In titling a blog ‘2019 – album of the year’, I am aware that my choices are not based on fact. No collection of albums by anyone can be proven to be the best albums of the year because it’s all subjective. What I like is almost certainly not what you, my loyal reader, like. I should really call the list my favourite albums of the year.
In truth, the list is just how I feel today. Perhaps within an hour, the order will change, though the top album will not change. Rarely has an album quite blown me away as this one did.
The music I listen to and buy is heavily influenced by what I hear on BBC 6 Music. I was once constrained by liking the same music I’d liked since I was much younger. I still love the old music but the search for new music has enriched my collection as well as diminishing my bank account.
I am pretty sure none of these albums would have appeared in a top ten list of mine had I not opened my ears to new music. Indeed, I doubt that I would have listened to any of them or known they even existed. I would probably have struggled to name ten new albums at all, but not now. This year, I was struggling to work out which ones to leave out.
Oxford’s finest band, Ride. released their sixth and best album, but I couldn’t find room for it. Flamagra by Flying Lotus would have probably walked it any other year. And I couldn’t fit in Metronomy Forever by Metronomy, Look Out Low by Twin Peaks, Tasmania by Pond or Reward by Cate Le Bon.
So, to my tinnitus affected ears, 2019 was a vintage year. I’d go so far as to say the top five – at least – are great albums. Here it is, then. My top ten albums of the year. Try them. You’ll like them.
- Absolute Zero by Bruce Hornsby
- Origin by Jordan Rakei
- Apollo XXI by Steve Lacy
- Ventura by Anderson .Paak
- Blume by Nérija
- Western Stars by Bruce Springsteen
- Anak Ko by Jay Som
- Not Waving But Drowning by Loyle Carner
- Girl by Girl Ray
- Hyperspace by Beck
