Favorite Songs of 2019

Titus Andronicus at Monty Hall in November

Some of Them Anyway

2019. This was a weird year. After the devastation of 2017 & 2018 around here, I feel like it wasn't until this year that all of that really came home to roost. I spent the year trying to make sure that things like family, home life, exercise, the Yankees, and the Mets received plenty of attention. That meant that things like heading out to shows and, quite frankly, posting at this site took a bit of a hit.

I did spend quite a bit of time listening to music while not posting anything from my little hidey hole this year. I've made a few rough plans about how I'd like to share some of that here to mark the end of the year, decade, whatever. For songs, though, let's just go with a straight list.

Year-end Rock and Roll Hair technically kicked things off list-wise, but I'm calling this our first true, official year-end list of 2019.

In no particular order, here are some songs I really liked.

Dentist, "Someone Like You"

Dentist. They've been with us here from almost the beginning; and, with each release, the band refine the sound that made me fall in love with them in the first place. "Someone Like You" finds the band leaning into their dreamier side, and lyrics like "I've got it all figured out with no clarity" sum up Dentist's trademark push and pull between light and dark, sweetness and sadness. Like another of Asbury Park's best bands, Dentist tend to pepper their summery, upbeat sounds with a hint of anxiety.



Titus Andronicus, "Just Like Ringing a Bell"

Titus Andronicus truly have been with us here since the beginning, the very first post.

On the Bob Mould-produced An Obelisk, Patrick Stickles takes on his younger alter-ego, Troubleman. Troubleman sees the world in black and white; and while Stickles shares Troubleman's ideals, experience has taught the older Stickles to see subtleties and to recognize the compromises that come at the intersection of art and commerce. "Just Like Ringing a Bell" contains a few lines that should resonate with anyone who sees themselves as an observer of or a participant in the changes taking place in our little City by the Sea: "They're taking credit that they're not earning. Any good thing they ever sold they stole!" and "But I in no way blame myself, even though I helped those bastards to sell that inferior version we love so well."



Lowlight, "Coastlines"

Coming just after the halfway point on Lowlight's excellent Endless Bummer, "Coastlines" -- along with its companion "Clotheslines" -- could be thought of as that album's centerpiece. The members of Lowlight are, in fact, observers of and participants in the changes currently underway in Asbury Park; and, in an interview about the song, Renee Maskin said, "We set out to write songs that juxtapose carefree summertime vibes with the undercurrent of anxiety of the people we know. We feel that 'Coastlines' most successfully embodies this particular effort." See what I was saying about Asbury Park's best bands?

The song also serves as a heart- and fist-pumping moment on both the record and during any Lowlight live set.



Control Top, "Straight Jackets"

I'd been listening to Control Top's furious and cathartic Covert Contracts since it came out earlier in 2019, and I became a full convert to the band when I spent two nights watching them open for Titus Andronicus this past November. "Straight Jackets" combines singer / bassist Ali Carter's seething rage with guitarist Al Creedon's somewhere-between-shoegaze-and-hardcore guitar squall. When Carter spits out, "So sick and worked up gonna explode!" you have the same sensation in your own guts.



Mike Krol, "What's The Rhythm"

Mike Krol's Power Chords is a snotty, distorted, powergaragepop masterpiece. I could have chosen just about any song off the record for this list, but I decided to go with "What's the Rhythm." It's crunchy and loud. Over the course of its relatively short run-time, "What's the Rhythm" manages to build tension before it pays off in an earworm of a chorus that makes you want to throw your arms in the air and bounce along. Multiple times. And, then, it's just gone.



A Giant Dog, "Intervention (Arcade Fire Cover)"

On its face, the idea that A Giant Dog would release a full-album cover of Arcade Fire's Neon Bible is pretty weird. It just seemed incongruous, to me anyway, that the wild, sweaty glam rock band would take on bombastic indie rock royalty. But, as soon as I dug into the record, I was amazed at the perfection of the match. It's a testament to the power of performance that Sabrina Ellis, Andrew Cashen, and the rest of the band are able to make these iconic songs their own. The anthemic "Intervention" -- my favorite song from my favorite Arcade Fire album -- illustrates this.

In a press release, Sabrina Ellis said, "Recording a cover album, we felt like actors in a movie." "Intervention" could serve as the clip during the band's introduction at the Academy Awards ceremony.



Sharon Van Etten, "Seventeen"

Sharon Van Etten adopts some 80s sounds on her latest album, Remind Me Tomorrow. I was 17 in 1987. I would regularly head up to New York City with my friends, and it was just a year before I'd spend my college years there. Maybe those are some of the reasons this song hits me so hard. As I listen to the brilliant "Seventeen" and watch the video, I think about the ways the City shaped me during my young adulthood, and I also cringe at some of my youthful idiocy. Like Patrick Stickles on An Obelisk, Sharon Van Etten looks at her younger self through the eyes of the person she's become and wishes she could offer some wisdom.



Sacred Paws, "Brush Your Hair"

I'm not gonna get too deep here. I just love this song. Like the rest of Run Around the Sun, "Brush Your Hair" is fun and full of life. It brings rhythm and vocals that remind me a bit of CoolMom all-time fave, Bow Wow Wow. Sacred Paws brought all of that fun and energy to their live set at Merge's 30th anniversary festival and bounced their way onto this list.



Vampire Weekend, "This Life"

I've loved Vampire Weekend since their debut record. CoolDaughter 1 loves them, too; and they're really one of the only things we bond over musically. Sonically, "This Life" brings hints of Johnny Marr and Van Morrison to the table. Thematically, it stays pretty close to the overall vibe of Father of the Bride by placing our little, human interactions into the context of the wider world.



Weyes Blood, "Everyday"

On Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) addresses millennial angst through sounds reminiscent of 70s, adult contemporary, soft rock. There are moments like "A Lot's Gonna Change" or "Movies" that bend that idea in much more experimental directions; but "Everyday" is (mostly) straight-up, accessible pop. It's a 20th century AM radio hit that deals with the 21st century issue of finding love via swiping through profiles on your handheld computer.



I think I'll stop there. That's 10, right? This list is pretty off the top of my head and arbitrary and could include a lot more. You can go check out the CoolDad's Favorite Songs of 2019 (So Far) playlist on Spotify if you'd like to see what else -- and what other songs from some of these artists -- caught my attention this year.

Hopefully, I'll have some contributions to share with you soon; and I'm still trying to work out how to deal with an albums list.