Tay’s fav new artists, songs, albums of 2019; decade favs too <3
Hello friends. I have listened to 20,000 songs this year (#brag). Some of them I have listened to more than once, and some of them are all together on one really good album I like. Here's some lists of the songs, albums, and people who make them that I liked a lot.
For your listening convenience: a Spotify playlist with the artists, songs, and albums in question. One song from each artist, one song from each album: checka me out
5 new artists from (roughly) this year (unordered)
Slayyyter is the logical conclusion of the early 2000's pop wave, absolutely bubble gum but no longer pulling and punches with its sexual desire. "He wanna get in my guts" indeed.
I love high energy, I love noise, and I love catchy. Synthesize major electronic musical movements of the last 10 years and then kick that in the dick and you get 100 Gecs.
A consistent AF album, with great single songs and a slow procession as well, I'm very hyped for more!
This band is cutting edge, they know a shitton about music, their hour long album feels like it's only 30 minutes, it teleports you away.
Clearly someone who is making music with a succinct style and aesthetic, I find it great to see a full album form around (relatively) simple concepts like an imaginary mental health spa.
10 Songs from this year (ordered)
10. "Good News (Ya-Ya Song)" by MUNA
Unexpectedly a smash hit for me, this is such a simple song but something in the melody stirs a deep and warming feeling within me.
9. "Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile" by The New Pornographers
New Pornographers always have great singles. Their albums never quite capture the same feeling, and it breaks my heart every time. Still love the band.
8. "Can't Believe The Way We Flow" by James Blake
A many month throwback, this song was a go-to for the whole year. Seemingly forgotten by many (surely not Dave tho), this album and song really showed additional depth for Blake in my eyes.
Should to DJ Big Fan. This song is fun as fuck and has so many good one-liners. "She says she not a THOT she a nymphooo"
6. "Clarity" by Kim Petras
This song is a guilty pleasure, not because I am ashamed of its content or sound, but because Kim consistently works with Dr. Luke, the fuckhead who absolutely abused Ke$ha. This song absolutely bops though. Oof.
5. "All I Do is Lie" by Stef Chura
A very small sleeper hit for me, and a big regret when I missed Stef playing nearby, but I love the winding and twisting of this song and the simple mantras bouncing back and forth between meanings.
This song encapsulates all of Angel's album. It's the lead-in to the album, and it truly matches the scope and grandeur.
3. "Stupid Horse" by 100 Gecs
A song so strong I also want to beat the shit out of a jockey. Distill 100 gecs and for me, this song is at the center. High energy, nonsense, and just total fun. I don't feel bad saying I kind of wish all music sounded like this (sometimes).
14,115 feet above sea level, I look out to the sweeping arc of the horizon, a cloudy sky blankets the landscape I left behind. Play this song on your rental car speakers when you choose to conquer fear and ascend a towering mountain.
1. "Gretel" by (Sandy) Alex G
I adore the slow fade in, the garbled vocals, the familiar guitar. The garbled mix slowly devolves into a clear message. Alex G has said he never looks up lyrics, that there is an ambiguity to all words in songs. Is that why he sings this with such clear conviction? There's no misinterpretation here: "good people got something to lose."
20 Albums from this year (ordered)
The first ten are great, but I didn't want to blurb for them all!
20. Clarity by Kim Petras
19. MAGDALENE by FKA Twigs
18. Midnight by Stef Chura
17. Miss Universe by Nilüfer Yanya
16. Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen
15. Two Hands by Big Thief
14. Assume Form by James Blake
13. basking in the glow by oso oso
12. Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? by Deerhunter
11. Pang by Caroline Polachek
10. Animated Violence Mild by Blanck Mass
I became stuck in place while listening to Blanck Mass on a plane this summer. One of the only albums I downloaded, it was all I had at 30,000 feet, thrumming engines piercing all the other music I had handy. The cacophony only added to this album, noise layered on noise but turning into melodies and stretching into songs.
9. Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend
I don't know a ton about jam bands, but I definitely feel it when everyone else says this album was made in hopes of becoming one. This long ass album has some great highs, some charming lows, and honestly a really good chunk of Danielle Haim. Really a soundtrack to 2019 in a lot of ways. But it's really fuckin' long.
8. IGOR by Tyler, the Creator
Tyler's career has had the craziest arc. Rapping about killing women and progressing all the way to IGOR, which, is it even a rap album? The album contains such clear direction and vision, and far less of the reckless anger that Tyler became known for. The energy and sound has been honed down to a fine point, and there's a conciseness that sticks with you for hours after listening.
7. House of Sugar by (Sandy) Alex G
Alex G has always done so much for me. Bedroom music that has transformed each time into bigger and more detailed versions of itself. House of Sugar is no exception. While maybe a little less thrilling for me than Rocket, it's another evolution of this stripped down style, still laid bare but richer all the same.
A lot of lists are going to feature some Big Thief. Big Thief is good, their music pierces you through the flesh and hits you in the bones. It stirs the spirit of a time now lost, sidelong glances through thickets of woodsy pines, listening to a friend play a simple song on their new guitar. It's great to celebrate a band and an album that puts a lot of pretense to bed and creates a simple, pleasing experience.
Charli delivers an album after years of PC Music collaborated mix tapes and psuedo-album releases. Charli isn't some sort of second coming, but is the pinnacle of her expertise: fantastic collaborations, cutting edge beats, and familiar tales of her love and loss.
4. All Mirrors by Angel Olsen
Angel wasn't really known for her grandeur. Her songs and albums were dynamic, sure, with strong emotions, but All Mirrors dives into the direction of a grand pool, crystal clear and vast. "Lark" is a sweeping masterpiece, while "All Mirrors" has a methodical build and release. Angel is fully putting her voice and composition to work with an album this magnificent.
3. the first glass beach album by Glass Beach
My favorite description for this band is "post-emo." Many of my compatriots are not fond of band genres in generally, but for me this really nails it. It's a combination of an emotional, DIY scene with an online mentality, which I feel is representing the pace of the world. Also the music absolutely blasts, grand and epic and quiet and pensive, meandering as it wants.
2. Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Until about two months ago, I wasn't even a huge Nick Cave fan. Serendipitously, I happened to look into his backlog a couple weeks before this surpirse release. I spent a small amount of time looking into his older style, but when Ghosteen popped up, it floored me. That tangible loss, the grief that winds around you and grips you from within, it's on this album in full force. It's an album I know I will listen to sparingly, but lovingly, for ages and ages.
I typically do not measure these kinds of lists by the number of listens. Usually albums with emotional weight or impact are not so accessible or listenable. This album is an absolute exception, it is crystalline and pure, it is powerful and subtle, its energy infectious. For me, it's a clear message describing the future of music I love.
Honorable menties, not conclusive or ordered, from this year:
JPEGMAFIA's All My Heroes Are Cornballs
American Football's American Football (LP3)
Sir Babygirl's Crush on Me
Sharon Van Etten's Remind Me Tomorrow
Hemlock Ernst & Kenny Segal's Back At The House
"Harmony Hall" by Vampire Weekend
Roughly 10 of 2010-2019's best albums (unordered)
Halcyon Digest by Deerhunter
Encapsulate all of the indie rock I listened to and make it so dramatic it oozes lackadaisical energy.
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do by Fiona Apple
The title is as long as the album is great. I am chomping at the bit for Fiona to follow this up with literally anything.
Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
Many feel Sufjan could do no wrong, but it's not that he's unimpeachable, it's that he is able to shift his sound in pivotal ways at pivotal moments.
Cerulean Salt by Waxahatchee
Waxahatchee captured the post college ennui I was so suddenly thrust into, and continues to kick ass even after I got over the dread.
Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
This album kicks ass, but also I have an undying emotional connection to it since I listened to it on repeat the months after pops died! "We Drift Like Worried Fire" is entwined in my soul.
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar
There is a lot of great Kendrick to choose from, but the one absolutely stacked with bangers will remain my favorite (but I totally acknowledge the artistic merit and beyond of Damn. and TPAB).
The Monitor by Titus Andronicus
I only got into this album like four years after the fact, but it scratched the civil-war-concept-album-actually-about-the-Northeast I didn't know I had! Pumped it also taught me a cool Abe Lincoln speech.
E•MO•TION by Carly Rae Jepsen
This album guided me from toeing around pop music to going all in and finally have a good time in life.
"Steal My Sunshine" by Len
Remarkably, for the 20th year in a row, the song of the summer is Len's "Steal My Sunshine." What a powerhouse.
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