I spent 2019 on the road. From the US/Mexico border to London and Paris. From Los Angeles to the Arctic Circle. I spent several months in Geneva, traveled to Stockholm and Uppsala, to Barcelona and Lyon. I visited family in Seattle and Stockton and South Carolina. I took in the waters in the French Alps, celebrated at a wedding with friends in the shadow of the Golden Gate, and covered a World Cup. And through all that, I spent a lot of time on trains and buses and planes, earbuds in place, sharing my journey with all these wonderful songs. In many cases, a given song immediately evoke a specific place. For me, Young Enough is the soundtrack of the French metro. Hymn means sitting on a tram in Geneva on a snowy night going past the Cornavin station. Fleur is a crisp spring morning in Washington running amongst the falling cottonwood fluff. Venice Bitch, wonderfully, takes me back to Venice itself when we ducked into a store on Abbot Kinney and heard it playing.
The connection between sound and memory is powerful, and a big part of what makes music such an important force in our lives. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a chance to travel so widely and to see so much. And I’m grateful to have these songs to accompany those memories, to refine them, to lock them into place. Music is truly a blessing.
As always, these are just my favorites. I make no claim that they were objectively the best. One song per artist.
50. Warranty – Meat Puppets
The last Meat Puppets record I bought was a Meat Puppets II, which I found in the used bin in…probably around 1996. So it was a pretty big surprise to find the original lineup back together, and putting out a pretty damn good record!
49. Dylan Thomas – Better Oblivion Community Center
I was beyond excited about the collaboration between Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, but ended up pretty disappointed in the album overall. This song, however, absolutely lived up to my hopes.
48. Sweet but Psycho – Ava Max
I still haven’t settled whether I think this song is problematic, reappropriation, or a problematic reappropriation. It’s a pure banger, though, and I think it’s well-intentioned so I’m inclined to be generous.
47. There Is Peace Beyond – Nox Vahn feat. Mimi Page
Mimi Page has made my year-end list just about every year of this decade, and 2019 is no exception. This song is a collaboration with Nox Vahn who brings a chill dance beat which adds an intriguing new layer to her typically gorgeous atmospherics.
46. Going To Brighton – Fresh
Pop punk doesn’t have a lot of range, but when it’s good it’s so good. This song is so good.
45. Special Times & Places – AKSK
All I know about this song is that it was on a compilation called Chill Pill. Which…yeah, you definitely get what it says on the tin. This is music for laying back and blissing out.
44. Something Blue – Ellis
It feels like it’s being played on a stereo behind a closed door. A tempest of emotions barely disguised by distance, but slightly washed out in the process. It’s perfectly fitting for a song about teenage self discovery and pain.
43. Motivation – Normani
Ariana Grande and Max Martin were co-writers on this track, and you can definitely hear those elements. But the song ultimately leans most heavily on Normani’s vocal performance, which is more than up to the task. And on those insouciant horns.
42. Cleo – Rapsody
A vicious assault on the sexism and racism of the music industry–which is all the worse because it’s often not ‘intentional.’ There are few more effective laundering techniques for exclusionary violence than to put the decision in the hands of an imagined consumer. Building the track around a Phil Collins sample is a subtle act of genius that turns a good song into a great one.
41. Gold ^ Pink – Lip Talk
The whole song is great, but it’s only in the final minute when the wave crashes that you realize how much tension she had managed to build up without you noticing.
40. Surrender – Chris Farren
A little gem of power pop, with great harmonies between Farren and Steph Knipe from Adult Mom. It’s about friendships that drift apart. In this specific case, it was apparently because of a breakup that fractured the friend group. But it’s really a universal feeling: the sadness of losing someone for reasons beyond both of your control, knowing that you’ll both get on with your lives just fine, but with some tiny little splinter of possibility removed.
39. I Know I’m Not the Only One – Tegan and Sara
The most interesting feature of Tegan and Sara’s album of interpellations of their own teenage demos is the way that it tracks their development from angsty, rebellious kids on the margins of popular music into mature arena-filling pop stars. These were always only two sides of the same coin, but we rarely get a chance to see the elements held in such perfect balance.
38. Good Luck Come Back – Caithlin De Marrais
This song strikes a very different vibe from her previous work. It’s certainly far removed from Rainer Maria but also pretty distinct from her previous solo work. A slinky little bass line centers the song, with a light electro touch providing texture. But it’s really all about her voice–gentle, introspective, resilient.
37. Killer – Palehound
“I wanna be the one who kills the man who hurt you, darling,” she whispers, and it already feels like a fait accompli. This is not a rage-filled song about retribution. It’s a cold-blooded statement of fact. Punishment will come and it will come soon.
36. Just Thought You Should Know – Betty Who
An achingly simple songs that could easily just come off as an early 90s retread, but is built with such care and precision that it shines like a beacon in the night. Imagine Amy Grant but less…you know…Christian.
35. Harmony Hall – Vampire Weekend
The more Ezra Koenig leans into the Paul Simon thing, the more I like him.
34. Seventeen – Sharon Van Etten
It feels like seventeen is the most commonly referenced age in the history of popular music. And for good reason. It’s the moment of peak transition. Not yet an adult, but hurtling toward what you will someday become. As hard as it is to be seventeen, it’s almost harder to reflect back on that age and to see it as continuous with your present self. If you could speak to that past version of yourself, what would you say? Would you try to warn them? Or would you just be crushed by the overwhelming sense of empathy for someone who has not yet lived and suffered and grown…and lost?
33. Best For You – Blood Cultures
A bizarre, twirling track with tinges of of psychedelia and dark pop. I have to admit I don’t fully understand why I like this song so much. It just sings to me.
32. Blame It On Your Love (feat. Lizzo) – Charli XCX
Lizzo just missed out on the list in her own right, but I’m happy to find a place for her on this wonderful collaboration with Charli XCX. The song is actually several years old, but this iteration is massively more fun than its previous ‘Track 10’ incarnation. What was once a weird atmospheric meditation has turned into a pure blissful bop.
31. Flowerhead – UV Rays
“You’re the only one who knows how weird I get when I’m alone” – the true test of intimacy.
30. Hard of Hearing – Radical Face
A fuller sound than we’re used to from Radical Face, and a warmer tone. It retains all of the organic beauty that generally characterizes his work, but blends in some digital elements. It details the process of finding your way through therapy–the weariness, the self-flagellation, the tiny steps toward getting better. “I’m not well, but I’m alright.”
29. Human – Molly Sarlé
The task of any great breakup song is to take something incredibly specific and personal and make it feel universal. Few have ever managed the task so well. I’ve seen this song on a really diverse range of year-end ‘best of’ lists, and you can really see why. It’s one of those songs that feels like an instant classic.
28. Drunk II – Mannequin Pussy
A sloppy, beautiful, heartbreaking song. The guitars erupt like lightning and the drums follow with a cascading wave of thunder.
27. The Best You Had – Nina Nesbitt
Pop songs about breakups are a dime a dozen, but very few manage to capture the complicated sense of shame that comes from being replaced. It’s a sort of humiliation that’s far worse than just being heartbroken.
26. prom dress – mxmtoon
Every great teen movie you’ve ever seen, all wrapped up in one three minute song.
25. Aute Cuture – Rosalía
She goes through about six different movements and seven or eight genres in the space of two and a half minutes. It’s flamenco-reggaeton-pop-house with a diva undertone, and it’s a pure banger.
24. Bimbo – The Coathangers
The verses are light and jaunty, with a deep undercurrent of sadness. The choruses are crunchy and loud, with a firm defiance. It’s a time-tested combination, but damn if it doesn’t work.
23. Paper Rings – Taylor Swift
I’m not sure I would have called a crunchy little jangle-rock song as the best song on the new Taylor Swift album, but it absolutely ended up that way.
22. Era Necesario – Natti Natasha
A top-class vocal performance. She spits out the lines with fire, but with such precision that you never worry about getting burned. Propped up by that thumping bass line, she is free to work her magic.
21. Four Leaf Clover – Dakota
An energetic burst of post-punk goodness, which slides into the groove and then barrels forward. The touch is light, but it hits so hard.
20. Near – Teen Daze
The eagle glides on the wind, rising slowly, until eventually it clears the mountaintop, takes in the wide expanse below. And then it dives.
19. La Vie En Rose – Lucy Dacus
Modernized covers of classics can so easily go wrong. They take something solid and make it ephemeral. This one emphatically does not fall into that trap. Rather than feeling light, it feels joyously weightless.
18. I Don’t Have One Anymore – The Sonder Bombs
The song itself is a lovely blend of brightness and snarl, but my favorite bit is the opening couple seconds which give the song its name: “My threshold for like, bullshit with men is…I don’t have one anymore.”
17. Venice Bitch – Lana Del Rey
The extend five-minute outro will divide opinions, but the heart of the song is revealed in the first 45 seconds, with a chorus that feels like the encapsulation of an entire decade.
16. Swear – Fanclub
‘New wave sensibilities through a dream pop filter’ is probably the only vibe capable of challenging ‘sad songs with ringing guitars backed by a soaring violin’ for the central place in my heart. This is a shining example of the former, so it’s no surprise that I love it.
15. Pretty – Girlpool
A perfect late 90s gauzy rock song. Beautiful, bright, dreamy.
14. Basking in the Glow – Oso Oso
In the grand tradition of The Get Up Kids, a song that delivers a jolt of emo punk powerful enough to wake even the most hardened of hearts.
13. Cedars – Desperate Journalist
A big warm song to make you feel happy and sad in perfectly proportional amounts. Her voice when she sings “another fraying jumper…” is one of my top five moments of the year in music. It just slays me.
12. Settling Down – Miranda Lambert
Another gem from Miranda Lambert, who is a legitimate national treasure. If The Weight of These Wings was about finding herself again, this song is about coming to accept that we’ll never find perfect answers. The human condition is to always be “one heart going both directions.” That’s both a doom and a blessing.
11. Whiskey Fight – Moving Panoramas
Some jangly guitars and an absolutely killer set of harmonies. This song just glides.
10. Hymn – Joy on Fire
Punk jazz with a heart of gold. “Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”
9. Bringing It Up – Jetty Bones
One of my big takeaways from 2019 is that emo is back and it is so much better this time around, now that women seem to be leading the charge.
8. We Killed Our Hearts – The Day
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a song that’s filled me with the same sort of unmediated joy as this one.
7. Look Around – Blankenberge
It arrives big and then just keeps growing and growing. By the end, you feel like you’re enmeshed in the Book of Revelations.
6. All Some Kind of Dream – Josh Ritter
The first time I heard this song, I literally broke down in tears. At its core, the song is a lament for the terrible condition of our politics–the way it makes us doubt our own humanity, given everything that’s done in our name. It succeeds as a call to our better angels, but succeeds even more in the final verse as a serious investigation of whether our better angels really are any better. Ultimately, it us to seriously consider whether we should be trying to redeem the American dream, or whether children in cages are in fact the encapsulation of that dream. It’s a hopeful song, but it’s an extremely skeptical sort of hope. And it couldn’t really be any other way.
5. Fleur – Emily Reo
I can’t help but wonder if Fleur Delacour was an inspiration for the name, because it would 1000% work as her theme song. It’s magical, otherworldly, soul-enriching.
4. Sit Here and Love Me – Caroline Spence
One of the most devastatingly beautiful songs you will ever hear. “I don’t need you to solve any problem at all, I just need you to sit here and love me.”
3. Pancho and Lefty – Townes Van Zandt
This song was recorded 46 years ago, and the world has already heard several versions from Van Zandt himself, not to mention hundreds of covers. So it’s hard to describe it as a ‘song of 2019.’ But damn if this unearthed demo doesn’t turn out to be the definitive version of the song. Stripping it down to the bare minimum allows the heart and soul to be laid bare, and somehow elevates what was already an all-time classic. RIP Townes.
2. Cotton Skies – WESTKUST
Roll down the windows and let this one blast out at full volume. Ride the storm until it lifts you straight up into heaven. This song rips. There’s really no other way to put it.
1. Young Enough – Charly Bliss
Threaded tightly around a single chord guitar line, it builds and builds, until it feels like there is nothing left in the world except this song. One purpose of music is to communicate something fundamental about the human experience. On that count, I’m not sure it’s possible to succeed more completely than Charly Bliss did here.