Just in under the wire, the definitive* ‘best of’ list of albums released in the past 12 months.
Opinion was massively divided (each writer ranking their favourite five long-players of 2019) which made for a very varied chart much longer than the 20 releases we restricted the list below to, but happily, a consensus of sorts was reached with a sizeable proportion of writers in agreement on the upper echelons.
Unusually, as well as providing us with the year’s top long player, A New International also provided us with one of our favourite live experiences – not just a gig, but the stage play for ‘The Dark Carnival’ – whose soundtrack album is our writers’ choice for 2019.
1. A New International – The Dark Carnival (POUM)
2. Broken Chanter – Broken Chanter (Last Night From Glasgow/Olive Grove)
3. Leonard Cohen – Thanks For The Dance (Columbia)
4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen (Mute)
5. Stoor – Fleam (Stereogram)
6. Kaputt – Carnage Hall (Upset The Rhythm)
7. Blanck Mass – Animated Violence Mild (Sacred Bones)
8. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell (Polydor)
9. Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight (Atlantic)
10. Savage Mansion – Revision Ballads (Lost Map)
11. Fontaines DC – Dogrel (Partisan)
12. De Staat – Bubble Gum (Caroline)
13. The Cathode Ray – Heightened Senses (Stereogram)
14. The Elevator Mood – The Elevator Mood (Bandcamp)
15. Reverse Cowgirls – Bag O’ Bones (Northern Cowboy)
16. Deux Furieuses- My War Is Your War (Xtra Mile)
17. Moon Duo – Stars Are The Light (Sacred Bones)
18. Union Morbide – Buried Memories (TCBYML)
19. Membranes – What Nature Gives Nature Takes Away (Cherry Red)
20. The Black Watch – Magic Johnson (ATOM)