best of bluth’s predictable 2019

[bluth]

let’s get it over with shall we

 

25 albuh + 30 songs because concise + laziness is my new aesthetic 

 

[bluth]

 

 

songs

 

1. charli xcx - shake it 

2. grimes - so heavy i fell through the earth

3. magdalena bay - only if you want it 

4. (sandy) alex g - gretel

5. lana del rey - norman ****ing rockwell

6. fka twigs - cellophane

7. hatchie - secret

8. fever ray - this country makes it hard to **** - björk remix

9. angel olsen - all mirrors

10. cfcf - closed space 

 

11. kelly lee owens - let it go 

12. the comet is coming - unity

13. roosevelt - falling back

14. munya - benjamin

15. freddie gibbs - cataracts

16. kero kero bonito - battle lines 

17. solange - sound of rain

18. billie eilish - bad guy

19. carly rae jepsen - everything he needs 

20. holly herndon - eternal 

 

21. charly bliss - blown to bits

22. slayyyter - cha ching

23. chelsea wolfe - american darkness

24. jenny hval - accident

25. otha - tired and sick

26. tame impala - it might be time

27. goldlink - more 

28. dj seinfeld - xoul

29. la roux - gullible fool 

30. poppy - voicemail

 

 

 

 

albums

 

1. (sandy) alex g - house of sugar

2. fka twigs - magdalene

3. lana de rey - norman ****ing rockwell!

4. solange - when i get home

5. angel olsen - all mirrors

6. d. tiffany - rarez 

7. kelela - aquaphoria

8. charli xcx - charli

9. freddie gibbs - bandana

10. holly herndon - proto

 

11. the comet is coming - trust in the lifeforce of the deep mystery

12. charly bliss - young enough

13. jpegmafia - all my heroes are cornballs

14. hatchie - keepsake

15. jenny hval - the practice of love

16. erika de casier - essentials

17. tyler, the creator - igor

18. carly rae jepsen - dedicated 

19. blanck mass - animated violence mild

20. kaytranada - bubba

 

21. slayyyter - slayyyter

22. leon vynehall - dj-kicks (leon vynehall) [dj mix]

23. magdalena bay - mini mix vol. 1

24. goldlink - diaspora 

25. orville peck - pony 

Edited December 23, 2019 by bluth

[madonnas]

 

if 4aem is not top 5 i will be rioting!

[bluth]

songs (30-11)

 

30. poppy - voicemail

29. la roux - gullible fool

28. dj seinfeld - xoul

27. goldlink - more

26. tame impala - it might be time 

25. otha - sick and tired

24. jenny hval - accident

23. chelsea wolfe - american darkness

22. slayyyter - cha ching

21. charly bliss - blown to bits

 

20. holly herndon - eternal

19. carly rae jepsen - everything he needs

18. billie eilish - bad guy

17. solange - sound of rain

16. kero kero bonito - battle lines

15. freddie gibbs - cataracts

14. munya - benjamin

13. roosevelt - falling back

12. the comet is coming - unity

11. kelly lee owens - let it go

 

top ten soon 

 

[madonnas]

oh wow you know how to pick the correct tracks, cha ching, blown to bits, sound of rain, battle lines.

 

[bluth]

songs (10-1)

 

10. cfcf - closed space

 

i felt like being spontaneous and throwing a left-field choice in. voila - ethereal trance (omg this reminds me i forgot to include agnes - i trance) track

 

9. angel olsen - all mirrors 

 

angel olsen magnifies her music on a cinematic scale with synths and strings in a cavernous epic and the result is amazing

 

8. fever ray - this country makes it hard to **** - björk remix

 

it was perfect in its original form and it’s just as good now. kinda gives you a window into what 2019 bjork could be doing if she ditched arca

 

7. hatchie - secret

 

we all know by now that hatchie has the dream pop formula down to a tee, but the real standout on keepsake is secret: nothing short of a full-on journey. the song begins wistful, and slowly arpeggiates over the course of four minutes as guitars kick in and hatchie’s vocals soar and stretch like a californian coastline. it’s everything dream pop should be - simultaneously euphoric and melancholic, a beautiful and transient memory bottled in song form. we never learn what the secret is, but that might be because this song is exactly that. in a poptimist world of vociferous fans, keeping this song to ourselves makes it feel like the most precious and pure thing in the world. 

 

6. fka twigs - cellophane 

 

there are songs on magdalene i honestly prefer like the title track, daybed and sad day, but there’s something mesmerisingly special and unique about cellophane even if it is a decidedly predictable choice (and i also just wanted to write about it). cellophane captures an acute snapshot of a relationship hanging in the balance, two bodies hovering gently like dust suspended in the golden light, on the edge of spiralling outwards from the faintest centripetal force. 

 

every touch in this song, from the dissonant piano to the stress in twigs’ voice as it ebbs in and out of softness (insert she’s nasally/guttural private show shitpost here), feels like some passing cosmic body rippling the gravity around two doomed lovers. it’s a devastatingly intimate and bare song for twigs, and yet i still feel like i can’t figure her out. is she still the paranoid alien from LP1, or the drill house mannequin from M3LL155X? because surely nothing this beautiful was man-made. 

 

5. lana del rey - norman ****ing rockwell

 

god damn man child is the best opening line of 2019 and i can’t explain why, but ever since i heard it for the first time it’s been lodged firmly in my head like shrapnel. it’s that potent mix of a mother walking in to find a smashed vase while the footfall and giggles from her children thunder from the floor above, combined with someone who has been so cast aside by lovers and critics alike finally shrugging her shoulders and walking away. 

 

is norman ****ing rockwell a sardonic farewell to culture and art as we know it, or is it just a piss take of some wannabe artist ex? to be able to blur the lines between the personal and the political, and to carve your own narrative while allowing your audience to sublimate themselves within it, is a sign of a really good songwriter. recently when i watched my country re-elect a flagrantly racist and classist party to power, i couldn’t help but think of this song and album as a whole - the melancholic farewell while clinging onto the last hope that it may one day get better, as dangerous of a thing it is to have. 

 

4. (sandy) alex g - gretel

 

there’s no way i could describe house of sugar better than the way its album art already portrays it: a figure skater carving arcs into a fluorescent lake, flicking constellations of ice into the black sky. i find it equally hard to describe wtf this song does to me at 1:54 - memories of footprints in the snow, deciduous forests and warm december fires captured by a few plucks of the guitar as if it were some simple algorithm played to make robots believe they have memories that never actually happened. **** you, alex, for making me wonder whether my memories are just fairytales, but equally thanks for feeding me the most beautiful lie i’ve ever heard.  

 

3. magdalena bay - only if you want it

 

the 2010s was a really fantastic decade for pop music, which has seen the rise of many indie artists who have carved their own niche within the genre. it feels fitting, then, to salute the final year of the decade with one of the best and newest products of 2010s poptimism - magdalena bay - who have released a string of seriously great music (see: mine, killshot, among others) this past year. i opted for only if you want it because it’s how i discovered them, but it’s just a dang good song that carries the pure, effervescent magic-of-e•mo•tion torch that even carly couldn’t hold this year. it’s that formula that goes all the way back to when i think of you and borderline, a shot of gold in song form.

 

2. grimes - so heavy i fell through the earth

 

only grimes could turn a feeling of sadness into a weightless odyssey about falling through the ground, your misery materialising into the hollow carcass of a balrog as it rotates slowly through the earth’s subterranean caverns. it’s always nice to hear artists return to a previous era but have it still sound fresh, and so heavy is the closest we’ve heard to a halfaxa sequel, now projected in full imax with grimes’ newfound skills. a good song feels timeless, but a great one feels endless. in november, when i found myself becoming something of a seasonal misanthrope, the only thing i would want to do once the ethereal outro ended and i landed once more was to start it all over again and fall back into the abyss. 

 

1. charli xcx - shake it

 

shake it is more than a song - it’s a rally cry to mobilise all the gays armed with their bags of ket and urns of their mother’s ashes, to come together in one sweaty, iridescent blob and rejoice in the fact that charli xcx, the pop visionary of the 2010s, exists.

 

shake it really is one of the most conceptual things charli has released: a paris is burning ballroom launched through a mirror and left to pose among the shards of shattered glass. the collaborators enter one at a time, each bringing a unique voice to the song, while charli and ag sit on stage letting you know they damn well bring it to you every ball.

 

i think the fact that this song was framed in a work like charli - which is her biggest stab at a mainstream release since sucker - makes me love it even more. you kinda live for the idea that the normies with their blame it on your love’s and 1999’s might stumble upon shake it and its earthquake-in-an-ikea-kitchen-section vernacular, but then you also remember that the album flopped into oblivion so that will probably never happen. but you know what, if they don’t get to hear the best song of 2019, that’s entirely their loss.

 

 

 

 

right albums up next

 

[bluth]

13 minutes ago, Madame X said:

oh wow you know how to pick the correct tracks, cha ching, blown to bits, sound of rain, battle lines.

 

are we surprised

[bluth]

albums (25-11)

 

25. orville peck - pony

24. goldlink - diaspora

23. magdalena bay - mini mix vol. 1

22. leon vynehall - dj-kicks (leon vynehall) [dj mix]
21. slayyyter - slayyyter

 

20. kaytranada - bubba

19. blanck mass - animated violence mild

18. carly rae jepsen - dedicated

17. tyler, the creator - igor

16. erika de casier - essentials

15. jenny hval - the practice of love

14. hatchie - keepsake

13. jpegmafia - all my heroes are cornballs

12. charly bliss - young enough

11. the comet is coming - trust in the lifeforce of the deep mystery

 

 

top ten soon

[bluth]

10. holly herndon - proto

 

i honestly haven’t listened to this in a few months but it left a decent lasting impression on me. chasmal electronic musical with choirs that makes it sound like the soundtrack to a futuristic dystopia. a good appetiser for next year for those of us who still haven’t listened to the miss anthropocene leak

 

9. freddie gibbs - bandana 

 

in a year where everyone is still freaking out over kanye’s culture death (lyrical eulogies include lana and jpegmafia), it’s nice to hear an old-school rap album that isn’t hung up on innovation or pretence. i think that feeling emerges both in its sound and construction; the purity of a rapper just rapping over some cool beats is so deliciously old school that it fills me with some warmth while everyone freaks out over blonde kanye.

 

8. charli xcx - charli

 

charli may have not obtained the commercial success she aimed for, but i think she got what she wanted in making an album that was widely talked about and, at times, divisive. there’s no denying that charli is inconsistent, and my opinion of it is probably higher than others’ due to me erasing the likes of white mercedes and blame it on your love from memory. however, if we’re really at a place where an album like charli, which contains the likes of shake it and click, can be considered a stab at the mainstream, then i’m happy with how far pop music has come - and a lot of it is thanks to artists like charli. charli is a great album - it delivers on the industrial chaos of pop 2 while successfully blending with more accessible songs. even if there are one or two duds, you’d be hard pressed to find another artist who can make songs like cross you out and gone which satisfy the mainstream and segue easily into the likes of 2099. anyone who thinks too seriously about charli is really taking it for granted - it’s 2019 and we get to live in that alternate universe where AG is producing commercial-adjacent pop music with an artist like charli at the helm. and for that, i am forever grateful. 

 

7. kelela - aquaphoria

 

as more decade-end lists have filtered onto the internet, i think it’s becoming increasingly apparent that take me apart is the most underrated album of the decade. likewise, kelela continues to prove how underrated an artist she is by flaunting her versatility with aquaphoria. here, kelela exchanges the futuristic r&b of take me apart for a more meditative sound, where kelela’s presence enters and dissipates like raindrops silently hitting the surface of a pond. aquaphoria doesn’t have that fully-formed, complex architecture of take me apart, but it feels all the more serene and fluid for it. more than anything, it feels like an artist dabbling in something new, and it’s a direction i’d love to see kelela pursue further in the future. 

 

6. d. tiffany - rarez

 

in retrospect, 2019 was about two things for me - the stripped back sounds of house of sugar, norman ****ing rockwell and magdalene, versus a taste for female fronted electronic in d. tiffany, roza terenzi and kelly lee owens. rarez is one of those few albums that successfully bridges a dj set with a good, isolated album experience, where songs are crafted with care and a dextrous touch that, frankly, only a woman could bring. it’s also filled that hole while i wait for kelly lee owens to come back. 

 

5. angel olsen - all mirrors

 

i feel like whenever angel olsen comes out with something new, different or unexpected the knee-jerk reaction is “wow, who knew that angel olsen was actually cool and different?” which i think is a pretty damning reflection of how hard it is for a female indie artist to get the credit she deserves. angel olsen is ****ing cool and she knows how to expertly craft a record with chasmal vocals, dramatic strings and dancing synths that aren’t there to show you how cool angel olsen is, but how she knows how to make a damn good album. it would be nice to think that all mirrors is some in-joke forcing us to raise a mirror to ourselves and consider what what we really think of angel olsen and female artists in the indie sphere in general. i’m not sure it is, but i like to pretend. 

 

4. solange - when i get home

 

solange has always been considered the esoteric knowles sister in comparison to the mass appeal of beyonce, but when i get home is when solange really pushes on showing the world her USP. when i get home is filled with small idiosyncrasies and touches that make it feel like an artist just playing around and having fun. i feel like a lot of people don’t appreciate solange’s versatility and evolution enough, from bittersweet blood orange sunset on true, to the elegant and articulate asatt, to the eclectic and often cryptic when i get home. unlike asatt, solange doesn’t so much promote discussion as she just wills the audience to sit back and enjoy a visceral listening experience, the only question being asked that, once she gets home, where will she go next?  

 

3. lana del rey - norman ****ing rockwell!

 

in a year where greta thunberg was named time’s person of the year and australia erupted in flames while the rest of the world froze, lana offered her most poignant farewell yet - a farewell to a stupid boyfriend, to culture and to the world as we know it. among other things, i suppose NFR succeeds where other lana albums may have faltered not so much in what it has, but more so in what it leaves behind. the absence of born to die’s maximalism and grandeur leaves a certain sparseness which allows the audience to fully contemplate the hole left behind by what once was. venice bitch evaporates into a cloudless california sky, mariner’s apartment complex floats away on a coastal wind, while the album’s final farewell and gentle rumination about the future, hope is a dangerous thing, falls delicately like a tea light touching the surface of the water, before drifting out over the waves and into the night, flickering in the far distance until it fades to black. there’s a silence that follows, and it might be the loudest i’ve heard all year.

 

2. fka twigs - magdalene

 

in the past, twigs has been that hit and miss artist who, while having some interesting concepts, often opted for style over substance. conversely, magdalene was a slap in the face, not least for its title being a direct mockery of all the people who credit the successes of a woman to a man, but also for stripping back the layers of twigs until all that’s left is a voice that is undoubtedly hers and hers alone. the paranoia from the likes of video girl is all the more elevated here; there’s a cavernous quality to magdalene which amplifies every passing electronic murmur and glitch breakdown. it feels like a weightless, apocalyptic world where twigs’ voice is a central gravitational axis to the production tics and flourishes which pass like celestial bodies. this is the sound of a woman hanging in the balance as gracefully as an aerial performer dangling from a rope; it captures a tragic beauty so perfect and fragile that it can’t be destined for anything other than doom. 

 

1. (sandy) alex g - house of sugar

 

i suppose this year was a success-story for folk[-adjacent] music, and none were as enchanting as house of sugar - a shimmering aurora of cinnamon daydreams and whispering pine forests. there’s a visceral aspect of alex’s music that i’ve always enjoyed, and house of sugar provided me with that soft sense of escapism when i needed it - a shot of crystallised sweetness on demand. the end of the decade always provides a contemplative springboard for the future and what it can bring, but it’s nice to know that, wherever we go from here, locked in 2019 will be house of sugar. with a few plucks of a guitar falling like a path of breadcrumbs, calling us back to that cozy place we call home. 

[bluth]

right thassit bye

 

[Lazuli]

shake it #1 i never thought anyone had the audacity to do it  

nfr, secrets, all mirrors, cellophane  

all mirrors, magdalene, nfr, talent only 

[madonnas]

Bad #1 album

[madonnas]

Good number one song tho.  I DONT SHAKE LKKE ANYTHING I SHAKE IT LIKE MYSELF - lyric of the decade 

[Eeveelution]

K let me catching up

 

 

GREAT #1 album btw

[Eeveelution]

Shake it is SUCH a good song, I like how it's both more subdued and even more weird than I got it, glad she didn't just try to replicate it.

Need to listen to Magdalena bay. Secret is one of my faves on Keepsake, a good choice.

NFR - tea the greatest opening lines of all time.  I also prefer MM and daybed but I get why everyone's choosing cellophane.

Fake Kelela stan but I haven't listened to Aquaphoria  maybe one day.

Great top 3 albums, (you lied about twigs being hit and miss though) great countdown and quality writing as ever

Edited December 24, 2019 by Eeveelution

[World Eater]

Shake It is a bold pick, but I've always seen it as a lesser (but still great!) successor to I Got It  Ignoring #2, the song list is a serve, but did I expect anything else? you tell me

pretty much same as for the album list, deserving top 3 and great picks all the way through (except for DUD-BA and All My Good Ideas Have Been Materialized On My Previous Album but I'll let that slip)

[jose168]

I guess I need to listen to this alex G person. Correct list all around. The talent