2019 in Music.
The last normal year, as it turns out.
What I listened to in '19.
Same rules as every year. A playlist gets started in January, anything that grabs me in the car goes in, and by December whatever survives a second listen makes the list. This is the 2019 one, back when the biggest worry was the traffic on the M1.
Looking back it was a big year for UK rap, with Dave, Kano, Little Simz and Stormzy all putting out career-best work within a few months of each other, and a big year for Lizzo and Billie Eilish, who seemed to be on every radio station at once.
*Standard warning: plenty of grown-up words and themes in here.
Cuz I Love You – Lizzo
Lizzo had been grafting for years before 2019 suddenly made her a superstar. Big voice, big brass, big personality, no apologies.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Frail State Of Mind – The 1975
The 1975 doing their skittery, garage-tinged thing, a song about anxiety that somehow still makes you want to move. The first taste of Notes on a Conditional Form, which took another year to actually turn up.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Simmer – Mahalia ft. Burna Boy
Mahalia from Leicester with Burna Boy on a low-slung, laid-back summer tune. Burna Boy turns up a few times on this list, which tells you how 2019 went for him.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Phone Numbers – Dominic Fike, Kenny Beats
Dominic Fike and Kenny Beats knocking out something that sounds like it took twenty minutes, in the best possible way. Fike gets two on the list this year.
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101 FM – Little Simz
From GREY Area, Little Simz looking back at growing up in north London, pirate radio, PlayStation and all. GREY Area was the album that made a lot of people sit up, and rightly so.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Down Bad – Dreamville ft. JID, Bas, J. Cole, EARTHGANG & Young Nudy
From Revenge of the Dreamers III, J. Cole's label locking a load of rappers and producers in a studio for ten days to see what happened. This was what happened. Five verses, no weak link.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Give Me Love – Fracture ft. Fox
Drum and bass that doesn't take itself too seriously. Car volume goes up for this one every time.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Teardrops – Kano
Kano's Hoodies All Summer is one of the best UK albums of the decade, and this is the heart of it. Strings, a gospel choir and some of the most honest writing about life on the estates you'll hear.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Dirty AF1s – Alexander 23
A slightly daft, very catchy song from Alexander 23. Anyone who's ever owned a pair of white Air Force 1s knows the struggle of keeping them clean.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Keisha & Becky – Russ Millions, Tion Wayne, Aitch, Swarmz, Savo, JAY1
Russ and Tion Wayne's original was everywhere, then the remix piled in Aitch, Swarmz, Savo and JAY1. Very explicit, very silly, total earworm. You've been warned.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Truth Hurts – Lizzo
Technically a 2017 song that went nowhere until a Netflix film used it two years later and it went to number one in the States. Proof that a good song will always find its moment.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
bad guy – Billie Eilish
The song that turned Billie Eilish from internet curiosity into global superstar. Made in a bedroom with her brother Finneas, then won Record of the Year at the Grammys.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Be Honest – Jorja Smith ft. Burna Boy
Jorja Smith and Burna Boy again. Laid-back, warm and a nice bridge between Walsall and Lagos.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Vossi Bop – Stormzy
Stormzy's first UK number one as a lead artist. The same summer he headlined Glastonbury in a stab vest designed by Banksy, which says a lot about where he'd got to.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Gone – Charli xcx, Christine and the Queens
Charli XCX and Christine and the Queens. Two artists who never quite do what you expect, and this is pop that's slightly too clever for the charts.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Location – Dave ft. Burna Boy
From Psychodrama, Dave's debut album, which won the Mercury Prize in 2019. Most of the album is heavy going (in a good way), and this is the moment it breathes.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Pan-Fried – Kano ft. Kojo Funds
The other side of Hoodies All Summer, Kano and Kojo Funds just having a good time. Two Kano tracks on the list, and I'm not sorry.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
3 Nights – Dominic Fike
The one that made Dominic Fike's name. A short, scrappy, sunny guitar song that's impossible to dislike.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Breathe – Jax Jones ft. Ina Wroldsen
Jax Jones doing what Jax Jones does. Big chorus, big drop. I was a bit late on this one, but it's my list.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
sad day – FKA twigs
FKA twigs' MAGDALENE is a hard album to describe and a beautiful one to listen to. Not one for the gym, one for the drive home in the dark.
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everything i wanted – Billie Eilish
Billie and Finneas again, the quieter follow-up to bad guy. It's basically a song from a sister to her brother about him always having her back.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Wiley Flow – Stormzy
Stormzy paying tribute to the godfather of grime by borrowing his flow. Heavy Is the Head came out in December and this was the pick of it for me.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
U Say – GoldLink ft. Tyler, The Creator & Jay Prince
GoldLink's Diaspora album was all about the African and Caribbean influences in his music, and Tyler, the Creator turns up and steals it, as he tends to.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Imported – Jessie Reyez, 6LACK
Jessie Reyez and 6LACK. A slow-burning R&B duet that sounds like late-night radio.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Don't Call Me Up – Mabel
Mabel is Neneh Cherry's daughter, and this is pure pop with a bit of attitude. If you went to a wedding in 2019, you heard it.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
How Do You Sleep? – Sam Smith
Sam Smith ditching the ballads for something you could actually dance to. They sound like they're having a lot more fun.
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Dancing With A Stranger – Sam Smith, Normani
Sam Smith again, this time with Normani. Moody, slick, and on every radio station for most of the year.
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Late Night Feelings – Mark Ronson ft. Lykke Li
Mark Ronson called the album his collection of sad bangers, which is exactly right. Lykke Li is perfect on it.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Ibtihaj – Rapsody ft. D'Angelo & GZA
Every track on Rapsody's Eve is named after a Black woman who inspired her. This one is for Ibtihaj Muhammad, the American Olympic fencer, and it's built on a Wu-Tang sample with GZA himself turning up. D'Angelo too. Seriously good.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Peach Scone – Hobo Johnson
Hobo Johnson came to most people's attention through NPR's Tiny Desk contest. Part spoken word, part rant, part love song. It shouldn't work, but it does.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
It Might Be Time – Tame Impala
The first proper taste of Tame Impala's The Slow Rush. Kevin Parker worrying about getting old over drums the size of a house. Relatable.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify
Say So – Doja Cat
Doja Cat with a disco throwback that went massive on TikTok a few months later. It's here because it made it onto my list first.
Listen: Apple Music · Spotify