Year-end consensus · Indie & Adult Alternative · two countdowns combined

The best indie rock songs of 2018

Q: What was the top indie rock song of 2018?

Combining 2 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2018 is "This is America" by Childish Gambino, which appeared on 2 of the lists.

Two radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2018: The Current and WFUV. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2018 is “This is America” by Childish Gambino, which appeared on two of the two countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Two different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Hymnostic” by Big Red Machine and “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier. Brandi Carlile was the year’s most-charted artist, with three different songs placing 5 times across the countdowns.

2countdowns

142songs charted

2different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2018

All 142 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2018 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	This is America Childish Gambino	198	2	#1	1
2	The Joke Brandi Carlile	197	2	#2	–
3	Make Me Feel Janelle Monae	194	2	#2	–
4	Mr. Tillman Father John Misty	191	2	#4	–
5	Beyond Leon Bridges	189	2	#5	–
6	Good Kisser Lake Street Dive	181	2	#7	–
7	Nobody Mitski	171	2	#10	–
8	Nina Cried Power Hozier	166	2	#1	1
9	Everybody Wants To Be Famous Superorganism	165	2	#16	–
10	Bad Bad News Leon Bridges	163	2	#8	–
11	Severed The Decemberists	161	2	#15	–
12	Lottery Jade Bird	153	2	#14	–
13	Nameless, Faceless Courtney Barnett	150	2	#20	–
14	New Birth in New England Phosphorescent	148	2	#6	–
15	Gold Rush Death Cab for Cutie	143	2	#23	–
16	Loading Zones Kurt Vile	142	2	#11	–
17	Hunger Florence + The Machine	141	2	#24	–
18	The Mother Brandi Carlile	139	2	#4	–
19	Bad Luck Neko Case	133	2	#21	–
20	You Worry Me Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	132	2	#26	–
21	Bite The Hand Boygenius	123	2	#19	–
22	Beverly Low Cut Connie	121	2	#24	–
23	Uh-huh Jade Bird	117	2	#32	–
24	Wait By The River Lord Huron	113	2	#34	–
25	Light On Maggie Rogers	98	2	#43	–
26	Everybody's Coming To My House David Byrne	94	2	#28	–
27	Twentytwo Sunflower Bean	92	1	#8	–
28	Bambi Hippo Campus	92	2	#10	–
29	Summer's End John Prine	91	1	#9	–
30	Fireworks First Aid Kit	91	1	#9	–
31	PARAD(w/m)E Sylvan Esso	89	2	#47	–
32	Hold Out Your Hand Brandi Carlile	89	1	#11	–
33	Boys Lizzo	88	1	#12	–
34	Jeannie Becomes a Mom Caroline Rose	87	1	#13	–
35	You Should See Me In A Crown Billie Eilish	87	1	#13	–
36	Heat Wave Snail Mail	86	2	#47	–
37	Get Out CHVRCHES	85	1	#14	–
38	Casanova Rayland Baxter	84	1	#15	–
39	Hey Mama Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	84	2	#48	–
40	I Was a Fool Sunflower Bean	83	1	#16	–
41	Pynk Janelle Monae	82	1	#17	–
42	Charity Courtney Barnett	81	1	#18	–
43	Woman Cat Power	80	1	#19	–
44	Nothing Gets Me High Bad Bad Hats	79	1	#20	–
45	Django Jane Janelle Monae	78	1	#21	–
46	Fists of Fury Kamasi Washington	76	1	#23	–
47	Highway Tune Greta Van Fleet	75	1	#23	–
48	Mistake Middle Kids	73	1	#25	–
49	Kelly's Bar Trampled by Turtles	73	1	#25	–
50	Unwanted Number Elvis Costello	72	1	#26	–
51	Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience Parquet Courts	70	1	#28	–
52	Sucker's Prayer The Decemberists	69	2	#49	–
53	Soul No. 5 Caroline Rose	69	2	#45	–
54	Not Many Miles to Go Rosanne Cash	69	1	#29	–
55	Connected By Love Jack White	69	1	#29	–
56	Loving Is Easy Rex Orange County	68	2	#59	–
57	60 & Punk Death Cab for Cutie	65	1	#32	–
58	Slow Burn Kacey Musgraves	64	1	#33	–
59	The Middle Trampled by Turtles	64	1	#33	–
60	Work Out Chance The Rapper	63	1	#34	–
61	Four Out Of Five Arctic Monkeys	62	1	#35	–
62	All The Stars Kendrick Lamar & SZA	62	1	#35	–
63	Girlfriend Christine and the Queens	61	1	#36	–
64	5 Out Of 6 Dessa	61	1	#36	–
65	Best Days Lissie	60	1	#37	–
66	Living in the Future Dawes	59	1	#38	–
67	Fallingwater Maggie Rogers	58	1	#38	–
68	Shame Elle King	58	1	#39	–
69	Virgo Atmosphere	57	1	#39	–
70	Love is Magic John Grant	57	1	#40	–
71	Velodrome Dessa	56	1	#40	–
72	Small Victories The Lemon Twigs	56	1	#41	–
73	No More Darkness, No More Light Amos Lee	54	1	#42	–
74	Halls of Sarah Neko Case	52	1	#44	–
75	Miracle CHVRCHES	51	1	#45	–
76	Come on to Me Paul McCartney	50	1	#46	–
77	The Spot Your Smith	49	2	#64	–
78	Everybody Knows The Jayhawks	49	2	#57	–
79	Life to Fix The Record Company	48	1	#48	–
80	Brooklyn in the Summer Aloe Blacc	46	1	#50	–
81	I'll Be Your Pilot Belle & Sebastian	44	1	#51	–
82	How Did This Happen !? Bodega	44	1	#51	–
83	Safari Song Greta Van Fleet	43	1	#52	–
84	Fire Drills Dessa	42	1	#53	–
85	Every 1's A Winner Ty Segall	40	1	#54	–
86	Plastic Skeletons Jealous of the Birds	40	1	#55	–
87	Colors Beck	39	1	#55	–
88	Disappointing Diamonds are the Rarest of Them All Father John Misty	39	1	#56	–
89	The Heart Is A Muscle Gang of Youths	38	1	#56	–
90	Purple Hearts Jeremy Messersmith	36	1	#58	–
91	Some Birds Jeff Tweedy	36	1	#59	–
92	Throwback Jim James	34	1	#60	–
93	I Like That Janelle Monae	34	1	#60	–
94	Write It On Your Heart Bad Bad Hats	33	1	#61	–
95	When I Get to Heaven John Prine	32	1	#62	–
96	Lash Out Alice Merton	31	1	#62	–
97	Rollin With the Flow Kurt Vile	31	1	#63	–
98	Slow Disco (piano version) St. Vincent	30	1	#63	–
99	If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be) Leon Bridges	30	1	#64	–
100	Addictions Lucy Dacus	29	1	#65	–

Every station’s number one of 2018

Station	Number one song	Countdown
The Current	Hymnostic Big Red Machine	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2018
WFUV	Nina Cried Power Hozier	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2018

All 2018 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2018 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 2018 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all two qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the indie & aaa results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.