Best Albums of 2018 #1 Low – Double Negative

There was no definitive sound of 2018 – like the times that swirled around us all it was impossible to draw a straight line between pretty much anything, be it culture, politics, identity or music.

Equally if you’d suggested 12 months ago that the best record of the year would come from a trio of Minnesotans who’ve been shaking out their post-slowcore for nearly three decades  it might have seemed a ridiculous prediction even by the non standards of these times; and yet on Double Negative Low have made a thing of contemporary beauty.

There are few – if any – performers with such an extensive history who haven’t so much consciously reinvented but re-scoped their entire craft, using electronic patinas, hazy distortion and Alan Sparhawk’s longing incantations to create a set of songs remarkable enough to grab time and headspace amongst the jungle of our frenzied existence. In the riot of the new, Double Negative is the warmth and salvation of what we know, poignantly filtered through the things that should be care about.