Best Music of 2019
2019 has been yet another fantastic year for music. I love reading end of year lists - because I nearly always find two or three new bands that I absolutely love from other peoples favourites, so here are mine.
Top 6 Records
In a year with so much good music, it was difficult to whittle down my list to a top ten or top five - but there were, without even thinking about it, 6 records that I came back to again and again and again which deserve special mention.
Ramona - Deals! Deals! Deals!
This album is top to bottom fantastic. From the opening fuzz pop of Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Hearts right through to the ultimately uplifting Mambo 69, Deals! Deals! Deals! offers sing alongs about personal and relatable struggles underpinned by excellent songwriting. Led by duelling vocals and powered by some really great drumming this was joint album of the year for me.
Telethon - Hard Pop
It’s really difficult to describe Hard Pop without breaking into a smile, it’s just so much fun. And yet, for all the toe tapping infectious joy pouring out of the music, the words are often dark, emotional and charismatic;
I’ve got this spiral bound notebook
I’ve kept it since I was a kid
Where I write down anything that doesn’t add up
So I can show it to God in the end and say ‘I know what you did’
There is so much going on here, a record that sounds like Motion City Soundtrack, Billy Joel, The Wonder Years, Weezer, and Stephen Malkmus all having such a great time playing together - somehow it doesn’t just work, it bangs. Joint album of the year.
Grayscale - Nella Vita
Grayscale released some of the catchiest songs of the year on this record - a record that saw them shrug off emo/pop punk shackles and strike for the power pop big leagues. The sound is expansive and the melodies back up everything that the band tries - the various electronic elements fit the sound so well - but the lyrics keep the band grounded in a depth that is all too often lacking in modern pop.
Clowns - Nature / Nurture
Opening with a flat sprint into searing, loud and aggressive hardcore punk with something to say on Bland is the New Black, Clowns immediately hooked me. What keeps the album fresh throughout is that Clowns effortlessly weave in their influences and spread that hardcore punk blueprint into 70’s psychedelic rock, alternative rock and some wonderful meaty riffs.
Weatherstate - Born a Cynic
I picked this up almost by accident - Weatherstate made a music video for Medicate which I saw on Punknews after the video gained some heat online - it’s a shot for shot remake of Basket Case by Green Day after all. Anyway, I wasn’t really expecting a debut album quite so accomplished.
The album is unmistakably British pop-punk, but the Green Day influence hangs heavy - the griminess and sneery attitude really reminds me of Insomniac (the best Green Day album). That’s not to say this is shameful ripoff or anything, this album rips from first track to last, but it does scratch that fast, anxiety backed dark pop punk itch perfectly.
Can’t Swim - Foreign Language
Take the established Can’t Swim template of melody and thoughtful pop punk, do something angry to it and somehow you achieve Foreign Language. An unhinged snarling hardcore punk record with groove, swagger, attitude and the sort of choruses that get stuck in your head for months. For a group more often associated with bands like Like Pacific and Boston Manor to release a 12 minute howl of frustration that owes more to bands like Minor Threat and Rage Against The Machine, and yet still sound like themselves is nothing short of remarkable.
Another 12 Great Records
In addition, these records were also great and well worth your attention.
Masked Intruder - III
Mowton and Pop Punk collide on a record of love and other crimes.
Russian Girlfriends - In the Parlance of Our Times
Riffs, punk rock, songs about American Indians and Mark Knopfler being a moral compass and more riffs.
Bring Me The Horizon - amo
Something incredible happened. BMTH released an album that was actually good. And what an album it is.
The Get Up Kids - Problems
The first good Get Up Kids record in 15 years and it might be one of their very best.
PKEW. PKEW. PKEW. - Optimal Lifestyles
I WANNNA SEEEE A WOLLLLFFFFF
Pup - Morbid Stuff
Narrowly missing out on my top records just because I didn’t come back to it as much as the others, this is probably Pup’s most accomplished and well rounded record.
The Menzingers - Hello Exile
The Menzingers released a wonderful album with some wonderful songs but seriously what is that production about ffs.
Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff
Almost as much of a headfuck as the Can’t Swim record, Angel Du$t traded in hardcore for acoustic lef folk punk and… it really worked.
All Better - How It All Worked Out
I just want an album now after several wonderful EP’s.
The Lock And Keys - Wilderness
This EP came out early in 2019 and it perfectly scratched my Samiam-like grown up punk rock cravings.
Microwave - Death is a Warm Blanket
LOL, what exactly is going on here? Emo-alt rock goes Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails? I’m in.
Stray from the Path - Internal Atomics
Every single music publication in the world seems to have decided that Fever 333 are “the saviours” of music or something. Well, imagine that Fever 333 record was actually good? Imagine it had more than one good song and something to say other than “I have a clothing company”. That’s Stray From The Path.