Top 10 Albums of 2019

I wasn't consumed by feelings of grief and misery in 2019, although it might seem that way while scanning over this list of albums.  The past year was not a healthy one for me and many people close to me, but while it was going on, it didn't feel like more bad things were happening than in most other years.  In some years time, I may look back on 2019 and eventually grasp how tough things were.  In that case, these ten albums may reflect my general state of mind more than I'm currently able to admit.

Sure, plenty of people are writing about how the year's best music should reflect the chaotic, allegedly historic times we live in.  In some circles it's automatically assumed that music should be viewed through the lens of the politics of the day.  I think that this generation of fans and critics have subconsciously longed for music to have the cultural cache it did in the 60's, when artists working in several musical genres would unite around the Vietnam War and other world-changing problems.  I have never cared about any of that.  I want my music to reflect my tastes, and whether it deals with "important" subjects is irrelevant.  I don't think I'm a miserable person, although this list might make you think otherwise.  No matter the interpretation (and again, perhaps only years of hindsight will lead me to the truth), this list is a reflection of me, and has nothing to do with current events -- in any country.  

This list is really a party of one, because for most of the year, nothing came close to hitting me in my gut like my #1 album did.

10.  PTU, Am I Who I Am, Trip

Bonkers techno that never feels obliged to play by the most basic of "rules" of the genre -- super short tracks, almost no intros/breakdowns/outros, constant mid-track mood swings between squelching beats and frizzy beatless electronic weirdness.  

9. Barker, Utility, Ostgut Ton

Am I the only one who hears this as an album that continues the work that Philippe Cam started nearly two decades ago?

8. The National, I Am Easy to Find, 4AD

The National invited a bevy of guest vocalists to record with them, and it was a welcome change, even the results don't rank among their very best work.

7. BIG|BRAVE, A Gaze Among Them, Southern Lord

The album's title might suggest a pleasant ambient metal/shoegaze hybrid.  In fact, the shoegaze-y guitar blizzard is the decorative icing for the main course of brutally sludgy riffs and apocalyptic vocals.  BIG|BRAVE are hammerfist, steamroller rock and aren't quite metal in a weird, intangible way, even though their music carries the intensity and heaviness of metal. 

6. Alcest, Spiritual Instinct, Nuclear Blast

Blackgaze as a concept is a marriage made in heaven between two somewhat restrictive genres that compensate each other's weaknesses.  This is easily Alcest's most intense record and arguably their most consistent despite peaking too soon (about three quarters of the way through). 

5.  Amp, Entangled Time, Sound in Silence

The sound of 90's Bristol steadfastly refuses to go away, doesn't it?

4.  William Basinski, On Time Out of Time, Temporary Residence Ltd

Basinski has certainly proven his mettle at being able to memorialize history-making events through serene, loop-based ambient music.  Here he turns his attention to the most challenging and profound physics experiment done in my lifetime.  He not only pays tribute to LIGO's accomplishments by sampling the deep, rumbling pulses of gravity waves, but also beautifies the monotony of staring into the furthermost reaches of space, patiently waiting for something to happen. 

3. Fennesz, Agora, Touch

Fennesz remains one of the few artists whose entire output is a virtual must own for me (inasmuch as I can keep track of everything he's doing).  Yet somehow his albums are always growers.  Much like Autechre, he works in a nearly inimitable style that's instantly identified with him, but still manages to consistently defy convention and surprise even his most hardcore fans. 

2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ghosteen, Ghosteen Ltd.

The fairy tale world depicted on the album cover symbolizes Cave's method of dealing with death by seeking out the light.  Instead of wallowing in grief, he searches for hope through Buddhist myths and other parables overflowing with rich imagery.   Every note means something, thanks to the sparse instrumentation and glacial pace of most of the songs. 

1. King Midas Sound, Solitude, Cosmo Rhythmatic

"Solitude" is an almost unbearably personal glimpse into one man's loneliness.  Unable to deal with the reality of a difficult breakup, he pores over pointless minutiae of their relationship all while borderline stalking his ex, walking on a knife edge between obsession and madness.  The bleak, haunting music is relentless, the mood never lightens, nothing is resolved.  But in some sense, the album is a reminder that these unhealthy fixations are still a form of surviving, and are better than the alternative.