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User
Reviews 166
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Album Edits 8,415
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Last Active 12-03-22 11:37 pm
Joined 08-18-16
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| My Favorite 20 Songs of 2019
So, yeah. These are them. | | 20 |  | Kaiser Chiefs
Duck
"Wait"
I've been a big fan of this band from Leeds, England for the last 15 years, and this song is a good example of why. Although the lyrics aren't explicitly funny, the music itself is playful and a little bit frisky. I thought the Duck album from which this track was drawn was just an average effort for them, but something about the song itself just made me keep coming back to it. Might be the wispy synth between verses, or the frenzied pace of the chorus, or just the contradiction of energy of the track juxtaposed against the imperative of the title - "Wait!" In any event, why analyze when you can just enjoy. | | 19 |  | Cassadee Pope
Stages
"Take You Home"
Now I admit, that there's not a lot of country music that tends to make my lists (although certainly more than jazz or hip-hop), but I do at least listen to a few country artists every year. Cassadee Pope has a special in with me, because while most people know her mostly from the godawful TV show The Voice, I always give her a listen because I loved her a decade or so ago when she was the lead singer of the alternative rock band Hey Monday. (And back then, I though she was the number one up-and-coming alt rock songstress behind Paramore's Hayley Williams). And Pope's 2019 album Stages is first rate. This track (the first on the LP) in particular grabbed me, although there were quite a few others I liked as well. It finds her baring her soul to a guy she's just met (but feels a connection to), and fantasizing about bringing him home to meet her parents. I especially like the part about the little church "that helped me when I got lost". | | 18 |  | The Gloaming
The Gloaming 3
"Áthas (Joy)"
This track is from an Irish band that consists of both Irish and American musicians. It's sung in Gaelic, and is well named, in that the music is particularly joyful. I especially love the piano here, but that's not to discount any of the other elements. The style of the song is a mixture of traditional Celtic music, new age and classical, with maybe even the lightest sprinkling of jazz. It's an exceptionally beautiful song. | | 17 |  | Jon Anderson
1000 Hands: Chapter One
"Makes Me Happy"
Regular readers of my Longislandmusicguy blog certainly know this guy. Jon Anderson of Yes fame released an excellent solo album this year that was decades in the works, 1000 Hands: Chapter One. (Kind of makes me crazy that he left the comma out of "1,000", but OK, I'm coping with it.) As you'd expect, it's a very upbeat, poppy album, and this song in particular is just a happy little ditty. God bless this guy! He's been a priceless musical jewel over the years. | | 16 |  | New Years Day
Unbreakable
"My Monsters"
New Years Day is a California-based female-fronted alternative hard rock band whose music also has a light goth vibe to it. I've liked them for years, but they can be a little inconsistent. They nailed it on this track, though, which finds singer Ash Costello battling the monsters she's created for herself, psychological and otherwise. | | 15 |  | Seahawks
Eyes of the Moon
"Emergence"
This track is by the British new age duo Seahawks, from their latest LP Eyes of the Moon. Their music has been characterized as "Psychedelic yacht rock", "deck shoegaze", "hazy beach pop" and "marina drone", all good descriptions. The song is light, bouncy synth with a slurred, almost subliminal voice speaking in the background. It's kind of like a gentle dream that's just carrying you along to pleasant places. | | 14 |  | Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Black Star Dancing
"Black Star Dancing"
Noel Gallagher, the saner of the two brothers from Oasis, formed this unit in 2011. Since then, they've put together a pretty solid body of work, including three full-length LPs and a host of extended plays. This track comes from an EP he put out this last summer. It's a jaunty, dancy little number that makes you want to move. Gallagher himself says there's a Bowie influence to the track, which I can certainly hear, and I'm sure the whole "Black Star" thing is a reference to Bowie's last album. | | 13 |  | Tiny Ruins
Olympic Girls
"Holograms"
Tiny Ruins are a musical ensemble from Auckland, New Zealand, put together by singer-songwriter Hollie Fullbrook. This is a slow, kind of dreamy track, that finds Fullbrook describing to her partner how the two of them will live on after their lives are over as dancing beams of light. Nice. | | 12 |  | Soen
Lotus
"Martyrs"
Soen is a Swedish progressive metal supergroup whose latest album, Lotus, is first-rate. This track is a great example of melodic metal, with a memorable vocal by Joel Ekelof. The song goes hard, then soft, then hard again. The video is pretty striking, too -- it features all of the band members in various forms of drag, but with beards, five o'clock shadow, etc. It's a striking track from one of the best metal LPs I heard all year (along with Batushka's Hospodi). | | 11 |  | Kakkmaddafakka
Diplomacy
"Sin"
Alright, I'm just gonna start by admitting that this is the stupidest band name ever. Don't hold that against them, though. This is a Norwegian indie rock band whose music combines eighties new wave with sixties funk and r&b. This particular track reminds me of an updated version of Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up". The rest of the band's latest album, Diplomacy, is pretty good, too. | | 10 |  | John Boswell
Night Magic
"Frost"
John Boswell is a new age/classical pianist from Los Angeles, California. I first became aware of him a couple of decades ago when my wife introduced me to his exquisite holiday album, Festival of the Heart. I don't even remember how I found out he put out a new LP in 2019, as he's not at all well known. But Night Magic is a lovely album, and this track in particular is top notch. (It's also a well named song, as the music definitely evokes a wintry feel.) | | 9 |  | All Hail the Silence
Daggers
"Stand Together"
This British/American electronic pop duo was one of the revelations of 2019. They have a retro-'80s sound to them, sort of like a two-man Depeche Mode. This is the first track from their delightful double LP Daggers. (Well, actually, some people call it "Daggers", and some just call it All Hail the Silence, just like some people call Led Zeppelin IV "Zoso", or Prince used to be known as Squiggle.) | | 8 |  | Santana
In Search of Mona Lisa
"Do You Remember Me"
Ah, Santana! I really got back in touch this year with just how much I love Santana. I even saw Carlos and the guys live for the first time. They put out a new LP in 2019 called Africa Speaks. It had some great stuff on it, but was kind of inconsistent. This tasty little track comes from an EP they put out earlier in the year, though, entitled In Search of Mona Lisa. It grew from an experience that Carlos Santana had while viewing the actual Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre. He went on this whole vision quest thing where Mona Lisa reminded him they used to be lovers in a former life. Whatever, he's a kind of a weird dude. But he plays a great guitar, and this slow track features some of his most elegant (yet restrained) work, as he shows himself once again to be the Da Vinci of the electric guitar. | | 7 |  | Screaming Orphans
Life in a Carnival
"Shine"
Screaming Orphans is an Irish Celtic pop band comprising the four Diver sisters, and this lovely track comes from their latest LP, Life as a Carnival. This is one of those tracks that's got kind of delicate verses, but a more expansive chorus. For me, at least, it's all about the piano and the oh-so-graceful vocals. I'm not even sure which sister is singing lead here, but they all get in on the action anyway. It's one of those songs that brought a smile to my face from the first time I heard it. | | 6 |  | Adrian Belew
Pop Sided
"Although"
In this very Beatlesque track from Adrian Belew's (of King Crimson fame) new LP Pop-Sided, Belew tries to look at the bright side after a weekend gone wrong with a prospective new lover. We're not exactly sure what happened that weekend, but let's just say that things did not go well. (At one point, he describes it as a "train wreck". My sympathies, pal.) Luckily, this song went a lot better. | | 5 |  | Mree
The Middle
"In the Kitchen"
Marie Hsiao (aka "Mree") is an indie folk singer-songwriter from New Jersey. Her EP In the Middle was one of the first albums I heard in 2019, and this was the first track on the EP. 2019 came and 2019 went, but this delectable and rather elegant song stuck with me all year. | | 4 |  | Lily and Madeleine
Canterbury Girls
"Pachinko Song"
Lily & Madeleine are an American folk pop duo from Indianapolis. Their album Canterbury Girls was released early in 2019, and this track immediately became one of my favorites. It's a tale of a love relationship gone sour after a big jackpot win at a Tokyo Pachinko parlor. (Or maybe it was already going sour, and the jackpot just pushed it over the brink. Whatever.) There's also some stalking involved here, as our heroine runs amok throughout Japan, relentlessly pursued by her lucky-jackpot-winning lover. Good song. | | 3 |  | Charly Bliss
Young Enough
"Hard to Believe"
This Brooklyn-based indie band ruled the year with their excellent new LP Young Enough, and this high-energy love-gone-wrong song was my favorite track from that album. It's a really well structured pop rock song, with some nice driving guitar and a very relatable vocal performance from Eva Hendricks. I just like the way song moves. | | 2 |  | Glen Hansard
This Wild Willing
"Brother's Keeper"
Glen Hansard is probably best known as one-half of the songwriting team that wrote the TONY-Award-winning Broadway musical Once. His folksy solo album This Wild Willing gathered much acclaim in 2019, and this was far-and-away the most memorable track from that album. It's a warm, feel-good track about both brotherly love and love between lovers. (Or maybe it's about incestuous love between transgender brothers, I'm not sure. But I think it's the first one.) | | 1 |  | Foals
Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1
"Sunday"
This year was my first exposure to the British alternative rock band Foals. They released two LPs over the course of 2019, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Parts 1 and 2. I found them both to be inconsistent, but there were some great tracks on each, including "The Runner" on Part 2, and particularly this one on Part 1. I especially like the lyrics for the chorus, which begin "Time away from me is what I need". Amen, brother. | |
Divaman
01.04.20 | I'll be back in a day or so to fill in the blurbs for numbers 1 through 10. I'm remembering now why I always do these lists on my blog first and then fill them in here. It's a lot easier to cut and paste the damned things from the blog than it is to come up with these descriptions on the fly. | Divaman
01.05.20 | There, done. Probably nobody will ever read it, except for some weird cockroach species as they're exploring Earth's ruins about 25,000 years from now, but it's the journey, not the destination. Or a stitch in time saves nine. Or something like that. | Aerisavion
01.05.20 | Mree is pretty great, need to revisit |
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