Friday, 17 January 2020

2019

I’m a bit late to release my favourite albums of 2019. This is because when the year was coming to the end, I felt like I hadn’t paid enough attention to the new albums to come up with a good top10 list. It’s not that I haven’t heard any good new music, but compared to earlier years, I’ve had less time to listen to music. Partly this is because I started a new job where I have less time than before to listen to music while I work. My feeling is that 2019 was quite a good year in music. This is a list of good 10 albums from that year, but I can by no means claim that these are the best 10 from that year, since I feel like I haven’t spent enough time exploring what’s out there. Still, I want to get this out there. This year's list includes lots of country, Americana and folk sounds. It's probably not that fashionable at the moment, so it tells a lot more about my personal taste at the moment. There are also quite a few female singer-songwriters on this list. Some of the years on this blog have been quite male-dominated, so I really welcome the new wave of excellent albums by women.


10. Lillie Mae - Other Girls

A couple of years ago, I included Lille Mae’s previous album Forever and Then Some to my top 10 list, but it was only on the last place, which I’ve come to regret later on. I actually think in hindsight that it was one of the best albums of that year. Now I may fall for the same trap, but I feel like Other Girls isn’t quite as strong as the previous album. There are still some country influences in the album, but the general sound has changed towards more generic indie singer-songwriter stuff. In the past I probably would’ve thought that to be a good thing, but more recently I’ve really started appreciating different musical styles and I really like her country sound and melodic songwriting. I hope that the same magic happens as the last time and this album will become much more dear to me as the time progresses.



9. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising


A couple of years ago, my friends from Finland were coming to see me in London and we wanted to find a gig to go to together when they were here. I didn’t really know any of the bands or artists that were performing in London at that time so I did a bit of research on people who were performing and Weyes Blood caught my attention. I liked her sound, but it was perhaps a bit too pop-oriented for my taste. I think she ‘s improved significantly in the last couple of years and her new album Titanic Rising plays much better to her strengths. The album contains smooth synth sounds, clear and echo-filled vocals and dramatic melodies. I guess I could learn to like this album a lot more if I gave it a bit more time as well.

8. Cass McCombs - Tip of the Sphere

I’m not always sure how much I actually like Cass McCombs. I have to be in a very specific mood to really appreciate his music, but when I am, I really like his calm and laconic sound. I saw him live two times this year. The first time I was super tired, which at the same time made it difficult to fully focus on the music, but at the same time it really sucked me into his slightly psychedelic sounds. I feel like he is at his best in those long and experimental jams he does on gigs. All in all, I think his music is made to be played live and some of the magic is lost when you’re just listening to his music on the album. But I still think he’s one of the more interesting new artists out there and with a little push he could become as brilliant as Jonathan Wilson who’s making sort of similar music.

7. Mandolin Orange - Tides of a Teardrop

I’ve only known Mandolin Orange for a couple of years, but they have become one of my favourite folk bands. I like the male-female vocal dynamics in their songs, I really like the string instruments and the beautiful sad melodies seal the deal. I think Tides of a Teardrop is probably their strongest album yet. I really like their earlier albums as well, but there’s something really sad and beautiful about this album and the mood really fits the state I’ve been in this year. I’m a bit disappointed in myself for not going to their gig when I had the chance. I hope I can fix that some time soon. As with many of these other albums on the list, I feel like I haven’t given enough time to this one to really know how it survives time, but at least know it really deserves to be on this list.

6. Ex:Re - Ex:Re
When I had just moved to London and I started discovering lots of new indie bands, one of them that caught my attention was Daughter. I liked the echoey and melancholic sound of theirs a lot, but I guess there were also some electronic or pop elements in their music that always made me wish for something a bit different. Ex:Re is the solo project of Elena Tonra and I think this is exactly the kind of music she’s supposed to make. Hauntingly beautiful and quiet, with simple instrumentations that give more air to her amazing vocals. The album kind of sounds like it could’ve just been recorded in her basement somewhere, which really appeals to me at the moment as I’ve started recording my own songs in my living room. 

5. Rosie Carney - Bare
I’m a fool for beautiful human voices and melodic and quiet, folky singer-songwriter music. Rosie Carney was a new find to me quite early on this year and I really like her vocals. There’s just the right amount of raspy qualities while the voice has an amazing range at the same time. In terms of songwriting, this kind of stuff is exactly what I want to do myself at the moment. This is partly why I’ve lifted this album so high on this list. There’s nothing really surprising on this album, but the quiet and beautiful sounds just really resonate with me at the moment. As I understand it, Rosie Carney is at the very beginning of her career and if she takes her music to the right direction, she can achieve a lot. I just hope she doesn’t fall into the trap of big record labels and start making indifferent pop music.

4. Big Thief - U.F.O.F.

I feel like I really haven’t given this band enough time yet. I have a feeling that they might become more and more important to me if I keep listening to them. Even though I already like this album a lot, it has that quality that usually opens up more with time. Big Thief released two albums this year, but including two albums from the same artist on annual top 10 would be kind of crazy, so I chose the, in my opinion, better album of the two for this list. Big Thief’s simple and minimalistic sound is hauntingly beautiful. The style reminds me of some late 80s and early 90s artists like Mazzy Star or Julee Cruise, but every once in a while Big Thief also includes rougher elements in their music that makes it really interesting.

3. W.H. Lung - Incidental Music


W.H. Lung is a very recent find for me. In fact, I didn’t even really know this artist properly in 2019. I only found this album when I was getting acquainted in the other best albums of 2019 lists. This was really high on quite a few of those lists. And I’m not surprised. Incidental Music is an album that is easy to like right from the first moments. The style is close to 70s Kraut-rock and there are lots of interesting analog-synthesisers that make me think of early Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. There are quite a few uptempo songs on this album, which makes this a bit different from the other albums on my list this year, but it’s good to also have these kinds of albums that I can dance to at home. 

2. Julia Jacklin - Crushing
Julia Jacklin is one of the most interesting artists these days. Her music can be beautiful and delicate, but she can also really rock. The range of styles in her songs is quite vast, but at the same time, she always sounds like herself. I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t see her live earlier on this year when she was playing literally right next to my house in Brixton. The rockier songs of hers sound a bit like Courtney Barnett, which I really like. It’s not a small feat to be able to make such different songs for the same album and still make all of them so good. I will be really interested in seeing where Julia Jacklin’s career takes her in the future. Let's hope she keeps experimenting and trying out different styles as it seems she's really good at everything she tries out.

1. The Delines - The Imperial

I don’t fully know why I have lifted this album as the number one this year. There’s just something about the sound on it that really resonates with me. One of the reasons might also be that I’ve listened to this album for almost the whole year, since it was released so early in the year and I discovered it straight away. The vocals on this album are just phenomenal and the dream-like unrushed feel of it makes me really pay attention to every note. The storylines are also quite good. Nevertheless, I don’t think this is necessarily a very innovative album. It just sounds good. And sometimes it’s better not to analyse too much on the reasons why you like something. Sometimes it’s better just to go with feeling and give the credit to something that moves you without rationalising it too much.

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