Albums Of The Year 2019
Every year it's the same - "there's no good music anymore". I hear it every day, no doubt you hear it a lot too. But those people just aren't paying attention. I get it, it's hard to keep up with new music these days - there's no one authoritative voice championing things (John Peel, NME, etc), there's a lot of voices shouting about a lot of things and so it's easy to switch off and stick to what you know. We all do it from time to time. But 2019, like every other year, has been full of great records - every week something amazing has come out - it's just sometimes we miss things (we can't all spend 8 hours a day listening to new records), so hopefully this list might prod you to check out something you may not have heard, or to revisit something you have.
Our favourite records might not be yours, and vice versa, and that's totally cool, let us know what you've been loving this year. No doubt we've missed thousands of great records too, and this list will change a thousand times before New Years Day, and we wouldn't have it any other way. So here you go, our 50 favourite records of the year, numbers 21-50 are in no particular order, but all are worth your time. Dig in.
Albums Of The Year 2019
1. Modern Nature - How To Live [BUY]
When Ultimate Painting dissolved and Jack Cooper (who we've been big fans of for years now) announced his new band Modern Nature, featuring members of Beak, Sunwatchers and Woods (all South favourites), we were sold before hearing a note. The Nature EP, which came earlier this year, bore the strong influence of Fairport Convention, the more pastoral side of Krautrock (Popul Vuh, Ashra, etc), along with the cosmic jazz of Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson, which the debut album (released by the fine people at Bella Union) expanded on to create something completely their own. A concept record of sorts about escaping the isolation of city living to the open spaces of the countryside, and named after Derek Jarman's diaries about his time in Dungeness (just across the river from us). How To Live is a great record, one that we're still just as excited by now as we were when we played it 10 times the day it came out.
You can catch Modern Nature live at our Christmas party, more info can be found here
2. Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains [BUY]
3. Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow [BUY]
4. Hand Habits – Placeholder [BUY]
5. Melodiegroup – Being and Nothingness [BUY]
6. The Comet Is Coming – Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery [BUY]
7. Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano – FRKWYS 15 [BUY]
8. Jane Weaver – Loops in the Secret Society [BUY]
9. GS Schray - First Appearance [BUY]
10. The Utopia Strong – The Utopia Strong [BUY]
11. William Doyle – Your Wilderness Revisited [BUY]
12. Richard Dawson – 2020 [BUY]
13. Fenella – Fenella [BUY]
14. Bill Callahan – Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest [BUY]
15. Death & Vanilla – Are You A Dreamer? [BUY]
16. Vanishing Twin – The Age Of Immunology [BUY]
17. Sandro Perri – Soft Landing [BUY]
18. Big Thief – Two Hands [BUY]
19. Robert Forster – Inferno [BUY]
20. Ultramarine – Signals Into Space [BUY]
21-50 (in no particular order)
Younghusband - Swimmers [BUY]
Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Disappeared Yet? [BUY]
Cosey Fanni Tutti – Tutti [BUY]
Maurice Louca – Elephantine [BUY]
Mikey Young – You Feelin’ Me [BUY]
Sunwatchers – Illegal Moves [BUY]
Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis [BUY]
Durand Jones & The Indications – American Love Call [BUY]
The Stroppies – Whoosh [BUY]
These New Puritans – Inside The Rose [BUY]
Fat White Family – Serf’s Up [BUY]
Kevin Morby – Oh My God [BUY]
Plaid – Polymer [BUY]
Allah Las – LAHS [BUY]
Toy – Songs Of Consumption [BUY]
Keel Her – With Kindness [BUY]
Moon Duo – Stars Are The Light [BUY]
Binker Golding – Abstraction of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers [BUY]
Boris – Love & Evol [BUY]
Swans – Leaving Meaning [BUY]
Angel Olsen – All Mirrors [BUY]
Floating Points – Crush [BUY]
Sean O’Hagan – Radum Calls, Radum Calls [BUY]
Itasca – Spring [BUY]
Tindersticks – No Treasure But Love [BUY]
Gospelbeach – Let It Burn [BUY]
Danny Brown – uknowwhatimsayin [BUY]
Chromatics – Closer To Grey [BUY]
75 Dollar Bill – I Was Real [BUY]
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen [BUY]