Our Final Year-End Post

2019 In Review

By Henry Lipput

My year-end review this time around is not so much a "best-of" or a countdown as it is a list of favorites, the music I've been listening to and enjoying in 2019, the albums, EPs, singles, a compilation, and a reissue / live album. I've listened to nearly 50 albums in 2019 and have reviewed many of them for CoolDad Music. I've chosen 12 of them as my favorites.

Thanks again to CoolDad for, six years on, allowing me to continue to be part of the team and write about music.

I've also put together a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from my favorite 2019 releases. If you like what you hear or what I've written about, buy a download or a CD to support indie music.



ALBUMS

The Pearlfishers, Love & Other Hopeless Things. This is an absolutely wonderful album full of gorgeous pop tunes with echoes of the work of Burt Bacharach, Laura Nyro, and Jimmy Webb. The title song is inspired by Cilla Black and "You Can Take Me There" is a pop treasure. If I had to choose a very most favorite album of 2019 it would be this one. I liked it so much that I bought the vinyl. (Marina Records)

Bill Pritchard, Midland Lullabies. You could call it supper-club pop or a recital at a local town hall but whatever name you give to Bill Pritchard's latest collection of songs, you'll have to agree that Midland Lullabies is a brilliant album. Following 2016's splendid Mother Town Hall, Pritchard has upped his game by stripping down his sound to just voice, piano, and the occasional strings. (Tapete Records)

Armstrong, Under Blue Skies. Armstrong is Julian Pitt, and Under Blue Skies was originally self-released in very limited quantities on CDr. The Beautiful Music label and Country Mile Records decided to give the album a proper release and added demos and otherwise lost tracks. The album is a true find and the songs on Under Blue Skies are, as The Chills once said of one of their own tunes, heavenly pop hits. (The Beautiful Music / Country Mile Records)

David Mead, Cobra Pumps. Since I've been a long-time fan of David Mead's music (since 1999), you can imagine how excited I was to learn that he had released the excellent Cobra Pumps, his first solo album since 2011's very fine Dudes. The new album is, as expected, full of top pop tunes but there's also more than a little funk on songs like "Poster Child," and the gorgeous "Hopalong" is reminiscent of his superb Indiana album from 2004. Cobra Pumps is a welcome addition to his marvelous body of work. (DavidMead.com for CD and vinyl and digital vendors for downloads)

Fallon Cush, Stranger Things Have Happened. Stranger Things Have Happened is this Australian band's third release in three years and they never sounded better. Led by lead singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist Steve Smith, the current lineup includes a core group that played on 2018's Morning and toured Australia to support that album. You can hear it in the interplay of the musicians on Stranger Things Have Happened. (Bandcamp)

Empty City Squares, 337. John Fotiadis is an architect by day and a one-man rock-and-roll machine any time he can fit it in. 337 is full of Squeeze-like hooks and crisp guitar solos as good as Glenn Tilbrook's (Fotiadis's bass playing is right up there too). He uses instruments that aren't new or unique but add flavor to his songs like the electric organ on "Sometimes You Need To Look Back (When You Look Ahead)" (think the Ray Charles classic "What'd I Say") and the harmonica in the rocking "It's Your Day." And the closing moments of "Talk About The Weather" may remind you of "The End" on Abbey Road. (Bandamp)

Robert Forster, Inferno. Inferno is Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster's first solo album in four years and his third since 2008's The Evangelist which followed the untimely death of Forster's bandmate and Go-Betweens co-founder Grant McLennan. Forster has described Inferno as a "performance record" and you can hear the give-and-take between Foster and the other musicians and a new-found looseness in his voice. The title song, "Inferno (Brisbane in Summer)," was an early warning sign of what's happening in Australia right now. (Tapete Records)

The Magic Es, Dark Star. Since The Magic Es released their terrific debut album It Goes On in 2017 they've released six excellent singles. The Magic Es are Pete Thompson on vocals and guitars, Jasper Stainthorpe on bass, and Stuart Catchpole on drums and background vocals. Over the course of the last two years, they have become a tighter, more focused group and they continue to be the best British rock and roll band since the Gallagher Brothers. Dead Star is ten songs of pure power-chord delight. (wearemagic.uk)

Gretchen's Wheel, Moth to Lamplight: A Nada Surf Tribute. Lindsay Murray, the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (she plays everything except the drums) provides intelligent covers of Nada Surf songs like "Killian's Red" (from Let Go) and "See These Bones" (from Lucky). But she's accomplished something of a musical mind-meld on a few of the early Nada Surf songs I'm not familiar with. This connection is so strong that there were times when I could forget that it was a Nada Surf song and think I was listening to a brand-new song by Gretchen's Wheel. (Futureman Records / Bandcamp)

RW Hedges. The Hills Are Old Songs. Hedges and his writing partner Luca Nieri have produced a suite of songs that imagine the American West of 1877. The songs are both quiet and melodic like the lovely "Haven't Seen Her In A While" and "Girl In The Story." "Down To Venezuela" adds a little more of a pop vibe to the album. Hedges is a self-described lover of songs from the Golden Age of Broadway (Rodgers and Hart and Rodgers and Hammerstein are touchstones), so it's not surprising that the songs on The Hills Are Old Songs could by the basis of a future stage production. (Wonderful Sound)

Chris Stamey, New Songs For The 20th Century. Chris Stamey, with his remarkable new album, returns us to a world in which John F. Kennedy is in the White House, the British Invasion has yet to happen, and the New York Mets are having their first regular season. Stamey is an indie rock pioneer having been in the legendary dbs, worked with the great Alex Chilton, and released more than a few well-received solo albums. But from a young age, Stamey has kept his ears open to the popular music and show tunes of the 30's, 40's, and 50's. His knowledge and love of this music resonates throughout his new collection.( Omnivore Recordings)

Mekons, Deserted. Mekons started out in 1977 as a punk band that didn't know how to play their instruments. Along the way, they created the Americana genre with their 1985 Fear and Whiskey album and mixed rock and roll with politics on albums like 1989's The Mekons Rock'N'Roll. Deserted is much like that album and includes three long-time vocalists: original members Jon Langford ("Lawrence Of California")and Tom Greenhalgh ("How Many Stars")and the golden-voiced and Mekons secret weapon Sally Timms who joined up in the 1980s ("After The Rain"). I saw the band last summer at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and they were just fabulous and rocked out big time. (Bloodshot Records)

EPs

Super 8, Head Sounds the EP. Last year, SUPER 8 released three amazing albums; and, this year, we've had the Backers & Maracas compilation and the singles "Love Like Ours," "Days Like These," "Island Girl," and "TIMEBOMB (featuring Lisa Mychols)." Head Sounds the EP has five songs including the Graceland-influenced "Bones," a wonderful cover of "Across The Universe," and he sings about his dealings with the music industry on "I Just Wanna Be Me." (Bandcamp)

The Memory Fades, She Loves The Birds. Stephen Maughan is the musical mastermind behind the British band The Memory Fades. They released two-and-half EPs last year my favorite being She Loves The Birds (the half is a remix of songs from their Space Pilot EP). One of the songs on the Space Pilot EP, "listening to the marychain," is a clue to the delightful shoegaze sound that Maughan and company are producing. (Sunday Records / Bandcamp)

Annie Booth, Spectral.  Annie Booth is a singer-songwriter from Edinburgh, Scotland. Her EP, Spectral, is a wonderful collection of songs that, especially on "Still," sound more than a little like Joni Mitchell's Blue. I first heard her "Magic 8" song on the "Postcards From The Underground" internet radio show. I was taken with Booth's songs and her quiet, spare arrangements and immediately went to Bandcamp and pre-ordered the EP. (Scottish Fiction / Last Night From Glasgow / Bandcamp)

SINGLES

The Hangabouts, "Who Wants Cilla?" / "Mrs. Greene." The Hangabouts are a great power pop collective from the Detroit area. "Who Wants Cilla?" is both a musical question as well as the answer in a love-letter and tribute to this former coat-check girl at the Cavern Club who later had a career as a singer of ballads. "Mrs. Greene" is a country-rock throwback with it's Carl Perkins-like guitar solo. The song is also reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson." (Futureman Records / Big Stir Records / Bandcamp)

Close Lobsters, "All Compasses Go Wild." Close Lobsters released two albums and a bunch of singles in the 80's but not much was heard from the band until two EPs came out about six years ago (one in 2014 and the other in 2016). (To be honest I didn't discover Close Lobsters until a year or so ago when Wally Salem of The Beautiful Music tweeted a song from one of the EPs. Thank you, Wally.) "All Compasses Go Wild" is the first single from their new album Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols coming out in February 2020. They continue to mix politics and Rickenbackers, and it continues to be an amazing sound. (Shelflife / Bandcamp)

Teenage Fanclub, "Everything Is Falling Apart." Teenage Fanclub have been giving us great pop music for close to 30 years. There were questions circulating on social media about the future of the band after Gerald Love, the bass player and one-third of the writers, left the group. But Norman Blake stepped up with this track and, it's classic Fanny material. (Merge Records)

COMPILATION / BEST-OF

the black watch, 31 Years of Obscurity: The Best of the black watch: 1988-2019. I keep asking myself "How did I miss this?" The title of this career-spanning compilation shows that I'm not the only one who missed out on some terrific music over the years. 31 Years of Obscurity contains twenty two first-rate tracks selected from the band's full-length CDs and LPs as well as EPs and singles. And because the songs on the album aren't in chronological order you get the sense that the black watch have been consistently amazing throughout their career. However, this outstanding anthology of tunes by the black watch will hopefully bring loads of new fans to the band. (ATOM Records)

REISSUE / LIVE ALBUM

The Replacements, Dead Man's Pop. If you ever wondered why The Replacements' 1989 album Don't Tell A Soul didn't rock out as much as their previous release, the great Pleased To Meet Me, it was the mix. Matt Wallace, the producer of Don't Tell A Soul, wasn't allowed by the record company to mix the album; the result sanded off the band's rough edges for a more glossy, radio-friendly sound. Wallace was brought back to mix the album the way he and Paul Westerberg wanted it to sound, and we now have Dead Man's Pop with new sounds to check out like the banjo on "Talent Show." The box set includes the new mix on vinyl and CD, a CD of outtakes and unreleased material, and two CDs of a most excellent Replacements concert from 1989 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.