It’s that time of year, once again, wherein certain scribbly rock-journo types of the variety I used to a be more a member of start frantically composing their end-of-year best-of lists. Long have I lamented my encroaching aversion to this practice, given that I was evicted from my once-cozy perch on the cutting edge a long, long damn time ago. Given my own predilections and – frankly – where I work, I am exposed to new music on a fairly regular basis. I am certainly not in want of hearing new sounds. That said, I don’t know if it’s my finicky standards or my narrow expanse of taste, but I am sadly no longer routinely hearing genuinely newer things that are firing my imagination. If anything, most contemporary pop music leaves me cold, clammy and pugnaciously contentious. I’m not categorically condemning it, but if the genre is best represented by _______ [names expurgated] I’m more than ready to assert that I want no fucking part of it.
But I was never really a pop guy to begin with. I come from a rock (pronounced: rawwwwwwk) background first and fucking foremost. That’s fine, of course (despite what various pop culture zeitgeist-watchers might tell you about declining returns in guitar-based music), but even in that realm, I am sad to say the pickings – from my perspective – seemed slim.
Oh sure, there were new releases from canonical favorites (anemic list to follow), but in terms of new bands I got excited about, I can’t really point to one. Well, I guess I could cite new band Human Impact, but they’re a supergroup comprised of dudes from Cop Shoot Cop, SWANS and the Unsane, so …. I’m not sure they really count (sorry, fellas).
Back to the pop tip, for a second, I will indeed cop to digging what little bits of Billie Eilish I heard. Her performance of “Tough Guy” on Saturday Night Live certainly caught my attention. She, of course, was all over social media last week for the much-ballyhooed admission on Jimmy Kimel’s show that she had never heard of Van Halen. It should be noted, of course, that Miss Eilish is only 17. Practically speaking, she was born about ten minutes ago – OF COURSE she doesn’t know who Van Halen is. Why should she? I had a lot to say about that last week, but it’s now this week and let’s just move on, shall we?
In any case, what little of Billie’s music I’ve heard, I’ve liked, while that’s not saying much. It’s certainly way more interesting than certain peers like … I dunno, Ke$ha, Lana Del Ray and the rest of them. If you regularly read this blog, you’re probably not a fan of that stuff to begin with, so I doubt I’m surprising anyone, going off on any limbs or ruffling any feathers.
There were some gratuitous pop/R&B songs by names like Lucky Daye, Spencer Ludwig, Anderson .Paak and Lizzo that I didn’t mind, but not enough to get me to rush out to buy the albums in question. That’s notable solely in the fact that I normally loathe that type of stuff.
Conversely, many of my favorite albums this year, notably Ghosteen by Nick Cave, Leaving Meaning by SWANS and, Fear Inoculum by Tool (which, honestly, I’ve only recently gotten) seem all to be the type of music suited to ponderously dark nights of the soul. Is that a statement about my own mindset? The mood of the culture? The trajectory of the species? Who can say?
Anyway, here are my favorite new songs of 2019. Fetch hither your dancing pants.
- Amy Rigby – “The President Can’t Read”
- ExCop – “Tina”
- IDLES – “I Dream Guillotine”
- Slaves (UK) – “Bugs”
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – “Waiting For You”
- John – “Future Thinker”
- Prong – “Age of Defiance”
- SWANS – “My Phantom Limb”
- Tool – “Fear Inoculum”
- Human Impact – “November”
Recent Comments