Top 50 Tracks of 2018

Cool Music Central waves goodbye to 2018 with the traditional year-end selection of our favorite tracks of the year: 50 great songs selected from albums, singles and EPs released in the last 12 months.

As usual, our singles list includes only one track from each artist or band in order to help us with the difficult task of narrowing down the selection to just 50 songs and also to represent as many of our favorite releases of the year as possible.

Check back next week for the list of our favorite albums of the year. In the meantime, hit play in the playlist below to listen to our Top 50 Tracks of 2018 led by U.S. Girls' "Pearly Gates", a soulful slice of retrofuturistic art pop describing a woman's efforts to gain entry to the heavenly realm by seducing a predatory St. Peter, a song which according to Meg Remy was inspired by a story recounted to her about a man attempting to convince a woman to engage in unprotected sex by saying “Don’t worry, I’m really good at pulling out!”.

Top 50 Tracks of 2018

 1. Pearly Gates - U.S. GIRLS

 2. Talking Straight - ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER

3. How Did This Happen!? - BODEGA

4. Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy - ANNA CALVI

5. Woman - CAT POWER

6. Lemon Glow - BEACH HOUSE

7. Comeback Kid - SHARON VAN ETTEN

8. Need a Little Time - COURTNEY BARNETT

9. Make Time 4 Love - THE GOON SAX

10. Nobody - MITSKI

11. I Shall Love 2 - JULIA HOLTER
12. Nervous Mary - THE BREEDERS
13. The Man - GOAT GIRL
14. Danny Nedelko - IDLES
15. Total Football - PARQUET COURTS
16. MX Liberty - THURSTON MOORE
17. Wheel of Fortune - PROTOMARTYR
18. CIA Man (NSA Man Violation) - SNAPPED ANKLES
19. Over And Over And Over - JACK WHITE
20. Complex - THE CHILLS
21. Loading Zones - KURT VILE
22. Four Out of Five - ARCTIC MONKEYS
23. The Rover - INTERPOL
24. Shiny One - BELLY
25. Heat Wave - SNAIL MAIL
26. Your Dog - SOCCER MOMMY
27. Apathy - FRANKIE COSMOS
28. For You Too - YO LA TENGO
29. Refute - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
30. Crisis Fest - SUNFLOWER BEAN
31. Fanny - TY SEGALL
32. Catch It - ICEAGE
33. Static Resistance - HOOKWORMS
34. Brean Down - BEAK>
35. You Can - GABE GURNSEY
36. IDK About You - FEVER RAY
37. Heart Attack - TUNE-YARDS
38. Lotus - GANG GANG DANCE
39. Surface To Air - DJANGO DJANGO
40. Curse of the Contemporary - LUMP
41. Little Dark Age - MGMT
42. Put Your Money on Me - ARCADE FIRE
43. Last Lion of Albion - NEKO CASE
44. Severed - THE DECEMBERISTS
45. Nervous Young Inhumans - CAR SEAT HEADREST
46. What a Time to Be Alive - SUPERCHUNK
47. Never Coming Back - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
48. Lucky 88 - SPEEDY ORTIZ
49. I'm Your Man - SPIRITUALIZED
50. Disarray - LOW