2018 is a wrap, and we sold plenty of records in this wild and weird year. We’ll be spending the next few weeks reviewing our best sellers of the recently completed calendar year. Here are our top-ten selling soundtacks for the year of 2018:
10. MANDY (JOHANN JOHANNSSON)
A fantastic last dispatch from one of our favorite modern composers, this soundtrack finds the late Johann exploring his doom laden influences to help augment the terror of the film. It makes for a listening experience at the confluence of classical, dark-ambient, art-metal, and classic horror-score.
9. RICK & MORTY
Sub-Pop made some magic happen and got a physical edition of the Rick & Morty soundtrack out into the world. It’s basically the Szechuan Sauce of limited edition vinyl. Includes the ridiculous comedic tracks from the series as well as it’s spaced-out score!
8. THE REBELLION IS REBORN - THE LAST JEDI
Um, this one is shaped like a porg.
7. HERO OF TIME (KOJI KONDO)
This is our all-time best selling video game soundtrack! The standout score from the Legend of Zelda series is physically available in this handsome deluxe set. This one on your shelf earns serious nerd points. (We like nerds)
6. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Call Me By Your Name was a surprise hit coming-of-age film from 2017, but we couldn’t consistently get a hold of its EXCELLENT soundtrack until early this year. Featuring some great exclusives from Sufjan Stevens, and an excellent selection of artful and emotional sounds otherwise, we ended up playing this on a lot at our shop.
5. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
This has been, on the global scale at least, one of the BIGGEST SELLING LPs of the whole ‘vinyl revival’ era. According to Forbes magazine it was 2018 number-one overall! We sold a few too. I recently discovered that this is basically the vinyl edition of Spotify’s popular 70s playlist.
4. TWIN PEAKS
Still in-print, this is a necessity for any connoisseur of odd sound. The posh new edition (from Death Waltz, originally pressed in 2017) is an experience unto itself as well, very Lynchian. Other Twin Peaks musics dwell just beyond our top-ten in soundtrack sales as well.
3. A STAR IS BORN LADY (LADY GAGA / BRADLEY COOPER)
A tale of lives in the music industry soundtracked by it’s stars. This was surprisingly good, adding a new facet to the artist’s oeuvre in Lady Gaga’s case and revealing a damn fine singer hidden in plain sight with actor Bradley Cooper. You can always find the soundtrack to the original film (Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson) in our dollar bin too!
2. SUSPIRIA (THOM YORKE)
We were hyped on this one too. Take one of the most critically revered musician of his generation rebooting one of the greatest cult-classic horror movie soundtracks of all time and you get a record nerd event! The results didn’t disappoint.
1. BLACK PANTHER (KENDRICK LAMAR et al)
Kinda like number two here in a way, give the most talented rapper of a generation a free hand to soundtrack a groundbreaking blockbuster event and you get fireworks. This was one of the year’s more thrilling mainstream chart-toppers. This would be a great record if the movie never existed, but it also amplified the themes of the film. In other words it’s a great soundtrack!