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.
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 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 symphony. 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'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.