My Top 19 Albums of 2019 (Part 2)

Here's a few more to keep us going...

12. Todd Snider - Cash Cabin Sessions Volume 3

Retreating to Johnny's old Cabin is a classic back-to-basics move for the king of witty, cynical Americana.

Top Track - Talkin' Reality Television Blues

Well, come gather 'round and I'll sing you a song

About a crazy old world that was coming along

'Til one day some fool made the decision

To turn on the television...

...then a show called "The Apprentice" came on and pretty soon

An old man with a comb-over had sold us the moon

And we stayed tuned in, now here we are

Reality killed by a reality star

11. The Lemonheads - Varshons II

The laziest man in rock (TM) finds his way into a recording studio for the first time in ten years and churns out another effortless & eclectic set of covers that prove he's still got it... he just doesn't use it that often.

Top Track: Magnet

Apparently the vinyl comes with a banana-scented scratch n sniff sleeve...

10. Midland - Let It Roll

Peerless* bar band country rock, the kind of record they don't make anymore.

(*Among the current country rock crowd.)

Top Track is Mr. Lonely, but I featured that very recently, so here's Every Song's A Drinkin' Song.

You don't have to wait on Hank if you want to raise your glass

You don't have to wait on Cash if you're just here to get trashed

You don't have to wait on Nelson if you're trying to raise some hell, son

You don't have to wait on Cline if you just want some more wine

9. Mattiel - Satis Factory

Gotta hand this one to Rigid Digit; I wouldn't have discovered it without him raving about it.

Dusty Springfield, Debbie Harry, Amy Winehouse, Aretha Franklin, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Diana Ross, Nico, Courtney Barnett... you can hear them all in this record, yet every track is distinctly Mattiel. Quite an accomplishment.

And it's the expectation, making or breaking, giving me a heart attack

And in twenty years time will it all be mine

Or will I wish that I could take it all back?

(This tune even steals a bit of a Wrecking Ball era Springsteen.)

My Top 19 Albums of 2019 (Part 1)

As a fervent believer that you shouldn't play Christmas songs after December 25th, I wanted to get something new up on the blog today, but as I've not quite completed my compilation of the year's best albums... here's the first half*, which I managed to complete last week.

For someone who professes to not know much about new music and is always whinging on about how the charts mean nothing to me after the 20th Century... I don't half find a load of records to listen to. I'm kind of glad that chart music largely leaves me cold these days, because if it didn't I'd never find the time to keep up with all that AND all the nonsense below.

As in previous years, I've limited my Best Of list to the big number on the calendar, hence 19 albums in 2019. But I could easily have done 30, like Brian. (Always ahead of the crowd.)

I won't bore you with the runners-up. Regular readers will have heard me going on about most of them already, and as usual there will be a few stragglers that stretch out into the new year.

This list is only a snapshot anyway. The Top 3 are pretty much set in stone, but the rest could move up and down a bit depending my my mood. There are some fine records here though, and though they won't all be to your taste, I hope you find something among them that tickles your fancy.


19. Better Oblivion Community Centre - Better Oblivion Community Centre

Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst. Not sure what brought them together, but it works.

Top Track: Dylan Thomas

"I'm taking a shower at the Bates Motel..."

18. Amanda Palmer - There Will Be No Intermission

Baring all, an artist in every sense of the word... yet one who keeps her sense of humour.

Top Track: A Mother's Confession

"But at least the baby didn't die..."

17. Lloyd Cole - Guesswork

Lloyd's been listening to John Grant. Not immediately a success, but it grows...

Top Track (this week): Night Sweats

"I'm thinking about rhyming righteous

With might just

And I might just

And I'm not fooling around"

16. Jesse Malin - Sunset Kids

A comeback, in this house anyway.

Top Track: My Little Life

"People think I'm cold

Or just antisocial

I just don't know what to say

Sometimes"

15. Chip Taylor - Whiskey Salesman

He'd only been writing songs for 55 years before I discovered him.

Top Track: Whiskey Salesman

"It's funny how you can learn more by keeping your mouth shut

Than by talking"

14. Richard Hawley - Further

Time may change, but thankfully, Richard Hawley does not.

Top Track: Time Is

"Time is on your side right now

But time can change"

13.  Robert Forster - Inferno

Listened to on the back of the Go-Betweens documentary, Right Here, which gave me a renewed appreciation for Forster.

Top Track: No Fame

"And if I bust out and the highway is really the key

Everyone can follow, everyone can overtake me"

*Keen mathematicians among you will already have worked out that that's not quite half of 19... but it's as far as I got before the lurgy struck me down.

More soon.

2019 Contenders: The Edited Version

Office Politics, the latest album by The Divine Comedy, is a great 12 track album.

Unfortunately, it's 16 tracks long.

I read an interview with Neil Hannon where he said that after the success of his last record (my favourite album of 2106), he was emboldened to experiment a bit more with this record and add the "mucking about songs" (my words, not his... I can't quite remember how he described them) that normally get cut. He should have left them cut.

Tracks like Philip & Steve's Furniture Removal Company (imagining a world where Philip Glass and Steve Reich run a... well, you can guess the rest... which apparently they did before becoming famous composers, but really, there's a better song to be written about this subject than the repetitive nonsense here... although that's probably the point) and The Synthesizer Service Centre Super Summer Sale (I abhor alliteration) really should have ended up on the cutting room floor. They work as mildly amusing skits, but after two or three (or less) plays become annoying disruptions to an otherwise witty and musically fabulous album.

I guess in this era of streaming and downloads we can all easily edit albums to the size and shape we prefer, but us old fogies who still buy the records are stuck with the CD skip button or the lever arm on the record player.

I don't think Office Politics will be my favourite record of 2019. Still, 12 great tracks on one record is better than a lot of artists manage these days.

2019 Contenders: Inferno

As I've been listening to a lot of old  Go-Betweens records lately, I was tempted to check out the latest solo offering from surviving founder member Robert Forster. Pretty damned good it is too.

Here's a couple of fine tunes from it, firstly this upbeat offering which reminds me of Talking Heads... although perhaps that's just Robert's performance in the video.



Then, slower and more atmospheric, but with that very distinct Go-Betweens guitar sound... hell, fellow Aussie Nick Cave would be proud of this one as well, I reckon...


And if you enjoyed those, check out Life Has Turned A Page too, if you get the chance.