Craig’s favorite tracks and albums of 2019
Last year, the list of my musical highlights of the year never made it out of the Evernote file where I keep such things. This year, I vowed to be better. So, here we are. These are my favorite songs and LPs of the year. Like all lists, these ones are necessarily subjective, inescapably incomplete, and bound to bore or infuriate some people.
Of course I’ve missed things. That happens when you’re an adult with the attendant responsibilities and can’t pour over every week’s new releases. Plus, the catalog of music I love grows more slowly these days than it used to. Spotify’s retrospective playlist of my 2019 most-played is proof of this: I’d guesstimate a third of the songs on it have appeared on previous round-ups.
Nonetheless, problems of the form notwithstanding, I love end-of-year lists. If only because they inevitably point me at things I’m destined to adore, but simply haven’t found yet (like the 2014 album ‘Lost in the Dream’ from The War on Drugs, which I first heard in December that year).
Hopefully, you’ll find something here that’s pleasing and surprising, too. And if everything’s already known to you, well done, you’re as hip as I am. Which, you should probably know, isn’t very hip at all. But don’t let that diminish any sense of achievement it gives you.
If you take only one thing from this post it should be my recommendation of the year: the sublime, genre-bending, New Dehli-based outfit Peter Cat Recording Co. I haven’t been as excited about a band since Alt-J, nor have I subjected my loved ones (or virtual strangers) to as many links, listens and unsolicited reviews.
Favorite songs of 2019
These are vaguely in order of preference, but it gets a little wonky towards the end, when my feelings about individual tracks became hazier and my desire to agonize over their respective positions waned.
Lana del Ray – Doin’ Time
The whole of LdR’s 2019 album, ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ is worth a spin, but it was this cover, of a cover, of a cover (LdR via Sublime via George Gershwin, with about 25 000 intervening steps) that I couldn’t stop playing.
It’s got a propulsive swagger that makes it fly by and it suits del Ray’s sultry delivery perfectly. Listening to it on public transport makes me feel like I must be blushing, like my brow probably needs a wipe, and makes me look around guiltily to see if anyone’s noticed how flustered I am.
It also makes me want to drink cold cocktails dominated by rum and crushed ice while a lackey fans me with an American flag.
Sharon van Etten – No One’s Easy to Love
Oh Shazza, what a year we had, ey? You soundtracked huge swathes of my 2019, and I got to see you in Edinburgh in August, where you casually dropped a cover of The Proclaimer’s ‘Sunshine on Leith’ like it weren’t no thang. Uncontestably one of the standouts in the list of 2019 highpoints.
Van Etten’s ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ came out in January 2019 and I knew immediately it would make this list. I played it to death. Sure, most critics picked the admittedly superb – and a little devastating – ‘Seventeen’ as the album’s highlight, but for me, “No One’s Easy to Love” is the shiniest gem.
Thematically, this song reminds me of another leave-you-shook classic, Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’, with its horrific closing line, “Nobody loves no one”. But it’s far cheerier musically and seems to me to be a reminder that love is hard. It takes work. And the people who enter into it are doomed to be different people down the line.
The question of longevity turns on whether they choose to stay sufficiently synchronized as they inevitably evolve. And whether what happens to them along the way lets them make that choice.
Peter Cat Recording Co – Memory Box
As alluded to above, my absolute musical highlight of 2019 was stumbling upon this band. I urge you to listen to the both albums that are available (I’ve read of a third I’m dying to hear). The first, called ‘Portrait of a Time: 2010-2016‘ is a collection of the band’s early work, and it’s downright incredible.
‘Portrait…” is so eclectic it’s hard to believe its the same band throughout… but it is. One of the only clues is frontman Suryakant Sawhney’s crooner-style vocals.
This track comes from PCRC’s 2019 release ‘Bismillah’ and, on paper, it’s patently bonkers. It’s an eight-minute disco number. Eight minutes! It shouldn’t be able to sustain its momentum without feeling monotonous or repetitive, but it does. It’s not just one of my favorite songs of the year, but instantly one of my favorite songs of all time.
Andrew Bird – Bloodless
Master whistler and fiddler Andrew Bird is also an astute cultural commentator. ‘Bloodless’ is one of the most zeitgeisty songs of 2019. It perfectly captures the growing partisanship that’s taking hold in much of the west, and that’s most acutely and alarmingly embodied by the Trump administration here, and Johnson’s torrid Brexit debacle across the pond.
Inequality continues to worsen, there’s money to be made sewing division, particularly for platforms that pretend to promote discourse while actually limiting the room for nuance. The best “lack all conviction” while the worst “continue sharpening their claws” and “peddling their dark fictions”.
For now, the conflict is bloodless, but it might not stay that way.
FKA Twigs – Cellophane
My award for most heart-breaking tune of the year goes to this outstanding exercise in music-induced eye-moistening. The literal breathlessness of the delivery has the same effect on me figuratively.
The plaintive and pleading question-and-answer format details the breakdown of a relationship with a chronic and irreparable affection imbalance. Arguably, unequal love is worse than unrequited. And even worse is when the breakdown is the result of outsider interference.
It’s raw tragedy presented as high-gloss, avant-garde pop, and it deserves a listen on the best headphones you can get your ears between.
Sia, Diplo, Labrinth – Mountains
When I was a youngster I didn’t care for pop at all. Like many rebellious, guy-liner donning teens, I thought anything without a guitar wasn’t real music, and that mainstream equated to vapid. In other words, like almost all teenagers, I was a dickhead.
Thank heavens I grew out of that, or I’d’ve missed bangers like this. Despite multiple attempts, I’ve failed to get into the rest of the album, but I can’t get enough of ‘Mountains’. I suspect it’ll have pride of place not just on my workout playlist, but on my favorites one forever.
Africa Express – Johannesburg
Unlike Sia, Diplo and Labrinth’s collaborative effort above that left me cold except for one track, I’ve had the whole of the Africa Express LP ‘EGOLI‘ on heavy rotation in recent months, but ‘Johannesburg’ has been the standout.
It could be that I loved Gruff Rhys in Super Furry Animals. I had a few of the band’s 7″ singles and my nephew once made me play ‘Golden Retriever‘ on repeat when he was a whippersnapper, much to my amusement. I’ve also long been a fan of Moonchild Sanelly and Sibot (and I’m thrilled this track introduced me to Morena Leraba).
It could also be that I grew up in Joburg (“It’s fucked up / But it’s beautiful / Together there’s something ’bout Johannesburg”) and left it this year to make a go of building a new life in New York.
Or, it could just be that it’s a great track ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Olivia Coleman – Glory Box
When I was in what was then called standard seven (grade nine), an art teacher introduced me and a now-deceased friend to Portishead’s ‘Dummy’. It was a revelation, and probably one of the most formative musical experiences of my life.
Subsequently, I’ve sworn if I ever perform a number in drag, I’ll wear a sequin-studded dress with a slit as high as the back is low, and the tune to which I’ll lipsync will be ‘Glory Box’.
My ardor for the number has only grown with Olivia Coleman (who’s had a gloriously and deservedly stonking 2019) covering it for a BBC charity album. Normally, I lean towards covers that rework the original aggressively, but when the raw material is so strong and there’s a solid dose of brass thrown into the mix, I’m willing to look the other way.
Thom Yorke – Dawn Chorus
Yorke’s album Anima and the accompanying short film by Paul Thomas Anderson moved me deeply this year. They were a welcome reminder amidst what’s by many accounts an annus horribilis that beauty in art isn’t merely possible in the face of the inconceivable, it’s essential.
The ability to imagine alternatives, reify virtues while decrying vices, and keep your eyes down while keeping your chin up, emboldens the heroic to stick to the Sisyphean task of holding the villainous if not to account, then at least at bay.
Billie Eilish – Bad Guy
Like FKA Twigs’ ‘Cellophane’, Billie Eilish’s ubiquitous single is best enjoyed on headphones. Though you may well have heard it on everything from mall speakers and the sound systems of passing cars, to the spillover from strangers earbuds.
Unlike the collaboration between Lorde and Son Lux which adds to the original rendition of ‘Easy’, I don’t think ‘Bad Guy’ benefits from the addition of The Bieb. The original’s so strong on its own and adding a male voice only dilutes the insouciance that drips from every line.
Eilish reminds me that to dismiss popular music out of hand after a certain age is to fall into the trap of suggesting that only the music you loved in your youth has value or – even more egregiously – authenticity.
Even though it feels like her “duh” could be directed at me, I cherish the thought that there’ll always be another Eilish on the horizon, ready to wow me with their talent. All I have to do to enjoy their wares is keep on paying attention.
For the sake of your sanity and mine, I’ve kept both lists to 10, but I think honorable mentions are due to Karen O and Danger Mouse for ‘Turn the Light‘, DJ Shadow and De La Soul for ‘Rocket Fuel‘, Cosmo Sheldrake for ‘Prefusify‘, Kanye West for ‘Follow God‘, Four Tet for ‘Teenage Birdsong‘, Weyes Blood for ‘Movies‘, Big Thief for ‘Not‘, Jarvis Cocker for ‘Must I Evolve?‘, Beck for ‘Uneventful Days‘, Yndian Mynah for ‘Massimo (Don’t Go)’, and Michael Kiwanuku for ‘I’ve been Dazed‘.
You can listen to all of these tracks, and a few more on Spotify here:
Favorite albums of 2019
These days I find myself listening to fewer albums from start to finish than I used to. I suspect that’s a common experience these days. It’s not that I don’t like full albums anymore, it’s because it’s so easy to listen to singles, streaming services are designed around singles, and there’s now so much music on tap that listening to whole albums can feel like not just a big commitment, but an opportunity cost.
Nonetheless, a few albums stood out for me this year. Unsurprisingly, there’s some overlap with my favorite singles.
- Peter Cat Recording Co – Bismillah
- Sharon van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow
- FKA Twigs – Magdalene
- Lana del Ray – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- Andrew Bird – My Finest Work Yet
- DJ Shadow – Our Pathetic Age
- Beck – Hyperspace
- The Flaming Lips – King’s Mouth: Music and Songs
- Africa Express – Egoli
- Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka
Honorable mentions/hat tips to ‘Omoiyari‘ by Kishi Bashi, ‘Two Hands‘ by Big Thief, ‘Reward‘ Cate le Bon, ‘Hasta El Cielo (Con Todo El Mundo in Dub)‘ by Khruangbin, and ‘I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This‘ by Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
There’s doubtless a heap of worthy contenders I’ve missed this year. With any luck, I’ll hear some of them before 2020 is done and there’s another backlog to contend with.