My Favorite Albums of 2019

The world is an overflowing port-a-pot set ablaze right now. But we always have music to turn to in times like these. Although in 2020, writing about new rock music is akin to writing about jazz and big band music in the 1970s or something. It's becoming more niche and as soon as more of the Boomers start dying off I'm not sure what relevance it will hold in the mainstream.

I think the point of these lists is more to just remind people (and yourself), "these were the albums I liked the most this year." And you want to check out other people's lists and discover some great albums you may have missed. I used to spend way too much time trying to figure out if my third favorite album should be sixth or whatever. It's just a list. And I'm sure I'd re-rank most of these albums in three years after the passage time making some age less well.

So in keeping with that, I will not rank them this year. This is just a list alphabetically of the albums I spent the most time with and enjoyed the most in 2019. Better never, than late. Enjoy.

My favorite albums of 2019

Ada Lea What We Say in Private (Saddle Creek/Rough Trade)

Alex Lahey The Best of Luck Club (Dead Oceans)

Angel Olsen All Mirrors (Jagjaguwar)

Better Oblivion Community Center Better Oblivion Community Center (Dead Oceans)

Big Thief U.F.O.F / Two Hands (4AD)

Bob Mould Sunshine Rock (Merge)

Bruce Springsteen Western Stars (Columbia)

Cherry Glazerr Stuffed & Ready (Secretly Canadian) 

Dude York Falling (Hardly Art)

Ex Hex It's Real (Merge)

Filthy Friends Emerald Valley (Kill Rock Stars)

Fontaines D.C. Dogrel (Partisan)

Frank Turner No Man's Land (Xtra Mile/Polydor)

Garcia Peoples Natural Facts (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

Gary Clark Jr This Land (Warner)

The Gotobeds Debt Begins at 30 (Sub Pop)

Guided By Voices Zeppelin Over China / Warp and Woof / Sweating the Plague (GBV Inc.)

Hiss Golden Messenger Terms of Surrender (Merge)

The Hold Steady Thrashing Thru the Passion (Frenchkiss)

Jade Jackson Wilderness (ANTI-)

Jeanines Jeanines (Slumberland)

Jeff Tweedy Warmer (dBpm)

Jenny Lewis On the Line (Warner)

Jesse Malin Sunset Kids (Wicked Cool Records)

Kills Birds Kills Birds (KRO)

Little Scream Speed Queen (Merge)

Lucy Dacus 2019 Singles (Matador)

Mavis Staples We Get By (Anti-)

Middle Kids New Songs For Old Problems - EP (Domino)

The Mountain Goats In League With Dragons (Merge)

The Muffs No Holiday (Omnivore)

The New Pornographers In the Morse Code of Brake Lights (Concord)

Omni Networker (Sub Pop)

Outer Spaces Gazing Globe (Western Vinyl)

Pedro The Lion Phoenix (Polyvinyl)

Pernice Brothers Spread the Feeling (Ashmont)

Priests The Seduction of Kansas (Sister Polygon)

Purple Mountains Purple Mountains (Drag City)

Redd Kross Beyond the Door (Merge)

The Regrettes How Do You Love? (Warner)

Sacred Paws Run Around the Sun (Merge)

Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguwar)

Sheer Mag A Distant Call (Sheer Mag)

Sleater-Kinney The Center Won't Hold (Mom + Pop)

Spielbergs This Is Not The End / Running All The Way Home - EP (By the Time It Gets Dark)

Tacocat This Mess Is a Place (Sub Pop)

Telekinesis Effluxion (Merge)

Titus Andronicus An Obelisk (Merge)

The Vapor Trails See You in the Next World (Futureman)

Versing 10000 (Hardly Art)

Versus Ex Nihilo - EP / Ex Voto (Ernest Jenning)

Vivian Girls Memory (Polyvinyl)

Westkust Westkust (Run For Cover)

Whitney Forever Turned Around (Secretly Canadian)

Wilco Ode to Joy (dBpm)

Wives So Removed (City Slang)

Some Cool Stuff from 2018 I Didn't Find Until 2019

• Blushh Thx 4 Asking - EP (Yellow K)
• Cumulus Comfort World (Trans)
• Ellis The Fuzz - EP (Fat Possum)
• Garcia Peoples Cosmic Cash (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
• Gold Connections Popular Fiction (Egghunt)
• Gregory Alan Isakov Evening Machines (Suitcase Town Music)
• Martha Ffion Sunday Best (Turnstile)
• Mini Meltdowns Mini Meltdowns - EP (Good Land)
• Remember Sports Slow Buzz (Father/Daughter)
• Spielbergs Distant Star - EP (By the Time It Gets Dark)
• Tony Molina Kill the Lights (Slumberland)
• Willie J. Healey 666 Kill - EP (Rough Trade)

Best Reissues, Live, Boxed Sets, Etc, of the the Year

• The Beatles Abbey Road
• Green River Dry As a Bone / Rehab Doll
• Johnny Cash The Cash Collection: The Mercury Years 1987-1991
• The Kinks Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
• Live Throwing Copper
• Nirvana Live and Loud
• Nirvana MTV Unplugged
• Prince Originals
• Protomartyr No Passion All Technique
• R.E.M. Monster
• The Replacements Dead Man's Pop
• Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department
• Sly and the Family Stone Stand!
• Soundgarden Live From the Artists Den
• The Stooges The Stooges
• Superchunk AF (Acoustic Foolish)