We're just over halfway through 2018, and while many are reviewing this year's best releases, we're going to look a bit further back - to ten of the best 2018 tracks that you might have missed. It follows our list of top tracks from 2018 but focusses on some songs that might have escaped your earbuds. For your listening pleasure, and in alphabetical order, here are ten more brilliant tracks from 2018.
Bossy Love - 'Breathe'
Sean Paul is quite impressively playing Glastonbury Festival 2019 but roll back the years and you might recall his excellent collab with Blu Cantrell, 'Breathe'. A highlight of their live set, Bossy Love brought the early noughties track back to life, while reminding us of the good old days.
G Flip - 'About You'
Georgia Flipo's debut single in early 2018 as G Flip, 'About You', was as stunning a debut track as we'd heard for a long time. The minimalist opening of 'About You' accompanied by the Australian's bounding vocal was immediately arresting, and its electronic and percussive elements proved captivating.
Hippo Campus - 'buttercup'
The video for 'buttercup' dropped right at the start of 2018, following its appearance as the closing track on the debut Hippo Campus album, 2017's Landmark. An appropriately strong end of the promotional cycle for that album, 'buttercup' somewhat fell into the "sad banger" category with its dark lyricism, albeit wrapped in a sweetly sounding musical wrapper.
HONNE - '306'
Fair play to London duo HONNE for calling an old Peugeot 306 a "piece of shit" and still creating a song that feels like a magnificent and loving tribute to the vehicle. Even for us non-car fans. "Oh fuck it, let's go have fun." Quite.
Jonsi + Troye Sivan - 'Revelation'
Popstar Troye Sivan pulled a bit of a Will Smith by starring in 'Boy Erased' (alongside the likes of Nicole Kidman and writer-director Joel Edgerton) and teaming up with Sigur Ros' Jonsi on the film's lead single 'Revelation'. Which sadly had a very token appearance in the film itself. Led by beautifully understated piano melodies, this absolute tear-jerker of a track deserved much better.
Lykke Li - 'utopia'
Lykke Li's punctuation-missing/grammar-defeating album 'so sad so sexy' was one of the 2018's best, and closing track 'utopia' was the cherry on top. Featuring home video footage of the Swedish solo artist as a child with her mother, and as a mother with her child, its video was appropriately dropped on (US) Mother's Day.
STORME - 'Starlight'
From one Swede to another. It seems almost unreal to think that it was 2015 when we first mentioned a then-embryonic version of STORME led by Amanda Liedberg (and now Gabriele Mazza) and the project has steadily grown since. The magical opening of 'Starlight' gave way to a stomping (dare we say, storming) chorus for one of their best tracks to date. Very, very special.
Tennyson - 'Cry Bird'
There's something undoubtedly other-worldly about Canadian brother-sister duo Tennyson's twisting 'Cry Bird', led by its pick'n'mix of percussion. Admittedly, it takes a bit of an odd turn in its latter half moving down a more jazz-laden path. Almost as unexpected as the track being released on OWSLA, the label co-founded by Skrillex.
Vax + Sorana - 'Bubblegum'
Vax (not related to vacuum cleaners but yet more Swedes!) and UK singer Sorana's 'Bubblegum' bangs hard from the outset, and if this was only available on cassette then we would have probably broken the rewind button on this thirsty summer smash. We were definitely "begging for it" multiple times over, to borrow the track's go-to turn of phrase.
1010 Benja SL - 'Wind Up Space'
Okay, so 1010 Benja SL does sound a bit like it might have come from a website generating random band names but we can't dispute the quality of the operatic 'Wind Up Space'. The artist from Tulsa, Oklahoma attracted the attention of Young Turks, the London label that helped spearhead the emergence of The xx and will be hopefully having a similar effect on this jaw-dropping enigma, who has drawn comparison to Jai Paul.
For more of our favourite things from 2018, please click here.
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