Kitty Empire’s best pop and rock of 2018

Albums got shorter and longer, jazz came back again, and our cups ran over with killer music from Janelle Monáe, Idles, Mitski and more. See our top 10 albums below• Read the Observer critics’ review of 2018 in full here
Not a year goes by without the music industry undergoing rapid change. This year, the UK’s biggest-selling album wasn’t by Ed Sheeran, Adele or even George Ezra, whose Staying at Tamara’s came second; it was a film soundtrack about an American