For the first time in a bunch of years, I actually listened to enough music to be able to assemble a proper top 10, both of full albums and of individual songs. And since I have this nifty little website, this is a perfect place to write out my thoughts without algorithmic nonsense, so here we are. Here are my favourite albums of this year:
Carly Rae Jepsen was busy getting married this year, so we got the next best thing: a lean pop-disco album featuring Martina Sorbara's gorgeous vocals and the production expertise of The Knocks. I went on quite a journey with this album; initially I didn't feel like it was good enough to make the top 10, but the first and last tracks were such massive standouts that I kept listening, and as I kept listening it just kept getting higher and higher in the rankings. It's a short but sweet trip through whirling disco lights and thudding drumbeats--a call to the dance floor that none of us can resist.
I mean....duh. It's great. Why haven't you listened to it yet? Are you even gay??
Recommended songs: Abracadabra, LoveDrug, Garden of Eden, Can't Stop the High
This was the album that carried me through most of the year; even before the full LP dropped in June, the singles were on constant rotation as winter faded and spring bloomed. One of the Haim sisters went through a massive breakup, and "I quit" is the result--an hour of some of the best rock I've heard since Dan Bejar left the New Pornographers. It opens with "Gone", a triumphant middle finger to an ex that samples "Freedom!" by George Michael, and from there the road twists and turns through the stages of grief and heartbreak--with stops at humility, nostalgia, despair, frustration, elation, resignation, and finally to a hollow sort of acceptance--and at every point, the music just fucking whips. Whether it's the frenetic memories of "Take me back", the thudding mantra of "you think you're gonna die but you're not gonna die" from "Everybody's trying to figure me out", or the bittersweet-yet-joyful drum solo on "Now it's time", there's going to be at least one thing from "I quit" that sticks with you for a very long time.
Recommended tracks: "Gone", "Down to be wrong", "Take me back", "Cry".
Despite my many years of having opinions about music, I've always shied away from making superlative statements like "this is the most exciting thing to happen to pop music in the past five years" or "this album is a contender for the best of the decade and we're only halfway through it". I always felt like I wasn't aware enough to make those kind of assumptions, and was always ready for a bigger nerd to look down their nose at such declarations and tell me in detail why I was wrong and my opinions were bad. And yet, much like Saul on the road to Damascus, I have heard the voice and seen the light, and am happy to report that LUX by Rosalia is, in fact, the most exciting thing to happen to pop music this decade, and is one of the best albums of this century. Meticulously researched, fearlessly complex, unabashedly emotional, just plain fucking gorgeous--there aren't enough words to describe how incredible LUX is, which is perhaps part of why Rosalia sings in over a dozen different languages, forcing everyone to surrender to the power of music as it transcends language and lyrics--although don't get me wrong, the lyrics are well worth diving into on your second (or third, or fourth) listen. Rosalia references numerous female saints through history, she mercilessly tears apart a shitty ex, she meditates on the nature of death and eternity and love--every song is unique and yet it all fits together like a perfect puzzle. It's an album that demands your attention and rewards it grandly. Listening to LUX feels like stepping into the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona; no matter your religious background, you can't help but be struck by the grand scope of the emotion on display, the breathtaking beauty of all the parts as they become a larger whole, and you know that your life is changed forever even if you don't convert. I think about this album all the time. I listen to it every day. I sent it to my parents, to my wife's parents, to my boss, to my friends. It made me want to think about my posture. It made me want to redecorate my house. It's one of the best things I've heard in a very, very, very long time.
Recommended tracks: all of them, honestly, but "Reliquia" and "La Yugular" deserve special mention as my favourites.