2019 Music: Top 25 Albums of the Year

So just to recap for those who've just joined, we listened to a grand total in the general region of 1000 albums released this year and I've whittled my favourites down to a top 25 (plus honourable mentions, below). I make no pretence about this being an objective "best of" list, but these are the 25 albums that I've enjoyed the most in 2019.

25) Ilana (The Creator) - Mdou Moctar (Tuareg Rock)

Kicking off my albums writeup with the maker of my #1 song of 2019: I had in my mind before revisiting my top albums that it was one highlight track from an otherwise so-so album. But, in fact, Moctar’s electrified Tuareg folk is pretty kicking throughout this whole album. I think he really unleashes his full power in “Tarhatazed” but there’s a great old-meets-new aesthetic throughout this, and it’s enjoyable just as pure upbeat rock music as well.

24) Truth Power - NEEDSHES (Uzbek Art Rock)

Wow I seem like a big ‘world music’ guy with my first two picks. I’m not familiar enough with the Uzbek rock scene to know if NEEDSHES has a sound typical of that scene or the culture generally, but if they do then we all need more Uzbek music in our life. This is just really dynamic, driving power rock with a great offbeat sound to a lot of the chords. The only shortcoming is that the album, and the songs, are quite short and don’t quite allow themselves the room to expand and build.

23) Chrysaline - Josh Garrels (Christian Folktronica)

This is no doubt an odd album to find on an atheist’s top 25 of the year, but I’m honestly not averse to a bit of Jesus in my music, particularly when it’s as richly textured and pure in its delivery as this is. The main criticism I do have – and it is largely driven by my not being as gung-ho for Jesus as Mr. Garrels obviously is – is that the whole album is very slow, very devotional, and could use a few moments of levity; it’s hard to maintain my enthusiasm for Jesus for this long.

22) Artemis - Lindsey Stirling (Classicaltronica)

The follow-up to my #4 album of 2016 from Lindsey Stirling, this was an album destined for this list. This is another very solid album of violin virtuosity over solid dance beats and electronic pop, with a few more vocal performances blended in as well. The main trouble is that this isn’t really much of a departure from the previous album, so even though I dig everything Lindsey plays, it’s just hard to get fully excited about another full album of the same kind of stuff. I should note you’ll hear a bit more from the artist who beat Lindsey into my #3 spot of 2016 later on in this post, and there’s a clear reason he’s ahead again.

21) Lucid - Asa (Pop RnB)

I always like a good bit of RnB, and between this and Ciara’s “Beauty Marks” (which just missed this list) there were a good couple of albums from solo RnB artists this year. Despite Ciara also having a couple of highly-rated songs (and the highest-ranked on my top 100, at #28), this one makes the cut because I really enjoy Asa’s slightly reggae and afrobeat vibes that she sprinkles throughout. It’s a good variety of different RnB flavours regardless, and consistently delivers some interesting twists on the genre. 

20) In the Morse Code of Brake Lights - New Pornographers (Indie Rock)

The New Pornographers’ previous album in 2017 kind of flew under the radar for me, but one of the main reasons it did that is because it was released in an amazingly dense week of music (that yielded two top twenty songs of the year for me, from other artists). So I really enjoyed getting to know this one, despite the fact that this only won runner-up album of its week (with the winner still to come). It’s full of innovative, lively pop rock music that, due to the talent of the musicians involved in this group, has a really interesting ensemble vibe throughout.

19) HAETHOR - Amy Owens (Operatic Pop)

For a large part of this year, this album was earmarked for a much higher position than it finds itself in. Similar to Lindsey Stirling, this is a quirky juxtaposition of two unrelated genres, pairing Amy Owens’ powerful classical soprano style with slightly wonky pop vibes. And the songs that I singled out for special treatment and relistening really held up powerfully well. Where this fell down in relistening is that it does struggle for consistency, and some of the lesser tracks here really verge on weird, almost cringey territory. Fantastic at its best, but not at its best all the time.

18) My Name is Michael Holbrook - MIKA (Pop)

I had no idea until earlier this year that MIKA was still making music, but then he infused this album with the same kind of silly, unbridled joy that marked his explosive debut way back when (2007 incidentally, God I’m old). But what really made this album stand out for me is that, beyond the offbeat fun of songs like “Ice Cream” there are also more mature, thoughtful even ballady tracks like “Ready to Call This Love”. “Tonight” forms a nice balance between the two and was my favourite song from this album, but really it’s full of enjoyable, worthwhile listens.

17) Animated Violence Mild - Blanck Mass (Electronica)

The source of my #12 song of the year, this was actually a real surprise hit for me. As I mentioned, I liked a single song from Blanck Mass’ previous album but found the whole thing really dark, chaotic and unstructured electronica. This album therefore really caught me off guard with how catchy, upbeat and even danceable it is at times, while retaining the complex beats and arrangements that his previous album was full of. “House vs House” is the highlight track but it’s part of a long arrangement of interesting electronic music that’s also very infectious.

16) History - Youssou N'Dour (Mbalax)

Like most people outside Senegal, I was previously familiar with Youssou N’Dour and the mbalax music genre mainly due to his 90s duet with former Rip Rig & Panic frontwoman Neneh Cherry “Seven Seconds”. I was really pleased therefore to find that there’s a rich vein of very beautiful, sweet music to be discovered from him beyond that. The brassy instrumentation and the duets here are quite affecting, and all told this album made me feel very much at peace because it’s just sweet, simple and uplifting. “Macoumba” and “Birima” are my favourite songs on here.

15) Flowers - Children of the Sün (Psychedelic Rock)

I felt like 2017 was an excellent year for psychedelic music, and since then I’ve struggled to find something that’s really great and inventive. And while this, from Swedish psych rockers Children of the Sün, definitely elevated the genre a bit, it isn’t really ground-breaking or inventive. Where its success lies is in how successfully they channel old-school 70s-style psychedelia, to the point of being imitative but simultaneously making it very much their own. They list Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix as influences, but I get more of a Velvet Underground kind of vibe. However you see it though, it’s cool chillout rock.

14) Galaxy I - Amason (Avant-Garde Dreampop)

I struggle with my admiration for this album, and this artist a bit. I love them very dearly but the truth is, if I had to describe their sound to someone, the best comparison I can conjure is to elevator music. Not just in the way that my favourite group Thievery Corporation might be (because it’s chill background music) but because there’s just a twee, cutesy kind of feel to their vocals, while the music is full of swirling synths and playful tintinnabulation. For whatever reason though I find their unique sound, and this album in particular, totally compelling and thoughtful.

13) Diagonal Fields - Gon (Baroque Pop)

The source of my #3 song of the year, “Alive” which acts as the opening track, this album made a very late surge up the rankings when I heard it in October. Similar to Amy Owens, Gon brings a slightly operatic style to what is otherwise pure pop music, but in his case he isn’t really juxtaposing the genres but rather turning strings and piano and classical voice into bright pop ballads that retain the stirring vibes of their traditional roots. There’s a completely arresting sound throughout all of these tracks, and the only reason it’s really failed to crack the top ten is, similar to Josh Garrels, the album is a little one-noted in being slow and stirring, and I’d love to see Gon attack the same idea in a different sort of way; otherwise he gets a little bogged down at times.

12) Sound & Fury - Sturgill Simpson (Psychedelic Country)

So just to close the parenthesis from earlier, this was the album that beat the New Pornographers to take album of the week when they were both released. This is the second of Sturgill Simpson’s albums that we’ve heard (after “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” in 2016) but the first that I’ve really properly appreciated; his 2016 album made a lot of best-of-year lists, but didn’t touch anywhere near mine. What Simpson delivers so well is a real heartland country grunt, but without any of the backslapping or cultural cringe I experience from it otherwise. His themes are more universal and the expansiveness of his sound goes far beyond the prairie. I struggle sometimes to parse the whole album’s full meaning but I very much enjoy the ride.

11) A Different Kind of Human (Step II) - Aurora (Indie Pop)

As much as I loved Aurora’s 2016 album, it was mainly a vehicle to deliver my #1 song of that year “Runaway”, and in every respect I find this a superior album (I should note that we somehow completely missed her 2018 effort and ‘part I’ of this, which I am completely embarrassed about). Yes it delivers all of the same aesthetic: forlorn and wistful dreampop with a good dose of mysticism, but nearly every track on this album is also just a catchy earworm that continues to affect me after the fact. The tracks that aren’t so catchy, well they’re fine too but the overall consistency is the only reason this otherwise brilliant album finds itself just outside the top ten.

10) Shadow of a Wrecking Ball - Le Cygne Noir (Progressive Darkwave)

This album really surprised me, particularly when I revisited it. There’s a particularly camp veneer to a lot of it, which can’t be helped as it is a synthwave concept album about the zombie apocalypse. But while I liked this a lot on first listen, what really struck me on a second visit was how well the album holds together to tell this continuous story of degeneration and collapse. Not just through the song titles and lyrics but musically, progressing from a slight uncertainty into inevitable destruction, all through the conceit of a few synthesisers and a vocal affectation. It is certainly a little tongue-in-cheek, too, which helps it from getting too bombastic and silly; instead it’s just the right amount.

9) Swallow Me Whole - Lupa J (Australio Art Pop)

Speaking of albums that really took me by surprise, this was one I was almost totally not on board with for most of my first listen. It just felt a bit dour, and took itself too seriously. But then suddenly something clicked with me leading into the title track (which is also, for those paying attention, my #11 song of the year). The whole album does have a slightly miserable sound to it, but it’s all for a singular purpose of creating this crescendo of yearning and despair – in a Kierkegaardian sense – that culminates in the last few tracks. The earlier songs that felt a little dry and stilted to me then felt more like they’re evoking emotional repression and the growing emotional drive to it then has a very cathartic release in the final few songs. It’s not an easy listen but it’s an intricately clever one.

8) Balance, Not Symmetry Original Soundtrack - Biffy Clyro (Indie Rock)

It seems I’m on a run of big surprise albums here, because this was probably the biggest of the year. We heard Biffy Clyro’s previous album in 2016, and I dismissed nearly all of it except for one song (“Re-Arrange”, my #26 song of that year) that sounded like nothing else on that album. So imagine my astonishment when Biffy Clyro’s soundtrack to some small Scottish film (that has a rating of 4.4 out of 10 on IMDb) turned out to be one of the best albums of rock music this year. There’s an incredible variegation across this album, with some of the songs having a lively, infectious feel to them; others really exploring some experimental territory with xenharmonics and a bit of the old thrashing around on guitars and drums. Then there’s some, like my favourite track here “Tunnels and Trees” that progresses from one to the other. Ultimately this is just a really great album of powerful rock music.

7) Omoiyari - Kishi Bashi (Baroque Folk Pop)

I’ve teased that this album was coming for a while, and for those who regularly read my blog (Hi, Mother!) you may be surprised by how low this is. To be honest, I was a bit too, as this was certainly predicted to be part of my top three if not at the very apex. Now, to close another parenthesis, this is also the artist I was referring to in my write-up of Lindsey Stirling, where this album held up a lot better than Lindsey’s in terms of following a top 5 album of 2016. Where this feels like an improvement is in the fact that Kishi Bashi here is exploring new sounds, bringing his violin-driven light pop music into more serious, folk-infused territory but retaining all of his playfulness and whimsy. Honestly it feels like a strange reason to knock this down, but when I revisited this I got a little bit irked at the fact that he ends songs badly. This is also true of my #4 song of 2016 (“Can’t Let Go, Juno” that peters out with a bland drumbeat fill), and aside from that criticism this is a brilliant album, but it just felt strongly pronounced here when these songs are otherwise so profound and intricately constructed: so many of them end with such a whimper that it feels like lost potential energy and it takes away a lot of the impact.

6) Widow's Weeds - Silversun Pickups (Post-Punk Revival)

Given that Silversun Pickups took the coveted “two songs in my top 20 of the year” position this year, it might also be surprising that this one has missed out on the top five. One thing that does tend to qualify my love of this excellent album, at least a little, is the fact that I’m conscious of Silversun Pickups as a well-established band that I’ve just never heard before, and the dynamic and interesting chord shifts and instrumental arrangements here is possibly wearing thin on people who’ve followed their whole career. What I mean is that this album was a big revelation to me in delivering so many great sounds put together in such a clever way, but I could just be discovering a great new band (I haven’t gone through their back catalogue yet) rather than a particularly noteworthy album, even though this is very solid. The real reason though that this finds itself only at #6 (I had it marked as a dark horse to take the top spot) is a simple lack of consistency. A few of the songs here, like “It Doesn’t Matter Why”, “Songbirds” and the opening track “Neon Wound” are so brilliantly put together they can make me gasp, but then there’s others that feel a bit like box-ticking punk-adjacent rock that doesn’t have quite the same effect.

5) From Voodoo to Zen - Tides From Nebula (Post-Metal)

Yes, the makers of my #6 song and my #5 album of the year are one and the same. From the moment the opening track (the very same #6 song, “Ghost Horses”) really kicks into gear this album is pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut charging into my top five. And I use the imagery, apposite with “Ghost Horses” being such a powerful bit of energising metal, but the other key selling point here is that there are a lot of surprisingly quiet, reflective moments of exploratory composition here as well that not only expand the sound here but just stand as fascinating contrast to those ass-kicking thumping metal passages as well. It’s really creative instrumental rock that balances visceral energy with those surprising moments of tenderness and peace without really hitting a false note.

4) The Soft Cavalry - The Soft Cavalry (Dreampop)

I love a good bit of dreampop, and this album from husband-and-wife duo Steve Clarke and Rachel Goswell (of Slowdive) absolutely knocked out any other competition for the best dreampop of the year. Like the best in the genre, this is deep and complex music that nevertheless remains mellifluous and soft to listen to. But what really made this stand out over other great examples this year (like ViVii) is the breadth of different sounds that are explored on this album while staying within the soft and trippy foundations they’ve lain. From the more upbeat, confident trappings of “Bulletproof” to the yearning of “Passerby” and the dark menace of “Spiders” there’s a real elemental quality to this album that touches on some quite raw emotions. That’s what dreampop does, at its best, but for this to also change gears and shift as seamlessly as it does makes it pretty special. 

3) To the Ends of the Earth - The Hip Abduction (Indie Pop Rock)

There’s another little running joke that I make where I call The Hip Abduction “the best band in the world”. It started last year when Jez put on their 2016 album “The Gold Under the Glow” on as a ‘throwback’ pick, and I loved it so much that I felt it could have been my #1 album of 2016 had we not completely overlooked it that year. What this joke meant though was that this album had a very heavy weight of expectation when I first listened to it. And, although it did win album of the week (over my #23 album, “Chrysaline” by Josh Garrels), it really didn’t seem like top of the year material. Thankfully, I do partake in revisiting in new contexts and this completely blew me away the second time around. It’s not a profound , life-changing musical moment but it’s just absolutely likeable, pleasing music from start to finish. The guys here infuse little Afro-Caribbean beats into breezy pop music, and the result is relaxing, infectious and never fails to put a smile on my face. I should note that my favourite track here “Come On Get Up” was my #35 song of last year when it was released as a single, and although nothing from this album cracked my top 100 this year it really doesn’t matter because every song is still just very enjoyable.

2) Terraformer - Thank You Scientist (Progressive Jazz Metal)

I can’t overstate enough how completely ridiculous this band’s proposition is. They’re a seven-piece ensemble that seems to be fairly evenly split between the typical sort of lineup for a prog metal band – guitars, drums and vocalist – plus a violinist, saxophonist and trumpeter. What makes it even more ridiculous is just how well it works. This isn’t simply chaotic metal guitar chords with the occasional punctuation from some left-field instrument (the way some folk and symphonic metal artists do), it’s a complete fusion of big-band jazz with all the distortions and driving power of progressive metal. But at no point during this album do I feel like it doesn’t make sense; the most bizarre thing about Thank You Scientist is that they make jazz and metal feel like they always belonged together. Salvatore Marrano’s tenor vocals are a big part of what ties it all together; on first listen I found his voice a little too melodious, but on revisiting it became clearer that there’s a charming tongue-in-cheek quality to his style, and that’s ultimately the same charm that defines this weird and wonderful album of music.

1) Pale Ramon - Pale Ramon (Alt Rock)

I’ve spoken a lot throughout these writeups about songs, albums, and so forth, being ‘earmarked’ for top spots and falling through at the last minute, and you’re looking here at the one album that absolutely and consistently lived up to my expectations and my recollection. From the moment I even previewed this to see if it was worth listening to the following week, I knew I was onto something very special. It didn’t hurt that the first time I listened to it properly (as I mentioned a few posts ago) was when I was driving back to the hospital to visit my wife and our baby daughter the day after she (the latter) was born, but I can’t think of anything more inspiring and expansive than this album of music to match that sort of mood, of contemplating possibilities. It’s really astounding to me the way these guys start with a musical idea and transition through different phases to end up on a higher stratum while never losing sight of that original idea. The confidence that they have – on their debut album, no less – to introduce these experimental and psychedelic flourishes, like the fadeout section on “All My Ways, Always” is captivating. It reminds me from a composition point of view of Sufjan Stevens at his progressive best, while musically it has more the cinematic scope and drive of The National – although I regard these guys more highly because, frankly, they also have the sense to keep this a dense and consistently great half hour of music rather than over-indulging their own interests. If, as the opening track suggests, the best has yet to come, I’ll be on the edge of my seat to hear their follow-up. It’s quite simply a masterpiece.

And just to round things off, I did quite an intensive couple of weeks of relistening this year so rather than a haphazard set of honourable mentions I actually have the next set of albums ranked all the way down to 42 (why 42, you ask? Ooh I'm needed in the basement...)

26) On the Line - Jenny Lewis (Indie Singer-Songwriter)
27) Anima Mysterium - Yugen Blakrok (South African Hip-Hop)
28) Uchoten - Polkadot Stingray (Japanese Manic Rock)
29) The Spell - Cellar Darling (Folk Metal)
30) You Are OK - The Maine (Emo Rock)
31) Freya Ridings - Freya Ridings (Indie Singer-Songwriter)
32) S3NS - Ibrahim Maalouf (Big Band Jazz)
33) This is Not a Zen Garden - Domiciles (Industrial Rock)
34) Solutions - K.Flay (Indie Pop)
35) Fever Breaks - Josh Ritter (Alt Country)
36) …but for the sun - Big Wreck (Indie Rock)
37) The Gereg - The HU (Mongolian Folk Metal)
38) All My Dreams Are Of This Place - Fires (Industrial Rock)
39) Beauty Marks - Ciara (Pop RnB)
40) Seven Horses for Seven Kings - Black to Comm (Deathtronica)
41) Metamorphejawns - Ecce Shnak (Avant-Garde Stupid Punk-Gregorian Chant Fusion Weirdness)
42) Pitfalls - Leprous (Progressive Rock)

So there you have it. Next up of course is my books of the year, which will come in the new year (I need to finish my last book before I can slot it into the rankings and write them all up), but that one's easier to write since I take copious notes through the year and it's just a case of editing. Until then, enjoy!

Top Twenty Songs of 2019

*insert introductory preamble here*

20) The Judge - Alexandria Maillot (Indie Pop)
This is a really, really late ring-in to hit the top twenty, from the very last week of the year is this excellent bit of slightly baroque pop. Maillot's voice - good, but mostly just serviceable throughout her album - comes out to star here in this beautifully constructed pop track punctuated by pizzicato strings and a nice progressive breakbeat. Became infectious enough in the short time I've had with it to crack the top tier.

19) Now's the Time - Moon Taxi (Funk Pop)
This one only got runner-up in its week of release and has leapfrogged the song that beat it - "Dose" by Ciara - to hit the big leagues. Probably unsurprising in the end as this is just a full-blast feel-good track with a great poppy energy and a lot of big dirty sax. Moon Taxi were one of Jez's big favourites of last year, and this follow-up as part of a two-track EP really brought home why he loved them so much (I liked them too, but I feel this is their best track)

18) The River - Aurora (Dreampop)
This is the highest-ranked song that only got third place in its respective week, and there's a reason for that (well, technically two). But Aurora is of course no stranger to my top of the year countdown as the winner of my 2016 song of the year (with "Runaway"). This is another bit of bewitching pop, with good energy and a touch of a mystical aesthetic that nobody really delivers better than her.

17) It Doesn't Matter Why - Silversun Pickups (Post-Punk Revival)
Apparently this, and the previous track, can't be separated by much, as this was one of the reasons "The River" only got third place, with this beating it into runner-up position. I was aware of Silversun Pickups as a concept before hearing their album this year "Widow's Weeds" but this song was a key reason that album was a complete revelation to me. It has all the best hallmarks of that album with a weird suspended set of chord progressions leading to a cathartic key change about the two-thirds mark. It's a great bit of progressive post-punk music.

16) The Code - XIXA (Psychedelic Desert Rock)
I love a good evocative song, and this track definitely does a great job of evoking a particular time and place. It's also a weird quirk of mine that I love old westerns and that aesthetic way more than I should, or you'd think, so this bit of desert rock that calls up that sense of lawlessness and in-group loyalty really hits the spot. It may be a bit gimmicky but I just love the cinematic feel it has to it: cold, ruthless and yes, a little bit camp. Definitely my jam.

15) Serbia Drums - !!! (Indie Pop)
Not really sure I can make a good defence of this track from !!! (pronounced "chk chk chk"), but I just really dig the dynamic melodic riff and drumbeat that accompanies it. I can't say I'm particularly in touch with the meaning behind the title or any of the lyrics, but it's ultimately a really excellent bit of power pop that makes me feel like dancing.

14) Karma Girls - Indochine (French Pop)
Apparently this song was actually part of a 2017 album but incongruously released as a single this year, and that being my first encounter with it, makes it eligible for this year's list. The other thing I'll qualify this with is that, at one point this song came on in Bec's presence and she said "this is a very 'you' song" and I couldn't help but agree. It's basically just cheesy 90s Eurodance (from cheesy 90s Eurodance band Indochine) the way I like it. I feel like this song, with its fade out and build sections, demonstrates the sort of music we could get if Eurovision songs could extend beyond three minutes. And you know, maybe they could cut down the vote-reading-out segment a bit more.

13) The Best Has Yet To Come - Pale Ramon (Psychedelic Rock)
I warned there would be more Pale Ramon to come in my previous post, and here indeed is some more. This is the opening track from their self-titled album and really sets the mood in a brilliant way. This song starts at one level and seamlessly transitions up and up and up to have this huge, epic rock sound by its culmination. It is also true that the first time I listened to this song properly, I was driving to the hospital to see my baby daughter the day after she was born, so this song does hold a special place in my heart too, but really it's just the repertoire of evocative rock effects they employ to create such a complex sound, that's why it's here at #13.

12) House vs House - Blanck Mass (Electronica)
Blanck Mass is another artist making their second appearance on a top 100. In 2017 he made a song called "Rhesus Negative" which I loved for its pure mindless chaos and that hit #60 of that year. With his album in 2019 and this track in particular, he evolved that mindless chaos by introducing a simple element of melody. It retains that slightly raucous electronic grunt underneath but builds layers of vocal chanting, xenharmonic synth and a catchy riff to go with the beat. As with all great electronica, it's repetitive but without seeming like it, by the frequent introduction of something new and surprising.

11) Swallow Me Whole - Lupa J (Art Pop)
This was a really strong year for industrial music, but in the end this song is the only one from that broad church to hit the very top tier. This song pretty much single-handedly turned me around on Lupa J's entire album (of the same name) by creating this synthesis where all of the previous songs of despair and yearning came together. This song has all of that aesthetic but draws it into a weird, unsettling musical universe full of strange harmonies and throbbing industrial drumbeats. I should say that this song - and Lupa J generally - owe a big debt of gratitude to Björk, who I occupied the second half of the year discovering anew in a full retrospective, and it's largely down to Björk that I have learned to enjoy stuff like this that put me otherwise out of my comfort zone.

10) Songbirds - Silversun Pickups (Post-Punk Revival)
If you've been paying attention, you might be able to guess that this is the other reason why "The River" by Aurora only got third place in its week of release, as this was the top song of that same week. This was by far and away the standout track of Silversun Pickups' excellent album "Widow's Weeds", built on a killer couple of menacing guitar chords and with this amazing set of punk-adjacent harmony driven by Brian Aubert's plaintive voice. It's just a great bit of rock music I can relisten to over and over (and have).

9) Old Tar Road to Sligo - The Walker Roaders (Celtic Punk)
Now to explain the meteoric position of this potentially anomalous bit of Celtic punk, at number 9 of the year. I was never conscious of the Pogues when Shane McGowan was still actively making music but I developed a very strong affiliation for them after that fact. And this track comes the closest to emulating the iconic sound of MacGowan's Celtic rasp with this drinkalong singalong style and therefore I adore it. Of course, the Walker Roaders - a Celtic punk supergroup consisting of the Pogues' former accordion player and members of Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys - have the pedigree to achieve such an iconic sound, and here it is.

8) Till the Dance Do Us Part - Frankley Everlong (Disco Punk)
Two punk-adjacent songs in a row, and fittingly so, because from a very early point in this year I earmarked 2019 as the year that really revived punk rock music to my mind (when I say 'a very early point in this year' it was specifically when I heard this song the first time). This is an astoundingly fun bit of raucous punk delivered at a cracking tempo with a bit of synth and a weird dance beat. If you were ever asking "what is punk music missing?" and the answer may be a super-fast pace and strange disco beat, this song will definitely be for you as it is for me.

7) Nothing Is Safe - clipping. (Experimental Hip-Hop)
This is probably the song that actually surprised me the most how high it's ended up, but it's quite simply a phenomenal bit of songwriting, composition, and delivery. In my opinion, there's a non-zero chance that Daveed Diggs is the greatest musical genius of our time, but it's hard to discern that sometimes because  off-kilter, unstructured and often formless hip-hop is how he tends to apply that genius. When the aesthetic comes together like this though, in this haunting soundscape that adds dramatic layer after dramatic layer up to its explosive climax, well it just expands my horizons of what hip-hop, and music in general, can be.

6) Ghost Horses - Tides From Nebula (Post-Metal)
It's surprisingly hard, given that I don't attend to lyrics that closely, to get me on board with a purely instrumental track. But this absolute behemoth of a rock track is an unstoppable force - and I invoke that imagery because that's the exact aesthetic it conjures up for me. It starts with almost three minutes of developing crescendo before it kicks into top gear and from that point on just feels like an incredibly powerful piston engine at full speed. And I don't mean to evoke the idea of some modern, streamlined machine - I mean it in a full steampunk kind of way, an old clunky beast but charging forward in ways unimaginable to its creators. There are so many moving parts here but they all just thunder down this song leaving a gobsmacked me in their wake.

5) The Barrel - Aldous Harding (Art Pop)
I feel like I'm selling out a bit having this song in my top five, because it's won literally all of the obscure song awards imaginable this year (and now it can add "top five song on some Australian's end of year list" to its accolades) and Aldous Harding's album "Designer" has made literally every end-of-year list (except - spoiler alert - mine). But this song had pretty much cemented this track from the first time I heard it on NPR's "All Songs Considered" podcast. The instrumentation is definitely the selling point here - yes, the clarinet is underutilised in modern music, but the playful guitar strains that underline this whole song are also amazing - but Harding's quirky lyrics and delivery all add to this unique soundscape that's ultimately just incredibly affecting, to me.

4) Ivory - Adam French (Indie Singer-Songwriter)
Now this song has to take the record for the biggest "come from nowhere" victory (well, fourth place). Yes, it won my song of the week when it was released, but nothing else from French's album "The Back Foot and the Rapture" warranted a second look, and a few weeks after the fact I'd completely forgotten this song's existence. Luckily I do revisit all my song winners, and this song grew, and grew, and ended up exploding all over my face when I realised how good it is. It feels like a somewhat standard piece of singer-songwriter music, but it's also immaculately produced to create a number of layers of interesting sound throughout. And the key point that I missed when forgetting about it was how brilliantly, and seamlessly, this builds to its dramatic conclusion. I won't forget it, or the name Adam French, again.

3) Alive - Gon (Baroque Pop)
This is another very late ring-in, coming out late October and only allowing me a month to come to terms with it before forming this list. I didn't really need a month though, as the week it was released I pretty much had it on perpetual repeat on my commute home. Starting with Gon's gorgeous classically-trained voice, this song creates the perfect symbiosis of classical and dreamy pop with its piano and string foundation, and the verse and chorus structure. This is really just a magical bit of music from start to finish, and it may have climbed all the way up to the top of my year if it had had more time to get that close to my heart.

2) Harmony Hall - Vampire Weekend (Art Rock)
This feels like another song I probably don't need to sing the praises of (congratulations, one of the world's most famous bands who's been on every end-of-year list this year, some numpty in Australia also digs one of your songs), but for most of the year this has been a shoe-in for this spot or higher. It's a perfect example of when a band is in complete control of their sound: the chorus and hook are perfect and catchy and great; the lyrics about dangers of the echo chamber are thought-provoking; but then they have the audacity to break the song down into a little piano interlude, for absolutely no reason at all and yet make it completely work with the rest of the song. At the end of the day this is a very likeable bit of pop music but the composition is nothing short of genius.

1) Tarhatazed - Mdou Moctar (Tuareg Rock)
Speaking of genius, here in the very top spot is a piece of music I can describe in no other terms. Mdou Moctar is a Tuareg guitar player who burst onto the (obscure, niche) world stage this year with his unique modern twist on traditional Tuareg folk music, and this song absolutely compelled, captivated and beguiled me from about two minutes into my first listening. The tone of his guitar firstly, driving forward what is clearly aesthetically quite traditional Nigerien folk strains, is electrifying (no pun intended). But following the opening passages of what is clearly the traditional refrain (modernised), Moctar unleashes the full power of his guitar in this scintillating solo section. His prowess can't really be denied objectively, but what he delivers in the latter half of this song is more of an unhinged fury, and it creates this completely arresting synthesis of old world and new world musical sensibilities. For years I've listened to lots of guitar folk and Afrobeat music from the same geographical region (as a sidenote, I'm aware that Niger is very different from Mali is very different from Ghana is very different from Nigeria etc) and I've willed it to be brought to the same kind of explosive life as Moctar brings this. I love the music generally, but this is really the apogee of a decade-long struggle I've had with a cultural remove, trying to have it come to me and speak to me in a really personal sense, and this song manages that powerfully.

So that's my songs of the year. I'm still in the process of writing up my top 25 albums and that will be posted in the next couple of days, depending on the progress I make.

Songs of 2019 Part 2: 50-21

I don't think I need much preamble to this as I'm actually justifying every song here, anyway. But we plunge into the top 50 with...

50) Sugar - Diskopunk (Nu-Disco)
Good bit of funky dance music from earlier in the year; well produced and very catchy.

49) Starting Line - Cory Wong feat. Emily C Browning (Funk Rock)
I think at his best, funk guitarist Cory Wong could be the most charismatic musician working today. His flair is used to great effect here in this quasi-disco rock number.

48) Did What I Did - Jon Bryant (Indie Folk)
I wouldn't usually use this word to describe a song, but I find this song very 'pretty'. Jon Bryant's counter-tenor voice, the backing vocals and the gentle folk instrumentation are just very pleasant.

47) Sunlight Ray - TENTS (Indie Pop)
A very good bit of likeable, affecting pop music with a big dramatic chorus to it. I found myself with the phrase "Oh my God" in my head more than is healthy, thanks to this track.

46) Castles - Freya Ridings (Indie Singer-Songwriter)
Freya Ridings was in the running for a top album award at one stage mainly on the back of this and another song (see five songs ahead) that were really scintillating stuff. This is the more upbeat and optimistic track from her otherwise fairly introspective album.

45) Plutocracy - Redwolves (Hard Rock)
This one came out of the blue, really. It only landed (I think) fourth place in its week of release but it really grew on me on relistening: old school kind of kickass hard rock akin to Zeppelin or Deep Purple.

44) Boy With Luv - BTS feat. Halsey (K-Pop)
There's been a hilarious running gag all year about me being a BTS fanboy, because I keep picking their music to listen to (I'm just fascinated by the phenomenon). But in the case of this track I'm happy to wear the label, because it's just well-made pop music with some interesting harmonies and instrumentation. Halsey's presence also doesn't hurt, but it's mainly just a positive, uplifting boy band track.

43) Wish You Were Here - Marianas Trench (Emo Pop)
This is a bizarre song, on a slightly raucous emo punk album lies this anomalous track that sounds like something NKotB might have produced in the 80s, full of singalong harmonies and upbeat riffs. What's interesting though is that the lyrics here are still quite dark and emo, and I'm always entertained by the contrast.

42) 4500m - Thylacine feat. Mr J Medeiros (Trip-Hop)
Great bit of trip-hop music this, accompanied by some great rhythmic rap from (I presume) Mr J Medeiros (with whom I'm otherwise unfamiliar). Great builds and great beats here, it's as good as Thievery Corporation at their middling level, which is of course pretty damn good.

41) Poison - Freya Ridings (Indie Singer-Songwriter)
Not much more to add to Freya Ridings; she has a great husky voice and here it's put to great dramatic effect in a ballad punctuated by plaintive piano notes.

40) Another Episode - Sticky Fingers (Australio Indie Rock)
This song has one of the most awful starts to a song that ends up as good as this does. Dylan Frost really shouldn't ever try and sing, basically. But when he produces something otherwise this dynamic, powerful and personal, I forgive his off-key warbling to kick this off.

39) Oscar Wilde - The Cat Empire (Australio Jazz Funk)
Wow, two Australio powerhouses in a row. This was another song that really grew on my on relistening, and it's funny because I've never really been that into the Cat Empire, they strike me as somewhat gimmicky. But here everything just comes together in this really great bit of party music.

38) Fire Lily - Sound of Ceres (Dreampop)
Here they are, the makers of my #2 album of 2016, my #11 album of 2017… they put this one out as a single just to keep me salivating, and naturally it's good enough to make my top 50. One of their louder and more upbeat tracks, it still maintains their beguiling mystique and lots of psychedelic vibes.

37) Juice - Lizzo (Hip-Hop)
Another only-third-place getter from the first week of this year (this was released in December where we start the year officially), I daresay everybody has heard this song except for perhaps my blog-reader (Hi, Mother!) but it's bags of fun, very catchy and very zeitgeisty - as is Lizzo generally of course.

36) The Velvet Fog - The Soft Cavalry (Dreampop)
The Soft Cavalry's self-titled album was my main dreampop event of the year and this trippy, eerie number with some great mood shifts has come out as the top-rated track from it.

35) She - dodie (Indie Pop)
Another bit of a climber, this one. I think again only third-placed in its week of release, this adorable and quirky but heartfelt number from Dodie always makes me smile. It's basically "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt, but without the self-pity and more of a pragmatic resignation to the fact that the subject of the song is still a complete stranger to Dodie. I don't want to say women singing about fantasising about women is less creepy than men singing about it, but here we are.

34) World I Share - Swim Deep (Synthpop)
I love a good bit of swirly, dancey synthpop and there really hasn't been much that's really good this year, so this late charge from October or so was a welcome tonic.

33) Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear - Kishi Bashi (Baroque Folk Pop)
Kishi Bashi's album was earmarked for a long time as a potential album of the year for me (no spoilers as to whether it got there or not, you will find out in this bock?), and this cute, playful opening number ended up leapfrogging some of the other, more challenging tracks on the album to end up my highest-ranked at the end of the year.

32) FXMLDR - Thank You Scientist (Progressive Jazz Metal)
You'll be hearing a fair bit more about Thank You Scientist, who really brought a lot of geeky, silly fun to the year of music. This upbeat bit of prog metal (with big band brass) is a great bit of composition with enjoyable alien symbology throughout.

31) Banjo Billy - Fling (Indie Pop)
I was a bit surprised this one landed so high on the list, but I do love it. The main surprise was that I picked this album from Fling only through absolute random chance (no exaggeration, I just used a random number generator to pick albums from a list) and this ended up my song of that week. The abandon in the lyrics and the general silly fun vibes are always enjoyable.

30) Party Clown - Jenny Lewis (Indie Singer-Songwriter)
Jenny Lewis was another surprise revelation for me this year. Never encountered her before but it seems she's had a long and illustrious career in both acting and singing. This was the highlight track from her excellent album, a slightly country-infused (but also tubular bells-featuring) ballad about self-effacement and self-awareness in the face of misfortune.

29) Heavenly - Cigarettes After Sex (Dreampop)
This is Cigarettes After Sex's second appearance in a top 100 for me, after "K" (recently featured in Killing Eve, apparently) hit #82 of 2017. This, I feel, is a better song: more complete and balanced and full of warm, comforting ambient vibes that are very uplifting and sweet.

28) Dose - Ciara (Pop RnB)
I love this track and loved Ciara's album generally, but I'm conscious that what I'm most digging is the fact that this is a very big throwback to late 90s style pop RnB, and this song really has incredibly "Bootylicious" vibes to the point of almost being derivative. That said, it's still well-produced, has a great beat, is catchy and enjoyable and that's both enough to land it pretty high on my year-end list, and something that I would love more of from other dull, tuneless RnB artists *cough SOLANGE cough*

27) Velociraptor Swayze - Ecce Shnak (Avant-Garde Dumb Punk Gregorian Chant Mashup Weirdness What the Fuck Is This Really)
Honestly I have no idea what to do with this. This is the most bonkers bit of music I've heard this year, from an album so completely stupid and crazy and nonsensical it actually makes me kind of angry, as does this song. But I can't really deny that there's a weird mercurial charm to this totally weird smooshing together of pop culture references, funky beats and the repeated harmonic chant "Bring me his head on a birthday cake"

26) Sunless Echo - Taffy (Psychedelic Drone Rock)
For a long time I had in mind that this dark, menacing bit of breakbeat drone rock would push into my top 20 or even top 10 of the year. Sadly my enthusiasm has cooled a bit in line with the fact that the song is ultimately quite cold and desolate and doesn't have much texture or profile to it. There's definitely a power to it but after as many times as I've listened to this, the impressive feat of holding steady to a particular tone and line for six minutes just doesn't have the same personal impact. Still good but not as high as it was fated to be at one point.

25) Friday Night Big Screen - GIRLI (Indie Pop)
Speaking of dumb songs, here is absolutely another. This track is basically just "Let's squeeze as many references to popular film into a song" starting with the lines "Harry met Sally, she came at the table" but more broadly singing about an obsession with pop culture and fantasising about our own place in it. It's a silly song no doubt, but GIRLI are completely aware of that and just have a lot of infectious fun with it.

24) All Said and Done - Sturgill Simpson (Psychedelic Country)
Sturgill Simpson is another artist, with his album "Sound & Fury" you'll be hearing more about in my albums write-up. This is my highlight track but it felt a bit weird to have it up this high because the key power of the album is in its entirety. This track just delivers some of those cool psychedelic vibes and that's the main selling point here.

23) Bulls on Parade (Like a Version) - Denzel Curry (Hip-Hop Rock)
Wow, this ended up high. We listened to the whole double album of "Like a Version" covers this year, and while they were 90% awful (mostly just karaoke versions with no ingenuity at all), Denzel Curry - probably my biggest 'revelation' of this year although I'd heard some stuff of his before - went absolutely nuts with this RatM cover that opens the album. His own volatile, unhinged style clashes in a wonderful way with the original's Tom Morello-driven rock aggression, and the more I've listened to this the more I've loved it.

22) Son of a Serpent - Thank You Scientist (Progressive Jazz Metal)
This is really the most interesting track from Thank You Scientist's album, which is still very long and full of tracks even longer than this. This just has all the right narrative builds and dramatic shifts that make it a great bit of prog metal, even without the weird jazzy brass vibes over the top.

21) All My Ways Always - Pale Ramon (Psychedelic Rock)
Another artist you'll be hearing more from in later posts, this is another very expansive track from newcomers Pale Ramon that has immaculately constructed musical storytelling throughout. It starts out feeling like a standard bit of punkish rock music but the transition almost precisely halfway through (at about 3'56") just draws it into another musical dimension. The only reason it didn't crack my top twenty is due to the long fadeout which is a necessary part of the album's overall aesthetic but just makes for tougher listening in isolation.

So if I can finish all my writeups, you'll get my top 20 songs tomorrow and, again if I can finish all my writeups, my top albums of the year the following day. No promises any more. I could promise this post because I already had it written up.

Songs of 2019 Part 1: 100-61

Yes, it's that time of year again and it's my favourite post of all my year-end wrap ups to do, because I don't really have to do anything for this post except copy and paste a list of songs. But as a brief preamble, as per previous years this is the creme de la creme of over 1000 albums (including EPs) that we listened to this year, despite my having a new baby for six months of this year, plus moving house and switching jobs. Good thing is that music can be listened to while you do any of those things (especially having a new baby, although the surgeons wouldn't allow my headphones in the operating theatre so I had to have a break for an hour or so).

I don't usually do this, but I have very clear opinions about what the opposite end of this year involved, so before I get into my top songs, here are my 'worst of 2019' awards:

Worst song of the year: She Shot Me - Three Beat Slide
Runner-Up: Beer Never Broke My Heart - Luke Combs
Worst album of the year: The Art of Gore - Borgore
Runner-Up: What You See Is What You Get - Luke Combs

So with the negativity out of the way, some more positive vibes. As usual, no commentary here, just song titles. If you're intrigued or flummoxed as to why a song is here, why it's below another song, etc. feel free to comment or, indeed, you can just talk to me in person the next time I visit you for lunch, Mother.

100) Only the Dark - K.Flay (Indie Pop)
99) Until We Try (This Lo') - Asa (Reggae RnB)
98) Solar System - Sub Focus (Drum 'n' Bass)
97) Firefly / Life in Technicolor - The HIATUS (Japanese Pop Rock)
96) Heavy For You - The Heavy (Funk Soul)
95) Such a Remarkable Day - Charlotte Gainsbourg (Chanson)
94) Barstool Warrior - Dream Theater (Progressive Metal)
93) Wolf Totem - The HU (Mongolian Folk Metal)
92) Quartz - Black Grapefruit (Experimental RnB)
91) Enraged - Rage of Light (Gothic Groove Metal)
90) Shadows - Alphabeat (Europop)
89) Hit the Bottom - Amason (Avant-Garde Dreampop)
88) Colours - Voyager (Synthmetal)
87) Give Yourself to Love - Moon Hooch (Dance Jazz)
86) This Is Me - New Found Glory (Pop Punk)
85) Rocksteady - Wild Belle (Psych Pop)
84) My Heart Will Go On - DragonForce (Power Metal)
83) I'm OK - Little Big (Funeral Rave)
82) It's Not That Serious - Thompson Egbo-Egbo (Piano Jazz)
81) No More Suckers - Marina (Indie Pop)
80) Tombes Oubliées - The Brian Jonestown Massacre (Psychedelic Rock)
79) Bon Ton - Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers (Zydeco)
78) Cake - Salvatore Ganacci (EDM)
77) The Saints of Vernon County - Luke Mitchem (Alt Country)
76) Higher Beams - The New Pornographers (Indie Pop Rock)
75) World Class Cinema - Gus Dapperton (Avant-Garde Pop)
74) Stay High - Brittany Howard (Blues Rock)
73) Identity Is Like a Rainbow - Mixtaped Monk (Post-Rock)
72) Limited World - Cory Wong feat. Caleb Hawley (Funk Rock)
71) Can't Knock the Hustle - Weezer (Indie Pop Rock)
70) Mr. Greenlight - Hua Li (Hip-Hop)
69) The Change It Brings - Close Talker (Indie Pop)
68) Wasteland - Mick Flannery (Indie Folk)
67) Give Us a Smile - Big Wreck (Indie Rock)
66) Truth Power - NEEDSHES (Uzbek Art Rock)
65) Birima - Youssou N'dour feat. Seinabo Sey (Mbalax)
64) Macoumba - Youssou N'dour (Mbalax)
63) Super 8 - Lighthouse Family (Pop)
62) Tunnels and Trees - Biffy Clyro (Indie Rock)
61) The Hook - Amy Owens (Operatic Pop)
60) I Just Wanna Shine - Fitz and the Tantrums (Funk Pop)
59) Seven Seas - King Prawn (Ska Punk)
58) Torn - Asa (Pop RnB)
57) Renegade - Dylan Leblanc (Alt Country)
56) Cosmic Poison Arrow - Calliope Musicals (Avant-Pop)
55) Seul sur ton tandem - Voyou (French Pop)
54) F Delano - Kishi Bashi (Baroque Folk Pop)
53) Butter bei die Fische - Versengold (Pagan Folk)
52) Underground - MISSIO (Electronica)
51) Leather on the Seat - The New Pornographers (Indie Pop Rock)

So there you have part 1. Tomorrow I will post part 2, counting down from 50-21 with some brief commentary on each entry.