Top 10 Albums of 2019

My top 10 albums of 2019 has been a struggle.  Not because there was a shortage of candidates. Far from it.  More because of the sheer impossibility of comparing one piece of music with another, something I've become increasingly bothered by over recent years.  On any given day the albums I might get the most enjoyment from will vary according to my mood and general state of mind.  Not only that, there have been a lot of albums which almost made it into my top 10, and in a few days, if you asked me, I'd probably choose one of them, instead of one in the list (with a few exceptions).

Let's also be honest, close up, any year's music is hard to assess. The albums that I'll still be playing a year from now, let alone five years time - and when I say playing, I mean playing in full (I will, of course, still listen, randomly, to tracks from these albums) - may be very different to the ones that provide the most immediate enjoyment now.

I've been struggling with these challenges for a few weeks now, though I have known for some time several of the albums that would feature below. Then, out of the blue, I found this article on The Quietus, accompanying their top 100 albums of the year.  It seemed to hit the nail on the head regarding this artificial ranking of albums. Other aspects of the article rang true, too, though my circumstances are different, the resonances are still there. See what you make of it: 'Quietus Albums of the Year 2019'. 

It goes without saying that the albums are in no specific order, comments below notwithstanding.

Let's get straight into the albums without any further waffle. First off an album that was guaranteed a spot in my top 10 as soon as I'd listened to it all: 'Ghosteen' by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.

From the moment I finished listening to it (it was streamed ahead of physical release) I recognised two things: it was a set of songs that 'spoke' to me directly and it was the album dealing with the death of his son that many mistook 'Skeleton Tree' for.

I have to admit when I saw the album cover ahead of hearing the music, I was worried.  It appeared to be the most kitsch and twee image imaginable: a saccharine Barbara Cartland vision of the Garden of Eden, or worse.  This is not an image that could have accompanied 'King Ink', 'Saint Huck', or heaven help us, 'Tupelo'.  Thankfully the image is not an exact reflection of the music within. That would have been a step too far!

While I'm invoking the spirit of those earlier songs, there's another elephant in the room: though this is a band album (not just Nick Cave or Nick and Warren Ellis), the Bad Seeds - certainly messrs Wydler and Sclavunos at least - take a back seat.  Percussion, where it exists, is often electronic, courtesy Mr Ellis, I guess.

'Ghosteen' is a double CD, a rare thing these day, outside of reissues, split into 'The Children' (CD1) and 'The Parents' (CD2). Clearly an artistic decision, since all the songs would have fitted on a single CD. You'll be glad to know I don't intend to do a track by track analysis, "Praise The Lord!", they cry as one, though I will pick a song from the album, and say no more about it.

A slight cheat with my next album, because I've chosen two albums - let me explain.

The album is 'Rainford' by Lee "Scratch" Perry, legendary king of dub (or at least one of them) and producer, who teamed up again with dub supremo Adrian Sherwood, to produce his finest album in ages.  'Rainford' - which is Perry's real first name - is a sort of audio autobiography of the man, with some wild poetic licence and lunacy thrown in for good measure. 

Two albums? "...and yes I said yes I will Yes." Familiar to reggae fans is the idea of a dub-version of many great albums, and 'Rainford' is no exception. Hot on the heels of 'Rainford' came 'Heavy Rain', a mighty dub version of the album.  I am treating the two as one, and from the latter album comes 'Here Come The Warm Dreads' (a bag of flying saucers to anyone who spots the song playfully referenced in the song title)

Where to next? Brazil! That's where! 'Sombrou Duvida' is Boogarins' fourth studio album, and their most consistent. Previous albums have displayed a clear lineage of tropical psychedelia that can be traced back to bands like Os Mutantes and others I have only a passing knowledge of. 'Sombrou Duvida' is still psychedelic, maybe more so, but is also very fractured in a kind of hip-hop way, but with an openness of sound that is very 'dubby'.

[Factual Interlude: The album title means 'Shadow or Doubt', properly written in full as 'Sombra Ou Duvida' (see title track) which is a play on words in Brazilian Portuguese.]

Some incredibly spacey-trippy things happen to the vocals, to the extent that at times they are almost used as a lead instrument, a thought driven in part, perhaps, by not understanding Brazilian.  This is very much a studio album and the warping and weaving of sounds both near and far lends an air of disassociation to the proceedings.  The result is an album of surprises - you're never sure where a song will go and which patterns of notes will reoccur and which patterns won't, which rewards repeated listens and makes each new listen both a discovery and a delight.

Ghost Box Records has always been a source of interesting, unusual and left field music, and 'Hollow Earth' from Pye Corner Audio was no exception.  

'Hollow Earth' was a  varied album of instrumental electronic, reminiscent at times of some of the great German electronic music, ranging from eerie mood pieces like 'Claustrophobe' to the upbeat return to the surface of 'Surfacing'. A great soundtrack to 2019, represented here by the ponderous 'Descent'.

Anyone who saw The Comet is Coming's Glastonbury performance cannot fail to have recognised that the band have something special, both in the passionate playing of ubiquitous sax man, King Shabakah (Shabakah Hutchings), and also their blend of jazz, funks, dub, psychedelia and electronica. 

'Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery' blew me away and, as I listen to it again, I'm reminded how much variety there is within, from the righteous intensity of 'Summon the Fire' and 'Super Zodiac' to the more lyrical 'Birth of Creation' and 'Unity', with Kate Tempest guesting on central piece, 'Blood of the Past'. As I write this I think what's needed is something that spreads out and fills the room...

Jamila Woods was a latecomer to this party, and I might've missed it, but someone drew my attention to it (can't recall where I heard about it) late in the year, and, boy, am I glad! I suppose, strictly speaking, 'Legacy! Legacy!', is a concept album, but don't let that put you off.

The 'concept' is that each song is named after and a tribute to significant figures in black and brown (Frida Kahlo is Mexican) icons of music, literature and art - and their legacy is the inspiration for each of the songs.  There's no single musical genre and, appropriately, the songs named after musical figures tend to evoke the subject's musical genre.  It's tough to pick a single track that stands for the album, but I'm going with 'Basquiat', partly 'cos it covers a few musical bases.

Big Thief have been around a few years but stayed beneath my radar until last year. A lot of people in the music press were shouting about them, the general clamour being aided by them releasing two albums in the space of a few months - pretty rare these days outside the world of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Foals. Every review I read had the offensive four letter word beginning with 'f' and ending with 'k' in it which put me off listening to them until the last few months of the year.

 

Putting aside my prejudices against folk (even typing it makes me cringe and I have to summon all my willpower to stop myself donning a heavy knit jumper and sticking a finger in my ear), I gave their first album of the year, 'UFOF', a listen, God save my soul.  Adrianne Lenker's vocals, for she is the lead singer and main songwriter on this album, are quite understated for the most part, though the lyrics are evocative on songs of loss, longing, love and friendship.  I've yet to listen to their follow-up album, 'Two Hands', though having enjoyed 'UFOF' so much, against the odds, I will find the time to give it a go. I was torn between choosing the title track and the first track, and went for the latter, mainly because I love the lyrics and the ending.

Michael Kiwanuka's third album proper, titled simply, 'Kiwanuka', comes some three years after 'Love & Hate', delivers a cohesive set of songs, which, dare I say it, concerns itself with these troubled times we live in and perhaps relates to now in the same way that Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' did for early 1970s America. A brave comparison, given the high regard that Gaye's album is held in, but something this collection aspires to.

 

Sound-wise, the references to 'What's Going On' are not hard to spot. From the opening song, 'You Ain't the Problem', there's something about the instrumentation and openness of the mix that takes you back to those albums. Lyrically there's an undercurrent of political consciousness that echoes its forebears time, especially on interludes like 'Another Human Being'. Nevertheless he manages to carve out a space all his own and the songs don't slip into pastiche or plagiarism and are firmly stamped as Michael Kiwanuka songs, not forgetting that he has a really expressive, soulful voice that pulls you in.

I used to find a lot to enjoy in rap, at least, in old school rap, and though I hear a lot of rap, mainly because it seems to form the majority of the music my sons play, it's not often that I hear something that makes me stop in my tracks and want to hear more.  There certainly are rap artists whose lyrics go beyond glorifying money, guns, bitches, hos (or should that be hoes? doesn't look right?) and material things, but they seem to be in a minority.  I'm more interested in those that say something more political and cultural, like Public Enemy's Chuck D used to. 

Then I heard Dave's 'Psychodrama':  it's not something I've heard my sons play, so maybe he's not considered cool or maybe because he's not from the west side or east side he's not worth listening to? Or maybe because the album won the Mercury music prize?

Why did I like it? Simple: the lyrics. It's about the experience of being young and black in Britain today, so nothing I have in common with, and specifically it's book-ended as a sort of therapy session describing his brother's experiences, a brother who is serving a life sentence for his part in a killing. The songs about mental health issues are really powerful and bear repeated listens. I should also say that the musical settings are good too, this is not only about the words.

Last on my list, and the album that had to fight hardest for its place in my top ten, partly because it was a latecomer and also because there were so many other albums battling to be in the top 10, is 'Nightmare Forever' from Nolan Potter's Nightmare Band. Who the fuck? Exactly, and it gets worse.  Flute-drenched prog is not something you hear on that many new albums these days, especially out of the USA (Austin, Texas if you really wanna know). Not only that, but flutey prog with a sense of humour. Come on, pull the other one!

Doubts and disbelief cast aside, psychedelic prog is what you get, with a lightness of touch that keeps playfulness to the fore. Every now and then a track has too long an outro which adds little to the song, but that's a discipline thing that will come if they make another album. Whether this album stands the test of time, I really can't say, but if the music doesn't then the album cover will. There is much to ponder upon in the picture.

There are quite a standout tracks like 'Dosing the President', 'Elf Curse' (yes, I'm afraid there are elves!), and 'Singing a Single Song of Satan' (the title reminds me of the oldies radio two programme 'Sing Something Simple' from years ago, though, to be fair, the similarity ends there). I particularly love 'Seahorse Retreat', despite the long outro (some days I like it, some days it gets on my tits)...

This isn't the end of my 2019 interminable lists, though.  I have in mind the idea of doing a 'mop up' which will include compilations and reissues, plus the albums that have, over the past few weeks, posed the strongest threat to Nolan Potter and his Nightmare Band.  Be prepared for some surprises, Norman Fucking Rockwell.

If you've got this far, yeah, right, you've probably forgotten what came before, so here's the list in full, but not in order:

• Ghosteen - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
• Rainford / Heavy Rain - Lee "Scratch" Perry
• Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery - The Comet is Coming
• Legacy! Legacy! - Jamila Woods
• Kiwanuka - Michael Kiwanuka
• Sombrou Duvida - Boogarins
• Hollow Earth - Pye Corner Audio
• Psychodrama - Dave
• UFOF - Big Thief
• Nightmare Forever - Nolan Potter's Nightmare Band

I'd just like to close by saying, "Don't have nightmares."