December 19th, 2018 5:25pm
2018 Survey Mix
Every year I make a survey collection intended to represent the scope and tone of music over the course of 12 months. This year’s survey comes in two forms: A sprawling 500+ song playlist that gives what I believe to be the most accurate summary of music in 2018, and an abridged version of the playlist that is half as long and more focused on my taste and what I believe to be essential, even when it’s music I don’t particularly like. The latter version is also available as a download, as per usual.
Here is the full version of the survey…
…and here is the abridged version.
One of the major goals I have in making these survey mixes, including the versions covering the 80s and the 90s, is showing the full context for music in any given year, and proving how even in what seems like a “bad year for music,” there are always still a lot of great songs. I would categorize 2018 as one of the worst years for music I’ve lived through, but then I look at this survey and see so much quality material! The culture around music may be depressing and oppressive right now, but you can’t ever stop artists from doing wonderful things. I hope you find more to love than to dislike in this year’s set.
DOWNLOAD PART 1
Lana Del Rey “Mariners Apartment Complex” / Soccer Mommy “Your Dog” / Taylor Swift “Delicate” / Ariana Grande “R.E.M.” / Gorillaz “Humility” / Playboi Carti feat. Lil Uzi Vert “Shoota” / Pusha T “If You Know You Know” / Valee feat. Jeremih “Womp Womp” / XXXTENTACION “Moonlight” / Travis Scott feat. Drake “Sicko Mode (Skrillex Remix)” / DJ Koze “Lord Knows” / Kanye West “Ghost Town” / Kids See Ghosts “Freee (Ghost Town, Pt 2)” / Jean Grae & Quelle Chris “Gold Purple Orange” / NoName “Self” / Smoke DZA feat. Joey Bada$$ “The Mood” / No Joy & Sonic Boom “Obsession” / Janelle Monaé “Make Me Feel” / Of Montreal “Sophie Calle Private Game/Every Person Is A Pussy, Every Pussy Is A Star” / Caroline Rose “Jeannie Becomes A Mom” / Miss World “Oh Honey” / U.S. Girls “Incidental Boogie” / Insecure Men “Mekong Glitter” / Drake “Nice for What” / Nicki Minaj “Chun-Li” / Cardi B “Bickenhead” / Sophie “Immaterial” / Red Velvet “All Right” / Amanda Shires “Eve’s Daughter” / Lucy Dacus “Addictions” / Zizi Raimondi “Folly Dolly” / Father John Misty “Mr. Tillman” / Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Solid Silk” / St. Vincent “Hang On Me” / Arctic Monkeys “Star Treatment” / The Internet “Come Over” / Anderson Paak “Smile/Petty” / Maggie Rogers “Fallingwater” / Twice “Deja Vu” / Shawn Mendes “Nervous” / Vince Staples “Don’t Get Chipped” / Jay Rock feat. Kendrick Lamar “Wow Freestyle” / Famous Dex “Japan” / Grace Vonderkuhn “Worry” / Teyana Taylor feat. Kanye West “Hurry” / Khalid feat. Swae Lee “The Ways” / Kali Uchis “Flight 22” / Me’Shell NdegéOcello “Sensitivity” / Adrian Younge & Linear Labs “Silhouette Dreams” / Jorga Smith “Lost & Found” / Amber Navran “Lastaya Love” / Charlotte Day Wilson “Doubt” / Ali Shaheed Muhammed & Adrian Younge feat. CeeLo Green “Questions” / Spiritualized “A Perfect Miracle” / Beach House “Pay No Mind” / Deerhunter “Death In Midsummer” / Kurt Vile “Bassackwards” / Makaya McCraven “The Newbies Lift Off” / Everything Is Recorded feat. Sampha, Ibeyi, Wiki, and Kamasi Washington “Mountains of Gold” / Tirzah “Do You Know”
DOWNLOAD PART 2
Earl Sweatshirt “Shattered Dreams” / Action Bronson “Prince Charming” / Ari Lennox “No One” / Diana Gordon “Wolverine” / Mariah Carey “A No No” / Natalie Prass “Short Court Style” / Caroline Says “Sweet Home Alabama” / Yo La Tengo “Polynesia #1” / Jerry Paper “Your Cocoon” / Okkervil River “Famous Tracheotomies” / The Rock*A*Teens “Go Tell Everybody” / Flasher “Pressure” / Jeff Rosenstock “Beating My Head Against A Wall” / Bad Bad Hats “Makes Me Nervous” / Astronauts, Etc. “Symbol Land” / Fog Lake “I’ll Be Around” / Gerard Way “Getting Down the Germs” / Karen Meat “Overdwelled” / Magic Potion “Shock Proof” / George Clanton “Make It Forever” / Mormor “Whatever Comes to Mind” / Electric Six “(It’s Gets) (A Little) Jumpy” / Margaret Glaspy “Before We Were Together” / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper “Shallow” / Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart” / Trippie Redd “How You Feel” / Hit-Boy “Out the Window” / Childish Gambino “This Is America” / N.E.R.D. feat. Rihanna and Drake “Lemon (Drake Remix)” / Camila Cabello “Inside Out” / Troye Sivan “My My My!” / Public Memory “The Line” / Matthew Dear “Echo” / Thom Yorke “Has Ended” / Lil Peep “4 Gold Chains” / Sheck Wes “Mo Bamba” / Smino feat. Mick Jenkins “New Coupe, Who Dis?” / Post Malone feat. Ty Dolla $ign “Psycho” / CupcaKKe “Duck Duck Goose” / Saweetie feat. Kehlani “ICY GRL (Bae Mix)” / CZARFACE & MF DOOM “Captain Crunch” / Cavern of Anti-Matter “Solarised Sound” / The Smashing Pumpkins “Solara” / Nine Inch Nails “Ahead of Ourselves” / Interpol “If You Really Love Nothing” / Negative Gemini “You Weren’t There Anymore” / Pressa feat. Lil Uzi Vert “420 in London” / A$AP Rocky “Changes” / H.E.R. “Can’t Help Me” / Kamasi Washington “Show Us the Way” / Christina Aguilera “Like I Do” / Georgia Anne Muldrow “Overload” / James Blake “Don’t Miss It” / Louis Cole “When You’re Ugly” / Jake Shears “Big Bushy Mustache” / Pistol Annies “Got My Name Changed Back” / MGMT “She Works Out Too Much” / Speedy Ortiz “You Hate the Title” / Robyn “Ever Again” / Anchorsong “Testimony”
DOWNLOAD PART 3
Metro Boomin feat. 21 Savage “10 Freaky Girls” / Kodak Black feat. Travis Scott and Offset “ZEZE” / Lil Wayne feat. Kendrick Lamar “Mona Lisa” / Tierra Whack “Cable Guy” / Doja Cat “MOOO!” / Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z “Lovehappy” / Ella Mai “Boo’d Up” / Nao “Another Lifetime” / Nadine “Pews” / Juice WRLD “Armed and Dangerous” / G-Eazy feat. Blac Youngsta and BlocBoy JB “Drop” / Oh Sees “Sentient Oona” / Car Seat Headrest “Cute Thing” / Lithics “Still Forms” / Cat Power “In Your Face” / Boygenius “Salt in the Wound” / Haley Heyndrickx “Oom Sha La La” / Jeff Tweedy “Bombs Above” / Neko Case “Hell-On” / Courtney Barnett “Hopefulessness” / Paul Simon “Can’t Run But” / Jeremih & Ty Dolla $ign “The Light” / DeJ Loaf feat. Leon Bridges “Liberated” / Dear Nora “Simulation Feels” / TV Girl “7 Days Til Sunday” / Phosphorescent “Around the Horn” / Julia Holter “Whether” / BLACKPINK “DDU-DU DDU-DU” / Grimes “We Appreciate Power” / Hobo Johnson “Peach Scone” / King Princess “Pussy Is God” / Lizzo “Boys” / Billie Eilish “When the Party’s Over” / 03 Greedo feat. Lil Uzi Vert “Never Bend (Remix)” / Esperanza Spalding “The Longing Deep Down” / Neneh Cherry “Kong” / Videotapemusic “Hot Pants in the Summercamp” / Cuco “Lover Is A Day” / Boy Pablo “Losing You” / Unknown Mortal Orchestra “The Internet of Love (That Way)” / Video Age “Pop Therapy” / Darwin Deez “The World’s Best Kisser” / Sales “White Jeans” / The Breeders “Walking with a Killer” / Rhye “Feel Your Weight” / Cherophobiac “Unknown Liquid Substance” / Eleanor Friedberger “Make Me A Song” / Sloan “Don’t Stop (If It Feels Good Do It)” / Guided by Voices “Colonel Paper” / Lil Uzi Vert “New Patek” / Lake Ruth “Julia’s Call” / Yaeji “One More” / Alison Wonderland “No” / Mildlife “The Magnificent Moon” / Sibille Attar “I Don’t Have To” / Haley “Bratt” / Joan of Arc “Punk Kid” / Born Ruffians “Side Tracked” / Nicholas Krgovich “Time” / Belle & Sebastian “Poor Boy” / Mazzy Star “Quiet, the Winter Harbor” / Ian Sweet “Question It” / PC Worship “Shell Power” / Friendly Fires “Heaven Let Me In” / Migos feat. Drake “Walk It Talk It” / Meek Mill feat. Miguel “Stay Woke” / Tune-Yards “Heart Attack” / Chvrches “Graffiti” / Imagine Dragons “Natural” / The 1975 “Love It If We Made It” / Weezer “Africa” / Maroon 5 feat. Cardi B “Girls Like You” / Panic! at the Disco “High Hopes” / Zedd feat Maren Morris and Grey “The Middle” / Rita Ora “Anywhere” / Mitski “Me and My Husband” / Halsey “Without Me” / Carly Rae Jepsen “Party for One” / Dierks Bentley “Woman, Amen” / Florence + The Machine “South London Forever” / Kacey Musgraves “Slow Burn” / Luke Bryan “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset” / Ed Sheeran & Beyoncé “Perfect Duet” / Snail Mail “Heat Wave” / Lake Street Dive “Jameson” / Molly Burch “Wild” / BTS “Fake Love” / Mac Miller “Self Care” / 6ix9ine feat. Nicki Minaj and Murda Beatz “FEFE” / Logic feat. Wu-Tang Clan “Wu-Tang Forever” / Brockhampton “New Orleans”/ Ellie Goulding feat. Diplo and Swae Lee “Close to Me” / Aphex Twin “T69 Collapse” / Sharon Van Etten “Comeback Kid” / Crepes “As You Go” / J. Cole “Brackets” / Tyler, the Creator “OKRA” / Rich the Kid “Plug Walk” / The Alchemist feat. Westside Gunn and Conway “Judas” / King Tuff “Raindrop Blue” / Ty Segall “The Main Pretender” / Swae Lee “Hurts to Look” / Ashley Monroe “Hard On A Heart” / Christine and the Queens “Doesn’t Matter” / Amen Dunes “Blue Rose” / Saba feat. Chance the Rapper “Logout” / The Good, The Bad, and The Queen “Merrie Land” / Leon Bridges “If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be)” / Rico Nasty “Rage” / Metric “Love You Back” / Justin Timberlake “Midnight Summer Jam” / Rosalia “Malamente” / JPEGMAFIA “1539 N. Calvert” / Zayn “Let Me” / Bell’s Roar “You Call Me Cold”
12/20/18 4:01 am
George says:I really wish you would make a truly condensed version of these surveys. Do you have any data suggesting people actually listen to a 100 ( let alone 500) song playlist? I respect your taste but I simply don’t have the time.
12/20/18 4:46 am
CWK says:Matthew –
Thank you again – I look forward to this every year and I am never disappointed. I appreciate the time and reflection that it takes to put this (and the other mixes) together.
Here’s hoping that you have a great new year –
CWK
12/20/18 1:42 pm
Matthew says:George, to condense any further would be to defeat the entire purpose of the project. If anything, it should be longer. It’s not meant to be heard all together, you’re supposed to jump around and skip things based on your own taste.
12/20/18 4:02 pm
Ken says:Thanks Matthew – been following your blog for years and always look forward to your annual survey. With loss of college radio (though Denver area, we are lucky that our NPR franchise has a channel devoted to the college sound) and of Songza it is much harder to be able to hear new music. Thank you for your service!
12/20/18 8:31 pm
GG says:Always look forward to these year end mixes, awesome way to reflect on the year in music! High hopes for 2019 too, some highly anticipated releases indeed.
Thanks, and keep up the great work
12/21/18 12:16 am
Mark says:Huzzah! I look forward to this every year. I love how extensive it is. I add all of the songs I don’t know and hit shuffle for the year.
BTW, any chance for a ’70s survey mix?
12/21/18 3:08 am
Kris says:Thank you for this Matthew – I always look forward to your year end survey. Can’t wait to explore this list over the holidays!
12/21/18 10:27 am
Paul says:thanks once again.
12/21/18 8:18 pm
Rafael says:One of my favorite Christmas presents, thanks to you I have expanded my music listening experience many, many fold. Thank you for the mix. Happy holidays and new year.
12/22/18 10:31 am
Jesse says:Thanks for yet another incredible survey, Matthew. I’m not terribly juiced into what’s “now” in the culture anymore, but this is always a great way to check out things I overlooked during the year. Keep it going, and…hell, make it bigger in 2019. I listen to it all!
12/22/18 2:08 pm
Liz says:Thanks for this! To sort of answer George’s question, I do always download this. Like you said, Matthew, I don’t listen all the way through right away, but I put the mp3s in itunes on my desktop, which I almost always leave on shuffle while I’m reading or doing other things around the house, so I end up hearing a lot of it and coming back over to the desk to say “wait, what’s this?” Alternately, often when I’m reading other year-end lists (and beyond), I come across a song or artist I’m not familiar with, search my itunes, and there it is from your survey!
So, maybe not exactly how you envision people using this, but much appreciated in my own way!
12/24/18 4:54 pm
Matthew says:It’s meant to be helpful in any way people use it!
12/23/18 3:39 pm
Chuck says:I too love these annual surveys and have relied on them for several years to learn about dozens of new artists I missed. Thank you for taking the time to assemble them. One question — your intro says this is a 500+ song playlist, but when I download the three parts, I only see 236 files. Am I missing something?
12/24/18 4:54 pm
Matthew says:Yes, you are missing the 500+ song spotify playlist that is in the post above all of that.
12/24/18 4:33 pm
Jonathan says:Always a year-end highlight! Thanks, Matthew!
Do you plan on posting an Apple Music playlist version like you did last year?
12/24/18 11:02 pm
Steve says:Haven’t listened to a single song yet but I KNOW I’ll find treasures within, because I HAVE…every year for the past decade or so!
(Whomever it was that complained about not having enough time to listen to the surveys…how on earth are you doing this? TIP: DL all the mp3s, put them on your [phone/iPod/subcranial electroports] and spend a few weeks with them! Resolve not to delete ANYTHING until you’ve given it at least two chances! I can’t tell you how many winners I’ve discovered after an initial “nah.”)
Happy New Year folks!
1/4/19 12:27 am
Sean says:Thanks for the playlist. I’ve been listening and picking my way through for songs to add to mine. I was just listening to the song by Cuco, “Lover is a Day” and at first, going by the picture of the guy and the song, I thought it was a Sean Lennon thing, and I’m like why is he doing an Of Montreal kind of song on slow speed? And then I thought of how John Lennon got some of his best jams by speeding up the slow ones, “Please, Please, Me” “Revolution”. And he should do that. To a lot of his songs, just to see, because I don’t know how much Sean Lennon you listen to, but the beautiful boy stays tastefully chill. But it wasn’t him. Fair enough mistake. I liked the song. Not, almost 9 minutes long liked it, but I was glad to be introduced. Point is, thanks for giving me a pile of songs to dig through and experience and enjoy.
1/4/19 11:48 pm
Amber says:I look forward to these year end reviews every year! I’ve hooked so many people on to this blog on the strength of the year end reviews alone. The 80’s and 90’s reviews are top notch as well!
1/11/19 3:12 am
Michael G. says:Belated thanks!
I’ll add that even in your surveys of the eighties and nineties when I was following new music pretty closely I have found excellent new songs that I missed (or more likely turned my nose up at) the first time around.