By Jacob Anderson-Kester
2019 marks the end of the decade. Music has been through a lot in the 2010s: a marked decline in the popularity of rock music, the rise of trap music and a proliferation of its sonic qualities, and the absolute dominance of music streaming platforms.
Music continues to diversify in its influences as access to music increases. Fittingly, 2019 has ended up being a year of many different sounds as well as meaningful experimentation amongst newbies to the industry and veterans alike. Along with the growth and change come some great works of art, and endless songs and albums to sift through.
Of the piles and piles of releases, here are my top five favorite albums of the year.
5.) 100 gecs – 1000 gecs
The progenitors of a new cultural concentrate have arrived. 100 gecs deliver 1000 gecs, an album that manages to touch upon most of the popular genres of the past two decades in its 23 minute runtime, cultivating an off-kilter approach in its combinations of familiar hallmarks.
1000 gecs rides a trendy wave of sound, drawing clear inspiration from the likes of PC Music and the gaggle of SoundCloud-based auto-crooners. Even still, the album stands miles above the rest of the pack in creative ingenuity, consistency of quality, and versatility. It revels in being overbearing, a sound that will turn off many—but allows it to be one of the most entertaining listens I’ve had all year.
4.) Kayhan Kalhor – It’s Still Autumn
Kayhan Kalhor is a renowned player of the Persian kamancheh and, as is on full display on this album, a decisively adept composer. Kalhor has a history of doing collaborative work with many artists, and on this album he synthesizes with Dutch jazz pianist Rembrandt Frerichs and his ensemble to create a very calm instrumental album.
It’s Still Autumn establishes a delicate atmosphere of which elaborate musical decorations are carefully placed. Amongst its soft intricacy is the clear presentation of the beauty of fall as a ‘slowing down’ of the seasons, gear shifting downwards into the winter. Communication that is this clear through instrumentation is rare, especially if the communication still remains complex and nuanced in the process. In that sense, It’s Still Autumn is a true gem of this style of music.
3.) Tyler, the Creator – Igor
We once lived in an era where pop rap albums regularly amounted to not much more than a slapdash assemblage of radio singles and their cousins, failed radio singles. We also once lived in an era where Tyler, the Creator’s musical output amounted to not much more than sophomoric edginess and half-baked facsimiles of rebellion.
The back half of the 2010s have been favorable to both Tyler and pop rap in general. Igor is both Tyler’s most thematically ambitious and coherent album to date. Through and through the album toes the line between the nature of repetition expected in pop music and the element of surprise, making for a listen that scratches the pop itch while refusing to lose interest upon closer inspection. One can attribute this to Tyler’s clear improvement in songwriting ability as well as a stronger, more interesting and unique artistic identity.
Igor establishes itself as a standout execution of pop rap through its clockwork integration of rapping, instrumentals (now given the forefront rather than being an afterthought), and singing. The amateurish edge Tyler presents has changed in nature; more Notes from Underground, less Aragon.
2.) Massimo Volume – Il nuotatore
What an emphatic statement to tack onto the end of the pantheon of post-rock. What’s missing is the hollow forced emotionality from liberal application of dynamics. What’s added is genuine, energetic, and—dare I say, good—vocals. Whatever is lost in translation from this Italian band is paid back in full with the vocalist’s sheer ability to communicate through tonality and connect so clearly with the messaging of the instrumentation.
Several hallmarks of impactful song making—varied structures, unique progressions, and beautiful instrumental lines—are present throughout. A post-rock album that refuses to get boring is incredibly rare. A post-rock album that refuses to get anything less than incredibly engaging is a once-a-decade kind of record. This is that kind of record.
1.) black midi – Schlagenheim
The field of experimental-noise-rock-Sonic-Youth-alikes is dense and generally homogenous. Often I hesitate with these kinds of records these days, because I feel like I’ve heard it all. While Schlagenheim isn’t inventive in any particular way, it approaches the refinement and mastery deemable of a great work.
Broadly speaking, Schlagenheim attempts to function as a soundtrack to the entropy of a car crash or a great city fire. There is more to the record than mere embracement of entropy, however. The guitars screech over manic drums, but not without reason. Paradoxically, the primary sense you get structurally from the album is one of meticulous control. It’s like watching a Rube Goldberg machine rigged up to start an earthquake.
The nerdy math rock tendencies exhibited here achieve something that few of the genre’s artists do: something. The angular needling-about of the mind-bending melodies aren’t just for show; they very clearly simultaneously contribute to and provide refuge from The Great Disaster the album is trying to portray.
The lyrics approach being thoroughly incomprehensible. In this case, though, it meaningfully contributes to a sense of disorder that approaches being graspable but intentionally narrowly dodges it. The most shining, clearest meaning that I derived from this album is that it is the album of the year.
