As we wrap another year chapter on planet Earth, scenestr contributors have gathered their albums from the past 12 months to select their favourite records of 2019. Bless.
James Murphy
1: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - ‘Ghosteen’ On ‘Ghosteen’: Nick Cave quotes Buddha; in 2,000 years, people will be quoting Nick Cave.2: Angel Olsen - ‘All Mirrors’
3: Elbow - ‘Giants Of All Sizes’
4: The Mountain Goats - ‘In League With Dragons’
5: Rex Orange County - ‘Pony’
6: Wilco - ‘Ode To Joy’
7: Thom Yorke - ‘Anima’
8: The National - ‘I Am Easy To Find’
9: Bad//Dreems - ‘Doomsday Ballet’
10: G Flip - ‘About Us’
Thomas Jackson
1: The Damned Things - ‘High Crimes’: Nine years on from their debut album, the supergroup combining the guttural screams of Every Time I Die, the thrash of Anthrax, the melodic bass of Alkaline Trio and the unleashed guitar and drums of Fall Out Boy – with a hint of pop-anthem hooks thrown in – created the catchiest, heaviest rock album of the year.2: Sleep Talk - ‘Everything In Colour’
3: Clowns - ‘Nature/Nurture’
4: Bayside - 'Interrobang'
5: Bring Me The Horizon - ‘amo’
6: Slipknot - ‘We Are Not Your Kind’
7: Baroness - ‘Gold & Grey’
8: Simple Creatures - ‘Everything Opposite’
9: Torche - ‘Admission’
10: Ceres - ‘We Are a Team’
Lachlan Douglas
1: Bobby Alu - ‘Flow’: When I'm not listening to every 20th anniversary remaster release of 2019 and it isn't Tool time, Bobby Alu takes me out of the city and onto the sandy edge of an island somewhere. Is it possible to get sunburnt listing to a record?2: Tool - ‘Fear Inoculum’
3: Frank Turner - ‘No Man's Land’
4: The Young'uns - ‘The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff’
5: Dana Gehrman - ‘Find A Way’
6: Goldie Lookin Chain - ‘Original Pyrite Material’
7: Lagwagon - ‘Railer’
8: Laneous - ‘Monstera Deliciosa’
9: The East Pointers - ‘Yours To Break’
10: Michael Kiwanuka - ‘Kiwanuka’
Tim McNamara
1: Underworld - 'DRIFT Series 1': You'll need nearly six hours to get through Underworld's latest album, but it's time very well spent. The UK producers' year-long musical experiment has served up some timeless electronica – a masterpiece.2: Mark Ronson - 'Late Night Feelings'
3: The Chemical Brothers - 'No Geography'
4: King Princess - 'Cheap Queen'
5: Crazy P - 'Age Of The Ego'
6: Toro y Moi - 'Outer Peace'
7: Hot Chip - 'A Bath Full Of Ecstasy'
8: Various - 'Back To Mine: Nightmares On Wax'
9: Hermitude - 'Pollyanarchy'
10: Moodymann - 'Sinner'
Clea-marie Thorne
1: The Comet Is Coming - ‘Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery’: This trio of psychedelic cosmonauts artfully created an instrumental (mostly) masterpiece of blended tracks that further breaks down the boundaries of music genres, as they do. The jazz led, cross-genre fusion, skilfully uses sax, bass clarinet, synth/ keyboard and drums to deliver a galaxy of exciting and hopeful elements for discovery. It provokes otherworld visions and dystopian and apocalyptic imagery that is spattered with hope and calls for you to reflect on societal issues as averred by Kate Tempest’s brief recital on ‘Blood Of The Past’ (my favourite track) – immerse yourself in another dimension, time and space and hit repeat. . . ‘Because the end is really the beginning’.2: Telefon Tel Aviv - ‘Dreams Are Not Enough’
3: Russian Circles - ‘Blood Year’
4: Slipknot - ‘We Are Not Your Kind’
5: Devin Townsend - ‘Empath’
6: The Raconteurs - ‘Help Us Stranger’
7: The Hu - ‘The Gereg’
8: Baroness - ‘Gold & Grey’
9: We Lost the Sea - ‘Triumph & Disaster’
10: Desert Sessions - ‘Volumes 11 & 12’
Mark Liebelt
1: Bruce Springsteen - ‘Western Stars’: It's rare nowadays for an album to come in at 50 minutes and 13 tracks with no filler. Springsteen in this cinema-scope, western-esque epic has done that though, depicting many of the US western images we've seen in movies and TV series, but here added with his unique observations of those permanent and non-permanent residents of that part of the world. Sit back, listen and picture.2: Paul Kelly - ‘Thirteen Ways To Look At Birds’
3: The Teskey Brothers - ‘Run Home Slow’
4: Jimmie Vaughan - ‘Baby, Please Come Home’
5: Jimmy Barnes - ‘My Criminal Record’
6: Seeker, Lover, Keeper - ‘Wild Seeds’
7: The Black Keys - ‘Let’s Rock’
8: Buddy & Julie Miller - ‘Breakdown On 20th Ave. South’
9: Rory Gallagher - ‘Blues’
10: Bad//Dreems - ‘Doomsday Ballet’
Fran Gibson
1: Lizzo - ‘Cuz I Love You’: Packed with self-love anthems, witty one-liners and more heart than ‘Red Dog’, the jazz flautist’s third album finally saw her crowned as the rightful queen of pop. With fans like Missy Elliott, Ariana and Rihanna, Lizzo didn’t need to take a DNA test to prove she’s 100 per cent that bitch that owned 2019.2: Dermot Kennedy - ‘Without Fear’
3: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - ‘Ghosteen’
4: Meg Mac - ‘Hope’
5: Tyler, the Creator - ‘Igor’
6: Dean Lewis - ‘A Place We Knew’
7: Miley Cyrus - ‘She Is Coming’
8: Methyl Ethel - ‘Triage’
9: The Cat Empire - ‘Stolen Diamonds’
10: Leonard Cohen - ‘Thanks For The Dance’
Harry Edwards
1: The Claypool Lennon Delirium - ‘South Of Reality’: ‘South Of Reality’ sounds like a long-lost Terry Gilliam musical. The supergroup the world needed, full of sardonic wit and on-the-pulse humour. The duo plays like two sides of the same contradicting coin, offering a perfect pastiche of prog and psych-pop. On ‘South Of Reality’, Sean Lennon sounds far more like a lysergic Elliott Smith than his father, with Claypool on classic, cartoonish form. This record harnesses the great, big weird, condensing it into hilarious and beautiful vignettes, and never taking them too seriously. . . like, at all. The album features some of the most memorable melodies of the past 20 years, understated yet colourful, with highly imaginative orchestration.2: Weyes Blood - ‘Titanic Rising’
3: Methyl Ethel - ‘Triage’
4: Anderson .Paak - ‘Ventura’
5: Karen O, Danger Mouse - ‘Lux Prima’
6: King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - ‘Infest The Rats Nest’
7: Flying Lotus - ‘Flamagra’
8: Laneous - ‘Monstera Deliciosa’
9: Mac DeMarco - ‘Here Comes The Cowboy’
10: HRBRT - ‘Melopoeia’
Aimi Hobson
1: Tool - 'Fear Inoculum': A deep, rich soundscape that shows why Tool are still one of the greatest prog bands in the world. ‘Fear Inoculum’ is well worth the 13 years we have waited since ’10.000 Days’.2: Anaal Nathrakh - 'A New Kind Of Horror'
3: Lagerstein - '25/7'
4: Cattle Decapitation - 'Death Atlas'
5: Devin Townsend - 'Empath'
6: Týr - 'Hel'
7: Rotting Christ - 'The Heretics'
8: Rumahoy - 'Time II: Party'
9: Amon Amarth - 'Berserker'
10: Children of Bodom - 'Hexed'
Kristanna Sutton
1: Alex Lahey - ‘The Best Of Luck Club’: Lahey comes into her own with her sophomore album. ‘The Best Of Luck Club’ contrasts between breezy emotions and raucous pop-punk bangers. She’ll have you smiling, crying, and screaming her angsty lyrics aloud – sometimes all at once.2: Meg Mac - ‘Hope’
3: Holy Holy - ‘My Own Pool Of Light’
4: The Black Keys - ‘Let’s Rock’
5: Boy & Bear - ‘Suck On Light’
6: Circa Waves - ‘What’s It Like Over There?’
7: Vampire Weekend - ‘Father Of The Bride’
8: Bastille - ‘Doom Days’
9: Thelma Plum - ‘Better In Blak’
10: Polish Club - ‘Iguana’
