Music: My top albums of 2019

As Shangrila Towers passes into the futuristic year 2020, I'm recapping my top picks from 2019. Note that these titles weren't necessarily released in the past year, but they're what I happened to enjoy in 2019 - you might like them too...





All Mirrors, Angel Olsen - My musical tastes sometimes veer from the mainstream, but even I couldn't ignore "All Mirrors," widely recognized as one of the best albums of the year by pretty much everyone.  Angel Olsen took her brand of raw, introspective indie-folk and amped it up to 11, using synths and a 14-piece orchestra to augment her Orbison-esque delivery. The result is a dark piece of cinematic pop anchored by the one-two punch of epic opener "Lark" and the title track, embedded above.




Timeless, Moya Brennan and Cormac De Barra - Moya Brennan's dreamy "Two Horizons" is one of my favorite Celtic/New Age albums, so this latest collaboration between Brennan and her longtime harpist Cormac De Barra was a must-listen for me. As you might expect, the Irish harp anchors most of the tracks on "Timeless," such as the gentle "Slan Go Foill" and wistful "Tar Liom Siar" (live performance embedded above). This is not something you'd put on to dance at a party, mind you, but it's great for pining for a lost love on the Cliffs of Moher.

I Shouldn't be Telling You This, Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra - I'm lukewarm on his overly-twee Disney+ documentary series, "The World According to Jeff Goldblum," but this playful collection of jazz songs more than makes up for it. Goldblum, a veteran pianist, is joined by his band and several very high-profile collaborators, including Sharon Van Etten and Fiona Apple. With talent like that willing to join the fray, you know this isn't some terrible celebrity vanity album, and it makes for a very enjoyable listen.



Kiwanuka, Michael Kiwanuka - British singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka blew up when the HBO series "Big Little Lies" adopted "Cold Little Heart" as its opening credits theme, but his 2019 self-titled release, "Kiwanuka," received strangely little press here in the States. That's disappointing, because I really liked the album's retro-cinematic rock-soul vibe (it was produced by Danger Mouse and Inflo, after all). Check out "Hero," which is the not-so-subtle sonic descendant of Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower."