Ninth Annual Jaybee-bies: The Best of 2019, But Not Really

Well, This Is Embarrassing.

Despite my best efforts to stay current, I got so focused on catching up on the decade that I never actually got to 2019. Thus, my 2019 list has no 2019 records on it! Nutboy would be mortified.

It’s people like Nutboy - by focusing on the here and the now and yet somehow absorbing the latest 30-CD Bob Dylan Bootleg release - who keep me humble. I’m waiting for your 2019 list NB!

I was tempted to check out the 2019 records that appeared on the many decade lists I perused, but I didn’t trust the rankings. The value of decade lists is that they give people years to process what they heard. But you only get a few months for the 2019 records. Hence there’s a temptation to overrate what you happen to like at that moment.


Resolutions: 

So, I will - again - resolve to get 2020 music during actual 2020. And, I guess, catch up on, um, 2019. A new decade and I’m already behind the f*cking 8-ball. Or in my case maybe the 7-ball.

Aside from that, I won’t bore you yet again with my pathetic attempts at personal resolutions. They’re going about as well as you’d expect.

But as far as music goes, I’ve made some adjustments. I had previously resolved to get more mp3s. I’m now hearing that the sound quality of CDs (and vinyl) is better. (Any advice on this would be appreciated.) So I may go back to CDs. We’ll just have to add an extension to the house.

Oh, I’ve been (re)learning guitar, and have resolved to practice “more”, whatever that means.


Awards:

Most Work (But Worth it): Arca

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): tUnE yArDs

Most Surprising: Lykki Li

Most Disappointing: tUnE yArDs

Best Artist: Nobody, but that's okay.


Best Books:

This was not a great year for finishing books, but for those that I did, here are my favorites.

Any Old Way You Choose It by Robert Christgau
Just so much fun to read a person's first-hand reaction to events and music from decades ago. A

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Very entertaining and I learned a lot. But I couldn't have the latter without the former. A-

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Jane’s always reliable for a good yarn. A-

Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview, Cott, Jonathan
I enjoyed Sontag’s answers a lot more than Cott’s questions.  A-


Oh, Yeah. Music:

I didn’t hear anything that absolutely floored me, but all of the below rewarded repeated listening.

Last year, of my top ten, five were either lead or co-led by a woman. This year makes that year look like a case of testosterone poisoning.

There was also a struggle between fun and seriousness. In a pinch, the former won.

In terms of quality 1-4 are very close, as are 5-6 and 7-9 and - of course - 10.

1. Snail Mail: Lush (2018)  Compared to the ladies below, she’s a bit of a sad sack, but she wants what’s best for you.
2. Alvvays: Anti-Socialites (2017)  She’s pretty level headed about love. And outright serious about catchiness.
3. Best Coast: Crazy for You (2010)  Not only do the songs sound similar, but their themes are also similar. She loves him, he drives her crazy. What might drive you crazy in a friend can be very entertaining in an artist.
4. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer  (2018)  Yes, Prince is dead, but she is filling the hole pretty nicely so far.
5. Leonard Cohen: You Want it Darker (2018)  He may have been a young hedonist but he worked and worked and worked until the very end.
6. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (2018) The songs are not all uniformly great, but that voice! 
7. Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)  Sometimes irritatingly weird but I keep listening to it.
8. Pusha T: Daytona (2018)  Grim realities right in your face. Compelling.
9. Noname: Room 25 (2018) This flows beautifully from beginning to end.
10. And tied for 10th: Arca: Arca (2017), Lykki Li: Wounded Rhymes (2011), Father John Misty: I Love You Honeybear (2010), Tom Waits: Bad As Me (2011), Bon Iver: Bon Iver (2011)

Some of the best songs I heard this year can be found here.

Here's to the New Year! 

Are we in a war yet?

There Are (Almost) No Words

I so wanted to approach the end of the musical decade prepared. (I tend to ignore the things I should prepare for, like, oh, global warming, terrorist attacks, and the zombie apocalypse.)

And despite the distractions (WHP, this year's records, James' Bag of CDs, etc.), I was doing a good job of re-listening to records from the last ten years, but as is usually the case I couldn’t maintain the pace. Something always gets in the way.

So I’m now in a mode I’m all too used to - muddling through. Things have been so all over the place that I’ve been tempted to start posting decade related lists. Alas, neither I nor the decade are quite ready yet.

That hasn’t stopped others from posting their “Best of the Decade” lists. Looking them over I see that I’ve gotten a good number of the rock and roll related albums, which means I’m ahead (or rather, less behind than usual) when it comes to my musical safe-zone.

Where I’m woefully behind - as usual - is in that vast majority of the musical universe known as music made by African Americans. The polls are telling me I’ve got Frank Ocean, Solange and, yes, Beyonce in my near future. This, of course, will elicit those strange looks from Mrs. Jaybee and the Jaybee kids that roughly translate into “What the hell are you listening to?” Accent on “you”.

In the meantime, I still find odd gems here and there. The fact that they are nearly wordless this time around makes them easier to grasp.




Arca: Arca (2017)

But not that easy.

Sounding deliberately formless for a while, its structures eventually reveal themselves, even if they’re unique for each track.

There is singing, and words I don’t understand - this young man is from Caracas. And it’s usually a falsetto that makes the gender seem pretty formless, too.  The video below confirms that. Beware, it’s NSFR (Not Suitable for Republicans).

It’s classified, among other things, as hip-hip. If it is, it does as much for that genre as Immunity before it did for dance music.

A-

“Anoche”




Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (2010)

Yet another ebb and flow texture album with very little vocalizing as they say. And you’d think after Immunity, Replica, and even Entroducing…, I’d tire of it. But I don’t.

This one’s still sinking in and not quite on the level of the above records, but still very entertaining.

And yet another semi-risque video below. I’d say it was an accident but it’s probably some male gene that - in the old days - would help us find the skin mags at the back of the candy store. It has now mutated for the digital age.

A-

“Table Tennis”