Top 25 Albums of 2019
It’s exactly who you think it is!
25. CALIGULA — Lingua Ignota
This album is not an easy listen; a violent, slow, creeping doom permeates everything on CALIGULA, mixing baroque, electronica, black metal, and a thrashing wall of sound. Beneath all of this anger and spite is the real reflections of an abusive relationship that Kristin Hayter, the lead of this project, escaped, making all the more dark and gripping. The balance of Kristin’s velvety and classically trained voice with her painful, shrieking screams is, and pardon the hipster vocabulary on this, a sonic experience that nobody came close to touching this year.
24. Designer — Aldous Harding
Unapologetic folk excellence. Aldous Harding doesn’t exactly rewrite the formula, but combine a number of successful elements, to say nothing of her ability to merge the quiet spaces in her music with catchy hooks and introspective lyricism; kind of like a merge of Sufjan Stevens and St. Vincent, in some ways. Designer adds a bit more funk, like on “The Barrel”, and some depth in songwriting prowess on tunes “Zoo Eyes”, “Heaven is Empty”, and “Fixture Picture”. More excited to see where Harding’s growth continues in 2020 and beyond.
23. Ghosteen — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Oh god, get ready for another challenging listen. Nick Cave might as well be indie rock royalty at this point, but in 2015, he suffered the loss of his 15-year old son. The subsequent Skeleton Tree was seen as an album of Cave and his band mourning, but the group explicitly noted that this was not the case, and that the album, in addition to Ghosteen, were part of an existing trilogy. While that may be the case, you can feel the sadness, regret, and grief in Cave’s every word on this entry, clearly much made in tribute to his late child. While the two lengthy second-half tunes in “Ghosteen” and “Hollywood” are incredible, it’s the gut-wrenching “Bright Horses”, “Sun Forest”, and “Leviathan” that make the biggest impact.
22. PROTO — Holly Herndon
Ready for a head-trip? Holly Herndon, for the sake of PROTO, developed a freaking AI program for this entire album, and then worked to teach it sounds and musical viability through the use of live musicians and singers. The goal was to “humanize” the concept of technology in music, and although it comes out feeling very inhuman at times, you see those gasps of real people in the middle of it all, with folk tinges and chanting permeating through the LP. You can even hear some of the training that was done with the AI sprinkled in, which is extremely interesting to digest. Herndon is pushing the limits for what electronic and folk can ultimately achieve, and something tells me there’s even greater end results coming.
21. Bandana — Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
Madlib already proved back in 2014 that he could bring the absolute best out of Freddie Gibbs on Pinata. Gibbs’ personal life got in the way for the middle of the past decade, however, and although that’s not to say Gibbs’ doesn’t have a past that’s not worth its own digesting, Madlib seems to actively pull him out of his darkest places and elevate him. “Massage Seats” is insane, “Situations” is insane, and “Giannis”, the hallmark of the entire record, holds the whole thing together. On production value alone from Madlib, the MC just deserves more damn work.
20. Flamboyant — Dorian Electra
Speaking of production value, how about this surprising gem? Dorian Electra’s insane rise from videos about queer history on Refinery29 to a guest spot on Charli XCX’s Pop 2 album, to now this, Flamboyant, one of the best produced dance pop albums in recent memory. While the album’s themes of the destruction of gender norms are almost hilariously blunt (on purpose), production on songs like “Man to Man”, “Career Boy”, “Flamboyant”, and “Daddy Like” can’t be ignored. Everything on Flamboyant just feels like a flippant middle finger to self righteous pop music and it’s phenomenal for it.
19. Morbid Stuff — PUP
Modern rock music has been circling the drain for some time now, so seeing a band that doesn’t seem to care at all about how pop punk is percieved, and will throw out something like Morbid Stuff, you’ve got to respect it. PUP is putting on a master class here, with the title track, “Morbid Stuff”, ticking all the right boxes; and the albums consistent themes of just giving up because everything flat out sucks is probably way too resonant for 2019 than it outright ought to be.
18. Good at Falling — The Japanese House
Amber Bain is essentially a ghost in the music scene, one that is not only a cohort of The 1975, but was early on confused as a side project of that band’s lead singer, due to Amber’s refusal to be identified or gendered. Seeing a musician that was borderline anonymously making lovely, dream pop music for the later half of this decade come into the spotlight and knock it out of the park makes Good At Falling just icing on the cake. The dreary, but uplifting, tunes that this album is composed of are what I can only call “rainy day depression music”, starting from “You Seemed So Happy” to “Follow My Girl”, layering vocals and sounds to make you believe Imogen Heap went headlong into a bubblegum pop kick. It’s fantastic, it’s introspective, it’s well worth a listen.
17. Charli — Charli XCX
Is there a barrier of entry for Charli XCX’s music? I’m not entirely certain their isn’t, at this point. After Boom Clap, Charli XCX simply stopped caring about making pop that was destined for the actual charts, instead uniting with ecclectic artists and some of the most innovative producers possible. The acclaim of mainstream no longer matters for her, and the music has been both amplified and also confounding. For crying out, she took Christine and the Queens for a lead single for Charli, an album featuring Lizzo, Troye Sivan, and Clairo in prominent singles. Not that I’m complaining, “Gone” is incredible, but it shows where Charli’s priorities as an artist now lie. It’s some of the catchiest, most self-aware pop of this decade, from the club anthems (“1999”) to the bold radio-ready (“Blame It On Your Love”). For years Charli has been ahead of the curve, the supposed “next-big-thing”, but maybe it’s time she finally got labeled the “now”.
16. The Lost Boy — YBN Cordae
YBN Cordae owes a lot to J. Cole; his biting, attack-response remix of “1985” put him on the map, but in spite of not really seeing eye-to-eye with Cole, Cordae also can tap into a mix of slice-of-life hip-hop and R&B, intertwined with some true lyrical chops. The Lost Boy bounces happily between self-righteousness, self-reflection, and pure hip-hop bliss on tunes like “Have Mercy”, “RNP”, and “Bad Day”, a sickly-sweet collab with Chance the Rapper (maybe Chance should’ve taken some lessons from this project for The Big Day, huh?). Cordae has already established himself as the key of the YBN collective now, and has a lot to live up to in future projects.
15. Eve — Rapsody
Rapsody just drips old-school cool in all of her music, but Eve goes a step further to tribute her own heroes; every song named after an influential figure, from “Michelle” (Obama), to “Nina” (Simone), to “Whoopi” (Goldberg). Yet even with these themes present, nobody is more front and center than Rapsody herself, dancing on classic beats and developing her ideas better than nearly anyone in hip-hop today. It’s a classic record in the making.
14. Anak Ko — Jay Som
If there’s any artist that personifies the spirit of indie music today, it’s probably Jay Som, who prides herself on developing her lovely, enveloping tunes all in her own makeshift, bedroom studio. That’s not to say any of the output is lacking, though; “Tenderness” is one of the best and smoothest singles of the year, “Superbike” is an unintentional banger, and “Nighttime Drive” evokes exactly the feelings you think it would. Anak Ko is one of the dreamiest records this year, easy to digest but worth repeated listens all the way through.
13. Remind Me Tomorrow — Sharon Van Etten
The arc of Sharon Van Etten from Are We There to Remind Me Tomorrow is simple: the former was an album written in the perspective of an artist desperately searching for their next step in the world, while the latter was written in a place of happiness and content, even while the singer was pursuing higher education, staring in a Netflix series, and freaking PREGNANT. “No One’s Easy to Love” absolutely kills from it’s subtle piano run backing, while “Comeback Kid” and “Seventeen” are anthemic and triumphant the whole way through. Maybe happy Sharon Van Etten is the one we’ve been waiting on?
12. A Different Kind of Human (Step 2) — AURORA
Also known as “That one singer from Frozen that isn’t Idina Menzel”, AURORA deserves way more love. While a lot of the alternative scene and electronic scenes aren’t able to live in haromny, AURORA has found the perfect balance while presenting an enigmatic personality that few can match; listen to her cover of “Across the Universe” and don’t get chills, I dare you. A Different Kind of Human is the second chapter in an anthemic universe that AURORA is developing, and it’s intriguing from start to finish. “The Seed”, “The River”, “Hunger”, all of them succeed in places that her contemporaries simply don’t.
11. ZUU — Denzel Curry
Denzel Curry’s early association with some of the more “fringe” trap artists and iconic “emo” rappers like XXXTentacion might have confused many who didn’t see him as a capable lyricist; and if TA13OO established him as a presence in hip-hop, ZUU took him over the top. An LP that absolutely flies by at 30 minutes, Denzel balances in-your face hooks (“Ricky”) with introspection and worry (“Speedboat”) and songs right out of the mid-00’s (“Wish”, and I mean that as a real compliment). Music to throw on in the car and vibe to.
10. Dedicated — Carly Rae Jepsen
If Charli was a record pushing the limit of pop, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Dedicated is a record that is a refined play of pop excellence. The fact that Carly Rae has created a career past “Call Me Maybe” is astonishing enough in itself, but that her sound has evolved the way it has, infusing classic disco and electronic pop into transfixing radio-ready hits (that for some reason never hit the radio…no clue why at this point) is a championing of her status as an artist. “Julien” is flat out one of the best songs of the year, “No Drug Like Me” sounds like a more refined version of some Ariana Grande B-Sides, “Feels Right” slaps, and “Too Much” is a phenomenal piece of modern pop music. Do not keep sleeping on Carly, who has continued staggeringly intriguing (and conspiracy theory prompting) output, hopefully into the next decade.
9. Norman Fucking Rockwell — Lana Del Rey
Some artists are just built to be larger than life, and Lana Del Rey’s release cycle for Norman Fucking Rockwell proved that, riding a crazy hype train, building to a 14 minute film. All the while, Lana has been fighting against her own missteps to become part of the mainstream meta of music after the (potentially a bit ahead of it’s time) singles like “Video Games” went nowhere. This, however, is the most clear statement and vision Lana has ever had: opulent, nostalgia-driven, over-the-top cinematic pop ballads that send chills and linger in a way only one Father John Misty has been able to pull off. From “Mariner’s Apartment Complex” to “Venice Bitch” to “The Greatest”, the entire LP is the most enjoyable ego-trip you may ever see.
8. uknowwhatimsayin? — Danny Brown
Yeah, Danny Brown is depressed, and he’s gonna tell you about it. How? Rather than diving deep into darkness like on the instant classic Atrocity Exhibition, he compliments his own pain behind top notch production from Q-Tip, Flying Lotus, and JPEGMAFIA to build innovative beats (for crying out loud, he’s sampling Yoko Ono!), and then proceeds to slaughter them. There is simply no stopping Danny when he’s on his flow, like on “Dirty Laundry” or “Change Up”, but he can flip that flow to interesting results like on “Best Life” with incredible control.
7. Father of the Bride — Vampire Weekend
Yeah, Vampire Weekend are depressed, and they’re gonna-…okay, different point. But this is one of the most jarring albums of the year, as Father of the Bride trades sharp, painful lyrics about loss, regret, and mistakes with bright and cheery lyrics that make you forget a song like “This Life” is about a spiritual existential crisis, and “Harmony Hall” is about the fear of dying and confronting one’s own mortality. Yet Vampire Weekend’s vast spread of collaborators, including ILoveMakkonen, Mark Ronson, BloodPop, and others create an album you just want to sing along and bop your head to, through every second of its fervent sadness.
6. IGOR — Tyler, the Creator
The acclaim for Tyler, The Creator’s innovative approach to crafting his music, and his constant accumulation of top-tier collaborators, has been one of the biggest ascensions in hip-hop this decade. IGOR is his magnum opus, a full storyline of an album that plays a love triangle into the story of Frankenstein’s assistant, and does so with the same obscene bravado Tyler has always had. Tyler also knows when to take the back-seat, either recapitulating his own voice to be near unrecognizable, or calling on a full batch of collaborators, from Playboi Carti, to Charlie Wilson, to Solange, over beats that run the entire spectrum of R&B, classic hip-hop, and funk rock. This is the best Tyler has ever sounded, flat out.
5. Titanic Rising — Weyes Blood
Some music is intended to encapsulate it’s own time, or to emulate the sounds of the past or future. Weyes Blood is aiming for timelessness.
Rare is it that classical soft-rock influences, chamber pop, and grandiose electronics and orchestration can come together in such a tight package, but Weyes Blood manage to do just that on Titanic Rising. 10 songs that flow from one another perfectly, their themes clear and their instrumentation and development nearly perfect.
“Movies” may be the cornerstone of the entire LP, a soaring, trippy ballad about fighting against hopelessness. Yet that draws from the same base that “A Lot’s Gonna Change” and “Andromeda” built upon, with the same larger-than-life feel to the entire album presenting itself as an uplifting experience that one could slot into nearly any film soundtrack they pleased.
4. All My Heroes Are Cornballs — JPEGMAFIA
Can hip-hop be avante-garde art? JPEGMAFIA is certainly going to try making it that way.
All My Heroes are Cornballs was literally promoted as being a massive disappointment as a record, and JPEG holds nothing back in his most immersive work yet, with over the top masking, looping, sampling, and production that tiptoes the line of being in-your-face and minimalist, an impeccable balance of a record on all fronts.
And behind the crazed production are lyrics and songs that are self-referential, ironic, and in direct opposition of the very culture that brought us into 2019. “Free the Frail”, evoking everything from obscure WWF stars to Jay-Z’s cult of personality, and “Kenan vs Kel”, which is almost angry at JPEG’s own fame, run like a reflective stream of consciousness that only JPEG can truly pull off. Between his top-tier production, his near twisted means of presenting his point of view, and how he’s conceptualized his music, JPEGMAFIA should be leading a new wave of rap into this next decade.
3. MAGDALENE — FKA twigs
There was mystery surrounding FKA twigs after her debut earlier in the 2010’s, coming almost out of nowhere with a presence akin to Bjork collaborating with Mike-Will-Made-It. It was art pop mixed with R&B sensibility and glitchy music, but nobody knew after LP1 that it was going to get this deeply emotional.
This is a breakup album, but not from anything fun; FKA twigs has noted that nearly all of MAGDALENE was borne from heartbreak, and FKA’s operatic song slowly starts to unwind into pure, unabashed shame and frustration as the album reaches its incredible finale at “Cellophane”. While the closer is all-encompassing, the journey there is equally enchanting, as “Magdalene” speaks of its biblical inspiration, and Future hops in on a feature on “Holy Terrain”.
It’s dark, it’s brooding, and it maintains that there really is nobody quite like FKA twigs artistically right now.
2. i, i — Bon Iver
It’s become clear that Bon Iver has a great appreciation for Bruce Hornsby’s career, which expands far beyond just his most famous hit, “The Way It Is”. That tune has become iconic for masking it’s own imagery behind a beautiful banquet of songwriting, making it not only a staple of the 80’s, but infinitely sampleable.
i, i tries to meet the rareness that Hornsby has achieved in his understated but no less prolific career, shedding some the pure electronic bliss that filled 22, A Million in exchange for a more harmonious, folksy, poppy, and power ballad filled album. From the booming “Naeem”, to the album’s centerpiece single “Hey Ma”, to it’s massive collaboration effort on “iMi”, and of course, to his own, quiet, and innovative take on the current inequalities and issues in the US with “Sh’Diah”, the goal is clear: an album that both relies on Bon Iver’s own anachronisms but has way more to say about the world Justin Vernon exists in than ever before.
Will this lead to deeper perspective into the incoming decade next? I’m not sure, but this is some of Bon Iver’s most focused work ever, and we’re all the better for it.
1. Assume Form — James Blake
We owe a lot of popular music’s current trajectory to James Blake.
Blake’s early 2010’s projects shaped a lot of the current scene for electronic and alternative music, as well as R&B. His influence on Drake shaped his most pop music and willingness to branch out, and he’s had his fingerprints all over some of the most important projects of this past decade, including Beyonce’s breakout Lemonade album and the work of Travis Scott. Blake himself started to feel like that prominence behind the scenes was his ultimate destiny, never to be in the spotlight but always be the guiding presence behind the scenes.
Assume Form, in this sense, is the most distilled, complete, pop-driven James Blake we’ve ever seen. Collaborating with more than he ever had before (including two high-end singles with Mike-Will-Made It), the album throws away some the more somber darkness that Blake became known for in favor to mix in more light-heartedness, in both the production and subject matters. Maybe there isn’t a far grander message behind this album, just James spitting out his current feelings (mostly about his current girlfriend Jameela Jamil), but those current feelings are maddeningly entertaining and endearing.
I’d argue the first five tracks off the album (“Assume Form”, “Mile High”, “Tell Them”, “Into the Red”, and “Barefoot in the Park”) are as close to an impeccable picture of 2019 in musical form. The next closest keystone is the collboration with Andre 3000, “Where’s The Catch”, playing into his guest’s own strengths to incredible acclaim. “Are You In Love” flows tremendously from word to word with a gorgeous backing and the best James Blake has ever sounded in his higher register. This is modern R&B at its absolute finest in every sense.
I seriously couldn’t get Assume Form off my rotation; it ticks all the right boxes from every single song on the record, and it never outstays its own welcome. If Blake wouldn’t mind taking this album to further the genres he so cleverly dances on as the piece to influence the 2020’s, I’d be 100% okay with that.
