The 50 top-rated albums of 2019: 11-50 | music | The Guardian

11 Caroline Polachek – Pang

Pang particulars a rebirth – the conclusion of a wedding, a brand new start, a brand new artistic partnership with producer Danny L Harle – and its avant-garde mixture of airy synthesis and human tactility glistens with ask yourself. Polachek explores and is often overcome by this new reality, reflecting her sense of discovery in choruses that loop like Escher staircases (Door) and vocal runs so startling (Ocean of Tears) they appear to indicate the invention of wholly new feelings. Laura Snapes study the entire evaluate.

12 Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka Sharp … Michael Kiwanuka photograph: Olivia Rose

Too many artists stick needless interludes between album tracks this year; Kiwanuka is a infrequent exception, a properly immersive album that presents area for reflection between Michael Kiwanuka's close issues of where hope might are living among love, immigration and civil rights. Producers hazard Mouse and Inflo make his retro soul sharp ample to strike a healthy on, giving it an edge to healthy Brittany Howard's equally expansive Jaime (see No 32 below). LS study the complete review.

13 Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

The artwork for Vampire Weekend's fourth album is pure windows 97 ClipArt, earnest United colours of Benetton pictures, CD-period prosperity in its sought after positioning of Sony's label. It's goofy and utopian, an idealism that blows through Father of the Bride with its Edenic genre inclusivity, jam-band brightness and Ezra Koenig's odes to like and marriage. Yet the darkness of their first three albums is rarely far from the door, antisemitism and apocalypse snapping a little more durable at the heels of a brand new father and husband who's realised how a whole lot extra he has to lose. LS examine the total overview.

14 Little Simz – grey enviornment

The most effective work yet from the London rapper – she became already probably the most technically accomplished MCs in the country, but broadens and popularises her craft here with affecting song types. On Boss, she goes in as tough as an aggrieved Wu-Tang member over a raw bluesy beat; on the very subsequent track, egocentric, these spikes are melted into clean R&B. With each twist, Simz is already on right of the beat. Ben Beaumont-Thomas read the entire evaluate.

15 Richard Dawson – 2020

2019's not been amazing – in reality, things haven't been brilliant for a while – and Richard Dawson's album suggests it's now not going to get any better in 2020. In these brawny, meandering folks songs, a butcher spouts anti-immigrant bile, an anxious jogger hears of racial violence, and workers in a warehouse flog themselves half to dying; at a extra intimate degree, there are infidelities and loneliness. nonetheless, human decency nevertheless feels shut at hand – now not least from the person singing. BBT read the whole evaluate.

sixteen Ariana Grande – Thank U, subsequent Immediacy … Ariana Grande

Pop in 2019 has been all about spontaneity, no matter if that's the off-the-cuff language that's crept into the greatest pop hits or the intensifying feedback loop between pop and TikTok. but no person perfected the method like Ariana Grande, whose 2d album in six months (following 2018's Sweetener) vibrates with immediacy. After Manchester, the loss of life of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and a known as-off engagement with Pete Davidson, Grande gracefully considers how life might have been and the way it grew to become out, tangling candy melodies with embattled construction. LS examine the full evaluate.

17 hot Chip – a shower full of Ecstasy

The title, the brand new age font, the tie-dye colorations of the album paintings – all of them point out that sizzling Chip are becoming in on the very 2019 taste for rave way of life. whereas Hungry newborn puts an offbeat spin on the sounds you may have heard pulsing from a motorway underpass 30 years in the past, the vibe on a shower full of Ecstasy is less about revisiting the hedonism of some misplaced early life than its soft idealism, making a vibrant, soft, often ballady idyll in a wretched age. LS study the full evaluation.

18 Cate Le Bon – Reward

Cate Le Bon wrote Reward all over a year spent residing within the Lake District and gaining knowledge of how to make furniture. without comparable to the rest so cliched as a "getting it together within the nation" checklist, her fifth solo album runs on that solitary, spartan existence: sad and gorgeous piano-led songwriting unfolds in its own unruffled time, but then a post-punk scribble like mother's mother's Magazines upsets Le Bon's calm, like a momentary wigout at her dislocation from society. LS study the entire evaluation.

19 Solange – when I Get domestic

"This shit is for us," Solange announced on her outdated album, handing her music to the black diaspora. On its comply with up, she continues to wrap herself in its lore. apparently stumbling with Gucci Mane through a haze of continual on My skin My emblem, glorying in laidback "CP time" on Binz, the appealing little nest of references it really is "black molasses, blackberry the hundreds", here's an understated and poetic party of a subculture. Her love for it is infectious. BBT read the entire evaluation.

20 Clairo – Immunity Intimacy … Clairo. image: Hart Leshkina

After Clairo's lo-fi, bedroom-pop hit relatively woman went viral, there changed into the risk that her ascent to pop appropriate would obliterate the intimacy that made her enchantment within the first area. happily, that isn't the case: featuring production from former Vampire Weekend member Rostam (and occasionally drums from Danielle Haim), Immunity is smooth and earnest, its scale in keeping with the way 21-12 months-historic Clairo's generation shrugs off emotional disclosures with a lessen-case "lol". LS read the full evaluation.

21 Charli XCX – Charli

Charli XCX's lengthy-awaited third album correct firmly puts to mattress asinine questions about even if she is a mainstream pop star or a left-container one: here is somebody now not just punching above their weight but operating in an entirely diverse cosmos, unconcerned about putting goofy nostalgia (1999) next to deeply queer bass exercises (click on), trance-tinged, cocksure flexes (next stage Charli) alongside cage-rattling anxiety anthems (long past). LS examine the whole evaluate.

22 Fontaines DC – Dogrel

Their ranting are living indicates gathered hype like a crowd round a bullhorn, and this debut album delivers – after which some. The band's photograph of Dublin is as vivid and impetuous as the Joycean visions they evidently admire, all rough elegance and "able-consistent violence"; the pint-chucking songs have the blithe, amused swagger of someone who enjoys a battle, but the ballads (Roy's Tune, tv monitors) are equally decent, with a bleating, pub-piano unhappiness to them. BBT read the whole assessment.

23 Nilüfer Yanya – omit Universe modern ennui … Nilüfer Yanya. graphic: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty photos

miss Universe doesn't really want the conception-album framework, with its satirical interstitial muzak from the supposedly caring employer Wway health. It's full of modern ennui because it is, expressed as an awful lot in Yanya's subtly hangdog vocals as in the lyrics. whether it's bossa nova pop, Snail Mail-trend slacker grunge or moody synthetic rock within the culture of the xx, Yanya's songwriting bar flexes and warps but stays permanently high. BBT study the full overview.

24 Aldous Harding – dressmaker

tune is full of no scarcity of characters proclaiming how "mad, me" they are, so it's infrequent and exquisite to return across a genuine oddball. Even earlier than you get to Aldous Harding's magnetic, malicious program-eyed are living shows, the brand new Zealander's third album operates by itself unique good judgment: inscrutable lyrics and delicate folk settings which are deeply eerie yet certainly benign, just like the common track of some beatific misplaced civilisation. LS study the total review.

25 large Thief – UFOF Songwriting groove … large Thief. graphic: Michael Buishas/4AD

the place their 2nd 2019 album Two fingers (see No 37, under) has a torn-paper edge to it, the primary, UFOF, is pristine – nevertheless it essays an international this is far from excellent. even if in grunge ballads (Jenni), entrance-porch blues (Orange) or the ambient indie-folk that sways reed-like during, the temper is as melancholy because it is fascinating. here is a band caught deep in one of the songwriting grooves of the century. long might also it ultimate. BBT study the entire review.

26 Jenny Lewis – On the line

Lewis utterly leans in to her most advantageous west coast troubadour mode on her fourth solo album, spinning perpetually pleasing yarns of estranged fanatics and misplaced hopes. Her basic band arrangements chime with festivity whilst Lewis displays her darkest experiences: the devastating Little White Dove is set on the deathbed of her estranged mom, who battled heroin dependancy all the way through Lewis's lifestyles. LS study the complete review.

27 Taylor Swift – Lover

As with Sleater-Kinney's album, there was so plenty noise round Lover that it changed into difficult to parse the checklist itself on release. but peel away the gaudy rollout, two misrepresentative lead singles and the bags surrounding its creator and you're left with an endearing, adventurous historical-faculty pop album. Lover paints in complex emotional hues and finds an artist time-honored for her strict adherence to her brand attempting lots of new issues, from the lady-groupy Paper Rings to Mazzy big name-style reveries on the title track. LS examine the full evaluate.

28 Lizzo – Cuz i love You Zest … Lizzo. graphic: Kevin wintry weather/Getty images

One album can't actually include the pop-cultural moment that's Lizzo – she is at her most interesting live, feeding again with a crowd which are delighted to see a celeb who appears like them, or, quite, no longer like everyone else in pop. however the sheer zest for all times in these bombastic, extremely-quotable self-empowerment tracks – as neatly because the pure-pop hooks – offers them intensity even on listing. BBT read the entire evaluation.

29 Jenny Hval – The practice of affection

The apply of love is Jenny Hval's most ambient album, an eerie, euphoric spell sustained via new-age aura and trance beats. It's definitely the first checklist by using the Norwegian artist that you just could put on as historical past song, provide or take some outstanding spoken-be aware sections. nonetheless it's a disarming invitation to Hval's most intimate work yet, one where she and her collaborators think about the intention of existence and artwork in imagery that's no less evocative for its surrealism. LS examine the full evaluate.

30 Kim Gordon – No home checklist

Releasing a debut solo album at sixty six is marvelous adequate; that it's one of the vital skilful records of an already iconic career is much more so. No domestic record is as industrial as it is impish, crammed with sculpted noise, harebrained ragers and sly protest songs – in opposition t company branding and treacherous ex-husbands – which are horny and seditious. LS examine the total evaluation.

31 James Blake – anticipate form Atmospheric … James Blake. photo: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP by way of Getty pictures

The quavering, circuitous voice of British jazz-dub songwriter James Blake remains a gorgeous instrument, and his arrangements are as atmospheric as ever here. He resembles a coronary heart-eyes emoji at quite a lot of points, swooning over lady friend Jameela Jamil on vigor On and may't accept as true with the way We move. The strongest tracks, though, are when he slinks softly around guests Travis Scott and RosalÍa. BBT read the total evaluate.

32 Brittany Howard – Jaime

Alabama Shakes rarely cleaved to one genre, however frontwoman Brittany Howard shows just how astonishingly large and instinctive her talent is right here. Ramshackle hip-hop, spoken word, gospel, neo and never-so-neo soul, raunchy funk, spiritual jazz and whatever thing superb noise thirteenth Century metallic is, it's all given extra heft by using Howard's poignant reflections on love and identity. BBT read the entire evaluation.

33 Muna – Saves the world extreme … Muna. Composite: Issac Schneider

Specificity is the marker of killer pop (the suits in Pet shop Boys' So complicated, the shoelaces in Robyn's Be Mine), a trope that the LA trio Muna wield to intense impact on their 2d album of gothic synthpop. Saves the realm is an unsparing emotional war of words that drags you correct into the bedroom bathed in purple easy, the dorm room with the blunt scissors, not to point out singer Katie Gavin's torrid self-examinations. LS

34 bill Callahan – Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

in the 5 years because his outdated album, bill Callahan got married, became a father and attained a level of beatific standpoint that might probably settle overseas conflicts. while that heat glows through Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest, Callahan's figuring out of his inherent masculine violence, and his way with lucid profundity, capacity his home treatise turned into not ever cloying. LS study the complete evaluation.

35 The homicide Capital – When I actually have Fears

The other Dublin put up-punk success story of 2018 alongside Fontaines DC, The murder Capital have a bit of greater monochrome hauteur – but there's nevertheless a dash of lairiness. Over metronomic garage-rock, frontman James McGovern sings like a person analyzing a listing of calls for out of a high window, however additionally modulates into sweeping gothic romance. BBT examine the full overview.

36 Sleater-Kinney – The Centre gained't cling New floor … Carrie Brownstein, left, and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney.

When drummer Janet Weiss stop Sleater-Kinney ahead of the release of their ninth studio album, it forged an unfair pallor on a listing mired in suspicion, every new outstanding synth or poppy refrain considered because the feasible straw that broke the camel's returned. however its status in the band's catalogue is past reproach. With St Vincent as producer, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker destroy new floor as songwriters – excessive camp on dangerous Dance, buying and selling intimacy and vaulting catharsis on The Dog/The body – whereas mining affectingly desperate and gruesome emotional depths. LS study the entire review.

37 huge Thief – Two arms

The Brooklyn band's second album of the 12 months is earthier than UFOF, the glowing assortment that arrived in spring. here, the four-piece till the dirt and Adrianne Lenker sings relentlessly about loss of life and ailment, elemental concerns that on the other hand reach some type of bigger plane due to the tenacious, cracked songwriting that's all of a sudden organising them as Brooklyn's answer to crazy Horse. LS read the whole assessment.

38 Black Midi – Schlagenheim abstract daubs … Black Midi. image: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

As buzz bands go, Black Midi is a unusual one, a jagged mulch of math rock, Beefheart restlessness and the 90s Chicago faculty of alt-jazz, crammed with the declamatory vocals of Geordie Greep (whose voice you couldn't make up if you tried). but Morgan Simpson's astonishingly tight drumming keeps them painting within the strains, even once they're making essentially the most summary daubs. BBT read the entire assessment.

39 WH Lung – Incidental song

From Stereolab to liquid crystal display Soundsystem and Hookworms, well-nigh every year produces a band who replicate the soothingly simple, everlasting groove of Neu! – and in our world of lies and gaslighting, we need that north-star steady greater than ever. Manchester's WH Lung are available to supply it, garlanded with ethereal vocals and endearingly retro sonics. BBT read the whole review.

40 Sturgill Simpson – Sound & Fury

an awful lot as Kacey Musgraves broke open nation songwriting in 2018 with the love-bombing physique excessive of Golden Hour, Sturgill Simpson casts himself as the style's outlier in 2019. this is a strutting, utterly badass glam rock record, shot through with a gimlet-eyed outlaw nihilism – and is derived with its personal accompanying Kurosawa-inspired anime. unexpectedly, songs about beer and broads seem to be a bit lacking. BBT study the complete evaluate.

forty one These New Puritans – interior the Rose

With ambition and intent that should still disgrace many of their peers, These New Puritans have crafted another suite of publish-punk symphonies. As ever, the sound design is super, bass thrumming in clouds beneath choirs, pianos and their trademark instant-decay drums, however the big earnest melodies provide it heart. Jack Barnett's vocals, conversational yet epic, add their own particular drama. BBT study the total review.

forty two The eastern condominium – first rate at Falling Dense layers of fluttering gauze ... Amber Bain

Like Caroline Polachek, Hannah Diamond and so many others this yr, Amber Bain makes use of super-artificial electropop and tender rock to claim an awful lot rougher, grittier truths. The production, aided by George Daniel of the 1975, is like dense layers of fluttering gauze, annotated with excellent detailing; floating through it all is Bain's breakup pain. BBT study the full evaluate.

forty three Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy!

Like Sons of Kemet's Your Queen Is a Reptile, every tune on poet/activist/songwriter Jamila Woods's second album is named for a pivotal artist of color, whose legacies she explores as models of a way to are living lifestyles to the fullest. The Chicago musician flips between them – from Zora Neale Hurston to James 1st earl baldwin of bewdley – with warmness and close attention, her sandy voice full of tenderness and the jazz-influenced backing solar-baked and unbelievable. It makes Legacy! Legacy! suppose much less like a background lesson and greater like a glimpse right into a liked picture album. LS read the total assessment.

44 (Sandy) Alex G – house of Sugar A future cult traditional ... (Sandy) Alex G. graphic: Tonje Thilesen

by using mixing the trudging splendour of slowcore with nation melodies and the sort of in truth oddball artistry that doesn't second bet or are trying to make issues healthy, (Sandy) Alex G is still one in all the us's most underrated songwriters. Southern Sky, dangerous Man, SugarHouse and a great deal extra make this a future cult classic. BBT

forty five pink Mountains – purple Mountains

As with Bowie's Blackstar and Leonard Cohen's You desire It Darker, David Berman's long-awaited return to track will continually be overshadowed by his loss of life, as he died through suicide lower than a month after its free up. Elegiac and rickety, it's a lasting testomony to his mordant and philosophical poetry, however also to his pain: "The conclusion of all trying is all I've been wanting," he sings on That's simply the style That I believe. LS examine the whole evaluation.

forty six Durand Jones and the signs – American Love call modern classics ... Durand Jones and the indications. photo: Rosie Cohe

These one-time song college students create an ideal simulacrum of 60s and 70s soul, but lit with the lamps of a jazz membership instead of the sterile striplighting of a lab. American Love name is full of modern classics, from the falsetto raptures of How can i be sure to the ideal nation soul of long way domestic. BBT study the entire evaluate.

forty seven Flying Lotus – Flamagra

Twenty-seven tracks long, and with visitors starting from Solange to David Lynch, Flamagra is probably the most bold vision yet from the LA beatmaker. He offers more room than ever earlier than to his vocalists, however he could by no means develop into a producer of simple backing tracks – his tumbling, symphonic funk is as impetuous and psychedelic as ever. BBT study the entire assessment.

48 King Princess – low cost Queen There's potential in classicism yet ... King Princess

whereas artists like Billie Eilish and Polachek have pushed pop into the long run this 12 months, King Princess joins Lana Del Rey in displaying that there's advantage in classicism yet. The 20-12 months-old – born Mikaela Straus – launched a debut album crammed with louche balladry that, despite her manhattan pedigree, is plump with west coast studio richness. additionally: echoes of All Saints' sultry most useful. LS examine the total review.

49 fats White family unit – Serfs Up!

the chief grotbags of the British indie scene return, protecting a really reptilian area to their lounge lizard music. They dip into the strangest, sexiest bits of the 70s, with prowling disco on feet, rollicking glam on Tastes first rate With the money, and electronically, chemically stronger psychedelic skronk all over. BBT read the total evaluate.

50 Kano – Hoodies All summer season one of the crucial UK's top-quality ever MCs ... Kano. photograph: Olivia Rose

together with his sixth album, the east Londoner cements his fame as one of the UK's superior ever MCs. There's a musicality to his delivery that suggests a person for the reason that one side of the argument, then the different – however ultimately there's little equivocation as he condemns institutional racism, needless violence, and the problem of social mobility: "We're Kunta Kintes in some Cuban hyperlinks / The Balenciagas didn't mix us in." BBT read the entire assessment.