| 100 - 81 || 80 - 61 || 60 - 41 || 40 - 21 || 20 - 1 |
| All 100 Songs |
Hey, we're back. We didn't expect to have time to finish this before the summer, but now here we are. Great to be here, trapped just like everyone reading this with all the time in the world. We couldn't imagine a better way to spend what would have been SXSW week - the 8-day span when everyday is a holiday that only exists on Twitter and Instagram, ie Mar10 Day, 311 Day, Pi Day, Austin 3:16 Day, and of course Irish Carbomb Day. We forgot the others.
On that note, we'd like to proudly present the biggest of the big chungus of 2019, aka the 20 best songs from 2019 to wash your hands to.
20. Otoboke Beaver “Datsu. Hikage No Onna”
This is the one that goes "I hate a-youuuu". Some people need to hear that they're hated. The Japan Times Q&A quoted in their Pitchfork review outs the band as non-feminists with apolitical lyrical intentions, a revelation that only accentuates the authenticity saturating their proudly feminine, working class lyrical and musical themes. Their motivation is the art itself without adherence to a calculated Western-marketing strategy. Nonchalantly: "I just wrote about how I’m pissed off at my boyfriend; nothing bigger." That scream tho. Nothing bigger? Really?
19. The Chats “Identity Theft”
Is the world prepared for technological armageddon? The digital dark age? Literal #breaktheinternet? One day we'll wake up, and it's all gone. Where's my Spotify? Where's my tweets? Where's my HelloFresh? The stock market commits suicide on live TV. The fires begin. Nuclear explosions in the distance. Watch yourself melt. Watch your friends melt. Watch your family melt. Watch net neutrality melt. Watch Bitcoin melt. Watch Google melt. Watch reddit melt. Watch clickbait melt. Watch paywalls melt. Watch your follower count melt. Watch the blue checkmarks melt. Watch ad revenue melt. Sorry we forgot to follow back. If it makes any difference, it's all been merely a blip in the history of time as we await the sun's engulfing of all we'll ever know.18. Curse Word “Big Fingers”
17. Maneka “Never Nowhere”
We'd like to dedicate this entry to the "leanback" dude and his seriously big fingers. // Two jams of pure fire arriving via "homies of the blog;" in the past, we've blurbed of musical acquaintances in a similar manner who may or may not have Googled themselves (or their band name), discovered this blog, figured out who we are, and rightfully placed us into the "garbage asshole" category for tapping into our strangest ambien-induced auditory responses, most of which we don't remember writing due to light amnesia. // "Big Fingers" tends to loop in our heads for days; this was especially true last Fall thanks in no small part to its intense fiery combustion, straightforward uncryptic lyrics, and creepingly earwormy angular riffs. // The growing pensive energy in "Never Nowhere" downshifts into 3rd gear, climbing and brewing. Meeting an unexpected wild acceleration, the halfway checkpoint goes full throttle. Vin Diesel howls in excitement; The Rock just smirks in preparation for layin' the smackdown. // This is why it's probably uncomfortable when getting into the "conflict of interest" portions of the big chungus of 2019. Why did Maneka's jam initiate this big budget visual? In a similar brainwave, we're certain the music licensing for the Marvel cinematic universe botched what could have been their only perfect sync by neglecting Pinback's "From Nothing To Nowhere." Maybe we should pivot to vlogging YouTube montages instead of giving away our music video concepts for free. 16. Glitterer “Destiny”
We would like to dedicate #16 to Crispin Glover whose birthday is April 20th which means that his birthday will be happening for a whole month in 2020 since this will be the only year when 4/20 is a month-long celebration. In an interview in 2011, Back to the Future co-star Michael J. Fox said, "Crispin isn't crazy, just excitable." Crispin is your density; "Destiny" represents a confluence of production references, namely (Sandy) Alex G and Arthur Rizk, affiliate of Red Death, Power Trip, and Code Orange. This might help explain how Glitterer gets a free pass as one of those 8 or 9 non-hardcore bands lucky enough to join multiple hardcore touring packages (ie Young Guv, Tony Molina, Nudie Mag, Lil Ugly Mane, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal). Speaking of back-in-time, "Destiny" clocks in around 2:20-ish, placing it among the project's lengthiest and most realized jams.15. DaBaby f/ Offset “Baby Sitter”
When Baby Yoda catches DaBaby fucking DaBabysitter.
14. Three Knee Deep “Devil’s Playground”
"Time to break the law / In the name of gettin' paid." Can't argue with that.
13. Tyler The Creator “What’s Good”
Igor >>> Flower Boy. Don't @.
12. Nilufer Yanya “In Your Head”
An immediate infectious summer jam, "In Your Head" also arrived equipped with a titular reminder of the exact spot where it got firmly stuck for six entire weeks. Whoever said it sounds like young Sade fronting Pavement was half-correct. Again, we're nearly a decade since Yuck, and poptimists simply can't get it through their thick fucking heads that electric guitars existed before or after the '90s. It's like they refuse to accept that any halfway-loud guitar-based verse-chorus rock music has any identity within the 2010s, that it all must be derivative of a bygone era. Seriously, listen to that snare drum tone, and find us the '90s band that sounds like this. They don't exist. We'll accept "young Sade fronting some moderately rockin' Sub Pop band from 2012-2015." Sure, that works fine.11. Nudie Mag “She’s A Star”
A colossal wave of Weezer-worship bands felt unavoidable in the wake of Nada Surf's "Popular" and Nerf Herder's "Van Halen." Sure enough, 1998 marked a post-Pinkerton explosion highlighted by Ozma's classic Songs of Audible Trucks and Cars CDR release. Whether we like it or not, each passing year adds another 99 records to this pile, typically ranging from bland to lackluster and shipped to college radio from promoters with an apparently unlimited supply of "RIYL Weezer" stickers. And each year, the debris of bland unjustly buries one or two genuinely great and often unheard releases. One of these was Supermilk's crushing Rare Delusions EP, reimagining the path Matt Sharp & Damon Albarn might have forged had Rentals and Blur continued collaborating.And then there was Nudie Mag's stellar 3-song demo tape, a preview for their 2020 LP. Their approach differs from most we've encountered in the past 20 years since it might be the first to correctly match and frequently surpass Pat Wilson's intensely ferocious snare-drum attack between Return Of The Rentals and Pinkerton, pounding a heightened sense of urgency into their sugary hooks. "I think astrology is bullshit / Nothing ever aligns / For some goddamn reason I’m stuck here still reading the signs in the sky." This lyric stood out, initially implying a helpless surrender against the birth-chart and Zodiac-shaming fads of the late-2010s.
10. Holy Serpent “Marijuana Trench”
Full disclosure: This is a lie. The actual #10 is "For No One," the "penultimate" track appearing before "Marijuana Trench" on Holy Serpent's Endless LP. We decided to put "Marijuana Trench" instead because it's a truly outstanding song title, but the jam to hear is "For No One," a much better song about bloodshot dragons ripping mad gravs of bong and exhaling the smoke of the gods. No need to light the flame with a lighter because dragons literally breathe fire and don't really require one aside "for kicks" aka the novelty of the human lighter. Don't believe that Hollywood bullshit; Dragons only know how to fly in slow motion, and they do participate in ganja. "You son of a bitch; I'm in." Also "penultimate" is one of those words that inarticulate people overuse to sound smart.09. Hatchie “Obsessed”
There might be some lyrical tricks that went over our heads, but we hear "Obsessed" as a decorative shrine. Inherently innocent by design, childhood obsessions are more fun than we realize until decades later, after confronted with weightier concerns. "Obsessed" marks yet another great example of an unheralded album highlight thanks to the same clueless poptimist music writers who preferred the singles without a guitar track. Between her earlier, frostier Soundcloud singles and the subsequent bloom springing from 2019's Keepsake LP, one might say "I gotta give it to Hatchie; yaknow, she really represented; she stepped it up" in a manner not dissimilar from the judges of the great Iron Mic freestyle battle of 2003. After we incorrectly assumed Keepsake and "Obsessed" would dominate most of 2019's big name end-of-year lists, Paste curiously chose it for their 10 Best Shoegaze Records of the year despite its decidedly heavier dreampop influences, fusing a patchwork of earwormy hooks, dance grooves, and delicate '80s nostalgia. 08. Danny Brown “Combat”
Maybe it's just us and the other gen-x/millennial cusps, but perception through the space time continuum grew exponentially more fucked since right around the release of We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, not-so-coincidentally the first major album release within the 48 hours following the 2016 election of Doctor Professor -- an eternity ago, yet also uncomfortably recent. Three years later, "Combat" highlights uknowhatimsayin¿ -- arguably the LP under Q-Tip's direction that most closely resembles Tribe's imaginary 2019 follow-up, complete with Danny Brown's best uncanny impressions of Phife flowing into a few key insertions of Q-Tip and Consequence. DB's arguably more relevant now than ever, and his lol-bombs never quit: "I die for this shit like Elvis," "Got more pills than the Olsen twins." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br6JqvHGn3g
07. Young Guv “Every Flower I See”
Name one flower in this picture.
06. Denzel Curry “Ricky”
Ricky was a young boy. He had a heart of stone. He walked the streets a soldier. "I have two things to carry, one is the recycles bag and other is the little trash bag. We basically go around and people have their recycles out and they freak out, 'Hey, what are you doing, taking my recycles?' and it's like 'Hey, it's at the curb. We own it, not you.' Apparently there's a bit of a smell because of the recycles and there's fucking bees and hornets and wasps and shit everywhere." Ricky is covered in garbage juice because of the recycles. Fuckin way she goes. 05. Big Thief “UFOF”
Speaking of redundancy, here comes Big Thief again rounding out their unprecedented 4-for-4: "Masterpiece" was our #17 in 2016, "Mythological Beauty" was our #7 in 2017, solo jam "Symbol" placed #9 in 2018, and now "UFOF" at #5 is their highest placement, arguably the hottest jam throughout their 4 LPs. As far as late decade dopeness is concerned, no one else in the light-indie/SiriusXMU/NPR spectrum can match or surpass the consistency of Big Thief's lead singles. The only real downside is that we no longer have anything noteworthy to say about this band that hasn't already been said on this blog or elsewhere. 04. Sedona “More Love”
In 2008, literally every album review of M83's Saturdays = Youth compared "Kim and Jessie" to Molly Ringwald movies. Each subsequent year, a handful of acclaimed artists made equally bland attempts to raise the '80s nostalgia bar. The poptimist boners peaked in the wake of 1989's superficial resemblance of the actual summer '89, stealing thunder from E•MO•TION's botched promo campaign. As the decade progressed, it felt like indie-filmmakers understood the nuances of '80s aesthetic with more clarity than pop producers; take Turbo Kid for example, premiering at Sundance just a few months after 1989. It's a type of nostalgic art that's so painfully detailed that it's almost difficult to tell whether it's a genuine artifact of the era. This is also the case with "More Love," a song that Paula Abdul should probably cover for her unwarrented 2020s comeback. As Sedona's prior Soundcloud tracks stride towards the present, "More Love" marks her current apex of correctly nuanced vocal inflections and structural mastery, leaving us in heated anticipation of her foreshadowed follow-up EP.03. Kevin Krauter “Pretty Boy”
Our #3 entry is dedicated to the great Slavoj Žižek, our official 2019 "Hunk Of The Year" and probably of the decade.May God bless whoever was responsible for sneaking Kevin Krauter's soulful and pensive earworm "Pretty Boy" smack in the center of VICE's "Top 100 Tracks of 2019" at #50. We wish we could say this playlist was anything but infuriatingly tedious, but at least the immediate dopeness of "Pretty Boy" made the journey more than worth the effort. We're considering "Pretty Boy" for a coveted entry near the top of our 2010s Rubber Soul-core canon alongside Homeshake's "Heat," Good Morning's "Warned You," and probably something by Mac Demarco.
02. DaBaby “Suge”
What a revelation: I just signed a deal at the mall. Young Baby Jesus CEO was just a regular at the local food court in uptown North Carolina when Interscope's A&R execs finally tracked him down. They ask, "Excuse me sir, are you DaBaby?" as they hand over a record label contract, a fancy ink pen, and one-million dollars in cash. This scenario might have seemed feasible if these were "Suge's" actual lyrics, which they are not. In recent interviews, his frequent shout outs to the late great Rick James did not seem especially suspect until the inevitable Nardwuar Q&A raised the possibility that they might be uncle and nephew. If that's the case, we're guessing DaBaby has an extended family network of a few hundred cousins (and he still won't follow them back on Instagram).01. Beak> “Life Goes On” / Beak> "We Can Go"
Congrats to Beak> on earning their distinction as the only artist who twice placed as our Album Of The Year who then would later also receive Track(s) of the year. Apologies for the tie, but the two jams feel so thematically and texturally unified with this specific moment in history. Back in 2012, the similarly eerie "Eggdog" felt like it was slowly panning over vast Martian landscapes. Today, these same sonic textures can be applied just as easily to our own Earthly globe. Where did our hope go? The eerie marchiness of "Life Goes On" and the bleak grooves of "We Can Go" might perfectly soundtrack the close of a decade that opened with so much optimism and closed two steps removed from a dystopian hellscape, vastly magnifying public awareness of the lack of possibilities inherent within our own existentialism.How many good summers do we have left? What is life after COVID-19? Does music go on? How many more "best tracks of the year" lists will ever happen in the history of the world? How much longer until the next pandemic? Forget making it through the decade; what's stopping another one of these from happening before the end of 2020? Even after COVID-19 is eventually controlled, life will then go on despite Brexit, despite the Syrian conflict, despite the stronghold of capitalism, despite Greenland melting away. We're "stuck indoors," but realistically, weren't we always stuck indoors? The mind's eye slowly pans towards our very own planet and this wonderous moment in history that we're experiencing. What a time to be "alive." See you in hell.
| 100 - 81 || 80 - 61 || 60 - 41 || 40 - 21 || 20 - 1 |
| All 100 Songs |
No comments:
Post a Comment