Year in Rock 2019: Album of the Year
Whether that results in more or less content on the blog, right now I can't say. The plan is to reevaluate what this all means in the new year but, for now, let's focus on the year that was.
2019 was a year of pleasant surprises, expected awesomeness and thrilling discoveries (there were a few bitter disappointments too, but that's not what I'm here for). We got new career benchmarks from established acts, mind-blowing debuts and a whole host of great records from artists entering their prime. Without further ado, let's count 'em down and find out whose album won me over the most in 2019!
Honourable Mentions:
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES End of Suffering (International Death Cult)
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS Ghosteen (Ghosteen Ltd.)
EX HEX It's Real (Merge)
FEVER 333 Strength in Numb333rs (Roadrunner)
MICHAEL KIWANUKA Kiwanuka (Polydor)
THE MENZINGERS Hello Exile (Epitaph)
THE NATIONAL I Am Easy To Find (4AD)
RIVAL SONS Feral Roots (Atlantic)
SILVERSUN PICKUPS Widow's Weeds (New Machine)
WHITE REAPER You Deserve Love (Elektra)
SLEATER-KINNEY
The Center Won't Hold
Mom + Pop
Highlights:
Hurry On Home
Can I Go On
RUINS
This one's a little bittersweet; while Sleater-Kinney followed up their insanely good 2015 comeback record No Cities to Love with another solid record (helmed in conjunction with St. Vincent), the new direction the band has started toward with this project cost them longtime drummer Janet Weiss. One can hope that this departure doesn't disrupt the band going forward, but I can't help but feel like Sleater-Kinney lost much more than a drummer this year.
BRING ME THE HORIZON
amo
Sony
Highlights:
Mantra
Wonderful Life
Sugar Honey Ice & Tea
Look, I'm just as surprised as you are; when this record dropped in January, I was looking forward to it based on a pair of really solid, hard rocking singles, then recoiled in disgust at the pop-leaning direction of the majority of the record. Yet, here I am, eleven months removed from the sting of disappointment and sitting here knowing that, as much as my stubborn tendencies want to rip amo apart, I can't deny that it's a bold and ultimately successful pivot. For an added bonus, check out Ludens from the Death Stranding soundtrack, because it's an absolute heavy banger.
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Father of the Bride
Sony
Highlights:
Harmony Hall
This Life
Unbearably White
While I wanted to like Father of the Bride more than I did, I've come back to it a few times over the past six months and have found it to be better than the bloated mess I perceived it as upon my initial few listens. To be sure, it's no artistically bankrupt disaster like Arcade Fire's first major label album was; if anything, Vampire Weekend might be a little too ambitious on this record. So as to say, I might need a little more time to process what's happening here.
FIDLAR
Almost Free
Dine Alone
Highlights:
Can't You See
Alcohol
Thought. Mouth.
FIDLAR are swimming in some hazardous waters. While I continue to appreciate them for trying things they haven't done before on their records (this, their third, ups the ante in that department), they've yet to do anything that makes me think "yes, this is what FIDLAR sounds like". The songs are still boss, so they get a free pass from me this time, but I'm not sure how much longer I can wait for them to forge a musical identity that's truly theirs.
REFUSED
War Music
Refused/Spinefarm
Highlights:
Violent Reaction
I Wanna Watch the World Burn
Economy of Death
Signing a distribution deal with noted metal label Spinefarm may seem like a bit of a head scratcher to some fans of Refused, but one listen to War Music and its nearly relentless assault lends a lot of sense to the decision. This thing is louder, angrier and more metallic than anything they've done before and, once the shock wears off, it reveals itself to be a record with plenty of reason to come back for more.
TORCHE
Admission
Relapse
Highlights:
Slide
Times Missing
Admission
Few bands can say they've flown as far under the radar and produced such a solid discography as Torche (I say "few" because we're going to talk about another in a minute). Over the course of their last four records, they've crafted some of heavy music's finest work, and yet they still sit on the fringes of popularity even within the heavy music scene. By incorporating elements of indie and shoegaze into their sludgy sound, maybe they won't need those pesky metalheads around much longer.
HE IS LEGEND
White Bat
Spinefarm
Highlights:
White Bat
Burn All Your Rock Records
Resistor Resist Her
Criminally underrated for most of their career, He Is Legend has progressed from heavy emo roots into a formidable force in hard rock. Full of riffs, hooks and sinister grooves, White Bat is just another fantastic heavy record that most people will ignore.
BLACK MOUNTAIN
Destroyer
Jagjaguwar/Dine Alone
Highlights:
Future Shade
High Rise
Boogie Lover
Sometimes, the cover really does tell you all you need to know; towering, loud hard rock is the order of the day on Black Mountain's fifth record. Paying respects to classic metal, punk and stoner rock with just a hint of cheesy prog, Destroyer just happens to also be proof that sometimes, the title really does tell you all you need to know.
MANNEQUIN PUSSY
Patience
Epitaph
Highlights:
Drunk II
Cream
F.U.C.A.W.
Equal parts sweet and seething, Mannequin Pussy's third album straddles the line between beauty and brutality better than most seasoned bands. At 25 minutes, it's a compact and thrilling listen that answers the question "what purpose does a short record serve?" with a resounding "play it again, of course".
MICROWAVE
Death is a Warm Blanket
Pure Noise
Highlights:
Leather Daddy
Float to the Top
Part of It
If people insist on comparing Microwave to Manchester Orchestra (not a bad comparison, if we're being honest), then DIAWB is their Cope. Wrapping their well-written ruminations inside a warm blanket of noise, Microwave has taken another step forward while bearing a torch for capital-R Rock music, and that's a dying breed in the indie scene these days.
FOALS
Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost
Warner
Highlights:
White Onions
Syrups
Like Lightning
While Foals produced two albums in 2019, both of which could have made the list, I've decided on the cop out in this case, choosing to treat both volumes of ENSWBL as one 79-minute album. They do have separate identities, with the latter being the heavier and more muscular counterpart, but together these records show not just the prowess of Foals in creating great songs, but also the variety of ways in which they can do that while maintaining a core sound that's undeniably theirs.
THE RACONTEURS
Help Us Stranger
Third Man
Highlights:
Bored and Razed
Help Me Stranger
Now That You're Gone
Jack White's last solo album was a disaster. We can agree to disagree on that one if you want, but there was something utterly relieving about Jack resurrecting The Raconteurs with his partner in crime Brendan Benson for their first album in over a decade. It was great to have Jack White rocking out again, even if Brendan's performances were better this time. Calm down, Jack, it's not a competition.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
Infest the Rats' Nest
Flightless/ATO
Highlights:
Planet B
Mars for the Rich
Self-Immolate
What's crazier: that King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have released fifteen albums in just seven years, that 2019 was considered a slow year because they only released two this year, that the former was a lighthearted boogie rock record while the latter was a thrash metal concept album based around colonization on Mars, or that despite how insane all of this sounds Infest the Rats' Nest isn't just a good King Gizzard record or a good metal record but indeed one of the very best records of the year? Actually, I thought of something just a little crazier, and that's the fact that none of the above statements really came as a surprise to me.
JIMMY EAT WORLD
Surviving
Exotic Location/RCA
Highlights:
Criminal Energy
555
All the Way (Stay)
Anyone who truly knows me knows I'm a sucker for power pop in my rock n' roll. It's why bands like Jimmy Eat World are often held close as a kind of guilty pleasure. However, if their tenth record is any indication, my love of this band is becoming increasingly guilt-free. It's one thing for a band to turn out a pleasant enough record this deep into their career (they just did that a few years back with Integrity Blues), and it's quite another to turn out an urgent and forward-thinking rock record that might actually give their best work a run for its money.
PUP
Morbid Stuff
Little Dipper/Universal
Highlights:
Morbid Stuff
See You At Your Funeral
Sibling Rivalry
As the stigma surrounding mental health issues starts to finally lift, it's becoming more important to talk about our struggles as a way of coping with all that we struggle with. Enter PUP, the living, breathing, sometimes utterly defeated and sometimes utterly triumphant soundtrack to tense times and tenser thoughts. I've long been a believer of catharsis through music, and there may be no record more fully realized in that department this year than Morbid Stuff.
WINTERSLEEP
In the Land of
Dine Alone
Highlights:
Beneficiary
Into the Shape of Your Heart
Never Let You Go
By the time you realize you've been bopping along and tapping your steering wheel to a song that indicts our society for ignoring indigenous peoples, you might feel a little uncomfortable. On In the Land of, that's kind of the point; beneath the shimmering melodies and soaring hooks lie deep fears for ourselves and our world. Whether you choose to use the message as motivation or simply groove to one of Canada's best bands extending their already impressive winning streak is up to you.
SLIPKNOT
We Are Not Your Kind
Roadrunner
Highlights:
Unsainted
Nero Forte
Spiders
A funny thing happened in the months after the release of Slipknot's sixth album. I would listen to it, and think "this is surprisingly good for Slipknot". I would listen again and think "this couldn't really be their best record, could it?" I would listen again and think "this is easily their best record". Over the course of a couple dozen listens, I went from being pleasantly surprised by WANYK to absolutely dumbfounded that a band as revered in metal as Slipknot could deliver their career-defining masterwork twenty years into their career.
ANGEL OLSEN
All Mirrors
Jagjaguwar
Highlights:
Lark
True Love Cassette
What It Is
If 2016's My Woman established Angel Olsen as an artist to be reckoned with, then 2019's All Mirrors is the reckoning. Shifting from sparse rock to cinematic orchestral pop and making it look easy, Olsen's created an album that's both heartbreaking and assertive, and one that reaches heights even fans like me couldn't have predicted just three years ago. I know I'm not alone in this feeling, because I've seen this album near the top of virtually every year-end list I've read thus far.
TOOL
Fear Inoculum
Tool Dissectional/Volcano
Highlights:
Fear Inoculum
Pneuma
7empest
It finally happened, you guys. After 13 long years of waiting, Tool delivered their fifth record. Was it worth the wait? Of course not; nothing could have lived up to that hype. That said, Tool did everything they possibly could to quell the fears of a fan base that approached this work with trepidation. All of the band's hallmarks are there, from Adam Jones' crunchy riffs to Danny Carey's otherworldly drumming to Justin Chancellor's deceptively complex bass work to Maynard James Keenan's unmistakable voice. It's all there and expanded past the point of convention, with its six songs (and one instrumental) filling an entire CD while delegating its three interludes to the streaming version. While some fans are loath to pay the entrance fee for the album's elaborate physical editions, most agree that the music is everything they could have hoped for after such a long absence.
BLACK MIDI
Schlagenheim
Rough Trade
Highlights:
953
Western
bmbmbm
As indescribable after thirty listens as it is after one, Black Midi's daunting debut album definitely isn't for everyone. Odd time signatures, sudden outbursts of noise, abstract lyrics and an overall sense of tension that burrows deep are all elements that play off each other and create a sometimes disturbing, sometimes charming and wholly uncompromising album. Tellingly, the band's two excellent 2019 singles (Crow's Perch and Talking Heads) don't even make the cut; instead, Schlagenheim is a full-album thrill ride experience that's devoid of commercial aspirations, an ugly and disorienting mirror to an ugly and disorienting world. Is it all a touch pretentious? Of course it is, and anyone who would say otherwise just likes to argue; still, the artistic vision laid forth on Schlagenheim proves that there are still risks to take in rock. As long as we have bands like this willing to take those risks, rock will never die.
There we have it, another one in the books. So, how did I do? Agree? Disagree? Want to punch my stupid face? Please don't do that, but feel free to drop a comment and let me know how I can do a better job next time.
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