Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend (Photo: Michael Schmelling), Billie Eilish (Photo: Kenneth Kappello), and Denzel Curry (Photo: Julian Cousins)
The National, I Am Easy To Find
There’s always been a boozy quality to The National, a whiff of whiskey floating off the mournful vocals of Matt Berninger, but I Am Easy To Find is nothing if not sober. Credit the album’s robust roster of guest vocalists, which include Gail Ann Dorsey and Sharon Van Etten, as well as a lyrical focus that embraces the existential by blurring the past and present as deftly as it does the body and soul. These meditations are evident on thrumming, soul-piercing tracks like “So Far So Fast” and the title track, but the rollicking likes of “Rylan” and “Where Is Her Head” should satiate fans looking for the rock band that won them over three, four albums back. It’s the rambling, redemptive “Not In Kansas,” however, that serves as the album’s centerpiece; that Berninger can still find new, illuminating modes of vulnerability so deep into his career is a revelation unto itself. [Randall Colburn]
Helado Negro, This Is How You Smile
Helado Negro’s This Is How You Smile is like a calm, undisturbed ocean: reflective and shimmering on the surface, but with new depths to plumb with each listen. The electro-folk artist (whose real name is Roberto Carlos Lange) was inspired by the advice offered to those in the diaspora by Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” but his tender, inquisitive tracks like “País Nublado” and “Running” beckon rather than admonish. Lange creates gorgeous, otherworldly soundscapes to gently guide the listener away from their own perspective to better take in the experiences of others. But he pairs this sense of unmooring with engagingly straightforward lyrics and soothing synths to keep us all in his empathetic orbit. Full of Helado Negro’s most complex sounds to date, This Is How You Smile shows this is how an artist challenges himself while comforting others. [Danette Chavez]
Anderson Paak, Ventura
Anderson Paak’s Ventura is the retro manifesto of an artist who has truly hit his stride. With a sepia-toned sentimentality that hearkens to Motown’s heyday, Paak has established his serious cross-generational appeal with a seamless, groovy step toward a more widely identifiable sound. Ventura is undeniably about love—whether it be of the romantic sort or his unequivocal ode to Black resistance with the dynamic “King James.” Solid injections from André 3000, Jazmine Sullivan, Brandy, the late Nate Dogg, Lalah Hathaway, and Sonyae Elise elevate this lovely turn. However, it’s Paak’s collaboration with the iconic Smokey Robinson, “Make It Better,” that is most emblematic of just what made him such a smooth standout artist in the first place. Ventura isn’t just a return to form; it’s an improvement upon it. [Shannon Miller]
Orville Peck, Pony
Orville Peck, a pseudonymous crooner cowboy, only released his first album in March of this year, but the space that Pony occupies is suspended somewhere between 1950s country-rock and dreamy shoegaze. That timelessness is rooted in classic influences like Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, lonesome Western highways, and young love. But even a throwback song like “Roses Are Falling”—which features a spoken-word bridge beginning with, “You know, darlin’ …”—is pure reinvention. “Dead Of Night” moves between chilling falsetto and sultry baritone, with Peck reclaiming the queerness in hustler and cowboy imagery as he recounts a love lost. Many of Pony’s best songs subvert cliches of tough Western masculinity, so even if his influences are worn a bit on the sleeve, Peck’s unexpected approach to country music is cool water in a Nevada desert. And that deep fringe mask runs deeper than a gimmick, but even if it were one, Peck has the voice and vision to transcend it. [Laura M. Browning]
Pile, Green And Gray
While the spacious, open-ended vibe established on 2017’s A Hairshirt Of Purpose continues to evolve throughout Green And Gray, Pile’s seventh studio album, there are also tunes like “On A Bigger Screen” and “The Soft Hands Of Stephen Miller”—knock-down, drag-out tracks so harsh and brutal they’d be just as at-home on a Stnnng record. Which is to say, this is a Pile album at its best: Expansive and exploratory, finding strong touchstones in turn-of-the-millennium Midwest post-rock while fusing elements of country, blues, and post-punk in a heady, emotionally-fraught stew. Songs pivot from the verge of collapse to cathartic elegance, while frontman Rick Maguire continues to get rawer and more revealing with each lyric. “I can count on one finger the people that can hurt me now,” he confides on “My Employer,” and that intimacy permeates even the music’s fiercest moments. [Alex McLevy]
Pronoun, I’ll Show You Stronger
I’ll Show You Stronger might be Pronoun’s debut LP, but songwriter Alyse Vellturo isn’t new at this. A Berklee grad with experience in music engineering, management, and distribution, she possesses a deep knowledge of production that’s evident in the intricate, layered tracks of the album, a muscular collection of anthemic electro-rock. Songs like “Stay,” “Sadie,” and “You Didn’t Even Make The Bed” benefit from repeat listens, their hushed harmonies, emphatic loops, and defiant lyrics yielding new textures with every spin. But Vellturo’s songs remain approachable—cutting through the swell of her atmospheric tracks are dagger-like riffs that, on songs like “Run” and “Wrong,” climax with ecstatic solos. A thrilling debut album. [Randall Colburn]
PUP, Morbid Stuff
“I was bored as fuck, sitting around thinking of all this morbid stuff.” So begins one of the most exciting albums of the year, an 11-track Molotov cocktail of fire, bile, and cackling catharsis. Nobody can make rage and self-loathing as fun as the Canadian punks of PUP, whose singer overcame a hemorrhaging throat cyst to again shred his lungs asking, “How long will self-destruction be alluring?” That winking self-awareness works hand in hand with hyperbole and humor to both indulge and skewer humanity’s penchant for self-sabotage—“Bloody Mary, Kate And Ashley,” for example, literally folds Satan into one manic episode. “Kids” and “See You At Your Funeral,” meanwhile, embrace finality and apocalypse with a childlike giddiness. Is it a sustainable ethos? Oh, hell no. But it’s damn fun way to spend 30 minutes. [Randall Colburn]
Solange, When I Get Home
If 2016’s A Seat At The Table confirmed Solange Knowles as a creative powerhouse in her own right beyond any association with her more-famous sibling, its breakthrough success (her first No. 1 album on U.S. charts) seems to have yielded a creative freedom that defines her fourth album. A languid, jazz-dappled ode to Knowles’ hometown of Houston, When I Get Home borrows from Southern musical traditions for a sound that specifically references Houston culture (from street names to the “chopped-up” remix style of DJ Screw) but also reframes those touchstones for the next generation. Where A Seat At The Table was a statement, When I Get Home is far more of a mood, playing with repetition and tempo, and woven through with spoken interludes. Even the guest features from big names like Gucci Mane, Playboi Carti, and Earl Sweatshirt never overshadow the freeform vibe of what is clearly Solange’s distinct vision of what it means to be shaped and inspired by where we call home. [Tabassum Siddiqui]
Toro Y Moi, Outer Peace
When most of popular music revolves around making grand gestures and riding intense-but-brief waves of excitement, an album like Outer Peace feels like a breath of fresh air. Even though it contains some of the most immaculately produced dance-pop and alt-R&B we’re likely to hear this year, Chaz Bear’s sixth LP as Toro Y Moi rejects any sort of big, exaggerated statements—rather, its appeal is in its consistent, low-key pleasures. Even at the album’s most energetic, when the disco funk of “Who Am I” or “Ordinary Pleasure” are bumping, Bear plays it cool, striking the perfect balance between dance-floor extroversion and ambient reflection. True to its title, Outer Peace is a respite from a hyperactive, overhyped world. [Kelsey J. Waite]
Vampire Weekend, Father Of The Bride
“Hold You Now,” the first song on Father Of The Bride, augments a brief, bittersweet Danielle Haim duet with abrupt and distorted transitions, stray mic chatter, chirping birds, and a sample of Melanesian choir music from the soundtrack to The Thin Red Line. It’s beautiful, strange, and the ideal opening to the eclectic, odds-and-sods new album from Vampire Weekend. What’s unlikelier, that these Ivy League phenoms have become maybe the biggest name in indie rock, or that they’ve done so while growing more adventurous with each new record? Over 18 offbeat tracks, nearly half of which clock in under three minutes, Father Of The Bride tugs at the infectious essence of Ezra Koenig’s songcraft, working in his widest range of genre influences yet, from slide-guitar country to Auto-Tuned electronica to flamenco jazz. It isn’t as well-rounded as 2013’s effervescent Modern Vampires Of The City. But that’s partially because this once buttoned-up band seems to have embraced imperfection as an aesthetic value, taking unexpected turns down every harmony hall. [A.A. Dowd]
Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow
It’s doubtful any other album released in 2019 will be able to match the gut-punch immediacy of Remind Me Tomorrow’s opening couplet—“Sitting at the bar, I told you everything / You said, ‘Holy shit. You almost died’”—but the 10 tracks that follow do anything but dwell on the past. The pulsing beats and swooning synths that drive much of the record flit restlessly from style to style, the eerie wails of “Memorial Day” giving way to the lush goth-pop of “Comeback Kid” and the flawless ’80s Top 40 groove of “Seventeen.” But each of these searching musical cross-sections retains the deeper element of Sharon Van Etten’s slightly cracked experimentation and searching confessional lyrics, pulling the whole endeavor together and making it one of the most cathartic listens of the year. By the time she’s admitting “I don’t know how it ends,” on album closer “Stay,” you don’t want it to. [Alex McLevy]
Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising
Titanic Rising is a movie-mad album, its head floating miles above singer-songwriter Natalie Mering’s fingers as they dance across the keys of her piano. The record’s forlorn lyrics long for blissful oblivion, and its opulent production delivers just that, enveloping the listener in a protective bubble of sound. Anthemic, confessional songwriting in the Carole King mode keeps Mering grounded, at least for a little while, on the rousing “Everyday” and plaintive “Something To Believe,” but soon enough those songs, too, drift upward on effervescent arpeggios like the ones that raise Mering’s voice like a bathing beauty in a Busby Berkeley musical on the ethereal 4AD throwback “Movies.” Mering’s eyes are similarly turned toward the skies on the cosmic “Andromeda,” whose woozy slide-guitar wobble exemplifies the record’s overall vibe, akin to the floating sensation and hallucinatory waves that appear behind closed eyelids after a long day at the swimming pool. [Katie Rife]
Billy Woods & Kenny Segal, Hiding Places
Can you imagine calling an album Hiding Places and making that the cover? The whole thing is full of ghosts and trapdoors: The first track is called “Spongebob” and it is at least partially about the apocalypse, and then out pops a razor-wire electric guitar and it ends with a recording of someone’s bank account balance for $10.22. They’re all like that. Later on Woods will decree he doesn’t “want to see Nas with an orchestra at Carnegie Hall” like he’s the last sane man alive, furious he has to issue us this reminder. Woods’ music has always been, shall we say, severe, but he made a quantum leap forward on last year’s Paraffin (with Elucid, as Armand Hammer) that continues here. Kenny Segal’s beats are minimal and unexpected, full of death-rattle percussion and Burial-level nocturnality. [Clayton Purdom]
Jamila Woods, Legacy! Legacy!
With her 2016 debut, Heavn, Jamila Woods established herself as an essential presence in R&B, much more than an associate of longtime friend and collaborator Chance The Rapper. Jagjaguwar follow-up Legacy! Legacy! pushes its predecessor’s explicit political messaging in a more ambitious yet logical new direction. Each song honors a famous creative person of color, through whose lives Woods finds her sharpest lens. “Somebody’s daddy always laid out on the street, and for what?” she viciously protests on the woozy, blaring “Baldwin.” “Don’t ever let ’em knock the way you talk / The language you evolve, your natural genius,” she commands on “Octavia,” a song appropriately galactic and synth-y for one named after sci-fi pioneer Octavia Butler. Across the album, Woods’ crystalline voice ties together genres as diverse as the figures she is memorializing, and with each word she sings, she affirms her own legacy. [Max Freedman]
Young Nudy & Pi’erre Bourne, Sli’merre
Young Nudy is an objectively cool rapper: a) he sounds like Gucci Mane, b) he has an entire mixtape series named SlimeBall, and c) his mascot appears to be Chucky from the Child’s Play movies. But the appeal of his work, particularly the new Sli’merre, is not Nudy but rather producer Pi’erre Bourne, one of the most exciting beatmakers working today. Bourne is the sonic architect behind many of Playboi Carti’s most enduring tracks, and Nudy takes a similarly reverent approach, letting the flutes of “Mister” link up with its spring-loaded drums, and crooning softly over the spy-movie intrigue of “Extendo.” A full-length stretch of Bourne productions can feel like a playground, a funhouse, a Keita Takahashi video game, and the maturity charted over from the SlimeBall series to here is astonishing. And that Jamie Foxx vocal drop he peppers throughout his tracks might be the most sublimely silly flourish in contemporary rap. [Clayton Purdom]
Zelooperz, Dyn-O-Mite/Wild Card
In a review of last year’s excellent and infuriatingly Twitch-only Bruiser Brigade mixtape, this very publication called Zelooperz “a poor man’s Danny Brown.” Consider this an official retraction. While the Detroit emcee shares Brown’s occasional nasal inflection, they’re united much more by the elasticity of their flows, their taste in avant-garde productions, and their heart-rending biographical candor. Across two LPs so far this year, Zelooperz flexes his range. Wild Card is a stretch of dissonant, nightmare reveries, collapsing into reality with the devastating closer “52 Pick Up.” The more recent Dyn-O-Mite favors hard-knock boom-bap, with thick pockets of dust rising from the grooves. The most head-turning moment is probably “Easter Sunday,” which features Earl Sweatshirt’s only verse released thus far this year, but it’s “The Boys” which best illustrates Zelooperz’ talent. He raps like he was born inside the beat. [Clayton Purdom]
Non-LPs
LPX, Junk Of The Heart
On the four-song Junk Of The Heart, Lizzy Plapinger (a.k.a. LPX) delivers on the promise of her earlier work, announcing herself as a pop artist of the highest order. Since her very first single, “Tightrope,” Plapinger has pushed at the edges of pop music’s glossy strictures, her voice the means by which she adds a sometimes-harsh, sometimes-cathartically explosive grain of rough intensity to the massive beats and call-and-response anthems of her music. Each of these rock-pop songs brings something different, be it the liberatory, embrace-the-mistakes vibe of “Black & White,” the eternal adolescence of “Might Not Make It Home,” the confessional angst of “Falling To Fall,” or the fist-in-the-air joy of “Give Up The Ghost.” LPX is as vital and compelling a pop artist as you’ll find, and this EP is just the latest proof. [Alex McLevy]
NCT 127, We Are Superhuman
Thanks to the cursory six-track We Are Superhuman, burgeoning South Korean pop group NCT 127 has wholly established its command of both traditional and experimental pop sounds. Though this may be the group’s fourth mini album, it’s the first to center a serious tonal shift toward the more melodic side of the genre while still managing to rest comfortably within NCT 127’s wheelhouse. “Superhuman,” a title track and killer video that is a veritable collage of electro-pop, synths, hip-hop, and jazz, is easily one of the best songs of the band’s discography. And yet, it’s the summertime groove “Fool” that intelligently leans on the talents of all the members rather than just a few. In particular, Chicago native Johnny is granted the space to flex his skills as a rapper, and his spirited flow and confidence meld flawlessly with the breezy track (which is, ironically, about having a lack of confidence when approaching a crush). We Are Superhuman is a viable reintroduction of a group that isn’t afraid to question and test its own boundaries. [Shannon Miller]
Whack History Month
Though she hasn’t dropped an official album this year, eccentric 23-year-old rapper Tierra Whack did get us to celebrate “Whack History Month.” Each week for five weeks, the Philadelphia lyricist released a new track that showcased her tremendous versatility: the smooth R&B track “Wasteland,” “Clones,” “Gloria,” “Only Child,” and the final, mercilessly boastful installment “Unemployed.” Accompanied by a deliciously dark music video featuring the massacre of potatoes, Whack’s commanding bars and sharp wit make her presence so exciting. Whack History Month demonstrated just why she is so hard to define: The only evident through-lines in all five tracks are her fearless approach and authenticity, regardless of the sound. [Shannon Miller]
112 Comments
Very nice. I’d also recommend Big Thief, Aldous Harding, and Tyler the Creator.
So… do recommendations here have to be pop-leaning (or, at least, pop-friendly)?That’s not an attempt to be condescending btw (in case it comes across that way), I just wanted to make sure that if/when I do recommend a few things off the ol’ beaten path, that they wouldn’t be totally out of place and unwanted!
*looks at Big Brave, Billy Woods*uhhhh
My favorite album of the year came out last week; Baroness – Gold & Grey. Not a fan of pop or r&b either.
FUCK yes. Gold & Grey is the AOTY, period. FIGHT ME
JINJER’s EP “Micro” is an amazing handful of heavy hitting songs with lyrics that are very personal yet somehow relatable. Periphery has released their most experimental album to date, “Periphery IV: Hail Stan” and while it personally doesn’t stand up to Juggernaut it’s still in my top albums for the year. There is soooo much good music coming out in genres outside of what the author covered, which makes it kind of strange to call this article “the best music” and not “the best pop/rap” music of the year.
That’s what comment sections are for. But I agree that their selection is way pop-heavy.Brutus’s “Nest” finally dropped this year, and it’s great. They’re my favorite new post-metal/hardcore band at the moment.Spotlights came out with a new one: Love & Decay, which I’m finally getting around to checking out. On the poppier side: Silversun Pickups released a new one, that I haven’t got around to checking out yet (although one of the tracks was on the soundtrack of Under the Silver Lake, and they appeared performing it in the film).
“Nest” is probably my favourite album of the year so far, as a matter of fact.I wanted to double check, because I know how annoying it can be to see comment threads sidetracked by stuff that doesn’t fit with the original theme/point of the article.And while I’ve bookmarked several of these for later perusal, and noted that one or two are less poppy than others, I still thought it was worth making sure!
I really want to see Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas collaborate on another album together (which, according to an interview I saw, they are totally open to doing). Mariner is just brilliant. I’d really like Julie to release more music, in general, though.
While I still think that “Vertikal” is CoL’s magnum opus, I definitely agree that “Mariner” is an absolutely fantastic piece of work (I liked it so much I ended up buying the Japanese edition just so I could have the extra track).I’m not sure if I’d want them to do a follow-up though, just because I’m not sure they’d ever be able to recapture that same lightning in a bottle.I am, however, more than up for more of Ms. Christmas doing her own thing AND for CoL to consider doing more outside-of-the-box collaborations.
Julie Christmas is an incredible performer. I was lucky enough to see Made Out Of Babies live once, in a tiny venue without a stage. She is very intense.
The new SSPU isn’t bad, but it sounds like the band is just going through the motions. It doesn’t have the harder edge of their first two albums, nor does it have the ethereal dreamscapes of their third and fourth albums. It’s just kinda there.
I had a similar impression from the first listen through. The spark is gone.
New Silversun Pickups is pretty great. “Doesn’t Matter Why” is a killer track, as is usual for the 2nd track songs.
I read these because a great many of them I’ve not heard. Case in point. Brutus? Who? Pulled it up on Spotify because of you guys. WOW!
Personally, the only two names on that list I know about are Ariana Grande (never listened, not my style) and The National. Kind ofmakes me feel like I know nothing about music these days (well, maybe nothing about popular music – which I would probably agree – I never listen to top 40 radios or their streaming equivalent…)My favorite album so far has been Black Mountain’s Destroyer. Bought the LP the week of its release. It’s currently in my regular rotation list. There is something about that album that makes it feel like a whole bunch of different things, but in a good way. It’s like… it’s hard to describe but it has some real rocking moments and Pink Floyd-like “Wall-esque” pieces, with a hint of Judas-Priest riffs in a song or two and a last piece clearly inspired by Bowie… and the nice thing is that all of these things fit together… It definitely sounds like the long lost album of some 70s group… Not really high-quality sound though (this album has been recorded and mixed on the road), but musically, I truly love it.
Wait y’all put NCT127 on here but not BTS? Boo. I definitely think Persona: Map of the Soul was better than NCT127’s efforts.
Oh, I loved Persona: Map Of The Soul, too! NCT 127 just stuck to my bones a little more this time around, that’s all.
Interesting, I really like NCT and think their talent is insane (but am a big ARMY, so of course grain of salts here/my fave is obvious) but actually found Superhuman less experimental than their past work?It seemed to lean harder into the SM sound and was at moments almost Shine-like!
The sound is reminiscent of Shinee and, at parts, Monster-era EXO, for sure. But what I think makes that especially impressive for NCT 127 is that not too many would expect them navigate that sound as well as they did, given their discography up to this point. It’s an auditory pivot for the group, at it’s nice to see them entertain a more melodic approach than they have in the past. It offers something a little different for their fans, which I appreciate! (And BTS is still one of my Forever Faves.)
*nod nod* that makes perfect sense, it is a really solid album! I think because I actually love their more futurebass stuff and am not an Exo/Shinee (although unrelated side note Taemin is a demigod/my fave k-soloist) fan I wasn’t in love and was a bit disappointed! Still, they are generally really incredible, and the only reason I don’t full-on stan is the whole NCT configuration thing gives me a headache.
My ideal is they lock the teams down and stop messing with the lineups, but I know that’s sadly counter the whole concept. -_-; Ah well music is indeed fire. *runs off to listen to Boss for the zillioneth time*
What about WJSN’s first mini album early this year? With 12 O’Clock in it?
It’s personal preference. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have picked either of them. I personally think Jang Dong Woo and Stray Kids put out better albums.
Great list! I would also add Julia Jacklin’s Crushing, Faye Webster’s Atlanta Millionaires Club, and Connor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers’ Better Oblivion Community Center to this list. Also, are we including Beyonce’s Homecoming? I know it the performance technically wasn’t from this year, but I think it’s an all time great live album.
At this point I’m starting to think the AV Club is avoiding King Princess on purpose for some reason.
Benny Sings and Billy Eilish are my fucks of 2019.It’s great that Benny Sings, Mitski and Michelle Zauner are heavily bringing City Pop outside Japan and I really hope for a purely city pop album by Carly Rae Epson or even Ariana Grande whom for some reason has yet to do a retro-inspired album unlike K-Pop stars.And yeah, I love Billy Eilish’s Bad Guy. I have a description for her style of music: Sega Goth. Billie Eilish is literally Jet Set Radio meets Reaper from Overwatch. I fucking love that Y2K style of hers.
I’m here for your Billie Eillish descriptor.It’s better than mine which was SoundCloud rapper that happens to be a white woman that sings.
Does she sing? I’ve only heard the song on the radio and that’s all whispers and chanting. Production is on point though. I’d probably enjoy it as much without the vocals.
I’d say it’s singing.It’s not speaking voice, and it’s part of the melody.She’s not far off from being like Lily Allen or Kate Nash, vocally.It’s the minimalist “SoundCloud” instrumentals that makes the package.
You’re right about it not being her speaking voice. Doesn’t sound like ‘singing’ to me but we may just need more words for different kinds of vocal performances. Or resurrect some old ones as I’m sure it’s come up before in the millennia we’ve been making music. Currently I think we just have singing, rapping and yodeling and everything has to fit under one of those headings.
It’s all pedantics/semantics right?It’s not rapping since it’s too melodic.Is it crooning? When I think of crooning I think of someone with a weaker voice trying to sing. Her voice is better than that.She isn’t belting like a Mariah or Ariana, but, I’d say it’s still singing.
I’ll have to listen to more of her work since I’m going off a small sample but I’m sure you’re right. I’m not crazy about the lyrical content but it’s a damn good sound.I does make me wonder how the sound of music affects people when it’s stripped of context and associations. Like when I hear a twangy country steel guitar it summons up a number of feelings, memories and images that contribute to my enjoyment of it. But lacking those I can definitely see how someone could hear it as an annoying high-pitched noise. Could a universal alphabet of music be found through discovering what sonic elements cause what changes in the brain to create an emotional response and then ‘translating’ this into forms for different instruments, genres and languages?
This video is Billie Eilish aesthetic:
I’ve called Billie Eilish’s music ‘ASMR rock’ before, mainly because of her whispery singing style on some of her songs. I stand by it.I’m an old, so I’ve barely heard of more than a few of the songs/groups/people up there, but I like Billie a lot. She’s like what would happen if PJ Harvey and Fiona Apple got together and summoned something from a cauldron. I’ll always be a fan of strange little girls in music. ‘You Should See Me In A Crown’ makes me want to conquer countrysides.
It’s a shockingly assured record for a teenager. I’m straight white guy in my 50’s wearing a Judas Priest shirt and I was pretty impressed. I imagine it’s like I felt hearing Kate Bush when I was 13, but she was already an unobtainable 19 or something by then.
I’ve been liking her stuff a lot since I discovered her about 6 months ago. Then I started reading things about her and I had to check Wikipedia, because I was 100% certain that she was in her 20s. I’m in my 40s, and certainly not as up on a lot of new stuff, but holy shit, she’s a kid with that much chill and self-reflection! I work around college and high school kids all the time, and she’s so much sharper and aware than I would expect. I know she comes from a showbiz family, but goddamn does she get the business end of stuff, on top of being an interesting songwriter. Total old soul.
BE is industry product juts like Britney Spears was.
I only listen to Dedicated.
THANK YOU. No Carly? No opinion.
The lack of inclusion for Baroness’ Gold & Grey and Big Thief’s UFOF especially is indefensible! C’mon guys!!
Gold & Grey is Baroness’ best album. There, I said it. I love every second of it.
It’s the only album that challenges Blue for that designation, and they’ve never released a bad album.
Looks for Little Simz “Grey Area” and Sunn O))) “Life Metal”Looks again.Huh.
“Turn up the stereo / Till everything rattles,” Jenny Lewis sings midway through On The Line.A heads up, this lyric cones from Do Si Do, not On The Line
I think they meant halfway through the album, as Do Si Do is the fifth song. But it is misleading when there is a song called On the Line as well.
It’s not misleading if you understand that On the Line italicized refers to the album while “On the Line” refers to the song. It’s been a pretty standard syntax thing in English since I was a kid.
That’s another way of putting it 🙂
This list is missing four very important words – Better Oblivion Community Center.
My 2019 in music, so farAriana Grande – Thank U, NextWeezer – Black and Teal albumsDido – Still on my mindFlora Cash – Press EPLogic – Supermark Soundtrack (should be on this list)The Maine – You Are OKNorah Jones – Begin AgainDreamers – Launch Fly LandNew Found Glory – From The Screen …3Emarosa – Peach ClubJenny Lewis – On The LineCassadee Pope – StagesBear Hands – Fake TunesSara Bareillis – Amidst the ChaosBillie Eillish – While we SleepMadonna – Madam XGet up Kids – Problems
In what’s a pretty huge oversight for someone touting her album, this is absolutely no Lizzo’s first LP. Her first LP dropped like 5 years ago, is called Lizzobangers, and fucking rules.
The five I can confidently call my favorites of the year based on how much I’ve listened to them would probably be:Vampire Weekend – Father of the BrideBlu & Oh No – A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer NightCurren$y & Wiz Khalifa – 2009Sasami – Self-titledMannequin Pussy – Patience (even though it only came out yesterday, I already love it, connected with me instantly)Some others that are up there but haven’t listened to enough to call my “favorites”: Flying Lotus – Flamagra, Aldous Harding – Designer, Anderson .Paak – Ventura, Helado Negro – This Is How You Smile, Fontaines D.C. – Dogrel, Bill Callahan – Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest. Also the first three tracks on Sli’merre are some of the catchiest and most fun of the year, I listen to them constantly. Album kinda tapers off after that for me. Gotta check out that new Billy Woods. Also Bandana comes out in a week which is already going to be album of the year.
Lots of good albums on here and lots I need to check out. I also liked these 2019 releases a lot:Kota the friend – FotoTyler the Creator – IgorFontaines D.C. – DogrelChai – PunkFlat worms – Flat wormsHealth – Slaves of Fear
I really liked Igor. Wasn’t really sure what to expect from it, but was pleasantly surprised. I way underestimated Tyler the Creator’s creativity this time around.
Definitely the album I was most surprised not to see on this list… As you said very creative, well produced and sincere with good songwriting.
Engineer The Centipede singing Glycerine.
It is bonkers that Homecoming shows up nowhere, despite legitimately being one of the great live albums ever recorded. Otherwise, it’s been a really solid year for music, and this is a good reminder of that.
Veleno – Fleshgod Apocalypse.
Hi, This Is Flume?Igor?Map of the Soul: Persona?Crash Talk?We Can Be Friends?Old Town Road?Was this list entirely made by indie sad girls who hate upbeat music or anything remotely pop? Tiera Whack was good, I’ll grant you guys that but damn most of these songs blend right into one another and its very biased to a singular genre… even the rap sounds like the indie sad girl songs. It’d be like putting out a best of 2019 and its just trap beat mumble rap sad bois like Lil Xan and JuiceWrld.
Jade Bird is upbeat pop/folk/country/rock stuff.
Love that the homie Jade Bird made the cut…but it’s very odd to say “it’s not ‘Americana,’ it’s a freewheeling blend of rock, folk, and country, with pop songwriting, that defies easy categorization beyond a universal affinity for American roots music.”What do you think “Americana” *means*?
No review yet for Hot Chip’s A Bath Full of Ecstasy, and no inclusion here. This makes me sad.
That Little Simz album is the most interesting rap album to come out in awhile. It holds my attention all the way through.
never mind. didn’t realize I was still “auditioning”
I was hoping to see Charly Bliss on here. I loved Guppy, but wasn’t sure if we’d get more of the same or something else on the new one. Turns out they’ve expanded their sound while still sounding like the same band. It’s really good.
Shovels & Rope – By Blood, a return to formBen Platt – Sing to Me Instead, every relationship you’ve had is in one of these songs.Gary Clark, Jr – This Land, fire in the belly about what’s happening in America rooted in his own experience
Solid list overall, glad Sharon Van Etten is getting some love. Where dat James Blake though? Assume Form is one excellent
Devin Townsend- Empath snubbed. After decades in the industry and dozens of albums, Devin takes a series of huge financial and career-altering risks like breaking up his band and spending thousands of dollars of his own money to make the most uncompromising album of his career. In the end, we have a complex and deeply personal statement on what it means to be a living human in today’s society. There isn’t a single negative review by ‘genre’ critics, yet it’s panned by mainstream critics. With songs that go from Disney showtunes to hardcore metal, and dips into almost everything inbetween, it is hard to define. Yet it still gives a singular unified statement on staying strong under the weight of our world’s various crises. Best song Singularity. Give it a listen.
You know you’re old when you don’t recognize any of the names in that opening paragraph except Ariana Grande, and her only from that talk show. Thank god I scrolled down and saw Andrew Bird. I don’t feel entirely out of touch now. Almost entirely, but not quite.
..you think you’re bad , I only know her from those two Nicolodeon shows my kids watch were she plays the girl with the IQ of a housebrick.
Top 10 so far:The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All the Time
American Football – American Football (LP3)
Perma – Fight Fair
La Dispute – Panorama
Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1
Local Natives – Violet Street
Charly Bliss – Young EnoughThe Damned Things – High Crimes
The Mountain Goats – In League with Dragons
PUP – Morbid Stuff
Hey, there’s actually some overlap with AVC’s list! Plus I’ve got Lizzo at 13, The National at 18, Toro y Moi at 21, and Solange at 30. I didn’t like Vampire Weekend or Billie Eilish at all.
Father of the Bride is hogshit proof of Vampire Weekend’s comprehensive mediocrity. The best confirmation of the year so far that fans of bands that make them feel smart will follow the smell of their farts off a cliff. Lizzo is the most talented artist on this list by two miles.
Nothing makes me feel older than people thinking Billie Eilish’s music is good. I simply do not get it. I’ll just listen to that Jamila Woods album again, I guess.
I felt old because I’d never heard of her a month ago. The album though? I love.
Don’t sweat it. She aint that good. A modestly hot gal exhaling breathlessly over modestly interesting beats….does not ground-breaking music make. What she represents is more meaningful than the actual musical content these days, it seems.
Great list, I need to check out Little Simz and Billy Woods. I’d submit Slowthai- There’s Nothing Great About Britain. Been in rotation for a few weeks now.
surprised not to see Better Oblivion Community Center anywhere here, as far as the wave of indie folk stuff with which Phoebe Bridgers is either largely or tangentially involved (yes that’s basically a genre unto itself at this point) I think it’s the clear best. “Dylan Thomas” and “Service Road” get spins every other day
I adore Phoebe Bridgers and grew up on Conor and Bright Eyes, but as much as I loved the idea of BOCC, I found the album a bit boring. Dylan Thomas, Sleepwalkin’, Forest Lawn, and Big Black Heart are great but the rest of the album falls flat.
I fully accept that an album like Full of Hate’s “Weeping Choir” would likely never make a broad best of list like this one, but damn it if isn’t my favorite album of the year so far.
Yo is there a place to send in albums to review? Cause I released an album earlier this year which like would probably be a D at best because it’s very low fi recording and I was wondering like who do I send to to have it be reviewed?
There’s only 15 of these I’ve never heard of! And hey, Andrew Bird stole that cover from Have a Nice Life!
Some googling will show you many, many people have “stolen” from The Death of Marat before. My favourites include Baudry and Cold Chisel.
Wat is joeks
Yeah, I’m digging Charly Bliss and Jenny Lewis’ new albums. “Young Enough” is my personal #1 this year.
Mixed feelings on Vampire Weekend, Ex Hex, and Maggie Rogers but they have good songs in between.Favorite album not on the list? Yola’s Americana debut “Walk Through Fire”. Just lovely, stunning, and reassuring.
Phildel – Wave Your Flags is my album of the year so far. Dream-pop/chillwave or something like that. It’s phenomenal. Electric Heights is my song of the year.Goran – Under a Nashville Sky is my #2. Probably not for everyone. It’s just your typical pop-rock (maybe slightly country tinged). Check out Call It Quits.AURORA – A Different Kind of Human (Step 2) is quite good, although I’ve only given it a couple of listens.The Cranberries – In the End is very good too, and terribly sad to listen to.As mentioned elsewhere in the comments, Dido – Still On My Mind is also very good.
NCT 127 definitely deserve to be here 💚💚💚💚
Nice selection and reviews! Although i only listened to NCT 127’s album (and appreciate the fact that they were selected!) I’ll definitely check the other artists here.
Doing an Elderliness Self Check with this article, I have actually heard of three of these artists, actually heard two of them, and have never heard of nor heard the music of the remainder. Oldness confirmed!
I wouldn’t feel too bad, most of these aren’t exactly billboard topping artists. “Best” in this case, is pretty subjective.
The Big Brave album is so good, I’m really bummed I’m missing them with Dreadnought this week.
Woot!
Baroness motherfuckers!
Any chance on a Spotify playlist – this looks fantastic.
Billie Eilish is a stupid home schooled 18 year old who has no life experience regarding what she sings about. I hate her. She has no talent.
The Carly Rae Jepson erasure here is too damn much.
Curious. Where did Igor come up in your overall list?
No Waste of Time Orchestra? Their debut album blew me away, please check it out if you haven’t already…
https://open.spotify.com/album/2si5wwVFSdYlHGyNx7Qdt5
Recommending The Dots by ALASKALASKA. Favorite album of the year so far.
AOTY
Um, IGOR?
Banishing Tyler to a Billie Eilish footnote is a fucking joke.
No heavier/metal albums have stood out? Maybe it’s the wrong audience for the article? I def got some new stuff I want to check out from here, but the list seems to specific.
Definitely I share your opinion with We Are Superhuman mini album, something we never seen before from Nct 127. SUPERHUMAN is a high beat pop song with of the signature sound of NCT but elevated. It has influence from their senior groups, especially Shinee, making it a classic kpop song. The switch of beats and harmonies are amazingly well thought! The video itself is just a work of art, hands down one of the best videos ever made by them (Take Off by WayV is also a great candidate). They play with the futuristic technology concept and they owned it. Also the choreography is spot on, really fits the song with all of those key moves that are so memorable. Also it has MJ influence and the result is really amazing! Definitely SUPERHUMAN is one of the best songs of this year. The whole mini album is amazing too, Jet Lag and Highway to Heaven are my favorites.
Music for teenage mental patients.
I’ve only heard of three people on this entire list. Does anyone on this website listen to non-underground/indie stuff (maybe I’m just super far out of the loop)? Like, just good ol’ Rock? One of the best albums I’ve ever heard in my life was just released in March, called The Spell by Cellar Darling. While they aren’t particularly well known, most of the band members come from Eluveitie which is I think the biggest rock band in Switzerland. The new Ghost Ship Octavius album is really good too (though I’ll admit after looking at their Spotify page probably no one has heard of them so forgive my second sentence above). Thank You Scientist just dropped a new album June 14 that is probably their best yet and better than anything Coheed has put out in a decade.
I appreciate someone finally saying what we all already thought:Sure, Billie Eilish is groundbreaking if you’ve never heard of Fiona Apple.
I appreciate both that statement AND their assessment that even if she’s not groundbreaking, she’s still good.
The fact that James Blake’s Assume Form and Tyler’s Igor are not on here is craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Both those albums have been on heavy rotation for me since they came out.
My favorite albums of 2019 so far, in no particular order:Hozier – Wasteland, Baby!Buke & Gase – ScholarsBassekou Kouyate – MiriThe Japanese House – Good at FallingMethyl Ethel – TriageBillie Eilish – When we all fall asleep, where do we go?Unwed Sailor – Heavy Agebülow – CrystallineHealth – VOL.4 Slaves of fearG Flip – Drink Too MuchPsychedelic Porn Crumpets – And Now for the Whatchamacallit
GRACE VANDERWAAL DROPS THE MIC
I’d make a list, but we’ve got a new Lindsey Stirling album coming out in less than a month, so I’d just have to rewrite the list immediately anyway.
there is no such a thing as music these days this is all sampling and hip hop and it already shows the writer of this article has no taste in music