SACHA’S BEST OF 2019

On New Year’s Eve last year, I decided that my main resolution would be to listen to at least two albums each week; one new (from the last six months or so) and one from before 2019. I actually stuck to it, so I’ve decided to attempt to digest the experience. I’m not under the pretense of being a tastemaker or influencer; mine are no more legitimate than others’ experiences, but they are the only experiences I can write about. So here I go.

I decided to rank these albums in order of how much I enjoyed them personally, using a rudimentary tier system as I went along (masterful > great > very good > good > ok > flawed > bad). The ‘masterful’ tier was only used twice, and only for albums released before 2019. However, there honestly isn’t an album on these lists that I didn’t find enjoyable on some level. That’s generally how I experience music; I focus on what I enjoy about a project even if it is obviously flawed or not consistent with my usual taste. There were only four albums that I deemed ‘flawed’ (that A$AP Rocky record features at least one absolute banger though) and the ‘bad’ tier was never used. There were many more that I deemed just ‘ok’; records which provided enjoyment but were ultimately somewhat disappointing. Some of my favourite artists careened into this category, such as Mac DeMarco, Beck (after releasing two remarkable records consecutively) and Chance the Rapper, who used 2019 to make a remarkable metamorphosis from icon to meme after dropping his ill-conceived ‘debut album’ (his previous works are referred to as mixtapes) and not being able to stop telling Twitter how much he loves his wife. Poor Chance. The relentless wholesomeness of the record genuinely elevated my mood on first listen though, so I still gleaned some merit. ‘Hot Shower’ is pretty enjoyable, despite MadeinTYO’s best efforts to ruin it with what might be the most laughably bad verse I’ve ever heard.

Every new King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard album seems to try its hand at a different style — this time it’s a thrash metal concept album channelling the likes of Slayer, Metallica and Black Sabbath. The A-side chronicles Earth’s ecological collapse, while the B-side follows a group of rebels attempting to settle on Venus after being forced to leave Earth, falling victim to ‘Venusian sickness’ and the like. As with previous releases, the band has employed a seamless tracklisting which works better here than ever due to the relentless nature of the music. In keeping with their reputation as one of the most prolific acts in the game, this is the second King Gizzard record of 2019 after Fishing for Fishies, which I plan on hearing soon.

Billie Eilish’s debut lives up to the hype. If it hadn’t been for one of my young singing students I might not have bought into it, but I’m so glad I did. It’s got me really excited to see what the sibling songwriting team of Billie and Finneas will do next. The production here is phenomenal thanks to the latter — if I’d ranked albums based on production this would top the list, no question. The track ‘xanny’ uses an incredible technique in its choruses: glitchy distortion and panning effects are applied to the vocal but sidechained to a filthy synth bass, meaning that the effects only kick in whenever the bass is present. The result is a bass track that sounds like it’s somehow powerful enough to disturb other elements of the track. In terms of production on individual songs this year, Vampire Weekend’s ‘Sympathy’ is too damn cool to not be my number one. That double bass-led breakdown may also be my favourite musical moment of 2019. My immediate thought was ‘this is going to be used to sell some big corporation’s product’ — sure enough, it was later claimed by Apple. Alas, I’m doomed to live a life of cultural prescience. Foresight is 20/20. I digress — the rest of this record is unfortunately spotty, but there are some wonderfully upbeat tracks like ‘Harmony Hall’ and ‘How Long?’ as well as nice features by the likes of Danielle Haim and Steve Lacy.

If you don’t know Jacob Collier yet, please take this opportunity to familiarise yourself. This 25 year-old may be the greatest musical mind of our generation. I promise you this is not an exaggeration — to support this claim I would actually recommend not starting with any of his records but the short BBC video of him tapping five different rhythms with five different digits on one hand, making a dense polyrhythm. Then I’d draw your attention to his YouTube content, where he has been building a following since he was a teenager. Then I’d insist that you grab your most immersive headphones, wait until the quietest hour of the night, and play his a capellaarrangement of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s ‘Moon River’. The session file consisted of 5292 audio regions’ worth of vocals according to his Instagram, all of which work together to create gnarly reharmonisations and modulations using just about every phonetic sound across Collier’s huge range. The madman even employs microtonality effectively — listen for the glorious extended microtonal glissando from 7:00–7:47. To quote Adam Neely: ‘that guy is obnoxiously good at music’. I’m aware that many people don’t love his music and I do find some of his video content to be a bit cringe-inducing, but I wouldn’t change a thing about him. This album shows that he’s dedicating his life to being as creative as possible and just unashamedly doing his thing, and it’s great to behold.

Other highlights include feel-good funk masters Vulfpeck’s late entry; a live recording of their incredible sell-out Madison Square Garden show, The Raconteurs’ solid comeback album (it’s just a shame Jack White has outed himself as a boomer with his ‘no phones at my gigs’ policy), Lana del Ray finding her sound in Norman Fucking Rockwell! and virtuosic ensemble Snarky Puppy’s most artistically cohesive album to date in Immigrance. There are some lesser known artists in there too, so allow me to briefly flash my hipster credentials: tortuganónima (Spanish for ‘anonymous turtle’) is a fantastic Chilean math-rock band I’ve been following since 2012 (I think I discovered them on Bandcamp when my old math-rock band released an EP around the same time). Unlike a lot of their contemporaries the band always manages to avoid sounding too clinical in their rhythmic accuracy, maintaining a sense of chaos akin to bands like At the Drive-In. Beige Palace’s debut LP Leg is a very refreshing listen — the minimalist hardcore band from Leeds manages to hit the sweet spot between noisy instrumentation and flattering production, while the tongue-in-cheek lyrics are often genuinely hilarious. And while I might be late to the party on this one, my discovery of the Scottish Highlands’ Elephant Sessions was certainly a 2019 highlight; the band seamlessly blends Celtic music with math- and indie-rock in a way that makes me wonder why I haven’t heard it more often.

I listened to a lot of local music this year too — this was kind of a bonus weekly objective after listening to my two LPs. I opted against ranking these predominantly Belfast-based artists on the basis that it would be a political faux pas for me as a musician in the scene, but I will mention some highlights. Until this year I had completely slept on Robocobra Quartet. Their 2016 debut album Music for All Occasions blew me away; its flavour of ‘art-rock meets jazz’ satisfying a longing I didn’t know I had. I decided to make this album the exception to the rule and feature it in my pre-2019 list for a few reasons: it’s the only pre-2019 local full-length I listened to this year, I don’t know them personally, and I absolutely love it.

While Mosmo Strange’s Dingus EP was released on CD format in 2018 (I’ve been blasting it in my wee Clio ever since), its digital release wasn’t until 2019, so it gets a mention here. I’ve said to anyone who will listen that the title track is, without question, my favourite track of 2018, and I stand by it. The band’s new EP Sippy Cup is also very good, using a considerably more raw, DIY approach to its advantage. NEWT’s Autoimmune is a mathy EP with so much replay value for me due to catchy tracks like ‘He Loves You’, and the band is seriously impressive live in a completely different way. My dear friend Don Maple has had a very prolific year, both as an artist and a human being: he got married in June, dropped a great full-length album called Sorry in August as well as the surprisingly filthy hip hop single ‘No Internet.’ in December, and is due to drop a real life baby in 2020 (please don’t actually drop your baby). Pascalwillnotsurvivethis released two beautiful EPs, the most recent of which (Castaway)being recorded in New Jersey and produced by Jamie Hewitt on his phone, à la Steve Lacy. Jealous of the Birds’ gradual world domination has been very entertaining to watch, Wynona Bleach recorded an album in Portugal with fucking Bill Ryder-Jones producing, and elsewhere there has been great activity from HAVVK, Dreamreading, John Andrews, Denise Chaila, Hot Cops, Alpha Chrome Yayo, Romeo Indigo Romeo, Gemma Bradley, Willoware Jackson, EVA, Beauty Sleep, Sex Hardcore, Junk Drawer, Joel Harkin, Problem Patterns, Sasha Samara, Dandelion Tea, Kojaque, blxxd, Gender Chores, Dugout, Paper Tigers, and so many more that I’ve forgotten. Just read the rest of this zine! And yes, I have featured my own single in the Spotify playlists. (Don’t @ me). I can proudly say that ‘Dreamers’ features some of the best songwriting and production I’ve ever done, and I’m beyond excited to share the rest of the EP with you in early 2020. Big things coming and all that. 

It’s nice that I’m still figuring out exactly what I like, while simultaneously maintaining respect for the music I grew up with. And the year is not over yet — I’ll be listening to a few more records and adding highlights to the playlists until 2020. I might even update this article and post it in a digital format, so watch Zool’s/Sacha’s social media for that. Then I’ll start the whole wretched process again, except next year I’ll aspire to write a paragraph on each as I go along instead of pulling an all-nighter in mid-December. Thank you so much for reading. x

– Adam Sacha Weston

LISTEN NOW

SACHA’S BEST OF 2019 – Spotify playlist
SACHA’S BEST OF 2019 (AND UHH… OTHER YEARS) – Spotify playlist