Erm, the Coachella 2018 Line Up Is... Actually Good?

Maybe 2018 is the year of things being… good? I don't want to get carried away or anything, but you know, maybe optimism is actually the wave? I know, I can't believe I'm saying it either.

One good omen is the line up for California's Coachella festival, one of the world's most famous music events (due to take place this year over the weekends of 13 to 15 April, and 20 to 22 April), released just past midnight on Tuesday night if you were in the UK/on Tuesday afternoon if you were in the Americas. It's great. I honestly can't find anything to gripe with, and I fucking love to gripe! As a festival that straddles the mainstream and newer emerging music, this year it's doing its job pretty much perfectly. Who'd have thought?

The headliners skew towards R&B and rap, with Beyoncé taking on the Saturday nights as a do-over for her cancelled slot last year, and bookended by The Weeknd and Eminem. They're basically as expected, though it'll be interesting to see whether Eminem can still command such an enormous stage, and for Abel Tesfaye to play what will be his biggest set yet. Beyoncé, obviously, will have to give the greatest performance the world has ever seen (also this might mean we're seeing new music this year, get praying to your denominational deity of choice).

When you look past the three big names, however, there's also a lot of greatness going on. It's genuinely varied, with artists like SZA, St Vincent, Tyler, the Creator, Perfume Genius, Kelela and Cardi B – all of whom put out bold bodies of work in 2017 – getting high-profile look ins. And there's also magic in the small print (if you don't squint, you'll miss gems like Yaeji, Priests, Noname, Japanese Breakfast and John Maus).

Basically what I am saying is that because I think this Coachella line-up is pretty good, 2018 might actually be OK. Makes sense, imo.

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