Favorite albums of 2019


In a year full of great new music, here's a look back at my favorite albums of the year.

I am doing this a bit earlier than usual as I am now revisiting my favorite albums from the decade (and will hopefully come up with that list in a couple of weeks). Here are my top 15 albums of 2019:

1. Ian Prowse - Here I Lie
2. Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka
3. The Pearlfishers - Love & Other Hopeless Things
4. Durand Jones & The Indications - American Love Call
5. Black Pumas - Black Pumas
6. Steve Mason - About The Light
7. Kelly Finnigan - The Tales People Tell
8. Elbow - Giants Of All Sizes
9. Yola - Walk Through Fire
10. Liam Gallagher - Why Me? Why Not.
11. Van Morrison - Three Chords & The Truth
12. Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars
13. Lee Fields & The Expressions - It Rains Love
14. Richard Hawley - Further
15. Raymons Meade - Episodes Of Mania
*Bonus: Paul Weller - Other Aspects: Live At The Royal Festival Hall

The top spot belongs to my musical discovery of the year, the great Ian Prowse. He's been around for a while and his back catalogue is fantastic, but I only learned about his music this year on a trip to Liverpool when my mate Steve introduced me to this amazing album.
After that we have Michael Kiwanuka's new masterpiece (his previous album was my album of the year back in 2016), The Pearlfishers with what is probably my favorite album of theirs (and I love all their previous work) and Durand Jones & The Indications sophomore effort which is miles ahead of their (fantastic) debut in part because of the amazing mix of lead vocals between Durand and Aaron Frazer.
As always I included a bonus album at the end, this year it's my favorite live album of the year, the beautiful Other Aspects by Paul Weller.

Here's a playlist with a couple of my favorite tracks from the albums in my top 15 plus other great songs released in 2019:

https://open.spotify.com/user/charlesg31/playlist/5Rjmghl6kPPGLAbXHsrlXi?si=fLpD79STTpeoeY-2D4FQrA

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