Album of the Year - 2019
Below are my five favorite albums from the year 2019.
In my opinion, 2019 was an insane year for music. We really sent the decade off with a bang. Picking my favorite album this year was much more difficult than previous years.
Also, look out for my top 50 albums of the decade list, coming soon!
5. Chai - Punk
I totally missed this album when it was released early in 2019, first hearing it in December. I’m glad I got to hear it at all, though, as it is a total sugar rush of an album. Punk is energizing, crisp, but also a powerful assertion of the independence of this all-female band.
4. Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿
Danny started the decade in 2010 with The Hybrid, followed quickly by 2011′s XXX. Without following his persona and music throughout the decade, it’s hard to believe that those albums were made by the same musician that made this album. Hybrid and XXX were panicked albums about growing up in poverty and cycles of drug use and abuse. In contrast, uknowhatimsayin¿ is Danny’s debut “dad rap” album, a subgenre comprised of late thirties/early fortysomething rappers who are sort of having fun with their already well-established rap career (see: Run the Jewels). I’m happy Danny got his life together (fixed his teeth, got a haircut) while at the same time not sacrificing his musical integrity. That is to say, he handles this subgenre-shift nicely.
3. DIIV - Deceiver
Album #3 follows Album #4 in that it is also an album of personal redemption, although Deceiver is much more explicitly a mea culpa. Zachary Cole Smith is much more clearly in the middle of his redemption than Danny Brown. Deceiver is a departure from the jangly, krautrock-inspired indie rock of previous DIIV records to a much more heavy, shoegazing sound. And, God I love it. I hope we get at least one more record in this sound before DIIV starts to make dad-gaze à la Brown.
You can read my full review of Deceiver here.
2. Charli XCX - Charli
On her self-titled album, Charli goes hard, she goes fast, and she never looks back. Her first proper album (sorry Pop 2) since she started hanging out with the PC Music weirdos is a masterful blend of stadium pop hooks and experimental production. This album reinvigorated my interest in pop music completely.
You can read my full review of Charli here.
1. 100 gecs - 1000 gecs
Ah yes, 1000 gecs. If you have been following music journalism this year, you have probably heard of this album. This indescribable wizard-pop duo has been written about in the New York Times and Rolling Stone, which suggests their music is more accessible than it actually is. I first heard a track from this album in my Spotify Discover Weekly, "xXXi_wud_nvrstøp_ÜXXx." My mind was instantly bombarded with the dozens of catchy-yet-shitty vocal trance tracks I heard when I was in middle school. This one track had triggered some sort of very specific musical nostalgia for the 2000s in my brain, and I was delighted when almost every track on 1000 gecs did the same thing. Sure, the music can be abrasive at times, especially when Dylan Brady is just showing off the weird sounds he can make in a DAW (also see: the end of “Click” from Charli). But, there is a simple, almost magical effect these songs have on the listener once you get past the weird bits.