Soft Surrogate / 2019 Top Albums
I consider myself immensely lucky to be able to be my own boss and run my own business. One of the biggest perks for me is being able to play whatever music I want, whenever I want, as loud as I want. I have been afforded the luxury of being able to stay relatively in-touch with new music coming out, and for that I feel blessed. I am a huge fan of music and take great pleasure in being able to distill down everything I have listened to into one list at the end of the year. However, don’t interpret this as my ‘rating’ of other people’s art. This list is in no particular order. These albums all carried me through different things, they made me feel certain feelings, and I consider these following choices to all be albums that I had special moments with throughout 2019. I would encourage you to check them out and see if any of them resonate with you as well.
Post Malone “Hollywood’s Bleeding”
They say that an artists third record is when they start to find their own sound and become who they truly are (think OK Computer, London Calling, Mellon Collie, etc). If “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is any sign of Post Malone’s future sound - consider me an addict. This album is nothing short of an absolute masterpiece. It got a lot of hate from diehard hip-hop junkies, but this album shows Post in more ways than one. There are songs on here powerful enough to bring a grown man to tears. An absolute monster of an album with dynamic emotional highs and lows, peppered with his signature vibrato, and obligatory party anthems. Don’t sleep on this record.
Bring Me The Horizon “Amo”
I love when a band has the balls to do something different and change their trajectory. I love it even more when they do it so well and blow past expectations or their pre-conceived ‘box’. I found it funny that their legions of metal head fans got so angry at this release and called them ‘sellout-pop’, saying BMTH just made a boring plain old pop record, when in fact BMTH made a pop album better than 95% of mainstream pop musicians! Take it from a guy who loves both metal and pop - these guys absolutely crush it and if this is the new face of rock, then I am all about it.
Ariana Grande “Thank U, Next”
I know what you’re thinking. How could this mainstream pop album land on the Top Albums for a guy that used to refer to himself as strictly a ‘metalhead’? Well, that’s pretty simple A.) I’ve grown up and my tastes have changed, and B.) This album fucking SLAPS. Jam-packed with infectious melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Ariana opens up in a way that we wouldn’t expect a pop-star to, and it’s beautiful. She went into the studio to record this album merely weeks after her previous album “Sweetener” was released to a tepid reception. She came back with an absolutely entertaining album about love lost and self-love.
Billie Eilish “When We All Fall Asleep…”
She might just save pop-music. It’s true. I find it amusing how polarizing Billie Eilish is, and seeing her get ridiculed by people in their 30’s-40’s calling her “Bailey Eyelash” at some sort of weak attempt to lessen her cultural impact. There was so much hate directed towards her when she admitted not being familiar with Van Halen. Simply put, I wouldn’t expect her to be - she is a 17 year old girl and he and her brother (instrumentalist and co-writer) may have reset the course of modern pop music. This album is dynamic, heartfelt, passionate, energetic, and interesting as fuck. Honestly, I can’t praise this record enough. If you haven’t heard it - you’re fucking up.
Dayshell “Mr.Pain”
Even if I hadn’t done the artwork for this album, I still would’ve had this in my Top Albums List this year. I just feel lucky that I got the opportunity to listen to and absorb the album a lot sooner than the general public. I have been a massive fan of Dayshell for years, and “Mr.Pain” is their most focused work to-date. Everything Shayley touches somehow turns to gold, and this album is no different. A journey through soaring melody lines and intricate harmony work, interlaced with chugging riffs - there’s no reason that Dayshell shouldn’t be more popular than they are. They are a criminally under-rated band and they deserve your attention. Get this album.
Sleep Token “Sundowning”
I discovered Sleep Token a couple years back when my friends band signed to their same record label. I was perusing the label roster and found these guys and they only had released the “One” and “Two” EP’s. I fell in love with them then and couldn’t really figure out their deal. Thankfully, this year, their image and story came into full-view with the release of “Sundowning”. Released slowly one track at a time every two weeks after the first single was dropped on the eve of the Summer Solstice. This album is unlike anything I have ever heard before in my life, and I can keep it spinning on repeat for literal hours.
Issues “Beautiful Oblivion”
Unpopular opinion time - I never liked Issues. I didn’t like the screaming aspect of the band and always thought Tyler was the stronger vocalist. When I heard Michael Bohn had been let go, I was intrigued to say the least. As the singles were released I spun them relentlessly - and when the album finally dropped I was taken aback. It took my a few listens, but “Beautiful Oblivion” quickly became one of my favourites of the year - and Issues became one of my favourite bands. The blend of funk, R&B, and 8 string riffs is something I have never heard of before and it is done so tastefully that I have trouble believing these guys aren’t bigger than they are. It’s Ariana Grande with riffs. Brilliant.
Cane Hill “Kill The Sun”
Cane Hill was on my top albums last year for “Too Far Gone” and it didn’t take them too long to get back into the studio to record this EP. Was it an experiment, or is this the band’s new sound? Either way - I absolutely fell in love with it. EP’s don’t tend to make my top releases of the year - but this one couldn’t be avoided. Absolutely brilliant song writing, that even drove me to tears the first couple run throughs. Probably one of the best releases Cane Hill has ever put out. Hands down.
Lizzo “Cuz I Love You”
It’s nice when you find an album that just makes you feel damn good. Much of the summer this was played in our car with the windows down and the sun shining. It’s an extra bonus when that feel good album is actually brilliantly crafted and transcends modern pop clichés. Lizzo hits hard with her bluesy drawl, fast paced rhymes, soaring melodies, and an overall intrepid musicianship. She would be easy to miss and written off as simply a ‘fad’ or ‘one-hit-wonder’, but after the release of “Cuz I Love You”, her prior EP “Coconut Oil” and one-off single “Truth Hurts” ramped up in sales and became sleeper hits 3 years after their initial release. Don’t sleep on this this time around either.
Slipknot “We Are Not Your Kind”
Call me crazy, but I think “We Are Not Your Kind” shows Slipknot in their most precise and focused state. I have always loved The Knot, and they have had an interesting evolution over the last 20 years. Each album has it’s own identity within their catalogue, and they’ve never done the same thing twice. However, I feel like “We Are Not Your Kind” takes all aspects of The Knot and tightens it up in a way we have never seen before. It is somehow brutally aggressive, yet their most commercially accessible record. I love the path that this album takes you on, and I really feel like I can connect with each member of the band on the journey through the album, whereas in the past I may have disconnected from the vocals to focus on riffs, or tuned out riffs to focus on vocals. It was all compartmentalized until now. Each member in this 9 piece monstrosity gets their moment to shine, and the songs are incredibly crafted.
Album I Missed in 2018: Don Broco “Technology”
In life you will have regrets. Some large, some small - but one of my biggest is that I didn’t hear this album sooner. Truth be told, this album from 2018 probably got the most spins from me in 2019. In keeping with the rest of my albums in this years “Top Albums List”, Don Broco does something I have never heard any band do. I would be hard pressed to find a band that sounds similar, in the same way you can’t find anyone that sounds like Billy Talent, and it doesn’t really make sense - but it makes your head bop. “Technology” is focused on the theme of exactly that - tech. Songs about how Instagram is bullshit, songs about how Google listens to you conversations, and songs about how people seem to have no personality outside of Social Media anymore. This one will take you a few spins…but I promise you will find something in here that you’ll love (or at least a few annoying ear worms)