My favourite 15 singles of 2019. in purely preferential order are as follows…thanks to all the acts for some fine music!

 

1.  Deadbeat Beat – You Lift Me Up (Arrowhawk Records)

Alex Glendening, Zak Frieling, and Maria Nuccilli have a soft spot for Fleetwood Mac, The Bats, Scott Walker, and the Velvet Underground, and it shows (Vice)

 

2.  Quivers  –  When It Breaks (Hotel Motel Records)

Just listen to that guitars. So gooooood. This is how indie would sound in the 90s and I am glad it still sounds like that (Start-Track)

 

3.  Tracy Bryant  –  Drag (Taxi Gauche Records)

Bryant does what he wants and always has. Inspired by artists like Alex Chilton, Lou Reed, R.E.M. and Cass McCombs, his timeless words ring refreshingly honest and true while being embedded into a sound that is undeniably modern (Elicit Magazine)

 

4.  Joel Jerome – There’s Nothing Here To Bother You Anymore  (Dangerbird Records)

The Dangerbord Records,  Microdose single series is throwing up some absolute brilliance led by this single that reveals what Fred Thomas might have done with his imaginary The Beatles tribute act. Stunning…(Janglepophub)

 

5.  En Attendant Ana  –  Do You Understand (Trouble in Mind Records)

I got hooked immediately on the opening, sort of teasing you with this sharp meandering guitar line that precedes this heavy rolling drum beat, setting the groundwork for the vocals to come bounding through the track. Once they’re in, you’re tapping your toes with the melody, guitars swirling and churning through your ears. This is how I want my pop music! (Austin Town Hall)

 

6.  Parker Longbough – Avalanche Season  (Wilderhood Music)

Sometimes a song take some time to embed itself into your conscience. And sometimes a song like Parker Longbough’s “Avalanche Beacon” gets stuck in your so quickly, you find yourself humming it before it even ends. The juxtaposition between the poppy melodic guitars and the droll, almost spoken word vocals has me in slacker ’90s heaven (Gig Soup)

 

7.  Chubz Lord  –  1992 (Self released)

Sad boy jangle pop for anyone who has felt like the world won’t listen (Bandcamp bio)

 

8.  The Cry  –  Why (Self released)

More well known for the precise clarity of their jangle-pop, The Cry add some fuzz to their sound and pull it off with aplomb !!! (Janglepophub)

 

9.  Ducks Unlimited –  Anehdonia (Bobo Integral)

Perhaps best of all is the closing track Anhedonia, where the sweet guitar runs and prominent bass contrast with the downbeat lyricism, “if you’re ever in the mood to disassociate baby, give me a call”(For The Rabbits)

 

10.  No Vacation –  Days (Topshelf Records)

Days” proves to be a quintessential No Vacation number, dabbling as it does in evocative, shoegazey dream-pop that leaves listeners warm and hopeful. (Topshelf Records)

 

11. Cinéma Lumière  –  Love (Self Released)

Phillipines four-piece Cinema Lumiere typify the regions recent approcah to jangle with their fluttering Sarah Records tempo’s (think Field Mice, Blueboy etc) juxtaposed against the absolute desire to let every jangled note resonate for just that nano second too long (Janglepophub)

 

12.  Cool Sounds –  Around and Down (Osborne Again)

There’s a bittersweet soul thrumming through the wires of “Around and Down” – drums snap in capgun cadence, the smell of sulfur on the wind. There’s a muted mull to the vocals but the band still has a sharp acumen for slow motion slides and lolloping pop (Raven Sings The Blues)

 

13.  The Love Language–  Bees (Merge Records)

Aptly titled “Bees,” the power-pop track is teeming with fuzzed-out goodness optimally crafted for shaking the winter from your bones (Paste Magazine)

 

14.  Poppongene –  Eternally Alone (Our Golden Friend)

…Centered around jangling guitars, Treloar’s coquettish vocals and an infectious hook, the track is an ode to dating-complacence, of dreaming of an effortless connection — but all while reasoning that being alone isn’t so bad anyway (The Joy of Violent Movement)

 

15.  Dude York –  Falling (Hardly Art)

Falling finds Dude York at the height of their powers, using both the nature of relationships and the nostalgic properties of pop-punk music to emphasize their strengths as songwriters (KEXP)