Jeremy's 16 Favorite Albums of 2019!!
- petsch6787
- Jan 29, 2020
- 18 min read
Hello, everybody! Welcome to my best albums list for 2019. What has happened in 2019? Not much, not much. Impeachment, massive catastrophes across the world, Pikachus having to find work as Detectives, y'know, the usual stuff. And even more usual is that I found a couple of albums that I like enough for them to make their way onto my list, so let's cut the small talk and get right into this one. Here are the Best 16(-ish) Albums of the Year!
6 Albums That Were Very Good
Honorable Mention: Big Thief - Two Hands
I suppose I should have just made this list The Best 17 Albums of 2019, rather than split this album off into an Honorable Mentions spot, but I mostly just don't have that much to say about it. It's a pretty straight forward Indie-Folk album. I've listened to it a fair bit through the year, and that was enough to kind of make it on the list.
Song: The Toy
16) Greet Death - New Hell
This album is still pretty fresh to me, I've only been listening to it for a month and a half, but during that time, I've listened to it a bunch. The trio from Michigan have a sound that is a mix of so much that I like: big fuzzy shoegaze guitar licks, a sludgey pace, and some malice. I can't emphasize how much I love the guitar on this album, it mingles the big fuzzed out guitar (which is sometimes rhythm and sometimes lead) and then just some regular ole fashioned rock guitar. I personally love the bigger moments on the album, such as the opener Circles of Hell, which starts with a lone traditional guitar playing under the intro singing, before there is a crash, and Greet Death creates a wall of sound just from the other guitar coming in and pummeling everything else in the mix. It reminds me of my favorite songs by Pity Sex (RIP), also from Michigan, also featuring two singers, one who almost mumbles the lyrics (not hating) and one with a higher register who sings more traditionally (also not hating). My only knock on this album is that my least favorite track is right in the middle of the album and is 9 minutes long, but other than that, I have no complaints.
Song: Circles of Hell
15) Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated
Every year there are a couple of straight up pop albums that gain the attention of music critics, and Carly Rae Jepsen has found herself in this enviable position with her last two albums. She makes really good synth pop tunes, and I love a good synth pop tune. My favorite track on the album is the opener Julien, but pretty much all the songs on this album are super catchy. Plus, her video for Now That I Found You has the titular You be a kitty cat, and you know I'm a sucker for a great cat video.I love Carly Rae. Carly Rae, if you somehow read this, we're the same age, I like cats, hit me up!
Song: Julien
14) The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
This album is just straight up Sci-Fi Space Jazz. Does that sound like something you'd like? If so, check this one out. Does that sound like something you wouldn't like? Well, you're a square. Expand your horizons, and be more open to music types such as Sci-Fi Space Jazz. That's all I have for this one.
Song: Summon the Fire
13) Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
A couple of years ago, I started listening to The Carpenters. I was looking for that kind of production that you got a lot in the 70's, Heart's Dreamboat Annie is another example of that kind of soft production. And it bummed me out that music wasn't made that way anymore. I suppose this is why I love the old Beach House albums, they sort of give me that vibe. But, it turns out there was music being made like that: a genre called Baroque Pop. Who knew? Probably a bunch of people. But not me. Until this year, when Anthony Fantano described the instrumentals on this album as being blissful to listen to, so I gave it a spin, and this is a great album. I love all the slide guitar on this album and the swells of strings. Weyes Blood's voice hits the same inflections as Karen Carpenter's. It's really as if The Carpenters made cool music instead of like straight-edge, cornball music (again, no hate from me). Also they use synths sometimes, like on Movies, which sound just as lush as the other traditional instruments throughout.
Song: Andromeda
12) Faye Webster - Atlanta Millionaires Club
Speaking of slide guitar, it is the first thing you hear on this album, and it is certainly the tone setter for the instrumentals through its entire tracklist. Another tonal indicator of the content of the album, this time lyrically, is the first line from Hurts Me Too when Faye Webster sings, "My mother told me one day, she's tired of my sad songs" because that is what this album is chock full of: sad songs. The first verse of the album on Room Temperature goes, "Looks like I've been crying again over the same thing, I wonder if anyone has ever cried for me, Nothing means anything, at least anymore, Even my tears have gone room temperature." So good. Real good sad indie folk, or regular folk? I have no idea what any genre any music belongs in. My only negative on this album is the rap feature on Flowers, even though it is delivered slow like Webster's delivery, it takes me out of the song every time. But other than that, every other song on this album is great: nice and slow. I am pretty sure this is the end of the slide guitar section of this list. Right? Maybe. I don't know, let's just see.
Song: Pigeon
5 Albums That Were Better Than Very Good, They Were Great
11) Microwave - Death Is A Warm Blanket
I went to Riot Fest this year to go see Bloc Party, who was playing on Saturday night. The only other band that day that I wanted to see was Turnstile, and they were playing at the beginning of the day, so I did a little research into some of the bands that would be playing in between the two (especially because I was rolling solo for the first couple of hours) and downloaded a couple of albums, in hopes that one might catch with me, and I'd have someone else to go see. The only album that I liked even a little bit was the Microwave album before this one, so when Brendan and Cam arrived, we headed over to Microwave to check them out, and damn were they much loader and heavier than the stuff I had listened to from a couple of years ago. I figured this must have meant that the new album was going to be much heavier, and lo and behold, Death Is a Warm Blanket is much heavier than their previous work. And much better. Microwave's sound on this album is kind of like if Brand New would have kept making music after Daisy. Every lyric from singer Nathan Hardy is filled with regret, pain, and just a want to let it all go. Opener Leather Daddy laments the cycle of drinking that has led to his current state, "We used to be the Fireball Whiskey weekend warriors, But now, it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I don’t know if we’ll ever be sober again, I have a pile of regrets, I tear it down, Build it up" or in the first chorus of Float to the Top, "Wake up dried up in a wet bed, Two empty fifths and a mouth of chalk, Washed up, Torn up, Disaffected, My friends don’t swim; we float to the top." He switches between a quiet drawl and an ear piercing scream. It is a sonic rollercoaster. I miss the kind of heavy rock that got super popular around the time of Brand New, Chevelle, etc, and this album is right in that wheelhouse.
Song: Float to the Top
10) Mac DeMarco - Here Comes the Cowboy
This album is almost certainly Mac DeMarco's saddest album, and is definitely his sparsest. Most songs consist of DeMarco's voice, guitar, maybe a keyboard, that's about it. The album is about simplicity, mortality, and being happy with what you've got. I have no evidence to back this claim, but Mac DeMarco was good friends with Mac Miller, and I think this album is, if not explicitly about Miller's death, it's at least tinged with the sadness of DeMarco losing his friend. All the imagery of the album is of cowboys and cowgirls roaming the countryside, yearning for the city, at times, being at ease with the simplicity of things. It's a really peaceful album.
Song: On the Square
09) Tyler, the Creator - Igor
Igor is a concept album about the narrator, Igor, who is in love with a dude, and this dude is also dating some lady, thus creating a love triangle. On Earfquake, he pleads, "Don't leave, it's my fault," and then we back it up and see the beginning on I Think, when he claims, "I think I've fallen in love, this time I think it's for real." On Running Out of Time, he claims he's "running out of time, to make you love me," with it all coming to head on New Magic Wand, "Don't call me selfish, I hate sharin', This 60-40 isn't workin', I want a hundred of your time, your mine" before a chorus of the repeated line, "Please don't leave me now." Things turn when A Boy is a Gun ends with him pleading "Stay the fuck away from me." We reach the end of the dissolution of this relationship with the last two songs I Don't Love You Anymore and Are We Still Friends?, the titles of both speaking volumes. The production on this album is purposefully more lo-fi than Tyler's other albums, and it works with the material. This is just a great album, and it's a really reassuring sign that Tyler continues to grow with every piece of work he puts out.
Song: New Magic Wand
08) Kero Kero Bonito - Civilisation I
At the beginning of 2018, Kero Kero Bonito came out with an EP called TOTEP, the four songs of which featured a marked shift in musical direction from the J-Pop influenced electronic music of their first two albums. TOTEP was loud and abrasive, the electronics were coming from a sort of vaporwave situation, and all of a sudden there were shoegaze-tinged fuzzed out guitars. This EP was not an aberration, but rather an indicator of the style of their next album Time 'n' Place, which dropped later that year. This year KKB began that same process again, dropping this EP, Civilisation I in September. We haven't had step two of this process yet, as KKB hasn't released their new full album yet, but I like the way things are going. The three tracks on this EP eschew the rock influenced sound of the last album (which I enjoyed, by the way) for a sound that is more synth-pop, dream-pop, and just a dash of new age in there, while still, of course, retaining their core dancey KKB style. The EP is all about the destruction of our world, both by the powers that be and in regard to the environment. Battle Lines opens the set with a punchy beat underscoring the seriousness of the lyrics, which relate to the people in government who are constantly waging war, with the chorus painting the picture "For in a world that never takes a form, The battle lines are gone, And war is always on, Somehow, But we are all the soldiers now, I see blood in my dreams, A beaten face, The gas, The streets, A screen." The second track When the Fires Come is predictably about the destruction of the environment. It's the slowest track and definitely the New Age-iest, with the it's super soft synths and pan flute samples (love me some pan flute). The final track is my favorite of the set, The River, which is about being humans being cleansed by an endless rain until it floods the planet and wipes Earth of the parasite that is destroying it. KKB played at The Vic (which is a three minute walk from my apartment) eight days after I moved here, it was great, they're always great, I can't wait for the full length that this is preceding.
Song: The River
07) Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs
This is another quiet one. It's definitely in the running with Mac DeMarco's album for quietest on the list, but where Here Comes the Cowboy was quiet in a sparse way, Jessica Pratt's Quiet Signs is quiet in a lush way, like laying down next to a fireplace to dry off in a big dark room. Kind of like that scene in Garden State, I guess. Pratt's singing voice is almost a sigh, like a bored pixie singing her story. Most of the instrumentation on the album is Pratt's guitar and Matthew McDermott's piano, with the occasional flute and organ appearances. Quiet Signs is calming and haunting. The flute on Fare Thee Well gives off serious bossanova vibes, which suits Pratt's gentle approach to not only her singing but her guitar work as well. Her strumming is the backbone of every song on this album, except the piano only intro. It sometimes reminds me of the leisurely guitars on The Postmarks' first album, an album that is notoriously light. Get some hot cocoa, take a look at the night snow falling, and turn this album on. But seriously, get the hot cocoa.
Song: This Time Around
5 Albums That Could Switch Spots Interchangeably, This Was A Very Difficult Section To Rank
06) Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana
Bandana is the second collab album between legendary producer Madlib and Gary, Indiana's most famous rapper, Freddie Gibbs. The majority of the beats on this album were originally created for Kanye's The Life of Pablo, but Kanye only used one beat on No More Parties in L.A., so Madlib kept the rest and repurposed them for this album. Freddie Gibbs spits his fire Cocaine Rap bars, but the drugs at the center of said bars are never really seen in a good light. For instance, Crime Pays is really about the perils of dealing drugs, more than the perks, "Homeboy just caught HIV, he lived and he died by his ho, Have we ever hit the same bitch before? Ain't nobody know." This can also be seen on album standout, Fake Names's chorus, "Shit's so real, gotta use fake names, Every time I sleep, dead faces, they occupy my brain." Also, shoutout to Freddie for his endless NBA references, I love them all. Madlib's beats are so damn good, too. There are a couple of songs where the beat switches halfway through the song to amazing results. Also, Freddie and Madlib performed the best Tiny Desk Concert. Not best this year, best ever, go check it.
Song: Fake Names
05) Priests - The Seduction of Kansas
When Priests were doing press when this album came out, there seemed to be some press material that all these interviewers got a hold of that gave them some idea that The Seduction of Kansas was Priests' "political album" and through watching all these interviews, I could see the members get annoyed with this concept, and my guess is probably that Priests does not want to be considered a "political band" (or really a band at all since they disbanded like a month ago), but rather that the world we live in is so messed up that everything we speak about is political by nature. Anyway, that doesn't really have anything to do with how good this album is. Before the band started working on The Seduction of Kansas, Priests' bassist Taylor Mulitz left the band to focus solely on his other band, Flasher, and Priests became a trio. But any fears that Mulitz's departure would leave too gaping a hole to fill were dispelled by just how diverse the tracklist on this album is and how well it all flows together. There's still lots of post-punk, which was the bread and butter of the album before this, Nothing Feels Natural, but there's also a lot of other stuff on here. My favorite song, Youtube Sartre, ends with a passage where Katie Alice Greer's voice washes out like a Cocteau Twins vocal with the guitar sneering in the background. You would not be out of line if you listened to closer Texas Instruments and thought it was R.E.M. with a guest female vocalist. I saw them play at Lincoln Hall earlier last year, and it was awesome; the weather was garbage, so the venue was only like 3/5 full, so I got real close and right in the middle. They rocked through most of this album and a big chunk of the last one. Drummer Daniele Daniele came out from behind the kit and sang her two songs from this album. Faces were melted. Dancing took place. I walked home in the rain. I'm glad that I made it because that show was awesome, and who knows when they'll reband and make another album. Maybe never. Maybe in like five years. It's nice to have this amazing album to keep us satisfied until then.
Song: Youtube Sartre
04) Blue Hawaii - Open Reduction Internal Fixation
In 2013, Blue Hawaii released Untogether, an album of very soft electronics, with the vocals used almost as an instrument, and I loved it, and I ranked it as my favorite album of that year. But I wasn't super hot on the follow-up to that album, which was a more straightforward dance-pop. The change of musical direction wasn't an issue with me, as much as I couldn't handle the way that singer Raphaele Standell-Preston's vocal were mixed. However, that is not an issue on this album, at all; the vocals are mixed perfectly. And not just that, but the instrumentals on this album are the perfect mix of every kind of gentle electronic music. And not just that, but all the songs are breakup songs, and the album sounds like a (dare I say it) better, more cohesive version of Robyn's album from last year, Honey. This album is so dancey, and so much fun. Basically, if you would like an easy-paced, electronic pop album, this is the way to go. But also, the penultimate track, Boileau, is more of a loungey-club hit. Like in the side room, not the main dance floor.
Song: Trust
03) Brockhampton - Ginger
At the beginning of 2019, I started listening to boy band Brockhampton's first entry of what would be a trilogy all released in 2017, Saturation I, and I liked it, but I never really moved past it into the rest of their discography, but when Ginger came out this year, I gave it a spin, and it reinvigorated my interest. And then I got Jackie hooked on Brockhampton, and then we bought concert tickets to go see them, and then I crash coursed the other three albums in between Saturation I and Ginger, and until I started writing this list, I was almost exclusively listening to Brockhampton for like a month and a half. I love all five of their albums, but Ginger is maybe my least favorite. But that's kind of like saying paper cash is my least favorite kind of money. All the albums are top notch. Ginger sees the guys dialing back the number of bangers and upping the number of slow songs. Introspection is the top theme on this album, and everyone brings it to the table. They start the album with two slow songs, No Halo and Sugar, the former about their imperfections and the latter a ballad with frequent guest, Ryan Beatty singing the chorus. Then they turn the heat up with the playful Boy Bye, followed up the haunting Heaven Belongs to You, with the only vocals coming from guest rapper, and later tour mate, Slowthai. I love the weird circus beat, which stretches into the next song St. Percy, making Slowthai's verse kind of an intro, but a killer one. St. Percy sees the guys taking a victory lap, rapping about their various successes, both professional and personal, like "Come at me!" is the main mood of that song. If You Pray Right runs over a funky ass marching band horn beat. Dearly Departed slows things back down, with the guys reflecting on loss of all kinds: Matt Champion's verse is about his deceased grandparents, Kevin Abstract's verse is vaguely about losing himself to the opinions of outsiders and also about losing Ameer Vann (who was kicked out of the band after sexual assault allegations surfaced), and Dom McClennon's verse is explicitly about Ameer having a part in Dom's friend getting robbed and the loss of the image of who he thought Ameer was. Next up is probably my favorite song on the album, I Been Born Again, which has the spookiest little beat that bubbles up and out during the duration of the song, and Joba's verse has his voice modulated deeper, "Texas 'til I'm dead, BBQ and corn bread." Then things get sad again on the title track and Big Boy, with Ginger going over a beat that reminds me of a Postal Service song, and Big Boy over a bass and piano. They finish out with the reflective walk through the clouds of Love Me for Life and Radiohead piano ballad Victor Roberts, featuring the titular rapper dealing a two minute long verse before the usual Bearface verse that ends all Brockhampton albums.
Song: If You Pray Right
02) Slowness - Berths
I actually bought this album on CD this year. It was part of a kickstart-esque endeavor to get the album made at all, but for my portion of the donation, I bought an advance copy of the CD. Jeremy Petschke, still out here, buying CD's. I have been into Slowness for a while, I don't know how I discovered them, but I've liked all of their releases before. Generally in the past, my favorite of their songs would be the fast paced, hard rocking tunes: Duck & Cover from Hopeless But Otherwise, Calm & Dispel from For Those Who Wish to See The Glass Half Full, and Anon Pt. 2 from How to Keep from Falling Off a Mountain. And then Slowness went out and made an album of all slow songs, and it's inexplicably my favorite album of theirs. Berths is Slowness's most explicitly political album, with the current state of our country setting the tone for both the lyrical content and for the overall bleak pace of the instrumentals: slow and yearning for better. Opener The Fall sets the tone with slow churning guitars and the combined chilly vocals of Julie Lynn and Geoffrey Scott. Rose's first half is propelled by a slow guitar lick that picks up in between the vocal passages, before the second half of the song hits and the guitar picks up and rips through the dirge of the rhythm section. The guitar lick of Berlin is so good that it essentially acts as the chorus of the song, appearing at the open and in between the sections of vocals, all of which are washed out, like specters singing to us, as in the second verse, "Weakness goes wrong when hellfire evil’s the way, Millions conform prison whips cabaret, Poetry censored rhetoric lies and the spins, Singing along like 1930s Berlin.' The second half is especially bleak, starting with Breathe, with it's rhythmic, military drum beat, and it's despotic mantra, "But bleed out on your own time." Sand and Stone and Asunder close the album out, the former leading us through a hazy path to a place where the shining goal is simply the realization that at some point "The sun will shine, despite your maligned, 'The sun shall never shine again',” while the closer let's us know through it's entire lyrical span, "All is lost no wonder, All the gods throw thunder, All is gone done plundered, All is fraud asunder, All is conned encumbered, All discard thrown under." Slowness, please come to Chicago. I have no funds to come to San Francisco.
Song: Berlin
1 Album That Stood Above The Rest!
01) Chastity Belt - Chastity Belt
Similar to Slowness, 2019 also saw Chastity Belt release their slowest album, and it also is my favorite of theirs, which is saying something considering their two albums preceding this were ranked second and fourth on my lists for their respective years. While Slowness's.........slowness was brought on as a thematic choice, Chastity Belt's slowness is more a maturation of their sound. All of the fire and grit of Time To Go Home is gone, replaced by lush space and increasingly beautiful instrumentals. For this review, I don't know that I can go song to song like I did on the previous couple because this album works best when it's treated as a whole and not as a set of tracks. Which is why I am not surprised that my top 25 songs listened to this year is littered with songs from this album. I know this because I bought my new computer at the beginning of the year, so my iTunes reset all my play counts when I moved everything from my laptop. A lyrical theme that weaves its way through all of Chastity Belt's music is a feeling of insecurity, but on this self-titled album, there's just a smidge more optimism at the end of that road. This can be heard in opener Ann's Jam when Julia Shapiro sings, "It was clear then, the sea before a storm, Now there's a thick fog around everything I learn, And I just kill time by dreading everything, But in that moment, life felt significant." I mention Julia specifically because Lydia Lund and Gretchen Grimm both contribute lead vocals to this album, but honestly a big chunk of the vocals on this album are mixed in a way that I sometimes can't tell which member is singing. I saw Chastity Belt live a couple months ago for the third or fourth time, also at Lincoln Hall, and because of that I know that Gretchen sings on Effort and Apart, Lydia sings It Takes Times, also Apart, and Split. But I'd have no idea otherwise, which I don't think is a knock on the band, because they found a specific sound that they wanted the vocals to have for this album, and they are able to achieve that with all three of the singers, both individually and when they weave together, like during the choruses of Elena. The vocal back and forth of Lydia and Gretchen on Apart also sends me back to some Shoegaze-y vibes, like the vocals on Lush's Split. And while I mark this album as being when Chastity Belt did slow down their music, they also added some flourishes to their sound, the most obvious of which is Annie Truscott's violin, which lends tons of atmosphere and ambiance to the end of Effort and in between the verses on Rav-4. Lydia's guitar on this album reminds me so much of the kind of alternative rock guitar you used to hear in the Nineties, like Veruca Salt guitar, or even like the guitar on the early Beach House albums. It also kind of reminds me of the tone that Johnny Greenwood's guitar has on In Rainbows. Which I suppose is a roundabout way of saying that this Chastity Belt album is kind of a cross between Nineties alt rock and Aughts dream pop. This album came out at the end of September, and I knew before Halloween that this was almost certainly going to be my number one for the year. And nothing changed since then, I've never stopped listening to this album, and I've never grown tired of a single second of it.
Song: Elena
So that's it, 2019 is over, the teens are over, and here we are in 2020, hoping for some change, and a little peace, love, and happiness. And also I want the Illini to make the tournament. And I wouldn't mind a Nintendo Switch. Attainable goals. See y'all in a couple weeks for my Oscars post. Only a couple left to watch. Peace!
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