The Best of 2019: The Best New Albums I Heard

Western Stars is far from the best Bruce Springsteen album I've ever heard. He's had so many great ones.

In truth, though I think the album he released this year--his first studio recording since 2014's High Hopes--is pretty stellar, simply in terms of listening pleasure it's not even my favorite Springsteen album to come out in 2019.

That would be his latest archival live set, recorded on December 15, 1978 at San Franciso's Winterland.

But Springsteen put together a new album of material recorded as far back as 2012 that sounds remarkably cohesive, while also sounding like little he's ever released.

As you'll see below, another old favorite, The Who, surprised with a late 2019 album that--again--not ranking close to their all-time best, is solid enough to rank high this year.

Sadly, I only heard of my #2 album below because the man mainly behind it, David Berman, took his life shortly after its release and just before he was to start a tour. A shame, as while it isn't exactly filled with uplifting lyrics, it's a rather powerful last testament.

Anyway, of what I heard--which really wasn't that much nor that diverse--here's what I've determined to be: 

My Favorite New Rock Albums of 2018

1. Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars (Spotify link)

2. Purple Mountains - self-titled (Spotify link)

3. The Who - Who (Spotify link)

4. The Twilight Sad - It Won't Be Like This All the Time (Spotify link)

5. Mannequin Pussy - Patience (Spotify link)

6. Miranda Lambert - Wildcard (Spotify link)

7. Tool - Fear Inoculum (Spotify link)

8. The Black Keys - "Let's Rock" (Spotify link) 

9. Fontaines DC - Dogrel  (Spotify link)

10. Cage the Elephant - Social Cues (Spotify link)

11. Beck - Hyperspace (Spotify link)

Honorable Mention

Wilco - Ode to Joy (Spotify link) 
Coldplay - Everyday Life (Spotify link)
Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go (Spotify link)
Taylor Swift - Lover (Spotify link)
The Muffs - No Holiday (Spotify link)


Reissues, Live Albums, etc.

R.E.M. - Monster (25th Anniversary) (Spotify link)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Live Archive Recordings
Available via live.brucespringsteen.net and Nugs.net. These are the ones I purchased:

● Tampa 4/22/08
● Los Angeles 9/27/85
● Passaic, NJ 9/19/78
● San Francisco (Winterland) 12/15/78
● Houston 5/6/14
● Coventry, UK 6/3/16

Of these, San Francisco 1978 would be my top recommendation.

The Best of 2018: The Best New Albums I Heard

This seems like apt category in which to admit that I've been a broken record.

For years, perhaps decades now, I've been complaining that there have been relatively few new artists in a rock vein that have gotten me excited--especially on an ongoing basis.

Yes, there are acts such as Ash and Maximo Park and Arcade Fire who have popped up on multiple "Best New Albums of (Year)" lists, but all are at least a dozen years old.

Late last year, as I was rummaging through albums I had gleaned might be worthy of "Best of 2017" consideration, I discovered Life Without Sound by the Cloud Nothings.

After several listenings, I decided it was the best album I'd heard all year, and it topped my list.

But not only can't I say that I returned to it often this year, until the past couple weeks I was oblivious to the Cloud Nothings releasing a follow-up, Last Building Burning.

And I don't like it nearly as much.

So with relatively few albums that catch my attention--and fancy--throughout the year, I try my best to listen to several in a cluster of December weeks, and see what I like best.

But though I am trying to gauge the merits--as per my preferences, which lean toward guitar-driven hard rock--of any particular album, I realized I somehow also should factor in what I'm likely to stick with and return to.

This year, my favorite discovery was a band called the Struts, who are unabashedly retro, with a singer and sound that recalls--without matching--Queen and a Cuisinart of other classic rock influences.

Noting that they would be opening for the Foo Fighters at Wrigley Field in late July, I listened to and loved their then-only album, Everybody Wants, which was released in 2014, and re-issued in the U.S. in 2016.

Their new album, Young and Dangerous, was released in late-October, and likewise has several songs that are unabashedly fun. It also has some that are, candidly, rather dumb and not so great, and I can't call the album a masterpiece.

Still, it is the 2018 album I've most enjoyed hearing, and presumably the one I will continue to most often. So while I don't think it historically good, it tops my list of:

My Favorite New Rock Albums of 2018

1. The Struts - Young and Dangerous (Spotify link)

2. Elvis Costello - Look Now (Spotify link)

3. Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive (Spotify link)

4. Ash - Islands (Spotify link)

5. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs (Spotify link)

6. The Vaccines- Combat Sports (Spotify link)

7. David Byrne - American Utopia (Spotify link)

8. John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness (Spotify link)

9. Kyle Craft - Full Circle Nightmare (Spotify link) 

10. Paul McCartney - Egypt Station (Spotify link)

11. Judas Priest - FIREPOWER (Spotify link)

Honorable Mention

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer (Spotify link)
The Chills - Snow Bound (Spotify link)
Mitski - Be the Cowboy (Spotify link)
Paul Weller - True Meanings (Spotify link)
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour (Spotify link)
Cloud Nothings - Last Building Burning (Spotify link)
Albert Hammond Jr. - Francis Trouble (Spotify link)

Reissues, Live Albums, etc.

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once (Spotify link)
The great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane died in 1967, and even in just the past few years, there have been many archival releases and reissues, typically featuring Trane performances. 2018's release of Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 being just one example. Both Directions at Once is a bit different, as it is from a recording session Coltrane did with his classic quartet in 1963, but whose tapes had long been lost. Hence, almost all of it is of material never heard. And it is brilliant.

David Bowie - Glastonbury 2000 (Live) (Spotify link)

Midnight Oil - Armistice Day: Live at the Domain, Sydney (Spotify link)

R.E.M. at the BBC (Spotfiy link) - Several discs worth of live in studio and live in concert recordings.

The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album) Reissue, featuring Esher Demos (Spotify link) - The Esher Demos are acoustic recordings the Beatles made prior to working on the actual album versions. And they sound wonderful.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Live Archive Recordings
Available via live.brucespringsteen.net. These are the ones I purchased:

● East Rutherford, NJ (without ESB) 6/24/93
● Boston 11/19/07
● Freehold (solo) 1996
● Roxy (LA) 7/7/78
● Wembley Arena (London) 6/5/81
● Chicago 9/30/99
● Helsinki 6/16/03
● Leeds 7/24/13

Of these, London '81 would probably be my top recommendation.

Pearl Jam has also long released official bootlegs of their concerts--which can be found here--and having attended their two Wrigley Field shows in Chicago (August 18 & 20, 2018), I enjoy owning them.

The Best of 2017: The Best New Albums I Heard

If there were any albums released in 2017 bound to be considered classics--at least in a rock vein, with apologies to Kendrick Lamar and Run the Jewels, acclaimed and respected but not to my tastes--I am either unaware or unappreciative.

Certainly, the paucity of my CD purchases has much to do with my preponderant listening via Spotify--for which I have a premium subscription--but I still can be compelled to buy a physical album.

Yet I did so only for the new U2 (Songs of Experience) and Taylor Swift (Reputation) albums, neither of which I cared for nearly as much as hoped.

 Sure, it was nice that some old favorites--Robert Plant, Ray Davies, Blondie, Billy Corgan, Paul Weller--put out some decent material, but it didn't really come close to their best work.

The same can also be said for more contemporary favorites like Arcade Fire and Maximo Park.

And while there certainly were albums I listened to during the year, particularly to prep for concerts I attended--and there were several stellar ones of those, per a list coming soon--for the most part the list below is culled from what I liked best in a barrage of listening over just the past few weeks.

My #1 album was released in January but I only first heard it in December. It's by an artist I've never much cared about before. Yet I found it to be the most exciting and consistent album of the year.

So make of this list what you will.

It's likely I may not much remember, or champion, these albums in years to come. And perhaps I'll discover some works I missed or undervalued that would significantly change the ranked order.

But in a year that once again saw the passing of far too many rock greats--Chuck Berry, Tom Petty, Chris Cornell, Gregg Allman, Chester Bennington, Walter Becker, Grant Hart, Gord Downie, Malcolm Young, Tommy Keene, Fats Domino, Pat DiNizio--these were:

My Favorite New Rock Albums of 2017

1. Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound (Spotify link)

2. The National - Sleep Well Beast (Spotify link)

3. Robert Plant - Carry Fire (Spotify link)

4. Arcade Fire - Everything Now (Spotify link)

5. Maximo Park - Risk to Exist (Spotify link)

6. Ray Davies - Americana (Spotify link)

7. Lorde - Melodrama (Spotify link)

8. Blondie - Pollinator (Spotify link)

9. Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black (Spotify link)

10. Gorillaz - Humanz (Spotify link) 

11. Billy Corgan - Ogilala (Spotify link)

Honorable Mention

Paul Weller - A Kind Revolution (Spotify link)
War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding (Spotify link)
The New Pornographers - Whiteout Conditions (Spotify link)
LCD Soundsystem - American Band (Spotify link)
Liam Gallagher - As You Were (Spotify link)
Father John Misty - Pure Comedy (Spotify Link)

Special Mention

As in 2016, the new "albums" I listened to and liked the most this year aren't represented on the above list. I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and while the Boss didn't release any new music in 2017, via live.brucespringsteen.net he put out official recordings of all of his February concerts in Australia with the E Street Band, as well as several archival live sets.

These are the ones I bought--as downloads, though CDs are also available--and I love them all:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
● Brisbane 2/14/17
● St. Louis 8/23/08
● Helsinki 7/31/12
● Albany 2/7/77
● Rochester 2/8/77
● New York 7/1/00
● Stockholm 7/3/88

If you only want one, I'd recommend St. Louis 8/23/08.

Pearl Jam has also long released official bootlegs of their concerts--which can be found here--and though long-delayed, their two Wrigley Field shows in Chicago (August 20 & 22, 2016) are now available and quite good.

Metallica likewise releases all their shows, and though their setlists in 2017 were pretty static, I enjoy having a recording of the Chicago / Soldier Field concert I attended on June 18. (LiveMetallica.com)

The Best of 2016: The Best New Albums I Heard

2016 will undoubtedly go down as one of the saddest years in pop music history.

This is principally due to the passing of many legendary, groundbreaking artists across various genres, including David Bowie, Prince, Merle Haggard, Leonard Cohen, Glenn Frey (of the Eagles), Maurice White (of Earth, Wind & Fire), Paul Kantner (of Jefferson Airplane), Sharon Jones, Buckwheat Zydeco and Leon Russell, among several others.

In a recent post, I listed many of these losses, only for the rock world to soon suffer another with the recent death of Greg Lake, sadly following his Emerson, Lake & Palmer bandmate, Keith Emerson, earlier in the year.

And at least per my purview, it's also been a rather distressing year in regards to new music in a pop/rock realm. (I did however see several great concerts, the subject of an upcoming Best of 2017 post.)

Certainly, there has been some good music recorded and released, as I'll cite below, but not only did there not seem to be any galvanizing, zeitgeist-achieving albums--even beyond those I might have favored--according to Billboard nobody sold more CDs in 2016 than...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Certainly, the way music is heard, distributed and purchased has vastly changed, with streaming on services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal combining with paid downloads via iTunes, Amazon, etc., to generate more revenues for record companies than physical CDs.

But although I do quite a bit of listening through Spotify--roughly an hour a day, on average--for which I pay $120/yr. for their Premium service, I am old school enough to only consider those albums I purchase on CD as those I actually "own."

And in 2016, I only bought three CDs of new music.

One was David Bowie's Blackstar, which was released on his 69th birthday, January 10, which wound up being just two days before he died. Bowie is one of my all-time favorite artists, and the album is a rather astonishing last testament. (Another stellar new album by an iconic artist, Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker, preceded Cohen's death by just a couple weeks.)

Although I'd say I admire Beyoncé's artistry and voice (on multiple levels) beyond my personal fandom, I was intrigued enough by her lyrically-candid Lemonade album--which was accompanied by a video album--to purchase it, especially as it isn't on Spotify.

And I bought Eric Clapton's I Still Do, which I quickly lent to a friend and am not sure I ever saw again.

So although I listened to a good number of new albums, including recently, primarily they were the latest releases of artists I've long enjoyed (and typically well short of their career best).

Hence, I can't really suggest this list is all that holistically exploratory or revelatory, but for whatever it's worth, here are:

My Favorite New Rock (Mostly) Albums of 2016

1. David Bowie - Blackstar (Spotify link)

2. Bob Mould - Patch the Sky (Spotify link)

3. The Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome (Spotify link)

4. Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (Spotify link)

5. Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression (Spotify link)

6. Dinosaur Jr. - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (Spotify link)

7. Beyoncé - Lemonade (not on Spotify)

8. Metallica - Hardwired...To Self-Destruct  (Spotify link)

9. Elton John - Wonderful Crazy Night (Spotify link)

10. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (Spotify link) 

11. Twin Peaks - Down in Heaven (Spotify link)

Honorable Mention

Eric Clapton - I Still Do (Spotify link)
Paul Simon - Stranger to Stranger (Spotify link)
Savages - Adore Life (Spotify link)
Drive-By Truckers - American Band (Spotify link)
Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book (Spotify link)
The Hamilton Mixtape (Spotify link)

Special Mention

Truth be told, the new "albums" I listened to and liked the most this year aren't represented on the above list. I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and while the Boss didn't release any new music in 2016--save for the Chapter & Verse companion to his Born to Run autobiography, which includes five early, unreleased songs from before he was known, along with several familiar tunes--he did put out official recordings of every concert he performed with the E Street Band this year.

These shows can be purchased and downloaded at live.brucespringsteen.com (CDs are also available). I got several and loved them all, including:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
● Chicago 1/19/16*
● Milwaukee 3/3/16*
● Columbus 4/12/16*
● Brooklyn 4/23/16
● Milan 7/5/16
● East Rutherford 8/23/16
● Chicago 8/28/16*
● Washington, DC 9/1/16*
* = shows I attended

Pearl Jam has also long released official bootlegs of their concerts--which can be found here--but for whatever reason have not issued the two shows I saw at Wrigley Field this year. I imagine several of their other 2016 gigs were quite stellar, but I haven't downloaded any.

The Best of 2015: The Best New Albums I Heard (and Some Great Old Ones)

When it comes to hearing, obtaining and maintaining collections of music, I am both old school and new school.

I still have, on numerous shelves in my condo, over 2,000 physical CDs, and though far less so than in years past--due to both new technology and perceptions of modern musical quality--I continue to buy hard copies of most albums I acutely want to "own."

There are some inconsistencies to this--primarily regarding official concert "bootlegs" released by Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam, for which I will pay simply to download--but generally I only feel like I own, or even "have," an album if I can hold it in my hands. 

But I use Spotify voluminously, and even pay $10 for the Premium ad-less version, so in giving me access to pretty much every album ever recorded, with the same ease of access as provided by iTunes or the AmazonMusic app--which provides me free "Auto-Rip" MP3s of any physical CD I buy through Amazon.com--the notion of albums I own or have has been forever transmogrified, especially as I do the bulk of my listening via digital files, even if I have the physical CD. (I'll either have imported the CD into iTunes--and perhaps then onto my iPhone--or have Amazon MP3s or simply listen to Spotify, even for albums I physically own.)

I used to believe that there was something slightly unscrupulous about using Spotify, as the concept of hearing full albums you didn't pay for--and even free Spotify users can do so--has been taboo for the majority of my 47 years.

Except of course for records you borrowed from the library and recorded onto a Maxell cassette, albums a friend copied for you whether onto cassette or later CD, Napster downloads and various other means of getting free music.

But Spotify seemed to be sanctioned piracy, and it felt kind of wrong--and in many cases, likely still is--that artists weren't being equitably compensated for their creations, at least versus the album royalties of old. Certainly, there have been numerous--and recent--reports about how millions of listens on Spotify have earned the recording artists mere pocket change. And Taylor Swift and Adele have opted to keep their gazillion-selling latest albums off Spotify, and The Beatles' entire catalog was unavailable on steaming platforms until just last week.

See article here

Yet, I recently read that record labels now make more money from streaming services such as Spotify than they do from purchased downloads or physical album sales.

And with the Beatles providing further validation that streaming is a fully legitimate form of musical distribution, it feels even less necessary to buy CDs, even if I intrinsically like having something tactile, with cover art and liner notes and printed lyrics.

So I undoubtedly still will, but sparingly, especially as the $120 I pay Spotify yearly equates to 12  CDs in physical form. 

All of which is a long-winded way of getting to the point that, of albums newly released, I bought a total of two CDs in a rock vein in 2015. One was Blur's first album in 12 years and the other was Adele's mammoth-selling 25, which I'm guessing she doesn't regret keeping off Spotify, and which proves that physical CDs still can sell.

(Just to mention it, perhaps for my own future knowledge, besides the reissues mentioned below and two previously released Beatles reissues, the only old CD I bought in 2015 was King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King, which is not on Spotify.)

Anyway, here's what I liked best of what I heard anew in 2015, including mostly rock artists but--given the relative sparsity of those--also a few Broadway cast albums that provided great listening pleasure. And yes, I'm aware that Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly is almost universally praised as the Best Album of 2015 elsewhere, but with all due respect, I never got into it as I'm not a big rap fan. Though I may continue to explore it from time to time.

On Spotify.

The Best New Albums I Heard in 2015

1. Blur - The Magic Whip (Spotify link)

2. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday (Spotify link)

With my top 2 picks, some may appreciate the inherent allusion to the Blur vs. Oasis "Battle of BritPop" 20 years ago.

3. Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast Recording (Spotify link)

4. Adele - 25 (Not on Spotify)

5. Ash - Kerblammo (Spotify link)

6. Paul Weller - Saturns Pattern (Spotify link)

7. Keith Richards - Crosseyed Heart (Spotify link)

8. Florence + the Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Spotify link)

9. Wilco - Star Wars (Spotify link)

10. Darlene Love - Introducing Darlene Love (Spotify link)

11. The Waterboys - Modern Blues (Spotify link)

Honorable Mention

- Finding Neverland - Original Broadway Cast Recording (Spotify link)
- Jeff Lynne's ELO - Alone in the Universe (Spotify link)
- Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free (Spotify link)
- Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy (Spotify link)
- The Visit - Original Broadway Cast Recording (Not on Spotify)

Special Mention

Bruce Springsteen - The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Spotify link)
As I wrote about here, the entire box set commemorating 1980's The River album is terrific. But had simply the 11 previously unreleased outtakes been put out as a new Springsteen album, it would rank #1 on the list above.

Bruce Springsteen - Archival Concerts - Philadelphia 1975, Nassau 1980,
East Rutherford 1984, Los Angeles 1988, Columbus 2005, Rome 2013
Each concert above was individually released in 2015--plus Cleveland 1978, released late 2014--and most represent the best music I acquired during the year. All are great; my top recommendations would be 1) Cleveland 2) Nassau 3) Rome 4) Los Angeles. Downloads or physical CDs can be bought through: live.brucespringsteen.net

Pearl Jam - Nov. 4, 2015 Santiago, Chile - official concert bootleg
Unlike previous tours, Pearl Jam hasn't released recordings of every show on their recent South American trek, but this Santiago show is a great listen with a rabid crowd. A Buenos Aires show is also available. Shop here for downloads or physical CDs.

Best Reissues:

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (Spotify link)  
Led Zeppelin - Presence (Spotify link)
Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door (Spotify link)