The Best Albums of 2018

Noname has the best-reviewed major album of 2018

It's not often that a debut album lands at #1 on our year-end chart—depending on how you define "debut," it last happened in 2012 or 2007—but that is the case this year. After topping our list of 2018's best debut albums a few weeks ago, Noname's self-released studio debut Room 25 has repeated the honor on our list of all of 2018's albums, besting better known artists like Robyn, Kacey Musgraves, Janelle Monáe, and more. Shockingly, it's the first time in Metacritic history that a female artist has finished with the year's highest-scoring album (though Loretta Lynn missed by a fraction of a point in 2004).

Of the 513 new studio albums released in 2018 that have received at least seven reviews from professional critics, 168—or nearly 33%—received universal acclaim (with a Metascore of 81 or greater).That is up considerably from 2017's mark of 26%, and marks the fourth consecutive year that percentage has increased. That said, only one 2018 album with at least 15 reviews scored at least 90 (2017 had four such releases), and 2018 was the first time since 2013 that no album reached 95 or higher.

Which other artists impressed reviewers this year? Below is this year's final ranking of the best full-length studio albums (in Metacritic's database) released during 2018, as determined by their Metascores, which represent an average of all reviews by professional critics at the time of each album's original release. Note that live albums, reissues, EPs, compilations, and the like are excluded from this chart, though they are listed separately a bit further down this page.

The 40 best-reviewed albums of 2018 (min. 15 reviews)

... and the rest of the top 40:

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It	Buy It
11		Soil by Serpentwithfeet	87
12		In a Poem Unlimited by U.S. Girls	87
13		Cocoa Sugar by Young Fathers	87
14		Freedom by Amen Dunes	87
15		Isolation by Kali Uchis	87
16		Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides by SOPHIE	86
17		Heaven & Earth by Kamasi Washington	86
18		Double Negative by Low	86
19		A  Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships by The 1975	86
20		DAYTONA by Pusha T	86
21		All at Once by Screaming Females	86
22		Knock Knock by DJ Koze	85
23		Ordinary Corrupt Human Love by Deafheaven	85
24		Transangelic Exodus by Ezra Furman	85
25		I'm All Ears by Let's Eat Grandma	85
26		Hell-On by Neko Case	85
27		Astroworld by Travis Scott	85
28		Bloom by Troye Sivan	85
29		And Nothing Hurt by Spiritualized	84
30		Warm by Jeff Tweedy	84
31		Snares Like a Haircut by No Age	84
32		Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts	84
33		Hope Downs by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever	84
34		Invasion of Privacy by Cardi B	84
35		Singularity by Jon Hopkins	84
36		Sparkle Hard by Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks	84
37		All Nerve by The Breeders	84
38		Negro Swan by Blood Orange	84
39		Rebound by Eleanor Friedberger	84
40		Hunter by Anna Calvi	84

What about albums with fewer reviews?

Here is a look at the albums that received extremely positive reviews, but not enough of them to qualify for our list above. (In other words, consider them the year's best under-the-radar releases.) Albums on this list received 7-14 critic reviews. (Titles with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded from all year-end charts.)

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It	Buy It
1		Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It by Rolo Tomassi	92
2		Holy Hell by Architects	90
3		Safe In The Hands Of Love by Yves Tumor	89
4		Persona by Rival Consoles	88
5		POST- by Jeff Rosenstock	88
6		I Loved You at Your Darkest by Behemoth	88
7		Negative Capability by Marianne Faithfull	88
8		Cusp by Alela Diane	87
9		Cocoon Crush by Objekt	87
10		You Won't Get What You Want by Daughters	87

Albums released between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018 with 7 or more reviews (15 or more for the first chart) in Metacritic's database were eligible for inclusion. Reissues and other older material, EPs, live albums, holiday albums, greatest hits albums, multi-artist soundtracks, and other compilations are excluded from the above lists. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Albums are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding. All scores on this page are from December 21, 2018.

More bests and worsts

If you read the fine print under our list of high-scoring albums above, you noticed that reissues, compilations, live sets, and other album types were excluded from our best-reviewed albums charts (which are intended to include only new full-length studio albums). Here are the highest-scoring "disqualified" albums of the year:

Best-Reviewed Reissues, Box Sets, and Compilations of 2018 (Min. 7 Reviews)

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It	Buy It
1		The Beatles [White Album] 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Ed. by The Beatles	100
2		Girly-Sound to Guyville Box set by Liz Phair	99
3		Music from Big Pink 50th Anniversary Ed. by The Band	99
4		Electric Ladyland 50th Anniversary Deluex Ed. by The Jimi Hendrix Experience	97
5		Appetite for Destruction Super Deluxe Ed. by Guns N' Roses	95
6		Imagine: The Ultimate Collection by John Lennon	93
7		Cinema by Holger Czukay	93
8		More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 14 by Bob Dylan	90
9		Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album by John Coltrane	90
10		Roxy: Tonight's the Night Live by Neil Young	89

Thousands of albums are released each year, and most of those don't even make their way to reviewers; as a result, the vast majority of the awful albums recorded each year do not show up on Metacritic. However, there are always some major releases this year that fail to impress critics, and we now share with you the 10 disappointing albums receiving the worst reviews in 2018:

The Lowest-Scoring Albums of 2018 (Min. 7 Reviews)

Album/Artist			Score
1		DUMMY BOY by 6ix9ine	39
2		Skins by XXXTentacion	44
3		44/876 by Sting	49
4		Total Xanarchy by Lil Xan	49
5		Lil Boat 2 by Lil Yachty	50
6		Beerbongs & Bentleys by Post Malone	51
7		Nuthin' 2 Prove by Lil Yachty	52
8		Anthem of the Peaceful Army by Greta Van Fleet	53
9		Man of the Woods by Justin Timberlake	55
10		The Time Is Now by Craig David	56

What do you think?

What were your personal favorite and least favorite albums of 2018? Let us know in the comments section below, and don't forget to vote for your favorite albums of the year in our Best of 2018 User Poll. And for more of 2018's best albums, see which titles critics are including on their year-end top 10 lists, or view our list of this year's best debut albums.