2018, whew. What a long, strange year it has been. I think for the county as a whole, many individual people, and definitely me. This was the hardest year of my life. It felt like everything went wrong, and no part of my life went untouched. I'll admit that ultimately impacted my listening, both in taste and time. Rather than catching up on dozens new releases every week, I found songs, albums and artists that spoke to me, and played them on repeat for hours. Having a soundtrack for you life, particularly when the journey gets tough is so essential. Perhaps this change in listening explains why I chose to mix things up with my Best Music of the year list. Rather than the top 100 songs of year as I've done the past few years, I thought I try something new. Here's a playlist crafted with three songs from my top 10 albums of the year, plus my top 10 singles. It isn't in a ranked order. Rather, its crafted into a playlist that flows through different genres that I hope li