Top Albums 2019 Part IV 20 – 11

20. Andy Stott – It Should Be Us

Eight years after blessing us with his second LP We Stay Together which established his signature sluggish broken dub music and served as the inspiration for other artists to rethink and slow it down, Andy Stott gives a tasty reminder that he is still helming the boards with muse and efficiency. We Stay Together saw a much-awaited release this year and by the start of November "It Should Be Us" seemed to relive and update the best negative bangers ever produced. With Boomkat mentioning the similarity to some of the sounds and tweaks of Stotts early work and Low´s Double Negative that broke the idea of what establishes a band and shoegaze last year, It Should Be Us returns the formula with a bigger focus on driving beats and, as described by Stott himself, tracks for the dancefloor. From the get-go, the sludge of Stott mingles with his shine and polish, the ghostly twinkle of "Promise" incentivizing to rethink dance music while the beat stutters and shatters under Stott's hands. Tracks like "Collapse" and "Ballroom" recalls more aggressive moments retreading a grime and bass music feel of Too Many Voices, but the rest of the tracks follow suit with their haunting build and grey-scaled progression. No other producer in this decade was able to capture the feeling of Silent Hill soundtracks and forlorn raves to broken speaker sounds and wrong pacing then Andy Stott and while Clams Casino and Metro Boomin made the ghostly and sparkling destitute shine chart-ready, Stott has remained the architect in the dark, showing a mastery in It Should Be Us that could only happen with the measure of time between this and his first EPs of in style. Even if he redoes his sound in 2029 again, it will sound as fresh and innovative as it did at the beginning of the decade.

19. One True Pairing – One True Pairing

Going with the positive effects of Brexit has had on music, One True Pairing is the sinister synth-pop confessional of Wild Beast frontman Thomas Fleming. For all fans of Depeche Mode or those that never got into their more colorful side, One True Pairing is hitting us with a rough and yet funky sound of guitar and synths. His howling voice, reminiscent of the most powerful and memorable performances of the 80s might still be the real star of the whole project. There is a lustful sense of masculinity and vulnerability that sparks from his baritone and sinks in every aural synth pad Fleming uses. Pair this with the confidence of his guitar playing and the hits just keep coming. Going with the desperate side and how politics move this album, the creative streak here is to pack narrative and a feeling of disgust into funky and trashy songs, One True Pairing shouts, lets his synths and guitars bathe you in noise that fulfills the promise of community and communal suffering and mourning that was not only broken but denied for the dreamers that chose to stay optimistic while everything went downhill behind their backs.

18. Petrol Girls – Cut & Stitch

The correlation of political unrest and great music exists and might be one of the only positive things of the constant feeling of political power corroding under the influence of capitalism and hatred. If you told me there is a band in the perfect middle between Kate Tempest and Ragana, I´d never thought it possible until encountering Petrol Girls and Cut & Stitch. Under the guise of political punk music, taken by hardcore influences, an edge for extreme music and unlimited agitation slumbers a band that is genuinely concerned with the sentiment of others and the political situation of their surroundings. Music, or as the intro "The Sound" is Petrol Girls profession and means of having an impact. This beginning feels like a small exercise in the philosophy of sound from a political perspective, halting at the statements of the unlimited potential and unyielding power of sound to bring about change and make heard and visible what cannot be perceived otherwise. "Sound does not arrive, the sound does not rest, cannot be owned, can´t be imprisoned, can´t be buried and it never ends". These statements might be expected from electronics artists trying to find new modes of production and not necessarily a punk band and here Petrol Girls become their own beast, thoughtful and ready to bash it out without any tension between these two movements. You have "Tangle of Lives" as an ode to the dying earth, protest song interlude "Q&A" almost calling to be understood as the sad end of any revolution trying to change the status quo. "Big Mouth" excels at becoming a plea for intersectionality whilst harboring a trashier about breaking with stereotypical gender roles and charging feminism as a protest against these images, the movement and the need to speak up is inherent to all movements against injustice. The frenzy "Monstrous" switches between the personal and political in merging expectation, personal hurt and the outward image – very much in the hardship of maintaining a public voice for change whilst also being confronted with the same injuries as those you´re trying to engage. Centerpiece "Notion of Nation" is one of the best, post-Brexit songs to reject nationalist tendencies with guitarist Joe York joining Ren Aldrige for a gripping duet of sorts, Yorks voice working in more traditional emo-style of singing to Aldrige hardcore performance. After the emotional elegy for Aldrige´s dogs, "Burn" follows with the theme of nationalism and hatred from the unique perspective of paranoia someone might go through when believing the immigrant "crises" to be true and fearing for their life. "Talk in Tongues" grapples with masculinity, man-splaining the world and trying to become actually useful in understanding feminist and non-male perspectives in rushes of anger and frustration. Apart from these highly political spheres, "Rootless" and "Skye" show personal songwriting by Aldrige that lacks no depth either, in her Petrol Girls become a conscious effort of healing, wounding and transforming internal and external spheres. Like the closer "Naive" professes, it´s better to feel everything in naivete, be broken and be "imperfect, entangled, looming" like the album title itself suggests.

17. Tim Hecker – Anoyo

Seeing Tim Hecker live for the first time made his approach to sound and experience click even more. Imagine the main artist pretty much blocking the sightline to his presence through a huge speaker, bathing the whole venue in light and fog and letting his fellow musicians playing the traditional Japanese instruments become bearly visible on the center of the stage. On Anoyo Hecker exercises greater restraint, let´s the work of last year´s Konoyo move closer to his known mode of visceral ambient and non-finito soundscapes. As Konoyo tried to trash and alienate through the usage of classical Japanese instruments of a gagaku ensemble counteracted with Hecker delivering noise and other uncanny frequencies, Anoyo eases the difficulty with stressing the frailty of these strings, drums, and flutes. For an artist that remains fascinated by volume and megaphonics, Hecker is incredibly able to bathe the listener in a barrage of sounds without ever evoking weight or saturation and here the fog of his magnum opus Ravedeath 1972 truly becomes the smoke of gentle incense, fragrance to envelop and reveal an unseen reality within the same space and time you´ve occupied many times before.

16. American Football – LP3

From the sun cutting through the thicket of the atmosphere on "Silhouettes", a strange downbeat track trying to understand infidelity in a relationship, carried by the lament of "oh the muscle memory, it must take you to stay close to me", LP3 proves to be an album full of growth. I´ve missed out on American Football for 20 years and this might be the best entry point to a band that made waves in the emo-world by opening up the anxiety of their instrumentation for the range of post-rock sounds. These elements still hide in the clarity of American Football approaching their instruments, the drums carrying the songs unabashedly, leaving little room for great guitars or riffs at all. The band invited three female vocalists to strengthen Mike Kinsella's sadness with empathy, the questions and doubts being mirrored, echoed and as the band itself states, conversational in nature, no longer for a singular mind to figure out, but to be discussed, elaborated and reflected upon. Standout in this mode is "Uncomfortably Numb", Kinsella and Hayley Williams of Paramore agreeing on the hardship of growth and adulthood in reminiscing about the science of blaming your own parents for their failures until becoming trapped in the same conundrum. These feelings are instantly relatable, the honesty of failure shines through as well as the constant need to reflect with another. The bands and Kinsellas focus on the topic of communication become central to the themes of the songs and the different interplay the band has reached compared to their previous LP´s. The one thing being an adult and father entails is being able to take the blame without deflecting it onto other people or your surroundings, and most of the time, this means figuring out yourself in constant conversation with another person.

15. Ariana Grande – thank you, next

Ariana Grande might be the mainstream artist that has constantly progressed her skill as a singer with every release and tightened up her album from the number of tracks and their overall composition within a record in RnB. At some point, she could have become the standard songstress with a few club-anthems and tinkering in the electronic styles that work well right now, but it seems that with her love of RnB and external experiences of heartbreak and horror, the need to become the best contender for Maria Carey-esque RnB was met with artistry and a good amount of flow. thank you, next is enjoyable from beginning to end, the nocturnal tracks really brim with sex appeal without being stupidly sassy and the heartbreak and realness of Grande shine through even if lingering doubts of her doubling as a black artist might nag the overall experience of her music. It can be the bubbly "make up", the forlorn, classic sampling "fake smile" or the tracks dealing with the loss of Mac Miller, Grande meets the excellent beats with an emotional performance. Others like Beyonce, Solange or even Carly Rea Jepsen might always be praised for their alleged progression of pop and RnB while thank you, next remains indebted to the RnB and blue notes of the 90s, but from a throwback weary standpoint that sees the imminent rise of repetition with concern, I´ll take Grande´s take every day.

14. RAIME – Planted

If there are religious moments to be found in music and sonics that make me believe, it must be the way Raime use their drums and bass to evoke a dismal elan vital into the hollowness of life. Planted is their second LP on their own "RR" imprint and moves back from the internet age back towards the global space of the dancefloor. The haunt remains, the vocal samples and hectic ambiance stutter and jitter through four tracks, but apart from painting with the smallest brush possible when it comes to their flourishes and ornaments, Raime focus away from soundscapes to straighter drums and footwork compatible textures. Taking into account the steady progression away from their minimalism of bone-breaking weight and sluggish pacing, Planted is their fastest and most accessible record yet. They still use every sound and sample possible, program a shriek into a pad on "Belly", go for dark gabber on the last half of "Kella" or conspire to turn off the beat for ambiance on the former track. Planted shows the duo brimming with ideas and hopefully serves as them field testing their blend of sound for their first post Blackest Ever Black full length.

13. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Bandana

The best straight rap album comes from the dream team Gibbs and Madlib. Topping his lyrical prowess from Pinata and finding a greater pocket within the beats by Madlib, Gibbs let´s loose on unusual trap bangers and soul samples that make old school aficionados sway. "Half Mane, Half Cocaine" spins the tale of wealth and hustling in Gibbs known fashion of hart hitting consciousness, an unapologetic ode to selling drugs and making money by any means necessary. The beat switch right at the middle transitions swagger into a scalpel of anger, Gibbs not wavering for a moment when Madlib throws out the trap for an experimental boom-bap drone. "Flat Tummy Tea" or "Cataracs" shows how easily Gibbs can go off on any beat, becoming the gangster to Madlib surreal jazz-man persona. All songs yield at least on quotable, may it be "slave movies, every year, yeah, master´s gon´ remind us" (Flat Tummy Tea) or "Motherfuck Jeff Sessions, I´m selling dope with a weapon" (Situations), zooming in on Gibbs outlook on life, being a gangster and black man in today's world. Madlib might seem to tone down being completely out there in production that seems too much inherent to trap music or usual rap songs, but if there is one man to bring you bangers beats that just break and turn into a freaky funk track, it should be him. In a way, Bandana feels like the ongoing and hopefully continuing relationship of an old virtuoso throwing beats at a young mind to interview it and test his skills knowing he is fully capable of pushing that weight.

12. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – Suffer On

The music of Adam McIlwee is what happens if internet emo kids consume hip hop music and turn towards bedroom acoustic to cleanse their heartbreak. Suffer On sounds like a young producer taking his turn on open mic night and the crowd falling silent in awe. The immediacy of McIlwee´s acoustic music is matched by his sparse drum beats and instant beats that could recall the simplicity of rap music if it weren´t for the eternal sadness and gothic beaten attitude of Wicca Spring. Opening the album with "Together" in a boyish nocturnal take on acoustic stadium rock, the pure bedroom producer learns to use drum machines. "Rest" however unhinges the beatmaker, taking the emo and pressing it together with traps fantastic nature of sub-bass and hi-hat cluttering – and it just works. Wicca Spring Phase Eternal never feels like emo-rap or bad excuses for not having a full band present either. The heartbreak enables a non-melodic singing voice and a non-present sense of flow to outgrow its limitations, McIlwee feeling like experiencing and singing within the same breath and using his arsenal of acoustic guitar and spacey beats to his best knowledge to stress and refine these sentiments. The greatest appeal might lie in touching the hearts of everyone who ever picked up a guitar, strummed out their heart's content or messed with Fruity Loops for a week, thinking beat making is not only possible but an actual career in the making. Suffer On marries this with the goth inside, it makes apparent that music doesn´t need tons of production or premeditation to sound good and feel great.

11. Greet Death – New Hell

Listening to most of the songs on New Hell, forgetting the lyrics, the band's name and the label they released it on, you might think this is the newest band from Saddle Creek or 4AD for the sheer magnificence of both singing voice by Logan Gaval and Sam Boyhtari. That is until the distortion kicks in, the lyrics reveal themselves to be strange tales of contemplating suicide, being ok with solitude and then again longing for your loved one after wishing you were dead again and life being a bad dream. With Greet Death, Fleet Foxes and Nothing, folk-tinged serenity meets with dread and benevolent destruction. New Hell reminds of sun-soaked summer days of youth, ending in the same night that befalls every day, but the dread of a future and end of summer combining with not feeling up to the task of living and going further with an existence that was fine just a minute ago. This pretty much captures the songs that are able to start with lines like "Every single day I fantasize / Different ways my body could die" and yet sound sublime and welcoming in their candor. Going with the established idea of "hell is other people", New Hell is the sonic equivalence of hell being the never-ending part of your life, that hates all it loves, searches for ways to end becoming a human being with love and longing and retreating to solitude and the destitute, but free state of being on your own. Every time you fall in love, feel like your alive and well, the sun will set and the fear of being born will weigh down the sense of purpose and direction other people build their whole life around. New Hell might be the best expression of being young and forlorn because it swaps out hope for dire realism, metal shouts and anger for giving in to this state of defeat and lets you sit in your own uselessness rather than try to give any answers or solace. Hell.