The year can move fast, so it's hard to keep up with all the outstanding new music being released. Now that we're halfway through 2018, we're taking a moment to look back on the year in music so far.
The CPR's OpenAir hosts have rounded up their favorite albums of the year. Below, read each host's list, watch music videos and listen to a Spotify playlist featuring their selections.
And join us on Wednesday, July 4, when we'll play nothing but music released in 2018 from 6 a.m. to midnight.
Mike Flanagan
- Janelle Monae: "Dirty Computer"
- Tune-Yards: "I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life"
- David Byrne: "American Utopia"
- Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: "Tearing At The Seams"
- Parquet Courts: "Wide Awake!"
- Poliça / s t a r g a z e: "Music for the Long Emergency"
- Laura Veirs: "The Lookout"
- Superorganism: "Superorganism"
- Courtney Barnett: "Tell Me How You Really Feel"
- Lucius: "Nudes"
Jessi Whitten
- Janelle Monae: "Dirty Computer"
- Courtney Barnett: "Tell Me How You Really Feel"
- Everything Is Recorded: "Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell"
- Forth Wanderers: "Forth Wanderers"
- Frankie Cosmos: "Vessel"
- Brent Cowles: "How To Be Okay Alone"
- Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: "Tearing At The Seams"
- Ty Segall: "Freedom's Goblin"
- Middle Kids: "Lost Friends"
- Wye Oak: "The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs"
Jeremy Petersen
- U.S. Girls: "In A Poem Unlimited"
- Amen Dunes: "Freedom"
- Parquet Courts: "Wide Awake!"
- Shame: "Songs of Praise"
- Natalie Prass: "The Future and the Past"
- Wye Oak: "The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs"
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra: "Sex & Food"
- Janelle Monae: "Dirty Computer"
- Young Fathers: "Cocoa Sugar"
- Sonny Smith: "Rod for Your Love"
Brandee Castle
- Janelle Monae: "Dirty Computer"
- Young Fathers: "Cocoa Sugar"
- Childish Gambino: "This Is America" [single]
- Tune-Yards: "I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life"
- Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: "Tearing At The Seams"
- Anderson .Paak: "'Til It's Over" [single]
- Superorganism: "Superorganism"
- Leon Bridges: "Good Thing"
- Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks: "Sparkle Hard"
- Bombino: "Deran"
Alisha Sweeney
- Young Fathers: "Cocoa Sugar"
- Brazilian Girls: "Let's Make Love"
- Erika Wennerstrom: "Sweet Unknown"
- Janelle Monae: "Dirty Computer"
- Cut Worms: "Hollow Ground"
- Lucy Dacus: "Historian"
- Superorganism: "Superorganism"
- Snail Mail: "Lush"
- Neko Case: "Hell-On"
- Caroline Rose: "LONER"
Colorado Albums
- Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: "Tearing At The Seams"
- The Milk Blossoms: "Dry Heave The Heavenly"
- Brent Cowles: "How To Be Okay Alone"
- The Velveteers: "The Velveteers"
- in/PLANES: "Radio Wave"
- Covenhoven: "A Kind of Revelation"
- Dragondeer: "If You Got the Blues"
- Oxeye Daisy: "Oxeye Daisy"
- Blake Brown & The American Dust Choir: "Long Way Home"
- Stelth Ulvang: "American Boredom"
Colorado EPs
- Jess Parsons: "Murmuration"
- Ivory Circle: "Scalene"
- Porlolo: "Awards"
- The Still Tide: "Each After"
- Dirty Few: "The Volcom Sessions"
- Bad Licks: "Lies"
Bruce Trujillo
- Khruangbin: "Con Todo El Mundo"
- Courtney Barnett: "Tell Me How You Really Feel"
- Ezra Furman: "Transangelic Exodus"
- Janelle Monae: "Dirty Computer"
- La Luz: "Floating Features"
- Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: "Tearing At The Seams"
- Parquet Courts: "Wide Awake!"
- Shannon And The Clams: "Onion"
- Various artists: "Black Panther OST"
- Marlon Williams: "Make Way for Love"
Scott Carney
- Beach House: "7"
- Caroline Rose: "LONER"
- Khruangbin: "Con Todo El Mundo"
- Lucy Dacus: "Historian"
- Ought: "Room Inside the World"
- Parquet Courts: "Wide Awake!"
- Shopping: "The Official Body"
- Snail Mail: "Lush"
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra: "Sex & Food"
- Yo La Tengo: "There's A Riot Going On"
