Our Top Ten Albums of 2019

As another kind of sub-awesome year draws to its welcome end, once more, one of the very few things that kept us sane is the music we love. And because we also love lists and love them all the more when they are ranked instead of presenting an “all of these were equally great” levelling, here’s our very well-considered top ten albums of 2019. There’s a song sample for each record and the cover will link you to a place where you can buy it. Respect and gratitude to everyone who’s written, recorded, played on, produced, released or manufactured a record this year – you rule! Read on

Indiepop Radio Episode 19-12

The December episode of our indiepop radio show is a special issue, reviewing the decade in indiepop. One defining song from each year of the 2010s – that’s ten smashing tracks plus my usual incoherent drivel in between, coming in at just under 53 minutes of distinguished listening entertainment. Stream below or on one of your preferred platforms: Mixcloud / Soundcloud / iTunes / Spotify.

 

 

Tallies

Tallies (Photo: Colin Medley)

We suspect that writers of reviews who claimed the staggeringly beautiful debut album by Canadian four-piece Tallies for the shoegaze genre didn’t extend their listening adventure beyond the opener „Trouble“, which is indeed a bit of a moody and wall of sound affair. But the album – no it’s not. Even though we are no proven experts in the territory and do not know where Tallies themselves stand on the shoegaze matter, we find hardly a shoe being gazed at on Tallies, an album that is bound to put the Toronto-based band on the indie royalty map. Read on

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Photo: McLean Stephenson

It’s a band that’s here to stay. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever formed in 2013. It took three years before they released an EP and now, five years into their existence, their debut album is out. We have no idea whether this happened intentionally or not, but it accounts for the accomplished sound they had from the start and it suggests they are not going to vanish soon. Read on