The Retrographer, Issue 61 (1 0 0 2 0 1 9)

December 30, 2019

The top 100 songs of 2019, plus best albums, videos, weird internet stuff, and more.

The Retrographer, Issue 61 (1 0 0 2 0 1 9)

This year I fully resumed a modality I hadn’t inhabited in years: Living with my headphones on. This meant countless hours alone in a crowd; present with disembodied voices on my ears, even when I was surrounded by voiceless bodies at work, at the gym, on the train.Music is again the atmosphere around me, and there isn’t a song out of the 100 on this year’s list that doesn’t take me to a time and place from the last year:

  • Listening to Summer Walker on a long bus ride

  • Hearing word of Jai Paul’s return in a hotel in LA

  • Getting early cuts of “Protector” while it was still tracking

  • First hearing the horns to “Hot” in a meme on Twitter

  • Playing “Gretel” on repeat for the better part of an afternoon in my apartment

  • Immediately knowing “Karaoke Angel” was a Sunday song

  • Listening to “Dirty Laundry” over and over while walking through Chinatown

  • Playing “Cruel Summer” driving back from Coney Island in the late summer

  • Looping “Murdered Out” on a flight from Barcelona to New York

  • Hearing “Every Last Coffee Or Tea” with Office Culture on the drive back from Boston

  • Opening my morning with Quiet Hours, like a first cup of coffee, for months straight

So many of these songs entered my world because of the people around me, and I’m grateful to have musical environs, from my coworkers at Audiomack, to my bandmates in Office Culture, to my friends and the people I get to work on projects with, to the city I live in, a place that recommends music from the windows of idling cars and from above clangorous restaurant work. Even with headphones off, it’s close to your ears.Without much further ado...

and 

Do You Want More?!!!??!

Top 10 Albums of 2019

1. Jessica Pratt, Quiet Signs

2. Big Thief, U.F.O.F.

3. Denzel Curry, ZUU

4. (Sandy) Alex G, House of Sugar

5. Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!

6. Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride

7. Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, Bandana

8. Jay Som, Anak Ko

9. Kim Gordon, No Home Record

10. Taylor Swift, Lover

Top 10 Songs of 2019

1. (Sandy) Alex G, “Southern Sky”

2. Lana Del Rey, “Norman fucking Rockwell”

3. (Sandy) Alex G, “Gretel”

4. Big Thief, “Betsy”

5. Octavian and Take A Daytrip, “Stressed”

6. Vampire Weekend, “Harmony Hall”

7. Molly Sarlé, “Karaoke Angel”

8. Angel Olsen, “Lark”

9. Jay Som, “Devotion”

10. Sharon Van Etten, “Stay”

Top 10 Music Videos of 2019

10 older albums that meant a lot to me in 2019

  • Jorge Ben Jor, A Tabua de Esmerelda

  • Nirvana, In Utero

  • Steely Dan, Gaucho

  • Hugh Masakela, The Chisa Years 1965 - 1975

  • David Crosby, If I Could Only Remember My Name

  • Pixies, Doolittle

  • Eddie Kendricks, People… Hold On

  • John Coltrane, Interstellar Space

  • Taylor Swift, Red

  • Francis Bebey, Psychedelic Sanza (1982 -1984)

Amazing and weird videos from 2019

And Finally: A Meticulously-Sequenced Playlist of the Top 100 Songs of 2019

Listen to these songs on Spotify and YouTube

  • “WISH”, Denzel Curry and Kiddo Marv

  • “Cataracts”, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib

  • “Hot Girl Summer”, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign

  • “Monopoly”, Ariana Grande and Victoria Monet

  • “Before I Let Go”, Beyonce

  • “New Apartment”, Ari Lennox

  • “Walker Texas Ranger”, DaBaby

  • “2 Sides”, Trey Haggerty

  • “Beef FloMix”, Flo Milli

  • “bad guy”, Billie Eilish

  • “Ransom”, Lil Tecca

  • “Vossi Bop”, Stormzy

  • “YO LE LLEGO”, J Balvin and Bad Bunny

  • “Emily OG”, RUSSELL!

  • “Come Thru”, Summer Walker and Usher

  • “I Been”, Ari Lennox

  • “Myself”, Post Malone

  • “I Feel for You – Acoustic”, Prince

  • “Not Enough”, Benny Sings

  • “Doing the Things”, Louis Cole

  • “History Repeats”, Brittany Howard

  • “Encore (A)”, Julian Lage

  • “Ground”, Tom Harrell

  • “Summer Girl”, HAIM

  • “I Loved Being My Mother’s Son”, Purple Mountains

  • “This Life”, Vampire Weekend

  • “Collateral Damage”, Burna Boy

  • “Give A Little”, Maggie Rogers

  • “Good as Hell”, Lizzo and Ariana Grande

  • “Do You Love Her Now”, Jai Paul

  • “Disturbance”, DaVido, Peruzzi

  • “GONE, GONE / THANK YOU”, Tyler, the Creator

  • “Surf”, Young Thug and Gunna

  • “The Unordained”, Nilüfer Yanya

  • “Bags”, Clairo

  • “Jenni”, Big Thief

  • “All Mirrors”, Angel Olsen

  • “Murdered Out”, Kim Gordon

  • “Gretel”, (Sandy) Alex G

  • “Paralyzed”, Nilüfer Yanya

  • “Every Last Coffee Or Tea”, 75 Dollar Bill

  • “Bmbmbm”, black midi

  • “I Am a Very Rude Person”, Thom Yorke

  • “BASQUIAT”, Jamila Woods and Saba

  • “Goat Head”, Brittany Howard

  • “Stay Flo”, Solange

  • “Meet Again”, Maxo Kream

  • “Crime Pays”, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib

  • “MTOMB”, Earl Sweatshirt and Liv.E

  • “Dirty Laundry”, Danny Brown

  • “The Routine”, Wiki

  • “What You Need”, KAYTRANADA, Charlotte Day Wilson

  • “Stressed”, Octavian, Take A Daytrip

  • “Georgia”, Kevin Abstract

  • “Old Town Road”, Lil Nas X

  • “Paprika Pony”, Kim Gordon

  • “Suge”, DaBaby

  • “Cash Shit”, Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby

  • “holy terrain”, FKA twigs, Future

  • “RICKY”, Denzel Curry

  • “Hot”, Young Thug and Gunna

  • “Gone”, Charli XCX and Christine and the Queens

  • “Cruel Summer”, Taylor Swift

  • “Harmony Hall”, Vampire Weekend

  • “Protector”, Andrew Daly Frank

  • “Lights Up”, Harry Styles

  • “Superbike”, Jay Som

  • “I Need a Teacher”, Hiss Golden Messenger

  • “Rolling Rolling Rolling”, Daniel Norgren

  • “Lover”, Taylor Swift

  • “Drive Fast (The Stuntman)”, Bruce Springsteen

  • “Here My Love”, Jessica Pratt

  • “Devotion”, Jay Som

  • “Take It Or Leave It”, Ava Luna

  • “Someday Now”, Local Natives

  • “How Long?”, Vampire Weekend

  • “Fixture Picture”, Aldous Harding

  • “All of Our Yesterdays”, Mac DeMarco

  • “lucy”, Soccer Mommy

  • “Southern Sky”, (Sandy) Alex G

  • “200,000,000 Years of Fucking”, Luke Temple

  • “Violence”, Grimes and i_o

  • “Lark”, Angel Olsen

  • “Official”, Charli XCX

  • “He”, Jai Paul

  • “Movies”, Weyes Blood

  • “ghostin” Ariana Grande

  • “The Archer”, Taylor Swift

  • “listen before i go”, Billie Eilish

  • “M for Me”, Lomelda

  • “Naeem”, Bon Iver

  • “Karaoke Angel”, Molly Sarlé

  • “Weight of the Planets”, Aldous Harding

  • “Redesigning Women”, The Highwomen

  • “Aeroplane”, Jessica Pratt

  • “Norman fucking Rockwell”, Lana Del Rey

  • “In My Arms”, (Sandy) Alex G

  • “Betsy”, Big Thief

  • “Stay”, Sharon Van Etten

  • “Man Dies”, Bill Orcutt

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