drive. – Jason Scott
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Years (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Bloodshot
Sarah Shook is a locomotive engine barreling down the scorched and rusted tracks, full-steam ahead, of some abandoned mid-western town. Her lyrics are tempered in steel casings, conserving musings on pain, regret and lonesomeness. An LGBTQ+ figure, Shook has more guts than most, as you’ll hear on “Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don’t” and “New Ways to Fail,” in which a relationship sends her into an emotional spiral (“I need this shit like I need another hole in my head,” she hisses). Underneath her tough exterior, she has a heart that beats just as our own, and she bares those inner-workings with songs like “Parting Words,” “The Bottle Never Lets Me Down,” “Over You” and “Heartache in Hell.” Simply put: Years is an exemplary collection, a true Americana original. – Jason Scott
Birds of Chicago, Love in Wartime (buy)
Genre: Americana/Blues
Label: Signature Sounds Recordings
JT Nero and Allison Russell, known together as Birds of Chicago, splice together the cultures of the world on their new album. Love in Wartime is a thoughtfully-produced and lovingly-approached set of songs, aimed to offer up hope, comfort and warmth in today’s crumbling state of affairs. “Roll Away” is a sublime and triumphant rollick, glued together with soul guitar and a gospel-sewn melody. Russell’s voice is reliably smooth, while Nero’s is rather reedy and penetrating. “Travelers” is a thunderous depiction of the world’s many peoples, pinned with cured percussion, and “Baton Rouge” sticks on the brain. The record is altogether enveloping, a rush to the cheeks, sending goosebumps up and down the backbone. – Jason Scott
Rae Morris, Someone Out There (buy)
Genre: Pop
Label: Atlantic
There is something so downright magical about Rae Morris’ voice, which tip-toes between soaring grandeur and jarring, skin-pierced intimacy. Someone Out There, igniting with the searing and raw “Push Me to My Limit,” rumbles between glistening, static-fused synths (“Reborn,” “Atletico”) and heavenly soul-pop (“Wait for the Rain,” “Physical Form”). Morris’ fragility is the adhesive, extended and pushed to the limit, where her emotion snaps and explodes in blissful, extraordinary splendor. “Do It” is the pinnacle, mingling crisp but crackling production with a fevered, impish melody. But make no mistake, her second album is a euphoric ride from top to bottom. – Jason Scott
Charlie Puth, Voicenotes (buy)
Genre: Pop
Label: Warner
If you had told me that some of 2018’s most well-crafted pop melodies would be coming from Los Angeles’ own Charlie Puth, I would not have believed you. But here we are with Voicenotes, a collection of thirteen pure pop earworms that are guaranteed to get stuck in your head all day. Not only that, but each of these tracks were 100% produced by the new radio prince which begs the question, is Charlie Puth eligible to save pop? If you need to hear his qualifications, please refer to the ’80s synth-pop production on ”BOY,” the new wave sensations on “Somebody Told Me” or the success of deserving singles “How Long,” “Attention” and “Done for Me.” – Galvin Baez
Amanda Brown, Dirty Water (buy)
Genre: Blues/Pop/Rock
Label: Independent
Amanda Brown is a ferocious and fearless woman. Her long-awaited debut record, Dirty Water, is hewn with insight about her life, riddled with emotional strife, worry over raging police brutality and the weight of what life really means. “Out of her body, but she’s settled in her bones / Dancing for strangers when she thinks she’s alone,” she sings on “Take Your Pill,” lifting a mask of unruly insecurity clawing at her heart. In turn, she self-medicates with foreign toxins, which pump through her veins and funnel out even more of her worth. “Glutton for Punishment” digs further into “how I saw myself at the time,” she says, switching gears with a hard-boiled folk song. “How many times have I walked to the river on the East Side wiping tears away as the wind hit my eyes?” she ambles to the water’s edge, her reflection staring back at her, lonesome pools hollowed out by misery and heartache. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Bend Sinister, Foolish Games (buy)
Genre: Pop/Rock
Label: Cordova Bay Records
Out of Vancouver, Bend Sinister capture lightning in a bottle with their 10th studio record. Foolish Games scours the edges of pop and rock music, polished with commercial slathers and manufactured with real instruments between a wall-to-wall of swift electronic coats. “Shannon,” the definitive entry in their catalog, marries Beach Boys with early-00s punk-rock, resulting in a violent and brilliant fist-punching anthem. “Gang of Wolves” decorates arena-rock guitars with frenzied and tense synths, congealing the song’s massive eruptions, and “Reaction” puckers with new-wave. “Got Your Back” swerves as a startlingly expressive piano-founded mid-tempo, later heightened with their classic guitar chords and frosty harmony work. The sheer musical scope of Foolish Games is marvel of its own, and just think: they’re really just hitting their stride. – Jason Scott
Laura Benitez & the Heartache, With All Its Thorns (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Copperhead Records
When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840, she wore white not as a token of her purity but because she loved the color. It was a simple gesture but one which sparked a trend spanning centuries. A white wedding dress signifies commitment, adoration and virtue ⎯⎯ attributes which are stripped and varnished in the very capable hands of Laura Benitez & the Heartache, who rearrange the solemn symbol of piety into a staggering and boozy revenge fantasy. “In Red,” aching with pedal steel from Ian Sutton, electric and acoustic guitar from Bob Spector and chilling drums from Steve Pearson, cuts into the skin, as Benitez recounts the day she (stepping in as narrator) kills her husband. Playing on red stains on a white dress ⎯⎯ from wine in the first verse to his oozing blood in the last ⎯⎯ Benitez stitches together one gruesome story-song, which serves as a prominent fixture of the band’s third studio album, With All Its Thorns. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Gretchen Peters, Dancing with the Beast (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Scarlet Letter Records
Amidst a flurry of grim solitude, which serves as a shattering reflection of real life, Gretchen Peter’s new album is gilded with softness, almost hopeful in its savory nuances. “Wichita,” named one of our Best Songs of 2018 So Far, is entrenched in southern gothic folklore, a story song about a young girl’s murderous revenge, and signals the comprehensive tone of the record. “Disappearing Act” sketches a woman who’s lost too much to care about appearances, a grisly but gorgeous moment; “Lowlands” is a reaction to the ghastly 2016 presidential reaction, a harsh reality we can’t escape; and “Truckstop Angel” sees her choking on regret. Seven albums deep now, Peters continues sacrificing bits of herself to write such stunning and profound portraits of mankind in exhaustive, radical detail. – Jason Scott
ionnalee, Everyone Afraid to Be Forgotten (buy)
Genre: Pop/Alternative
Label: To whom it may concern.
In a darker and more haunting fashion, Swedish concept artist Jonna Lee announced her return to music under her new pseudonym, ionnalee. The project first unveiled with the release of the incredible lead single “SAMARITAN” which set the thematic tone for what EABF would go on to convey throughout the 15 tracks that compose it. Everybody’s Afraid to Be Forgotten finds ionnalee sharing her side of the story, discussing the aftermath of her success under the “iamamiwhoami” name and how the pressure set by fans and critics proved to be overwhelming. Accompanied by a film, the hour-long visual explores the idea of heavy expectations as persecution, a heavy statement about how artists in pop are treated. Let our artists breathe! – Galvin Baez
Caitlyn Smith, Starfire (buy)
Genre: Americana/Blues
Label: Monument Records
Caitlyn Smith cuts her teeth on the best songwriting of her career with Starfire, whose embers are effervescent and keep her vocals warm and feathered. “This Town is Killing Me” unravels the weight of being a working musician in Nashville, lost and forlorn to her own devices just to make ends meet, and “Scenes from a Corner Booth at Closing Time on a Tuesday” is a raspy and devastating snapshot of a diner in middle America. Smith’s perspective is striking and beautiful, fashioned from an outpouring of despair. “Before You Called Me Baby” is a soul-pop detonation, where songs like “Cheap Date” and “Tacoma” are hushed and incisive. – Jason Scott
Genre: Pop
Label: 604 Records
Mathew V’s fractured memories haunt him; his heartache swelled in his chest, ultimately cracking bone and nearly tearing him apart. He depicts his triumphant release from heartache with “Broken,” a heavenly potion of candied dance-club euphoria. “My heart’s no longer breaking / And my ground, it won’t be shaking,” he whispers into a raging sea of rippling handclaps before vocal distortion pounds outward. It’s the satiating primer of The Fifth, his debut LP, which often trembles with firmly-rooted gospel roots, weaving between barn-burning melodies and Mathew V’s colossal and moving vocal. “Save My Soul” is an unholy baptismal, turning to the Sam Smith-level “Let Me Go,” complete with a ghostly backing choir. Even his cover of Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” is enchanted and inspired. – Jason Scott
Ross Cooper, I Rode the Wild Horses (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Independent
Ross Cooper‘s third record, the ragged and dusty I Rode the Wild Horses, fits quite snugly next to such a refined and perceptive wordsmith as Chris Isaacs. Coincidentally, Cooper was born and bred in a rodeo family himself and spent many years as a bronco rider, and he assembles those experiences into one hearty, western-styled, spitfire record, frequenting open ranges, rodeo corrals and tucked-away honky-tonk bar tops. He’s a son of the road, wearing that distinction in sheepish braggadocio on his jacket. His cowboy hat sits cocked on his head, but he’s not arrogant; he’s simply stating truths as they are. “The old stomping grounds are all stomped out for all the slow-rolling tumbleweeds,” he paints nonchalantly on opener and titular cut, the jangle of drums and guitar clinking in the dust at his feet. Cooper’s illustrations are as easy as they are lush and cinematic, merging traditional, campfire cowboy music, tales of wily temptations, swift heartbreaks and feeble recoveries, with ingenious modernisms. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Sonia Leigh, Mad Hatter (buy)
Genre: Pop/Rock
Label: Willing to Fly Music
“I’m obsessed with the moon. I often climb up onto my roof in Nashville and have a drink, stare up, and have a think,” mettlesome singer-songwriter Sonia Leigh ruminates about her deep fascination with the hanging orb. Leigh’s “Walking in the Moonlight” then is a magical, romantic excursion, laced with subtle edge, and its flickering, buoyant production paints a luminescent and mystical mood. Mad Hatter is an aggressive collection of troubled confessions, pushing her craft to the edge and beyond, almost abandoning her country roots for a bolder, rawer and more ambitious posture. Leigh is cursed, and she finds herself often in the clutches of the Devil, who intends to drag her further into the fires of Hell. [Full review here] – Jason Scott
Karen Jonas, Butter (buy)
Genre: Americana
Label: Yellow Brick Records
Karen Jonas’ voice is as smooth as the butter sizzling and melting on a cast-iron skillet. Her new record Butter is a foolhardy, ambitious and artery-clogging set that doesn’t skimp on the brine, biting and bitter. “Oh Icarus” borrows it’s dream-sailing title from the Greek figure Icarus, efficiently handled in between flairs of horn and acoustic guitar, and Mr. Wonka, embellished with Chocolate Factory bleeps and blips, entertains a story about an industry gatekeeper who promised her the world early on in her career. “My Sweet Arsonist” heeds the traditional world in style and approach; concurrently, “Kamikaze Love” feels the most contemporary, carved, smoked and blurred with electric guitar shimmer. – Jason Scott
Honorable Mentions: SASSAFRAS! by Tami Neilson; By the Way, I Forgive You by Brandi Carlile; Ghost of You by Megan O’Neill; See You Around by I’m with Her; Ruins by First Aid Kit; Girl Going Nowhere by Ashley McBryde; and Forever by Bonnie Montgomery.
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