The end of another year means cold weather, holidays, family and friends, delayed flights, a new year, and of course, the onslaught of “Best Albums of the Year” lists that start to fill our newsfeeds. The Revive team has decided to do something a little different. Rather than a “Best of” list, we put our minds together for a playlist that spans what we listened to this year. Some of it’s from 2018, some of its not…in fact, some of it’s not even from this century. This isn’t the “Best of 2018.” This is the soundtrack to Revive’s 2018 as we heard it in real time.
Spanning everywhere from the newest of new releases to songs that have been classics since their 1960’s debut, this playlist covers a range of sounds we found ourselves listening to over and over this year. With phenomenal new releases from Makaya McCraven, Marcus Strickland, Braxton Cook, Esperanza Spalding, Kamasi Washington, and Ambrose Akinmusire, to name just a few, we included plenty of tunes that have exploded their way onto the scene in the past 12 months. We also tucked in some sleeper-hits we’ve found ourselves listening to on repeat — the debut albums of Yasmin Lacey and James Francies, or Nubya Garcia‘s new release come to mind. Some tunes sound straight from the Real Book, while others only hint at “jazz” in wisps. We weaved in some of our favorite recordings from a few greats we lost this year: Roy Hargrove, Aretha Franklin, and very recently, Nancy Wilson. Between it all are sounds that tie together what it means to be a part of jazz, hip-hop, neo-soul, and funk today.
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