the top 25 best albums of 2019

For once, this list came together quickly.

Now I’ve often said that my list of the best albums of any respective year is where I can be the most professional - this year more than most, as I actually submitted a top ten ballot to Uproxx for their annual critic compilation polls nearly a month ago which has given me plenty more time to mull over my choices - but I’d argue that 2019, especially after a top heavy first six months, just hasn’t had the consistent influx of huge, disruptive projects that would demand major changes. Oh, there was definitely a few that had to be slotted in, but the competition fell out pretty quickly and while I’d argue there’s been a lot of fantastic projects this year, I’d also say I was wowed a little less, which meant I didn’t have to agonize so much over these picks.

One thing I will note, though, is how my list differs considerably from other critics, both on YouTube and in the mainstream publications, partially because many of the albums I personally adored just didn’t receive a ton of attention or were ignored outright, but also because I was significantly less impressed by many of the acts that did get a ton of acclaim, so if you’re looking for IGOR or Normal Fucking Rockwell! or Titanic Rising or All Mirrors or even MAGDALENE… yeah, they aren’t making this list. And I also want to push back on the narrative that this year wasn’t great for music, which I’ve especially seen among hip-hop heads who didn’t want to put in the work to step outside the mainstream and that I couldn’t disagree with stronger, because the underground hip-hop scene did extremely well this year, as did punk and its various offshoots and especially the indie country scene, where the women cleaned up in a way they haven’t since 2016! Of course, that also means there were some cuts, but few that truly frustrated me. And surprise surprise, most of the cuts either came in hip-hop - with Aesop Rock, Yugen Blakrok, Little Simz, and Freddie Gibbs just falling short - or in country, where Randy Houser, Mike and the Moonpies, Sturgill Simpson, and even Alice Wallace didn’t make it. Outside of that… a few scattered indie projects like black midi, Laura Imbruglia, and The National, and metal albums like Paths of Rauros, Tomb Mold and Spirit Adrift were close, but didn’t quite seal the deal - consider them unofficial honourable mentions or something, because now it’s time we get to the list proper, starting with…

25. So there are a couple late-career projects that are on this list, and of those, this is the one that surprised me and stuck with me the most… but again, given how formative her work has been for me growing up, it should be no surprise.

Then again, it might be surprising simply because Reba McEntire had no obligation to make a neotraditional country project this consistent and potent at this stage of her career - she’s in her mid-60s and not only is this her best album in decades, it has the candor and lyrical heft to go toe-to-toe with any competition. Expertly balancing neotraditional warmth with the easy listening side that she’s always cultivated along with a few solid honkytonk cuts, there’s only one serious dud on the album and even that’s not enough to detract from expert pacing, writing that is not afraid to cut deep, and vocals that have felt the weight of age, but still have the expressive clarity of tone that has been Reba’s hallmark. It’s just unbelievably solid, heartfelt country that if Nashville had any courage at all would have given prime radio placement. And while that didn’t really happen, this is still a special gem that deserves real attention.

24. This is the first time an album from this artist is making my year-end list, and while for certain diehard fans I can understand why he should have been here sooner, when he delivered his most personal and tightly framed project to date, it was only a matter of time before billy woods got the acclaim he deserved.

I’ve often described billy woods as a difficult rapper to fully appreciate: his writing is more abstract or even impressionistic, using tangled layers of metaphor that’s expected to feel easier given his blunt delivery, and yet never quite is… until now. And that’s something I respect tremendously about Hiding Places - Kenny Segal still crafts the thorny, creaking, lo-fi production that shambles through paranoia and fractured samples, but the framing is tighter around woods, and while previous projects with Armand Hammer have emphasized his plans to survive a coming societal breakdown, this is the album that forces him to confront how much skin in the game he really has, and that there’s a part of him that still cares. This is a project that probably gives you the most insight into billy woods’ haunted brooding and real anxieties this year spanning broken systems and fleeting control, and while it was often a tough listen, more often than not it was a necessary one, at least for me.

23. I caught this one late, I’ll freely admit that, and it’s one of a few projects I christened with the subgenre ‘dream country’ - dunno if it’s ever going to catch on properly, but when you consider how much this project is searching amidst the spare tones and self-reflection, it’s certainly apt for this one.

So I’m not sure if there’s an immediate standout on Mint Condition that matches the absolute best of Caroline Spence’s last project like ‘Softball’ - although ‘Wait On The Wine’ is really damn close - but if there’s a project that’s content to ask those questions and plumb the uncertain depths, it’s this one. And that balance of yearning tempered by maturity and too much experience is why this album works so damn well - reserved and elegant in patches, but with enough sweep to emphasize the persistent loneliness, and Spence’s writing is just direct enough to connect while implying a much greater level of emotive subtext that’s often heartbreaking in the fine details. It’s not quite as burnished or sweeping as the best projects in this niche, but the critical acclaim is well-deserved - a great slow-burn, and absolutely worth more attention.

22. So I’m not sure there’s that many outwardly controversial entries on this list, especially in comparison to previous years… but if there’s an album that might raise a few eyebrows, especially given the sound and style these two embraced, it’s this one - and that’s partially the reason it’s one of their best to date.

The big reason I absolutely adore Hey, I’m Just Like You is almost too straightforward: it sounds like a mid-2000s pop rock album that would have been released by Brie Larson or Hilary Duff, marrying the synth-backed rock elements and huge radio-ready hooks with the emotional complexity Tegan and Sara have always brought to the table. More to the point, there’s a deeper sense of populism or even humility to how the sisters have updated their teenage poetry for today, showing exactly how resonant those sentiments can be even decades later, with questions of immaturity being more of a feature than a bug. This is a project that’s not too good for its lineage, and while it’s not quite as brilliantly produced as I was hoping, it’s the most I’ve enjoyed a Tegan and Sara album in years, and the tunes are undeniable - excellent work!

21. This album is both more and less accessible than you’d probably expect, especially from this artist. And while I’d argue it’s not quite his best, it is the album that grew on me the most in 2019 - for damn good reason.

I remember giving Guns a lot of listens before I reviewed it properly months ago, but even beyond that it took another dozen or so listens before it truly took off with me, mostly because Quelle Chris is finetuning his ability to paint layered pictures that only reveal interweaving connections from different angles. And in a way it’s an expansion upon what he and Jean Grae highlighted in the fragile systems of Everything’s Fine, only this time he’s more intrigued by the often violent tools used to prop them up, and not afraid to show just how complicit everyone can be in that process. It’s an album just as fascinated with those wielding the guns than just the weapons themselves - which sparks layered metaphors as complicated and challenging as his production and slightly offkilter delivery, but this might also be his most accessible project to date, with pivots into bright melodic tones or a set of smoldering bangers. In other words, this is a shot that struck true - I’m just curious what’s in the chamber next.

20. But while we’re on the topic of socially charged and difficult hip-hop albums…

From direct gangsta satire to a space opera to a collection of some of the most visceral slices of horror-adjacent imagery, it might seem on the surface that clipping is just tearing through genre exercises with socially conscious subtext coiling around the experimental production, featuring a command of atmosphere that’s damn near unparalleled. But at their core, clipping. has always centered hip-hop and the audience’s relationship to it, and between some of their most ruthlessly challenging sonic experiments and content that demands you consider your own relationship to the art even as they accept the punishment for feeding into nakedly exploitative systems, an album that will flay apart established norms while it burns itself alive for you to watch. Which is why when I say this is arthouse exploitation in the same vein as the punishing films in the same vein from the 70s, I mean that as a compliment. Not an easy album, but an incredibly rich one all the same.

19. But again, while we’re on the topic of projects that aren’t anywhere close to being easy…

Every critic I know who has covered this album has said it’s difficult to discuss and even harder to listen through, an project that explores in unflinching detail a woman who has suffered an abusive relationship, and where her response is an appropriation of righteous Catholic fury that’s nothing short of Biblical in its structure and delivery - chamber music in its chord progressions ripped asunder by waves of distortion and noise, incarnate beauty with a banshee’s wail… and yet written in a way that’s real enough to make you realize the artifice is amplification of genuine pain, not embracing theatricality. So no, it’s far from easy, and I don’t know if I didn’t have the year I did this project would have even made my list… but I did, and this wound up on repeat… god help me.

18. Okay, let’s move towards something a little less heavy… well, deceptively less heavy, because there’s still a lot going on here that still gets to me… oh, just roll it!

This was the other late-year dream country surprise for me, and while i’d say Caroline Spence’s project contains more lyrical nuance and maturity, Michaela Anne had the burnished texture, fantastic hooks, and a purity of intention that really grabbed me; I don’t think naivete is the right word, because that implies a lack of self-awareness, which with more listens I think she has… but the best drama comes in her bowling past them and taking the emotional risks to chase love and loss. And when you pair that with all the lonely, sweeping atmospherics, a great observational eye for detail, and Michaela Anne’s sweet and remarkably charming delivery, there’s a yearning balance that even among the harder or darker moments has a ray of light. Another project that did not see nearly enough attention and that I was way too late to discussing - absolutely make the time to check it out.

17. And while we’re on the list of projects I should have been more on-top of discussing in 2019… or at least should have aimed to say a lot more…

I said in my review that I wasn’t sure that this Little Brother album was better than Phonte’s solo project from last year that also made my list… yeah, I was dead-wrong, because not only is Little Brother’s comeback full of the easy wit, incredible charm, and grounded maturity that made their best work so striking, along with so many infectious grooves that made this album so easy to revisit, there’s also an incredible depth and thematic sophistication to this album that might be ignored amidst all the callbacks to The Listening and The Minstrel Show, especially as the commodification of that fanservice only accentuates the thematic core of the project! So many little inside jokes, so much incredibly pointed comments exploring the relationship of older black men with hip-hop culture and its industry, and by its end a surprising amount of emotive weight. Yes, this is me getting into my ‘grown-man’, borderline middle-aged hip-hop bag, but this was slept on by too many - check it out.

16. I dunno what I can say about this EP that I haven’t already mentioned several times over, both at the midyear list and my favourite songs of 2019… but this is one I needed.

Jetty Bones’ - EP is transitional, but that’s its point, an extended note of recovery through mid-2000s pop rock with a distinct emo streak delivered with the sort of naturalistic theatricality that only accentuates the sadness of its storytelling. It’s the sort of project on the surface you’d be inclined to take lightly… until you dig into the lyrics and realize just how deeply it’s cutting. It’s a similar approach to genre that Tegan and Sara took, but the stakes are much higher and as a whole it’s a much tighter experience - and to think I found it by accident browsing Bandcamp randomly one day. In any case, I don’t know where Jetty Bones is going to take this going forward… but this snapshot meant so much to me in 2019, I hope y’all appreciate it.

15. And here comes the absolute least surprising entry on any of my lists… but when it’s this powerful, I don’t see anyone complaining!

At this point, even though Marianas Trench is making pop rock, I don’t see how you can look at whatever’s left of the genre, both from their past peers and even today and then see much in the way of competition… and that’s with them proving they can make pop music that could fit the radio outside of Canada! And while the constant qualifier is that it’s not better than Astoria - which is fair to say given how the project feels like an extended coda to that album both thematically and musically - Astoria is also one of the best albums of the 2010s, I’m not going to hold that against them! Coupled with one of the best singers working today, insanely catchy hooks, and the sort of ambition to make music this gothic and huge… yeah, I’m fine with this sort of haunting, and I only hope it extends into the 2020s.

14. But on the topic of Canadian bands that deserve a lot more attentions and obvious acclaim…

Yes, I was late to getting on-board with PUP, but I’m here now and I’m thrilled to see one of the most fresh pop punk acts break out of the fertile Toronto scene - yeah, just you guys wait, I know there’s more like them coming, I can bet on it! But what I love about PUP is that they took all those wild, ramshackle, borderline hardcore instincts of their previous project and married it to a pop sensibility that felt organic and completely unforced! I will say it ends a little darker than I personally prefer where sometimes the morbid sensibilities don’t quite click at their core - and I was a willing audience for that sort of thing this year, so it’s worth pointing out - but with Morbid Stuff, PUP found the desperate spurt of energy and vibrancy to keep charging forth regardless, and they are finally starting to get rewarded for it. Again, you should hear more from these guys soon, count on it!

13. I think this is a tough project to approach, especially in comparison with this act’s last two albums, which handily made my list and I hold among the best of the 2010s. This is not that and it feels like the final part of a trilogy that can’t quite pay off what was started… until I climb back into it.

Of Nick Cave’s albums this decade, Ghosteen has been the most difficult to process for me. Certainly his most atmospheric but also his most diffuse - it runs long, it requires thoughtful listening, and it’s not a project I’d throw on often. But when I do… man, between Nick Cave’s heartbroken delivery, the beautifully organic cushion of textures and atmosphere, and some absolutely stunning poetry in processing his loss amidst the grand scope of time’s passage, with writing that feels as huge and portentous as the mix, it’s an album that draws you into one of the most strikingly painted worlds you’ll hear this year. The word that I’ve consistently used to describe Ghosteen is fey, which when you compare to what you’d expect from Nick Cave it shouldn’t work at all… but the emotional core is so resonant and the album knows when to pivot back and focus on the fleeting connections on earth that can be saved for now, it all fits together. If there’s a lot of nightmarish content already on this list, this is an album for dreams, and beautiful ones indeed.

12. I’ll be very blunt with this: if there are albums that convince me I need to hear more of an entire genre that I haven’t previously liked, and still wind up as a thematically dense and visceral experience, it needs to make my list!

It seems like among some groups this album took a while to grow on folks, and I’ve seen and heard more acclaim for it as the year has progressed - and for damn good reason, because La Dispute dropped another phenomenal and challenging album that may have convinced me I might like post-hardcore! But Panorama stuck with me more deeply than even that, mostly because the writing is absolutely top-notch in exploring how to provide emotional support for someone suffering depression or trauma when you feel like you’re the last person who should, with the slow-burning, stormy tension only amplified by how much the album accentuates that negative space - Nick Cave may have used it to show the vastness of time and space, La Dispute is using it to show how that vastness can make a loving relationship an emotional hell. It’s a huge, rolling gutpunch of an album and one where I fluctuate how often I revisit it… but again, this year I kept coming back, and that earns it this spot.

11. …look, at this point she just keeps getting better - how?

Anna Meredith’s Varmints was one of the most brilliant electronic albums of the 2010s in how it flipped compositional structures on their heads with masterful sycopation and titanic crescendos… and FIBS might be even better, because now she’s embracing her pop instincts with understated brilliance and she’s got the technicolor chops to deliver in spades! To me this project places Anna Meredith in the same tier and territory as Imogen Heap or Robyn, but even more eccentric and challenging - and the fact she can still make these songs catchy and heartfelt despite it all is a marvel to behold. But what I find so thrilling about FIBS - beyond the fact that it improves on production and writing and delivery in nearly every way - is that there’s a focus on the little restraints we place on ourselves, and by the end of the project, you can tell Meredith is willing to take that tentative step and cut herself free - and I can only imagine what’ll come forth from there!

10. Of all the albums on this list, this is the one I didn’t expect to like as much as I did. Not that it grew on me, but more because I was familiar with this artist but the tones that he delivered that worked for me before were different than what we got here. Guess it might have just been a failure to communicate - and I’m glad this album mended that connection.

This album is not getting the acclaim nor the attention that it deserves, and that bothers me, mostly because a lot of people have doubled down on Homeboy Sandman’s offbeat observations and have framed this as just another album about being a great rapper… which is a painfully short-sighted observation, when the album is really exploring that failure to understand and communicate. It’s a fascinating dichotomy between showing real nuggets of insight and wit, and all the people who’ll actually get it, and anyone who works as a writer trying to balance populism with the truth of your words will feel this album on a pretty intimate level! But it’s also not really confrontational about it - more bemused, isolated, occasionally lonely observations surrounding truth and perception that finds its greatest joy in connection, with production texture that might put off those who expect immediacy, but becomes incredibly inviting if you’re willing to engage. It’s not ‘dusty’ because it’s impenetrable oldhead rap, it’s dusty because you don’t engage with it enough, but will be endlessly rewarded when you do.

9. Yes, I know, another year, not a lot of metal on this list. I wanted there to be - both Tomb Mold and Spirits Adrift were really damn close - but I had to be honest with myself and focus on the projects that truly resonated with me. And yet with that in mind, might as well highlight the album where the appeal is just pure resonance!

So, I saw Saor live this year with Wayfarer and Paths Of Rauros, and it might have been among my favourite shows in 2019. Because not only do they deliver that sort of thunderous, soaring power live, the melodic richness translates as well, a blend of powerfully organic Celtic folk and black metal that shouldn’t really work as well as it does but connects all the same! And no, it’s not really better than Guardians and the ending is a little too low-key and I do think the band will have to evolve their sound a bit for the next project, but between the impressive production, the underrated environmentalist streak in the songwriting, and some of the most stirring melodies you’ll hear in metal… Yeah, Saor for me is damn near one of a kind, and even if you find them a little hard to take seriously - which I get - for me at least they’ll pretty much will always have a lock on this list - can’t wait to hear more!

8. And while we’re on the topic of soaring, powerfully organic music that I’m stunned worked as well as it did…

I’ve already talked at length about how awed I was by finding SUNDAYS pretty much by chance, with a debut album that’s among the best of this year, but the truth is that the indie folk this band delivers is not all that unconventional! Warm acoustics, powerful grooves, one of the better falsettos I’ve heard in a long time, a beautiful command of atmosphere, real hooks, and lyrics that can feel lovestruck but also forwardthinking and introspective, there have been plenty of acts who know this approach… but SUNDAYS landed so powerfully on their first try it’s legit astounding. And while I will not claim credit for ‘breaking’ this band to any larger audience, finding and reviewing them was one of the most rewarding experiences I had as a music critic all year, and if that doesn’t earn a spot on this list, I don’t know what does.

7. So Marianas Trench might have been the most obvious pick for this list coming from me… but this is probably the close second. And yet it’s one that’s been overlooked by too many and deserves a lot more attention, so let’s correct that, shall we?

We got the opening salvo from Sage Francis and B. Dolan as Epic Beard Men last year, and while I’m still a little on the fence whether or not this hits as powerfully as the best songs from the Season 1 EP did, what we got instead was an album that showed impressive layers in its framing and construction beyond just sheer banger appeal. Beyond the fact that we have two underground hip-hop heavyweights who can balance out their introspective darkness with a ton of humour, colourful production, and an abundance of quotable lines, what made This Was Supposed To Be Fun so potent was living up to its title - for as much as you want to enjoy the character portraits and tangled misadventures, there’s always just enough detail and subtext in the framing that demands closer attention, where human and systemic failings mean it’s always a little more complicated than you think. And the fact that the duo still made the album fun and despite their own assertions is a testament to veteran talent - one of the most slept on projects of the year, definitely worth more consideration.

6. So I listened to a lot of R&B this year - didn’t always cover it, but this was the year I heard more in this genre than I ever had, and I found a sound that clicked… ingenious in the simple trick of its formula, but remarkably sharp all the same.

So Emotional Oranges put out two EPs this year, and I’m specifically only including the first on this list: the second has the best song from the duo, but the first is more polished, focused, and has the strongest internal arc. But what stuns me is that this duo has such a deceptively simple framework - a mixed-gender duo playing off each other for tempestuous but layered, organic but slinky R&B duets; what shocks me is that there aren’t more acts mining this territory! And what irks me is that Emotional Oranges’ relative anonymity has led some to downplay this framework, completely ignoring the nuance and broad swathes of potential they’re only beginning to tap in earnest! Yeah, the second EP felt a bit scattered and didn’t quite hit with the same impact, but for a group to leave this much of an impact this early… yeah, you’ll be hearing more from these two sooner rather than later, because the possibilities seem damn near endless.

5. So, if we’re looking at the material that’s landed on this list, I’m seeing a lot of texture, visceral subject matter, unflinching but complicated framing, and let’s not forget enough understanding of the past to leverage it into the present… and I don’t know if there’s a single artist who delivered such a potent force in country on his debut this year than Ian Noe.

What I find so striking about Ian Noe is that aside from his retro-leaning production courtesy of Dave Cobb and slightly nasal delivery, this is an album that can feel decidedly modern… or at least of multiple times. Sure, the outlaw stories might feel old, but there’s a shaky, hardbitten relevance that keeps them fresh and potent, and that’s before he steps into the even grimmer stories grounded in decaying Appalachia, with the sort of bloody detail that even classic outlaw country didn’t care to paint so vividly. I’ve said before that some of the best country albums have a body count, and Ian Noe delivers that… but the fact that he’ll make you care about every flawed or breaking human who dies along the way is what gives Between The Country its impact. Again, it might not be the easiest music to grapple with and certain songs will definitely make you question some things - ‘Methhead’ springs to mind - but when its this well-composed, tuneful, and magnetic, you’ll fall between its cracks and love it all the same.

4. So one observation I can see some of y’all making is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of ‘fun’ albums on this list, or even if there is, they’ve often got some dark underbelly or complicating factor that doesn’t make them easy. Which is true, for the record, I didn’t exactly have a fun year - and yet even though I’d say this album falls in a similar category, if you want the most ‘fun’ I had with rock music in 2019, it was this.

Let’s be blunt: did anyone see this coming? Did anyone expect the progressive rock band called Moron Police to put out some of the most vibrant, tuneful, and catchy music of 2019, with their broadest sonic palette and strongest hooks? And even then, they managed to load in a striking anti-war message that didn’t pull any punches either and showed more depth than I know they’ve gotten credit… as well as making a song that might as well be a love letter to puppies! There’s a strident confidence to being this goddamn ridiculous and just owning it that I have to respect from Moron Police, punching way above their weight class with some of the most idiosyncratic but genuinely likable progressive rock I’ve heard in years, providing all the more proof that when prog actually has hooks and well-executed transitions, it can be just as wonderful even to this day! Again, this is another project I don’t think anyone outside of a few people online heard, but it deserves so much more attention, and I can’t wait to hear more!

3. Of all the albums on my list, this is the one I feel probably most aligns with mainstream critics - which is not surprising given its ambition and themes, but on some level I feel have not been explored or praised enough, or with the level of depth I’d argue they deserve. Sure, there’s a lot of audacity with a group like them… but you have to be able to back that up, so let me help articulate that case.

To some it might appear that The Highwomen won people over on pedigree alone - and yeah, I won’t lie, that was what got me in the door, because getting Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires, and even Maren Morris together with Dave Cobb’s production and a wealth of cowriters is setting things up for success. But what gripped me the most was the fact that the group that got all the praise for being ‘feminists in country’ actually followed through with it and produced some nuanced, compelling, and genuinely striking moments that embodied it. And of course the title track is the shining example but what I like is how every woman’s character on this album is so well-defined with respect to their own careers and each other, showing off so many shades of a woman’s experience that it attained a universality that didn’t need the male gaze, but also didn’t disparage it; it allows everyone at the crowded table, but it ensures they have a seat. The writing is fantastic, the performances are among every woman’s best, the dimensionality and framing is inviting as hell, and whenever Amanda Shires plays the fiddle it’s goddamn beautiful. I don’t know if this is just a one-off collaboration or they’re going to push this further, but man, I’d love to hear more from everyone here, and if there’s a country album that deserves all the acclaim it’s getting, it’s this one.

2. Now on the flip-side, I’m not surprised mainstream critics didn’t get onboard with this - hell, I doubt the majority of them even heard it, because while the Highwomen want to be accessible, this group knows on subject matter and presentation alone, they never will be. So why not just slim it down and deliver the best hip-hop album of 2019?

Oh look, Mark put another album from the Doomtree collective on his best list, big surprise here! And my response is… yeah, because in terms of forward-thinking, experimental production that doesn’t skimp on the hooks, real charisma from both frontmen, and the sort of inflammatory politics that goes far left of liberal but grounds it in very human reality, SHREDDERS delivered more than I expected to hear from them in 2019! Insanely quotable but never just sloganeering, politics that nails precision, populism, and raw power, and even if I didn’t already align with the politics, the presentation is so hard-edged, catchy, and challenging I’d be inclined to praise it anyway. And yes, it sucks that mainstream outlets won’t even come close to covering this sort of material because it’s way too charged with the sort of forward-thinking attitude that has no kind words for wealthy backers… but I don’t have those. I’ve got y’all on Patreon and enough of a platform where I’m going to give SHREDDERS’ Great Hits all the acclaim it rightly deserves - because a tight set of bangers this hot deserves exposure.

1. At the end of the day, I questioned a lot whether this album would be my top pick - it was a horse race between my top three, and it did go down to the wire by the end. And yet if there’s an album that might have just as many bleak, messy moments as I’ve praised all year, it’s a note where hope is found in earnest, with the sort of unmistakable talent to back it up. And thus…

At this point, what more can I add about Emily Scott Robinson and Traveling Mercies? It seemed as the year progressed more people seemed to be getting on board with her sound and she’s received some acclaim from critics in the know, which is genuinely thrilling. And yet for me… I hear so much talent and promise from Emily Scott Robinson it’s kind of hard to know where to begin. Yeah, I’ll go on about her songwriting and beautiful voice and phenomenal command of atmosphere and how varied and colourful Traveling Mercies is, but there’s so much subtlety in crafting the mix, spanning from spare dream country to more traditional-leaning structures to songs that feel as windswept and soaring as the stories she tells. And I don’t want to make the comparison to Kacey Musgraves anymore, because despite similarities to her earliest work, for me Emily Scott Robinson is in a category by herself, and she deserves all the more attention and acclaim. It was the best album of 2019 at the midyear, and despite some late-round competition, it still is. You’re out of excuses to have not heard it, folks, because this is a project that those who know will cherish in the 2020s ahead, and I genuinely can’t wait to hear more.