About My #1: If you refer back to my Best of 2014 lists Sharon Van Etten's Are We There was at the top. Five years later with Remind Me Tomorrow, she earns that spot yet again. This woman can tell a story. Her trademark layers of evocative harmonies are at the forefront as expected, atmospheric yet raw. While the songwriting and melodies stay true to her previous works, this 5th studio album has evolved in composition. Her customary folk-rock ballad repertoire has expanded into anthem territory particularly with "Seventeen" which has added rock value from Brian Reitzell who played drums for Redd Kross & Air as well as supervised super cool Sofia Coppola movie soundtracks like Marie Antoinette and scored the cancelled-way-too-soon tv series Hannibal. The instrumentation broadened to include electronic components like synths, drum machine, droning, loops and theremin, such as on my favorite track "Jupiter 4" (included in the playlist) where Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu lends his hand with some goosebump-worthy vibes. She's racked up some eclectic influences these past few years going on tour with Nick Cave and acting in The OA as well as an episode of the new Twin Peaks. If you're normally not the singer-songwriter type, you will be pleasantly surprised by this album as it really blurs the genre lines into dark americana electronic folk indie alternative heartland rock. The album is best not listened to passively and with white wine over ice.
Jaymz Todd
Phoenix, Arizona
About My #1: In the first part of Nov. 2018, the lady and I found out we would be having our first child. Excited, we started coming up with names. Having both sets of our parents giving birth to girls before boys, we pictured ourselves following in this same tradition and having a girl. The name at the top of the list was Ellis, picked from the middle name of Tracee Ellis Ross of Girlfriends/Blackish fame - I also liked the name Casio, Cassie for short, but the lady was really gunning for Ellis and I started to grow fond of it myself.
While googling the name Ellis I came across a band from Toronto, Canada and a week later Fat Possum records officially released their album. That same week we found out the gender of our baby...a boy. We weren’t expecting a boy but this was still great news and either gender is hella worth it. And now knowing the gender of our child we found that our excitement grew.
On a whim, I stopped by one of our local record stores, found the album and purchased. At home, I mentioned to the lady that though we weren’t going to have a baby girl named Ellis — at least not yet — we could still relish in this album with a female singer named Linnea Siggelkow (L.S.), in a band appropriately titled Ellis.
Linnea’s voice has a soft sing whisper that at times can draw comparisons to that of Alison Shaw from the Cranes. Sonically, the album is drenched in pure fuzz and dreamy distortion. The songs, though all a little short, serve a brilliant purpose, never getting old, and encouraging multiple listens in one sitting. Check it!
Phoenix, Arizona
About My #1: Going back to the early 90s we had KTCL in Colorado which was the radio station that played everything I wanted to hear at that point: The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Sand Rubies and The Ocean Blue. Moving forward to 1996 I finally got my chance to see The Ocean Blue with labelmates (Owls). I was hooked on their clean sound which kept me coming back for more until they disappeared for a bit. Kings and Queens / Knaves and Thieves for me sounds like an album that was recorded over years. The opener "Kings and Queens" definitely is from later in their recording sessions and a favorite of mine. "It Takes So Long" sounds like an early song and completely wonderful along with "Paraguay, My Love" and "Therein Lies the Problem with My Life." I really love this album. It doesn't sound like an album that was thrown together, it had taken time to work on it. This will definitely be on my favorite albums of the year list.
About My #1: This list may be almost instantly obsolete, as the coming months will see new releases by The Black Keys, Angela Perley, Taylor Swift, A Flock of Seagulls, K.Flay, Kaiser Chiefs, The Futureheads, Sleater-Kinney, Charli XCX, Violent Femmes and more (my head spins just thinking about it).
My list so far excludes a few dozen other worthy titles (including The Raconteurs, Ladytron, UNKLE, Lux Prima), but both my Top 10 and Top 50 so far follow the same theme: artists I’ve loved for years that are still on top of their game, and some rising stars. Piroshka (a supergroup featuring members of Lush and Elastica) is the sole 90’s throwback, while most acts on my list took root in the 80s. Holden Laurence (who also plays guitar in The Modern Electric) could have easily been a Sire Records new wave act in the 80s, alongside The Ocean Blue, The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Wild Swans and Madonna. Haley Reinhart has been mining more than 100 years of sounds on her adventurous albums and side-hustles (including songs with Jeff Goldblum and members of The Doors). The Chorades is a somewhat new group from the East Coast that reminds me of vintage Split Enz and Crowded House filtered through late 90’s Brit Pop. Finally, there’s been enough ink to fill a digital ocean about how awesome the Prince record is – if only the estate would release two such albums per year. Sad I won’t likely live to hear much of the gold in Prince’s vault.
The Ocean Blue comes out on top because their shimmering dream pop sound is perfection as always – few bands can claim a near spotless catalog the way they do. David Schelzel’s lyrics speak to where I am in life while younger listeners will take away something completely different from it. David and I discussed this at length in a recent interview. As we get older, in this youth obsessed culture and job market where Generation X has been all but discarded, it’s nice to see our generation can still pack a punch when it comes to music. And nowhere in my Top 50 albums so far will you ever hear someone scream “DJ Khaled!!!!” while someone else is trying to sing.
Chicago, Illinois
10. Christopher Willits - Sunset
About My #1: There’s been a lot of great electronic albums this year, and they overwhelmingly made my top ten for best albums in 2019 so far. Ribbons, Bibio’s tenth release, is no exception to this. Stephen James Wilkinson once again creates another intense and thought-provoking album. His sound is a mix of folk and electronic -- a dreamy acoustic throwback to the pastoral songwriters of the 1970s with a synthesized flavor of Wendy Carlos on tracks like "Pretty Ribbons" and "Lovely Flowers." The album starts out with "Beret Girl," an acoustic ballad that makes you feel like you’re daydreaming on the top of a hill, listening to the river water flow and birds sing. From then on you are hooked on another journey through the colorful mind of Bibio.
John Magness
Uttoxeter, England
About My #1: My list is culled from 17 albums. I wished I'd kept a running total but I didn't so maybe I've missed something that I considered essential at the time. Whilst I love vinyl I'm not a luddite and I use AppleMusic ALOT! So I listen to a lot of albums that I might not buy physically. I have most of the above though. Number 1 was pretty easy. It nearly didn't make it by virtue of the fact it was released on 14th June. The first album of new music from Bruce Springsteen since 2014. To be honest I wasn't excited about its release.....I thought with his last 4 albums since Magic (2007) while none of them were bad albums they didn't seem to capture a certain something. I've loved Western Stars since first listen and it's the first album I've felt that way about since 2002s The Rising and prior to that Tunnel of Love in 1987. I've listened to it numerous times already. So what is it like? There is an assumption that it is a country album, but it isn't really. It's clearly influenced by wide open spaces, desert and long driving (what Bruce album isn't fundamentally). It's about being alone in a big place, but not lonely, and the sense of sun and desert is palpable. The big surpise to me was the musical references. I picked up Glen Campbell (much missed). He had the ability to sound "big" with his guitar playing and Bruce captures that "twang" a number of times. There isn't a bad song on it. This year I've listened to a lot of music I haven't heard before which is the beauty of a platform like AppleMusic (other streamers are available!!!). If I read about it I follow the curiosity.
Rob Clark
Rockford, Illinois
(in order of release date)
09. Mercury Rev - Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited
About My #1: I’m not sure that one of these has risen to my #1 spot yet. I’ve probably spent the most time listening to the Mercury Rev, Vampire Weekend, and Waterboys albums so far this year. The newest albums on my radar are the Steve Mason and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes albums. Honestly, though, I feel like everything here carries fairly equal weight for me right now. Hence my inability to rank them as yet.
Tim Brown
London, England
07. Dido - Still On My Mind
About My #1: A new Bruce album is always cause for celebration and this one definitely doesn’t disappoint. To be honest nothing much he does ever feels like a let down to me and this most certainly doesn’t. From the gorgeous artwork through to the last melancholic chord, it’s a work of pure beauty. I’ve listened to pretty much nothing else since I got it, enjoying soaking in those gravelly tones, beautiful lyrics and wistful melodies. I’ve never been to the States but this album certainly transported me there in my mind. Just gorgeous.
Mike Keddy
Western Massachusetts
About My #1: Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, by the wonderfully talented group The Comet Is Coming, has been battling it out amongst some of my all time favorites to grab the number one position on my best of 2019 so far list. Led by saxophone player Shabaka Hutchings, The Comet Is Coming have a sound all their own. Their style could be described as cosmic space jazz with funk and electronic elements in the mix as well. Released on the great Impulse! label, Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery is an incredibly inventive album that will surely stand amongst some of Impulse’s best. Even if you aren’t into jazz you should do yourself a favor and check this one out...you just might get sucked in.
If you're a vinyl enthusiast, check out our feature on the Spin Clean Vinyl Record Cleaning Machine (click image below)
