NPR

Viking's Choice: The Year In The Loud And The Weird

Our resident Viking surveys 2018 through Italian doom metal, Chinese post-punk, underwater field recordings and a 24-hour drone.
From top left, clockwise: Heather Leigh, Messa, Lonely Leary and Kate Carr.

I still prefer music recommendations from friends online or IRL, or stumbling across a punk band cooler than the one headlining the show, or buying a record simply because the artwork rules, or falling down the rabbit hole of random clicks on Bandcamp. Algorithms serve a function, but never satisfy the hunt, at least for me.

In my , there's a mixture of all the above, mostly focused on the fringes of sound. But even then, I don't get to feature everything, which is why this year-end episode with Bob Boilen dives deeper into the albums. (I love those records, too, for what it's worth.)

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