Look it's still January so this post is only a little bit late. I enjoyed listening to albums in 2019, there was quite a lot that I liked which makes this list easier to do. There are some on here that aren't surprising at all if you know me, there are some which maybe are; cryptic eh? Lets get into it.

10. The Skints - Swimming Lessons

Let us start with one of the less surprising entrants, Swimming lessons is the fourth album from London based reggae-ska-rap band The Skints. I've been sold on the Skints since I was introduced to them by my friend shortly after the release of their first album and although they have never made huge waves in popular music they have slowly built a good following over the past 10 or so years culminating in a headline show at Brixton Electric this past year which I had the pleasure of attending. For me the band will always be better live than on CD which is why they are as low as they are but tracks such as Armageddon and Restless are a highlight (despite the awful rap on the latter).

9. Childcare - Wabi-Sabi

Apparently Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese term meaning to accept imperfection, strange choice of album title but I agree with it. Wabi-Sabi is the debut album from Childcare, a band I've been following the progress of since 2015 and the first time I heard the single Kimberley, that song genuinely has a shout at being in my top 10 songs of all time. Kimberley is not on this album and thus I have to accept the imperfection. The album is good, I enjoy tracks Man Down and Getting Over You especially and had I not had such a high expectation this might place higher but without Kimberley how can I? Childcare I fear suffer from the perennial sickness of Indie bands, ditching their more popular older material to seem avant-garde, I doubt they will ever record a second album.

8. Lost Under Heaven - Love Hates What You Become

Love Hates What You Become is the 2nd album from Lost Under Heaven, a male/female two-piece consisting of former Wu Lyf man Ellery James Roberts. Mr. Roberts is another great example of an Indie darling who takes himself far too seriously but I can't help it, I like the music those guys make. Roberts has an unmistakable raspy voice which can be heard on the soundtrack to 13 reasons why, although that is from the bands previous album. From this offering my favourites are Come and For the Wild. 

7. Kele - 2042

Everyone knows Kele Okereke as the front man of Bloc Party but in recent years he has thrown out a plethora of solo material. 2042 was actually the 2nd album released by Okereke in 2019 after "leave to remain" which was the soundtrack to his play of the same name - I have been reliably informed that despite the name it has very little to do with Brexit and more to do with being a gay man in London. I was dissapointed by Leave to Remain as an album so when I heard the first release of 2042 I was really excited, Jungle Bunny is a really catchy song about a serious subject much more akin to his 2017 album Fatherland which was one of my favourites that year. 2042 has some great tracks in Jungle Bunny, St. Kaepernick wept and Guava Rubicon but the album as a whole has a few misses and goes on a bit at 16 tracks which is why it only makes number 7.

6. Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

This is the fourth album from New York 4-piece Vampire Weekend and the first for 6 years. Singles from Father of the Bride started leaking out in twos at the start of the year starting with Harmony hall and 2021 with the former being my favourite from the entire album, these provided a taster of what was to come and the album as a whole did not disappoint. I do think that similarly to 2042, the album suffers from being longer than it needs to be at 18 songs but this I fear may be a trend of the post physical world, people don't seem to listen to albums in the same way as they used to. But yes this album was actually probably better than I was expecting, I'm not sure why that is maybe as they don't seem as miserable as most of the artists in this list and as a result they have crept up to the higher end of this list.

5. Better Oblivion Community Centre - Better Oblivion Community Centre

The first of three eponymous albums on this list (you won't be surprised when you see the 2nd one), Better Oblivion Community Centre is a project from Connor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers and this is their first album together. Connor Oberst is someone who I have been listening to many years from his work in Bright Eyes and am always eager to hear his new music but Phoebe Bridgers was not a name I had come across before although I see she too is quite the name in the US Indie scene making Better Oblivion a bit of a super group. Didn't know what I was in for is the first track and my favourite from the album it combines the gentle lyrical stylings you would expect from Oberst with some lovely harmonies and a very relaxing backing track. This album unlike the previous two is an album that I will happily listen to from beginning to end over and over, it seems to have a natural flow

4. Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres - Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres

Its the one you were all expecting and I did not dissapoint, 2019 saw a new album from a member of the Libertines so of course it has made it into my list. The Puta Madres are a ragamuffin crew of misfits including Jack Jones of the band Trampolene who Peter has been a long term admirer of. This album from Doherty was the first in many years that actually gained some quite positive critical review which surprised me as on first listen it didn't really grab me at all but you know I persevered and the more I listened the more I liked. I wouldn't say that this is amongst my favourites of the main man's work, that will always be saved for The Libertines, but I wouldn't necessarily put it as his best solo work either. Some songs I don't think work that well such as the mish mash cover of the Velvet Underground and Oasis that is Someone Else to be but other songs such as Shoreleave and Punk Buck Bonafide do show his writing talents.  I watched a few interviews around the time of the albums release and if I had to guess I would say Pete is back on the hard stuff which is a shame for him but if the critical reviews are anything to go by the press prefer him on it.

3. AJ Tracey - AJ Tracey

A grime album, at last something that does not fall under the indie genre, what can I say I have a type. AJ Tracey's album though is good enough to break me out of my usual comfort zone, and it is the first time since Kano's 2016 Album Made in the Manor that a grime album has made the list. AJ, born Che Wolton Grant, is a 25 year old Grime artist from Ladbroke Grove, London and the song named after his home town is what really sold this album to me from listen one with its catchy beat and flow. Although Ladbroke Grove is for me a stand out, every time I listened to the album another song popped out at me whether it be Psych Out! in which he explains how great he is or Horror show which now has a place in my Halloween playlist. Tracey in the same vain as a lot of young grime artists have a lot of songs which are fairly self indulgent and doesn't always have a lot of depth but the flow is good and its an album that just keeps drawing me back in.

2. Blaenavon - Everything That Makes You Happy

Another artist on the list that released 2 albums in 2019, the 2nd Demoitis was released about two days before the new year and so never had a shot but Everything Makes You Happy was released in October and was an ever present in my rotation for the rest of the year. The 3-piece Hampshire band, named after a small Welsh town for reasons unknown have climbed a place after their debut album, That's your Lot made 3rd place on my 2017 album list. To be fair Everything That Makes You Happy could easily have been number 1 on this year's list but was just pipped to the post as you will see shortly. This album like all my favourites is one that you can listen to the whole way through without getting bored and with stand out tracks such as The Song's Never Gonna Be The Same and my personal favourite Never Stop Stirring it has songs on from beginning to end that I really enjoyed and will be listening to for years to come.

1. Girli - Odd One Out

If you had told me at the start of the year that a pink haired, bi-sexual, gender fluid, feminist rapper come singer would be at number one on my album list I would have probably said.. yeah, fair enough it is 2019 after all. Girli is an artist I have been listening out for for a number of years after I heard her single Girl I met on the Internet in 2016. I always assumed that she would be one of these artists who releases the odd single year on year but never really gets as far as an album and I will admit I was wrong although at just 9 tracks and 24 minutes long it is a bit short for my tastes but it only leaves me wanting more. At the start of the year Deal with It was the track that immediately got my attention but after a number of listens, Friday Night Big Screen a song in which Girli compares her life to those of movie characters quickly became my song of the year and I spent many a traffic jam singing along to the wondrous if slightly camp lyrics. Some of the songs may be a bit on the nose with their 2019ness but on the whole they are fun, upbeat and uplifting.

Blimey, there we have it another year, another list. If I do say so myself this list is far better than last years as normal there were some surprises that made it in and some albums that I expected to be great that didn't quite live up to expectations such as the albums by Drenge and Skinny Lister which although weren't bad, they just weren't quite good enough. Honourable mentions also go out to Marina (formerly Marina and the Diamonda) and Cassia who were just edged out of the list. As alluded to in my singles countdown I have started narrowing down my songs and albums of the decade so I will probably write that sometime within the next 10 years. Until then adieu

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Bloody Hell, its the end of the decade, we've got another 5 years of the Tories and we'll be out of Europe by January but hey at least we've got music to keep us sane. You know what as well, this year I actually feel that I have improved a bit with listening although still not at my heyday but then I'm not a lazy student any more. Bloody Hell 10 years since I was a student!!! Anyway music, 25 songs, 1 song per artist and all released as a single or album track in 2019.

25.  Gently Tender - Intros and Outrage

24. RAT BOY - Don't Hesitate 

23. Childcare - Sugarcane

22. Cassia - Small Spaces

21. Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings - Leviathan 

20. The Skints - Restless (ft. Protoje)

19. Marina - To Be Human

18. The Raconteurs - Now That You're Gone

17. Pixies - Catfish Kate

16. Lost Under Heaven - Come

15. The Divine Comedy - Norman & Norma

14. Foals - In Degrees

13. Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Mettaevolution

12. Billie Eilish - Bad Guy

11. Jerry Williams - David at the Bar

10. Vant - Thank Lucifer

9. Kele - Jungle Bunny

8. Better Oblivion Community Centre - Didn't know what I was in for

7. Harmony Hall - Vampire Weekend

6.  Shoreleave - Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres

5. Blaenavon - Never Stop Stirring

4. The Futureheads - Good Night Out

3. Declan McKenna - British Bombs

2. AJ Tracey - Ladbroke Grove

1. GIRLI - Friday Night Big Screen

Didn't clock until writing but there are very few "new" artists in there compared to normal but I know what I like I suppose, or maybe I'm just getting old and this modern music stuff just sounds like noise. I've even got two instrumental songs in there, don't think I've ever had one in my top 25 before but you know, it just sounds good. If you want to listen to it, you can, HERE. Otherwise keep a look out for my albums of the year AND, drumroll please...... my songs and albums OF THE DECADE. Dun dun dun

END

Hey Whats up? Looking for the Best albums of 2018 you say? Well, I can't promise that I'm afraid, I did not listen to a particularly huge pool of the music released in 2018 but I can offer you the best of what little I have listened to. 2019 is looking better though, I am really pushing myself to make time to listen to new music, a resolution if you will. But anyway, enough of the ramble and into my favourite albums of the few that I did listen to in 2018:

10. The Wave Pictures - Look Inside Your Heart

So the Wave Pictures have been around for a long time and the Leicestershire 3-piece have released too many albums to count. For me the band always encounter the same problem that their songs are individually very good but when you put them together it begins to sound a bit samey and this album.. is no different. There are though a good number of songs from this album that I do really recommend giving a listen to including Roosevelt Sykes and my personal favourite Sugar. Lyrically fun and easy to listen to.

9. Julia Pietrucha - Postcards From The Seaside

So I had just come back from a boozy stag do in Poland with the name Julia Pietrucha saved on my phone with no recollection of what it was. I was worried. One google search later I found Polish singer/songwriter Julia Pietrucha and vague memories came back of a recommendation made by our tour guide one evening. A good recommendation it was too, JP is a piano led singer not too dissimilar in styling to Regina Spektor. Postcards from the Sea is her 2nd studio album and is a mix of songs in both English and her native Polish, some of my favourites including Sailor and Under Da Sea.

8. Public Access T.V. - Street Safari

This album was one of the first that I really listened to in early 2018, the band has been around for a number of years and I had enjoyed their previous releases. Street Safari though saw them take a slight detour from their traditional indie rock sound to a funkier feel. I heard first single Lost in the Game on John Kennedy's radio X exposure show and really enjoyed it. Street Safari is the New York bands 2nd album and although not a classic it is a good listen.

7. Tom Grennan - Lighting Matches

Tom Grennan has been floating around for a few years, I first heard of him when I saw him warming up for the Libertines at Brixton Academy. Back then I thought he sounded a bit like a cheap Kid Harpoon rip off, now in 2019 he is ten times more well known than Kid Harpoon ever was and to be fair to him his songs have now got a very different and more unique feel even if he still does share a very similar voice. Sober is by some way my favourite song from his debut album Lighting Matches but I do quite like Barbed Wire and a number of the others too. I saw Mr Grennan perform live again at Community Festival and he was one of the days highlights for sure.

6. Goat Girl - Goat Girl

Goat Girl are an all female four-piece from London who apparently put on a very good live show. The band were one of the most hyped new bands on the Indie scene in about 2016 but I never really understood what the appeal was but then I had never and still haven't seen them live. Their sound is quite droney both in music and in the vocals and I think that what I didn't get in 2016 was that possibly the production on early tracks such as Country Sleeze wasn't as good. By the release of their eponymous debut the sound quality was much improved and the album as a whole is a much more enjoyable listen with stand out tracks The Man and Cracker Drool.

5. Razor Light - Olympus Sleeping

Olympus Sleeping is the first album from Razorlight in 10 years since the release of the much maligned 2008 album Slipway Fires. Front man Johnny Borrell has had a few projects in the meantime that have never really taken off. The opening to the album is a spoken introduction from 2000s Indie stalwart Adam Green asking for "A Razorlight album that doesn't completely suck" this self deprecation is something that has possibly come with age to Borrell who was a notorious pain in the arse in his heyday. But Green has got what he asked for in Olympus Sleeping, this album is a real throwback to mid 2000s indie music which of course is my favourite time so it wasn't too much of a surprise that I really enjoyed this album. Top tracks include Carry Yourself, Sorry? and Got to let the good times back into your life. 

4. Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

You couldn't move very far without hearing an Arctic Monkeys song in early 2018, TBH&C was without doubt the most talked about release in 2018. The album is a concept based around a fictional hotel on Mars but still manages to hold onto a lot of Alex Turner's lyrical charm. Its hard to believe but its been 13 years since Arctic Monkeys first release and this is now their 6th full length album, personally I am always going to prefer the early stuff more but I still had a good number of listens to this one. My favourite songs Four out of Five and the title track, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino.

3. Frank Turner - Be More Kind

This album was a very hard one for me to rank in this years ratings, I love Frank Turner and have seen him live many times and for me some of the songs on this album are the best he has ever done. Be More Kind and 1933 are both brilliant in different ways, the first a call for love, the latter a bit of political satire. If the whole album was at the quality of those tracks this album would almost certainly have been number 1 on this list. Unfortunately not all tracks on this album were made equal and tracks like Make America Great Again and Going Nowhere are some of my least favourite he has ever done. MAGA is just very lazy writing in my opinion, its catchy and has a good message but it has no real depth and Going nowhere has the lyric "I'm in there like swimwear, I'm going nowhere" nothing more needs to be said. Not including greatest hits and compilations this is Turner's 6th album and it is one that I have such mixed feelings about but because I really do like some of the tracks this position felt right.

2. Jack White - Boarding House Reach

Jack White is someone who never ceases to amaze me, he clearly is completely mad and a complete genius and has shown this as a member of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, his solo stuff and in owning a record label; this latest release of his encapsulates this madness and sounds like nothing he has ever done before. Boarding House Reach is White's 3rd solo album and is released under his own Third Man Records. I will admit some of the songs on this album took me a few listens to really appreciate such as Everything you ever learned with its repetitive tannoy like sound to start but when you get into the meat of the song (strange choice of phrase for a vegetarian) it is great and that is not nearly my favourite track on the album. My top tracks would be Respect Commander, Corporation and the real stand out track Connected by Love which sounds almost anthemic with its Gospel Choir in the chorus. A really great album that might take a couple of listens to really get into it but it is worth the push.

1. Art Brut - Wham! Bang! Pow! Lets Rock Out

In truth this was by far and a way the easiest decision on this list, I absolutely loved the silly rock'n'roll stylings of Eddie Argos and the Art Brut Gang. Wham! Bang! Pow! Lets Rock Out is the bands 5th album and their first for 7 years as they took a hiatus in between presumably to take a break from their rock'n'roll lifestyle which is regularly touched upon throughout the album. Art Brut are band that definitely do not take themselves too seriously and at least sound like they are having a lot of fun doing it. I listened to this album so much I could quote individual lyrics from every song but I won't bore you and instead will gloss over a couple; in tracks Hospital! and I Hope You're very happy together the band take the sombre subjects of Addiction and Heart Break and deal with them with humour and fun, and possibly my favourite lyric on the whole album (although not from my favourite song) comes in Awkward breakfast where Eddie states "Last night you were being rude with me, now we're eating bowls of muesli". If you are looking for a beautiful singing voice with brilliantly played instruments and deep and thought provoking lyrics you are very much in the wrong place but if you just want to have fun and Rock Out then this really is an amazing album to do it to.

So there we have the end to the 2018 journey (although I finally got round to finishing the writing of it in April 2019). It was a mixed ride. I really do think that I didn't have the best sample size but I am happy with my picks nevertheless. Honourable mentions go to The Voidz (which is Julian Casblancas from The Strokes fame) and the Von Bondies who just missed out on the top 10. As far as the Wooden Spoon its a hard one, nothing was truly awful in comparison to what I was expecting although both Shame and Blossoms failed to excite me as much I was hoping. Anyway that's it, see you in the future.

END.