Top 20 Indie Albums of 2018 – Immersed in Cool Music Countdown #15 – #11

Here we go with my second installment of immersed in cool music’s top 20 albums of 2018 countdown, 15-11. Some amazing music…check it out!

15. Camp Cope – How To Socialise And Make Friends

Packed with rage and serious swagger, Camp Cope expresses a wild emotional field of sound. The raw vocal talent of Georgia Maq and her savage ability to scream then hush her voice to a quiet whisper, makes this album stand out and deserve serious respect and love. It is indie-rock with punk at the core. Camp Cope are true activists and voices for women everywhere with a serious conviction for equal rights and refusing to compromise their values. A welcome album to accompany your inner rage about the direction the world is going. There is everything right in shedding a spotlight on every wrong, no matter how menial it seems. Camp Cope speaks truth with a determined cry.

14. Haley Heynderickx – I Need To Start A Garden

Heynderickx has lovely tender vocals paired with mastered guitar work, providing a stingingly subtle but powerful zap to your heart. Her music is an expressive reminder of the fragility of life on earth and all of its sensitive inhabitants. She has the ability to zero in on and point out the curiousness of all the things we tend to take for granted. Her observations are exquisite and have a profound charge. It breathes much needed oxygen into an industry which could use a bit of resuscitation. An emergency tissue might be needed for a light dabbing of those leaky eyes while listening. 

13. Caroline Rose – Loner

Loner is an album packed with humor and wit while freely dealing with darker subjects. Caroline Rose has a gift of highlighting the absurd in song, and simultaneously capturing your ears with catchy hooks and fun riffs. The album speaks for itself, but her accompanying videos bring her hilarious sarcasm to vivid life. An adventurous album with a poppy beat and anthemic choruses, it packs so much, providing plenty to peel back and enjoy on every listen.

12. LUMP – LUMP

LUMP expresses a transcendent connection between the beautiful brooding soundscapes of Mike Lindsay and Laura Marling’s wry lyrics and vocal finesse. The album has a continuous background murmur of instruments and/or soothing chorals. The synth murmurs connect each song like the background score of an intense dream. The album’s composition is wrought with complicated twists and turns helping the listener to sonically escape into a soothing imaginary world.

11. Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog

Frances Quinlan’s soulful, edgy vocal mastery is combined with guitar driven melodies, and musically packed with texture and lush arrangements. The album explores the misuse of power and our need to question it and watch for it. Each song provides snippets of stories and personal observations, all a bit interwoven and complicated, but sorted out with intimate rhythms that unfold nicely. It is an album jam to be savored and explored, like the forest Quinlan painted on the album cover. A forest which is an inviting place for sure, but can also be a bit awe-inspiring in its expansiveness, much like the breath of this album.

Ooops, almost forgot my updated playlist…