My favorite albums of 2019 are here! As happened with the Top 100 Songs of 2019, there really wasn’t a clear cut winner for me. I almost wanted to give it to Vampire Weekend for being so damn consistent, but their album was too long with a few weak tracks that kept them out of the #1 ranking.
After some debate, I realized the album that I enjoyed the most was PUP’s Morbid Stuff. It’s one of those great rock albums, and PUP is such a fun and loud band that loves being loud. They’re the musical man child of Japandroids and New Found Glory. Their live shows must be nuts.
As for the remainder of albums, there’s a number of notables, including my favorite newcomer (for me), Rex Orange County, a singer/songwriter without a great voice or much notable traits that I can point to other than the fact that he sounds like his own. It’s not always about some amazing voice or guitar licks, sometimes it’s just being yourself that makes music so great.
My Top 25 Albums of 2019 is pretty much complete (and will be released next week!), but I had difficulty choosing a favorite album. Nothing really hit that #1 spot. Most years, the #1 album is a totally obvious answer. Last year’s Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves, Frank Ocean’s Blonde from 2016, and Tame Impala’s 2015 Currents. But this year, not so much.
While I didn’t have a clear cut favorite track of the year coming into compiling these tracks, there were a ton of songs that could have been #1 to me. A ton of new artists creating layers upon layers of sound.
After consideration, Denzel Curry’s “Zuu” is worthy of the crown. It’s unlike any rap song I’ve heard. Listen to this song in a car - and LOUD - and you’ll hear the wailing synth almost declaring a warning on all who listen, which builds up to the energy and viciousness of the beat drop: “Carol City n**** boy I’m coming out the…ZUU” (BOOOOOOM!!! as the drums come in).
What a beginning before Curry comes in and establishes himself as an up and comer with some serious talent.
If you’ve been following my blog at all, you could have probably guessed Kacey Musgraves’ "Golden Hour would be the #1 album of 2018. It is a flawless work of songwriting. Musgraves delicate dreamlike voice juxtaposes her lyrical vices, like smoking week and zoning out. Not coincidentally, it’s a total “zone out” of an album, one that flows perfectly from start to finish with stoner jams, funky beats, and her pristine tone. What an album.
Number two, perhaps surprisingly, is the late Mac Miller’s Swimming. I wrote about his death and created a Best Of in his memory, but needless to say, Swimming was his best work by far. It was the furtherst he’s pushed himself musically, as can be seen with songwriting credits to Thundercats, Pharrell, John Mayer, and many more. Ultimately, it’s a very sad album. Miller dives in and out of a lifeboat floating in a rocky ocean, tempting fate to stay alive. He knows he’s playing with the devil and all his drugs, and he really sounds like he doesn’t know which way it’s going to end. It all ended terribly for him, way too soon, too young a talent for Miller to create greatness and have people separate his real gifts from his class clown persona. I’ll miss him a ton.
We finally made it! It’s my favorite playlist of the year, a playlist that I come back to years later to remember the highs and lows of decibels, depths, and soul. It’s a list that means so much to me because these songs shaped an entire year for me - a year that I spent listening to music for 68,780 minutes!
If you break that down, that’s 1,146 hours of music, which is either 48 straight days of listening to music or 143 days listening to music eight hours a day. I have to gloat, that is pretty cool! Though it doesn’t beat my record of a couple years ago of 103,000 minutes of music. I will NEVER top that.
ANYWAYS, you came here for music. As you can see, Mac Miller was my “Top Artist,” meaning I listened to him the most of any artist, and specifically, for 37 hours, according to Spotify. There’s a reason three of his songs from his last album, Swimming, are on the Top 100. Kacey Musgraves is the only other artist with three songs on the Top 100.
There are so many different genres and sounds to climb through on this list, I just know you’re going to have a great time exploring and investigating. PLEASE keep an open mind with this stuff, and if you don’t like it the first time, it doesn't mean it won’t warm up on you. I listened to Drake’s “In My Feelings” countless times, not loving it, but gradually getting there as time went on. There’s a lot of that kind of music on this playlist, so open your ears and your mind, people!
I wish I could spend hours on this writeup as I use to, so I apologize for providing little substance to such substantial albums. I think my top 5 albums are the ones you really need to hear.
I've been raving about SZA's album all year, it's a must listen. Ctrl has so many rhythms and productions and flows that have no peer. This album sounds like no other.
Kendrick's DAMN is an exclamation point to a run of albums that already puts him up at the top of best rappers ever. His quality control and varied sounds has been such a joy to listen to, he's clearly the best rapper of his generation, and we'll see about ever once his career ends.
1 Solar Pilgrim – Twain
2 HUMBLE. – Kendrick Lamar
3 French Press – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
4 Oh Devil – Electric Guest
5 Quiet Ferocity – The Jungle Giants
6 Prom – SZA
7 Simple Season – Hippo Campus
8 Away from Today – Dan Croll
9 Passionfruit – Drake
10 J-Boy – Phoenix…
I saw The 1975 at Coachella two years ago enveloped in the desert of Indio as the sun was setting over the tops of palm trees, and the lead singer was draped in a deep V tank top, weighing in at a cool 95 pounds, constantly stroking his sheen of hasn't-been-showered-in-months hair, looking more like the newest member of One Direction than someone I'd ever think would be capable of writing my favorite song of the year. WELL PEOPLE, life is full of surprises, and The 1975' "Somebody Else" was my favorite track this year, eclipsing all sorts of other phenomenal songs.
"Somebody Else" reminds me of what 80s music could have been: a sultry and subdued synth driven jam that cruises to a bass line and the sweet falsetto of said One Direction-like vocalist, Matthew Healy. It was released in early 2016, and I've NEVER gotten tired of it, listening to it an ungodly amount of times.
As it goes for the other 99 songs, there are some usual suspects showing up on the list: Frank Ocean (four songs), Drake (three songs), Radiohead (two songs), and Kendrick (one of his own and featured on two tracks), but there's also two new artists that I have become mildly obsessed with - Night Moves (three songs) and Isaiah Rashad (three songs).
Albums make music permanent. Albums are the story to the chapters, the theme of so many thoughts. Albums are what make songs something more.
This year has provided so many albums - to the tune of 1,457 artists, 6,426 songs, and 100 thousand minutes of music that I’ve listened. And I listened to and loved nothing more than Tame Impala’s Currents.
As I wrote in my album review, Currents is a wonderfully freeing musical expression and acknowledgement of adaptation for the sake of Parker and no others. One of the coolest things I noted was that Currents is so different than its two top notch predecessors, yet it eclipses both.
"Yes, I'm changing," Kevin Parker sweetly serenades the critics, haters, and trolls, "Yes, I'm gone / Yes, I'm older / Yes, I'm moving on / And if you don't think it's a crime / you can come along with me / Life is moving / can't you see?"
My love for Natalie Prass is evident if you read this blog. It all started because of her debut album. I did not write a review, I just enjoyed the many, many instruments and Prass' vocals delicately absorbing the wind and strings to harmonize above it all.
It’s been the best year in rap in many many years. Six rappers made it onto my list, and three of them - Drake, Lupe Fiasco, Kendrick Lamar - in the top six! Each album was completely different.
My favorite playlist to make each year is the Top 100 Songs of 2015. Each song provides a sense of nostalgia as I rank the impact and importance of these tracks on me.
No genre made more of an impact this year than rap. From the lyrical to social to combative, the year’s best was in rap’s hands.
Let’s begin with the best rap song of the year: the lyrically ambidextrous “Mural,” a nine minute opus with 1,600 words, no chorus, no hook, just verse after verse of intricate yarns, puns, and flows that no other rapper but Lupe Fiasco could have made. None. (Check out my writeup earlier this year: here).
“As I’m getting older, chip up on my shoulder, rolling through life to roll over and die.”
Mac Demarco’s first line on the title track (and my #2 Top Song of 2014) of his album Salad Days perpetuates the strange dichotomy between Demarco’s public persona and his writing as a singer/songwriter.
One one side, there's his public persona - goofy, humorous, playful, idiotic, likable, and crude (instead of a band prayer/pep talk, I envision Demarco and his buddies playing the “Penis” game prior to stepping on stage). There's his ridiculously and I presume intentionally stupid documentary, Pepperoni Playboy, that has amassed over 500,000 views. His music videos are beyond comprehensible. His live shows are messy and completely enjoyable. I saw Demarco at The Great American Music Hall in SF, and Demarco broke his strings on three separate occasions, once asking his bassist to do a cover of Coldplay while he restrung his guitar. “Let Her Go” was played completely out of time, and Demarco laughingly stated so after they got through it. Demarco and Co. were in the middle of one song, and a fan jumped on stage, put his arms around the bassist and took a selfie. The bassist smiled happily for the camera. The show was more like a circus act, and I loved it. Demarco’s crazy persona was in full force.
Then there’s the other side...
After listening to music on Spotify for 101,976 minutes this year (I will forever remember that number!), I was able to whittle down my list of top tracks of the year from roughly 240 to 100. It was a tough process. A lot of great songs got left off, but what I love about making these lists is that all 100 songs I truly enjoyed and listened to many, many times. In fact, “last place” at #100 was Theophilus London’s “Do Girls,” a song that I played constantly over a two week span.
After listening to 157 albums and over 2,000 songs in 2013, I've whittled it down to my favorite 100 songs! There are a number of songs from my Top 25 Albums of 2013, but also a ton of other tracks from other bands - there's hip-hop, indie, rap, electro-pop, and others like James Blake and Darkside.
There are a few that I wanted to point out for their lyrics or unique sound:
- The Fall: Rhye - His - yes, his - voice is angelic. Most beautiful song of the year.
- Chum: Earl Sweatshirt - Great storyteller who references the effects of this story by Complex Magazine. And lyrically the song is heartwrenching: "It's probably been twelve years since my father left/left me fatherless/And I used to say I hate him in dishonest jest/When honestly I missed the n**** like when I was six/And every time I got the chance to say it I would swallow it/Sixteen I'm hollow with Tyler and skipped shots/Just throw him that whole bottle, I'll show you a role model."
2013 was both a testament to the staying power and creativity of established artists and bands (Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Kanye, Arcade Fire) and an explosion of new artists (Haim, Chvrches, Jagwar Ma, Lorde, A$AP Rocky, Jake Bugg, and St. Lucia, to name some) who, despite the trending emphasis on singles, created phenomenal albums of substance, pace, and ingenuity.
First, lets start with the veterans since two of them took the #1 and #2 spots. I wrote at length about my love of Arctic Monkey’s as well as their amazing album, AM. But what impresses me the most - and why I ultimately chose them ahead of Vampire Weekend - is that they could make an album like this on their FIFTH album.
2012 starts and ends with Frank Ocean. Channel Orange is an album that I will play until the day I die. It’s beauty - naked and fragile at times yet full bodied and confident in others - is unlike any other album to compare to in the past decade. Ocean’s falsetto on “Thinkin Bout You” wails in sincerity. His epic “Pyramids” runs a wild gamut of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic elements. I always find it an amazing accomplishment to have a song that’s over 6 minutes (this being 9:53) that I can listen to constantly.
1. Jack White – Weep Themselves To Sleep
2. Tennis – My Better Self
3. Geographer – Kites
4. Delta Spirit – Tear It Up
5. Frank Ocean – Lost
6. Peace – 1998 (Delicious)
7. Kendrick Lamar – m.A.A.d city
8. Santigold – Disparate Youth
9. Jack White – Sixteen Saltines
10. Schoolboy Q – There He Go
1. U.S. Royalty - Mirrors
2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blued
3. Real Estate - Days
4. Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
5. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
6. The Antlers - Burst Apart
7. Friendly Fires - Pala
8. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne
9. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
10. White Denim - D
11. Incubus - If Not Now, When?
12. Atlas Sound - Parallax
13. Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
14. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
15. Wilco - The Whole Love
1. Local Natives - Guerilla Manor
2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
4. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
5. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
6. Young the Giant - Young the Giant
7. Beach House - Teen Dream
8. Gary Clark Jr. - Gary Clark Jr.
9. Best Coast - Crazy for You
10. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
11. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
12. The National - High Violet
13. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
14. Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown
15. Robyn - Body Talk
1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Passion Pit - Manners
3. The xx - xx
4. Grizzly Bears - Veckatimest
5. Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
6. Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose
7. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
8. STRFKR - Jupiter
9. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
10. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
11. The Antlers - Hospice
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
13. Discovery - LP
14. Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
15. John Mayer - Battle Studies
1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
3. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. John Mayer - Where the Light Is (Live)
6. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
7. Justice - Cross
8. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
9. Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound
10. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
11. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death to All His Friends
12. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
13. Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
14. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
15. Deerhunter - Microcastle
We tend to underestimate albums because of music's over abundance. We tend to discount years as the twirl of time spins faster each year turning into decades. I only get 50 (if I'm lucky) more #1 albums of the year in my lifetime. In the grand scheme of things, that's not whole a lot of albums. My eyes will gray and so will Frank Ocean's. But his voice will always remain on Blonde, my #1 Album of 2016, and his lyrics will always be on the page. These are the best albums of my life.
Just like I wrote in my Top 25 Albums of 2012 when Frank Ocean's debut album Channel Orange was my #1 Album, Ocean's music has a beauty that feels fragile and naked but completely confident. His songwriting - both lyrically and musically - drastically expanded on this album. Thematically, Ocean covers similar topics to Channel Orange, including longing and heartbreak, loneliness, cars, Hurricane Katrina and trinkets from New Orleans life, drugs, and love. He was great lyrically on Channel Orange and continues to be here. None better exemplifies this than my favorite lyrics from "Solo,"
It's hell on Earth and the city's on fire
Inhale, inhale there's heaven.
In "Ivy," a track about longing after an ugly breakup, Ocean's whispers,
All the things I didn't mean to say
I didn't mean to do
There were things you didn't need to say
Did you mean to? Me too
I've been dreaming of you
Blonde took me time to fully appreciate. I remember sending a text to someone after listening to it for a day that "it's no Channel Orange," but now having listened to this album hours and hours on end, I think it's better. It's exploratory and unique, and the songs sound so different yet they all work together.