For me, the best albums of 2019 were defined by two big musical themes. On the one hand, a set of records that are big and boisterous–grounded in the energy and passion of youth. That’s counterbalanced by a set of records that are very much the opposite: filled with introspection, reflection, and a series of long slow breaths. It makes for a nice combination: immediacy tempered by distance, joy balanced with regret.
As always, this is a list of my favorites. I make no claim that these are objectively the best. They’re just the ones I liked the most.
20. Great Grandpa – Four of Arrows
Four of Arrows is a disconcertingly beautiful record, full of awkward time signatures, glistening choruses, and unworldly key changes. It fits vaguely into the folk-rock genre, in the same way that an octopus fits vaguely into the ‘sentient species’ genre. The statement is true, but it misses so much that it almost obscures more than it communicates. This is the grunge-folk record that Mark Lanegan wishes he could have written. It’s a dreamy pop record pierced with dread. It’s the sense of alienation that comes from returning home and feeling like everything is just so slightly different. It’s the sun coming up over the horizon after a long, cold night.
Highlights: Digger, Treat Jar, Mono no Aware, Split Up the Kids, Bloom
19. Alex Lahey – The Best of Luck Club
Another great record from Alex Lahey. It definitely feels like a sophomore record, a bit more mature than her debut, but also a little bit less rambunctious. For the most part, that’s a positive. I Need to Move On and Black RMs are both lovely ruminations on absence, longing, and seeing yourself reflected in someone else—in both positive and negative terms. Am I Doing It Right? feels more muscular, more centered than any of her previous songs. It reveals an artist no longer capable of getting by on pure adrenaline, now having to actually commit to the process. Isabella is a sly-but-not-that-sly ode to a vibrator with an absolutely gorgeous spiraling chorus. Still, despite all the great songs here, I can’t help but feel a little bit of sadness that there’s nothing that knocks my socks off like some of the best tracks on her debut. This is an extremely pleasing album, but I wouldn’t object to just a bit more fire.
Highlights: Black RMs, I Need to Move On, Isabella, Am I Doing It Right?
18. Caroline Spence – Mint Condition
Another damn fine record from Caroline Spence. For the most part, it ‘merely’ provides extremely competent, heartfelt country music. But in a few locations, she delivers an absolute wallop—something so good that it doesn’t just elevate itself, but actually reframes your experience of the whole album. Sit Here and Love Me is the best example. Sitting right in the middle of the album, it rips you apart so completely that the whole rest of the record ends up being about finding a way to put yourself back together. Long Haul is another highlight, offering a jangly ride through a long dark night. And the album-closing title track is another so-simple-that-there’s-nowhere-to-hide emotional rollercoaster.
Highlights: Sit Here and Love Me, Mint Condition, Long Haul, Angels or Los Angeles
17. Emily Reo – Only You Can See It
One of those wonderful albums that seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Reo is an artist bursting with ideas, who seems committed to covering a huge amount of space—in terms of both sonic and emotional range. The result is a mélange of songs that defy easy explanation. There’s a round of cheerleader chanting about toxic masculinity (Strawberry), a 70s-inspired torch song for her cat (Charlie), songs grounded in vocoder effects right next to songs that feel sparse and intimate. On the albums best song (Fleur), she mentions butterflies and it feels particularly apposite. Listening to this album is like wandering through a forest surrounded by an endless parade of butterflies. You want to capture the moment, but know full well that the beauty depends on its wildness. And so all you can do is stand back and let it all wash over you.
Highlights: Fleur, Balloon, Phosphenes, Strawberry
16. Rapsody – Eve
I’m not sure this is my favorite Rapsody album (that might still be 2013’s She Got Game), but it’s certainly her best. The scope of the ambition here is breathtaking—both in terms of content and in terms of style. The number of different genres blended here is truly impressive, and it’s all leveraged toward a powerful investigation of black femininity. The closest reference point for Rapsody remains Lauryn Hill—but where in the past that’s felt a bit more like mimesis than inspiration, this is the first time that she feels like a true colleague of Hill. Another way of saying that: her previous work sometimes seemed like it would have been more at home in the 90s than the present moment, while Eve is 100% a record of this moment. I don’t love every song. In fact, some of the wilder moves strike me as dissonant. But that only heightens my respect. This album pulls no punches, and is not concerned about how it will be received. It says what needs to be said, and damn if that isn’t necessary.
Highlights: Cleo, Maya, Reyna’s Interlude, Hatshepsut, Whoopi, Nina
15. bvdub – Explosions in Slow Motion
An extremely well-named album. It sounds exactly like what is promised on the box. Across four gorgeous seventeen minute tracks and a few interludes, Brock Van Wey mixes synths, pianos and strings, occasional bass notes, and light electronic touches to produce achingly sad sounds. It’s the aural equivalent of the images that NASA puts out of distant stars going supernova. It’s one of my most-listened records this year—perfect for reading, writing, or simply relaxing with the sounds of the universe washing through you.
Highlights: Us Again in Amber, Explosions in Slow Motion
14. Louise Burns – Portraits
A record that feels like it could have been released in 1998, when Natalie Imbruglia and the Cardigans and Sixpence None the Richer were filling the airwaves with songs in this register. But it also feels very much like a batch of songs that could have ended up on the soundtrack to a John Hughes music. And, unsurprisingly, all that means that Portraits equally feels indebted to the wave of electro-pop from the early 2010s. All of which is to say: this sort of music is actually pretty timeless, because there’s never really a bad time for a bright an beautiful pop record.
Highlights: Like a Dream, Everything You Got, Cry, Dream of Life
13. Heather Woods Broderick – Invitation
It lacks the defining song or explosive moment that characterize many of the records that ended up a little higher on the list. But for all that, it still ended up as one of my most-listened albums of the year. That’s largely down to the incredible atmospheric work. She builds an entire world over the course of 45 minutes. It’s a dark, quiet expanse filled with gorgeous strings, delicately plucked guitars, strange time signatures, and silky vocals. Broderick played with Efterklang for a few years back in the late 2000s, and that feels entirely appropriate. This reminds me a lot of their Parades album (one of my favorite records of 2007).
Highlights: Slow Dazzle, A Stilling Wind, Nightcrawler
12. Tegan and Sara – Hey, I’m Just Like You
It’s a wonderful conceit. Take a batch of songs they wrote two decades ago and re-record them now. It’s hard to think of a better way to build a retrospective on a career. But this isn’t just about reflecting on the past. There’s something deeply moving about these songs—their earnestness, their posture, their awkwardness—but they would be mere curiosities for a box set if that’s all that was to it. Fortunately, the relationship between past and present brings more than mere reflection. Rather than searching for a sort of Goldilocks balance between passion and maturity, they let the two sides fight each other a bit. The resulting creative tension produces something more than just a sum of the parts. It’s hardly the best Tegan and Sara album, but it is genuinely engaging, and one of their most interesting works yet.
Highlights: I Know I’m Not the Only One, Hold My Breath Until I Die, Keep Them Close ‘Cause They Will Fuck You Too, Hey, I’m Just Like You
11. Natti Natasha – IllumiNATTI
Every time I encounter a record like this, it reminds me just how little I actually know about music. Because while this is clearly drawing on all kinds of threads that I’m vaguely aware of, it also feels wonderfully alien to my pretty basic white indie guy tastes. Which means I completely lack the tools to actually explain what’s going on. It draws heavily on the reggaeton tradition—blending together a wide range of Caribbean sounds, including pure reggae (No Voy a Llorar) and that characteristic big bass thump (Era Necesario, Toca Toca), along with strong contemporary pop elements (Oh Daddy) and plenty of hip-hop and trap vibes as well (Independiente). Some tracks feel closest to traditional Spanish ballads (La Mejor Version de Mi). Digging in also introduced me to bachata music (Soy Mia, Quien Sabe), which I’m now completely fascinated with.
Ultimately, I have no idea where IllumiNATTI fits within the larger trends of these genres. All I really know is that it absolutely slays.
Highlights: Era Necesario, Toca Toca, La Mejor Version de Mi, Soy Mia, Te Lo Dije, Quien Sabe
10. Fanclub – All the Same
Six perfect new wave songs, all lined up in a row and ready for you to snack on them. This EP is sweet and pure, warm as a summer day, cool as a mountain stream. And as with all the best dream pop, there’s enough darkness hiding underneath the shiny exterior to keep you honest, but not so much that it will overwhelm you. It’s a record full of songs that feel like they must have been written decades ago, they feel so immediately familiar. I mean, how is it possible that no one has ever sung “I want to be yours every time” before?
Highlights: Leaves, Swear, Stranger, Reflection
9. Blankenberge – More
This would easily be the best shoegaze album in an average year. It’s only held off from that spot by an even better record that will show up a few spots higher. The general structure is a burbling bass line, matched up with propulsive percussion, and soaring dreamy vocals rising far up over the clouds. The best example is Look Around, which is one of the finest rock songs of the decade, but songs like Right Now, Fest, and Islands are also great examples. The album is bridged by two songs—Waves and Until the Sun Shines—which provide a moment for the languorous atmospherics to swell and the engines to reboot. It’s a lovely breather in the midst of the storm.
Highlights: Look Around, Right Now, Waves, Fest
8. Moving Panoramas – In Two
A wonderful follow-up to 2015’s One, and a record which took a pretty devastating personal journey to finally get made. It’s not a big change from their previous sound—indie pop songcraft that takes you back to the heyday of music blogs, fuzzy guitars that take you back to the 90s, and crisp production that feels timeless. There’s a bit of jangle here, a bit of surf rock there, and a dreamy weightlessness that ties everything together. If there’s a flaw, it’s in the lengths of the songs. Virtually every track is about four and a half minutes long, but it’s not clear they all needed all of that runtime. On the other side, it also feels like a missed opportunity to not let one or two songs off the leash to breathe a bit longer. It’s hard to point to any song that is specifically harmed by the consistency of run-times, but such a dreamy album deserves a bit more space for contemplative reflection.
Highlights: Whisky Fight, Dance Floor, On Hold, ADD Heart
7. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell
An album that inspired some intense thinkpieces, and then some even more intense thinkpieces about the responses to the first thinkpieces. My recommendation: skip all the psychoanalyzing and just listen to the music. Because the music is good! It’s still very obviously a Lana Del Ray record, so you can probably determine whether you’ll like it based solely on that. But it’s also very obviously her best record yet—more mature both sonically and stylistically, without losing any of the deftness of her older work. Her voice remains smoky as hell, and her lyrics retain an intense level of self-referentiality. But instead of being clunky or offputting, that combination blends together perfectly here to generate a powerful sense of reflexiveness. It’s genuinely affecting, in a way that I would never have guessed she’d be able to sustain for a full album. Which, to that point, things do run a little bit too long, with a decided lull in the middle. But the opening trio of songs are genuinely epic, and the final run that begins with California is almost equally as good.
Highlights: Venice Bitch, California, Mariners Apartment Complex, The Greatest, The Next Best American Record
6. Harmony Woods – Make Yourself At Home
A huge step forward for Sofia Verbilla, whose last record was one of my favorite albums of 2017. That one was pleasant, and more than a bit poignant. But this one is so much more—still resonant with her DIY origins, but bigger, bolder, richer, darker. More than anything, it’s absolutely full of life, and the beautiful, harrowing pain that comes along with it. Over the course of the album, she tracks a relationship from its messy beginnings to its codependent nadir, ending with an ambivalent moment of self-realization. There’s no triumph here, and barely a promise of recovery. As she says at the start of the album and again in the final track: “Seasons change, people stay the same.” And so the best you can hope is that processing the trauma is enough to make you stronger, without constructing so much emotional armor that you can never find a way to feel vulnerable again.
Highlights: The City’s Our Song, Best Laid Plans, Best Laid Plans II, Misled, That’s Okay
5. The Day – Midnight Parade
The debut record from The Day is almost the textbook example of perfect dream pop—shimmering, tender, infused with a deep sense of empathy and care. In it I hear everything I’ve ever loved about the mid-90s Sarah Records, joining forces with all the wonderful textures of the great Labrador Records bands of the mid 2000s. The result is a joyous symphony, which feels intimate and deeply personal, while also conveying a sense of universality. Like any good shoegaze record, it lends itself this sort of abstraction. At the same time, like any good jangle pop record, it’s a perfect accompaniment to an afternoon drive when all you want is a wash of joyous sound. But it’s also the sort of record that lends itself to cozying up by a fire with some good headphones. Because as you dig into every nook and cranny, you discover just how precisely all the details have been rendered. Every note, every drum fill, every slight pause…they’re all laid down with intention and care.
In the end the unifying theme of Midnight Parade is pretty simple: it offers a sense of deep melancholy tempered by a powerful and unrelenting faith in the potential for human beings to reach across barriers and find reasons to love. And, to be honest, it’s hard to think of a message that’s more important in 2019.
Highlights: We Killed Our Hearts, The Years, Berlin, Grow, Illuminate
4. Jetty Bones – –
I’ve spent a decade or more hoping we’d get a masterpiece from Hayley Williams. It’s never quite happened, but this EP from Jetty Bones more than makes up for it. These songs offer a consistent, devastating blend of pop fireworks and a deep sense of pain that is terribly specific to youth. The central theme: the moment when the deep cruelty of the world pierces your ironic detachment and makes you realize just how goddamn much a person can hurt. It’s a time-honored topic, but one that is terribly hard to avoid striking without descending into self-parody. There are few better examples of perfectly striking the balance than this record. One critical thing that helps the process: the decision to pack a full LP’s worth of hooks into just six songs. It won’t be for everyone, but if you’re in a place in your life where getting sucked into a maelstrom of emotions sounds like a good time, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend 18 minutes.
Highlights: All six songs, but especially Bringing It Up and The Rest of the Them
3. Teen Daze – Bioluminescence
An electronic album that feels entirely organic. Each song is a jewel, gaining more texture and meaning with each listen. Throughout, there is a feeling of restraint–perhaps distance–but it’s a distance that calls for resolution. Each track evokes a specific sense of time and place. A cool autumn night on the moors. A bright summer morning as the breeze rustles a set of wind chimes. A dark winter night, with wolves howling in the distance. This is a dance record, but also a record for quiet contemplation, and also a record to roll the windows down and blast on a summer day. The one constant is a sense of wonder.
Who knows but that on the lower frequencies, it speaks for us.
Highlights: Near, Endless Light, Ocean Floor, Longing
2. Westkust– Westkust
This album is big, messy, glorious, raucous. It’s everything you ever wanted from a shoegaze record and everything you ever wanted from a punk record combined together into something that exceeds all of its parts. Rampaging guitars, thumping drums, a rising wave of sound that peaks and then cascades down like a river pouring over the edge of a cliff. As you hang suspended within this waterfall, singer Julia Bjernelind’s voice bursts forth like the midday sun, casting a rainbow all around you.
Highlights: Cotton Skies, Drive, On the Inside, Adore, Daylight
1. Charly Bliss– Young Enough
This record is a bildungsroman for the ages. It’s about the little spaces that reside in between moments of transition. The feeling of no longer being young but still not being an adult. The sense of vertigo that you feel in between the decision to end a bad relationship and actually working up the willpower to do it. The indescribable pain of having been hurt but lacking the vocabulary to define how it was done. And it’s all wrapped up in a glorious bow of new wave synths and fuzzy guitar lines.
Guppy was a very nice record, but one that didn’t necessarily stick with me. Young Enough delivers on every promise from their first effort, and then some. These songs are glimmer like fireflies as they dance and weave around you. From the stately march of Blown to Bits to the pedal-to-the-metal acceleration of Under You to the bubblegum trauma of Chatroom to the beautifully pure finale The Truth. But at the center of it all is the title track, one of the most cathartic songs ever produced.
Highlights: Young Enough, Under You, Blown to Bits, Chatroom, The Truth, Hard to Believe
Honorable Mentions:
William Tyler – Goes West
I Am Snow Angel – Mothership
Charli XCX – Charli
Infinity Crush – Virtual Crush
Josh Ritter – Fever Breaks
Andreas Söderström & Rickard Jäverling – Adelsö
Barker – Utility
Dakota – Here’s The 101 On How To Disappear
Astronoid – Astronoid
Lily & Madeleine – Canterbury Girls