My top albums for 2019.. only 30 albums from me this year, i've spent so much more time with smaller bands this year, artists without albums and the like, plenty of great singles and EP's to accompany this, i'll probably put something together for those as well.
I consciously left Ghosteen out as well, I know i'll grow to love it, but it's still not quite penetrated yet, so decided against throwing it in for now.
Anyway, my top 30 of the year..
30. Metronomy - Metronomy Forever 
I’ve always found them really patchy, outside of English Riviera which is absolutely their best album. I can take or leave most of their albums as there is usually a handful of strong songs and then a bit of filler. This doesn’t compare to English Riviera, but had some fun with it, saw them live a few times this year as well and the songs came across great in that setting too. Probably a bit too long to be anything other than a good album.
29. The Divine Comedy – Office Politics 
Another band who I always dip in and out of, like some records, not bothered with others. But this is the third in a row I’ve enjoyed. The artwork is so naff, it initially put me off. But it’s just a slice of fun. Loads of different styles are flirted with and the whole thing seems to be very tongue in cheek. Perhaps not something I’ll return too that often, but good fun nonetheless.
28. Sleaford Mods – Eton Alive 
The last couple of albums and EP’s are what have drawn me into them over the last few years, although it seems a lot of fans were not overly keen on recent albums.. this one (despite the awful title..) carries on that line for me. They kind of just do what they do don’t they, completely unique. The sad thing being that their voice might become more and more pivotal over the coming years.
27. Kim Gordon – No Home Record 
A really nice surprise of an album, it goes all over the place, but never feels messy. Some of the production is even using outdated techniques (trip hop drums..) But it works and feels honest, still plenty to digest and I look forward to spending more time with it.
26. Stephen Malkmus – Groove Denied 
Continuing along the well-trodden path of me liking anything that Malkmus puts out, is this album billed as ‘Malkmus goes Electro’, which it isn’t really. He edges into those area’s, of course, and he manages to pull it off without sounding too silly. But he rounds the album out with some more traditional guitar songs, just evidently produced and recorded on a laptop at home, so sort of revisiting some of the more lo-fi elements of early Pavement.
25. Hash Redactor – Drecksound 
An album put out by Upset the Rhythm from a band I knew nothing about before, apparently featuring members made up from the Memphis garage rock scene (??) but with the rhythm section from NOTS. It’s pretty raw and dirty, filthy bass sounds that really remind of Steve Hanley from the Hex Enduction Hour era. Quite relentless post punk with shades of The Fall and even Protomartyr. Only grip is it’s probably a little samey, but doesn’t outstay it’s welcome too much.
24. Deerhunter - Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? 
I really like Deerhunter when they’re making skewered pop songs, which is exactly what this album is. Produced by Cate Le Bon and featuring some great pop songs. Perhaps let down a little by a few unfocussed moments to really lift it to be amongst their best, but I always enjoy the bands take on indie pop. Might have suffered from being one of the earliest records released this year, sometimes these albums fall away during the year, but I’ve come back to it often enough to keep it fresh in the mind.
23. Barry – Barry 
Barry are the English Terry; one of the members is named Bart.
Everything you need to know about them is in that sentence.
22. Vivian Girls – Memory 
Another surprise this year, when they were first around, I was never that arsed with the first couple of records, but really liked the third (and last from their initial time round), which seemed to disappear without a trace. Back together this year and this is so hooky. It’s still the same formula, reverb drenched, sixties girl group melodies over lo-fi garage rock, it’s simple, but really effective. Some killer hooks throughout.
21. FKA Twigs – MAGDALENE 
I’m still spending time with this, because it’s a pretty dense listen, but it just sounded great on the first couple of listens through. Shades of Bjork and Kate Bush in both the arrangements and vocally, but definitely something completely her own. There’s definitely more going on as each listen peels away another layer. As it’s only a few weeks old, with more time on my side, I could see it being higher in the list.
20. Dumb – Club Nites 
The latest Parquet Courts inspired garage rock band, on the first handful of listens, I enjoyed it, but found it a little too like PC and found the pacing a little off, but with a few real bangers (Beef Hits!) But I saw them live and they were fantastic and revisiting the album in that context was a real benefit to the listening experience. The PC references weren’t quite as obvious live and I think this helped me see beyond that and take the album for what it was.
19. Girl Band – The Talkies 
Their debut album came out in 2015 and completely passed me by, but the first single from this; ‘Going Norway’ really grabbed me. It’s quite a harsh sounding record, structurally and arrangement wise, it’s definitely doing it’s own thing. The drums play a huge part, the arrangements are very percussive but I don’t recall many moments on the record where you ever hear a standard ‘snare on 2’ beat. The guitars are essentially colouring around these arrangements, it’s quite unique. Seems like quite a polarising record as well. I think the singer has some serious mental health problems aswell, I think it took them so long to make because he spent time in a mental health institution and the lyrics are often quite abstract and at times almost impenetrable. Took some time, but ultimately rewarding.
18. Big Thief - Two Hands 
This was their second album of the year; I’ve tried all three of their previous albums and just had no joy at all, found them pretty dull and forgettable. I don’t know why I gave this one a go, perhaps because they just keep on getting great reviews and I just knew that I wasn’t hearing something. That turned out to be true, because this hit me pretty quickly after only a couple of listens. It’s not really doing anything knew, but it’s quite infectious. The production is lovely, some of those drum sounds remind me of Harvest era Neil Young. The melodies are superb on this aswell. I still haven’t managed to penetrate their album from earlier in the year, and I haven’t read much about them either. So probably more to discover.
17. Madlib & Freddie Gibbs – Bandana 
Frustratingly, some of Madlibs full length albums projects have been quite patchy in recent times, but this is a strong return to form. Again with Hip-Hop, the albums can often be too long and in need of a good filter, I enjoyed Pinata, the first collaboration between these two, but even that was too long. I love it when Hip-Hop artists make condensed and focused records, and this falls right into that category. Freddie Gibbs has also made some patchy records over the last few years and they seem to bring the best out of each other. Madlib brings his simple, crate-digging, choppy samples technique to the table and allows Gibbs to do his thing on top. Their recent Tiny Desk concert was also fantastic.
16. Priests – The Seduction of Kansas 
Their debut ‘Nothing Feels Natural’ from 2017, is one of my favourite records from this decade and full credit to them as a band that they tried to make something different, I don’t think they quite succeeded in what they were aiming for, the production is a little messy and flat, but I just like the fact they had the guts to try something a little outside their comfort zone. It’s not exactly different in a highly experimental way, they just tried some different production techniques etc.. They’re still a band that I just love the songs and I like what they’re about. Vocalist Katie Alice Greer seems like a really ballsy character and I love her lyrics and themes. The songs ‘Carol’ and closer ‘Texas Instruments’ are two of y favourite songs of the year. Plenty to like here, I think they just slightly missed what they were aiming for. They’ve also just announced they are taking an ‘indefinite hiatus’, which saddens me.
15. Michelle Blades – Visitor 
I stumbled across this album as I kept on seeing a sponsored advert for the lead single on Facebook, probably the only time Facebook’s algorithm has ever successfully recommended me anything. That song ‘Politic’ and its accompanying video were fantastic. I could find very little about her online and this album seems to have completely fallen under the radar in the US and the UK. I had to buy the vinyl direct from the labels bandcamp page and have it shipped from France. Musically reminds me a bit of Cate Le Bon’s ‘Crab Day‘ album, some songs have those spikey and spidery guitar parts and then there are some gorgeous, melodic heavy ballads with some weird pysch elements thrown in here and there. A really strong record. Would definitely recommend to Cate Le Bon fans.
14. Cate Le Bon – Reward 
Talking of which.. I’ve come late to Cate Le Bon, but this year it’s finally clicked. I actually spent a lot of time with Crab Day in the lead up to this coming out as I loved the initial teasers from this album, so by the time Reward was released, I was more versed in her stuff. I love that the arrangements on this are individually really simple and honest, but how she used varying instrumentation to make it sound complex and captivating, kind of like how Latin music works, with each instrument countering the other with simple repetitive motifs. Such a bold way to make a piano heavy weird pop record.
13. Little Simz – Grey Area 
This was the first great record of the year for me, got heavy rotation for the first few months. It’s an incredibly focused sounding album, there is a genuine thematic overture to the production and the lyrical themes. Not afraid to be heavy or poppy in equal turn. Some really edgy and grimey hip-hop beats followed up with a danceable r’n’b floor filler then next. My only gripe being that it’s a little top heavy, it does dip a little towards the latter end of the album, but probably because those opening five or six songs are so strong.
12. Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿ 
Has got to be one of the most endearing rappers out their at the moment. I love that this sounds like the complete opposite of Atrocity Exhibition, where that album revelled in it’s chaos, this just relaxes into a subtle groove. Q-Tip ‘executive produced’ this, and the cohesion is felt, he only actually produces four or five beats, but they are amongst the best on the record, credit to him for managing to find a fine balance between that classic hip-hop sound, but with a 2019 freshness that allows Danny to be in a more playful mood. Short and sweet as well, it’s over in 33 minutes. I’ve found myself coming back to this often.
11. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell 
I’ve always enjoyed the odd song here and there from Lana Del Rey, but always found a certain coldness to her albums whenever i’ve tried to dig deeper. Always seeme d like there was a certain veneer across her music, always felt the production sucked the life out of her music and probably because it was masking lacklustre songs. But this album feels a lot more honest and humble, it obviously still has a certain sheen to the production, but her voice is so much more upfront and the songs are generally really strong. I much prefer the more laid back, piano and vocals songs on the album, for the most part. This would be a top 10 or even top 5 on my list, if it didn’t suffer from a lack of editing. At over an hour, it’s far too long. There is really no need for the tossed off cover of Summertime to be on here and it definitely loses it’s way a little in the middle part of the album. However, the closing four songs are so strong, it does salvage it. It’s already been well lauded, but if this was a 45 minute album, with some of the fluff trimmed away, I think it would be near perfect
10. Tyler, the Creator – Igor 
Tyler has really upped his game over the last couple of years, Flower Boy was a huge step forward in artistry and revealed a far more focused producer, Igor carries that trajectory on. I like that this doesn’t really sound anything like Flower Boy, where that album had a more souldful R’n’B feel to it, this one has a darker, more synthy production feel throughout. Although stylistically it shoots all over the place, it’s credit to him that he manages to mould it into a fully digestible and cohesive whole. Love his Prince like use of vocal modulation, speeding up and slowing down his voice to find harmonies and how he actually sings across a lot of it, rather than rap. The beats are tight and playful and the vocals dexterous and fun throughout, I can’t wait to see where he goes next.
9. Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising 
It seems every year over the past few years an album comes along that is really similar in spirit to this. It’s a record that’s breaking no boundaries or doing anything new, but it’s just a well crafted and produced record with great songs and performances and it’s absolutely fine to be doing just that. It’s a record that could have been made in 1973, with strong nods to the singer songwriters of that period. Her voice is reminiscent of Karen Carpenter and she can really deliver a tune. It brings to mind a less conceited Father John Misty, whereas he often uses characters to deliver his narrative that might blur the lines between real and a distorted reality, Weyes Blood’ lyrics seem to come from a more honest and sincere place. I love the lush, sweeping string arrangements and her melodies and vocal deliveries throughout the entire album are gorgeous. Another album I’ve consistently come back to all year.
8. Matana Roberts – COIN COIN Chapter Four: Memphis 
This has been the late contender for me this year, came out of nowhere and I’ve been giving it a lot of time over the last few weeks. It’s an experimental freeform jazz record from a Chicago based Saxophonist. This is apparently the fourth chapter in a planned 12 part series. It’s an odd record, it kind of plays out as one long continuous piece, but it goes all over the place, there’s a definite meter or pulse that runs through the whole things and what you get is this pulse underpins the whole record, but then the instrumentals go off into different area’s and flourishes, like clouds of sound, only to fall back into the meter. It’s really quite remarkable, like anything of this sort, it takes some digesting, but well worth the investement.
7. Pozi – PZ1 
It’s really quite a feat how they manage to make a whole record with just drums, bass & violin and not allow it to become tedious. Jerky post punk from this TCOTU three piece, with a singing drummer who used to be in Dustin’s Bar Mitzvah. I fell in love with it instantly and listened to it a few times in a row. The first half is definitely stronger, ‘Watching You Suffer’ & ‘Yia’, being more straight forward catchy post punk songs, but ‘KCTMO’ is a wonderfully haunting take on Grenfell and shows that there’s far more to this band than spikey post punk. They’re already working on new stuff, so intrigued to see where they are able to take their sound, owing to the limitations on their instrumentation.
6. Thom Yorke – Anima 
Comfortably his best solo record, and probably some of his best forays into electronica on anything he’s done. He manages to find a real warmth in the arrangements and structures and his fantastic use of voice throughout, whether that’s multi-tracking harmonies on ‘Twitch’ or the monotone and melody devoid delivery on ‘Dawn Chorus’. It’s far less blippy and bleepy than the Eraser and overall, it feels closer to a Radiohead album than a solo record, ostensibly because of it’s grander sweep.
5. Fat White Family – Serf’s Up! 
Their best album yet, more ‘focused’ and ‘mature’ as pretty much every review pointed out, but in this instance, it’s absolutely true. The production is brighter and less muddy than on their previous album and they’ve been unafraid to hit those pop hooks throughout. Feels like a proper old school album, couple of big singles, ‘Feet’ being one of, if not my favourite, song of the year; and then padded out with great album tracks. Songs like ‘I Believe in Something Better’ which take a few listens to reveal themselves. Just looking throught the credits on the record, you can tell it’s a little bit more of a collaborative affair, though most of the writing credits are still shared between Lias & Saul, Nathan has taken on more writing duties and with the inclusion of multi instrumentalists Alex White (mullet sax guy) and Ben Romas-Hopcraft into the recording process (who both played with Saul in Insecure Men), it feels like a new lease of life was given to the songs.
Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains 
This record had two distinct lives this year, the initial month it came out, I got well into it having really not expected too much, what with Berman being away for 10 years etc.. obviously with everything he does, it’s almost always about the lyrics and how he’s always had a knack for writing incredibly simple, four chord, country tinged music to accompany them. This isn’t really very different except the production is certainly a lot slicker than anything he’s done before. One simple scan through the lyrics paints a bleak picture, but, as Berman has always danced on the line between melancholy and wit, my initial reaction to the words were that they appeared to be a cathartic exercise, especially after reading the couple of interviews he gave around the release of the record. The songs and a lot of the bleak themes seemed to document a turbulent 10 years for him yet it seemed that he’d worked through them especially supported by an abundance of humour littering the whole record (“if no-ones fond of fucking me, I guess no-ones fucking fond of me”) to almost caveat the darker moments. Then less than a month later he commits suicide and the words just take on a whole knew meaning, less a catharsis and more of a farewell? I don’t know, it’s a testament to his profound skill as a poet and to his understanding of the relativity of language that we’ll probably never know, but the world has lost one of its great lyricists and that is a heart breaker.
3. Wand – Laughter Matter 
Wand have had a slow metamorphosis that has culminated in this record, their early records veering from psych-rock to almost metal on ‘Golem’, but beginning with ‘Plum’ a couple of years ago and bridged with the ‘Perfume’ EP from last year, they started to move to more spacious a nuanced approach. The initial thing that strikes me with this is the space, the production is light and nuanced and the arrangements really take their time. I love all the sounds on the record, the way the drums are recorded and the use of guitars, often to make soundscapes that sit in the back of the mix and then there will be blasts of distorted mess. Pretty much every review you read around the record mentioned Radiohead and you can definitely feel that, Radiohead making guitar music though. The record didn’t seem to catch on that well with reviewers which at first I found odd, I was really expecting it to get a warm reception, perhaps it’s just a bit too long and is littered with a few instrumental sound passages that I can see might put people off, but I do like those moments and feel that the running order works really well because of it.
2. Richard Dawson – 2020 
His previous album completely passed me by despite being well received everywhere, but this one hit me straight away. From the opening bars of Civil Servant, from my very first listen, I knew I would love this. Those first initial listens through, everything just sounded a bit mad, the arrangements, the wailing, Iron Maiden-esque vocal squeals, the idiosyncratic guitar playing, it all just sounded mad; great, but chaotic. And then with repeated listens, the madness slowy subsides as it all begins to sync in and it begins to reveal a guanine tenderness. I saw him do a solo set live and this highlighted how much the guitar parts and melodies are intertwined, the same way that Malkmus constructs his melodies to co-exist with the melodies he’s playing on guitar, very much up ‘my alley’. And then on top you have those wonderful lyrics, a more potent diatribe on the minutiae of modern British living, I’ve not heard this year.
1. Black Midi – Schlagenheim 
It was never going to be anything else. I love this band so much, from the moment I first saw them, they were fully formed and confident and full of creativity and weirdness. As a live entity, they’re peerless (although I’ve seen them do a couple of bad gigs) and the fact they’re all so young is mind boggling, teenagers should not be this advanced. Had some trepidation before the release as I’d grown to know the songs live and was concerned they wouldn’t live up to their live incarnations, but they really managed to find a great balance between the requirements of a studio recording and the energy of the live band. The thing with the guys and other new bands of their ilk is that, they’re not three chord merchants (nothing wrong with that), they can really play and they’re ingenuity is what really drives them and despite what would see from the outside to be a bit of pretention, they actually have a sense of fun and free will in what they do, they remind me more of CAN than any punk band, when you see them live, they are not adverse to trying new things, extending songs and it always feels like they’re evolving, you never know what you’re gonna get. This is a wonderful debut, but the excitement is in what they can achieve next or where they will go.
