THE TOP 218 ALBUMS OF 2019
Hello and welcome to the annual roundup of the year that was. It took longer than I thought it would, but here we finally are: The Top Albums Of 2019. Some years, you might be tempted to draw a through line, but I think after all is said and done (from my personal perspective, anyway) I can narrow it all down to one point:
Never get all your drinking water from a fire hose.
218 albums is too many. WAY too many. The next biggest countdown I've ever done was 100, and that was just last year. I've had to alter the way I do these, because what's the difference between album 87 and 88? Or 137 and 138? I tried to drink the ocean and I feel stupid for trying.
It wasn't all bad. I've got a lot of new directions to go in if I so choose. I know what's out there, and I'll never complain again that "no new albums came out" because I know better from this ridiculous experience. Going forward, I'm going to focus less on what's new and more on finding what I want to listen to, because that got completely lost in the shuffle. After a while you just stop making choices and try to get through the stuff on the list. (And if I learned a lesson from this year, it's music should only feel like homework if you're intending to play it, or think deeply about it. Thanks, Tool.)
Anyway, here's how it's going to go: I've broken this list into six different tiers, starting at the bottom and working our way up to the top 20. I've written notes about some of the albums along the way and full blurbs for the main event. It is my profound hope that you find something you like, something that interests you, or at least something that makes you think.
Before we get into the proceedings, there was one album out of all of them that stood out, and not for the best of reasons:
[-NO RANK GIVEN-]
Cokie The Clown "You're Welcome"
Putting a numerical rank on an album meant as a confession of dark feelings and deeds and not as a work of art seems kind of pointless. Fat Mike is beyond caring what you think. Of him, of his opinions, of what he's done, or even of his music. There's just no point in adding my opinion to the pile, so I won't. It still exists and it's still an album I listened to and had thoughts about, so I'll put it here. Outside the list but still mentioned.
All right, on with the show!
SHIT THAT JUST WASN'T MY JAM:
Beck "Hyperspace"
DiBia$i "Bonus Levels"
The Heavy "Sons"
Michael Franti & Spearhead "Stay Human Vol. II"
Mikal Cronin "Seeker"
Netherfriends "Songs For Dogs"
The Number Twelve Looks Like You "Wild Gods"
Of Monsters And Men "Fever Dream"
Rehab "Galaga"
Saul Williams "Encrypted & Vulnerable"
Secret Band "LP 2"
Shayfer James "Hope And A Hand Grenade"
Sleater-Kinney "The Center Won't Hold"
Solange "When I Get Home"
Telefon Tel Aviv "Dreams Are Not Enough"
Tesla "Shock"
Toro Y Moi "Outer Peace"
Vagabon
Volumes "Coming Clean"
NOTES:
- I almost feel like Beck should have made the "MEH" tier, but then I remember how out of patience I was the last time I listened to it and I'm like nah. Put it near the bottom.
- The Heavy was a 30-minute car commercial. Hope you're ready for the Toyotathon!
- Michael Franti's heart is in the right place, but this album got under my skin. Hippy-dippy shit always has. I think because it falls into the same category as "Why don't you just _____?" style unsolicited advice, as if you hadn't already thought of/tried that a year ago and as if it actually had a prayer of working.
- WOW that Mikal Cronin album was complete dirt. The first track was pretty good, even made my Fall hit mix (which I forgot to blog about; c'est la vie). But from track two on, it's REALLY bad Neil Young worship as a substitute for talent.
- Netherfriends make an album every couple of weeks. They're all boring as fuck. As long as they're not trying to scam anybody by doing what they do, I suppose there's nothing wrong with it, but I don't have to like the tepid Cod Reggae they churn out either.
- I really really liked "Alligator" by Of Monsters And Men and wanted to see where they were going with this bold new direction. It was the first single and the first track on the album; this has got to be the thesis statement of some new...oh. It's just the biggest bait and switch of the entire musical year? Really. Well that's disappointing. If the rest of the album had even been half as good as their previous two that would have also been a let down, but at least salvageable. Instead, it's veering toward a limper version of what The Heavy were doing. BLEH.
- I still don't know what it is about that Solange album that makes it one of the most unpleasant albums I've ever listened to in my life, but I heard one of the songs on Brave New Faves recently and I actually got nauseous. Not because of the content or any kind of distaste I had for the style or substance of the record, the music itself physically made me queasy. Specifically Solange's delivery. And it SHOULDN'T. There are no explanations as to why I'm allergic to this fucking album, but I can't even go near it. It's maddening. A lot of ingredients to make it a good album are there: the production sounds great, the music itself is a kind of dour electronic jazzy R&B, which is what usually gets my attention at this point, the vocals even sound decent on a purely aesthetic level, but when I hear it I am literally repulsed. (The lyrics don't help at all though; that I won't give them any credit for.) It may be a mystery hidden from science and understanding for all time...
MEH:
Aberdeen "Downpour"
Alfredo RodrÃguez & Pedrito Martinez "Duologue"
Alter Bridge "Walk The Sky"
Band Of Skulls "Love Is All You Love"
Baroness "Gold & Grey"
Beartooth "The Blackbird Session"
Billie Eilish "When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?"
Billy Ray Cyrus "The SnakeDoctor Circus"
Black Midi "Schlagenheim"
Brutus "Nest"
Chase & Status "Rtrn II Jungle"
Clavvs "No Saviors"
Clear Soul Forces "Still"
The Contortionist "Our Bones"
Death Stranding: Timefall
Eat Your Heart Out "Florescence"
Four Tet "Anna Painting"
HAElos "Any Random Kindness"
Hand Habits "Placeholder"
Highly Suspect "MCID"
India.Arie "Worthy"
Keith Murray "Lord Of The Metaphor 2"
King Princess "Cheap Queen"
Ladytron
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part Soundtrack
Life Of Agony "The Sound Of Scars"
Lightning Bolt "Sonic Citadel"
Lowly "Hifalutin"
Mark Morton "Anesthetic"
Mark Ronson "Late Night Feelings"
Meat Puppets "Dusty Notes"
Miley Cyrus "She Is Coming"
Moron Police "A Boat On The Sea"
The Mountain Goats "In League With Dragons"
Norah Jones "Begin Again"
Opeth "In Cauda Venenum"
Quelle Chris "Guns"
Plaid "Polymer"
Saor "Forgotten Paths"
Soilwork "Underworld"
Spider Man: Into The Spider-Verse Soundtrack
Still Woozy "Lately"
Sum 41 "Order In Decline"
Thom Yorke "Anima"
Tool "Fear Inoculum"
Truth Club "Not An Exit"
Vacationer "Wavelengths"
Xiu Xiu "Girl With Basket Of Fruit"
NOTES:
- Alter Bridge's previous album was their best. This was their worst. Such weak sauce.
- Baroness might have made my top 20 if not for two fatal flaws: The production is bad and the singer needs more than one vocal line to sing. It sounds like a parody of Emo. And as someone who didn't really have a problem with "Death Magnetic", even I'm like "Turn this shit the fuck down!" It's so hot it ruins the songs. And not by much either, but it crosses the line.
- Going into this process, I really thought Brutus, HAElos, Mark Morton, Opeth, Quelle Chris and Into The Spiderverse would all do a lot better. But after revisiting them, I'm just not feeling them at all.
- Though Billie Eilish is in this part of the list, it's more that I just wasn't feeling this album as opposed to her as an artist. I think she has great potential and this was an interesting first outing, just deeply not for me.
- As someone who actually appreciates artsy-fartsy things, Xiu Xiu seems like the biggest load of horseshit trying to pass itself off as deep besides Jaden Smith or Kanye West. Xiu Xiu knows enough of the "artistic language" to fool the deep thinkers, but nothing about this project passes the smell test for me. Not even a little. (Title track and "Scisssssssors" are both bangers though.)
- Lighting Bolt has made the same album eight times now. Give it up.
- Highly Suspect pulls off the feat of having features from Young Thug, Gojira and indie rock band Nothing But Thieves. On three songs right next to each other. The whole album's that much of a mess. If the results weren't so lousy, I'd give them more points for ambition.
- Here's some more math: There are 48 albums in the "MEH" section this year. This is my 19th Year-End Countdown blog (most of which aren't online anymore because YEESH the writing...). The "MEH" section alone has more entries than eight of the previous years do ('01, '02, '03, '04, '06, '08, '10 '14, '15), and ties two more ('05, '16).
- 2019: 213
- 2018: 100 (I swear I didn't plan it that way; it just wound up being that many)
- 2012: 82
- 2011: 61
- 2007: 58
- 2017: 58
- 2009: 55
- 2013: 52
- 2005: 48
- 2016: 48
- 2008: 47
- 2010: 44
- 2004: 39
- 2014: 38
- 2015: 36
- 2003: 33
- 2006: 32
- 2001: 32
- 2002: 20 (I swear I didn't plan this either, but I kinda did since that year I had to cheat just to get to 20.)
OK TO DECENT:
Aphex Twin "Peel Session 2"
Better Oblivion Community Center
Black Belt Eagle Scout "At The Party With My Brown Friends"
Bruce Hornsby "Absolue Zero"
Carly Rae Jepsen "Dedicated"
Cave In "Final Transmission"
Clinic "Wheeltappers And Shunters"
The Damned Things "High Crimes"
Death Cab For Cutie "The Blue EP"
Diamond Construct
E-40
Emily King "Scenery"
Emma Bunton "My Happy Place"
Employed To Serve "Eternal Forward Motion"
Famous Last Words "Arizona"
Fidlar "Almost Free"
Flotsam And Jetsam "The End Of Chaos"
Greensky Bluegrass "All For Money"
Guster "Look Alive"
Half-Alive "Now, Not Yet"
Holly Herndon "Proto"
Infinity Shred "Forever, A Fast Life"
Ingrid Michaelson "Stranger Songs"
Injury Reserve
Jay Som "Anak Ko"
Jetty Bones "-"
Jimmy Edgar "Zoospa"
Jinjer "Macro"
Keyes N Krates "A Beat Tape For Your Friends"
Korn "The Nothing"
Kublai Khan TX "Absolute"
KXM "Circle Of Dolls"
Lizzo "Cuz I Love U"
Luke Temple "Both-And"
Marc Ferch "[Cube] EP"
MC Chris "#Mcchrisisgoodmusic"
Mdou Moctar "Ilana (The Creator)"
Melissa Etheridge "The Medicine Show"
Method Man "Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium"
The Midwest Beat "Incantations"
Monstercat "Instinct Vol. 3"
Murder Generation
Nightmares On Wax "Back To Mine"
Quayde LaHue "Love Out Of Darkness"
Qveen Herby "EP 5"
Qveen Herby "EP 6"
Potsu "Ivy League"
Reel Big Fish "Life Sucks...Let's Dance!"
Rival Sons "Feral Roots"
Rose Of The West
Roses Gabor "Fantasy & Facts"
Sarah Bareilles "Amidst The Chaos"
Slipknot "We Are Not Your Kind"
Smoulder "Times Of Obscene Evil And Wild Daring"
Soilwork "Verklighteten"
Someone "Airspace"
Starbomb "The Tryforce"
Sunwatchers "Illegal Moves"
Tarja "In The Raw"
Yorushika "So I Quit Music"
NOTES:
PRETTY GOOD:
Alice Cooper "Breadcrumbs"
Alice Merton "Mint"
Andrew Bird "My Finest Work Yet"
Angelique Kidjo "Celia"
Arlo Parks "Sophie"
Big Wreck "...But For The Sun"
Bleached "Don't You Think You've Had Enough?"
Car Bomb "Mordial"
The Chemical Brothers "No Geography"
The Comet Is Coming "The Afterlife"
DaBaby "Baby On Baby"
DaBaby "Kirk"
Destrage "The Chosen One"
Dream Theater "Distance Over Time"
Dua Saleh "Nur"
Foals "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part 1"
The Japanese House "Good At Falling"
Jeff Williams "RWBY, Vol. 6 (Music From The Rooster Teeth Series)"
Jinjer "Micro"
John Mayall "Nobody Told Me"
Jordan Rudess "Wired For Madness"
Kayo Dot "Blasphemy"
Kedr Levansky "Your Need"
L'Resorts
MC Frontalot "Net Split, Or The Fathomless Heartbreak Of Online Itself"
Moon Tooth "Crux"
The New Pornographers "In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights"
Ninja Sex Party "Under The Covers, Vol. III"
Offset "Father Of 4"
Otoboke Beaver "Itekoma Hits"
Possum "Space Grade Assembly"
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets "And Now For The Whatchamacallit"
Revenge Of The Dreamers III
Sacred Reich "Awakening"
The Shanghai Restoration Project "Flashbacks In A Crystal Ball"
Stella Donnely "Beware Of The Dogs"
Sudan Archives "Athena"
Sungazer "Sungazer, Vol. 2"
Thank You Scientist "Terraformer"
311 'Voyager"
Vanishing Twin "The Age Of Immunology"
Weezer "The Teal Album"
NOTES:
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Alessia Cara "This Summer"
Alice Smith "Mystery"
Aly & AJ "Sanctuary"
The Atomic Spins "Mission 2"
Bad Religion "Age Of Unreason"
Barrie "Happy To Be Here"
Black Stone Cherry "Black To Blues, Vol. 2"
Charlotte Adigery "Yin Yang Self-Meditation"
Charlotte Adigéry "Zandoli"
Clipping "There Existed An Addiction To Blood"
G Flip "About Us"
Jealous Of The Birds "Wisdom Teeth"
Jose Gonzales & The String Theory "Live In Europe"
Jouis "Mind Bahn"
Kongos "1929, Pt. 1"
Kongos "1929, Pt. 2"
Lady Cannon "Fortune's Darling"
Le SuperHomard "Meadow Lane Park"
Little Kruta "Justice"
Malibu Ken
Marika Hackman "Any Human Friend"
Marrow "Look Outside"
MC Lars & Mega Ran "The Dewey Decibel System"
Morglbl "The Story Of Scott Rotti"
Netherlands "Green Lips And Lightning"
Snarky Puppy "Immigrance"
Tank And The Bangas "Green Baloon"
Trash Kit "Horizon"
NOTES:
What if Lightning Bolt made a different record? Like, seriously. What if? Not gonna happen, but we have Pound now, who add sludgy goodness into the mix and some different rhythms 'midst there haphazard spasms to make the whole thing fresh. (Yes, the album title is an emoji, and yes the song titles are all unpronounceable strings of Xs, +s, -s, _s and =s.)
I don't believe in guilty pleasures, but even someone as out of touch as myself can tell it's deeply uncool to like this. And they've made my top 20 three years running. Made my top 10 last year, even. I ain't gonna defend it; it's easy listening Trap R&B pablum, but it's my speed of easy listening Trap R&B pablum so eh.
If Solange's "When I Get Home" was all the right ingredients gone wrong, this album is the complete opposite. For real, it shouldn't work. No part of this should work. It's like a triple fried egg sandwich with chili sauce and chutney. The ingredients? All wrong. But put them together? Oh man. "The Planet Of Straw Men" and "Who's My Eugene?" were both tough cuts from my Top 20 Songs Of 2019 list. The title track is pretty boss too. Truth be told, there are some lulls in this album, but as a story and as a vibe, I think it holds together.
For all the lyricists out there, not a lot of them connect for me anymore. Little Simz does because I think she's more human than power point presentation or special effects show. It's simple but with plenty of flavor sprinkled in to make the album delectable.
Super didn't expect to see Joe Jackson on this list. "Steppin' Out" is one of my favorite songs of all time, but it wasn't until February that I actually listened to one of his albums in full. (It was 1982's Night And Day.) Then Fool came out and yeah, if the dude on Night And Day had had a rough kind of 37 years inbetween, this might be what it sounded like. But still not broken in spirit.
Just a random-ass rock record, but I really liked it. It's solid, all the songs connect, it has teeth, the production is good, it's not too aggro or dour or depressing, it's upbeat, which is rare enough...The Side Effects of listening to this for me are bobbing my head and saying "Deece."
Did NOT expect this to rank so highly, but on second listen, it just clicked. Tycho with vocals is just plain better.
I love The Doubleclicks. They're kind of a musical safe space for me. When I need to not feel...the world right now, one of my go-tos is them.
Patricia Taxxon puts out an album a month (sometimes an album and an EP) and this is my favorite of them all. Granted, I've only managed to hear about 10 or 11 of the well over 30, but they've really outdone themselves this time around. Shit bangs.
I'm just as surprised as you are. I've never even been a KMFDM fan. And when the album starts with a song going "Kill motherfucker kill motherfucker motherfucker kill" or whatever, you don't have high hopes for it. But after second listen, it has an attitude, a satire of the current world and a devil may care aire about it that is sorely lacking. It's not quite edgelord shit, though it skirts the line. It's 90's as fuck, but I think it's time to reclaim nostalgia from the corporate clutches anyway. I don't give a shit if everything is stuck in the past, I don't care if they're trying to sell it back to me, as long as I can experience the things I still like in a way where I'm not being used, let's fucking GET it. And this album has it.
Speaking of bands I've never been a fan of, holy shit did this come out of nowhere for me. I'd have probably been more into it if not for seeing an interview/kind of knowing these guys are really butthurt about the things they're trying to play off as inconsequential in the lyrics, but the songs are really good. Industrial Pop Metal that somehow sounds fresh in it's own weird way? Sure, I'll take it. The snotty attitude also cuts both ways, as some of the lyrics actually sound kind of cutting. "Nihilist Blues" is still above and beyond the rest of the album, but the rest is pretty good pop metal in a time where that's extremely scarce.
Yes, for real.
I think Charlotte Adigéry is more interesting overall, but Lil Nas X is a close second as to who I'm more intrigued to see what they do next.
Think about it. A 19 year-old:
But this unparalleled success presented a problem: How do you follow up something that is...well, for one, still going? Usually a song like that (which has "fad" written all over it) would have burned itself out by then. You'd dump the EP out the second it falls off #1, or at least the second single. But in this case, it'd already been three months and to not have a whiff of new material was a scary prospect. So in week thirteen of "Old Town Road"'s epic run, we got the 7 EP.
Which is why it's weird that this project doesn't sound rushed or forced. And aside from "Rodeo" (kind of), it doesn't really follow the formula of what made him a success in the first place. It doesn't blatantly try to associate itself with the Cowboy Trap thing much at all. There's a dark synthesizer song, a couple of alternative rock jams, a jazz-club trap thing and a lo-fi closer. This guy wants to make music. (That seems weird to say of a musician, but hear me out.)
I saw a making of video with the producers of "Panini". After they showed him "Rodeo" (the song on here with Cardi B that kind of tries to continue the cowboy thing), Lil Nas X asked them "Okay, now what's the weirdest thing you've got?" That right there tells me this kid is in music for the right reasons. He wants to make art. And he knows that right now he has the ability to do whatever he wants, and that window won't be open forever. That told me what I needed to know about him and why he's doing this and it gives me a lot of hope for his future as an artist. (And it turns out "Panini" was the bigger hit anyway, spending a couple weeks in the top 10, so that also gives me hope that people will follow his more artsy sounding stuff and not just expect memes and trap from him.)
It seems destined to be when you look back on it: Lil Nas X is a 19 year old who turned 20 in 2019. It was his time. And I hope it continues to be.
I don't actually remember a lot about this EP come to think of it, except that it's a warm, wet cocoon to bathe in and it's hella soothing, even if it's pretty melancholy. "U Ouchea" should have maybe been ranked higher on my Top 20 Songs list because I love that one to death.
I don't actually remember much of anything about this album either, even after listening to it again recently, except that it has low, growly synthesizers, heavy drums and angry saxophone and sounds sort of evil.
A boogie woogie blues album that disintegrates into a chill electronic dystopia by the end (chill as in cold and unfeeling). It actually took awhile to come around to this album, but in the end I found it quite enjoyable.
This shit's rad. That's it, that's the tweet.
The most human album of the year. I really needed to hear a voice that was trying to deal with the pressures of being a human being in a relatable way because holy fuck I've been drowning for years now, and this scratched that itch. It also doesn't hurt that the album sounds like the best kind of black 70's music, rich and lavish but also lived in and full of feeling. This is soul about the tribulations of the actual human soul.
Aphex Twin "Peel Session 2"
Better Oblivion Community Center
Black Belt Eagle Scout "At The Party With My Brown Friends"
Bruce Hornsby "Absolue Zero"
Carly Rae Jepsen "Dedicated"
Cave In "Final Transmission"
Clinic "Wheeltappers And Shunters"
The Damned Things "High Crimes"
Death Cab For Cutie "The Blue EP"
Diamond Construct
E-40
Emily King "Scenery"
Emma Bunton "My Happy Place"
Employed To Serve "Eternal Forward Motion"
Famous Last Words "Arizona"
Fidlar "Almost Free"
Flotsam And Jetsam "The End Of Chaos"
Greensky Bluegrass "All For Money"
Guster "Look Alive"
Half-Alive "Now, Not Yet"
Holly Herndon "Proto"
Infinity Shred "Forever, A Fast Life"
Ingrid Michaelson "Stranger Songs"
Injury Reserve
Jay Som "Anak Ko"
Jetty Bones "-"
Jimmy Edgar "Zoospa"
Jinjer "Macro"
Keyes N Krates "A Beat Tape For Your Friends"
Korn "The Nothing"
Kublai Khan TX "Absolute"
KXM "Circle Of Dolls"
Lizzo "Cuz I Love U"
Luke Temple "Both-And"
Marc Ferch "[Cube] EP"
MC Chris "#Mcchrisisgoodmusic"
Mdou Moctar "Ilana (The Creator)"
Melissa Etheridge "The Medicine Show"
Method Man "Meth Lab Season 2: The Lithium"
The Midwest Beat "Incantations"
Monstercat "Instinct Vol. 3"
Murder Generation
Nightmares On Wax "Back To Mine"
Quayde LaHue "Love Out Of Darkness"
Qveen Herby "EP 5"
Qveen Herby "EP 6"
Potsu "Ivy League"
Reel Big Fish "Life Sucks...Let's Dance!"
Rival Sons "Feral Roots"
Rose Of The West
Roses Gabor "Fantasy & Facts"
Sarah Bareilles "Amidst The Chaos"
Slipknot "We Are Not Your Kind"
Smoulder "Times Of Obscene Evil And Wild Daring"
Soilwork "Verklighteten"
Someone "Airspace"
Starbomb "The Tryforce"
Sunwatchers "Illegal Moves"
Tarja "In The Raw"
Yorushika "So I Quit Music"
NOTES:
- This section is 60 entries long. That's enough albums to be fifth on the most albums in a single year list. If this was it's own year, the album of that year would be Diamond Construct. I think. There's a lot to deal with here.
- I honestly don't know what happened to my opinion of Lizzo. I remember thinking this was a lock for the top 20, maybe even the top 10 all year, and then I listened to it again a few weeks ago and realized I only like three songs on the whole thing. Put it up to six if we're talking the deluxe edition (which we are) and it's good enough to be okay.
PRETTY GOOD:
Alice Cooper "Breadcrumbs"
Alice Merton "Mint"
Andrew Bird "My Finest Work Yet"
Angelique Kidjo "Celia"
Arlo Parks "Sophie"
Big Wreck "...But For The Sun"
Bleached "Don't You Think You've Had Enough?"
Car Bomb "Mordial"
The Chemical Brothers "No Geography"
The Comet Is Coming "The Afterlife"
DaBaby "Baby On Baby"
DaBaby "Kirk"
Destrage "The Chosen One"
Dream Theater "Distance Over Time"
Dua Saleh "Nur"
Foals "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part 1"
The Japanese House "Good At Falling"
Jeff Williams "RWBY, Vol. 6 (Music From The Rooster Teeth Series)"
Jinjer "Micro"
John Mayall "Nobody Told Me"
Jordan Rudess "Wired For Madness"
Kayo Dot "Blasphemy"
Kedr Levansky "Your Need"
L'Resorts
MC Frontalot "Net Split, Or The Fathomless Heartbreak Of Online Itself"
Moon Tooth "Crux"
The New Pornographers "In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights"
Ninja Sex Party "Under The Covers, Vol. III"
Offset "Father Of 4"
Otoboke Beaver "Itekoma Hits"
Possum "Space Grade Assembly"
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets "And Now For The Whatchamacallit"
Revenge Of The Dreamers III
Sacred Reich "Awakening"
The Shanghai Restoration Project "Flashbacks In A Crystal Ball"
Stella Donnely "Beware Of The Dogs"
Sudan Archives "Athena"
Sungazer "Sungazer, Vol. 2"
Thank You Scientist "Terraformer"
311 'Voyager"
Vanishing Twin "The Age Of Immunology"
Weezer "The Teal Album"
NOTES:
- As ashamed and surprised as I am to have all of music at my fingertips and still Dream Theater's least worst album of the decade [citation needed], Offset's solo debut and Alice Cooper's random-ass EP, which features a straight-up cover of "Devil With A Blue Dress" (and is still somehow the best thing he's put out since Dragontown; at the age of 72) all made it relatively high in the pecking order is kind of embarrassing.
- Say what you want about "The Teal Album", but it at least sounds like Weezer are having fun being Dad-lame. I can kind of get behind that.
- If you would have told me Big Wreck, KMFDM, Joe Jackson, John Mayall, 311, Aphex Twin Bruce Hornsby, Guster, Melissa Etheridge, Tarja and other blast from the past I never really gave proper attention to before would be populating my 2019 Albums list I would have honestly believed you. The world is upside down and every day feels like opposite day.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Alessia Cara "This Summer"
Alice Smith "Mystery"
Aly & AJ "Sanctuary"
The Atomic Spins "Mission 2"
Bad Religion "Age Of Unreason"
Barrie "Happy To Be Here"
Black Stone Cherry "Black To Blues, Vol. 2"
Charlotte Adigery "Yin Yang Self-Meditation"
Charlotte Adigéry "Zandoli"
Clipping "There Existed An Addiction To Blood"
G Flip "About Us"
Jealous Of The Birds "Wisdom Teeth"
Jose Gonzales & The String Theory "Live In Europe"
Jouis "Mind Bahn"
Kongos "1929, Pt. 1"
Kongos "1929, Pt. 2"
Lady Cannon "Fortune's Darling"
Le SuperHomard "Meadow Lane Park"
Little Kruta "Justice"
Malibu Ken
Marika Hackman "Any Human Friend"
Marrow "Look Outside"
MC Lars & Mega Ran "The Dewey Decibel System"
Morglbl "The Story Of Scott Rotti"
Netherlands "Green Lips And Lightning"
Snarky Puppy "Immigrance"
Tank And The Bangas "Green Baloon"
Trash Kit "Horizon"
NOTES:
- If not for the songs being too catchy (i.e.: getting stuck in my head for weeks and not leaving me alone) that Alesia Cara EP would have been #20 instead. And I didn't even like Alesia Cara before this.
- Barrie had two songs ("Darjeeling" and "Clovers") that I'm shocked didn't make my top 20 this year. They're warm pats of butter to melt your icy heart. The rest of the album is...perfectly fine. I enjoyed listening to it but...I don't remember anything outside of those two songs. But they're so good they elevate the project to "Honorable Mention" status.
- Good to see Black Stone Cherry stopped sucking. I haven't liked anything they've done since 2008, so this EP is a hearty step in the right direction.
- If I was going to give anyone an "Artist You Need To Watch" award to, it would be Charlotte Adigéry. Both her releases this year were out there in a Bjork way, but not completely impenetrable in a Bjork way. And "Yin Yang Self-Meditation" is the sound of an artist getting real naked about their thoughts and feelings in the form of trying and failing to meditate/teach others how to meditate. Her music is something special and I can't wait to see what she does next.
- Clipping's album has an incredible concept and some stunningly great songs, but it's also full of ambient noise and bullshit distracting from the proceedings (especially when those touches are meant to set the stage, not obscure it from view). That, plus enough bad guest verses and I had to take it out the top 20.
- Little Kruta's "Justice" is a chamber music cover of Metallica's "...And Justice For All" with all women vocalists. It's a completely different take on the material than you'd expect.
- I'm still flabbergasted someone in 2019 wrote a rap song about Rick Kasso, but here comes Malibu Ken (Aesop Rock & Tobacco). I remember reading about the "Say You Love Satan" killing in a book from the same name (when I was in detention in early 1997). The murder happened in '84. But then I looked up Kasso on Wikipedia, and not only are there like two dozen songs about this, but it's the second time Aesop Rock did a song about it. (I also found out the book Say You Love Satan was mostly fictional and plagiarized from Rolling Stone. So there's that.)
- Marika Hackman's backing band is deceptively good. If you check that album out, once you absorb all the sweet hooks, listen to what the band is doing.
THE TOP 20
20. Pound "👀"
What if Lightning Bolt made a different record? Like, seriously. What if? Not gonna happen, but we have Pound now, who add sludgy goodness into the mix and some different rhythms 'midst there haphazard spasms to make the whole thing fresh. (Yes, the album title is an emoji, and yes the song titles are all unpronounceable strings of Xs, +s, -s, _s and =s.)
19. Qveen Herby "EP 7"
18. Tropical Fuck Storm "Braindrops"
If Solange's "When I Get Home" was all the right ingredients gone wrong, this album is the complete opposite. For real, it shouldn't work. No part of this should work. It's like a triple fried egg sandwich with chili sauce and chutney. The ingredients? All wrong. But put them together? Oh man. "The Planet Of Straw Men" and "Who's My Eugene?" were both tough cuts from my Top 20 Songs Of 2019 list. The title track is pretty boss too. Truth be told, there are some lulls in this album, but as a story and as a vibe, I think it holds together.
17. Little Simz "GREY Area"
For all the lyricists out there, not a lot of them connect for me anymore. Little Simz does because I think she's more human than power point presentation or special effects show. It's simple but with plenty of flavor sprinkled in to make the album delectable.
16. Joe Jackson "Fool"
15. White Denim "Side Effects"
Just a random-ass rock record, but I really liked it. It's solid, all the songs connect, it has teeth, the production is good, it's not too aggro or dour or depressing, it's upbeat, which is rare enough...The Side Effects of listening to this for me are bobbing my head and saying "Deece."
14. Tycho "Weather"
Did NOT expect this to rank so highly, but on second listen, it just clicked. Tycho with vocals is just plain better.
13. The Doubleclicks "The Book Was Better"
I love The Doubleclicks. They're kind of a musical safe space for me. When I need to not feel...the world right now, one of my go-tos is them.
12. Patricia Taxxon "The Best Day"
11. KMFDM "Paradise"
I'm just as surprised as you are. I've never even been a KMFDM fan. And when the album starts with a song going "Kill motherfucker kill motherfucker motherfucker kill" or whatever, you don't have high hopes for it. But after second listen, it has an attitude, a satire of the current world and a devil may care aire about it that is sorely lacking. It's not quite edgelord shit, though it skirts the line. It's 90's as fuck, but I think it's time to reclaim nostalgia from the corporate clutches anyway. I don't give a shit if everything is stuck in the past, I don't care if they're trying to sell it back to me, as long as I can experience the things I still like in a way where I'm not being used, let's fucking GET it. And this album has it.
10. Bring Me The Horizon "Amo"
Speaking of bands I've never been a fan of, holy shit did this come out of nowhere for me. I'd have probably been more into it if not for seeing an interview/kind of knowing these guys are really butthurt about the things they're trying to play off as inconsequential in the lyrics, but the songs are really good. Industrial Pop Metal that somehow sounds fresh in it's own weird way? Sure, I'll take it. The snotty attitude also cuts both ways, as some of the lyrics actually sound kind of cutting. "Nihilist Blues" is still above and beyond the rest of the album, but the rest is pretty good pop metal in a time where that's extremely scarce.
9. Lil Nas X "7"
Yes, for real.
I think Charlotte Adigéry is more interesting overall, but Lil Nas X is a close second as to who I'm more intrigued to see what they do next.
Think about it. A 19 year-old:
- Licenses a beat from a 23 year-old Scottish producer (with XXXTentacion dreds), who
- Sampled track 38 of a Nine Inch Nails ambient drone double album
- He turns it into a Country-Trap song
- It goes viral on Tik-Tok,
- It gets so big it actually charts on Billboard
- It gets on the Country Chart
- Nashville's music establishment gets it removed from the chart for "Not being Country enough" (see Marshmello & Kane Brown's electro pop song which is one of the biggest "Country" hits of all time to see why this is hypocritical)
- Lil Nas X's management get Billy Ray Cyrus on the remix within a few days of this announcement, it drops the same week, and
- Shoots immediately to Number One, where it stayed for nineteen weeks. Longer than any other song in history.
But this unparalleled success presented a problem: How do you follow up something that is...well, for one, still going? Usually a song like that (which has "fad" written all over it) would have burned itself out by then. You'd dump the EP out the second it falls off #1, or at least the second single. But in this case, it'd already been three months and to not have a whiff of new material was a scary prospect. So in week thirteen of "Old Town Road"'s epic run, we got the 7 EP.
Which is why it's weird that this project doesn't sound rushed or forced. And aside from "Rodeo" (kind of), it doesn't really follow the formula of what made him a success in the first place. It doesn't blatantly try to associate itself with the Cowboy Trap thing much at all. There's a dark synthesizer song, a couple of alternative rock jams, a jazz-club trap thing and a lo-fi closer. This guy wants to make music. (That seems weird to say of a musician, but hear me out.)
I saw a making of video with the producers of "Panini". After they showed him "Rodeo" (the song on here with Cardi B that kind of tries to continue the cowboy thing), Lil Nas X asked them "Okay, now what's the weirdest thing you've got?" That right there tells me this kid is in music for the right reasons. He wants to make art. And he knows that right now he has the ability to do whatever he wants, and that window won't be open forever. That told me what I needed to know about him and why he's doing this and it gives me a lot of hope for his future as an artist. (And it turns out "Panini" was the bigger hit anyway, spending a couple weeks in the top 10, so that also gives me hope that people will follow his more artsy sounding stuff and not just expect memes and trap from him.)
It seems destined to be when you look back on it: Lil Nas X is a 19 year old who turned 20 in 2019. It was his time. And I hope it continues to be.
8. Christelle Bofale "Swim Team"
7. The Comet Is Coming "Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery"
I don't actually remember much of anything about this album either, even after listening to it again recently, except that it has low, growly synthesizers, heavy drums and angry saxophone and sounds sort of evil.
6. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard "Fishing For Fishies"
5. Babymetal "Metal Galaxy"
This shit's rad. That's it, that's the tweet.
4. Michael Kiwanuka "Kiwanuka"
The most human album of the year. I really needed to hear a voice that was trying to deal with the pressures of being a human being in a relatable way because holy fuck I've been drowning for years now, and this scratched that itch. It also doesn't hurt that the album sounds like the best kind of black 70's music, rich and lavish but also lived in and full of feeling. This is soul about the tribulations of the actual human soul.
3. Devin Townsend "Empath"
The only thing that's kept this off the number one is the last 26 minutes. I feel like a more focused closer would have stuck the landing and maybe Devin Townsend would have another album on my decade list (spoilers), but instead we got a nothing-ass two minute interlude and a meandering twenty-three and a half minute five part deluge that didn't really coalesce into much for me (except that one Pantera sounding part; that was cool).
The rest of the album is rad as shit, I stand by that. Townsend found a way to seamlessly blend happy, major key orchestral music and brutal metal. And given the journey from Strapping Young Lad to something like Deconstruction and now to this you can really see his growth as a person. A growth not a lot of people put on public display, but being the guy does art for a living, we get to see this change from confused, angry, drug-addled 20-something to introspective family man to someone who seems at peace with his world and the expectations that might be thrown at him from his past, present and future.
I'd recommend this album to anyone who is a fan of modern hip hop or R&B, a fan of introspective art, a fan of breakup albums, a fan of minor key vibes and occasional bangers, of vocally obscured guest verses... (Solange was on track three and I didn't even know it was her; throws my theory about negative sympathetic vibration out the window...) This deserves all the critical accolades and chart success it got. It's the real deal.
But I don't feel connected to it.
Up until the day before I uploaded this, this was number one. But try as I might, I can't write anything about this album. I thought to myself: "Why don't I just listen to it again and react to it or something?" And the thought of listening to it just...I couldn't make myself do it. If I can't make myself listen to an album that I've really liked each time I've heard it, that I initially gave four stars, that I was about to give number one for 2019...something's not right. There's a big red flag.
Truth be told, I don't feel a connection to any album this year. Not really. Songs? Hell yes, all 56 songs I threw in the mix to make the Top 20 and probably dozens more hit me where I live and continue to do so, but I think albums are kind of...over. I dunno, maybe that's temporary. But I'd way rather listen to a mix than a full-length album or EP.
So what the hell do I do? Chicken out and not make a number one? Fuck that, been there done it, felt lame. No. I looked at the top 10 and found an album, maybe the only one I feel like going back to after this exhausting deluge, and it's kind of the most simple in a way:
The only band I'm actually into into coming out of this mess of a year is King Giz. I still want to hear more from them and hear this shit again. If that doesn't tell you what number one is, I don't know what will.
This is the band's thrash metal album (also their 15th full length since 2011), which is also about the environment, but more about being way too late to save it and things reaching their terrifying, inevitable, calamitous conclusion. Judging by what's happening to their homeland of Australia right goddam now, the future is sooner than we think.
Okay! Let's get our pizza and get the fuck out of here! (That's an inside joke only two of my friends who probably aren't reading this will get.) Up next in my final four for the decade that already ended (but feels like it's still happening) is the Top 100 Songs Of The 2010's! I'll try to get it out in a week, but no promises because, y'know, life. Keep living!
The rest of the album is rad as shit, I stand by that. Townsend found a way to seamlessly blend happy, major key orchestral music and brutal metal. And given the journey from Strapping Young Lad to something like Deconstruction and now to this you can really see his growth as a person. A growth not a lot of people put on public display, but being the guy does art for a living, we get to see this change from confused, angry, drug-addled 20-something to introspective family man to someone who seems at peace with his world and the expectations that might be thrown at him from his past, present and future.
2. Tyler, The Creator "Igor"
I'd recommend this album to anyone who is a fan of modern hip hop or R&B, a fan of introspective art, a fan of breakup albums, a fan of minor key vibes and occasional bangers, of vocally obscured guest verses... (Solange was on track three and I didn't even know it was her; throws my theory about negative sympathetic vibration out the window...) This deserves all the critical accolades and chart success it got. It's the real deal.
But I don't feel connected to it.
Up until the day before I uploaded this, this was number one. But try as I might, I can't write anything about this album. I thought to myself: "Why don't I just listen to it again and react to it or something?" And the thought of listening to it just...I couldn't make myself do it. If I can't make myself listen to an album that I've really liked each time I've heard it, that I initially gave four stars, that I was about to give number one for 2019...something's not right. There's a big red flag.
Truth be told, I don't feel a connection to any album this year. Not really. Songs? Hell yes, all 56 songs I threw in the mix to make the Top 20 and probably dozens more hit me where I live and continue to do so, but I think albums are kind of...over. I dunno, maybe that's temporary. But I'd way rather listen to a mix than a full-length album or EP.
So what the hell do I do? Chicken out and not make a number one? Fuck that, been there done it, felt lame. No. I looked at the top 10 and found an album, maybe the only one I feel like going back to after this exhausting deluge, and it's kind of the most simple in a way:
1. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard "Infest The Rats' Nest"
This is the band's thrash metal album (also their 15th full length since 2011), which is also about the environment, but more about being way too late to save it and things reaching their terrifying, inevitable, calamitous conclusion. Judging by what's happening to their homeland of Australia right goddam now, the future is sooner than we think.
Okay! Let's get our pizza and get the fuck out of here! (That's an inside joke only two of my friends who probably aren't reading this will get.) Up next in my final four for the decade that already ended (but feels like it's still happening) is the Top 100 Songs Of The 2010's! I'll try to get it out in a week, but no promises because, y'know, life. Keep living!
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