→ August 9, 2020
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Music update, July 2020.

It seems like new music releases might be slowing down now, perhaps a lagged effect of the pandemic, although I still see a half-dozen or more albums coming out in the rest of 2020 that I’m excited to hear. As always, you can listen to the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

The Beths – Dying to Believe. The praise for the Beths’ new album Jump Rope Gazers is a bit ahead of my opinion of the album, which I liked, but wouldn’t say I loved it; they’re so much better when they use their energy and go uptempo.

Doves – Prisoners. That’s two strong tracks of the three singles they’ve released so far off their comeback album, The Universal Want, due out on September 20th.

Space Above featuring Boyboy – Movements. Aaron Short, who records as Space Above, may sound more like early The Naked and Famous, the band Short left, than TNAF does today – and I’m here for it.

The Naked and Famous – Everybody Knows. And here’s the remaining duo, with one of their most melodic songs since their debut album in 2010. Their latest album Recover, features this, last year’s “Sunseeker,” “Death,” and “Bury Us.”

Everything Everything – Violent Sun. This latest single from these British avant-garde rockers definitely grew on me over multiple listens, further reason to be eager for their fifth album, Re-Animator, which drops on September 11th.

Nation of Language – The Wall & I. Nation of Language’s latest album Introduction, Presence came out on May 24th, and closes out with this track, which feels heavily influenced by peak New Order.

Jorja Smith – By Any Means. This was the singer/songwriter’s first single on her own since last year’s hit “Be Honest,” and I hope it signals her sophomore album will come soon.

Black Honey – Beaches. More indie-pop goodness from one of my favorite bands of 2018.

San Cisco – Messages. Scarlett Stevens takes on lead vocals on this very sunny pop track, although I think her lack of vocal depth shows here when she doesn’t have Jordi Davieson to share singing duties.

PAINT – Strange World. This really sounds like a lost Badly Drawn Boy track from 2000. PAINT is Pedrum Siadatian, formerly of the Allah-Las; this is the best track from his first album under the name, Spiritual Vegas.

Inhaler – Fade Into You. It’s tough to cover a song like Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” but Inhaler, led by Elijah Hewson (son of Bono), does a very credible job here.

Hinds – Spanish Bombs. A bit of a different sound for the Spanish quartet, maybe a little more polished than their previous output, although that’s kind of a low bar.

Glass Animals – It’s All So Incredibly Loud. This song is wonderfully weird, and has Glass Animals’ trademark use of unusual percussion sounds, and the more I listen to it the more I like it. The synth lines here are relentless.

Serpiko – Sleep State. Nobody seems to know who Serpiko is, but his debut EP, also called Sleep State, has garnered some positive press for its unusual blend of electronic, funk, and jazz elements. This title track is by far the best on the record, meandering in a purposeful way thanks to a persistent percussion line.

The Go-Go’s – Club Zero. Showtime has a new documentary out on the pioneering all-girl pop/rock group, and the quintet recorded this new track to go along with it … and it’s great. Other than Belinda Carlisle’s vocals, you might guess this was something from their peak years.

Ihsahn – Spectre at the Feast. Ihsahn is one of the founding members of the Norwegian black metal band Emperor, probably as well remembered for their involvement in church burnings and for their drummer’s conviction of the murder of a man who solicited him for sex than for their four albums, the last of which came out in 2001. That’s a long way of saying that this track is nothing like Emperor’s music – it’s progressive rock, not really even metal, with clean vocals and some intriguing guitar work.

Pallbearer – Forgotten Days. The champions of American doom metal are back with this title track from their new album, due out October 23rd. This track was labeled (Edit) so I presume a longer version will appear on the full-length LP.

Ensiferum – The Defence of the Sampo. I really enjoy Ensiferum when they stick to the thrash elements more common in Viking metal and go light on the death growls; it’s like listening to strange Norse metal drinking songs.

Mastodon – Fallen Torches. This is on the heavier side for Mastodon, a previously unreleased track that will appear on the band’s forthcoming B-sides and miscellany collection Medium Rarities, which will also include the band’s cover of Metallica’s “Orion.”

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→ July 5, 2020
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Top albums of 2020 so far.

This year has sucked across multiple dimensions, but new music has been one of the few bright spots of the first half of 2020 – although I worry that there’s a time lag here, and we’re getting great singles and albums recorded before the world ended. Anyway, here are the best albums I have heard so far this year.

7. SAULT – Untitled (Black Is). SAULT released one of the best albums of 2019 but did so after my 2019 rankings came out – in fact, they released two albums (7 and 5) last year, and both were great, but I didn’t hear either until May of this year. The identities of the band members are still unknown, but they’ve gained some critical attention nonetheless for their soul/funk/spoken word sound, and with Untitled (Black Is) they’ve become overtly political with a series of anthems supporting Black Lives Matter and other causes of equality and justice. Standout tracks include “Bow,” featuring Michael Kiwanuka; “Monsters;” “Why We Cry Why We Die;” and “Black.”

6. Tame Impala – The Slow Rush. I’ve always been a few degrees short of the critical acclaim for Kevin Parker’s music; I’ve liked many of his tracks but he often needs an editor to rein him in, and his albums haven’t come together as well as they should. The Slow Rush still has too many tracks that go on too long – half of the twelve songs here run five minutes or more, up to 7:13 for the closer – but it’s the most coherent record he’s released to date. Standout singles include “Borderline,” “Lost in Yesterday,” and “Breathe Deeper.”

5. Bananagun – The True Story of Bananagun. I only heard about this Melbourne psychedelic rock/funk group a few weeks ago, but I’m all about this album and their strange mélange of late ’60s flower-child rock and funk guitar work from the decade afterwards. Standout tracks include “The Master,” “Freak Machine,” and “Bang Go the Bongos.”

4. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud. Folk-rocker Katie Crutchfield bares her soul, recounting her struggles with alcoholism and decision to get sober after her previous album, the uneven Out in the Storm (which still gave us “Never Been Wrong”), and the result is her best and most complete album to date. Standout tracks include “Lilacs,” “Can’t Do Much,” and “Hell.”

3. Grimes – Miss Anthropocene. A good example of when to separate the art from the artist. Grimes’ last album, Art Angels, was my #1 album of 2015; this record is more experimental and expansive, but still has several tracks that stand well on their own thanks to strong melodies, including “Violence,” “4ÆM,” and “Delete Forever.”

2. Khruangbin – Mordechai. I was late to the Khruangbin party, only hearing their last album, Con Todo El Mundo, a year after it came out, helped by The RFK Tapes’ podcast’s use of “Maria También” as its theme song. I think I got here just in time, though, as Mordechai is going to be their big breakout, as it has the same kind of Thai jazz/funk/rock hybrid sound as their last album, but now with extensive vocals from all three members. Standout tracks include “Pelota,” “Time (You and I),” the funky “So We Won’t Forget,” and “Connaissais de Face.”

1. Moses Boyd – Dark Matter. I don’t have any comparison for this album by percussionist Moses Boyd, one half of Binker and Moses. It’s a dark, swirling journey of modern jazz and house that has the energy of improvisational music but the tighter focus and melodic sensibility of more mainstream genres. Standout tracks include the stellar “Shades of You” (feat. Poppy Ajudha), shimmering opener “Stranger than Fiction,” and the guitar-laden “Y.O.Y.O.”

Upcoming albums I’m at least excited to hear: The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers (7/10); Dirty Streets – Rough and Tumble (7/31); Everything Everything’s RE-ANIMATOR (8/21); Cut Copy – Freeze, Melt (8/21); Sad13 – Haunted Painting (9/25); Doves – untitled (TBD); Noname – untitled (TBD).

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→ July 5, 2020
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Stick to baseball, 7/4/20.

For subscribers to The Athletic, I looked at the prospects who made their teams’ 60-player pools – and some notable prospect omissions as well. I held a Klawchat on Friday.

My latest podcast episode was one of my favorites so far. Dr. Akilah Carter-Francique of the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society, and Social Change at San Jose State University joined me to discuss her research on Black athletes’ experiences, their obstacles to playing and becoming coaches after playing, and what leagues and universities can do to break down structural barriers these athletes face.

My thanks to all of you who’ve already bought The Inside Game. If you’re looking to pick up a copy, you can get it at bookshop.org or perhaps at a local bookstore if they’re reopening near you.

I’m due for another issue my my email newsletter. You can sign up for free here.

And now, the links…

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→ July 2, 2020
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Music update, June 2020.

June started out very slow for new music but finished with a bang, enough that I ended up culling some songs before posting this playlist, which runs the gamut of genres and features a couple of tracks from some of the best albums of the year so far. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist here.

Khruangbin – Pelota. The Thai funk/jazz/rock trio’s third album, Mordechai, is among the year’s best new records, and it’s their first with significant vocals, which should allow them to make real inroads on the commercial side. I’ll do a list of my favorite albums of the first half of 2020 shortly, but Mordechai is on it.

Doves – Carousels. Doves have reunited and released their first new music since 2009’s Kingdom of Rust. The time off has done them some good, as this sounds like peak Doves around the time of The Last Broadcast.

Bananagun – The Master. This weird Australian funk/alternative group sound a bit like someone smashed together folk rock sensibilities with late ’70s funk-rock or early ’80s new wave on their debut album The True Story of Bananagun. It’s very strange, but it works quite well even at different speeds.

Sad13 – Sooo Bad. Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz is set to release her second solo album as Sad13, with three new singles in the last few weeks, headlined by this track. All three songs are poppier than Speedy Ortiz’s music, but still have her offbeat lyrics and signature use of unexpected transitions.

Frank Turner – Bob. Turner and NOFX recorded covers of five of the other’s songs; I’m not a NOFX guy (although their desire to offend is admirable in a quirky way), but this reworking of a snotty track from their debut album into an acoustic ballad that sounds like Turner could have written it himself is impressive.

The Lazy Eyes – Tangerine. This Sydney quartet just released their first EP, cleverly titled EP1, showcasing a psychedelic rock sound that appears to owe a small debt to their countrymate Tame Impala.

Glass Animals – Heat Waves. I tend to like Glass Animals more when they’re a bit restrained, which they are here, as opposed to songs where it feels like they’re trying to be strange or eccentric.

Arlo Parks – Black Dog. Not a Led Zeppelin cover, as it turns out, although Parks did record an acoustic cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” as the B-side to this love song to a partner (or friend?) suffering from the black dog of depression.

Shamir – On My Own. If you know Shamir, it might be from his 2014 song “On the Regular,” which featured him rapping at a pitch that convinced a lot of people – me included – that the vocalist was a woman. He’s honed his sound in the intervening years to create an expansive mash-up that spans indie rock to classic soul to house and beyond, but I’ve been waiting for years for him to write another great hook. This song has it, along with a mid-80s Prince vibe to the music.

Tricky – Fall Please. Adrian Thaws is still at it at age 52, and still capable of producing a banger like this one, which features vocals from Polish singer Marta Z?akowska. It’s just short (2:27) for a song with such a great groove.

Freddie Gibbs & the Alchemist – Look at Me. Gibbs is probably the best MC working today, and continues to challenge himself musically, although I have a hard time buying in fully given how he speaks about women in his lyrics.

Dirty Streets – Can’t Go Back. Bluesy hard rock from a fairly new Memphis trio whose music I first heard while watching Netflix’s Sex Education. This is one of three tracks from their upcoming fifth album Rough and Tumble.

Muzz – Knuckleduster. Muzz is Paul Banks of Interpol, Matt Barrick of the Walkmen, and producer Josh Kaufman; they released their self-titled debut album in early June. It’s a mixed bag, often too lugubrious, but generally lush and often harking back to early shoegaze with more pronounced vocals.

Coach Party – Bleach. A new indie rock quartet from the Isle of Wight, with this song reminding me a bit of their labelmates Wolf Alice (at least from the latter’s first album).

The Beths – Out of Sight. This New Zealand indie group made a small splash in 2018 with their album Future Me Hates Me, with “You Wouldn’t Like Me” appearing on my top 100 for that year; their second album, Jump Rope Gazers, drops on July 10th.

Everything Everything – Planets. E2 will release RE-ANIMATOR, their fifth album, on August 21st; given the first three singles it seems like it might be their weirdest record yet.

Hinds – Take Me Back. I was into this all-female quartet’s earlier work but sort of assumed they’d get more proficient as musicians over time, so the charm of their first two records has started to wear off a bit now that it’s clear that there isn’t another level coming.

Medium – Life After Death. This isn’t the ’90s Minneapolis band Medium, but a project from musician Cotter Phinney, a big Ariel Pink fan who also professes to be into classic metal solos, with the former more evident on this track.

Protomartyr – Michigan Hammers. If there was a moment in some alternate universe when post-punk started to morph into metal – instead of the two strains descending from different ancestors – the result would have probably sounded a lot like Protomartyr.

Mekong Delta – Mental Entropy. I had no idea Mekong Delta, a minor band from the halcyon days of German thrash metal, even still existed, but they sound like they’re still recording in 1989 and I’m here for it.

Ensiferum – Andromeda. This Finnish folk/death metal act show off some great technical guitar work and strong melodic riffs, but the accessibility of their music varies from song to song – “Rum, Women, and Victory,” their previous single, was way more on the death metal side of things, while this has just a little of that and is more traditional metal, which is still my preference.

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→ June 11, 2020
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Music update, May 2020.

This month’s playlist is as long as usual, but the writeup is shorter because of the draft. I thought it was a pretty solid month for new music though, including several tracks I think will end up near the top of my year-end ranking. If you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist here.

The Eddy featuring Jorja Smith – Kiss Me in the Morning. I haven’t seen The Eddy, the jazz-themed Netflix show from Damien Chazelle, but this song features the Grammy-nominated Jorja Smith, whose Lost & Found was one of my favorite albums of 2018.

Khruangbin – So We Won’t Forget. I have loved both singles from their forthcoming album Mordechai, due out on June 26th, as they seem like the trio are approaching their artistic peak.

Oasis – Don’t Stop (Demo). It feels like this track, a previously unreleased demo recently rediscovered by Noel Gallagher, first resurfaced six months ago, rather than about six weeks ago. It’s very vintage Oasis, which is a good thing in my book.

Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death. There’s something about the line “Life ain’t always empty,” which these retro-punks repeat throughout the song, during this of all seasons.

Little Simz – might bang, might not. I was a little let down by Little Simz’ EP Drop 6, given how great her 2019 GREY Area was, but she’s still a great rapper and rises above the less interesting music on the new record.

Everything Everything – Arch Enemy. This lead single from their upcoming album Re-Animator – due out in August – is very E2, soaring, ambitious, and slightly manic in its instrumentation.

Maisie Peters – The List. I’m still waiting for the world to catch on to Peters, who just turned 20 in May and already has several incredible pop songs to her credit. This isn’t quite at the heights of “The Best I’ll Ever Sing,” but it’s close.

Ten Fé – Nothing Breaks Like a Heart. I didn’t even realize this was a cover of the Mark Ronson/Miley Cyrus song because they’ve so completely changed the song, turning into a haunting acoustic number that’s almost dirge-like with its funereal vibe.

San Cisco – On the Line. Even San Cisco’s lesser singles still have great hooks, like this one, which, like most of their best songs, has Scarlett Stevens sharing some of the vocal duties.

LA Priest – Beginnings. When I first heard this track, I was sure it was something from the former lead singer of Wild Beasts,but it’s actually Sam Dust, whose second album Gene just dropped last week.

Spielbergs – Go! This track, part of Adult Swim’s singles series, captures this Norwegian band at their frenetic best.

The Mysterines – I Win Every Time. The Mysterines should be stars by now, with great rock hooks and Lia Metcalfe’s snarling, riveting vocals.

The Naked and Famous – Death. I mean, maybe now wasn’t the right time to release a song so explicitly about confronting our mortality?

Disclosure – ENERGY. Disclosure burst on the scene with 2013’s “When a Fire Starts to Burn,” which featured a sample of preacher and motivational speaker Eric Thomas; they went back to the well for this title track from their upcoming album, using more of Thomas’ words as the vocals above music that absolutely lives up to the title.

Black Orchid Empire – Natural Selection. I wasn’t familiar with BOE before, but this is my kind of metal, with big, muscular riffs, and a real melody in the vocals.

Caligula’s Horse – Valkyrie. Progressive metal from the Australian band’s newest album, Rise Radiant, released on May 22nd.

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→ May 6, 2020
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Music update, April 2020.

A shorter-than-normal playlist this month as I think the pandemic has played havoc with release schedules and has obviously kept many artists out of the studio, but there are still some strong singles in advance of albums already planned for releases this summer and fall. As always, you can access the playlist directly if you can’t see the widget below.

Iceage – Lockdown Blues. Yep, he’s saying “Covid 19 lockdown blues/the only way out is through.” There have been some regrettable songs written and released during the pandemic; this one is actually good.

Space Above, So Below – Golden. Space Above is former The Naked & Famous keyboardist Aaron Short’s new project, with So Below (singer Maddie North) contributing vocals on many of their songs so far, including this darkly ethereal track.

Khruangbin – Time (You and I). This new single from the Texas-based funk/jazz trio features extensive vocals from Laura Lee Ochoa, a departure from their primarily instrumental work to date, and is the lead single from their third album Mordechai, due out next month.

Village of the Sun – TED. VotS is a new collaboration between Binker and Moses – as in Moses Boyd, whose Dark Matter is my favorite album of the year so far – and Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx. This track takes its name and inspiration from a song called “Dreamship” by the Ted Moses Quintet, which I only know from googling.

Talk Show – Petrolhead. I’ve enjoyed Talk Show’s snarling mix of classic post-punk sounds, more contemporary rock rhythms, and just a hint of the energy of dance music without heavy electronic elements.

The Wants – Clearly a Crisis. The Wants are pure post-punk, influenced by Gang of Four and other icons of the earliest new wave bands, and it comes through most successfully on this track and “Motor” from their debut album Container.

bdrmm – Happy. A five-piece shoegaze band from Hull, bdrmm released their debut EP If Not, When? in October, and have returned now with this subdued, swirling track that has some early Lush to it with a more upbeat tempo.

Everything Everything – In Birdsong (Edit). Lead singer Jonathan Higgs has described this song’s lyrics as an attempt to capture what it might have been like to be the world’s first self-aware human, although I find it more interesting for the highly textured keyboard layers below Higgs’ falsetto, crescendoing into a sort of wall of sound that seems almost tactile by the end of the song.

Jake Bugg – Saviours of the City. Bugg seems to have come back around to the Dylanesque sounds of his Mercury Prize-nominated self-titled debut album, eight years later, with this second single ahead of his fourth album, which is due out later this year.

The Naked and Famous – Blinding Lights. TNAF’s cover of the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” from his new album After Hours, beats the original for me – not least because of Alisa Xayalith’s voice.

Asylums – A Perfect Life in a Perfect World. The Southend rock quartet have produced a song that sounds like it could have been recorded and released in 1994, and I mean that as a high compliment.

Ministry – Alert Level (Quarantine). I’m not as big a Ministry fan as you might guess from my age and musical tastes, as I find a lot of Al Jourgensen’s work with the band after their shift from new wave to industrial designed more to shock than to entertain. “Alert Level (Quarantine)” is still harsh and abrasive, but also has one of the best guitar riffs of any song in Ministry’s catalog.

Pure Reason Revolution – Ghosts & Typhoons. I don’t know how to categorize PRR’s music, with its peculiar mixture of progressive rock, electronic, and extreme metal elements, often in songs that run six to ten minutes in length, but their new album Eupnea, their first LP in a decade, has really grown on me this year thanks to songs like this and “Silent Genesis.”

Katatonia – The Winter of Our Passion. These Swedish prog-metallers started out as a death metal act but have shifted to clean vocals and doom sounds that sometimes incorporate metal aspects, but often don’t – if you heard this without knowing who the artist was, I doubt you’d call it metal. It’s one of the most accessible things they’ve done but retains the sophistication of their most recent albums.

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→ April 3, 2020
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Music update, April 2020.

Well, we’re all home now – or ought to be – so let’s listen to some new music, nineteen songs this month, most of which just appeared in March. If you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist directly here.

Moses Boyd featuring Poppy Ajudha – Shades of You. Boyd’s new album, Dark Matter, is the most interesting record I’ve heard since black midi’s Schlagenheim came out last June, and a lot more accessible at that, often evoking the same hypnotic, avant-garde vibe that Radiohead approached on Kid A and Amnesiac. A jazz drummer and producer, Boyd mixes pulsating instrumentals with tracks that feature guest vocalists, including this song, the album’s best thanks to searing vocal work from the south London singer Ajudha.

Waxahatchee – Can’t Do Much. Katie Crutchfield’s latest album, Saint Cloud, dropped last Friday, and is her most complete work yet, with “Lilacs” and this song the two standouts for me so far.

MID CITY – Forget It. An energetic power-pop track about gaslighting from a Melbourne quartet, with a strong flavor of the Killers circa Hot Fuss.

Artificial Pleasure – Lose Myself Again. I’m not sure exactly what it is about Artificial Pleasure that makes me think I’m listening to Heaven 17 sent forward forty years through a time machine, but I’m here for it.

Purity Ring – peacefall. Purity Ring’s latest album, WOMB, just came out this morning, including this single and February’s “stardew.”

Myrkur – House Carpenter. Myrkur, the nom de chanson of Danish musician Amalie Bruun, started out as a bizarre hybrid of dark folk music and extreme metal, but her latest album, Folkesange (Folk Songs), dispenses with blast beats and heavy guitar work in favor of traditional sounds that wouldn’t be out of place on an album from the Chieftains.

ARCADES featuring Prides – Stars. ARCADES have written numerous hits for K-Pop acts BTS and TXT, with just a few singles they’ve recorded themselves; this latest hit my radar because of the presence of the Scottish duo Prides, whose indie-pop sound blends quite well with ARCADES’ songwriting here.

Phantom Planet – Time Moves On. I remain pleasantly surprised by the return of Phantom Planet, and the fact that their new singles have been pretty good, although I think last year’s “BALISONG” is the best of the lot so far.

Catholic Action – Another Name for Loneliness. Catholic Action’s Celebrated by Strangers has earned some rave reviews from independent music press on both sides of the Atlantic, although I found the album a little light on hooks overall; this is my favorite track from the record, reminding me a bit of “Love Vigilantes” due to the main guitar riff.

Allie X – Sarah Come Home. The singer/model Alexandra Hughes released her second full-length album, a concept work called Cape God, in late February; it’s uneven, as her first album CollXtion II was, with this song the best on the album, an upbeat dance-pop track that contrasts with the darker tones on the record as a whole.

Adam Snow, Freddie Gibbs, Tedy Andreas – 9 to 5. Producer Snow’s name comes first, but Gibbs is the star here; the moment Houston rapper Andreas shows up he sucks most of the energy right out of the track, although I enjoyed his name-check of my former colleague Dan Le Batard.

Alkaline Trio – Minds like Minefields. Alkaline Trio released a three-song EP in March just called E.P. after their spring tour was cancelled, with this anthemic punk-pop track released as a single.

The Wants – Motor. This NYC trio show some heavy post-punk influence, unsurprising as lead singer/guitarist Madison Velding-VanDam has spoken about his love of Gang of Four. “Motor” was originally an instrumental track, but the spoken-word vocals that appear about halfway through definitely add to the song’s appeal by breaking what might have been a bit of a monotonous guitar riff otherwise.

Fake Names – Brick. Fake Names is a punk supergroup with members of Refused, Bad Religion, Minor Threat, and other bands. This lead single from their upcoming, self-titled album isn’t even two minutes long but is definitely a throwback to the heyday of melodic hardcore acts like BR and the Descendents.

Poppy – Concrete. I have no idea what to make of Poppy, a singer and Youtube personality who blends bubblegum and J-Pop elements with brief bursts of highly polished heavy metal. She has a fan base that’s independent of her music, based on her videos, her graphic novels, and I think her overall persona; I obviously am not in tune with any of that, but this song is weirdly catchy even though it feels like two completely disconnected tracks that have been smushed together in post-production.

Moon Destroys featuring Paul Masvidal – Stormbringer. Moon Destroys are a new progressive metal project with former members of Royal Thunder and Torche, with a new sound that blends prog and stoner/sludge metal sounds. Their first single featured Troy Sanders of Mastodon, while this has Paul Masvidal of Cynic on vocals … speaking of which, I just learned that former Cynic and Death drummer Sean Reinert died in January at age 48, which is awful news.

Wolf – Feeding the Machine. The title track from Wolf’s first album in six years shows that not much has changed for these guys, who seem firmly stuck in the late 1980s musically, with classic thrash sounds that would have fit well in the San Francisco sounds of that era.

Kreator – 666 – World Divided. Mille Petrozza’s voice has taken a beating – he sounds older than 52 on this track – but these guys can still bang out thrash riffs with the best of them.

Testament – Children of the Next Level. Testament just released their 13th studio album, Titans of Creation, this morning; I feel about this record as I have about most of their music in the last decade, that guitarist Alex Skolnick is still an iconic author of thrash riffs, and a tremendous shredder, but the songs all leave me a little short of compelling hooks. I like Testament, but I don’t attach to their songs the way I have with many of the other pioneers of thrash.

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→ March 6, 2020
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Music update, February 2020.

February was absolutely loaded with great new music, including two albums that I think will end up on a lot of best-of-2020 lists and a bunch of new singles from artists I really like, including one I haven’t even thought about in 20 years. This post is a bit short because I have some non-work things to deal with today/this weekend but the playlist (here on Spotify) is 90 minutes and 23 songs long.

Grimes – Delete Forever. Grimes – or c, or whatever name Elon Musk told her to use this week – may be a bit out there at the moment, but Miss Anthopocene, her first album since 2015’s stellar Art Angels, is ambitious and smart and manages to be compelling even with a lot of tonal shifts from her prior work.

Waxahatchee – Lilacs. This is about as close to country music as I ever get. Katie Crutchfield’s upcoming album Saint Cloud is apparently about her decision to get sober. This is one of the best songs she’s ever done.

Tame Impala – Breathe Deeper. I need to listen to it some more but I think Slow Rush might be my favorite Tame Impala album. Kevin Parker really can’t help himself with the six-minute songs, though.

Soul Asylum – Got It Pretty Good. I really liked Soul Asylum up to and including Grave Dancers Union, but they went off the rails right after “Runaway Train” (which I never liked) became a hit. It’s been 28 years since that album came out, Dave Pirner is about to turn 56, and this song absolutely rocks.

The Mysterines – Love’s Not Enough. This Wirral, England rock trio is my sleeper pick for 2020, almost entirely because of Lia Metcalfe’s vocals.

San Cisco – Reasons. I was wondering just a few weeks ago if we were going to hear from this Australian indie-pop trio, and here they are with a great track that would fit right in on pop radio in just about any of the last four decades.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Be Afraid. Is this Isbell’s first appearance on my playlists? I believe it is.

Lauren Ruth Ward – Water Sign. There’s something vaguely menacing about Ward’s vocals on many of her songs, but it plays up even more over the doom-like guitars here.

Wild Nothing – The World is a Hungry Place. This is the best song they’ve done since 2012’s Nocturne, and also a return to the mood of that album.

Chromatics – TOY. This was a surprise single, since Chromatics just released their first album in seven years back in October, and this track wasn’t on it. There’s a serious MGMT vibe to the music under Ruth Radelet’s typical whispery vocals.

Working Men’s Club – White Rooms and People. The vocals here are definitely an acquired taste, but the build from the funk guitar work in the verse to the synth-heavy new-wavey chorus is intoxicating.

Talk Show – Stress. The London post-punk quartet’s debut EP, These People, is due out at the end of this month.

Purity Ring – stardew. The Canadian duo’s first new song in three years has a more upbeat melody than much of their music, which I think better suits Megan James’ often childlike vocal style.

Disclosure feat. Eko Roosevelt – Tondo. It’s a new song from the Grammy-winning duo, but it’s barely more than a remix of Cameroonian musician Roosevelt’s “Tondoho Mba,” which was released last year on a compilation by the French DJ Guts.

Christine and the Queens – I disappear in your arms. Less than two years after her acclaimed album Chris, Christine put out an unexpected five-song EP, La Vita Nuova, featuring this track, yet another pop banger with a sinister keyboard line behind a great vocal melody.

Jackie Venson – Make Me Feel. I found it impossible not to compare this song to the Janelle Monáe track of the same name, and think how Venson shows the musical ambition I wanted Monáe to bring to her last record. I will say the whispered “walk with him” part at the end is kind of creepy, though.

Glass Animals – Your Love (Déjà Vu). I either love Glass Animals tracks (“Life Itself”) or hate them (“Gooey”), but their percussion sounds are always interesting. This track is in the former category.

MICH – Ceiling Duty. I know next to nothing about this band other than that they’re from Amsterdam, there are four of them, and this song sounds like shoegaze meets jangly college rock from the early 1990s.

Do Nothing – Fits. They’re not quite punk, not really post-punk, definitely sneering, yet still give us a nod to melody in the chorus.

Sløtface – Passport. Sorry for the late reply is a bit more uneven than their debut but still has a few pop-punk standout tracks like this one.

Throwing Muses – Dark Blue. A bit of an obligatory inclusion, although I’m impressed that Kristen Hersh is still churning out music this dark nearly 40 years into her career.

Aktor – Bad Mirror. Very New Wave of British Heavy Metal here, although the rest of the album (Placebo) can veer into harsher territory.

Toundra – VI. Akt. Toundra’s instrumental, progressive metal is usually interesting but they’re asking a lot with their new album, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, a series of six ten-minute tracks that often slow the tempo down well beyond what we expect of this style of music.

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→ February 7, 2020
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Music update, January 2020.

I’ve been adding songs to this playlist for nearly two months now – since I wrapped up my top 100 songs of 2019 list – which, of course, led me to procrastinate writing and posting it, since it was getting long. I’ve trimmed it to a manageable level, and it’s more metal-heavy than most of my playlists, although those songs are (as usual) all at the end. You can listen to the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Naked and Famous – Sunseeker. One side of a single with “Bury Us,” the New Zealand group’s first new music since 2018, and their first since founding keyboardist Aaron Short (now of The Space Above) left the band.

Ten Fé – Heaven Sent Me. Ten Fé are absurdly prolific; they’ve released two albums in the last two calendar years, then put out another two-track single with this and “Candidate” right before Christmas.

Pure Reason Revolution – Silent Genesis. I’ve included the edited version of this track, which runs over 10 minutes on the prog-rock duo’s upcoming album Eupnea, their first since they reformed in 2019 after an eight-year hiatus.

Tame Impala – Lost in Yesterday. Kevin Parker’s fourth studio album, The Slow Rush, comes out on Valentine’s Day, featuring this rather poppy track and all the singles Parker released last year, including “Borderline.”

The Districts – Cheap Regrets. The Districts’ songs to date have mostly been garage rock tracks, but this has an undeniable electronic dance influence that makes it the most interesting thing they’ve put out so far.

Working Men’s Club – Teeth. This Manchester trio released this first single since they signed with a record label back in November, and it marks a turn towards darker new wave sounds akin to Joy Division or Sisters of Mercy.

of Montreal – Polyaneurism. I haven’t liked much of what I’ve heard from of Montreal’s latest album, UR FUN, but this song is a bouncy, faintly ridiculous indie-pop track, even with Kevin Barnes’ weirdly annoying vocals.

Grimes – 4ÆM. I think we’re just going to have to see what c, formerly known as Claire Boucher, has in store for us on Miss Anthropocene, due out in two weeks; the five singles she’s released so far have been a mixed bag.

Sløtface – Tap the pack. These Norwegian punk-popsters just released their second album, Sorry for the Late Reply, full of more energetic bangers with clever lyrics.

Khruangbin with Leon Bridges – C-side. This collaboration is one of four tracks featuring the Texas avant-garde trio and singer Bridges on the Texas Sun EP, released today.

Artificial Pleasure – Into the Unknown (Pt. Two). I had to move this away from the Working Men’s Club track because they mine such similar darkwave territory.

HUMANIST feat. Dave Gahan – Shock Collar. Yep, that is indeed Depeche Mode frontman Gahan on Rob Marshall’s HUMANIST project.

The Amazons – Howlin. Introducing … The Amazons is a new 12-track record with B-sides, acoustic versions, and three previously unreleased tracks, including this one, which would have fit well on their last album Future Dust.

Thematic – Dirt and Chains. Progressive metal in a digestible song length! How novel. Their new album, Skyrunner, occasionally devolves into full-throated extreme-metal screaming, but when they avoid that the music is pretty compelling.

Toundra – I. Akt (edit). I’mprettymuch all in on anything this Madrid instrumental/progressive metal act releases, even when the songs are eight minutes long.

British Lion – The Burning. British Lion is the side project of Iron Maiden bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris, and this song is a definite throwback to Maiden’s heyday musically, although it’ll never really sound like Maiden without Bruce Dickinson or a facsimile thereof.

Demons & Wizards – Diabolic. Another side project, this one with members of Iced Earth and Blind Guardian, with a name taken from a Uriah Heep song. It’s also eight minutes long, but there’s some great vintage ’80s guitar riffing once you get through the slow open.

Carcass – Under the Scalpel Blade. The greatest melodic death metal band ever is back, with their first new music in seven years, although this lead single isn’t as precise as 2013’s Surgical Steel and sounds a bit more like pre-Heartwork Carcass.

Testament – Night of the Witch. The Pete Best of 1980s thrash bands, Testament is still going with their own blend of vintage speed metal and elements of more contemporary extreme metal; I’m just here for the riffing.

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→ December 13, 2019
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Top 100 songs of 2019.

I feel like this was a down year; I haven’t had this hard of a time filling out a top 100 songs list in any of the seven years where I’ve done one. That means there are a lot of artists on here 2-3 times, and I believe a record number of covers for one of my lists. If you can’t see the playlist below, you can access it here.

100. Hatchie – Stay with Me. Hatchie put three songs on list this year, all from her debut album Keepsake, which shows off her ability to cook up sweet melodies that work with her slight vocal range, recalling ’90s alternative acts like the Cranberries and the Cardigans.

99. Floating Points – Anasickmodular. Just the right amount of Floatin Points’ intellectual spin on EDM, especially given the fast-moving, shifting drum machine on this track.

98. Danny Brown – Best Life. This track, produced by Q-Tip, was the star of the veteran rapper Brown’s latest album, uknowhatimsayin¿, which made best-of-the-year lists from Billboard, Paste, and Pitchfork.

97. Supergrass – Next to You. I have a few covers on the top 100 this year, which is unusual but I think reflects that this was a down year overall for new music. Supergrass is an old favorite of mine, and this cover of a modest hit from the Police marked the release of Supergrass’ boxed set this summer.

96. Of Monsters and Men – Róróró. One of two memorable tracks from the Icelandic group’s rather disappointing third album, Fever Dream, and the one that best showcases lead singer Nanna’s voice.

95. Port Noir – Champagne. I don’t know what “the black soul choir” is, but I kind of like the potential double meaning there in this track from a Swedish hard-rock trio who’ve worked with a number of producers from the area’s extreme metal scene.

94. Dry Cleaning – Magic of Meghan. You’ll either love the repeated guitar line in this song or it will annoy you; I’m obviously in the former camp. It’s too bad nothing else on Dry Cleaning’s debut EP sounded like this.

93. Ride – Repetition. Ride aren’t so much shoegaze any more, but indie rock, and almost positive in their vibe. I wonder if they look at the audience when they perform now.

92. Longwave – If We Ever Live Forever. The title track from their comeback album, their first in eleven years, is a great bit of jangly indie-rock driven by some mournful guitar lines below a Ben Gibbard-esque vocal.

91. Rina Sawayama – STFU! The song is good, but the video elevates this to another level. The song is very NSFW, by the way.

90. LIFE – Hollow Thing. I enjoy their sneering modern twist on classic punk, although the hooks aren’t always there on their debut album A Picture of Good Health. This song shows they have the ear for it, so I’m hopeful we’ll get more tracks like this in their future. I look so good in black, I always do.

89. Temples – Hot Motion. The title track and opener from Temples’ latest album grabs you right from the start with that swirling five-note guitar riff, following by the gait of a shambling drum line, a great way to bring you into one of my favorite albums of the year.

88. White Lies – Tokyo. Dark synthpop, not quite up to their best track, “There Goes Our Love Again,” but still strong and the best song from Five V2.

87. The Raconteurs – Help Me Stranger. Jack White at his best: strong melody, pronounced guitarwork, a solid beat, tight from start to finish. The rest of the album was very meh, though.

86. Band of Skulls – Gold. I was disappointed by Love Is All You Love but this track is what I imagine their retro guitar aesthetic would sound like if Mark Ronson produced them.

85. White Reaper – Might Be Right. The soi-disant world’s greatest American band know just what they’re about: their third album, You Deserve Love, runs 10 songs … and 29 minutes. Power-pop jewels like this one – the second-longest track on the record – can wear out their welcome if they go too long, but this album is an exemplar of its familiar genre.

84. Pharlee – Darkest Hour. A new band from the ashes of several other San Diego-area outfits, Pharlee – sort of named after Chris Farley – features the snarling vocals of Macarena Rivera and some driving guitar work that reminds me on this track of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love.”

83. Flying Lotus featuring Anderson .Paak – More. I’ve never been a huge Flying Lotus fan, but this song’s abrupt shifts also give us some of Anderson .Paak’s best work yet for a genre-defying track that alternates between jazziness and a danceable groove.

82. black midi – Reggae. These British experimentalists had my #3 album of the year in Schlagenheim, but it doesn’t lend itself to singles – my favorite track from them in 2019 wasn’t actually on the album. This is probably the most accessible song that is on the LP, and gives you some sense of their avant-garde, inverted take on rock; it’s challenging but doesn’t push the boundary into abrasiveness like some of the album does.

81. Jade Bird – Lottery. My second-favorite track from the Welsh singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut album, after “Love Has All Been Done Before,” my #4 song of 2019. This track also showcases her Janis Joplin-esque vocals and has a solid hook in the chorus; the album was kind of uneven, without enough compelling hooks for that many songs.

80. Ten Fé – Won’t Happen. These soft-rock savants seem to effortlessly churn out radio-friendly pop tracks that would have been hits in a different era; their second album in two years, Future Perfect, Present Tense, is full of tracks like this one, melodic and well-rounded without cloying.

79. Fontaines D.C. – Too Real. I’m not in on Fontaines like most critics seem to be; there’s something about the vocals on their tracks that ring false to me and I can’t quite put my finger on why. It’s as if they’re trying so hard to sound like vintage punk, but the music is two generations too late. Of all of their songs I’ve heard, this one seems the most coherent, or at least has the least discord between the music and vocals, and I think the guitar work here would stand with some of the better stuff from …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

78. Lightning Born – Renegade. Two and a half minutes is just about right for this little slice of New Wave of British Heavy Metal-infused rock, with Corrosion of Conformity bassist Mike Dean among the new band’s members.

77. Metronomy – Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Yeah, it’s kind of twee, but it’s really catchy, and I happen to love this flavor.

76. Ceremony – Further I Was. Get used to seeing post-punk revivalists Ceremony on this list, since my #1 album of the year put three tracks on the top 100 and could have put a fourth with “Say Goodbye to Them” or even “Years of Love.”

75. BONES UK – Pretty Waste. This might be the first time I have ever discovered and liked a new song because of a Grammy nomination, but that’s how I first heard about BONES UK, a trio now based in L.A. that earned a nod for Best Rock Performance for this hard-edged electronic/rock track that seems to descend every time it moves from verse to chorus.

74. Crows – Wednesday’s Child. The most accessible song from Crows’ solid, heavy debut album of post-hardcore, “Wednesday’s Child” reminds me tonally of Drenge, but with a wall-of-sound effect from multiple guitars and heavier distortion.

73. Big Thief – UFOF. Every critic seems to love this album, but it did almost nothing for me – it’s aggressively boring, a callback to the stillborn quietcore movement that nobody really wanted to revisit in the first place. The title track was the one song that stood out to me for an actual melody, something you could grab on to aurally that might bring you back to the song for another listen.

72. FKA Twigs – cellophane. The first single from MAGDALENE, released seven months in advance of the album, is mostly just her voice, often in falsetto, and the ghost of a piano, with electronic elements only appearing in the last third of the song, and barely at that. Her maturation as a singer and songwriter was first evident on the 2016 one-off single “Good to Love,” and this song made it clear how much she’d grown since her first record.

71. Holly Herndon – Frontier. Herndon’s third album PROTO includes a choral ensemble and the inputs of Spawn, a “nascent” AI trained via vocal tracks, a process audible on other songs on the record like “Canaan.” “Frontier” is a more finished product, Herndon’s (and Spawn’s) take on Appalachian Sacred Harp music, with the result sounding simultaneously futuristic and decidedly old.

70. Wye Oak – Fortune. Hoping this is a harbinger of another new album from the indie duo, both in timing and in sound, as this seems to sit between Civilian and The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs.

69. Hatchie – Without a Blush. We can quibble over genres, but this is a pop song, and I’m good with that. It’s bright and shimmering and that opener gets stuck in my head for days whenever I hear it.

68. Mourn – Jumping Someone Else’s Train. This Catalonian trio – it looks like they lost a member somewhere after their last album – deserves a wider audience for their raw, garage-tinged sound, but label problems held them back before their 2018 album Sorpresa Familia was released. They put out a four-song EP of covers this year, headlined by this cover of a Cure track, along with covers of songs by Come, dEUS, and Chris Bell.

67. Lower Dens – Hand of God. My favorite track from Lower Dens’ fourth album, The Competition, is almost … sunny? Bright? It’s still indie-pop with a heavy synth element, but there’s something undeniably upbeat here that isn’t present in a lot of their music.

66. Here Lies Man – Long Legs. HLM’s weird blend of stoner rock, world music, and jazz influences coes together very nicely on this heavy yet grooving track that really doesn’t miss the vocals it lacks.

65. Phantom Planet – BALISONG. Phantom Planet’s first new music in eleven years turned out to be a little pop gem with an earworm of a vocal, even though the song is about a butterfly knife (also called a balisong). They released a second single this year, “Party Animal,” that was forgettable, but there’s apparently a new album in the works.

64. The Ninth Wave – First Encounters. This Scottish post-punk band, which I presume took its name from the Russian painting by that title, followed the same playbook as Foals in 2019, releasing one album in two parts, although Infancy is shorter in total, running just 45 minutes across all 12 songs. This dark, gothic song seems to blend early new wave with the gloomy style of fellow Scots The Twilight Sad.

63. Inhaler – My Honest Face. That’s Bono’s son Elijah Hewson, if any of this sounded a bit familiar, and while the comparisons to Boy and October are kind of obvious, there’s enough contemporary indie to Inhaler’s sound that we shouldn’t dismiss them as a novelty or some sort of nepotism act. They’ve released a few singles so far, with this easily the best and most complete-sounding one to date.

62. Little Simz – Offence. Little Simz, just 25 years old, already has three albums under her belt, with 2019’s Grey Area earning her a Mercury Prize nomination. The London-born rapper has great vocal flow, both fast and precise, although the choices of backing music aren’t always ideal for her style; standout tracks include this one, “Selfish,” and “Pressure,” but to my surprise I didn’t care for her collaboration with Michael Kiwanuka on “Flowers.”

61. Hot Chip – Hungry Child. The longtime electronic stalwarts titled their latest album A Bath Full of Ecstasy, because why not. They may never reach the high of 2006’s “Over and Over” again, but they’re good for one or two plus songs per album, with this one and “No God” the standouts on this record.

60. The New Pornographers – The Surprise Knock. I think I take The New Pornographers for granted; even when an album isn’t the next Twin Cinema or Brill Bruisers, it still has a few subtle pop gems like this one, from their latest record, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. I also liked “Colossus of Rhodes” and “One Kind of Solomon,” although on the whole I think it’s not one of their stronger albums.

59. Michael Kiwanuka – Hero. The first of three tracks from KIWANUKA, my #2 album of 2019, on this list, “Hero” is a great single in its own right, with two memorable guitar tracks and Kiwanuka’s use of an extra pause in the verses to give the song more tension.

58. High on Fire – Bat Salad. Turns out High on Fire is even better without Matt Pike yelling at us for an entire song.

57. YONAKA – Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow. The title track from YONAKA’s debut album revolves, as most of the album does, around Theresa Jarvis’ smoky, charismatic vocals, here boosted by marching drums and arpeggiated chords that add urgency despite a slower tempo.

56. Working Men’s Club – Bad Blood. A new indie act from the UK that the Guardian compared to The Fall and even Soft Cell, Working Men’s Club debut single reminded me more of Olivia Tremor Control and other Elephant 6 acts, although they’ve gone more synth-heavy with subsequent releases.

55. James BKS featuring Q-Tip, Idris Elba, & Little Simz – New Breed. Tough to argue with that guest lineup – I’m a sucker for any track where Q-Tip drops rhymes – and it’s a big sonic shift from James BKS’s previous songs “Kwele” and “MaWakanda.” He’s one to watch, and has Elba, who signed BKS to his record label, to boost his profile too.

54. Maisie Peters – Look at Me Now. The 19-year-old Peters, who first came to prominence when she posted her own songs to Youtube, released her second EP this year, the amusingly titled It’s Your Bed Babe, It’s Your Funeral, with more clever songs of teen angst and failed relationships, highlighted by this track and “This Is On You.”

53. Grimes & i_o – Violence. I’ve had mixed feelings on the singles leading up to Grimes’ newest album, Miss Anthropocene, due out in February, but perhaps it’ll work better as a whole. This is my favorite of the three singles, certainly the most coherent. Did you know Claire Boucher now goes by c, referring to the scientific term for the speed of light? Yeah, that’s … weird. Only Prince gets away with that shit.

52. Lauren Ruth Ward & Desi Valentine – Same Soul. Two great voices that sound great together. LRW seems to put out a new song every few weeks, while Valentine just released his debut album – the brief, 8-song Shades of Love, this week.

51. Dinosaur Pile-Up – Thrash Metal Cassette. Don’t act like you didn’t have one.

50. Broken Social Scene – Can’t Find My Heart. The other Canadian rock supergroup, Broken Social Scene put out two albums in the spring, Let’s Try the After, Volumes 1 and 2, with this track the best from either record (it’s on the second one).

49. Benjamin Gibbard – Keep Yourself Warm. The best thing Gibbard did this year was this cover for Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Midnight Organ Fight’, a project finished before Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison’s suicide that now stands as a tribute to his memory. This song wrecks me and Gibbard’s voice is the perfect tone for it.

48. Bat for Lashes – Jasmine. One of two tracks from Natasha Khan’s latest album, Lost Girls, on my list. The other is more soaring, while this one sounds like a pop hit from an alternate universe.

47. Just Mustard – Seven. These Irish shoegazers bring the dark guitar sounds of the first shoegaze era but with audible vocals from Katie Ball and sparser production that makes the wall-of-sound style even more foreboding.

46. Ride – Future Love. Speaking of the first wave of shoegaze, Ride has reinvented itself as a more mainstream act after their nearly 20-year hiatus; this lead single from the second album into their return, This is Not a Safe Place, is practically a pop song, and I mean that as a compliment.

45. Joy Williams – When Creation Was Young. The second song, and second-best track, from Williams’ second post-Civil Wars album, Front Porch, is this folk/bluegrass track that showcases her incredible voice in a simple song about timeless love.

44. BROCKHAMPTON – Boy Bye. The best track off their uneven album Ginger manages to squeeze in verses by three different rappers in a fast-moving song that runs just 142 seconds.

43. Artificial Pleasure – Boys Grow Up. If you haven’t figured out that I’m a sucker for any bands that harken back to the formative years of my music fandom by now, I can’t help you. There’s Heaven 17 in here, maybe a little less Spandau Ballet than some of the tracks off The Bitter End, and I always feel like they’re one female vocalist away from the Human League, and I’m here for it.

42. Sleater-Kinney – Hurry on Home. I might be in the minority on this, but I think Sleater-Kinney’s latest album, The Center Won’t Hold, is their worst, and I believe it’s entirely because St. Vincent produced it and turned them away from their post-punk/riot grrl roots. This song was the most authentic Sleater-Kinney track on the album. They were great live, at least.

41. Cœur de Pirate – Ne m’appelle pas. As in, “Don’t call me.” I love Béatrice Martin’s voice, and she has a somewhat European twist on alternative pop (yes, she’s Quebecois); she’d said she planned to stop using the Cœur de Pirate moniker but then released two one-off singles under the name this year.

40. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Boogieman Sam. KG&tLW released two albums this year, in totally distinct rock subgenres; the first of the two, Fishing for Fishies, was more blues-rock, while the latter, Infest the Rats’ Nest, is aggressively metal. This track was their best this year and comes from the former album, very blues/jam-band-esque but in a digestible length.

39. Foals – On the Luna. The first single from the first of the two albums Foals released this year has a driving urgency to it between the two-note keyboard riff and the thumping bass line. Between the two records, Foals probably produced one really outstanding album of solid rock tunes that bring energy and strong riffs with a few songs left over.

38. Jake Bugg – Kiss Like the Sun. I’ve been waiting for Jake Bugg to turn the tempo up since “What Doesn’t Kill You” dropped in 2013, and this is the track I wanted, with Bugg’s Dylanesque vocals and guitar sounds, but with some energy this time around.

37. TVAM – No Silver Bird. TVAM released this as a single for Record Store Day in April, and I had no idea it was a cover until I put it on a playlist in September (when it first appeared on Spotify) and tried to read about the song. The original is from 1968, by a little-known band called the Hooterville Trolley that released just a couple of singles. TVAM’s cover is far better produced, of course, but surprisingly true to the original’s psycheledic-rock vibe.

36. The Amazons – End of Wonder. Another enormous guitar riff from the Amazons, who seem to know exactly what kind of song gets my heart rate up. This makes me want to get behind the wheel and hit the gas.

35. Night Dreamer – Another Life. Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder and Wam Dingis keyboardist Mindy Song collaborated to form Night Dreamer, releasing this broody, mesmerizing single back in the summer ahead of their October EP release.

34. Sunflower Bean – King of the Dudes. The title track from their four-song EP, released in January, is a bit more of the usual from Sunflower Bean, who I think really polished up their sound on their early 2018 album Twentytwo in Blue.

33. Charly Bliss – Young Enough. The title track from their second full-length album is the longest on the record, and I don’t think it really needs to be five-plus minutes, but it’s clearly the best song on the album, with easily its best hook and the strongest showcase for singer/guitarist Eva Hendricks’ smoky, dewy-eyed vocals, which come off as cloying elsewhere on the record.

32. The Mysterines – Gasoline. Three chords and a healthy dose of rage from singer/guitarist Lia Medcalf. “I just love to hate you” feels like a rallying cry for the next generation of riot grrls.

31. Ten Fé – Coasting. If this were 1978, this song would spend three months in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soft-rock is out of vogue, almost permanently, yet here’s Ten Fé unapologetically exhuming the genre and producing songs that rank up against the best from its heyday. This was the best track from their sophomore album Future Perfect, Present Tense, thanks to that little synth line out of the chorus.

30. WOOZE – I’ll Have What She’s Having. WOOZE is the new iteration of a band that was briefly called Movie, then changed their name to Screaming Peaches, that had a pair of songs in 2014 that I quite liked in “Mr. Fist” and “Ads,” both catchy, overtly poppy, and lyrically silly. This song is all of those things with a bit darker edge to the music and vocals, which I think helps offset how sugary the pop aspects are. The resulting balance is just fun, like pop music should be.

29. Of Monsters & Men – Alligator. The Icelandic quintet’s third album Fever Dream proved maddening in its sonic and melodic inconsistencies, as the band’s sound continues to evolve but without any clear direction (although you could argue that’s how evolution works). This lead single is by far the album’s best track, though, one of maybe three songs on the record where they manage to do something a little different musically while still producing a good hook.

28. White Reaper – Real Long Time. White Reaper aren’t breaking the mold, but what they do, a sort of hard-rock-edged version of pop, they do extremely well. The guitar lines that open this song are reminiscent enough of Thin Lizzy that Phil Lynott’s ghost might as well be hanging out in their attic Duke Ellington-style.

27. Potty Mouth – 22. I loved this all-female trio’s 2015 song “Cherry Picking,” but they got caught up in some label nonsense that delayed their second album, Snafu, till this past spring. It’s full of power-pop tracks led by this extremely catchy number (pun intended).

26. Foals – The Runner. Foals decided to rock out this year, with two albums, or one double album released in two parts, heavy on the crunch. This came from Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2, the heavier of the two records, more guitar-forward and muscular throughout the album.

25. Good Fuck – Flow Flow. Not sure why bands give themselves deliberately difficult names like this, but I can’t deny the hypnotic, sinister sound of this song, from the fuzzed-out guitars to the tritones behind some of the verses to the random shit that pops into the background of the song. I feel like there should be some dark ritual happening behind me whenever this song comes on.

24. Two Door Cinema Club – Once. This is the best thing 2DCC has ever done, easily, thanks to an exuberant chorus with double-time drumwork and cascading keyboards.

23. Tame Impala – Borderline. One of two singles released from Tame Impala’s delayed fourth album The Slow Rush, this track is surprisingly understated and almost poppy for Kevin Parker, but still has the kind of layered, reverb-flush production you’d expect from him. There’s a little chord change in each line in the verse, I think from major to minor, that works every single time because your mind expects something different.

22. Floating Points – LesAlpx. Electronica generally doesn’t do much for me, but neuroscientist Sam Shepherd, who records as Floating Points, manages to create instrumental EDM that is also melodically compelling. This was my favorite track from his 2019 album Crush.

21. Michael Kiwanuka – You Ain’t the Problem. This song opens Kiwanuka with hand-drummed sounds and the chatter of families dancing and talking outside, but right at the 30-second mark it slams you back a half-century into what sounds like peak Motown, a perfect introduction to an album that will span generations and genres while delivering great single after single. The off-beat vocal lines – he starts most lines in the verses on the second beat – help keep you a little unsteady as well.

20. The Amazons – Mother. It’s a slow build, but when the guitar hits, it comes like a dam bursting, which is the sound the Amazons have done well since “Black Magic.”

19. whenyoung – A Labour of Love. This song showcases vocalist Aoife Power’s voice as well as anything on their debut album Reasons to Dream when it gets to that memorable chorus line, “You build me back up, now I see it, a labour of love,” which sounds far better with her Irish accent.

18. Jorja Smith featuring Burna Boy – Be Honest. Smith’s debut album, Lost & Found, was on my top albums of 2018 post, mostly because of the power of her voice, which is very much on display again here in this one-off single that includes the Nigerian singer/songwriter Burna Boy contributing a dancehall verse.

17. YONAKA – Rockstar. YONAKA’s album Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow tackles some serious subject matter in its lyrics, but this ode to pipe dreams and being, what else, a rock star, just works because of Theresa Jarvis’ wide-ranging vocal styles.

16. Opeth – Heart in Hand. The album did nothing for me, but this song … right into my veins, please. Ornate, brilliant guitar work, a throwback power chord riff beneath it, multiple movements, and vocals that aren’t just clean but add to the symphonic character of the song. Fans will debate whether Opeth could still be called metal, or if they just peaked with Blackwater Park and have gone down ever since, but if they give me one of these songs every album I’ll be quite happy.

15. Hatchie – Obsessed. Hatchie has quite the knack for creating smart pop gems, with this the best song off her debut album, Keepsake. I wish her voice had more depth or character to it, but she can spin a melody and seems able to draw on influences from any of the last four decades of pop/alternative.

14. FKA Twigs – sad day. Such a mournful, beautiful song, with thoughtful and quotable lyrics (“would you make a, make wish on my love” repeats in my head every time I listen to this song), with her vocals interspersed by trip-hop elements that break up the dolorous mood of the verses.

13. black midi – Talking Heads. I’m not sure why these British avant garde rockers, barely out of high school, didn’t include this single on their debut album Schlagenheim, but I think it’s the best and most accessible thing they’ve done, which also lets you understand a little bit about their sound – which I can only describe as rock that sounds like it’s been turned inside out, or perhaps reflected through the x- and y-axes – before diving into the longer and often obtuse tracks from their album.

12. Ceremony – In the Spirit World Now. Thetitle track from the modern new wave/post-punk band’s new album veers more towards the former of those two subgenres, with a synth track so retro it comes with mascara and a pastel blazer.

11. The Struts – Pegasus Saiya. This song, from the soundtrack to an anime series called Saint Saiya, is so unabashedly bombastic, like glam metal without the hairspray, with an incredible hook, that I liked it in spite of its overt homage to music that is thirty years out of date.

10. Jehnny Beth & Johnny Hostile – Let It Out. This song from the soundtrack to the documentary Xy Chelsea (about Chelsea Manning) features the lead singer of Savages and her partner and Savages’ producer; they’ve previously released two albums as John and Jehn but recorded this ambient, spacey track under their individual stage names.

9. Sundara Karma – Little Smart Houses. This song came out in February, and ten months later, it will still pop into my head at the most random times, especially the chorus that seems to spill over its boundaries with each line.

8. CHVRCHES – Death Stranding. I’ll take this over anything from CHVRCHES’ last and very disappointing album; I may be thinking wishfully, but it seems like Lauren Mayberry may be ready to go out on her own, and if this is the last single we get from CHVRCHES they’re going out on a high note, a song that wouldn’t be out of place on The Bones of What You Believe were it not for the higher production values.

7. whenyoung – The Others. An Irish trio fronted by the wonderfully-named Aoife Power, they’ll never escape comparisons to the Cranberries, but their sound is grungier and sharper around the edges, so much the better for when Power dials up her voice to the top end of her range as she does on the chorus here.

6. Bat for Lashes – Desert Man. Lost Girls was one of the albums that I considered for my top LPs of the year list, if I’d kept going past 15, and this is the standout track, the best thing she’s recorded since “Laura” way back in 2012, this time powered by her voice but backed by more than just a piano to give the song more texture. She does melancholy melodies as well as anybody right now.

5. Oh Wonder – Hallelujah. Thefirst 20 seconds are a bit precious, but stay with it because the build to the first real chorus pays off beautifully with the multilayered vocals and the drum machine behind it.

4. Temples – Holy Horses. God I love this guitar riff. The entire song is a bit ridiculous – holy horses? – but that swirling guitar line is my favorite of the year, and these psychedelic-rockers have the good sense to get out after three minutes before the riff wears out its welcome.

3. Ceremony – Turn Away the Bad Thing. The opener to my #1 album of the year, In the Spirit World Now, starts out with a driving bass line that demands that you sit up and pay attention while pulling you back to the late ’70s heyday of post-punk, only to envelop you fully the moment Ross Farrar’s voice drops in.

2. FKA Twigs featuring Future – Holy Terrain. I was way out on FKA Twigs’ first album, which I found full of trying-too-hard tracks that didn’t do enough to show off her tremendous voice, but her follow-up, MAGDALENE, really does so while featuring smarter lyrics and without sacrificing the trip-hop leanings she favored on the first record. I don’t know that Future adds a ton to this track, since it’s her vocals that carry the day, and the production of his one verse distorts his voice anyway.

1. Michael Kiwanuka – Rolling. Buoyed by a simple yet intoxicating two-part guitar riff, “Rolling” has an incredible, bouncing energy to it, with highly textured percussion, a wandering bass line to anchor it, and Kiwanuka never sounding more like Jimi Hendrix with more vocal depth. This is the song that hooked me on this album, KIWANUKA, my #2 LP of the year, a record that everyone should listen to regardless of your preferred genres of music because it crosses so many boundaries between them. Just let this track roll right into “I’ve Been Dazed,” as there’s no real transition and the two songs work well as a whole.

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