Top 10 Albums: 2019
Here it is. The final post in my 2019 Year in Music Series. I don't blog a lot (which is obvious if you scroll down), so this has been a real bear of a project. Those first two posts each took a couple hours and I need to practice for some gigs tonight so I'm going to be concise with my post about my favorite albums of 2019. Before I get into it I'll say that I only really learned the value of an album sometime in 2018. I had always heard individual songs, and thought that's just the way things are. But then I discovered some majestic works of album-craft, with songs sliding directly into one another, hidden tracks, stories being told in segments throughout the work. Cool, crazy, beautiful S. So 2019 is the first year that I could really do a "favorite albums list" anyway. Without further ado - here they are:
#10
Wave (2019)
by Patrick Watson
Patrick Watson is a band named after a dude in the band and he and the band also deserver a lot of credit for Wooden Arms (2009), which made me a big fan, but I didn't discover it in 2019 so it didn't get the headline here. When I listen to Patrick Watson, I hear a bunch of music school kids saying "hey let's make pop-style songs with real instruments, and include some weird sounds like brake drums." Not as many of those weird sounds show up in Wave, but the sentiment remains ten years later, and it's a great listen. Patrick Watson also has a great voice. I'm going to try to buy it off him one day when I'm rich. One of my favorite songs on this is Melody Noir. Not only is it a great song, but there's a shocking twist at the end when the lyrics switch to Spanish - "Canta canta me luna me luna llena." I take this as a 100% guarantee that he's been listening to Natalia Lafourcade's cover of Tonada de Luna Llena (see my top singles post # 2), which reinforces my belief in my own great taste.
Wave (2019)
by Patrick Watson
Patrick Watson is a band named after a dude in the band and he and the band also deserver a lot of credit for Wooden Arms (2009), which made me a big fan, but I didn't discover it in 2019 so it didn't get the headline here. When I listen to Patrick Watson, I hear a bunch of music school kids saying "hey let's make pop-style songs with real instruments, and include some weird sounds like brake drums." Not as many of those weird sounds show up in Wave, but the sentiment remains ten years later, and it's a great listen. Patrick Watson also has a great voice. I'm going to try to buy it off him one day when I'm rich. One of my favorite songs on this is Melody Noir. Not only is it a great song, but there's a shocking twist at the end when the lyrics switch to Spanish - "Canta canta me luna me luna llena." I take this as a 100% guarantee that he's been listening to Natalia Lafourcade's cover of Tonada de Luna Llena (see my top singles post # 2), which reinforces my belief in my own great taste.
#9
Thank You Very Much (2019)
by The Happy Alright
C'mon Mad Dawg - you didn't really think I would get through these lists without including you did you? I had the privilege of going to college with THA and of becoming a bandwagon fan before it was cool. Thanks to their latest album, it's pretty damn cool. Their first couple of EPs (2016, 2018) were classic developing pop-punk and were very good. Thank You Very Much is Great. They worked with some BA producers down in Austin and came out sounding like they've been doing this stuff for years. Oh wait ... they have. Each song on the album has its own fun, punchy character. "Lucky 2 Kno U" is a fantastic homage to the never-cliche "sentimental, acoustic song amidst the heavy punk-ness." They did an awesome job and if you know these guys and haven't listened, this album deserves to be heard. It will always be special in my heart because I love the guys that made this music and because there are two songs on here where I helped make some of the background sounds in my garage - so in a tiny, tiny way, this is how I finally got on iTunes. Thanks Mad Dawg and S(orry I don't have a nickname for you) for letting me be a small part of your masterpiece.
Thank You Very Much (2019)
by The Happy Alright
C'mon Mad Dawg - you didn't really think I would get through these lists without including you did you? I had the privilege of going to college with THA and of becoming a bandwagon fan before it was cool. Thanks to their latest album, it's pretty damn cool. Their first couple of EPs (2016, 2018) were classic developing pop-punk and were very good. Thank You Very Much is Great. They worked with some BA producers down in Austin and came out sounding like they've been doing this stuff for years. Oh wait ... they have. Each song on the album has its own fun, punchy character. "Lucky 2 Kno U" is a fantastic homage to the never-cliche "sentimental, acoustic song amidst the heavy punk-ness." They did an awesome job and if you know these guys and haven't listened, this album deserves to be heard. It will always be special in my heart because I love the guys that made this music and because there are two songs on here where I helped make some of the background sounds in my garage - so in a tiny, tiny way, this is how I finally got on iTunes. Thanks Mad Dawg and S(orry I don't have a nickname for you) for letting me be a small part of your masterpiece.
#8
Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs (1962)
by Big Bill Broonzy
Hey - American popular music all starts with the Blues, baby, and Big Bill Broonzy could kick it. Apparently. This Smithsonian Folkways recording features the big guy commenting on racism, mental health (the Blues), faith, folk heroes, and more. It's a celebration of life and a commemoration of the era when "recordings were made of performances" were nearing their end and "performances made into recordings" were preparing to take over. It's humble, but full of feeling. It wasn't just a few times that I joyously belted "Goin' down this road and I'm feeling bad, baby..." along with Big Bill while scooting down Ross Avenue with my windows down on my way home from work. The Blues will never die.
Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs (1962)
by Big Bill Broonzy
Hey - American popular music all starts with the Blues, baby, and Big Bill Broonzy could kick it. Apparently. This Smithsonian Folkways recording features the big guy commenting on racism, mental health (the Blues), faith, folk heroes, and more. It's a celebration of life and a commemoration of the era when "recordings were made of performances" were nearing their end and "performances made into recordings" were preparing to take over. It's humble, but full of feeling. It wasn't just a few times that I joyously belted "Goin' down this road and I'm feeling bad, baby..." along with Big Bill while scooting down Ross Avenue with my windows down on my way home from work. The Blues will never die.
#7
Golijov: La Pasión según San Marcos (2010)
by Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra
La Pasion segun San Marcos, a recording of Osvaldo Golijov's masterwork as performed by Maria Guinand, Members of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, and Orquesta La Pasion (2010). I heard the big aria from this (link below) on the Norton Anthology of Classical Music, which I do have on my phone, and decided I wanted to hear the rest. It was a great idea. This is a hell of a passion, composed as part of a project commemorating Bach's (the big Bach) 250th birthday. Golijov and three other composers were asked to write their own version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Golijov, an Argentinian composer, stews African, Latin-American, and European Classical music together along with aspects of his own Jewish heritage and the result is stunning. Compare "No. 28 - Silencio" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCKP7XhNPoM) with "No. 26 - Luna descolorida (Aria de las lagrimas de Pedro)" ["Colorless Moon - Aria of the Tears of Peter] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_5oQ5JIiKU). There. Now you're stunned.
Golijov: La Pasión según San Marcos (2010)
by Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra
La Pasion segun San Marcos, a recording of Osvaldo Golijov's masterwork as performed by Maria Guinand, Members of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, and Orquesta La Pasion (2010). I heard the big aria from this (link below) on the Norton Anthology of Classical Music, which I do have on my phone, and decided I wanted to hear the rest. It was a great idea. This is a hell of a passion, composed as part of a project commemorating Bach's (the big Bach) 250th birthday. Golijov and three other composers were asked to write their own version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Golijov, an Argentinian composer, stews African, Latin-American, and European Classical music together along with aspects of his own Jewish heritage and the result is stunning. Compare "No. 28 - Silencio" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCKP7XhNPoM) with "No. 26 - Luna descolorida (Aria de las lagrimas de Pedro)" ["Colorless Moon - Aria of the Tears of Peter] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_5oQ5JIiKU). There. Now you're stunned.
#6
Terapia (2017)
by Cimafunk
THIS S HITS HARD. A Cuban artist from Pinar del Rio, Cimafunk "mixes Latin music with Funk" according to the pundits - but he really does a lot more. He mixes in rap, he gets a little operatic, he uses some spicy effects (like the rain-shower in "Alabao" that just goes straight back into the, yes, VERY funky groove, before fading to the end). Cimafunk punches you to get your attention so that he can then rip your heart open with a song that just gives you all the feels, while still being hype. He's just really good. What makes him even more special is that he stopped by my friends at El Almacen in Matanzas (Cuba) to make a video for their Musica Cotidiana series, and it's really frickin good. The sad part is that the song from the video isn't on the album. A piece of my heart is in Cuba and that piece starts bumpin when I listen to Terapia (which translates to "Therapy", but probably in a cool way).
Terapia (2017)
by Cimafunk
THIS S HITS HARD. A Cuban artist from Pinar del Rio, Cimafunk "mixes Latin music with Funk" according to the pundits - but he really does a lot more. He mixes in rap, he gets a little operatic, he uses some spicy effects (like the rain-shower in "Alabao" that just goes straight back into the, yes, VERY funky groove, before fading to the end). Cimafunk punches you to get your attention so that he can then rip your heart open with a song that just gives you all the feels, while still being hype. He's just really good. What makes him even more special is that he stopped by my friends at El Almacen in Matanzas (Cuba) to make a video for their Musica Cotidiana series, and it's really frickin good. The sad part is that the song from the video isn't on the album. A piece of my heart is in Cuba and that piece starts bumpin when I listen to Terapia (which translates to "Therapy", but probably in a cool way).
#5
E Malama - to Take Care of Something Precious (2012)
by Alexandra Dužíiková
This one is whack. I can't figure out who this lady is (because her website is in Austrian) and it looks like she has only put out one album. Well, with my eyebrows raised up and to the side in a sort of facial surrender-cobra I have to say it's a great album. From the first track, "E Malama", which I believe to be her cover or adaptation of a traditional Hawai'ian folk song anthem about taking care of the Earth, to the final track "E Malama" - another equally sick adaptation of the same song, with marimba this time, Alexandra Duzikova's music is pure magic. I will submit this complaint - I don't like her accent/timbre when she does Spanish. But hey man, she sings in English, Hawai'ian, Scots Gaelic (thanks Google), and Turkish, and replicates pretty legitimately the musical styles of the places where the songs come from. She even brings in instruments to add to that effect, with a Celtic harp on the Scots Gaelic song and what sounds like a Baglama for the Turkish tune. Oh, I forgot to mention, she also sings Shona and performs on an mbira with SHELL BUZZERS. You already know that the mbira is the most beautiful sounding thing in the world. Shell buzzers take the angelic sound to an entirely more pure dimension, making angels look like porn-star meth-addicts. Listen to this album the next time you're on an international flight. Or just do it now.
E Malama - to Take Care of Something Precious (2012)
by Alexandra Dužíiková
This one is whack. I can't figure out who this lady is (because her website is in Austrian) and it looks like she has only put out one album. Well, with my eyebrows raised up and to the side in a sort of facial surrender-cobra I have to say it's a great album. From the first track, "E Malama", which I believe to be her cover or adaptation of a traditional Hawai'ian folk song anthem about taking care of the Earth, to the final track "E Malama" - another equally sick adaptation of the same song, with marimba this time, Alexandra Duzikova's music is pure magic. I will submit this complaint - I don't like her accent/timbre when she does Spanish. But hey man, she sings in English, Hawai'ian, Scots Gaelic (thanks Google), and Turkish, and replicates pretty legitimately the musical styles of the places where the songs come from. She even brings in instruments to add to that effect, with a Celtic harp on the Scots Gaelic song and what sounds like a Baglama for the Turkish tune. Oh, I forgot to mention, she also sings Shona and performs on an mbira with SHELL BUZZERS. You already know that the mbira is the most beautiful sounding thing in the world. Shell buzzers take the angelic sound to an entirely more pure dimension, making angels look like porn-star meth-addicts. Listen to this album the next time you're on an international flight. Or just do it now.
#4
Ancient Voices (1998)
by Chiwoniso
She's back on the list and you know she deserves it. This album Up-Lifts just as hard as Cimafunk's Hits. Chiwoniso throws in some traditional Shona music in her halfway-between-pure-Shona-Folk-and-Chimurenga style along with several originals to create 56 minutes of bliss (sorry to The Caesars for stealing their line, but bliss is the exact perfect word here). Like I already talked about on Chiwoniso's cover of "Zvichapera", the mbiras sound great throughout. She also has a great jangling guitar sound, some hot horn sections, classic '80s-'90s drums, and incredible flow with the lyrics. She can get bluesy, rick & rolly, new-agey. The album is just so much fun to listen to and some of the melodies can just stick in your head like melted laffy taffy. Chiwoniso put out another great album in 2008 called Rebel Woman. Check out both if you know what's good for your soul.
Ancient Voices (1998)
by Chiwoniso
She's back on the list and you know she deserves it. This album Up-Lifts just as hard as Cimafunk's Hits. Chiwoniso throws in some traditional Shona music in her halfway-between-pure-Shona-Folk-and-Chimurenga style along with several originals to create 56 minutes of bliss (sorry to The Caesars for stealing their line, but bliss is the exact perfect word here). Like I already talked about on Chiwoniso's cover of "Zvichapera", the mbiras sound great throughout. She also has a great jangling guitar sound, some hot horn sections, classic '80s-'90s drums, and incredible flow with the lyrics. She can get bluesy, rick & rolly, new-agey. The album is just so much fun to listen to and some of the melodies can just stick in your head like melted laffy taffy. Chiwoniso put out another great album in 2008 called Rebel Woman. Check out both if you know what's good for your soul.
#3
Elwan (2017)
by Tinariwen
One of the incredible things about music is the stories that come along with it. That's why writing these posts has been a lot of fun for me, remembering how and when I first heard a song or learned about a band. Tinariwen is all about stories for me. I was listening to NPR, right at the intersection of Ross and Greenville on my way home in July, and heard a story about a Tuareg band from Mali that was doing a US tour. They had a show coming up in North Carolina and the venue had made a facebook event page for them, where some dummies had been making generalist comments about the band's Islamic faith, maybe some petty half-hearted threats too. The rebel in me said - I wanna be an anti-dummy and go to a show. As luck would have it, they were playing Deep Ellum only a month later. They played like guitar gods, just like they said on NPR. A very succinct ethnomusicological explanation of their music as a phenomenon could go like this: the traditional music of Mali belongs to a larger family of West-African musics that were brought to North America by people taken as slaves and formed the foundation of the blues, upon which Rock & Roll was built. The electric guitar became the icon that it is because of its prominence in both those genres. Now, Tinariwen is taking the electric guitar back to its roots and using it to play the music that founded the genres that carried the instrument to its celebrity status. And they're playing the hell out of it. Also, a lot of the members of the band literally fought in the numerous civil wars that have left Mali unstable for the past few decades, even while the group has remained active since 1979. Just read their whole Wikipedia page. Elwan is their most popular album, but everything I found on Apple Music is fantastic. Picture yourself wandering the Sahara Desert while you do it. Your imagination's not that great? Here - they had some star of an animator picture it for you.
Elwan (2017)
by Tinariwen
One of the incredible things about music is the stories that come along with it. That's why writing these posts has been a lot of fun for me, remembering how and when I first heard a song or learned about a band. Tinariwen is all about stories for me. I was listening to NPR, right at the intersection of Ross and Greenville on my way home in July, and heard a story about a Tuareg band from Mali that was doing a US tour. They had a show coming up in North Carolina and the venue had made a facebook event page for them, where some dummies had been making generalist comments about the band's Islamic faith, maybe some petty half-hearted threats too. The rebel in me said - I wanna be an anti-dummy and go to a show. As luck would have it, they were playing Deep Ellum only a month later. They played like guitar gods, just like they said on NPR. A very succinct ethnomusicological explanation of their music as a phenomenon could go like this: the traditional music of Mali belongs to a larger family of West-African musics that were brought to North America by people taken as slaves and formed the foundation of the blues, upon which Rock & Roll was built. The electric guitar became the icon that it is because of its prominence in both those genres. Now, Tinariwen is taking the electric guitar back to its roots and using it to play the music that founded the genres that carried the instrument to its celebrity status. And they're playing the hell out of it. Also, a lot of the members of the band literally fought in the numerous civil wars that have left Mali unstable for the past few decades, even while the group has remained active since 1979. Just read their whole Wikipedia page. Elwan is their most popular album, but everything I found on Apple Music is fantastic. Picture yourself wandering the Sahara Desert while you do it. Your imagination's not that great? Here - they had some star of an animator picture it for you.
#2
Chamakanda Tells Stories (2012)
by Steve Spitalny
From Steve's website: "I am an early childhood consultant and writer and I offer lectures, workshops and mentoring around the world. Teachers and parents alike rave about their experiences and want me back for more!"
This is me, raving. This album contain recordings of Spitalny telling various folk tales from around the world, accompanied by mbira music (performed by Jacob Mafuleni, Peacheson Ngoshi, Tonderai Ndava, and Martha Thom). This may seem weird, but it is utterly incredible for a number of reasons. First: because it sounds awesome. Second: because it is very enjoyable and easy to listen to. Third: because Spitalny is essentially replicating (in English) a completely legitimate style of traditional Shona mbira music. Storytelling accompanied by music is actually a legitimate form of art in cultures all around the world. Poetry is talking to a beat. Where does that beat come from? Nowadays, it's not really felt. But way back when poetry was starting out, you bet your bongos that there was actually music playing along with it. You remember how Homer's epics are both originally entirely in verse (they're HYUGE poems)? Is Steve Spitalny telling folk tales for children in the same way that the greatest stories in Western Culture were traditionally performed? Yes I think so. I've been an advocate for bringing back the traditional styles of performance like this for a long time. I don't know if Spitalny did it on purpose, but he did something really special here. By the way, I can tell some of these stories while accompanying myself on mbira. It's as fun to see as it sounds.
Chamakanda Tells Stories (2012)
by Steve Spitalny
From Steve's website: "I am an early childhood consultant and writer and I offer lectures, workshops and mentoring around the world. Teachers and parents alike rave about their experiences and want me back for more!"
This is me, raving. This album contain recordings of Spitalny telling various folk tales from around the world, accompanied by mbira music (performed by Jacob Mafuleni, Peacheson Ngoshi, Tonderai Ndava, and Martha Thom). This may seem weird, but it is utterly incredible for a number of reasons. First: because it sounds awesome. Second: because it is very enjoyable and easy to listen to. Third: because Spitalny is essentially replicating (in English) a completely legitimate style of traditional Shona mbira music. Storytelling accompanied by music is actually a legitimate form of art in cultures all around the world. Poetry is talking to a beat. Where does that beat come from? Nowadays, it's not really felt. But way back when poetry was starting out, you bet your bongos that there was actually music playing along with it. You remember how Homer's epics are both originally entirely in verse (they're HYUGE poems)? Is Steve Spitalny telling folk tales for children in the same way that the greatest stories in Western Culture were traditionally performed? Yes I think so. I've been an advocate for bringing back the traditional styles of performance like this for a long time. I don't know if Spitalny did it on purpose, but he did something really special here. By the way, I can tell some of these stories while accompanying myself on mbira. It's as fun to see as it sounds.
#1
The Execution of All Things (2002)
by Rilo Kiley
My album of the year for 2019 came out in 2002 when I was seven years old. I never heard it (thank God b/c it has some foul language) until I was twenty-four. The crazy thing about recorded music (one of many "the crazy things" I've mentioned so far I'm sure) is that it sounds just as youthful and energetic seventeen years later as it does the day it hits shelves. And I think this album really did hit shelves, because it was only a year after iTunes first came out and I bet CDs were still hot. I loved this album in 2019 (and still do) because it threads together several stories. One of them is like Spitalny's stories - literally a story. It's about the lead singer's experience moving up to Alaska with her father when she was young, leaving behind everything she knew and going up "where the population grows" (among other epithets she uses). This story is told both through lyrical references in the listed tracks and in a side-song, broken up into pieces scattered throughout the album as tags to the other tracks. I haven't heard anyone else do something like that, maybe because it makes the tagged singles harder to sell. As far as album-craft goes, though, it's genius. The sound of this album is best described as icey-country-punk-pop-rock. What does that mean? Go listen, once I tell you what it's called. I was introduced to this album by my friend G when she sent me the sixth track because she felt like the song would understand me like it understood her, and she was totally right. That particular song opens with a childlike sonic vibe of innocence (though the lyrics describe a druggy, alcoholic mother) and then suddenly wakes up and drops a fat F-bomb in the most tasteful way. It's a battle cry for the beaten down. Then I decided I had to hear the rest of the album. A distinct curiosity to note is how the lyrics are often delivered almost in the form of prose - moving in the direction of Spitalny's storytelling, but a lot more punk. The whole thing is a musical bildungsroman and that's an artistic genre that I still strongly identify with, as I try to walk the line between hanging on to childish fantasies and giving up on hope. The music has pep to balance the bitterness of the words, and I think that's a pretty good description of my own personality when I'm around people who I allow myself to be completely open with. A couple of my favorite lines from the album: "Let's talk about all our friends who lost the war / and the novels that are yet to be written about them" and "I never understood while you felt so good in the strangest of places / like in waiting rooms or long lines that made you late or mall parking lots on holidays". Every time I'm in an airport I listen to that last one and I smile. I love airports for all the wrong reasons. The music grinds, the lyrics bite, and there's a weird sense of "hope in spite of everything" throughout this album that I probably listened to all the way through about twenty times in 2019: The Execution of All Things by Rilo Kiley. I've already listened to it again in 2020.
The Execution of All Things (2002)
by Rilo Kiley
My album of the year for 2019 came out in 2002 when I was seven years old. I never heard it (thank God b/c it has some foul language) until I was twenty-four. The crazy thing about recorded music (one of many "the crazy things" I've mentioned so far I'm sure) is that it sounds just as youthful and energetic seventeen years later as it does the day it hits shelves. And I think this album really did hit shelves, because it was only a year after iTunes first came out and I bet CDs were still hot. I loved this album in 2019 (and still do) because it threads together several stories. One of them is like Spitalny's stories - literally a story. It's about the lead singer's experience moving up to Alaska with her father when she was young, leaving behind everything she knew and going up "where the population grows" (among other epithets she uses). This story is told both through lyrical references in the listed tracks and in a side-song, broken up into pieces scattered throughout the album as tags to the other tracks. I haven't heard anyone else do something like that, maybe because it makes the tagged singles harder to sell. As far as album-craft goes, though, it's genius. The sound of this album is best described as icey-country-punk-pop-rock. What does that mean? Go listen, once I tell you what it's called. I was introduced to this album by my friend G when she sent me the sixth track because she felt like the song would understand me like it understood her, and she was totally right. That particular song opens with a childlike sonic vibe of innocence (though the lyrics describe a druggy, alcoholic mother) and then suddenly wakes up and drops a fat F-bomb in the most tasteful way. It's a battle cry for the beaten down. Then I decided I had to hear the rest of the album. A distinct curiosity to note is how the lyrics are often delivered almost in the form of prose - moving in the direction of Spitalny's storytelling, but a lot more punk. The whole thing is a musical bildungsroman and that's an artistic genre that I still strongly identify with, as I try to walk the line between hanging on to childish fantasies and giving up on hope. The music has pep to balance the bitterness of the words, and I think that's a pretty good description of my own personality when I'm around people who I allow myself to be completely open with. A couple of my favorite lines from the album: "Let's talk about all our friends who lost the war / and the novels that are yet to be written about them" and "I never understood while you felt so good in the strangest of places / like in waiting rooms or long lines that made you late or mall parking lots on holidays". Every time I'm in an airport I listen to that last one and I smile. I love airports for all the wrong reasons. The music grinds, the lyrics bite, and there's a weird sense of "hope in spite of everything" throughout this album that I probably listened to all the way through about twenty times in 2019: The Execution of All Things by Rilo Kiley. I've already listened to it again in 2020.
Wrap-Up
I've discovered that music can be like a tattoo. (I think that) When people get a deliberate tattoo, they pick out an image that defines part of themselves and projects that out into the world, so that other people can know part of what makes them unique by checking out their ink. In 2019, I found a lot of music that represents me and who I want to become. This music is stuck with me, not on my skin, but in my head. And rather than projecting my personality outward to others, the music helps me define myself internally. In sharing these lists I'm putting a musical tattoo here on my website (it's like a butt tattoo, because very few people will ever see it). The music on these lists should tell you a thing or two about me, but it should also just bring ecstasy to your ears because it is all really good music. If you want to hear more about some of these artists, get some recommendations about rabbit-holes you can fall into, or just talk about the songs that are imprinted on your soul, HMU.
Have a great 2020, everybody -
Lawson
7 Januar7 2020
Lower Greenville, Dallas
I've discovered that music can be like a tattoo. (I think that) When people get a deliberate tattoo, they pick out an image that defines part of themselves and projects that out into the world, so that other people can know part of what makes them unique by checking out their ink. In 2019, I found a lot of music that represents me and who I want to become. This music is stuck with me, not on my skin, but in my head. And rather than projecting my personality outward to others, the music helps me define myself internally. In sharing these lists I'm putting a musical tattoo here on my website (it's like a butt tattoo, because very few people will ever see it). The music on these lists should tell you a thing or two about me, but it should also just bring ecstasy to your ears because it is all really good music. If you want to hear more about some of these artists, get some recommendations about rabbit-holes you can fall into, or just talk about the songs that are imprinted on your soul, HMU.
Have a great 2020, everybody -
Lawson
7 Januar7 2020
Lower Greenville, Dallas
In April, 2021, Alexandra Duzikova found the original blog post of these rankings and commented:
Hello;
I did some internet research and by accident found your review on my first CD "E malama".
I want to thank you for your words and positive feedback!
As we hardly played live music in the last year its a pleasure to read that music is so important in our lifes and hopefully it will play a big part again soon.
I do agree that my spanish accent is not that great.
Anyhow...your review gave me the impulse to play more again and finally record a song that I composed at the end of last year.
I will share it with you once I put it on youtube.
Greetings from Austria.
Alexandra Duzikova.
Hello;
I did some internet research and by accident found your review on my first CD "E malama".
I want to thank you for your words and positive feedback!
As we hardly played live music in the last year its a pleasure to read that music is so important in our lifes and hopefully it will play a big part again soon.
I do agree that my spanish accent is not that great.
Anyhow...your review gave me the impulse to play more again and finally record a song that I composed at the end of last year.
I will share it with you once I put it on youtube.
Greetings from Austria.
Alexandra Duzikova.
In May 2025, the North Miami Escort Agency commented:
I enjoy how albums are presented as cohesive works of art.
I enjoy how albums are presented as cohesive works of art.
In 2019, I also ranked my Top 10 Songs - I haven't continued that tradition, but wanted to preserve the rankings here:
Part I
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
Part II
Here are the five recorded songs that affected me the most in 2019, continuing on from last night's post:
Thanks for reading my top singles list! If you want to hear more music like this, hit me up. I'll curate something for you. Not to brag, but I have a really good ear, really good taste, and I want to share it. If you think this music is weird - I think that's a good thing. Art isn't supposed to confine you in a comfortable box. It's supposed to help you grow. Keep your eyes open for my Top albums of 2019 list, coming this weekend.
3 January 2020
Lower Greenville
Dallas, TX
Part I
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)
- 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
Part II
Here are the five recorded songs that affected me the most in 2019, continuing on from last night's post:
- 5 - Dela by Johnny Clegg & Savuka from the album Cruel Crazy Beautiful World (1989). I didn't know what this song was until January 30, 2019, so it barely made the 2019 list. But, just like Travelin' Man, it was one of those songs I knew in the dark corners of my brain from when I was a kid. This time, it was thanks to one of my parents' favorite movies: George of the Jungle. I'd also heard Dela dozens of other times throughout my life but always just thought "yeah - that song - it's good." I first knew who Johnny Clegg was in late 2018 when I found his epic (in the literary sense) song Impi and thought it was utterly bad ass. I heard a lot more of his music throughout 2019 - he's a lot like Mathias Duplessy and the artist I want to become in the way he melts musics and cultures together and creates something awesome. Johnny Clegg was particularly good, timely, and fortunate enough to have a significant impact on the world around him, becoming a major part of the anti-apartheid surge. A beautiful moment in the history of pop music occurred when Nelson Mandela snuck up behind him on stage to dance along to Asimbonanga, Clegg's song about Nelson Mandela. Ironically, the title of that song (meaning "We have not seen him") refers to how Clegg and South Africans of his age grew up in a time when possessing the image of Nelson Mandela was punishable by prison time and they literally never saw him. Clegg got to make up for it with a hell of a view at that concert in Frankfurt in 1999. Dela is a hype song. Jungle calypso keys. Driving bass drum. background choir effects that almost sound like they were lifted for the soundtracks for the Halo video games. The lyrics make up one of those perfectly non-sappy love songs that also include some lines that can just be general motivational phrases: "I've been waiting for you all my life / waiting for redemption." It also includes some of Clegg's stunningly poetic nature references - especially the frequent-flyer "I think I know why the dog howls at the moon." Damn - I wanna know that, too. Johnny Clegg crossed the burning sea on July 16, 2019, passing into legend. This song is definitely one of the highlights of his personal epic, and I'll carry it with me on mine.
- 4 - Tonada de Luna Llena, originally by Simon Diaz (a recording of his version can be found on the album Tonadas from 1974) and covered by Natalia Lafourcade on her album Musas. I first noticed this song when I was playing my vinyl version of Musas, probably near the end of 2018. But it was in 2019 that I realized just how incredible this song is. It's become one of my favorites of Natalia's and when I discovered the original version it just added depth. The crazy part is, I'm pretty sure Simon Diaz did a lot of comedic stuff (a genuine Venezuelan Roger Miller). This song, however, starts with the line "Yo vide una garza mora dandole combate un rio / asi es como se enamora tu corazon con el mio" (I saw a black heron giving combat to a river / this is how your heart falls in love with mine). Whatever that means, it's not funny. If you ask me, it's about as deep as the Rio Grande, or even the Grand Canyon. I don't know much, but I know it's even more beautiful in the original Spanish than in the translation. And when it's sung with an offbeat quarter-note triplet over a Spanish-guitar-esque 3/4 it's even more maravillosa. Listen to the original by Diaz, then listen to Lafourcade's. Notice how the male accompanying Lafourcade (whoever it is - maybe one of the Macorinos) is basically singing the same part as Diaz and Lafourcade (usually) harmonizes with it. In a ghostly way, she's basically singing along with the musical spirit of Simon Diaz left behind when he passed away in 2014. If you want to hear me sing this over guitar or marimba, I can now. Because I love this song.
- Now for everyone who knows me and is saying, "where is all the mbira dawg?" You're about to get set straight with that song I posted about just a couple days ago. You've got another chance to go listen to it now:
- 3 - No Pain No Gain by Shava Mbira Band on their album No Pain No Gain (2011). Start listening to it here while you read this. Wait for the sound of the mbira to let you get comfortable and then ... "whoa ... is that an Australian lady ... just reading a poem?" It's a meaningful poem for starters, but then "whoa ... whoa ... now there's a guy singing? Jimminy Crickets. Am I being eaten alive by this sonic phenomenon?" Yes. You are. The mbira timbre is beautifully rustic. To me, it sounds like 68*, sunny, with the windows down, driving through the North Texas suburbs, having some sort of feeling of home being nearby, but knowing that "home" is transitive. And if you ask "is that really a sound?" you're clearly not listening to the song like I told you to. I discovered No Pain No Gain when I went on an mbira bender right at the beginning of 2019. I think I was in another down spell back then and all that mbira music brought me out of it. When I heard No Pain No Gain for the first time, I felt motivated. The last time I heard No Pain No Gain in 2019, I thought "Wow. That first time I thought I was the man version of the young boy. I reminisced. But now I feel the message even more, because I've done a lifetime's worth of growing in 2019. And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone through all that pain. Troubles with women. Troubles with my career. DENGUE FRICKING FEVER. More troubles with women. Crushing self-doubt. Suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Fear. Counseling. Hope. Motivation. Real gain. From real pain. Shava was right all along.
- 2 - Castles Made of Sand by the Jimi Hendrix Experience from the album Axis: Bold as Love (1967) and first heard by myself as a cover by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their cover was released in 2006 as a bonus track addition to the iTunes version of their album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (originally released in 1991). If you haven't heard this song in any of its iterations, you really are missing out. The lyrics are apparently somewhat autobiographical (for Hendrix - probably just the first verse, because Hendrix was neither an Indian Brave or a Girl in a Wheelchair, as far as I'm aware). Each verse tells a tale as old as time summarized in the line from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" (that then became the title of Kwame Nkrumah's masterpiece novel that inspired what is likely the most important album by hip hop band The Roots, who have been performing as Jimmy Fallon's house band for a while now): Things Fall Apart. Hendrix's rendition of the idea is "Castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually." When I finally figured out what Anthony Kiedis was saying, it burned me to the core. I won't throw myself anymore pity party because by now you know, I've had quite a few castles slip into the sea right when I thought they were getting grand. But before I could figure out the lyrics, I had to cut through the fat, fat, FAT bass licks and overwhelming groove that the instruments provide throughout the song. It's jut so fat. The Experience's recording is also hot, but not quite as fat. They seem to be going more for the traditional Jimi grind: quick, slick, grimy, and just the right amount of heavy. I like Kiedis' vocals better, but obviously the Experience has better guitar licks. Castles Made of Sand told me to get on a bus that took me to the Jimi Hendrix Greatest Hits station, where I became acquainted with Little Wing, which is undoubtedly my favorite of his songs. If you're a Hendrix fan and you hate me for that, I'm sorry, I'm just kinda sappy, ya know? I dig that sort of stuff. And the Drum fills - god dang. Safe to say, listening to Castles Made of Sand probably 40 times on repeat over a couple day span during one of the most stressful weeks, thanks to work and my personal life, of 2019, rocketed the song up to the top of this list on the same Golden Wing Ship that the girl in the wheelchair saw when she was on the edge of the shore, laughing at her legs because she knew they wouldn't hurt her no more.
- NUMBER ONE - ZVICHAPERA by Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited (you can find a recording on the 2000 compilation Chimurenga Explosion) and covered by probably a dozen artists, none more important for me than Chiwoniso who recorded it three months before she passed away in 2013 (and the recording was not released until 2015). Chiwoniso is one of the artists I discovered on my early-2019 mbira bender and you'll hear about some of her albums in the forthcoming post(s) about my favorite albums of 2019. Dr. Thomas Mapfumo is basically Zimbabwe's version of both Nelson Mandela and Johnny Clegg wrapped into one person. He is the founder of the movement of Chimurenga music, which takes the Shona name for the Rhodesian Bush War (and later incidents of popular unrest directed towards the government of Zimbabwe). For those who don't know, you can call it Zimbabwe's Reggae, but stop calling it that quick because it deserves to be understood as a style all its own. The big idea is mixing the traditional Shona music and its main instrument (my favorite instrument in all the universe), the mbira, with rock and roll instrumentation. It works. Like really well. I actually got to see Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited perform live at SMU when I was there, before Robert Mugabe relinquished his control over their home country. Mapfumo and his band were brought in by the Anthropology Department and barely anyone from the music school knew about it. [Insert Trump "SAD" tweet]. I'm generally obsessed with mbira music, and I generally listen to stuff from Zimbabwe, which is generally in the Shona language. This sucks a lot because I don't know what they're saying and usually can't sing along. But it's great because it proves just how powerful music is as a bridge between cultures and languages. I don't give a rat's hand grenade what they're saying. I can tell exactly WHAT THEY'RE FEELING and that's even more important. I heard Chiwoniso's rendition of Zvichapera before I heard Mapfumo's. His is classic. Fantastic. Chimurenga through and through. Her's is a stripped down, mbira-focused arrangement with a pair of vocalists: Chiwoniso herself and a guy who sounds like he could've sang the part of the big bassy fish in The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea." I honestly think it's better than Mapfumo's. It's more intimate, and I love the bass notes of an mbira when they're properly amplified more than most things on the Earth. Remember that this is a posthumously-released recording, then listen to the end of the track where the song ends, the last mbira notes fade, and then Chiwoniso and her recording partner have a giggle-fest, Chiwoniso says something in Shona, and then it cuts to black. If that's not heart-wrenching, then you need a better plumber. I could listen to this song on repeat for a decade. Probably in large part because I could never replicate the majesty of that song myself. There's a lot of great music out there that I hear and think - "wow that's awesome" - and then I learn to play it myself and the awesomeness melts into my own ego, because deep down I know I'm actually pretty darn good. Most of the songs on this list are here because I couldn't stop listening to them, because they have some sort of magic that is heretofore beyond my understanding. Beyond my musical language. I can love it. I can bury myself in it's welcoming folds. But I can't replicate it. At least not yet. Zvichapera, though ... I don't think I'll ever fully understand that song. And that's why it mesmerizes me so. And it's moments, songs, pieces, recordings, performances, &c. that mesmerize me, that are my reason for loving music.
Thanks for reading my top singles list! If you want to hear more music like this, hit me up. I'll curate something for you. Not to brag, but I have a really good ear, really good taste, and I want to share it. If you think this music is weird - I think that's a good thing. Art isn't supposed to confine you in a comfortable box. It's supposed to help you grow. Keep your eyes open for my Top albums of 2019 list, coming this weekend.
3 January 2020
Lower Greenville
Dallas, TX