TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2019
The last few years have been hard.
Between senseless violence, backwards social progress, and the creation of strawberry-lemonade Natural Light, there can be no denying the bleakness of the times.
Bump is right there with you.
However, in this age of political division, intellectual subversion and environmental degradation, music is a solitary saving grace. Our world may be aflame, but that fire has undoubtedly been stoked by the inspiring, elevating and thought-provoking albums that we’re about to discuss.
Here are Bump’s 10 favorite releases of the year, in no particular order.
The End - Shlohmo
(You can read our review of Shlohmo live here.)
The end is nigh! Shlohmo’s sixth studio release combines meticulously chaotic drum programming and ethereal melodic stylings - trademarks reminiscent of his early discography - with a grinding, sludgy drone first exhibited on 2015’s Dark Red. A somber perspective on a violent conclusion, The End marries two discordant chapters of Shlohmo’s discography beautifully and brutally. Wailing, discordant, and at times surprisingly warm, this album is a textural masterpiece that soars high on pillars of molten Earth and dives deep into slimy catacombs. Over the course of the hour we bask in fear, watch in awe, wait in tedium and hope through a haze of smog and distortion. For an album so pregnant with apocalypse, we find ourselves easily listening two or three times through on a regular basis.
Favorite track: Rock Music.
CASE STUDY 01 - Daniel Caesar
After his debut release Freudian smashed Bump’s preconceived notions of minimalist R&B, it seemed certain that Daniel Caesar’s sophomore offering had to disappoint in contrast. We now realize we have no idea what the young crooner is capable of. CASE STUDY 01 stays true to the stripped-down, sun-spattered sounds we were seduced by, delivering 10 more songs that drape lush harmonies around your shoulders, pour warm honey over your eyes and rock you softly amidst echoes and gently distorted acoustics. This release feels like an extension of the last, but Caesar’s intuitive musicianship surprises often enough with dynamic shifts, hip-hop passages and surgically precise choral flourishes. A delicate, smoldering swagger infuses this album, and while we can’t say for sure if it wins out over his first, the fact that we can’t decide alone earns it a spot on this list.
Favorite track: RESTORE THE FEELING.
Good at Falling - The Japanese House
(Check out our review of The Japanese House live here.)
For an album that feels so emotionally raw, Good at Falling cloaks itself in a shifting, iridescent skein of sound that soothes and dazzles in equal parts. At times this release becomes a deep and melancholic ocean, gently lapping salt onto your cheeks, and at others it glides between clouds, passing into the sun with all the joy of a kite cut wild and free. The skilled studio production lent by members of The 1975 is immediately evident, blending funk, R&B, 80s dance and alternative rock so seamlessly that it’s hard to see any individual shape to the sound. This is as perfect an album for staring out the window with your thoughts as it is or for dancing out some real-life-shit.
Favorite track: We Talk All the Time.
The Weight - Weval
This album may have been Bump’s most anticipated release of 2019, and also our biggest surprise. If you’re not familiar with Dutch production duo Weval, do yourself a favor and go listen to their debut EP before reading this. Just do it.
We love Weval for their atmosphere - haunting vocal textures and samples, synths that sound like they melted in hot sunlight as the album was recorded, basslines that are at once huge and minimalist. This sound is undeniably unique, and it crystallizes into a whole new compound for The Weight. What was once a spacious dance-oriented sound has been focused into something much more intimate, still hypnotic and sensually textural, but with a twisted spine of chunky analog bass and phalanges made of toy organs and other whimsical psychedelia. The duo sing more on this album, the drums sound mostly like they came from a real kit, and yet the journey The Weight takes you on is still kaleidoscopic, otherworldly, impossible not to move to - even if it is just sliding creepily around the room at impossible angles. Bump was a little sad at the departure at first, but this album has effortlessly cemented its place on our All Time Top 10 in addition to this list.
Favorite track: Someday.
GREY Area - Little Simz
The third album by UK-based emcee Little Simz is a world-weary yet self-assured slice of life from the perspective of 25 year-old microphone viper Simbi Ajikawo. Equal parts snarling precision and haunting honesty, GREY Area dissects the struggles that come with finding one’s place and handling loss in a world that shows signs of collapse. Produced by childhood best friend and all-star producer Inflo, the album is overgrown with lush, organic instrumentation. Horns and piano blossom from the cracks between minimal beats and acoustic guitars glitter alongside Simz’ gnashing teeth. Jazz flute lacerates the ear like a kunai knife on the opener Offence and trembling strings straight out of a horror film flutter from the trunk of a haunted hearse with a jacked-up sound system on Venom. At the end of the day, however, Ajikawo’s semi-automatic flow runs the show, cobra-quick and fluid as mercury. For a thought-provoking ear-full that goes down smooth like syrup and cuts like a katana, check out GREY Area.
Favorite track: Venom.
Graal (Prologue) - Christian Loffler
A peek into Christian Loffler’s latest LP, Graal (Prologue) reveals a cold day. The sun is shyly poking its head out from behind blue-grey nebulous clouds in the middle of Fall. Drops of rain gently tap on the glass of my periscope as if to invite me into Loffler’s landscape. Ethereal tones, haunting melodies, and a beat so simple-yet-expertly crafted that I can only describe the sum of these parts as a hypnotic wave of darkness, foreboding, and beautiful. This German minimal-house artist uses his music to teleport you into the inner-depths of his cerebellum. It takes you on a journey through fields of raw emotion. It grabs you by the hand, pulls you in close, and sways you back and forth until you can’t differentiate between the tears and sweat trickling down your face.
Favorite track: Refu.
Rocco - HVOB
Another album that Bump had been waiting for since the start of 2019, Rocco is thirteen tracks of relentlessly beautiful (and sometimes brutal) house music punctuated by cherubic vocals, soft melodies, and drone. The Austrian electronic duo, HVOB (or, as we recently learned, Her Voice Over Boys) conceived this album for the sole purpose of moving your body. We last saw them perform at Gray Area in San Francisco a few months before the release of Rocco. We were treated to live versions of Eraser and Zinc, along with a few other then-unreleased tracks and holy shit -- if there was one word to describe the experience, it would be visceral. The sweat, the bodies undulating in unison, the air itself palpitating in time - it was beautiful. Throw this album on if you’re feeling nostalgic, or you want your world to become a music video for an hour and twenty-one minutes
Favorite track: Zinc.
Ribbons - Bibio
Bibio is a genius. He is a master craftsman of blending genres from folk to electronic to funk and beyond. Whether you relate more to the overwhelmingly joyous mood of Ambivalence Avenue, the deeply melancholic Silver Wilkinson, or last year’s Phantom Brickworks and its droning landscapes, his tenth album Ribbons is yet another example of such mastery. This immersive piece takes you through sunny countrysides, gloomy walks home, and rainy days curled up next to a fire - sprinkled with ass-shaking funk and soul. Ribbons delivers sixteen tracks of thought-provoking instrumentation, and exemplifies a restless determination to keep producing music that refuses to fit any one mould or genre
Favorite track: Pretty Ribbons and Lovely Flowers.
Lust for Youth - Lust for Youth
For those unfamiliar, the Copenhagen-based duo Lust for Youth exists at the intersection of post-punk, cold wave, pop, and electronic dance music. Their latest self-titled album epitomizes this with lo-fi drum machines, gleaming synths, and deeply apathetic vocals. It’s the kind of LP you throw on and dance alone to in your bedroom. Take a listen to the second track off the album, Insignificant. We dare you not to move to the unadulterated synth pop, or the subversive collage of heavy grooves against a shoegazy wall of sound that takes the wheel in the second half. BRB, gonna go listen to that song again and again and again
Favorite track: Insignificant
Mazy Fly - Spellling
Spellling is my new favorite thing to have come out of the Bay Area, and this album with her. The synths throughout (and specifically on the track, Haunted Water) are straight out of a B-horror movie you can't stop watching over and over again. Mixed with deep, soulful vocals, Spellling emits a certain hopelessness-- a protagonist never quite escaping the monster. Or a killer in disguise. An old lover. A haunted past. All the while, Mazy Fly maintains a playful persona, but the kind of playful that teeters on the edge between fun and disaster. Sensual, cherubic and yet simultaneously demonic, her music creates a portal into a mystical dimension where everything is twisted in the most beautiful way
Favorite track: Haunted Water.
If you made it to the end, thank you. Your time is valuable, and science suggests that reading up on hot new releases may not be the key to righting the wrongs in this world. However, Bump believes us all to be living in a musical renaissance - and that, at least, should be celebrated.
Happy half-way through 2019 everyone! Follow our Best of 2019 Playlist below.
Our beautiful colorized logos were designed by incredible Bump designer Max Wayt. Album reviews written by Zach and Mando.
