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Rob She ield runs down his top 20 albums of 2019, from Taylor Swift's 'Lover' to Control Top's 'Covert Contracts.'
Music was something to cling to in 2019, more than ever. These were the albums that pushed me forward and lifted me up this year. They’re
all over the musical map, from pop to rap to guitar noise. Some are by old favorites; some are by new kids; one is by Bruce Springsteen.
Some of these albums are full of rage and fury. Some are full of consolation and healing. Some look out at the world; others look deep into
the heart. But they were all reasons to celebrate in 2019.
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2 12 34 56
Lana
78
Del 11Rey,
9 10 12
‘Norman
13 14 15 16
Fucking
17 18 19 20
Rockwell!’
Listening to Lana shut down the California dream in “Venice Bitch” is like the scene from
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where all the neon lights turn on all over L.A. — except in
reverse. She’s singing her some-velvet-morning farewells to a host of American ideals that
turned out to be a bust: men, for one. (As another Lady of the Canyon once sang, “Acid,
booze and ass; needles, guns and grass. Lots of laughs.”) Respect to her musical wingman
Jack Antonoff: Between Lana, Taylor, and Lorde, he is to “crying in the back of the cab”
songs what Phil Spector was to glockenspiels. I still can’t tell whether Lana is singing “the
waitress just mixed a Fireball” or “Hawaii just missed that fireball,” but it’s the kind of
album where confusing a cocktail with a nuclear disaster makes sense.
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10 Patio, ‘Essentials’
My favorite “first song of the day” song of 2019: Patio’s “Vile Bodies.” Hit play on that first
thing in the morning, and it can get you fired up to the point where you just can’t wait for
the adventure of the oncoming day. (What’s the song about? I was hoping you wouldn’t ask
that. No idea.) Nothing too complex happening here — three punk ladies from Brooklyn,
relentless blurts of jagged rhythm guitar, call-and-response vocals full of deadpan wit, beats
to pogo along to, blowing past you in 27 minutes. It’s maddeningly playable. Words to live
by: “Split me from the inside/Don’t stop until we reach the end/Rip me to fucking
shreds/Then make me whole again.”
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Control
78 9 10
Top,
11 12
‘Covert
13 14 15 16
Contracts’
17 18 19 20
A blast of righteously pissed-off punk from this Philly power trio, who make their anger
sound irresistibly fun. Ali Carter rages against misogyny, capitalism, and the internet in
general: “Click click click click click/Makes me fucking sick.” Pick hits: “Office Rage” and
“Ego Deaf,” which could pass for Hüsker Dü circa Side Three of Zen Arcade.
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