The 2019 end of the year music lists thread

I guess it's a safe bet that I won't get to vote in SPIN's year end round up this year then

https://www.spin.com/featured/best-albums-2019/

Wilderun/Clipping collab when

LDR
FKA Twigs
Angel Olsen
Big Thief
Purple Mountains

this year's GAPDY?

can I buy a vowel

Eilish

BELFAP

PALFEB

the Vinyl Factory list increased my backlog of things I need to listen to significantly.

BELFAP ftw imo, tho i'm not into any of those albums

I really wish I understood what people get out of Lana Del Rey's music

the phrase i heard was "Joan Baez for the Facebook era" if that helps at all. it does not help me at all.

lol that doesn't seem right at all. did they mean joni mitchell?

(LDR is fine to my ears, but I'm confused as to why everyone is so excited about it)

lol, i meant to type joni mitchell and it came out joan baez; my bad there

there's a really hacky david-lynch-noir-lite thing going on, add that to the superconfident self-branding of a rich kid with an increasingly global fanbase and you have yourself a sellable product. it signifies talking about america and existential despair in shedloads without doing any substantial talking imo - she's not what you'd call deep. occasionally writes a decent melody but nothing special. it has always been about the vibe with her, the cool and affected signification of noir, and in late-stage neoliberalism, superficial displays of limitless relevance are seized upon and propagated. comparisons to joni mitchell are not unwarranted in some ways except mitchell existed at the intersection of surface and depth and her art was not branded product but a nuanced, extremely personal response to the uncertainties of her age, therefore making her a great deal more interesting as a songwriter, a thinker and a person

sir, this is a dairy queen

EOY nominations r open: ILM's 2019 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / NOMINATIONS THREAD

lol xp

& to be clear, I don't actually hate NFR! - I gave it 5/10 and it could have been 6 - but the ldr phenomenon is a different story, and the music press is where i'm mostly pointing the finger

i like NFR well enough but that's fairly accurate imago, though i like her melodies much more than you. she's not a particularly interesting lyricist and i don't get the praise over that, but the rest of NFR is enough to carry it for me despite that weakness

Why I like LDR:

• The melodies and arrangements, and the production in general; her music sounds lush and extremely well put together by people who know what the fuck they're doing in a big-money studio
• One or two really great lines per album, and the way she strings banal and/or clichéd images together in order to create something more than the sum of the parts; she's a trope-collagist

Rachid Taha - Je Suis Africain ( late bad boy of Algerian pop) Yas indeed---"Just call me Rai Cooder." he quipped long ago, doing Western rock a reverse-Coody missionary favor while teaming w Steve Hillage and Galactic on Made In Medina, one of my all-time faves (Songlines reviewer Nigel Williamson said this was what Page & Plant were *trying* to do w some of Taha's neighbors on Unledded---and then some, I say). The new one is a rich shady grove-trove, just a bit bittersweet, nad made my Uproxx ballot, as might others from curm's list if I'd gotten out more (lots of great lists here). Most of my rest was recent jazz, thanks to Rolling Jazz.

The rest of my Uproxx list, that is.

Top 10, uh, black death records of 2019:

https://cvltnation.com/top-black-death-records-of-2019/

I haven't heard a single one of these.

(Except for the Teitanblood.)

"...except mitchell existed at the intersection of surface and depth and her art was not branded product but a nuanced, extremely personal response to the uncertainties of her age, therefore making her a great deal more interesting as a songwriter, a thinker and a person:

― imago, Tuesday, December 17, 2019 3:17 PM

^I like this

also like NFR but the branded product aspect makes it hard for me to see it with any perspective

Top 10, uh, black death records of 2019:

https://cvltnation.com/top-black-death-records-of-2019/

I haven't heard a single one of these.

― pomenitul

sean is the greatest music writer in history. no that's sarcasm, i am never going to listen to any of these records just because sean's praise of them is so fucking awful.

You mean Heretic Sect isn't your favourite new band that you have never heard of?

Fwiw I went straight to the play button every time.

Yet another metal list, courtesy of… Grizzly Butts:

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/12/18/the-top-50-albums-of-the-year-2019/

"her art was not branded product but a nuanced, extremely personal response to the uncertainties of her age"

lmao cool it's the authenticity argument all over again

her art was not branded product

we're using a 21st century term to describe what didn't exist in 1971?

oh I think they had branded products much earlier than 1971--mostly cows though

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2019/12/18/aquarium-drunkard-2019-year-in-review/

we're using a 21st century term to describe what didn't exist in 1971?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/The_Monkees_1966.JPG

incredibly deep thoughts

don't we have a dedicated thread for lame "emperors new clothes" declarations

just trying to convey why i'm not persuaded by the music. obviously i stan for some extremely 'inauthentic' fare but i can't hear much motivation behind ldr's music other than 'i am a big deal', it's not the inauthenticity i object to so much as the lazy presumption of importance encoded into every interview, review, the odious explanation for the album title, the impeccably-recorded aor of it all. if that attitude was combined with interesting lyrics or music i'd see the point more, but i find neither, so i don't.

this list is the good kind of weird imo, exemplified by the amazing inclusion of #18
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akwwxz/the-100-best-songs-of-2019

that's a weird list even for vice but i'll take weird over boring

The Wire posted the full ballots of everyone who voted in their critics' poll:

https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/charts/2019-rewind-contributors-charts

Mine:

Jaimie Branch Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise (International Anthem)
Yazz Ahmed Polyhymnia (Ropeadope)
JD Allen Barracoon (Savant)
Victor Gould Thoughts Become Things (Blue Room)
Sunn O))) Life Metal/Pyroclasts (Southern Lord)
Theon Cross Fyah (Brownswood)
Paula Temple Edge Of Everything (Noise Manifesto)
Opeth In Cauda Venenum (Moderbolaget/Nuclear Blast)
Flowdan Full Metal Jacket (Tru Thoughts)
Baroness Gold & Grey (Abraxan Hymns)

Here's a list by one of The Guardian's resident classical music critics, Andrew Clements:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/19/classical-cds-of-the-year-andrew-clements

Pfork's metal list isn't half-bad:

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-metal-albums-2019/

Mostly out of curiosity, I wish every year-end list came with a separate list of how many albums from the previous year's list the writer(s) is(are) still listening to.

xpost Thanks for posting, I haven't kept up with much metal lately, but there are some albums on that list that, on first skim, immediately caught my ear, like the Obsequiae.

lots of lists here: https://boomkat.com/charts/boomkat-end-of-year-charts-2019

I generally get a lot of great tips from the lists on boomkat from folk whose music I enjoy, moreso than their main lists. Carla del Forno's list this year is really interesting.

Typically wonderful wordsmithery from Moon Wiring Club in his commentary on his own Top 10 for boomkat

Seems like what you would expect here: https://pitchfork.com/features/article/2019-readers-poll-results/

Here's mine fwiw.

Thanks Alfred! This thread is blowing my mind--knew I was ignorant of much, but---!
Prob of little interest here, so I'll just link https://www.nodepression.com/no-depression-readers-50-favorite-roots-music-albums-of-2019/?mc_cid=4108cafd3a&mc_eid=b850f832a1
My picks from these (several didn't make this Top 50, but ballot not at hand)
numbers are placement in Top 50, not my ballot:
1. Tyler Childers – Country Squire
3. Sturgill Simpson – Sound & Fury
18. Rodney Crowell – Texas
22. Allison Moorer – Blood
26. Justin Townes Earle – The Saint of Lost Causes
39. Patty Griffin – Patty Griffin
All of those have some trans-genre/subgenre/ appeal for the rock-inclined, especially Sturgill, as I said on Rolling Country:
have you heard Sturgill's Sound and Fury yet? I just did, and right off, seems like this ZZ Rex electro-pop-boogie, sometimes also reminding me of Neil and the Trans Band (more the show tapes than studio album), might suit you too. It's much less soapbox ranty than I feared---and the non-pedantic retro detailing, commercial inclusiveness x righteous fencepost grievances x deserty-hot-cold broodiness, also that voice, keep it all country or countryoid. Also 'ppreciate how he keeps twisting the dial into another track at just the right moment, or close enough. It's a hard candy Christmas alright.

X-post — years ago I remember some noting here that the Wire had a critic covering Dub reggae but not dancehall. Not really seeing dub or dancehall on any Wire contributor list. Am seeing some US & UK rap & jazz, but not really any reggaeton or Afro-Latinx jazz. Looks like a few African acts but not many.