The 50-ish Best Albums of 2019...So Far

There's been a lot of really awesome music so far this year. New voices, old stand-byes, establishment acts completely reinventing their sound; it's all here.

Note: I have not listened to everything, there are probably even more albums NOT on here that are really great too. Feel free to berate me as needed.

There's too many ridiculously good albums to put them all in order, so here's a random collection, followed by the top arbitrary countdown.

But first, the unsorted list of random cool musicians you should totally check out:

American Football
American Football (LP3)
Emo
Listen

Amyl and the Sniffers
Amyl and the Sniffers
Punk
Listen

James Blake
Assume Form
Contemporary R&B
Listen

Chai
Punk
J-Pop
Listen

The Chemical Brothers
No Geography
Electro
Listen

Stef Chura
Midnight
Indie Rock
Listen

The Comet Is Coming
Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
Jazz
Listen

DΔWN (Dawn Richard)
new breed
R&B
Listen

Desperate Journalist
In Search of the Miraculous
Shoegaze
Listen

Drenge
Strange Creatures
Grunge
Listen

Billie Eilish
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Dark-Pop
Listen

Ex Hex
It's Real
Rock
Listen

Fontaines DC
Dogrel
Post-Punk
Listen

Ariana Grande
thank u, next
Pop
Listen

HEALTH
Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear
EBM
Listen

Holly Herndon
PROTO
Experimental
Listen

The Japanese House
Good at Falling
Synth-Pop
Listen

Durand Jones & The Indications
American Love Call
Neo-Soul
Listen

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Fishing for Fishies
Psychedelic Rock
Listen

Ladytron
Ladytron
Synth-Pop
Listen

Jenny Lewis
On the Line
Pop/Rock
Listen

Lizzo
Cuz I Love You
Hip Hop/Pop
Listen

Kelsey Lu
Blood
Experimental
Listen

***NOTE: Lu's version of  10CC's "I'm Not In Love" is the Cover of the Year

Malibu Ken
Malibu Ken
Experimental Hip Hop
Listen

The National
I Am Easy to Find
Indie Rock
Listen

Karen O
Lux Prima
Trip Hop
Listen

Anderson .Paak
Ventrua
Hip Hop
Listen

Pip Blom
Boat
Indie Rock
Listen

Pond
Tasmania
Psychedelic Rock
Listen

Jessica Pratt
Quiet Signs
Folk
Listen

Priests
The Seduction of Kansas
Post-Punk
Listen

Show Me the Body
Dog Whistle
Hardcore
Listen

Solange
When I Get Home
R&B
Listen

Mavis Staples
We Get By
Soul
Listen

Sunn O)))
Life Metal
Drone
Listen

Teeth of the Sea
Wraith
Post Rock
Listen

Hayden Thorpe
Diviner
Chamber Pop
Listen

The Twilight Sad
It Won/t Be Like This All the Time
Post-Punk
Listen

Vampire Weekend
Father of the Bride
Indie Rock
Listen

Jamila Woods
Legacy! Legacy!
Funk/Soul
Listen

10. Cave In
Final Transmission
Post Rock
Listen

Is it a terrible curse, or a blessing, that tragedy brings about the greatest art? Like Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Skeleton Tree, Final Transmission is Cave In's response to the sudden death of their bassist and co-vocalist Caleb Scofield. While the eulogy is technically an unplanned one--most of the songs were recorded as demos while Caleb was still with them--the gut-punch of his tragic loss can be felt in every single note. Like Joy Division's Closer or Mother Love Bone's Apple, the album takes on more prescience when you realize that the man recording it wouldn't see its release. But for the remaining members of Cave In, if this is indeed their final transmission, the album is just that: a release.

9. Denzel Curry
ZUU
Trap
Listen

To say there was a lot of hype surrounding Curry's newest album is the understatement of the year. 2018's TA13OO was the best hip hop record of last year, not just the best trap record. And the singles leading into the release of ZUU, "Ricky" and "Speedboat", were so fantastic that when the album was finally released, the disappointment at its length was palpable. Running under 30 minutes and including two skits, ZUU is not what most people were expecting. But don't let the brevity fool you, Denzel Curry packs every  second to the brim. ZUU may not be nearly as dark as TA13OO, but the beats hit just as hard. "Ricky" showcases Curry at his productive best, warping samples and vocals alike to fit a twisted square peg into a distorted ellipsoid hole. Rick Ross' feature on "Birdz" is some of the best work he's offered up in years, and the sheer volume and anger on closer "P.A.T." provided by Curry and PlayThatBoyZay is enough to destroy even the most veteran of eardrums.

8. Xiu Xiu
Girl With Basket of Fruit
Abstract/Noise
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Normally I would try to shoehorn a King In Yellow or Call of Cthulhu reference in when something is this...disturbing. But not only have I played that out in previous reviews (usually for Swans), but it's also not nearly close enough to the horror broached within the sonic confines of Xiu Xiu's horrible grotesquerie. To quote Fantano, "what a horrible way to treat sound." Girl With Basket of Fruit is such an insanely twisted statement, with Xiu Xiu doing their best to immediately and permanently ward off the faint of heart. Teaser single "Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy" was the most demented song I had ever heard, with its dusty sound, jerky samples, and weird weird weird weird weird...until the album came out and I seriously considered Sheppard Pratt. "It Comes Out as a Joke" includes the most mind-shredding lyrics of all-time: "A pig wearing a maid's apron and cap / Riding a tomato on rubber wheels / It looks at its pocket watch and points a hoof / 'You! Go to the World of the Unborn!'" I...I have nothing for that. At one point, in "Amargi ve Moo," Jamie Stewart descends into literal babbling: "blblblblblblbllblblblblbllblblblblblbllb." There's no words or pictures I can use to describe the experience. Like the Matrix, you cannot be told what Girl With Basket of Fruit is. Listen and you'll be one of us...one of us...one of us...

7. Ibibio Sound Machine
Doko Mien
Highlife
Listen

The very first sound you hear when playing Doko Mien are those of only the brightest of neon time machines beginning its start functions. Not surprisingly, a neon time machine sounds like Giorgio Moroder's Midnight Express score: driving, reverb-soaked synth patterns and a four-on-the-floor electro drumbeat that could only be the backing of a Donna Summer disco classic. Ibibio Sound Machine have spent years crafting their exacting sound, and it's not one that can be mistaken for any other band right now. To the hypnotic swirl of electronics they add live jazz percussion, Motown guitars and horns, and the endlessly, effortlessly enamoring vocal presence of Eno Williams, who delivers her dance floor instructions in two languages so well that a translation becomes wholly unnecessary. With each new twist, you can hear ISM having...just the most fun. The title track, "Tell Me (Doko Mien)" is The. Banger. Of. The. Year. Coming straight off a Lipps, Inc. track, the perfect cowbell, the laser delivery of the beat, it is easily the most enjoyable song to pull from these influences since "Blind." I demand you listen to this right now, and dance the night away.

6. Little Simz
GREY Area
Conscious Hip Hop
Listen

Wunderkind: n. one who succeeds in a competitive or highly difficult field or profession at an early age.

If you didn't know, GREY Area is Little Simz' third album, not to mention her four mixtapes and seven EPs, most of which came out before she was 21. So...what are you doing with your life? All of them are beyond the comprehension of your average 21 year old: thematically deep, and sampling from a library that rivals the one at Alexandria. GREY Area doesn't look to slow that pace down, either. While it may be her first truly visible release, it's just one in a long line of compelling, heady, sonic stunners leading to the very spot where she stands now. Simz demands you sit up and pay attention as looping beats perfectly match her rapping "I'm Jay-Z on a bad day / Shakespeare on my worst days." With the backing of names like Kendrick Lamar and Lauryn Hill, you would think talent this fathomless would have been blown-up all over the States by now. Sadly, her well-deserved fame is still waiting, seemingly doomed to the obscurity of many a UK grime artist. But when you're Shakespeare on your worst days, you have a lot to look forward to.

5. Baroness
Gold & Grey
Sludge Metal
Listen

The path Baroness has taken to become the preeminent lords of sludge that they are after Gold & Grey was ridiculously circuitous, to say the least. After releasing Blue Record in 2009 (happy 10th anniversary!), an album so punishing and gloriously awesome that it changed the shape of the sludge scene forever. We didn't just have to be depressed and rock out as slooowly as possible; now sludge could be about westerns, and Norse mythology, and generator parties in the woods. It also cemented Baroness as more than just a Mastodon clone, willing to inject their own southern rock and stoner metal tweaks into a tried-and-true--if a little overdone--method. But they weren't done reinventing themselves. Yellow & Green saw the band take on even more hats from other genres: prog metal, math rock, bluegrass, whatever Fleet Foxes is. It made for an interesting-but-bloated listen. The desire to make double albums is strong in the rock community when you have the Gods of The Wall, Physical Graffiti, and Quadrophenia to gaze upon. The subsequent tour resulted in a massive bus accident that nearly killed every member of the band, and led to several of them leaving. The trauma led to the writing and production of Purple, which...I can't honestly say much about. I listened to it when it came out, didn't care for it. Listened to it again about a year ago, same result. But this...Gold & Grey. If this is the culmination of a career, Baroness may have one of the greatest arcs in metal history. The songs are heavier, but never lose sense of the sing-along quality that made their biggest hits so fantastic. Sure, it's not Blue Record, but nothing ever will be. This is an entirely new breed. As a band, you know you've done right by your fans when you release a full hour of music and everyone still wants more.

4. Big Thief
U.F.O.F.
Folk Rock
Listen

There aren't enough thesauruses to provide the synonyms required to describe the beauty of this album. A picture is worth a thousand words, but can a song be worth a thousand tears? A thousand sighs of fulfillment? A thousand burdens made lighter? There are moments listening to UFOF where you can be totally transported out of yourself, like a cartoon ghost. The delicacy of Big Thief's mission is so abjectly important that every guitar string gets it's own channel, every vocal recorded in a room lined with plush down. The comforting quality of every sound on UFOF is so persuasive and inviting that you'll be completely limp by the end of its brief 43-minute journey, numb and tingling to move again. This album will melt you. The acoustics are so sumptuous you could suffocate in them like the mid-Atlantic summer air. Every song sounds like Big Thief is sitting around you, with their instruments pressed to your ears, trying as best they can to make the world's first ASMR-folk album. There are some strange moments as well: opener "Contact" ends with literal screams, "From" samples glass being dragged across the ground, and closer "Magic Dealer" finishes the album with static loops too harsh for Prurient. The combined effect is just so warm and inviting, yet incredibly intriguing, you won't be able to stop yourself from listening over and over.

3. Weyes Blood
Titanic Rising
Indie Pop
Listen

I find it funny, and slightly annoying, that Weyes Blood has been stamped with the label of "indie" when, if you go back about 50 years, this is what pop sounded like. Late 60s and early 70s pop radio was filled with Carol Kings, Carly Simons, James Taylors, Paul Simons, Janis Ians, and Billy Prestons. And while the 80s' synths, 90s' drum-and-bass, and 00s' bling may have changed how we view pop forever, the musicality of the old ways will never die. That musicality is what Weyes Blood understands better than anyone, helping her to deliver one of the most listenable acoustic pop albums ever. Titanic Rising is like a thesis statement for an art history PhD candidate. While this hasn't always been the M.O. of Natalie Mering, having played bass for the experimental post-rock Jackie-O Motherfucker to kick-off her career, she has seemingly come to accept the genre that best fits her solid, alto, Karen-Carpenter-esque voice. And before we get too far, let's talk "Andromeda." I have never heard a song about slowly, procedurally falling in love, much less one that is this complex and beautiful. Listening to Titanic Rising, you get the uncanny feeling that if Mering had just been born a generation earlier, she would have conquered the charts and raked in millions. Her lyrics are heartfelt and powerful, and her arrangements are new and compelling...if you just forget the last 40 years happened.

2. Tyler, The Creator
Igor
Hip Hop/Contemporary R&B
Listen

If you can honestly say that you didn't listen to "I Think" at least three times in a row after hearing it, you are either a very good liar, in total denial, or you didn't hear it. Every song on Tyler, The Creator's fifth full-length solo album is its own statement of purpose: sometimes a musical theme, sometimes a political message, but always goal-oriented. It feels kind of silly writing about Igor like you didn't hear it. It was #1 on the Billboard 200, much to the hilarious chagrin of a fat, trashy, talentless moron whose only claim to fame is yelling his own moniker on other people's songs like the world's longest, saddest, most expensive game of Marco Polo, who shall remain nameless. But unlike that hack's bullshit career, Igor is a showcase of every influence Tyler, The Creator ever encountered, turned up to 11: Motor City R&B, 80s synth-pop, old school hip hop, Italo-disco; they're all here. This is the most successfully experimental contemporary album I've heard since James Blake's debut. The constant vinyl hiss, the extreme mash-up of styles, the harsh mixing, you can just feel that this is the album Tyler has been trying to make his entire life. The exacting perfection of each new twist: "I Think"'s roller rink pop, to spoken word on "Exactly What You Run From...," to the crooning of "Running Out of Time," to a straight-up banger in "New Magic Wand." This is the kind of album that keeps hip hop fresh, proving to Asahd fathers everywhere that, yes, this is music, and it is more important than yours.

1. Sharon van Etten
Remind Me Tomorrow
Indie Rock
Listen

In order to understand the impact that this album has, you have to understand my experience with Sharon van Etten's last album, 2014's utterly stunning Are We There. When that album came out, I avoided listening to it at first because it was labeled as "folk" which was not something I was keen on in 2014. But eventually the lack of a question mark in the title and its gripping black-and-white album art drew me in and...it changed my life. Maybe only from a musical perspective, but when you spend a lot of your free time talking about, listening to, and writing critiques of music, that's a big deal. Are We There was the first time I thought everything I knew about music was wrong. And five years is WAY too long for you to be away, Sharon.

How then, can I even begin to describe how Remind Me Tomorrow makes me feel? It's like, listening to your best friend's album, after no one but you believed in them, and it's amazing and you just can't wait to tell him how awesome it is and rub it in everyone's faces. I'm actively proud of Sharon van Etten for making this album, and I have no connection to her in any way, personal or professional. Remind Me Tomorrow is sweet and kind, but also has moments of hard rock so massive it can fill an arena. Single "Comeback Kid" belongs in the annals of women's rock history with other epics like "Bad Reputation," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," and "Barracuda." And album closer "Stay," van Etten's tribute to her newborn, is so beautiful and delicate it will leave you breathless. In between there are manifestos on the difficulty of love ("No One's Easy to Love"), a warning to not waste your youth ("Seventeen"), and a clapback at copycats so hardcore you'll have an hand print on your face ("You Shadow"). Remind Me Tomorrow is as great a collection of short stories as anything in print, and an unforgettable listening experience. Sharon, never leave us.

Best New Music (5.08.2019)

Big Thief
U.F.O.F.
Indie Rock

It's not very often that I'm at a total loss for words describing how an album makes me feel. U.F.O.F. is Big Thief's way of stunning me to silence.

Big Thief's absolute classic sophomore album, 2017's Capacity, was a showcase of all the different ways the band could produce any number of songs: rock, folk, lo-fi; it was a veritable smorgasbord of sounds, which made for a fun--if at times, a little random--experience.

U.F.O.F. is not random. In fact, every note is so expertly calculated that you can hear their thought process: a collection of songs that express every possible emotion with as little extraneous sound as possible. Little flashes of weirdness, like background screams on the opener, "Contact," or the theremin and static noises on closer "Magic Dealer," keep the traditional instrumentation from turning stale.

"Open Desert" shows its face as your standard Feist cover...that is until it reveals a chorus so beautiful and delicate that to sing louder than a whisper would destroy it. It is a moment so eye-opening and mesmerizing as to produce tears.

"Century" follows a more traditional songwriting format, but includes hints of Joni Mitchell, and a bass line to die for. The inclusion of an Allman Brothers-esque guitar solo is a respite from the sensory overload that comes in the first half of the album; as is "Strange," a tune so jazzy it might as well be a Steely Dan outtake. And "Terminal Paradise" sees Adrianne Lenker effortlessly shape-shift from Beth Gibbons, to Bjork, to Natasha Khan, proving that this sonic landscape is in the deftest of hands.

U.F.O.F.'s major standout is the penultimate track, "Jenni," which takes the lightness and fragility of the previous ten songs and throws them at the wall in a fit of heavy reverb and fuzz-delay so masterfully mixed that My Bloody Valentine would blush with inadequacy. It is a statement that proves Big Thief know exactly what they're doing in every sense.

This is Big Thief's most subtle, most empathetic, most ethereal, gossamer work yet, but they're not begging for your attention. Rather, it emanates from the center of the universe and waits for you to find it and claim your reward. A biblical flood distilled to a wispy dream, U.F.O.F. is--and I don't say this lightly--a perfect album.

Best New Music (4.02.2019)

Billie Eilish
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Dark Pop

Is Billie Eilish an industry plant? That term, "industry plant," is a favorite of displaced music fans that don't like when previously unheard of people become near-instantly famous. Lady Gaga comes to mind. Because these artists didn't spend a decade wallowing in the music underground, known only to obscurists and purists, there must be some kind of conspiracy. That term, "industry plant," is a word that meant something once, but now is just a tagline for trolls to use on anything they hate.

So, is Billie Eilish an industry plant? The point is, if the music is good, does it matter? If Eilish is a plant, then whatever A&R person picked her up should be paid lottery amounts of money every week for life. If Eilish is a plant, then whoever wrote her lyrics (p.s. it's her) should be winning Nobel prizes for literature. Yes, her brother, who writes or co-writes all the music on When We All Fall Asleep, is a well-worn "industry" producer, and certainly nepotism played into him giving Eilish a chance. But the problem is that most nepotists don't stick the landing.

This crew is Mary Lou Retton.

Originally, and for years now, Billie Eilish sounded like one of countless other "dark" "depressed" singer-songwriters: your Lana Del Reys, Lordes, and what have you. However, as Elish's career moved on, her sound became increasingly complex, and the darkness began leaking from her lyrics to her electronics, until eventually we got dark-wave pop masterpieces like "You Should See Me in a Crown" and "Bury a Friend;" songs so brilliant they might define the next generation of pop.

And if we go back to Eilish's lyrics, we can see those have grown more complex as well. Her first songs followed the typical "I'm sad because I'm and artist and no one understands" formula of the aforementioned "depressing" singers. But on When We All Fall Asleep, we get songs like "Bad Guy" that not only stands as an above-average sonic thesis statement for the album, but also transforms a song seemingly about a literal bad guy (i.e., man), into an introspective exploration of the bad part of Eilish's own personality--a metaphorical bad guy. Or the song "Xanny," which uses the tropes of barbiturate drug use in pop and rap to explain why Eilish is leaving her friend group: she's not into drugs, and your overuse of them makes you a boring cliche.

Billie Eilish might be an industry plant, and she might be one in a line of "depressed" singers, but her style (especially visual--seriously watch her music videos), delivery, and utterly unique take on how to present the overtly dismal make her, and When We All Fall Asleep, one to keep an eye on, for sure.

Best New Music (Double Feature! 3.26.2019)

Ibibio Sound Machine

Doko Mien
Highlife

Who is William Onyeabor? The mysterious figure that totally and utterly transformed African pop music in the 70s, and more so the 80s, has had a sort of boom in modern Western music, thanks in part to an insanely bold choice by--eww--Apple to include his song "Fantastic Man" in a commercial. The song became so popular from that alone that it became an actual charted hit...38 years after it came out.

Now, William Onyeabor passed before the song ever made it anywhere, but by all accounts he lived in self-imposed isolation having found an entirely different path in life. But it is fun to think that while we usually think of non-Western countries being decades behind the US/Europe in their musical taste (e.g., disco being popular in...ahem...East Germany in the late 80s and 90s), this time WE were behind, just now finding popular a song from Nigeria decades after the man who wrote it retired from public life.

This is all to say that the journey of where Ibibio Sound Machine derives their incredibly unique sound begins with the inventive and, honestly, insane sounds of an electro-funk master from 70s Nigeria. Of course, even calling the band IBIBIO Sound Machine is detailing their roots, Ibibio being a language spoken primarily in Nigeria, and many of singer Eno Williams' lyrics are in that language.

Over the course of three albums, Ibibio Sound Machine has fine-tuned a musical quality that can only be called a time machine. The highly processed synths repeat like something from Human League and the use of live percussion and "cheap" drum machines recalls the very best of Lipps, Inc. (like, the one song; you know the one I mean).

The band's self-titled debut really laid the effect on thick, which made for a more novel listening experience than a truly compelling one. 2017's Uyai was a revelation, brightening the production and bringing the Onyeabor influences into the harsh fluorescent light. But this album, Doko Mien, this is the culmination of getting all the ingredients to the witch's brew just right.

Doko Mien transitions from Afro-beat to Italo-disco to new wave to electro-funk to soul so fast and so seamlessly that it blisters the skin; all the while Eno Williams sings so beautifully in two languages that you're brought to the heights of human emotion.

The songwriting is catchy and highly complex, leaving no one wanting. Whether they are creating a ballad like "I Know That You're Thinking About Me", a dance floor banger like "Tell Me (Doko Mien)", or even a soundscape interlude like "I Will Run", ISM have clearly put the work in to make sure every detail is exactly right.

It's rare to witness perfection, but when you do, you never forget. This is a band at the peak.

---

Avey Tare
Cows on Hourglass Pond
Neofolk

An admission: I have always been slightly fascinated by the various solo careers from the members of Animal Collective. Obviously, Panda Bear is the one most people are immediately familiar with, as he was the most successful out of the gate. And if we all can't admit to ourselves that Person Pitch was secretly the best album of the 2000s, then we just live in a grand delusion.

Avey Tare (real name: David Michael Portner) is the other member of the Collective to venture into solo territory, though it could be said that's unnecessary since he's the primary songwriter of Animal Collective's output. And with Cows on Hourglass Pond, that connection becomes more obvious than ever.

Much of Cows on Hourglass Pond sounds like Merriweather Post Pavilion and Centipede Hz outtakes and b-sides. These are literally indistinguishable from Animal Collective songs. Even his more experimental turns, like the incredibly glitchy "Nostalgia in Lemonade", are familiar territory. And when it's not Animal Collective he's evoking, there's such a strong Atlas Sound influence that no one could blame you if you mistook this for Logos Part 2.

That said, I feel like this review is skewing negative, when in reality it's anything but. To be honest, I think Atlas Sound owes more to Avey Tare and Animal Collective than the other way around, and to be brutally honest, this is the best thing to come out of that group OR any of the members' solo projects in ten years.

Cows on Hourglass Pond is interesting. For the first time in a long time, Tare is involved with something interesting. The sonic choices, production, songwriting--they're all well above average, and they combine for an album that genuinely intriguing and might not only require multiple listens to "get", but will also make those re-listens enjoyable. It's well-paced, composed, and varied.

I only wish more people would make interesting music.

Best New Music (3.18.2019)

Chai
PUNK
J-Pop

Pop from distant cultures may not be for everyone: it's not in English so you can't really identify with the lyrics, it's mixed high in treble so it sounds louder and more teen-y, and it's often marketed with a bizarre-almost-disturbing childishness with a reliance on cartoons and funny voices. None of those things matter when you listen to Chai's second full-length, PUNK.

That's not to say those things aren't there--of course they are, it's J-Pop--but what Chai does differently is using those tropes for effect, creating a reaction and sending a message that transcends the usual stereotypes of Japan and its pop culture.

While much of PUNK is pure pop, executed and produced to sugar-sweet perfection, where the album truly stands out is when Chai dips into alternative genres. The garage rock of opener "Choose Go!" is performed with as much sincerity as everything else. The dark electro of "Great Job" carries the weight of that sound well, without sounding like a boring copy of a billion other club bangers. And the furious alt-rock of "Fashionista"--half Waitresses, half Sleater-Kinney--proves that if you write great songs, rocking hard knows no language.

Chai aren't worried if writing songs about being yourself, friends as second family, and not caring if some people don't approve of your lifestyle are uncool; as long as you feel empowered, then their job is done, and damn the cool. PUNK isn't the pop we went into 2019 wanting, but it is the pop we need right now.

The Mammoth Task: Album Organization and Its Direct Impact on the Listening Experience

The work may be complete. For years it has bothered, even angered me, that Pearl Jam’s fifth album, Yield, was full of amazing songwriting and some of the greatest moments in their career, but sounded like the songs were just put in as they wrote them, with no regard for theme, sonic transition, or pattern. Let’s look at their original tracklist:

1. Brain of J.
2. Faithful
3. No Way
4. Given to Fly
5. Wishlist
6.  Pilate
7. Do the Evolution
8. Red Dot (called Red Bar on Spotify)
9. MFC
10. Low Light
11. In Hiding
12. Push Me, Pull Me
13. All Those Yesterdays

The biggest obstacle to reorganizing this into a cohesive storyline is the closer “All Those Yesterdays,” which is actually two separate songs with about a minute of silence between them. Originally designed as a “hidden track,” the “Humus” second half of the song isn’t hard to fit anywhere, but the whole song’s epic length (almost 8 minutes) and the garish blank section means that it will be a sore thumb basically anywhere. But let’s set up some rules…

Rule 1: No Deleting Tracks

As much as we might just straight not like a song a band has released, they did, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I despise (and I know I’m not alone in this) the hidden track that is tacked onto the final song of an album. One, it makes that song’s inclusion in any sort of playlist or collection impossible for the standard collector/listener like you and me. Of course, if Pearl Jam wanted to include the main portion of “All Those Yesterdays” on their own Greatest Hits collection, they have the track that they can cut themselves and include wherever and however they like. Alas, we don’t have that capability so it must be dealt with as is. Two, it can ruin the album as a work of art. “All Those Yesterdays” isn’t as egregious as, say, Deftones' “MX” which has nearly 25 minutes of silence, or Beach House’s “Irene” which utterly destroys an otherwise perfect album with a gross “hidden track” addition to what should have been a perfect song. Sadly, we must work with what we have.

Rule 2: Retain as much of the original order as possible

Even in the worst cases of organization, these albums are generally produced and mastered by people whose job it is to do exactly that. Songs are mixed to crossfade into each other, sound effects move from the end of one track to the start of another, and they won’t sound good if they’re split apart. Also, sometimes even the worst offenders do have tracks that just sound good together. In our example today though, such is generally not the case. The only ones I can find are “Faithful” into “No Way” and “Pilate” into “Do the Evolution”. Those are so good together they can’t really be reorganized.

…

So with our rules established, let’s dive deeper into Yield.

Pearl Jam’s fifth album came out in the height of their feud with Ticketmaster (still ongoing, by the way), and after the less-than-warm reception of their previous album No Code, despite that album having their single greatest song, “Hail, Hail.” But, unwavering, the band, and more specifically Eddie Vedder, was determined to push the boundaries of what was now certainly NOT grunge into a more emotionally complex territory. And that...means slow songs.

But gone were the days of soundscape, ethereal slow songs like “Garden” or “Black”, or even the folk-influenced “Daughter” or arena ballad “Betterman.” Instead we have the inclusion of more emo-oriented songs like “Wishlist” and the country/western “Low Light” that use an almost wall-of-sound recording technique to make them feel warmer and more saturated. This bloat will need to be dealt with thematically more so than by sound alone. There simply aren’t enough heavy, fast songs to break them all up. This means forcing the album into an “act” structure.

For Act One, I suggest we start with the slow emotional songs. We can organize them to slowly build the album to a fever pitch, rather than the opposite (slow songs last), which generally makes the second half drag after hyping the audience up in the first half. That said, I do still enjoy the idea of following up fast songs with slower ones. Despite its jarring effect in the opening slot of No Code, after a trio of grunge necessities in Pearl Jam’s first three albums, I really enjoy “Sometimes” as its opener. Let’s see which song provides the best equivalent.

My choice would be “Given to Fly,” as it not only opens acoustically, but also builds to be louder and heavier by the end. Now, “Brain of J.” is a fantastic opening track, but if it’s not in this position, it needs to be in one of equal importance, so, for now we’ll move it to the closing spot. I also, at this point, recommend moving “All Those Yesterdays” to the exact middle. Pearl Jam did us a favor, giving us an odd number of songs so there’s an exact middle spot, the seventh (13 tracks: #7 is the middle with six songs on either side). This way, the minute of silence can feel like a record flip.

As much as I like the idea of the punk “Brain of J.” as the closer, it’s construction and length leaves a bit to be desired, plus it doesn’t really summarize the sonic theme of the album. The song I think does that best is “In Hiding,” which not only builds to an optimistic fullness, but also has an amazing Zeppelin-Houses-of-the-Holy-esque guitar fade-out. Of course that means our act structure of “all slow songs” at the beginning doesn’t really work, because “In Hiding” has to end it, and something slow has to come after “Do the Evolution.”

Let’s revisit that later…

In addition to the bloated carcass that is “All Those Yesterdays,” we also have to contend with the songs that Pearl Jam seemed to neglect in their later discography: the weird shit.

While a lot of people greatly dislike the more experimental tracks from Vs. and Vitalogy (I’m looking at you, “Bugs”), they are an integral part of what Pearl Jam was in their heyday: a group of people with so many influences they needed 70s puffy sleeves to wear them all. This was reflected in their forays into country, classic rock, heavy metal, punk, psych rock, whatever “Bugs” is, and on our subject most importantly, both industrial and primitive noise. The samples and frenetic editing of “Push Me, Pull Me” and the hand-held percussion and chanting of “Red Dot” mean they need to be placed very carefully within the running of Yield in order for their sounds to feel ingrained rather than forced. What’s strange is that this wasn’t the case with the original tracklist.

“Red Dot” is by far the strangest, so it’s only use is to inflate the ego of the band creating it. Well, okay, its other use is as a palate cleanser between two otherwise disjointed songs. Basically, we’re pulling it out and setting it aside for later.

Despite the noisiness of “Push Me, Pull Me,” it's the only characteristic that makes the song stand out, as it does have a very standard song structure; essentially, it’s the chameleon. So, if it’s placed properly, it can be a palate cleanser like “Red Dot,” an emotional arc, a launch pad, or even a great set-up song. Given we have the build of “Given to Fly” opening, let’s put it in the on-deck spot. Then, considering “Faithful” was designed to follow a heavy song, we have our #3 and #4, remembering that “No Way” MUST follow “Faithful.”

...

So we have 1-4 locked in, as well as 7, 12, and 13. We’ll need to look at the sonic theme and more specifically how the remaining songs end from a technical aspect. Do they cut or fade? Do they build to something or is their trajectory generally flat? Are they warm or empty in the mix? Plus, remember, “Pilate” and “Do the Evolution” have to stay together AND “Do the Evolution” has to have a slow song after it.

Right off the bat, because I still like the idea of the first half being more about building, I think “Do the Evolution” should be in the second half, which means “Pilate” must be as well. So we have 8-9 or 9-10. Now we have four songs that are unattached and could technically go anywhere. First let’s find a slow song to go after “Do the Evolution.” Immediately I thought of “Low Light” because not only is it a sonically interesting juxtaposition to hear western-inspired acoustic guitars after the harsh, gritty chug, but it's also a fairly flat song from a musical storytelling perspective (it doesn’t get faster or heavier as it goes along, or build into something different from its start).

Now we have three songs that must be attached and must be in the second half, so they’re either in the 8-10 slot, or the 9-11 slot. I think it would be WAY too jarring to hear “Brain of J.” after “Low Light” so...in comes the palate cleanser, “Red Dot.” So our entire second half is full. Act Two is complete.

…

Only two songs remain and only two slots: “Wishlist” and “MFC.” Oddly, this is the best order for them to stay in, and let me explain. “No Way” is in our #4 slot. It is Pearl Jam’s best attempt at recreating the feeling of Vitalogy’s inimitable “Tremor Christ,” and of course it pales in comparison, but it is a great song on its own. But like “Tremor Christ,” it needs to be followed by a warm, emotional song, meaning “Wishlist” (which may be their biggest eyeroll moment, but remember we can’t delete). So the guitar heavy “MFC” goes in the #6 spot and actually serves as a great transition from “Wishlist” to the first half of “All Those Yesterdays.” And now Act One is complete, as is our reorganized album:

1. Given to Fly
2. Push Me, Pull Me
3. Faithful
4. No Way
5. Wishlist
6. MFC
7. All Those Yesterdays
8. Pilate
9. Do the Evolution
10. Low Light
11. Red Dot
12. Brain of J.
13. In Hiding

...

In summary, in Act One we’ve kicked our album off with a strong thematic statement: emotional struggle; and built around it to lead to a great half-time closer. Act Two begins with it’s own theme: frenetic experimentation, which we’ve followed by including most of the faster, angrier tracks, as well as the most experimental one. Then we ended the album with a closer that seems to summarize a character’s journey through the album, having come out stronger on the other side.

We did this by examining arcs within song structure, production techniques, and most importantly, transitions between songs. A LOT of this is by feel, and everyone experiences music differently. You may listen to Yield in its original form and think it’s perfect. You may think the songs I chose as needing to stick together are terrible together. Music is entirely subjective. I highly recommend you try doing this on your own. Take an album you always thought didn’t FEEL quite right, and mix up the order. Try to get the songs to tell a more cohesive narrative, and listen to the transitions. There’s a lot of great albums out there hiding inside mediocre ones, all they need is a little cleaning up.

…

Also, feel free to listen to our new playthrough of Pearl Jam’s Yield on Spotify, as well as others I’ve tried to improve like Queens of the Stone Age’s Era Vulgaris, Crystal Castles’ Crystal Castles (II), and Drenge’s latest Strange Creatures. Yield was, by a wide margin, the most work I’ve done reorganizing an album for quality. Of course not every album is fixable this way. Like Ice-T says in Rick and Morty, “a bad song’s a bad song” and sometimes it’s just not salvageable. Nothing will fix Corey Feldman’s Angelic 2 the Core...nothing.

Era Vulgaris: Reorganized
Strange Creatures: Reorganized

Best New Music (3.04.2019)

Little Simz
GREY Area
Conscious Hip-Hop

On “Boss,” one of the many standouts from the north London rapper’s new album, GREY Area, Little Simz emphatically states “I disregarded all opinions and continued my mission / Unapologetically I be bossin’ it / Getting better with age / Got it back, never lost it.”

Despite being only 25, Simz (born: Simbi Ajikawo) has been one of the most prolific, most talented, and most underrated pioneers of UK rap. She had released 5 EPs by her 21st birthday, garnering praise from such esteemed artists as Kendrick Lamar and Lauryn Hill. She has collaborated with Gorillaz to critical acclaim, and released a concept album, Stillness in Wonderland, in 2016 to similar reactions in the music press...and yet...no one heard it. While the Kendricks and Joey Bada$$es of the conscious-rap scene were seeing widespread mainstream success, Simz was still waiting for hers.

Not content to just wait however, her new album is fiercely confident and forthright. Her stunning production and smart lyricism is a reminder of her bold talent. Punchy bass and brilliant melodies take you on the rollercoaster ride only Simz could design--vulnerable and open. GREY Area is a heady album that demands the listener’s attention. And Simz’ hard work is all worth it to hear looping beats perfectly match the line “I’m Jay-Z on a bad day / Shakespeare on my worst days.” It’s so good that, by the end of the album, you believe her.

How Little Simz isn’t a massive, monolithic presence in the rap industry by now, I have no idea. Her first two albums were well received and had singles that were ridiculously good, yet somehow she hasn’t connected with a worldwide audience. GREY Area is, hopefully, that big pivotal turning point she needs and deserves. This is the kind of project that the Drakes of the world wish they could get their hand on: brave, energetic, reflective, vulnerable, wise; a gift from a truly gifted artist.

Best New Music (2.26.2018)

Drenge
Strange Creatures
Garage Rock

The easiest way to explain Drenge’s Strange Creatures is to use “When I Look Into Your Eyes,” the closing track, as a microcosm of the entire album. The bones of the song are simple. Even mundane. It’s a basic acoustic strum, a pretty sing-song melody, and a beat anyone could clap. But in the hands of Drenge, it becomes something much more expansive and dramatic.

The drama begins with singer Eoin Loveless’ voice, which has the wonderful ability to move between characters. Here, on “When I Look Into Your Eyes,” he’s singing with a Morrissey-esque sound, background vocals seemingly coming from chanting monks and Loveless’ guitar chiming selectively through the song. “Prom Night,” another ballad, also has an unsettling sound, but in a different way. Here, the fear rises out of a plodding beat and guitars that sound almost like a carnival organ. A saxophone comes out of nowhere and your first thought is, “did they abduct a saxophonist for this?” The saxophone, courtesy of the Loveless’ father, and most probably played of his own free will, also gives the track a very David Bowie kind of feel, which also helps to move the spooky needle.

It would be an oversimplification to say Strange Creatures sounds like an 80s post-punk album, but it’s definitely influenced by the music of that era. What’s nice about the album, though, is that it pours that decade’s hair product onto a head full of rock and roll. The woozy melody paints Eoin as the narrator in a Carrie-esque tale: visions of him lurking in an alleyway, leaning against a doorframe in noirish mode he watches the horrors unfold. “Something stepped out from under the rubble / Whatever it was it was like Halloween,” he sings. As well as the sax, there are touches of synthesizer on “Avalanches” and expansive percussion on closer “When I Look Into Your Eyes” alongside a haunting vocal chant; small additions that add to the overall feeling of fullness on the album.

On Strange Creatures the wrinkles have been ironed out. Quieted is the scrappiness of the to-ing and fro-ing of the guitar and drums during Drenge’s infant stages, instead thick layers of sound rage on. Something Drenge do particularly well is take the sickly sweet and throw it into the mud, adding a twisted element to the quotidian: “Milkshakes make me sick / Lactose intolerant” or “A boy vomits up his canteen dinner in the high-school’s honeysuckle garden.” This album still sounds undeniably Drenge-y, rattling and crashing along like a ramshackle rollercoaster; your only hope is to hold on for dear life.

Best New Music (2.25.2019)

Desperate Journalist
In Search of the Miraculous
Shoegaze

There is a distinct fragility and vitality contained within Desperate Journalist’s musical back catalog. It echoes through their work with a courage that cannot fail to delight and inspire in equal measure. The London quartet's third album, In Search of the Miraculous, borrows its title from the 1949 book of the same name by P. D. Ouspensky about his time with mystic George Gurdjieff, and his system of “self-development.” It more than earns the intellectual and spiritual connection.

In Search of the Miraculous is a work of indisputable artistic maturity entwined with sharply beautiful poetic integrity that current fans will recognize immediately. Perhaps more world-weary in places, the album's overall tone is one of hopeful recognition of the complexities of life and love in all its forms. Stalked by shadowy figures and ruinous politicians, it is as if they have not only captured the sound, but also the tumultuous age of their influences; the gloaming indie goth of The Cure and The Smiths hangs in the air, as does the unshakable shadow of an 80's Britain, ravaged and divided.

In spite of all of this, a restless fervor radiates through the layers of fuzz; a refusal not to be consigned to a predetermined fate, allowing the glint of just enough hope to salve the scarred heart of a country crumbling. At a time when our phone screens are filled with news too heartbreaking to hold, vocalist Jo Bevan seeks solace in the bravery found searching for that sublime feeling. As the transcendental lead guitar line in "Satellites" bores into the rapturous chorus and she sings "I was always reaching for you / Oh listen / You eclipse them," it creates a ground swell worthy of elevating them to another level entirely.

Bevan appreciates it can be easy to become numb to the extremes of emotion for fear of being overcome, and still that is why it is so important to keep fighting your own personal battles. In Search of the Miraculous finds Desperate Journalist striving and challenging themselves, happily searching for that sense of the sublime in a world that will outlive us all.

Best New Music (2.11.2019)

HEALTH
Volume 4 :: Slaves of Fear

HEALTH has been kicking people's butts in with loud electro-rock-noise for over a decade now, and their albums have telegraphed their arc from fully experimental to operatic. Volume 4 :: Slaves of Fear--technically the band's fourth album, but only if you don't include the best game soundtrack of all time, Max Payne 3--is the culmination of that journey, and it requires our full attention.

Just as a fun experiment, instead of a standard narrative review, I'm just going to post my notes from my first listen, unedited, unformatted. I think you'll still get the idea.

• Psychonaut: odd choice of acoustic guitar start then BAM!!! straight into some trio-EP era NIN drums, their own guitars from the Max Payne OST and the upfront lyrics from Death Magic
• Feel Nothing: Love the beat/hook here, this is what you get when perfectly combining dance-pop and industrial rock, I do wish it was used a bit more though, as it seems like they only save it for the intro and outro, could have really beefed up the chorus
• God Botherer: love the title, the chorus here mid-song is some frenetic metal awesomeness that sadly only appears here, easily could see this ending the album
• Black Static: They are really going full Rammstein here
• Loss Deluxe: basically a Death Magic b-side
• NC-17: this has a really cool Deftones-techno sound (see “Teenager” or “Lucky You”)
• The Message: the most consistent beat so far that really well constructed, the darkest the lyrics as well
• Rat Wars: this is a go at the darkest song for the album, like “Dark Enough” from Death Magic, also loving the Blade Runner 2049-esque sample
• Strange Days (1999): first off, the title can’t be anything but an allusion to the Kathryn Bigelow film starring Ralph Fiennes of the same name, Strange Days, which takes place in a fictional 1999; really great beats
• Wrong Bag: probably the most violent song on the album, and unless I was completely glazed over, I’m pretty sure this is the one instrumental song on the album
• Slaves of Fear: title track, been out a while as a single, love it, great intro, kick-ass beats, just all-around fantastic, still the highlight, obvious why they chose it as a single; love the little suite-esque change towards the end, it’s all great
• Decimation: this is very strange, I like it, but it’s very strange, like, it could fit in on that new Xiu Xiu album; gorgeous guitar overlayed with some pretty random noise elements, then this simple but powerful live drum comes in, like, what the hell
• Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but definitely need to let it stew a bit. Right now it seems like it’s definitely inferior to Get Color or Death Magic, but it’s also really different, like when I saw It Comes At Night the first time. Definitely have to revisit later, will require multiple listens
• Second listen, on better headphones...WAY better, love it now

So, TL;DR, it's great. This is the best of all of HEALTH's worlds, where their noise experiments from HEALTH blend with their pop experiments from Death Magic seamlessly to create a glorious wall of industrial-electro-noise-pop, like if Lady Gaga made Twitch.

P.S. Fuck Pitchfork and their surface-only reading of everything

Best New Music (2.08.2019)

Xiu Xiu
Girl with Basket of Fruit

Returning with their first album since 2017, the musical version of a Jodorowsky film, Xiu Xiu. Forget was a spectacular melding of electronic, experimental, and pure pop (see "Tonight"). Girl with Basket of Fruit is not that

it...is...not...that

If eldritch horrors had to pick one album to listen to forever, it would be Girl with Basket of Fruit. If the Eyes Wide Shut cult would modernize and listen to contemporary music, they would play Girl with Basket of Fruit. If Adventure Time's Golb, the personification of discord, came to life and passed into the real world, he would glean inspiration from Girl with Basket of Fruit.

But not to continually focus on the weirdness of Xiu Xiu's experimental leanings. This album, while incredibly disturbing and strange, is also filled with moments of beauty: string sections that harmonize effortlessly; Jamie Stewart's vocal performance on "The Wrong Thing" or "Scisssssssors"; or the entirety of album closer "Normal Love," a song that combines a gorgeously simple piano line with a strangely mesmerizing mimicry of Matthew Dear.

But then there's also...well to describe "Mary Turner Mary Turner" with words would be to imply that it might be comprehended by beings that experience time passively.

And then there's the highlight of Xiu Xiu's entire career to this point, "Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy." The ridiculous name is actually the most normal part of the entire experiment, a horrifying abrogation of reason replaced with Thrill Kill Cult samples and electronics pulled from Ministry's Wax Trax catalog. It is a glorious monolith of chaos that has to be experienced. But beware, it cannot be un-experienced.

Girl with Basket of Fruit is weird--it's REALLY weird--but it's also the most original, most fascinating thing to come out in quite some time.

I promise I'm not Bird Box-ing you, but that's only because you won't need eyes where we're going.