Every year I keep a playlist of the songs I have listened to a lot. These are not ranked in order of preference, and I don’t make any claim that these are all songs released in this year, but they are the soundtrack I have used for our families play, work, and occasional podcast outro. I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to spend more time with new albums by Kacey Musgraves, boygenius, or nearly enough hip-hop. Be that as it may, here is what my 2018 sounded like!

  1. Ring the Bells, JOHNNYSWIM and Drew Holcomb (whole album).
  2. So Tied Up, The Cold War Kids
  3. &Run, Sir Sly
  4. Shine On Me, Dan Auerbach
  5. Sit Next To Me, Foster the People (whole album)
  6. Way Up, Chris Howland (feat. CASS & Sajan)
  7. Feel It Still, Portugal
  8. Shoe Boot, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats
  9. Millionaire, Chris Stapleton
  10. Yellow Bike, Pedro The Lion (Looking forward to album release 2019)
  11. This Year, The Mountain Goats (2005)
  12. Cover Me Up (Live), Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
  13. Get Back Right, Lecrae
  14. Broken Headlights, Roscoe & Etta
  15. Galatians 2:20, The Welcome Wagon (whole album)
  16. We Labor Unto Glory, The Porter’s Gate (whole album)
  17. Grace Alone, The Modern Post
  18. World Without End, Greg LaFollette (whole album)
  19. Tyler Talks Back – I’d Rather Be A Dog, Allen Levi (whole library!)
  20. I Heard The Bells, Beta Radio (Christmas Album is great!)

Album of the Year: None! I can’t say I really had an ear-worm recommendation that everyone should at least listen too. I had a couple that I liked, a couple that I used in my personal times of worship, and a couple artists I will watch on in the future, but no album really was that defining piece of art that I usually identify with a certain year (past albums include, Jason Isbell’s, The Nashville Sound (2017), Switchfoot Where the Light Shines Through (2016)…etc.).

Honorable Mentions:

Goodbye Road – EP, JOHNNYSWIM & Drew Holcomb: Great five song EP with a haunting title track, a great solid cover of Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down, and one of my favorite songs of the year listed below.

The Book of Common Prayer – Greg LaFollette: Reflective worship that I have found helpful in my personal times worship.


Allen Levi’s music: A singer-songwriter with an amazing life story. Start by listening to the interview conducted with Levi on The Pivot, episode 042.