Top 50 Albums Of 2019 (50-26)

Hello there, this is DalekTurret32 with my first post (after the Testing post in which I test this Blogspot). In this post, we will be looking at my Top 50 favourite albums of 2019. Overall, it was a really good year for music (and a great note to end the 2010's on) with the Top 15 of this list being filled with albums that came close to, or made it to the golden area of my ratings.
Before we start off this countdown, let's give out a few honorable mentions.

• C Duncan - Health
• BROCKHAMPTON - GINGER
• Lana Del Rey - Norman F**king Rockwell
• Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
• Metronomy - Metronomy Forever
• Coldplay - Everyday Life
• Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿
• Harry Styles - Fine Line
• Denzel Curry - ZUU
• Solange - When I Get Home

If you want to see the extended 51-75 section of this countdown, be sure to head out to Buzzjack and go to the End Of Year & Decade Countdowns section.
Anyway, let's get this started!



50. KAYTRANADA - BUBBA
A bit of a late entry, but KAYTRANADA’s followup to 99.9% succeeds in immersing you into the atmosphere of a nightclub like that album did. There’s also a handful of addictive beats on this.
Fave Tracks: Freefall, Culture, Midsection


49. JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs
“You think you know me?”. An experimental album containing some weird and wonderful sounds, vocally and instrumentally. However, there’s more to this than just the distinct production. The lyrical content shows a personal side of Peggy in which he looks back on his past life, talks about facing enemies and obstacles he often encounters, and breaks down the effects of internet culture
Fave Tracks: Papi I Missed U, Post Verified Lifestyle, Kenan vs. Kel


48. Tom Walker - What A Time To Be Alive
Some good singer/songwriter material in there, such as Angels where it tells us to find hope when we’re down rather than give up, smash hit Leave A Light On in which Walker counsels a friend struggling with addiction and my personal favourite Dominoes, a song showing the negative effects of clickbait-related media such as tabloids
Fave Tracks: Dominoes, Angels, Fade Away


47. Mac DeMarco - Here Comes The Cowboy
I felt like this didn’t have too much of the mindless fun that was present in his previous work (or to be more specific, Salad Days and 2). Nevertheless, it still offered some pleasing acoustic guitar music.
I also give credit to DeMarco for adding some different sounds to this album, such as the gloomy Moog chords that pop up in the 2nd half of the album; they remind me of the chords that he used in his 2015 mini LP Another One. The album’s biggest highlight is Heart To Heart, which serves as a touching tribute to the late Mac Miller
Fave Tracks: Heart to Heart, All Of Our Yesterdays, Skyless Moon


46. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
The moment these piano chords kicked in during album opener A Lot’s Gonna Change, I could immediately sense a moving classic. Natalie Mering does a great job evoking feelings of nostalgia in said track’s lyrics. The album also touches upon the problems of the dating side of modern society in Everyday and Wild Times.
My favourite track of this is Movies, a song in which Mering sings from the perspective of a person watching a film in the cinema while imagining being in one, with the amazing instrumental arrangements perfectly capturing a cinematic experience.
Fave Tracks: Movies, Wild Time, A Lot’s Gonna Change


45. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana
The Portugese Google Translate feature in the intro is a little distracting, but that doesn’t stop this album from sounding nice and relaxed.
The 1970’s soul samples that Madlib incorporates into his production really enhance the experience of this; plus it goes back to the roots of hip hop, as well as the music that influenced the early days of that genre.
I also like Freddie Gibbs, his flows and what he raps about on this album. These topics include police brutality on Soul Right, a perspective of a person with a high profile on the streets on Fake Names and discrimination on Education.
The guest verses are also really good, with my favourites probably being Anderson .Paak on Giannis as he adds to the soulfulness that was already established by the samples occurring throughout the album.

Fave Tracks: Education, Crime Pays, Cataracts


44. Temples - Hot Motion
Temples’ last album Volcano is my favourite album of 2017. The Kettering band’s follow-up isn’t as divine, but still manages to pack in that excellently exuberant energy that made their content fantastic from the start.
The first two tracks go off with a bang (and are also the ones I often come back to easily). I also love The Howl as it shows the album at its most theatrical point, with its fast 12/8 rhythm and its majestic instrumentation, as well as the great sounding mid-high vocals from James Bagshaw as usual

Fave Tracks: Hot Motion, The Howl, Monuments


43. Skepta - Ignorance Is Bliss
Skepta returns with some great flows and brags. He also comes with insightful lyrics, which are at their most visible in Bullet From A Gun, a track in which he raps about betrayal, police brutality and even reflects back on his past anger towards his father.
Some of the instrumentals are also really good and give a night feel like Going Through It with its 1980s style synth chords and Glow In The Dark with a woodwind instrument blending with a soulful drum kit pattern to create a 70's style combination. The penultimate track Gangsta features a great return from Skepta’s group Boy Better Know; I especially liked JME’s verse.

Fave Tracks: You Wish, Gangsta, Going Through It


42. Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars
The Boss is back with an album that takes the traditional elements of folk and country and introduces them to a more modern audience. Even as someone that doesn’t listen to country music in his spare time as much as other genres, I can say that there’s some really good cuts on this album with some great songwriting from Springsteen.

Fave Tracks: The Wayfarer, Hello Sunshine, Drive Fast (The Stuntman)


41. Pond - Tasmania
While we wait for Tame Impala’s next LP to come out, let’s listen to the latest album from a band whose lead singer used to be a touring member of Tame Impala to see what it has to offer. Like with Temples’ Hot Motion, It does a good job at capturing that psychedelic atmosphere that Pond have succeeded in doing so previously.

Fave Tracks: Burnt Out Star, Goodnight P.C.C., Shame


40. Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
The spiritual feelings from Love & Hate carry into this project, but they now come with a mixture of funk and soul from the 1970’s to spread some unity.
I love how the album tackles discrimination problems in a similar vein to what soul music of that decade would usually do. Examples of this include Rolling and Hero, as well as the interlude leading to the latter. It also discourages the listener from giving up, even at the lowest points in life (like on the album opener You Ain’t The Problem).

Fave Tracks: Hard To Say Goodbye, You Ain’t The Problem, Light


39. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
I haven’t listened to a lot of Nick Cave’s material, besides his fantastic 2016 album Skeleton Tree and a few other singles from his discography (with Red Right Hand probably being my favourite of them). I have listened to his new album Ghosteen this year and I found it to be a really good studio effort from him.
The lyrics have this wonderful sense of poetry to them, and they come with some incredibly atmospheric instrumentation. This is noticeable on the album opener Spinning Song with the boomerang like movement of the synths ascending and descending along with an elegant sounding glass harmonica. Plus Nick Cave is an engaging vocalist in the storytelling of these tracks.
The only thing holding it back is that the album feels slow at points, but I might be nitpicking.

Fave Tracks: Hollywood, Spinning Song, Bright Horses


38. Vampire Weekend - Father Of The Bride
A nice sounding album looking into the idea of love; both the positives and negatives. It’s like The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs in some way but with a much smaller number of tracks.
Lead single Harmony Hall left me excited for the album with the song. It blends the acoustic ballads of Paul Simon with the upbeat rhythmic elements of Primal Scream's Screamadelica (particularly Movin' On Up). That anticipation was worthwhile after listening to the end result.
Sympathy is to this album the same way Americano is to Lady Gaga's Born This Way (both tracks burst with amazing flamenco flavour), Big Blue is a relaxing guitar tune with a hint of Mac DeMarco influence and the Haruomi Honsono sample occurring throughout 2021 hits me in the feels. We also have some optimistic guitar lines from Steve Lacy, as well as some good vocal contributions from him and Danielle Haim.

Fave Tracks: Sympathy, Harmony Hall, This Life


37. Bon Iver - i,i
Bon Iver showed in their previous album 22, A Million that they had more to their music than just atmospheric indie folk; they experimented with different elements of sound. This journey of experimentation continues on i,i. We get to hear these unique vocal filters from its predecessor on the proper beginning track iMi.
Additionally, the album manages to paint some beautiful landscapes with its sound thanks to the production, and we even get some nostalgic lyrics written into the music like in Hey, Ma.
b,r,i,l,l,i,a,n,t a,l,b,u,m

Fave Tracks: Naeem, Holyfields,, Hey, Ma


36. Anderson .Paak - Ventura
It’s quite hard for me to choose my definite favourite of the Anderson .Paak albums (though I have yet to listen to Venice). Malibu is the one I come back to the most for its smooth, bright sounds. However, Oxnard and Ventura look more into his culture with interesting topics, the latter of which is sitting at this very spot.
We get a smooth Motown throwback with some great contributions from the likes of former Outkast member Andre 3000, Neptunes producer Pharrell Williams and even legendary soul singer Smokey Robinson. There’s also an empowering tribute to basketball player LeBron James in King James, which also demonstrates him overcoming his challenges and shows how his journey inspired others to achieve their fullest potential.

Fave Tracks: Come Home, Reachin’ 2 Much, Jet Black


35. White Denim - Side Effects
Listening to a White Denim album feels like you’re taking a time machine back to the early 1970’s, and this one has a similar production style. There are times where it can get cheesy, but lead singer James Petralli adds a lot of charisma to his vocal performance. Head Spinning has a great chorus. I love how the terms ‘head spinning’ and ‘a spinning head’ are combined to make an interesting variation of the repetitive kind of chorus.

Fave Tracks: Head Spinning, Reversed Mirror, NY Money


34. Sam Fender - Hypersonic Missiles
The debut album from this year’s (should say 2019 as we just entered 2020 at the time of writing this) BRITS Critics’ Choice Award winner serves as a great look into the current state of UK politics, as well as toxic masculinity.
There is quite a lot to say about this album. The political topics occurring throughout the album are set up with the album opener bearing a similar sound to The Killers’ anthemic rock style. This is followed by The Borders, with a fantastic sense of rock swell to it that reminds me of The War On Drugs. The song also looks at two boys from different upbringings with one hating the other due to their different levels of fortune over the course of their lives. Dead Boys is a heartbreaking song tackling the shockingly high rates of male suicide and how society frequently ignores this issue. That Sound shows the importance of music in general, plus it’s a banger of a tune. But if I can choose a favourite track from this album, it’s definitely Play God. I love how this song paints a dystopian Air Strip One-esque picture to show what a future society would evolve (or possibly devolve) into.

Fave Tracks: Play God, That Sound, Hypersonic Missiles


33. Floating Points - Crush
I’m a fan of electronic music. But if there is one type of electronic music that I truly love, it’s the type that sounds atmospheric (like Aphex Twin and Boards Of Canada). Floating Points does just that, but also adds some orchestral layers along with it.
There are even instruments that you wouldn’t expect to hear in electronic music popping up, like the use of a mellotron in Sea-Watch or the use of bagpipes in Anasickmodular (It’s not everyday you hear bagpipes in music of this genre). There’s also some pulsating cuts on this, such as Bias and Environments, both of which remind me of the energetic sounds that ran through my favourite EP of 2018, Aphex Twin’s Collapse.

Fave Tracks: Bias, Last Bloom, Environments


32. Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
Remind Me Tomorrow lays out some great nostalgic imagery, while also discussing heartbreak in its lyrics. The album marks a gradual shift from Van Etten’s usual indie folk style to a more alternative synth-driven style with further experimentation involving that instrument.

Fave Tracks: Seventeen, Jupiter 4, Stay


31. Kevin Abstract - ARIZONA BABY
While BROCKHAMPTON’s latest studio effort does have a couple of tracks I keep coming back to (and the album itself is very good), I still prefer Kevin Abstract’s solo album that came a few months prior that album.
The album looks at missed opportunities (Joyride), Kevin’s struggles with the homophobia surrounding him (Georgia) and is even reflective on some of the issues circling round the Ameer Vann shock and how it affected those close to him (Corpus Christi). Joyride has a joyful chorus with a saxophone line that reminds me of the one used in Robbie Williams' cover of Manu Chao's Bongo Bong.
We also get some welcome vocal contributions from Dominic Fike, who would soon find success with his hit 3 Nights, on Use Me and Peach. Jack Antanoff seemed to be very busy this year, as he not only produced this album, but also Taylor Swift’s Lover and Lana Del Rey’s Norman f***ing Rockwell. Both of the albums I referred to became big sellers on the charts worldwide, which shows that hard work truly pays off.

Fave Tracks: Corpus Christi, American Problem, Crumble


30. Jack Goldstein - LOVE, THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN EXISTENCE
A relatively short album coming with sounds that evoke images of seaside landscapes with an interesting usage of personification in tracks like DUNGENESS. This, Pusha T’s DAYTONA and a handful of EPs I’ve listened to are great examples of what artists can offer in a shorter amount of time than expected.

Fave Tracks: Beckon Call, DUNGENESS, We’re Starting Out (Eye To Eye And Hand To Hand)


29. Cate Le Bon - Reward
A lyrical technique that can be very useful is “show, don’t tell” and Cate LeBon uses this technique in her songwriting excellently, such as in Home To You where she makes use of it to tell a tale of nostalgic feelings. The album also comes with an artistic atmosphere painted by the instrumentation, which is greatly established in the first track of the album Miami. Also, when the saxes come in, the album becomes elevated, especially in the outro to Mother’s Mother’s Magazines.

Fave Tracks: Magnificent Gestures, The Light, Home To You


28. Stormzy - Heavy Is The Head
A slightly softer transition from the hard-hitting Gang Signs & Prayer. There’s still a handful of grime bangers like Wiley Flow and Handsome, but we also get a calmer side from Storm, such as in Rainfalls in which he faces his enemies with strength, Lessons focusing on a relationship coming to an end, and Superheroes in which he feels inspiration from his idols (along with a nice interpolation of the Tracy Beaker theme tune at the end of the track).

Fave Tracks: Crown, Wiley Flow, Rachael’s Little Brother


27. WH Lung - Incidental Music
A wowing, psychedelic debut. Might grow on me in the future as it has some of that power that The Comet Is Coming have in their music.

Fave Tracks: Empty Room, Inspiration!, Simpatico People


26. The Chemical Brothers - No Geography
It’s no Dig Your Own Hole or Surrender, but No Geography shows that The Chems’ material is still fizzing with electronic energy after two decades of producing music.
MAH is catchy as all hell, with the sample from El Coco’s 1977 soul track I’m Mad As Hell, which, in turn, interpolates a quote from the 1976 Sidney Lumet film Network. I love the way the sample is integrated into this track.
If their last album Born In The Echoes is an essential listen for the night time for you, than I would recommend listening to No Geography the morning after.

Fave Tracks: Got To Keep On, MAH, The Universe Sent Me

To be continued quite soon.