Albums of 2018, Honorable Mention: The Old White Guys

In his 1980 Pazz & Jop essay, Robert Christgau quoted a critic by the name of Jay Mitchell, who described Side Two of Stevie Wonder's "Hotter than July" as "The perfect example of an artist doing his job and doing it well; with fun and grace at that."  That comment has stuck with me over the years, and has grown increasingly appropriate, as so many of our bedrock artists have continued to record and tour well into their advanced ages.

Elvis Costello (now 64 years of age), Paul Simon (77), Richard Thompson (69) and John Hiatt (66) were all recording in 1980 (Costello even placed an album in the P&J Top 40 that year, with "Get Happy" finishing at 7th), and they all released albums in 2018.  It would be foolish to claim that any of their new records - Costello's "Look Now," recorded with The Imposters, Simon's "Into the Blue Light," Thompson's "13 Rivers," and Hiatt's "The Eclipse Sessions" - was as good as the best album from each artist.

But so what?  The fact that all are still sharing their work with the world is a blessing.  And make no bones about it, all of these albums are very good.  Costello comes as close to achieving a synthesis of his early "angry young man" approach and the panache of Burt Bacharach as he ever has.  Paul Simon has surely earned the right to revisit some old songs that he didn't feel he quite nailed on the first go around, and the results are consistently engaging.  Richard Thompson appears to have been energized by his series of "acoustic classic" albums, and John Hiatt...and this will sound goofy...just sounds comfortable in his own skin.

These four artists have all created works that stand with the best of our time.  Celebrate them and their work while you still can.