25 Favorite Releases of 2019

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share some of my favorite releases of the year. Such a brooding year for music, with some really strong aesthetic and political statements and boundary-pushing uses of both guitars and electronics, suggesting many exciting changes on their way in the next decade. Obviously this isn’t meant to be exhaustive or authoritative; just some personal highlights. Quite a few of these are giant major label releases, so I’ll be taking down those download links quickly or leaving them off accordingly. Let me know if links are broken. Happy new year! Previously: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
A.C. Marias – One Of Our Girls, 1989 buy / download
The B-52’s – Cosmic Thing, 1989 buy / download
The Blue Nile – Hats, 1989 buy / download
The Cure – Disintegration, 1989 buy
De La Soul – 3 Feet High And Rising, 1989 buy
dip in the pool – Retinae, 1989 download
Forrest Fang – The Wolf At The Ruins, 1989 buy / download
Galaxie 500 – On Fire, 1989 buy
Harry Case – In A Mood, 1989 download
The Hilliard Ensemble – Pérotin, 1989 buy / download
Haruomi Hosono – Omni Sight Seeing, 1989 download
Inner City – Paradise, 1989 buy
Janet Jackson – Rhythm Nation 1814, 1989 buy
Joan Bibiloni – Born, 1989 buy / download
Julee Cruise – Floating Into The Night, 1989 buy
Kate Bush – The Sensual World, 1989 buy
Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine, 1989 buy
Nirvana – Bleach, 1989 buy
Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster & Panaiotis – Deep Listening, 1989 buy / download
Piero Milesi & Daniel Bacalov – La Camera Astratta, 1989 buy / download
Pixies – Doolittle, 1989 buy
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Beauty, 1989 buy
Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol. One, 1989 buy
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses, 1989 buy
Woo – It’s Cosy Inside, 1989 buy / download

8 thoughts on “25 Favorite Releases of 2019”

  1. Happy New Year, and thanks for an interesting cut of 1989, some I know some I don’t.

    Hope there are more posts in 2020.

    Best wishes

    Adrian

  2. Thanks so much for sharing your list – really glad to be introduced to the A.C. Marias and a Woo that I didn’t have.

    Happy New Year!

    PS. One of my stand out favorites of the year involves Woo –
    https://tinyurl.com/vhydft4
    highly recommended!

  3. What a great list! I’ve been going through the ones I wasn’t familiar with and the Harry Case and Milesi/Bacalov are such gems.

    I’m curious if next year we’ll see the best of 1990 or a roll-back to 1980. Let’s hope for both 🙂

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