Year-End Lists

Jon Pareles: 10 Best Albums of 2018, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2011]

1. Dirty Computer
   Janelle Monáe
2. Be the Cowboy
   Mitski
3. soil
   serpentwithfeet
4. 12 Little Spells
   Esperanza Spalding
5. Broken Politics
   Neneh Cherry
6. El Mal Querer
   Rosalía
7. Sweetener
   Ariana Grande
8. Clean
   Soccer Mommy
9. Kin Sonic
   Jupiter & Okwess
10. NTS Sessions 1-4
    Autechre

Jon Caramanica: 18 Best Albums of 2018, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2011]

1. Clean
   Soccer Mommy
2. Voicenotes
   Charlie Puth
3. Goodbye & Good Riddance
   Juice WRLD
4. Scorpion
   Drake
5. Drip Season 3
   Gunna
5. Harder Than Ever
   Lil Baby
5. Drip Harder
   Lil Baby & Gunna
6. Girl Going Nowhere
   Ashley McBryde
7. ye
   Kanye West
7. Kids See Ghosts
   Kids See Ghosts
8. Invasion of Privacy
   Cardi B
9. My Dear Melancholy
   The Weeknd
10. Experiment
    Kane Brown
11. Daytona
    Pusha T
12. Dancehall
    The Blaze
13. Time & Space
    Turnstile
14. Safe in the Hands of Love
    Yves Tumor
15. Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2
    Lil Peep

Jen Chaney: 10 Best TV Shows of 2018, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017]

1. The Americans
2. Sharp Objects
3. Jane the Virgin
4. BoJack Horseman
5. Atlanta
6. Casual
7. Killing Eve
8. Forever
9. Better Call Saul
10. Big Mouth

Christian Lorentzen: 10 Best Books of 2018, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2017]

1. Motherhood
   Sheila Heti
2. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
   Denis Johnson
3. Kudos
   Rachel Cusk
4. Cherry
   Nico Walker
5. A Handbook of Disappointed Fate
   Anne Boyer
6. A Terrible Country
   Keith Gessen
7. American Histories
   John Edgar Wideman
8. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
   Alexander Chee
9. Inappropriation
   Lexi Freiman
10. The Earth Dies Streaming
    A.S. Hamrah

Publishers Weekly: 5 Best Poetry Books of 2018

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• Be With
  Forrest Gander
• The Carrying
  Ada Limón
• Moon

  Letters, Maps, Poems
  Jennifer S. Cheng
• Real Life

  An Installation
  Julie Carr
• Lo terciario
  Raquel Salas Rivera

NPR Music: 50 Best Albums of 2018

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Dirty Computer
   Janelle Monáe
2. Be the Cowboy
   Mitski
3. Golden Hour
   Kacey Musgraves
4. Historian
   Lucy Dacus
5. Room 25
   Noname
6. Invasion of Privacy
   Cardi B
7. Honey
   Robyn
8. El Mal Querer
   Rosalía
9. Isolation
   Kali Uchis
10. Whack World
    Tierra Whack
11. Bark Your Head Off, Dog
    Hop Along
12. boygenius
    boygenius
13. Interstate Gospel
    Pistol Annies
14. Superorganism
    Superorganism
15. Dreamers
    Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider
16. Tell Me How You Really Feel
    Courtney Barnett
17. Double Negative
    Low
18. Heaven and Earth
    Kamasi Washington
19. By The Way, I Forgive You
    Brandi Carlile
20. Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa
    Jeremy Dutcher
21. Chris
    Christine and the Queens
22. Sweetener
    Ariana Grande
23. Rifles and Rosary Beads
    Mary Gauthier
24. soil
    serpentwithfeet
25. Con Todo El Mundo
    Khruangbin
26. Care for Me
    Saba
27. Bartók: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
    Christian Tetzlaff, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Hannu Lintu
28. The Tree of Forgiveness
    John Prine
29. Acrylic
    Leikeli47
30. Universal Beings
    Makaya McCraven
31. Orquesta Akokán
    Orquesta Akokán
32. re:member
    Ólafur Arnalds
33. Siblings
    Colin Self
34. Vibras
    J Balvin
35. ASTROWORLD
    Travis Scott
36. FM!
    Vince Staples
37. Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11 "The Year 1905"
    Boston Symphony Orchestra & Andris Nelsons
38. Origami Harvest
    Ambrose Akinmusire
39. Maghreb United
    Ammar 808
40. Friends. Lovers. Favorites
    The Hirs Collective
41. Future Me Hates Me
    The Beths
42. The Other Side of Air
    Myra Melford's Snowy Egret
43. Magus
    Thou
44. Blueprint
    Alice Bag
45. Johann Sebastian Bach
    Vikingur Ólafsson
46. Prisma Tropical
    Balún
47. Spa 700
    700 Bliss
48. DiCaprio 2
    JID
49. Lush
    Snail Mail
50. Everything Is Love
    The Carters

K. Austin Collins: 10 Best Movies of 2018, as published by Vanity Fair

[see also 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2017 • 2016]

Honorable Mentions

• BlacKkKlansman
  Spike Lee
• A Bread Factory
  Patrick Wang
• Burning
  Lee Chang-dong
• The Day After
  Hong Sang-soo
• Happy as Lazzaro
  Alice Rohrwacher
• Let the Sunshine In
  Claire Denis
• Madeline’s Madeline
  Josephine Decker
• Mandy
  Panos Cosmatos
• Mom and Dad
  Brian Taylor
• Isle of Dogs
  Wes Anderson
• The Old Man & the Gun
  David Lowery
• The Rider
  Chloé Zhao
• Roma
  Alfonso Cuaron
• Shirkers
  Sandi Tan
• Shoplifters
  Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Support the Girls
  Andrew Bujalski
• A Star Is Born
  Bradley Cooper
• Thunder Road
  Jim Cummings
• Unfriended: Dark Web
  Stephen Susco
• Unsane
  Steven Soderbergh

1. First Reformed
   Paul Schrader
2. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
   Travis Wilkerson
3. You Were Never Really Here
   Lynne Ramsay
4. If Beale Street Could Talk
   Barry Jenkins
5. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
   Joel & Ethan Coen
6. The Other Side of the Wind
   Orson Welles
7. Minding the Gap
   Bing Liu
8. Zama
   Lucrecia Martel
9. First Man
   Damien Chazelle
10. Sollers Point
    Matthew Porterfield

Complex: 30 Best TV Shows of 2018

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019]

1. Atlanta
2. Killing Eve
3. Barry
4. The Good Place
5. Succession
6. Billions
7. Counterpart
8. The End of the F***ing World
9. This Is Us
10. Glow
11. Evil Genius
12. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
13. The Americans
14. Homecoming
15. Sharp Objects
16. Better Call Saul
17. The Haunting of Hill House
18. The Handmaid’s Tale
19. Maniac
20. Snowfall
21. High Maintenance
22. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
23. Ozark
24. The Deuce
25. Seven Seconds
26. Random Acts of Flyness
27. American Vandal
28. One Day at a Time
29. Insecure
30. Westworld

Ed Gonzalez: Top 10 Films of 2018, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2012 • 2011]

10 Honorable Mentions

• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
  Joel & Ethan Coen
• Before I Wake
  Mike Flanagan
• Claire’s Camera
  Hong Sang-soo
• Isle of Dogs
  Wes Anderson
• Leave No Trace
  Debra Granik
• The Other Side of the Wind
  Orson Welles
• Unfriended: Dark Web
  Stephen Susco
• Unsane
  Steven Soderbergh
• Western
  Valeska Grisebach
• The Wild Boys
  Bertrand Mandico

1. First Reformed
   Paul Schrader
2. BlacKkKlansman
   Spike Lee
3. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
   Travis Wilkerson
4. Bisbee '17
   Robert Greene
5. Monrovia, Indiana
   Frederick Wiseman
6. Paddington 2
   Paul King
7. Bodied
   Joseph Kahn
8. The Day After
   Hong Sang-soo
9. The Green Fog
   Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson
10. Let the Sunshine In
    Claire Denis

Miriam Bale: Best Movies of 2018, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2010s • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012]

1. Beychella [Beyoncé live at Coachella]
2. The Day After
   Hong Sang-soo
3. Black Panther
   Ryan Coogler
4. Leave No Trace
   Debra Granik
5. Support the Girls
   Andrew Bujalski
6. Minding the Gap
   Bing Liu
7. My First Film [live]
   Zia Anger
8. Happy as Lazzaro
   Alice Rohrwacher
9. Kinshasa Makambo
   Dieudo Hamadi
10. Sorry to Bother You
    Boots Riley