Features

I honestly suck at keeping up on new music. Sure, I’m shoving out another mostly negative Review Explosion every three weeks when some artist past their prime pushes out another hour of dreck (or when Earl releases a stupidly annoying, half-baked 15 minute “album”) but I still don’t feel that I spend enough time covering what actually matters. As in, what’s actually good and worth talking about. Unfortunately, one music critic with their own taste and near-daily spins of IGOR can only do so much; no matter how hard I work, there are always a dozen supposedly great albums that I’ve fallen behind on even hearing.

From what I did listen to this year (by most people’s standards, a lot of music; by my high standards, not nearly enough), not everything I loved was a full album. Frank Ocean (arguably the greatest musical artist alive) and Jai Paul (who recently re-emerged after six silent years) both released stellar singles, and the highlight from SHADI’s debut album You Can’t Hear Me is its lead single “Lord Mohamad.” With this list, I breaking music critic tradition and name the year’s best music projects of the year (eliminating the length factor). Most of these are still full albums, but for acknowledging 2019’s great music this new format offers far more flexibility. (Note: if the same artist releases two singles close together with a uniform design aesthetic and/or musical style, I count it as one entry.) Further, the three honorable mentions are represented in the actual playlists because three songs isn’t enough for a separate honorable mentions playlist. Enough of my stupid self-absorbed ramblings, here’s the list and its associated playlists (note 1 - Tyler Holmes’ “The Promise” is mislabeled as “Basic Beach” due to a digital distribution error; note 2 - Tyler, The Creator’s “BEST INTEREST”/“GROUP B” isn’t on “real” streaming services):

Honorable Mentions:

Nothing Great About Britain - slowthai
Devil - Tyler Holmes
Night Owl - Olivia Jean

Main List:

25) Dos City - Dos Monos
24) “Harmony Hall” - Vampire Weekend
23) There Existed An Addiction To Blood - clipping.
22) KingMaker - Joel Ross
21) GINGER - BROCKHAMPTON
20) Injury Reserve - Injury Reserve
19) Everyday Life - Coldplay
18) “Do You Love Her Now?”/“He” - Jai Paul
17) ANIMA - Thom Yorke
16) Girl With Basket Of Fruit - Xiu Xiu
15) WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? - Billie Eilish
14) “All My Happiness Is Gone” - Purple Mountains
13) “Lord Mohamad” - Shadi
12) “Baby Boy” - Kevin Abstract
11) Help Us Stranger - The Raconteurs
10) 1000 gecs - 100 gecs
9) “BEST INTEREST”/“GROUP B” - Tyler, The Creator
8) GREY Area - Little Simz
7) “DHL”/“In My Room” - Frank Ocean
6) Norman Fucking Rockwell! - Lana Del Rey
5) Charli - Charli XCX
4) All My Heroes Are Cornballs - JPEGMAFIA
3) Titanic Rising - Weyes Blood
2) All Mirrors - Angel Olsen
1) IGOR - Tyler, The Creator

(Malachi Lui is the hardest working young music critic in the world. Follow his record shopping adventures on twitter: @Malachi Lui.)