Hey everybody it's time for JD to copy and paste the running doc he keeps of his favorite albums released during the year, which I generally don't rank—I think year-end round-ups are kinda great, but hierarchical ranking is kinda toxic and weird. Like everybody else, I'm given to assigning "best ever thing as of now" status to whatever happens to be doing the job for me at on a given day, but, as my life in music expands, the notion of top-to-bottom rankings holds ever less appeal for me, even as the world's mileage may & on the evidence does vary. Also, I spend at least a third of my time listening to classical music, but pay almost no attention to release dates: to do year-end classical roundups, you kinda have to be all-in on classical, and while there's a real appeal for me in getting to that point, I’m not there yet, though when there’s a new Michael Hersch piece I morph into the classical version of a Metallica fiend in ‘91 waiting for the midnight release.

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At any rate, my classical year was mainly about digging into the piano music of Prokofiev, which I discovered because I bought a 50-disc Yevgeny Kissin on RCA deal for peanuts and then drove around listening to Yevgeny K doing his thing, and there was a Prokofiev piano piece that knocked my socks off. Shostakovich gets all the wows because he's the emotional guy for sure, but do not sell Prokofiev short on the piano—beneath the "look what I can do" exterior sprout splendid architectures.

From the following list, then, these were the albums I probably spent the most time with: Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Glitter Wolf, which literally everybody should own, I was listening to it daily at one point, it's just an endless delight. Inter Arma, Sulphur English: one of the best bands in America and probably the world entering their imperial phase, can't make a wrong move, all gold, see them live, I repeat, see them live. Moon Tooth's Crux: I can't even tell you how much I love this band—I will literally mention them in prayers, Thank You Lord for all the blessings in my life, please don't let Moon Tooth break up. Gwylim Simcock's Near and Now: these are piano meditations that repay repeated listens with interest, very rich stuff.

Theon Cross, Fyah: the main story of my listening year was jazz. I would say about half my listening was jazz, and a good portion of that was people from and connected to the London scene. London is crucial right now; seriously, wherever you look, it's going on. Cross plays the tuba and his record reached drum-and-bass levels of intensity & focus & groove. It's essential. Psychic Graveyard, Loud as Laughter: this is a masterpiece, skittery electro-no-wave psychotherapy. HYVMINE, Retaliation: I can't get enough of these guys, in roughly the same fun-with-time-signatures zone as Moon Tooth, which, reduction sells both bands short, but what else to say? The fun is in the journey with these bands—very intense music with an eye on beauty. I find that I want beauty in generous doses, I want to know that the music I'm listening to cares about beauty and wants to increase the available supply of it in the world, I get emotional thinking about it, and HYVMINE is a band unafraid to bring open emotional expression to their metal. They are magnificent.

Cave In, Final Transmission: one wants to be careful not to misuse words like "brave," but this tribute to a fallen brother is one of the bravest records I've ever heard. Knowing Caleb's story is part of understanding it, though I'm certain it's quite powerful even without knowing what it represents. The full picture is a reminder of what we share when we share music: the depths of ourselves, the best of ourselves, our truest selves, our real selves. I am so grateful for this record. Ruby Rushton, Ironside: more London jazz. It's seriously a wonderland over there right now. "Prayer for Grenfell" articulates communal pain in a way that sometimes only jazz can do, a lone flute here mourning the loss of life, the absence of those now voiceless, the anguish of our failure to make a world that protects the vulnerable, the need to do better. "Prayer for Grenfell" should be amplified from the rooftops at dawn until we hear its message and internalize it; this album has brought me closer to the self I hope to become. clipping. There Existed An Addiction to Blood: I told my friend Dan to listen to something and he said “if I ever stop listening to clipping. on repeat I’ll get around to it,” so I dialed it up: whoa: like a lot of dudes my age, the era of lyricist-as-focal-point in rap was a time of great wonder for me. clipping. centers storytelling amidst a noir-industrial horrorscape, audibly grounded in real experience but blossoming all the time into something bigger, broader, grander. Perfect music.

Borknagar, True North: I remember when this band was new -- they got a lot of metal press, but I could not connect to their sound. I don't know if it was me or them, but I took a chance on this: wow: melodically these guys crush the competition. They do the growl-vocal-trading-places-with-sung-vocals thing that I don't usually have time for, but these songs are great soaring panoramas, really majestic, like a lot of metal there's a heavy engagement with nostalgia, which is something I fret about too much, but here you just sort of lock on and indulge. Norwegian Bands Who You Can Totally Tell Listen to Pink Floyd A Lot should totally be a genre, and this album is an outstanding effort in that field. And, finally, Guillermo Klein—both of the records on this list. This is big band, rich and patient and lush in its textures, simply vital music, all of it, I know nothing about Guillermo Klein, but I bought two albums by him this year—first, Los Guachos Cristal, because I buy about half of what Sunnyside releases (they are a service to humanity), and then the Swiss Jazz Orchestra album (Swiss Jazz Orchestra & Guillermo Klein) crested my recommendations on one of the streaming services, and I was like, wow, it is great to be alive these days sometimes, these horns are partly why; I dedicate this write-up to the memory of the Encyclopedia of Tiny Facts, whose style I imitate somewhat here, though clumsily, I'm sure, may all tiny facts grow to occupy such spaces as they hope to fill; see you next year.

John Darnielle's Favorite Albums of 2019

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, Glitter Wolf

Maurice Louca, Elephantine

Contrarian, Their Worm never Dies

Inter Arma, Sulphur English

Moon Tooth, Crux

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Ancestral Recall

Cave In, Final Transmission

Bergraven, Det Framlidna Minnet

Gwilym Simcock, Near and Now

Special Request, Belief System

Nubiyan Twist, Jungle Run

Nekrasov, Lust of Consciousness

Celestial Trax, Serpent Power

Theon Cross, Fyah

HYVMINE, Retaliation

Christopher Willits, Sunset

Psychic Graveyard, Loud as Laughter

Nightfell, A Sanity Deranged

Haunter, Sacramental Death Qualia

Guillermo Klein, Los Guachos Cristal

Swiss Jazz Orchestra & Guillermo Klein, Swiss Jazz Orchestra & Guillermo Klein

Borknagar, True North

clipping., There Existed an Addiction to Blood

Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains

Big Thief, Two Hands

Ruby Rushton, Ironside

Blut Aus Nord, Hallucinogen

Stephen Mallinder, Um Dada

Fuerza Regida, Del Barrio Hasta Aqui

Galcher Lustwerk, Information

Alfredo Olivas, El Día de los Muertos

Crypt Sermon, The Ruins of Fading Light