No, there was no new music this year from Adele. Or Alison
Moyet. Or Jessie Ware—at least not beyond a pair of new singles. So perhaps
2020 will bring me
that holy trinity
of new albums.
In the interim that was 2019, there were quite a few
excellent new releases—only two by artists who have made a previous year-end list.
Included in this year’s ranking are four albums from bands, two from male
artists, and four from female artists—three of which are the artists’ debut
albums.
I share these year-end lists because I love music—and I love
sharing my favorite music picks in the hope that something here may pique your
interest and you’ll end up with a new artist or two that you end up really
digging.
Without further comment, my picks for this year’s ten best albums:
10- FEVER DREAM / Of
Monsters and Men
If you’ve yet to discover Icelandic indie folk/pop band Of
Monsters and Men, make this one of your New Year’s resolutions. And FEVER DREAM—the
band’s third album—is a great place to get acquainted. Trading the orchestral
folk sound around which earlier efforts were largely centered, the five-piece
band opts for a complex, at time disjointed, synthpop soundscape—complete with propulsive
basslines, shapeshifting drumbeats, and unpredictable song structures anchored
by the band’s patent lyrical poeticism.
Lead vocalist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and singer/guitarist
Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson alternate vocal duties on some tracks and
are paired together on others to great harmonious effect.
Overall, FEVER DREAM is a bold departure from
the band, bringing it out of the musical realm of Mumford & Sons and into
the edgier dominion occupied by Arcade Fire.
Standout tracks: “Alligator,” “Wars,” and “Soothsayer”
9- FINE LINE / Harry
Styles
The former One Direction singer earned high praise on my 2017
year-end ranking, with his eponymous debut album coming in at #2. He returned
just before the strike of midnight this year with FINE LINE, the
much-anticipated follow-up to that well-received set.
Tapping into a new flock of rock influences here like David
Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, and even Pink Floyd, the album breathes musically a
little more than the decidedly sparser, Beatles-esque classic rock stylings of
his debut. Incorporating some more jaunty tempos and lean funk-pop grooves,
FINE LINE is a solid sophomore set that confirms Styles won’t be a one-note
artist with a reliable formula. He’s the kind of singer-songwriter who’s going
to dabble and stretch musically until he’s satisfied—and even then such satisfaction’s
not likely.
Standout tracks: “Watermelon Sugar,” “Adore You,” and
“She”
8- TRANSCENDANCE / Berlin
Marking the band’s first album with all three original
members—vocalist Terri Nunn and co-founders John Crawford (bass, synthesizer)
and David Diamond (synthesizer, guitar)—since 1984’s LOVE LIFE, the original
incarnation of Berlin returned in 2019 with TRANSCENDANCE. The 80s New Wave
darlings, who scored both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original
Song for “Take My Breath Away” from the juggernaut TOP GUN soundtrack, are in
fine form on the ten synth-pop tracks here, proving that creative lightning can
indeed strike more than once.
On this eighth studio album (over the span of 41 years),
Berlin employs much of what worked on their earlier efforts, not straying too
far from the synthesizer-laden electro-pop formula that earned them legions of
fans back in their heyday. Nunn still coos sensually, an enduring vixen of the
first video generation. And there’s even a bombastic trance re-tooling of one
of their earliest hits, the radio-banned “Sex (I’m A…).”
True story: This longtime fan saw Berlin (first band I ever
saw live in concert) open in ’84 for Thompson Twins on the latter’s INTO THE
GAP world tour. Year’s later, when I interviewed Terri Nunn for AUTOGRAPH
magazine and shared that factoid, she laughed and claimed to have stolen my
musical cherry!
Standout tracks: “Lust,” “All for Love,” and the
title track
7- IN THE END / The Cranberries
Would it sound cliché to say that The Cranberries have saved
their best for last? The aptly-titled IN THE END indeed draws the curtain on
the venerable Irish alt-rock outfit that rose to international fame in the
1990s and now takes its final bow following last year’s tragic drowning death
of lead singer Dolores O’Riordan—inarguably the distinctive voice of The
Cranberries.
Thematically, IN THE END resounds with finality, giving the
album a funereal chill and added poignancy since there was no way for the band
to know that this eighth album would also be its last. The effort is so
polished that it’s almost impossible to tell that O’Riordan’s vocals were demo
recordings, with her surviving bandmates later bringing the tracks to fruition
with producer Stephen Street. My best advice is to resist the urge to dissect
the lyrics and songs through the lens of O’Riordan’s untimely passing and let
the tracks bring you back to the band’s heyday. That said, don’t fight against
the tears that will inevitably form at the corners of your eyes during the
album’s last track—and title track—when O’Riordan’s exquisite, singular voice
laments,
“All I know / Time is a valuable thing / Watch it fly by as the
pendulum swings / Watch it count down to the end of the day / The clock ticks life
away… / But in the end /
It doesn't even matter.”
Standout tracks: “Lost,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Summer
Song,” and the exquisite title track
6- WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? / Billie
Eilish
Original and avant-garde, Billie Eilish’s debut album is a
tasty, trippy treat for the ears. With a deceptive sparseness that ingratiates
upon repeated listen, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is a
hyper-modern, musically complex album with a macabre, almost-sinister aesthetic
that feels like the soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic new dystopia. Eilish
wears her weirdness—and her heart—on her sleeve on the dozen tracks here, many
of which defy genre classification. She—and brother Finneas, who shares writing
and producing credits—have crafted a musical journey that’s the equivalent of
going through a carnival funhouse on ‘shrooms. It’s freakishly fun, a little
creepy at times, and layered with just enough distortion that will leave you
teetering between daydream and night terror.
Eilish sings with a dreamy detachment, an occasional nuanced
jazziness in her vocals evoking a modern-day Billie Holiday at times that at
once contradicts and complements her impish tomboy persona. In the continuing
era of manufactured, carefully sculpted recording artist-artifices, Billie
Eilish is seemingly poised to burn the whole building to the ground with her
freshness and authenticity.
Standout tracks: “Bury a Friend,” “My Strange
Addiction,” and “Bad Guy”
5- NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL! / Lana Del Rey
On her sixth studio album in the nine years since her 2010
eponymous debut, Lana Del Rey sticks to her distinctive, winning
formula—gravelly, slurred vocals, the glamour and melancholia of Hollywood
noir, and cultural references to 1950s and 1960s Americana. With her patent vocal
languor intact, NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL! finds the 34-year-old artist stepping
into her own—presenting an authentic sense of self versus the carefully
construed persona of past efforts.
The abstracted cinematic quality of her music remains but
the lyrical pastiche of previous albums has been replaced with something
darker, something closer to the truth. This is particularly relevant in an era
where “alternate facts” and “fake news” are helping to rewrite American
history. Del Rey takes aim at this cultural devolution—an aim that’s lyrically
sharp and fine-pointed. From the album’s title itself—where even the name of
the SATURDAY EVENING POST’s famed cover artist is interrupted by profane
expletive—Del Rey endeavors to deconstruct the idealized Americana she’s spent
nearly a decade crooning about and Rockwell immortalized through his iconic
series of magazine covers. And she does so with beguilingly vicious songwriting
chops. Complex and elegant, NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL! ushers in a new era in the
Del Rey songbook.
Standout tracks: “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a
Woman to Have,” “Doin’ Time,” and “The Greatest”
4- MINT / Alice Merton
This electrifyingly eclectic indie pop-rock collection from
the nomadic German-born, Canadian-raised, English-based, singer-songwriter-pianist
Merton was one of 2019’s earliest treats, dropping in January and preceded by
single releases of four tracks from the album.
The fifteen infectious tracks on MINT (eleven on the album
proper, four additional tracks on the album add-on MINT +4) are primarily
dance-rock confections with an indie vibe, chockful of thumping bass lines and
clapping backbeats, sing-along choruses and uplifting synths. Rising and
falling between cool-calm-collected and pure rampage, Merton employs vocal
pitch and the tempo of the music itself to both appease and agitate. Lyrically,
the collection is one of positivity and youthful nomadism, striking a perfect
balance between realism and idealism. Vocally, Merton may call to mind Florence
Welch (of Florence + The Machine), especially on softer tracks like “Back to
Berlin” and “Honeymoon Heartbreak.”
Standout tracks: “Learn to Live,” “No Roots,” “Funny
Business,” and “Lash Out”
3- WALK THROUGH FIRE / Yola
Musical fusion is the gift that British singer-songwriter Yola
brings to her dramatic country-soul debut, WALK THROUGH FIRE. With a lyrical
bent that veers decidedly more Americana coupled with a retro country-western
musicality—complete with fiddles and steel guitars, organs and glockenspiels—WALK
THROUGH FIRE is a glorious genre-busting musical journey anchored by Yola’s
powerful sonic palette that she instinctively knows when to harness and when to
let loose and her poignant songwriting, which alternates between susceptibility
to circumstance and chest-pounding emancipation from the past.
Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys uses his penchant for
indulgence in a retro, pre-synthesizer vintage sound quality to great effect on
WALK THROUGH FIRE and his robust production is nothing short of a glorious throwback
to Nashville’s 60’s sound—that musical moment in time when country-western
music went pop. One reason for this authenticity is Auerbach’s use of vintage session
musicians like drummer Gene Chrisman and pianist Bobby Wood, both of The
Memphis Boys—the original house band from American Sound Studio in Memphis,
which was the musical point of origination for classic recordings like Elvis
Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” and Dusty
Springfield’s DUSTY IN MEMPHIS album. One listen and you’ll swear you’ve emerged
from a time capsule circa 1969.
Standout tracks: “Faraway Look,” “Lonely the Night,”
and “Love Is Light.”
2- CAUSE & EFFECT / Keane
On their first studio album in seven years, British foursome
Keane returned this year with their most accomplished and authentic album to
date. Musically, all of Keane’s trademarks remain intact: Sunny, radio-friendly
fare punctuated by irresistibly swelling choruses, emotive piano chords, and Tom
Chaplin’s soaring voice. But lyrically, the band goes deeper—daresay, darker—on
this fifth effort, with the real-life addiction of one band member and the
failed marriage and subsequent depression of another winding subtly through the
proceedings. The result is a newfound depth and vulnerability that make CAUSE
& EFFECT a standout effort while adhering to the band’s winning formula of sophisticated
British pop rock that harkens as far back to the 1980s with predecessors like
Spandau Ballet and Johnny Hates Jazz.
Standout tracks: “Love Too Much,” “Stupid Things,”
“Phases,” and “Chase the Night Away”
1- WESTERN STARS / Bruce Springsteen
Confession time: I’ve never owned a Bruce Springsteen album.
Nope—never been a fan of The Boss or, more specifically, his music. While my
high school classmates were popping cassettes of his 80’s juggernaut BORN IN
THE USA into their boomboxes, I was jamming out to bands from the second wave
of the British invasion like Duran Duran, Culture Club, and Eurythmics.
But that all changed this year with Springsteen’s release of
WESTERN STARS, a gorgeous, achingly contemplative musical reflection on life
told through the eyes of an artist who’s lived one. The down-and-out male
narrators of the thirteen country-tinged folk pop tracks that comprise the lush
orchestral landscape of WESTERN STARS all have a similar story to tell—tales of
failure and missed opportunities, reflections on their life choices and the mental,
physical, and spiritual tolls of those choices. A pervading sense of being
older yet still restless, lost and still wandering, while life has somehow
quickly passed by gives the album an elegiac nod to the shortening timeline
that each of us—and Springsteen as well—face in the never-ending succession of
sunrises and sunsets that mark off each elapsing day. It’s an album about
looking back on shadows long cast and the quest to find our own relevancy in
life. And while the broken raconteurs of WESTERN STARS may lament being past
their prime, Springsteen’s 19
th studio album proves he’s anything
but.
Just ask his newest fan.
Standout tracks: “There Goes My Miracle,” “Chasin’
Wild Horses,” “Tucson Train,” and “Sleepy Joe’s Café”
Not every album I enjoyed this year ranked within my Top Ten
list but are nonetheless worthy of mention. Here are my
Honorable Mentions
of 2019 (in no particular order):
LOVE + FEAR / Marina
A BATH FULL OF ECSTASY / Hot Chip
THE MEDICINE SHOW / Melissa Etheridge
EVERYTHING LOST WILL NOT BE SAVED, PARTS 1 and 2 / Foals
DAYLIGHT / Grace Potter
CHAMPION / Bishop Briggs
BLUE EYED SOUL / Simply Red
COURAGE / Celine Dion
REMIND ME TOMORROW / Sharon Van Etten
CHEAP QUEEN / King Princess
ON THE LINE / Jenny Lewis
HOLLYWOOD’S BLEEDING / Post Malone
CUZ I LOVE YOU / Lizzo
CHIP TOOTH SMILE / Rob Thomas
