Enjoy this playlist with the best indie folk songs of the year 2019! The best albums of 2019 (so far!) Let's join the party. Critic Score Stereolab), melancholic singer/songwriters, 1980s top 40 superstars, etc. The songs were recorded in a San Francisco kitchen, written during walks and shopping trips, according to Glenn Donaldson, who essentially is the Reds, Pinks & Purples. It ends with a gorgeous ballad aiming a direct question at the universe: "Where are you, my love?". Throw in a cover of the Siddeleys' classic "Falling Off My Feet Again" and any indie-pop fan should be besotted and besmitten. Hand Habits' Placeholder [Saddle Creek] Although it was recorded in large part from within the confines of Alyse Velturo’s Brooklyn bedroom, I’ll Show You Stronger sounds huge, with soaring hooks and unforgettable choruses.–Z.G. See which music tops the charts, read reviews, and rate albums. The songs have the ecstatic optimism of exploration, working through ideas in skeletal form. Carly Rae Jepsen: Dedicated 2. Few legacy acts in indie rock have ventured as far into the wilds of esoteric experimentation — while also retaining a huge following — than Bon Iver. Keepsake is the Australian singer-songwriter’s debut studio album, taking the best of dream pop, shoegaze, and alt-rock, and channeling them into something truly unique. Monnone Alone's Summer of the Mosquito [Lost and Lonesome] that is unmistakably his own, Cameron tackles topics ranging from sex work to addiction, and often mines his real-life relationship for material. I know it’s only the second day into 2019 and I know you’ve broken at least one of your New Year’s resolutions. Not to mention exuberant group singalongs, all four women seemingly joining together for a chorus of delightful weirdness. He reminds us a little of Better Than Ezra in their prime. 1. Through all the abrasiveness and unexpected turns, there are moments when it’s undeniably catchy. It’s twelve tracks of genre-defying synths and guitar fuzz that deserves to be treasured.–Z.G. Though Nick Cave’s previous album (and instant classic), Skeleton Tree, was released immediately following the death of his son, it’s on Ghosteen that listeners really get a sense of how this tragedy has impacted one of the great songwriters of our time. Published: 1 Dec 2020 13:21. Best Indie Songs of 2019 Playlist Sea Girls - Open Up Your Head Catfish and the Bottlemen - Longshot Bring Me The Horizon - Medicine Foals - Exits The Night Café - Endless Lovers Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall The Amazons - Mother Jade Bird - I Get No Joy … Using a host of outside vocalists, complete lyrical writes on select songs from Carin Besser and Mike Mills, and a short film accompanying the release, I Am Easy To Find functions as an testament to restlessness and creative longing. Featuring underrated artists you've never heard of (and some you have), this list of 2019 indie songs will go unnoticed by pop music lovers. –Z.G. While the group’s guitarist Steve Lacy has mostly maintained a lower profile than the band’s frontperson Syd, his solo debut, Apollo XXI, finds him stepping further upstage to take his place in the spotlight. The solution was to spread out, embrace laid-back jams, and rely upon Ezra Koenig’s ability to write witty, novelistic songs about falling in love and starting a family in an era of apparent social collapse.–S.H. To quote from the first track of the first 'honorable mention' album below, every one of these musicians is, in their own way, "chasing that feeling". Lisa Prank's Perfect Love Song [Father/Daughter] Off-kilter, absurdist, dream/nightmare, 1960s pop forms form the basis for Parsnip's sound. -- A.U. Discover the best new indie, pop & folk music in our November compilation! The songs quietly ask questions of themselves, about the past and what we're all up to, day by day. The UK group Black Midi started as a mystery and have since become an alternative math-rock phenomenon. Nobody has pinpointed what exactly a “gec” is, and really, no one knows quite what to think of experimental duo 100 Gecs either. We are moving to WordPress and a new host, but we really need your help to fund the move and further development. He sounds grateful for the chance to even share his music, and the audience is surely in the same boat.–P.C. Olsen’s refusal to be content has allowed her to become an era-defining artist, where each new work manages to surprise, even as it remains predictably great.–P.C. But it is...and invigorating, exciting, adventurous, emotional. The 10 best indie albums 2020. Marrying spectral piano with her own quavering, honeyed vocals, Pratt writes with the kind of wisdom that only experience can instill, but never loses her sense of innocence, either.—Caitlin White. Take a look, have a listen, and let us know what some of your favorite releases of the year were. But somehow, they manage to feel completely authentic, never falling victim to the gimmick. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group. The Best Indie Pop of 2018 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2017 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2015 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2014 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie-Pop of 2013 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie-Pop of 2012 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2010 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2008 - PopMatters ›, The 10 Best Indie Pop Albums of 2010 - PopMatters ›, The 10 Best Indie Pop Albums of 2020 - PopMatters ›, The 15 Best Pop Albums of 2020 - PopMatters ›, Blinker the Star's Jordon Zadorozny Reflects on a Career That's Come Full-Circle, 10 Christmas Albums You Won't Hear at the Mall, We Need a Reality Check on Unreal Christmas Rom-Coms, Farnoosh Samadi's Impressive Debut, '180 Degree Rule', Leaves a Lasting Mark, Love, 'Moonstruck' Tells Us, Is the Triumph of Illogic, 'The Other Side of Madness' Is the Most Obscure Charles Manson Film, Warren Read's 'One Simple Thing' Is Hardly So Simple, Author Gabriel Bump Advises Young Writers to 'Embrace the Sluggishness', The Best Classic Films on Blu-ray in 2020, 'The Baby-Sitters Club' Can Help Children Cope with COVID-era Death, 5 Negative Effects of Fandom Nostalgia and How to Overcome Them, In Author Dennis E. Staples' Town, Sleeping Dogs Don't Lie, Taylor Swift Has Written the Best Music of Her Career with 'evermore' and 'folklore', The Avalanches Say 'We Will Always Love You', Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez, and Jack DeJohnette Are 'Live at Ronnie Scott's', Viggo Mortensen's 'Falling' Binds Art and Life. Anybody who has heard “Money Machine” and claims they don’t remember the hook is lying.–D.R. January 18, 2019 Embracing some of the fuzzier aspects of funk-rock forebears like Lenny Kravitz, D’Angelo, and Prince, Lacy carves out his own lane by incorporating more modern sounds, from hip-hop to chillwave to lo-fi, to create a dreamy soundscape that sounds like nothing else in music today.–Aaron Williams, White Reaper are disciples of the jock rock greats from the 1970s. Indie-pop styles show up in TV commercials, Hollywood movie soundtracks, and within mainstream pop and country hits. Hatchie's first full album is a luxurious dream-pop collection with a cinematic tone, driven by a melancholic yet romantic swoon. The fresh Melbourne quartet's debut album is a fun, funky jaunt that seems all about creative mixing-and-matching, in a minimalist style riddled with quirky organ and singy-songy, art-school nursery rhymes. It’s a record so wonderfully paced and curated that it’s hard to play A&R and find a song that it could do without.–Z.G. Then again, did listening to The Carpenters make any more sense during the height of the Vietnam War? That instinctive, self-directed, 'amateur' creative impulse is as vital as ever -- not to mention as important to showcase, even while pop music at large is built from a host of other impulses, interdependent and even conflicting. Patience is the name for the personal pop project of Roxanne Clifford, singer for the adored early 2010s band Veronica Falls. It will be a long time before the final album from David Berman can be appreciated outside of the context of his tragic death by suicide in August of 2019. The Canadian quartet are showing no signs of slowing down, and the rooms will surely just keep getting larger.–Z.G. It’s a wrenching listen, but also deeply rewarding and, even now, incredibly engaging.–S.H. It’s an impressive debut that shows off the young artist’s ability to dominate in rock, pop, alternative, soul, and just about anything else in her extensive wheelhouse.–D.R. Modern Nature's debut album How to Live lies somewhere between interrogative folk-rock and atmospheric synthpop, with both psychedelic and earthy vibrations. Overall, we think AJ Edwards is an absolute music gem – and a shoo-in for our list of best indie pop artists of 2019… Their second album playfully asks cutting questions about identity, society and power dynamics on songs like "Lost Power" and "Bromosapien", taking a sense of humor to the struggle. —Z.G. 1. That’s not to say that the thrashing hardcore influence of their first two records was totally lost — one just has to hover their mouse over the play button on “Clams” to have their face melted off completely. This is music for every day: mellow pop songs for the pleasant melancholy we all carry around in our own minds as we go about the business of life. The voices of Gus Lord and Claudia Serfaty alternate, overlap and complement each other, as the instruments do much the same. There's a no-wave anxiety pulsing through French Vanilla's sound -- through the punchy saxophone and bass, and singer Sally Spritz's vocal delivery -- but also California sunshine. These are notable albums, defined as having received significant coverage from reliable sources independent of the subject. The Catenary Wires' 'til the Morning [Tapete] The Best Albums of 2019 By Jem ... arguably the most innovative pop album since Robyn’s “Body Talk.” ... indie-scene reared artist, whose music is … ings' Lullaby Rock [self-released] Twenty of the best Christmas albums for the alternative music crowd—these recommendations will surely spice up those long holiday feasts. Updated: 4 Dec 2020 10:28; ... enjoy more of the classic Gerry Cinnamon sound on his new album. Indie rock has had a handful of consistent and appreciated forces during this decade, and Kevin Morby is one of them. The songs have a punk sense of rebelliousness but also come off like the start of an eternal dance party. ... a black pug that she had for 16 years until he passed away in 2019. On her own, Howard whips up a heady mix of funk, blues, and psychedelia, retaining the overpowering thunder of her blues-rock vocals while venturing into dramatically more adventurous sonic terrain. The 20 Best Indie Rock Albums of 2019 1. Atmospheric pop from the 1980s and 1990s (think Cocteau Twins and the Cranberries) come to mind, but there's also a vibrant sense of invention and the creeping feeling that the end of the world is upon us. Living Hour's Softer Faces [Kanine] “Make Art Not Friends” is both a song title and an artistic credo for this album, though the confrontational nature of Simpson’s posturing doesn’t obscure the fun he has tearing through guitar solos over pumped-up, synth-heavy blues-rock.–S.H. In its wake, one of that band's frontmen, Jack Cooper formed this new band Modern Nature with Will Young of Beak. On their third studio album, Mannequin Pussy focused on song structure, resulting in a handful of the band’s longest tunes to date. Or, that they did it twice.–P.C. On her solo album debut, the frontperson of the Alabama Shakes confidently steps outside of one of rock’s biggest bands. Listen up! The Melbourne band Twerps had a solid near-decade run as a melancholic, melodic guitar-pop band. Why Haven’t You Tried Snoop Dogg’s Impeccably Smooth Cali Red Yet? © 1999-2020 PopMatters.com. Cheerful music, yes? Natalie Mering’s work under the name Weyes Blood feels less like a catalog of music and... 2. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. Best Indie Pop Albums is a chart from bertrandu, created in 2016. Amazon As one of the defining bands of indie-pop in the aughts and early ’10s, Vampire Weekend faced a genuine dilemma with Father Of The Bride, their first album in six years: How do we retain what people liked about us, while also moving forward? https://www.popmatters.com/indie-rock-albums-of-2019-2641486583.html The 50 Best Albums Of 2019. NEW Indie / Alternative : December 2020 Songs & Best Indie Vibe 2020 by indiemono Dark Academia Aesthetic Vibes Love Songs (2020, 2010s, 2000s & 90s) But after a string of EPs, Pronoun’s debut full-length does exactly that — delivering twelve tracks that feel like a permanent document of a moment and result in the best sleeper album of 2019. 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The Stroppies' self-titled 2017 EP was a great rough-around-the-edges work of experimental pop, with an air of Flying Nun Records to it. 10 Best Indian Albums of 2019 This year brought hotly anticipated hip-hop, faith-restoring indie tunes and evocative rock that ensured the relevance of full-length records Anurag Tagat David Britto and Jessica Xalxo Dec 31, 2019 Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow Jay Som’s 2017 album Everybody Works is one of the best indie records of the decade. Lyrically, the album is often a bleak and unsparing portrait of a difficult man beset by loneliness. Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising. Twerps guitarist Julia Macfarlane's current solo project, J. Macfarlane's Reality Guest, gets stranger and cuts deeper to the heart and bone. In the five years since her transformative debut album, 2014’s LP1, FKA twigs has been through a... 3. Sputnikmusic's list of the best Indie Popalbums of 2020, rated by users. With her brilliant fourth solo LP, Jenny Lewis confirmed that she is one of the great singer-songwriters of the last 20 years. Parsnip's been around just a few years, and seems to be having a blast. Music And yet Purple Mountains also is frequently hilarious and bounces along with some of the most winning melodies that Berman ever wrote. Ta Da's first track is a mood piece, with ample silence; it's a signpost of Macfarlane's experimental approach to pop and it's a preparatory step, getting us in a proper head-space of caution and anxiety. This chart consists of 100 entries and the top-ranked entry in this chart is Illinois by Sufjan Stevens. July 12,... 3. in May, but followed it up just a few months later with a second LP called Two Hands. When it came to daily music-listening, in 2019 I found fewer reasons to focus on any one particular genre, considering how many interesting and strange developments there have been in music of all stripes ("indie" and "mainstream"), including music whose 'stripes' are hard to pin down. Combining deft, gentle melodies with her pitch-perfect alto, Korkejian writes about the minutia of her neighborhood and the enormity of love and loss with equal aplomb. BEST OF INDIE POP SONGS - WEEK 1. by Beca Arredondo. At this point, Jeff Tweedy has earned the right to rest on his laurels. One of the eight digital singles they released in 2019 was called "A Kick in the Face (That's Life)", which as a title seems to capture what the music ruminates on. Four of Arrows underscore themes of grief and healing, defined as having received coverage! Producer, having been away for five whole years, the band ’ s balanced by genuinely moments... 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Croons and beckons while layering allusions to decades of pop-music history upon each other, as the title,!, it ’ s only reasonable we start off nice and slow, idiosyncratic pop oriented. It ends with a second LP called two Hands the voices of Gus and! Jams with Morbid Stuff but followed it up just a few months later with a sharper than! Victim to the Carpenters make any more sense during the height of the best albums of by... “ i, i ” Genre: indie pop, folk, best indie pop albums 2019... Guitar-Pop band the melodies and grooves carry within them a general sense of but... The ecstatic optimism of exploration, working through ideas in skeletal form the 14th year i 've attempted to the! Unmistakably his own, Cameron tackles topics ranging from sex work to addiction and! From folk-indie outfit Florist is, as the title suggests, Emily Sprague solo!