With so much music coming our way, it’s always hard to choose the albums of the year and 2019 proved to be a particular challenge. Whilst there is no objective criteria with which to approach the subject, we tend to focus on those records that, for whatever reason, made us want to return time and again over the course of the year – that indefinable something that separates a good record from a great one and, in 2019, there were a considerable number of great records. The list that follows is in no particular order, these are simply the records that made our year and we hope that you’ll find something among the following that, perhaps, you missed and may want to check out.
Kim Gordon – No Home Record
The first official solo album from the former Sonic Youth bassist sees her playing entirely to her strengths. There’s a depth of innovation and a sonic diversity to the music that sees it exceed even the substantial expectations raised by her reputation, and the result is an album that defies easy categorisation (hip hop? Punk rock? Trip hop?), and yet gels into a contiguous whole that is consistently fresh and exciting. Kim’s voice remains uniquely beguiling, whispering in the listener’s ear one minute, throwing up sparks the next, and the overall work revives the wide-eyed enthusiasm of the woefully underrated Ciccone Youth album. Utterly essential.
Thurston Moore – Spirit Counsel
Whilst the loss of Sonic Youth weighs heavy, the presence of two Sonic Youth alumni on this list proves that there can be a silver lining to any cloud. Where other members of the band have embraced a more restrained approach to recording, Thurston continues to explore the sonic ether with a fervour that places him alongside the composers from whom he took influence. A monolithic work that would be declared self-indulgent in almost any other hands, Spirit Counsel offers up three separate compositions on three separate CDs. The first piece, entitled Alice Moki Jayne, pays tribute to Alice Coltrane, Moki Cherry and Jayne Cortez and expands to just over an hour in length. Played in full on recent live shows, it is a remarkable work that expands from a heat haze of cymbal-washed ambience, through a simple, child-like melody before finally exploding into glorious, kaleidoscopic noise.
In contrast, 8 Spring Street (for Glenn Branca) is a much leaner piece – less than half an hour in length – but if it appears more sedate (it’s a solo work), Thurston’s remarkable grasp of dynamics and the judicious application of a distortion pedal that seems to be nuclear powered, sends everything skywards just when the listener has settled into the hypnotic beauty of it all.
It leaves the final CD (containing the title track) to bring everything to a heady conclusion as Thurston gathered together twelve twelve-string players (try saying that three times…) at London’s Barbican Theatre to play on a track that took its influence from a Sun Ra poem.
Perhaps, after all that, the most surprising thing about Spirit Counsel is just how unthreatening it is despite its dizzying run time. Listen to the CDs separately, or all at once and there’s enough tonal variation to keep things interesting and enough grounded melody to avoid it all devolving into the discordant noise that made Sonic Death so sonically harrowing. A work of remarkable beauty and maturity, Spirit Counsel is Thurston Moore in excelsis, and it is never less than inspiring.
Swans – Leaving Meaning
No one knew where it would lead when Michael Gira recruited a new Swans line up and released the still-astonishing My Father Will Guide me Up A Rope To The Sky in 2010. A further three albums, culminating in 2016’s The Glowing Man, saw the band explore the outer reaches of the hypnotic art-rock the band perfected on Soundtracks For The Blind, Gira’s deft use of repetition and augmentation honed and refined to a point where there was nothing more to be said with a homogenous line up. As such, Swans now features Gira and a revolving cast of musicians, chosen for the specific qualities they can bring to a given song. Leaving Meaning is the first album to be recorded in this fashion and features a cast of some twenty-seven artists, all of whom suborn their talent to Gira’s will. The result is a remarkably coherent album that predominantly eschews the more explosive elements of the band’s sound in favour of a calmer, darker approach that manages to unsettle even when the music is superficially beautiful.
Like all Swans releases, there is such depth to the compositions; from the Spiritualized-esque, slow motion horror of The Nub (featuring The Necks) to the hypnotic chant of Sunfucker; that it is quite impossible to elicit meaning in the short term, the album requiring multiple listens and emotional investment in order to find its heart. However, such effort is repaid in spades and there is an argument that Leaving Meaning is one of the finest records in the Swans’ extensive back catalogue.
Strigoi – Abandon All Faith
Such was the power of Vallenfyre that it came as no real surprise when Greg Mackintosh announced Strigoi, a follow-up shorn of the deeply personal motivations that gave rise to its forebear, but maintaining the deep-rooted love of crust and grind. Drawing on these influences, along with a healthy dose of doom, to bolster old-school death metal tropes, Greg (along with partner-in-crime, Chris Casket) delivers in spades with Abandon All Faith, a darkly oppressive album that sits comfortably alongside his best work in Paradise Lost. An astounding debut, Abandon All Faith is a must for fans of doom’s darkest excursions.
Tool – Fear Inoculum
Perhaps it should be to the surprise of no-one that Tool’s core sound had not shifted to any great degree, despite the interminable wait that fans had to endure for a follow up to the acclaimed 10,000 days, with Fear Inoculum sitting somewhere in between Lateralus and the aforementioned album in terms of sonics and structure. Arguably better than its immediate predecessor – certainly it feels more dynamic than the sprawling, dense 10,000 days – it’s highly likely that fans will still be unpacking the secrets of the record years down the line. Although there is a slight suspicion that fandom has dulled the critical faculties with regard to an album that, with so long a period of gestation, could perhaps have aspired to more than simply being another Tool album, the band’s sound is so uniquely their own that it is hard not to welcome any new material from the recalcitrant rockers.
Boasting typically innovative packaging (albeit with an eye-watering price tag), Fear Inoculum is a worthy addition to the catalogue of a remarkable band and, following on from a string of hugely successful festival dates, Tool’s legacy remains intact.
Mayhem – Daemon
If Mayhem’s output over the years has been somewhat patchy, it’s hardly surprising given that the majority of their back catalogue has suffered from the nostalgia of fans who can’t get past the blackened majesty of that notorious debut album.
Nevertheless, there’s no getting past the fact that Daemon is a quite astonishing album even with the weight of expectation threatening to drag it down. The symphonic sweep of the music, combined with the ominous vocals of Attila Csihar, makes for a sublimely confident and powerful album that stands as one of Mayhem’s finest works. From the dark groove of Agenda Ignis to the epic Aeon Daemonium, this is Mayhem at their intense best, combining impressive musicianship with a demonic sense of purpose that is irresistible.
Necronautical – Apotheosis
A mature and expansive work, Apotheosis makes good on the promise of its oblique artwork and proves to be a darkly atmospheric outing from the UK-based Necronautical. Boasting intelligent lyrics inspired by Nietzsche, Chuck Palanuik and Neil Gaiman, not to mention a crisp, clear production (step forward Chris Fielding), Apotheosis is an outstanding achievement that reaches its outstanding peak in the form of The Endless Spiral.
Make no mistake, this is ambitious, awe-inspiring black metal at its best and, if circumstances allow, we’d recommend the vinyl edition (Candlight Records), which encourages the listener to listen to the album as one complete, mind-altering piece.
Jaz Coleman – Magna Invocatio
A gnostic mass, based on the sublime melodies of Killing Joke and tracked with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Magna Invocatio is an unspeakably beautiful piece of work that evokes an array of emotions over the course of its lengthy run time. The album launches with a choral fanfare aimed at projecting “the themes of the great invocation to the four corners of the earth” and then passes through a further twelve “digestible epics”, including the poignant The Raven King, which pays tribute to Paul Vincent Raven, who passed away in 2007.
With five of the tracks featuring a full choir and the complete work one of the finest pieces of music to which Jaz has ever put his name (he believes it to be the finest), Magna Invocatio is a truly immersive and engrossing piece of work that sees Jaz repay a spiritual debt to Killing Joke (the proceeds from the band’s success paid for his classical education), whilst crafting a mystical symphony that somehow finds hope in the horror of the current state of international turmoil. It is a truly beautiful and uplifting piece of work, which will keep the spirit of its willful creator alive for years to come.
Joe Bonamassa – Live At Sydney Opera House
Does the world need another Joe Bonamssa live album? Particularly one that’s edited down from the complete show to a single disc in length? Well, when said album features a setlist that largely celebrates the outstanding Blues Of Desperation album, played by a crack band in a remarkable setting, then the answer has to be a resounding YES!
Joe Bonamassa is unarguably one of the world’s finest blues musicians and his ability to really inhabit his songs on stage makes for an explosive live show, particularly given that Blues of Desperation is one of his weightiest albums. Just taking into the opening one-two punch of This Train and Mountain Climbing, this is one hell of a record and, by the time we drift into a sublime drive, Joe has us eating out of the palms of his hands. A flawless live offering that avoids unnecessary repetition of previous offerings, this is a fantastic souvenir of Joe hitting yet another milestone in a remarkable career.
Opeth – In Cauda Venenum
Now firmly rooted in the realms of progressive rock, Opeth have entirely moved beyond their death metal roots. It took some time, with Pale Communion in particular feeling a touch too in thrall to the band’s influences to really stand out, but with Sorceress, and now In Cauda Venenum, Opeth have found their own space in the convoluted world of progressive rock and In Cauda Venenum is arguably the finest prog album the band have yet produced.
Hugely ambitious in scope, unafraid to embrace heavier tones when needed and filled with mischievous jazz-infused side-steps, it is a masterpiece, especially when heard in the Swedish language version which has its own, otherworldly sense of poetry.
Mike Patton & Jean-Claude Vannier – Corpse Flower
Mike Patton is a truly unique artist whose mercurial abilities have allowed him to effortlessly gel with a range of disparate musicians over the years, always seeking the indefinable muse that will inspire him to give his all to a given project. As a result, you never quite know what to expect from a project bearing his name but Patton, along with Jean-Claude Vannier, has conjured up a stroll along the banks of the Seine and into the seedy underbelly of Paris where clubs play the music of Faith No More, Nick Cave and Barry Adamson.
Evocative and engaging, its ability to draw the listener away from the every day and into a world of its own creation is remarkable.
Art Alexakis – Sun Songs
It really was a great year for alternative rock, with offerings from various members of sonic youth, an excellent outing from Sebadoh and this lovely, sun-kissed offering from Everclear main-man Art Alexakis.
Tracks like California Blood (think Beta Band covering the Beach boys), a house with a pool (with its clever, dry lyric) and Orange (Everclear-meets-Beck) all point to an artist comfortable in his own skin and alive with the force of his myriad influences. A short, sweet record, ruthlessly edited so that not a moment is wasted, Sun Songs is a record to which you’ll want to return over and again – not least because it will summon the sun on even the darkest of days. Truly uplifting.
Arx Atrata – The Path Untravelled
The creation of multi-talented musician Ben Sizer, Arx Atrata’ The Path Untravelled is a stunning, atmospheric black metal project that does full justice to its gorgeous cover art and proves to be a holistic piece of work that is best heard as a contiguous album.
The record sees Ben augment dense, hypnotic layers of shimmering guitar with moments of feral, black metal brutality and the result seems to draw the listener out of the every day and pitch them on a journey which only ends when the record spins to a halt. A true work of art, The Path Untravelled defies all easy categorisation and stands as a unique testament to its creator’s fervent imagination.
Cult Of Luna – A Dawn To Fear
Following the epic majesty of Julie Christmas collaboration Mariner was no easy task, and Cult of Luna clearly appreciated the scale of the challenge, as it took three years for the band to return to the studio and lay down the astounding A Dawn To Fear.
Deftly combining weighty riffs and harrowing screams with passages of great beauty, A Dawn To Fear is arguably the band’s most complete album to date, taking the listener on a journey over the course of eighty minutes, and drawing upon their own extensive back catalogue to deliver a record that epitomises Cult of Luna’s unique sound. Packaged with typically oblique artwork and boasting a wonderfully warm sound, A Dawn To Fear is an ambitious masterpiece.
Crobot – Motherbrain
For those who want to rock, Crobot salute you with this frequently fantastic offering. From the bristling single of Low Life (an album high point), through to hitherto unexplored Soundgarden influences, Motherbrain is arguably Crobot’s finest album to date. Throw in the mind-blowingly beautiful artwork and a powerfully organic production job and you’ve got a winner on your hands.
One of those albums that just seems to effortlessly have you bouncing around the room in a sweaty rapture, Motherbrain is the work of a band who have a medical need to rock and it’s a huge amount of fun. If, by some unhappy accident, the album passed you buy, kick yourself (hard) and rectify the situation. You can thank us later.
Sebadoh – Act Surprised
On the recent tour in support of the album, Sebadoh bristled with punk rock energy, delivering rampant assaults on the likes of Beauty of the ride, clearly invigorated by the fantastic set of songs that makes up Act Surprised.
An album that comfortably sits alongside the myriad classics in the band’s impressive back catalogue, Act Surprised more or less fires itself at the listener with Phantom and only gets better from there. Whether quietly referencing Folk Implosion with Celebrate The Void or nodding towards the frazzled alt rock of Sonic Youth with Stunned, Act Surprised stands as a fantastic reassertion of Sebadoh’s ability to meld melody and punk rock fury to potent effect.
Robert Randolph & The Family Band – Brighter Days
This album really is a treasure. Brighter Days sees Robert team up with renowned producer Dave Cobb to deliver a ten-track album that just seems to brighten the listener’s day. Proof of the wonderful, unifying power of music, brighter Days teams with funk, soul and blues, all tied together by Robert’s gorgeous, liquid slide work.
From the Floyd-esque Have Mercy to the rambunctious strange train, Robert Randolph and The Family Band just seem to be having a joyous time in the studio and it’s that feeling of warmth that transmits itself so effectively to the listener.
Vomit Fist – Omnicide
A surprise, last-minute addition to the list, New York’s Vomit Fist delivered a remarkable take on grind with Omnicide, consistently nudging the listener’s expectations and delivering a supremely powerful set of songs that never quite seem to follow the path upon which they initially start.
With the material clustered around the album’s lengthy highlight, Single Minded Annihilation, there’s a heart-stopping intensity to Omnicide that places it head and shoulders above the vast majority of the year’s extreme metal releases. The fact that we had it jammed on the stereo for three solid days says much of the song’s power and presence and every listen seems to reveal something new. A devastating, yet engrossing album, Omnicide also benefits from a sweet cover that really brings the package together.
Soilwork – Verkligheten
Soilwork always impress and it is a testament to their skills that the majority of their albums have proven to be growers which, whilst instantly attention-grabbing, don’t necessarily reveal their charms all at once. This is certainly the case with the ambitious Verkligheten, a typically catchy beast of a record that has the hooks to really ensnare the listener after a couple of listens.
When reviewing the album back at the start of the year, it fell at a point where I clearly didn’t give it the attention it deserved because, although I enjoyed it, I’ve found it’s only grown in my estimation in the intervening months, once again placing Soilwork at the head of the pack when it comes to melodic death metal. Not the band’s finest album, perhaps, but a damn catchy body of work nonetheless that more than earns its place on this list.
Darkthrone – Old Star
Darkthrone have reached a point in their career where they could phone in a record and still find it well-received. Of course, the diabolical duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have absolutely no interest in such an apathetic approach and Old Star bristles with old school attitude. At least as much punk as black metal these days, there’s an urgency to the album that sets the adrenalin coursing through the veins.
Tracks like I Muffle Your Inner Choir conjures up the old school of the late 70s, whilst the doom-laden Ape Man proves exceptionally potent. Old Star is the work of true fans celebrating the music they love, nothing more, nothing less, and such honesty remains Darkthrone’s most enduring trait. Pretty much essential.
The Wildhearts – Renaissance Men / Diagnosis EP
The only thing more joyous than the Wildhearts getting back together is the fact that they got back together with Danny who, after years of living the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle to considerable excess, is now a lean, mean, bass-destroying machine. The resultant album is nothing less than the Wildhearts at their very best, churning out riff after motherfucking riff with gleeful abandon, not to mention a series of killer choruses that served to make the ensuing live shows a giant, sugar-coated treat.
The album alone would be enough to make even the most cynical of hearts sing, but the fact that the WIldhearts then dropped an EP that was, somehow, even better than its parent album (not to mention the mind-blowingly brilliant inner-sleeve art) made 2019 a very special year for Wildhearts’ fans. There’s little point in trying to pick out best tracks, because every. Single. One. Is an absolute belter, from the opening might of Dislocated (cruising on a riff that’s weightier than a concrete enema), through the endlessly singable Diagnosis to the closing destruction of Pilo Erection, it’s all unassailably brilliant.
Wildhearts, I salute you – the world is an infinitely better place for your presence.
Martn Bisi – BC35 Vol. 2
BC35 Vol.1 was one of the albums of last year, combining a huge array of different artists into coherent and compelling album that explored all the facets of the US underground, from the gently lilting Take This Ride (Adja The Turkish Queen) to the searing His Word Against Mine (Jado). Vol.2, happily, continues in the same vein, with producer Martin Bisi stitching together a selection of performances from a weekend of improvised collaborations to deliver another compelling piece of art.
Released on Silver vinyl (a companion to the original’s gold) and featuring performances from members of Swans, Cop shoot cop, Alice Donut, highlights include the improbably titled (and true story) Save Sludgie the whale of Gowanus and another smoky entry from Adja in the form of Bobby’s Car. One of those records that seems to throw up different highlights every time you listen, BC35 Vol. 2 is every bit the equal of its illustrious predecessor.
Slipknot – We are not your kind
Slipknot are a band who have learnt to innovate by stealth, maintaining enough of their core sound to satisfy their rabidly enthusiastic audience, whilst sneaking through impressive digressions that many of their fans would accept from no other band. Starting with the monstrous, twenty-minute sludge workout of Iowa’s title track, through the acoustic beauty of Vermillion and Snuff and winding up with the kooky ambience of left-field single Killpop, Slipknot have explored the distant sonic recesses of their art, never compromising and it is for that reason that their catalogue has endured long after their detractors thought it would burn out in a blaze of hatred and the redundant rehashing of their debut.
Nevertheless, We Are Not Your Kind stands out as a particularly strong entry in the band’s canon. Whilst the monstrous anthems that we have come to expect from Slipknot are fully present and correct, the band take the listener on numerous digressions across the course of the album, the sonic twists and turns executed with the deft skill of a group of musicians at ease with their art and with each other. Still pushing boundaries some twenty years after that infamous debut, Slipknot have proved themselves once again to be ahead of the pack.
Korn – The Nothing
It seems entirely fitting that the band that launched nu metal some twenty-five years ago with their self-titled debut, should release one of their finest albums upon such an auspicious anniversary. Like any true originator, Korn have maintained the sound that they created all those years ago and, whilst they have taken pleasure in augmenting their sound (welding industrial strength dub step to the underrated The Path Of Totality, for example), they have never abandoned it. Indeed, there is an argument that Korn have remained remarkably consistent over the years, with a number of albums rising above the herd as high points, but no corresponding low points as such.
At any event, The Nothing, rooted in the terrible personal turmoil of frontman Jonathan Davis, is an astonishing album. The whole band came together as brothers to help Jonathan channel his awful sense of loss and the resulting album is an intelligent, powerfully cathartic piece of work that stands out as an impressive pinnacle of their career to date.
Hypno5e – A (dark) distant source
The idea of writing the soundtrack to an imaginary film is not a new one, but it is a concept that Hypno5e have refined to quite a remarkable degree and, on A (Dark) Distant Source, their song-writing has reached a new peak.
It’s a dark, unsettling world that the band evoke, the album divided into movements that ebb and flow, often reaching a metallic crescendo at the core before drifting, once more, into a fragile ambiance that is as beguiling as it is transitory. From the opening twelve-minute epic that is On The Lake Part II to the closing strains of Tauca Part II (Nowhere), the album offers almost too much for the listener to take in in a single sitting, and such uncompromising artistry should surely be celebrated.
Live Album: The Cure Caraetion / Anniversary Live
The Cure are, without a doubt, one of the most influential UK bands of all time and yet, on stage, they appear as in thrall to their own music as ever, entirely unaware of their own legacy and stature. However, for their fortieth anniversary, the idea was formed that the band should play a special set that took one song from each album placed in reverse chronological (and then chronological) order, taking the listener on a journey from present to past and back again, over three glorious hours.
If this was all that the band were to have done, it would have been a special celebration indeed, but the band then played an extended celebration in Hyde Park, and all three sets are bundled together in this special release. Beautifully filmed and sonically pristine, this is exactly the celebration the Cure’s extensive back catalogue deserves, the format allowing for both greatest hits and deep cuts to get an airing.
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