2019 in review

Another year of music - albums from young artists, old favorites and new discoveries!

Young artists:
Tropical Fuck Storm - Who's My Eugene? (Braindrops, 2019)
The Twilight Sad - [10 Good Reasons For Modern Drugs] (It Won't Be Like This All The Time, 2019)
VR Sex - Sacred Limousine (Human Traffic Jam, 2019)
Apex Manor - Where My Mind Goes (Heartbreak City, 2019)
Wye Oak - Fortune (single, 2019)
Phoebe Bridgers - Motion Sickness (Stranger In The Alps, 2017)
Boygenius - Ketchum, ID (Boygenius EP, 2018)
Guerilla Toss - Moth Like Me (What Would The Odd Do? EP, 2019)
Fenella [Jane Weaver] - Bright Curse (Fenella, 2019)
Trentemoller & Rachel Goswell - Cold Comfort (Obverse, 2019)
Fontaines D.C. - Boys In The Better Land (Dogrel, 2019)

Old favorites:
Bob Mould - Thirty Dozen Roses (Sunshine Rock, 2019)
Piroshka - Village Of The Damned (Brickbat, 2019)
Versus - Invisible Love (Ex Nihilo EP, 2019)
The Black Watch - Mad (Magic Johnson, 2019)
Barry Andrews - Put Me To Work (Contaminated Pop, 2019)
Lloyd Cole - Moments And Whatnot (Guesswork, 2019)
Robyn Hitchcock - Take Off Your Bandages (single, 2019)
New Model Army - Never Arriving (From Here, 2019)
Salad - Under The Wrapping Paper (The Salad Way, 2019)
David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights - Smoke You Right Out Of Here (Bobbie's A Girl, 2019)
Fitted - Training Pit Bulls For The Navy (First Fits, 2019)

Stuff I overlooked at the time:
Nihilists - Wall Space (single, 2016)
Helium - Pat's Trick (The Dirt Of Luck, 1995)
Underground Lovers - Eastside Stories (Leaves Me Blind, 1992)

Acoustic:
Jason Ringenberg - I'm Walking Home (Stand Tall, 2019)
Andy Prieboy & Tony Kinman - Get Me Out Of This Town (Every Night Of My Life EP, 2019)

In summary:
Blossom Dearie - I Hear Music (Blossom Dearie, 1957)

Listen here on Spotify.

Notes:
Tropical Fuck Storm is out of Australia, the lead singer used to front The Drones until they morphed into something else over their last two albums.
The Twilight Sad - Scottish emo-punk. Yeah, I was sceptical, too.
VR Sex - Even better than the Sisters Of Mercy, who they are so clearly indebted!
Phoebe Bridgers - I first heard about her when the stories about Ryan Adams gas-lighting behavior came to light.
Boygenius - One of Phoebe's side projects with two other talented young women.
Guerilla Toss - A one-time local band made good.
Fenella - Jane Weaver's turn from folk to krautrock over her last few albums has been truly inspiring.
Fontaines D.C. - It's not like I need more of this sort of indie-punk thing, but it's so damn catchy and fun!
Piroshka - Miki from Lush, her husband from Moose and some other very talented musicians.
Versus - One of my all-time favorite indie-rock bands still has it almost a decade after their last release.
Barry Andrews - He of Shriekback fame with his first proper solo album, what it says on the tin.
Lloyd Cole - I bet you didn't know he did an album with the legendary Roedelius a few years back. This is Lloyd's attempt at blending his sound with krautrock!
Robyn Hitchcock - I can't say I've been thrilled with his output since the Venus 3 LPs but this is terrific in both sound and lyrics.
David Kilgour - This is from his mostly instrumental album recorded after the death of his mother, very affecting music.
Fitted - Graham Lewis and Matthew Simms from Wire meets Mike Watt from Minutemen and firehose! The whole album is great.
Nihilists - The singer from Puressence's new band, the debut album has been a long time coming but is due in 2020.
Helium - I'm sure I saw them open a few times in the 90s but their music never clicked for me, until now! I love when that happens.
Underground Lovers - An incredible Australian psych-shoegaze band that I completely missed in the 90s. Great music is always there, waiting to be heard!
Jason Ringenberg - He of Jason & The Scorchers fame, his new album is a bit inconsistent but this is one of the winners.
Andy Prieboy (ex-Wall Of Voodoo) & Tony Kinman (ex-Dils) - RIP Tony, this is a great closing song to his career.
Blossom Dearie - I binged on "The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel" this year and this deeply familiar voice was singing. Hey, it's the woman who sang Schoolhouse Rock's "Figure Eight"! It was Blossom Dearie (yes, her real name) and her late 50s/early 60s work is utterly charming and was my summer 2019 jam.