I clearly haven’t spent much time on the blog this year – but I keep meaning to at least post a few highlights. The trip to Japan, projects done on the house, Thanksgiving with the family… There’s still time, right? For now though, I’ll at least try to keep the tradition (habit? compulsion?) of documenting my year-end music recommendations.
As I finished writing this up, I quickly read through some critics’ top 10 lists, curious to see how my list compared. It looked like my choices might fall more outside the norm than in past years but this wasn’t an intentional attempt to highlight lesser known artists. I think it’s more a reflection of my list leaning towards sounds I felt a natural connection with inside a vast sea of rapidly evolving and diverging musical content. Like most years before, there’s a fair bit of diversity in the final rundown so I hope all of you are able to come away with something new and exciting.
More to come soon with a list of my favorite songs.
FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2019
1. When I Have Fears, The Murder Capital – What pulled me in was dark, brooding music that swirls together early 90’s post-punk (think Fugazi) and 80’s English new wave (maybe Joy Division). While the album’s tempo ebbs and flows, the emotional intensity rages fearlessly from beginning to end. This is the kind of album I wish I could play for the 16 year old me and watch as my face lights up in amazement.
2. Hiding Places, Billy Woods, Kenny Segal – billy woods actually put out two impressive albums this year. Both are filled with his deceptively tense lyrics on personal and societal conflict, mixing comedy and tragedy in a way that keeps you off balance but leaning in. For me though, the production that Kenny Segal brings to Hiding Places makes this the standout album with groves that balance woods’ jarring imagery of a dystopia that seems increasingly hard to hide from.
3. Crushing, Julia Jacklin – Simple but poignant songwriting, a vulnerable voice delivering a confident message, and layers of crunchy guitar sounds. There isn’t anything flashy or overtly cutting edge about Crushing. It’s just a great rock and roll album about the reality of relationships.
4. Kiwanuka, Michael Kiwanuka – Kicking off the first track with a joyous groove, it’s easy to get swept up in an album that’s richly textured in soul, funk and R&B creating a magically timeless sound. But as we learned from his stellar album three years ago (Love & Hate), Kiwanuka isn’t here simply to make us snap our fingers and sing along. It’s a album layered with heartache and anguish about the state of society today. Whether he leaves us with a final sign of hope is hard to say. (“The young and dumb will always need one of their own to lead.”) Like any really great story, the resolution is left for the audience to complete.
5. Dogrel, FONTAINES D.C. – The first track on Dogrel comes barreling out of the gate with a swagger and intensity that skirts the edge of obnoxious but crash lands in charming. Like IDLES with a bit less frenzy and a little more James Joyce, these are post-punk anthems from Ireland with the power to lift up the downtrodden – or at least make you feel not so alone in your ire. (Note: Yes, for those that are counting, this is the second “post-punk” band from Ireland on my list, but that is purely coincidence… or is it?)
6. Vagabon, Vagabon – Every track on this album is a silky, smooth slow groove that invites you in like warm, sunlit waters. But there’s something powerful lurking under the surface. “All the women I meet are fired up. They get ready to kill with their love.”
7. Ilana (The Creator), Mdou Moctar – Mdou Moctar adds to an amazing string of albums released by Tuareg guitarists over the last decade. This summer, as I spent hours driving around the deserts of SE Oregon, I would play Ilana and imagine myself being serenaded across lonely stretches of the Sahara by some re-imagined 70’s guitar god.
8. PSYCHODRAMA, Dave – An extremely mature and personal album from a young British rapper, it works well as a cohesive piece while containing some powerful, standalone tracks. There are uniquely English aspects to his lyrics but overall he captures a story that is universally engaging.
9. Let Love Run the Game, Daniel Norgren – I’ve never been a Grateful Dead fan. (One of my favorite bumper stickers: “Jerry’s dead. Phish sucks. Get a job.”) But after falling for this album I’m starting to wonder if I was closer to a Dead fan than I realized. The differentiator here in Daniel’s work is the simplicity that Garcia and his crew so often lacked – simplicity in song structure and production. The album has a slow build, settling into an intelligent, relaxed, back-porch-gathering vibe without any of the pretentious jamboree distractions. (Note: In reading that back to myself I do realize how pretentious I sound and the irony is not lost on me.)
10. Between the Country, Ian Noe – I imagine this album could have been played across AM airwaves in the year I was born. Channeling Nick Drake through the filter of Eastern Kentucky, this is folk music done as authentically and as intensely as I’ve seen from any singer-songwriter in some time.
Honorable Mention: We’ve Sobered Up, Say Sue Me – This album was actually released a year or two ago but I discovered it as a US reissue this year so I’m going to tag it on the end of my 2019 list. And for good reason: it’s shoe-gazer surf rock from South Korea and it’s cool as fuck.
Not More Music Crap? 