This potentially enormous, multi-volume blog post is about the recorded music that had the biggest impact on my life throughout the year of our record 2019. The music did not necessarily (and generally did not) come out in 2019, but I discovered it, or grew to love it, or obsessed over it last year and it shaped my art and my heart. I will add a note before we dig for someone who is really underrepresented on the list: Natalia Lafourcade. I discovered and went goo-goo for her music at the end of 2018 and still had periods of consecutive days where I couldn't stop listening to the same records (Mujer Divina, Hasta la Raiz, and both volumes of Musas) over and over again all the way through the end of 2019. However, since I really got into those records in 2018, I'm not counting them except for in this exposition here. Maybe I should just say she's my artist of the year. Natalia, if you're reading this, tu musica me encanta. Llamame.
Now on to the lists. I have two. Singles that stood out and albums I played until the wax melted (metaphorically - I take good care of my vinyl and most of these I only heard via Apple Music, which is better than Spotify). I'll start with the singles because I like the albums better, and, being a classically-trained musician, I think the best should come last.
LAWSON'S TOP SINGLES OF 2019 (6-10)
If you read this far - you're a real (storm)trooper. Keep your eyes open for Singles 1-5 and my list of Top 10 Albums of 2019, probably coming out this weekend. Trust me, there's more uppers than there are downers. And there's more wild whacky world music to come that will blow your mind, hopefully as much as it blew mine.
Oh and by the by, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2 January 2020
Lower Greenville
Dallas, TX
Now on to the lists. I have two. Singles that stood out and albums I played until the wax melted (metaphorically - I take good care of my vinyl and most of these I only heard via Apple Music, which is better than Spotify). I'll start with the singles because I like the albums better, and, being a classically-trained musician, I think the best should come last.
LAWSON'S TOP SINGLES OF 2019 (6-10)
- 10 - Uyas Gerakun from the album Small Island Big Song (2018). The album is a massive collaboration that, among others, features the Balinese Flute star Gus Teja. The project website describes it best so read about it here. This particular track, Uyas Gerakun, is just groovy. It starts light, and builds like the pyramids. Stellar jaw harp performances. Roguish chanting. Even some Gamelan. AND it has a drop for the ages. An argument that I will stand by forever - drops with acoustic instruments, especially the rustic ones you'll find in traditional musics, are the best drops. Tiesto can eat me. See a live performance of Uyas Gerakun (drop included) here.
- 9 - Travelin' Man by Ricky Nelson from the album Rick is 21 (1961). For me, this was one of those songs that you know deep down in your heart somewhere because you heard it when you were a kid and it was just a darn good song and it never left you but you never thought about it as an adult or knew its name until suddenly, BAM - it's that song again. I was reading an article about Mike Posner's walking expedition across the US and, being a fan of his "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" (the original especially, but also the remix because it is ingrained into my soul thanks to college), I went back to listen to some of his older music. I think on his first album he has a pseudo-cover of Travelin' Man - I heard it and had that BAM moment and then said - wait there's no frickin way THAT song is by Mike Posner. So I did a google and found the original and got an even bigger BAM. I watched Ozzy and Harriet a lot as a kid (Ricky Nelson was one of their real-life sons who played one of their sons on their TV show) and one of my earliest musical memories is a scene where Ricky sings Johnny Cash's Cindy on the show and I thought "wow that's a hell of a song" and I couldn't get it our of my head (this was around 2005). Looking back on YouTube, I totally misremembered what was going on in the scene, but it's still a good song. In regards to Travelin' Man, I just find it infectious. The melody is great, the chorus is too much fun to sing along to. I apologize to team feminism if you find either of these songs offensive, but there's some truth to the whole "it was a different time" argument. And hey, it's veiled metaphors, and if you want to really be offended, go listen to the first 20 seconds of Cam'ron's Just be Honest from Purple Haze 2. I honestly connected with Travelin' Man to an incredible degree because I know a few people from "Polynesia" and am very affectionate for the geographical and musical aspects of the region. I won't comment on the local fauna. I listened to Travelin' Man over and over for like an hour at work and then learned it as soon as I got home that night. Great song. Traveling is fun, too.
- 8 - I've Been Dead 400 Years by Jimmy Cliff from the album Music Maker (1974). Man I love Jimmy Cliff. He really isn't in tune on the highest notes but I don't care. Those people today who talk about "good vibes" (if you're reading this and you say that a lot, I probably don't trust you) could be taught a lesson by Jimmy Cliff because authentic "good vibes" are exactly what he's selling. I was coming out of a minor emotional crash and got myself to go for a cold early morning run. I think the second song that came on was ...400 Years and I almost forgot to keep moving my feet and fell flat on my face on the sidewalk. I didn't want to mess up my splits by stopping so I did a manual "repeat 1" for about 15 minutes so I could hold on to those vibes. The lyrics really say something and they have an energy of positivity-anger. Like when you tell your best friend who is binge-eating because they got dumped "WAKE UP" (Jimmy interjects in the song with that at least once). There's a hot clarinet solo near the end. Great horns. I don't know what the R2-D2 rising melody sound is created by but I love that too. I've been dead myself at times, dealing with my depression or borderline personality disorder or whatever it really is, and this song makes me want to get off my mental couch and go punch a bear that needs the Heimlich (good vibes only right?).
- 7 - Ma Goola by Matthias Duplessy (feat. The Brownley Family) - a single (2018). In the mansion of music, Mathias Duplessy constructed and occupies a room with the relative value of any room in a one-room schoolhouse. There's a chance that's an exaggeration, but you won't know for sure until you listen to him. Ma Goola is NOT my favorite song of Mathias', but it's my favorite of those that I first heard in 2019 (I've been listening to this doomsday machine of a recording artist since summer 2016).If you've heard any of the songs I've written and am in the process of recording, you'll immediately recognize how much of an influence Mathias Duplessy is on me. The variety of vocal timbres he produces on his own are complemented in the worst way in Ma Goola by the Australian Brownley Family Gospel Singers with their chocolatey-rich harmonies (especially at the ... yeah ... THE DROP!). The Dij is incredibly tasteful, the guitar is swanky, and the Violins of the World make another appearance in this murderous single from a musical master who everyone really needs to know about. P.S. It may have become my favorite of his songs while I was writing this again and listening to it on repeat. P.P.S. I also found the Ma Goola video on YouTube. You're welcome.
- Taking a momentary pause from post to watch the video again ...
- 6 - I Didn't Know What I was in For by Better Oblivion Community Center from the album of the same name as the group (2019). I'll admit it, this one is a downer. So go back and listen to #7 or #8 before you go to sleep tonight. My buddy G-Dawg showed me this song when I was hurting quite a bit and I felt every lyric like a knife laughing at me for being such a self-pitying slob while cutting into my skin to find and dig out whatever it was that was making me pity myself in the first place. That's a double-edged song if I've ever heard one. This song really isn't musically stunning in any way - it's all in the lyrics for me. The instrumental parts do a great job of completing the emotional feel and that's all they're in for. I am very close with a significant number of people who I know would be haunted by the last seven words of the song (which I won't reprint here b/c it really is pretty dark and I want this list to be fun). One of the songwriters of Better Oblivion is named Phoebe Bridgers and G-Dawg later showed me another one of her albums that also had several songs that I deeply connected with. Those connections were spawned by this song, though, so that's why it's on the list. I had some really bad times in 2019, and I continue to find one of the most comforting things is to know that there's other people out there feeling the same thing, and that you can make beautiful art out of all the pain.
If you read this far - you're a real (storm)trooper. Keep your eyes open for Singles 1-5 and my list of Top 10 Albums of 2019, probably coming out this weekend. Trust me, there's more uppers than there are downers. And there's more wild whacky world music to come that will blow your mind, hopefully as much as it blew mine.
Oh and by the by, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2 January 2020
Lower Greenville
Dallas, TX