Yadda yadda, we all get flooded with year end lists. They seem to take a general path when it comes to the editorial route, either predictable or decidedly obscure. I approach this project with the motive of reflection on what resonated with me in a strong year of music and with the hopes that it will turn you on to another listen as you round out the year.
Pro-tip from a non-pro: create a playlist for the year, listen to it at the years end. Don’t weigh more heavily the things that came out recently, that are more fresh. After having completed a first draft- replay. Listen and take notes. The reasons why you were interested at first may have changed. Finally, buy those records. Its clear you loved what they had to offer, pay for the item, get it in vinyl even if you don’t have a record player. You’ll have a record of your plays (oooh!) and that’ll be with you until you throw all your records away because moving every six months with a buttload of records and books is just self-torture.
What initially began as an enticing single (“Pressure to Party”) rounded out with an adoration of the subtle, largely subdued, and occasionally spirited foray into love and loss from the Jacklin’s sophmore record. Its an album that explores the boundaries of body after the cataclysm of a breakup. Her lyrics express a permeability of self as one redefines the outlines of identity in this situation. “How to Keep Loving You” sweepingly conveys the welcomingly honest perspective about how an often elevated perspective of intimacy, knowing ones ins and outs so completely, in all to often cases leads to not a growth of love but an exasperated sense of despair. The tonality of the record expresses the lows of moving through re-identification, and also the frenetic highs of being able to piece together oneself.
See the video for “Don’t Know how to Keep Loving You” here
Helado Negro- This is How You Smile
Ok, well this is going to be a hard one, because I literally listened to Helado Negro’s “This is How You Smile” precisely every day of 2019. So, even though I said these are in no particular order— if there was one, this would be at the top. Lyrically, Roberto Carlos Lange takes us through a breezy, reflection on love. It’s as though he’s singing these songs as he leads himself on a journey through the family photo album. “And we’ll light/Ourselves on fire/Just to see/Who really/Wants to believe/That it’s just me" Lange sings on the album opener “Please Wont Please.”
After Trump was elected, there was a whole swath of internet buzz awaiting the great protest records to come forward in the raucous style of (the immaculate) Thermals record The Body, The Blood, The Machine. However, Helado Negro delivers a record that quietly, tiredly speaks out against the exhausting regime. All the yelling seems to make little difference when everyone yells back, so this resistance is embodied. Lived resistance in the everyday being, the politics of the body as Lange sings on “Pais Nublado” - “And I haven't lost my mind/ Thinking about you/ And I haven’t lost my breath/ Shouting all the things we're about to do/ And we'll take our turn / And we’ll take our time/ Knowing that we'll be here long after you.”
I’m telling you all right now, it doesn’t get better than this spectacular piece of art in 2019. Helado Negro, I bow to thee and thank you for joining so many of my hours, helping me feel grounded, hopeful and courageous moving through these times.
I didn’t go through a breakup this year, why do you ask? Is it because there’s another breakup record on here? So what, I contain multitudes. Philly based Mannequin Pussy has been ripping since 2014, and Patience is a frenetic and beautiful welcome to their oeuvre. The opener “Patience” thematically pairs with Julia Jacklin’s musings on the effect of a relationship on the body. For Mannequin Pussy, the invasive control swelters out into the driving pop-punk chords paired to the lyrics, “Who told you that my body was yours to own?/And long before you called, it was crawlin' through the wild/ And after gettin' in my head/ Convinced poison was supposed to grow/ I wandered all around, the beauty I surround/ Patience, patience, patience, patience/ You know I've got it in my blood.”
The album contains two songs Drunk I and Drunk II, the latter preceding the former in the songlist, and again I’m going to pull lines because they hit super hard-
And do you remember the nights I called you up?
I was so fucked up, I forgot we were broken up
I still love you, you stupid fuck
But you don't look at me, you don't talk to me
And I know it's 'cause you're weak, baby
You feel guilty, it's pathetic, mm.
And just if we haven’t all been there, (you stupid f*ck) I don’t even know. Also, any album that creates such an impact after only 25 minutes is accomplishing something great. Need some catharsis- slide on the vinyl and press go.
There you have it. Why 3? Why not? That’s a silly question.
Connor