2019 Spins

In an effort to make the end-of-year list season a little less soul-destroying, I’ve decided to outright plagiarise one of my favourite writers and dear friends, David James Young, and chronicle every new release I listen to in 2019 (complete with a handy rating from 1 to 10). I’ll update this page every other week or so. If you think there’s a release missing from the list that I should check out, give me a yell and I’ll smack it on the backburner!

Albums
100 Gecs – 1000 Gecs (7.5/10)
Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties – Routine Maintenance (9.5/10)
Alex Lahey – The Best Of Luck Club (9.5/10)
Amends – So Far From Home (8/10)
American Football – S/T 3 (7/10)
An Horse – Modern Air (9.5/10)
Anderson .Paak – Ventura (6.5/10)
Angie McMahon – Salt (8.5/10)
Ariana Grande – thank u, next (8.5/10)
Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water (4/10)
Baroness – Gold & Grey (8/10)
Bastille – Doom Days (6.5/10)
The Beautiful Monument – I’m The Reaper (9/10)
Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (8/10)
The Black Keys – Let’s Rock (6.5/10)
Bleached – Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? (8/10)
Bring Me The Horizon – amo (8.5/10)
Brockhampton – Ginger (8.5/10)
Broods – Don’t Feed The Pop Monster (7/10)
Catfish & The Bottlemen – The Balance (8.5/10)
Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated (6.5/10)
Ceres – We Are A Team (9.5/10)
Charlie Collins – Snowpine (7/10)
Charly Bliss – Young Enough (9/10)
Cherry Glazerr – Stuffed & Ready (7.5/10)
Chris Shifflett – Hard Lessons (7/10)
City Calm Down – Television (6.5/10)
Clowns – Nature/Nurture (7.5/10)
The Cranberries – In The End (7.5/10)
The Damned Things – High Crimes (9.5/10)
Dean Lewis – A Place We Knew (5.5/10)
Dear Seattle – Don’t Let Go (7.5/10)
Deez Nuts – You Got Me Fucked Up (7/10)
Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? (6/10)
Delta Heavy – Only In Dreams (8/10)
Devin Townsend – Empath (6/10)
DZ Deathrays – Positive Rising: Part 1 (9.5/10)
Eat Your Heart Out – Florescence (8.5/10)
Feed Me – High Street Creeps (7.5/10)
Fever 333 – Strength In Numb333rs (8/10)
FIDLAR – Almost Free (8/10)
Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part 1 (7/10)
Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part 2 (7.5/10)
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – End of Suffering (7/10)
Frank Iero And The Future Violents – Barriers (6.5/10)
Gary Clark Jr. – This Land (7/10)
Georgia Maq – Pleaser (8/10)
The Get Up Kids – Problems (7.5/10)
Girlpool – What Chaos Is Imaginary (7/10)
Hatchie – Keepsake (8.5/10)
Harmony Woods – Make Yourself At Home (9/10)
Have Mercy – The Love Life (8/10)
Heart Attack Man – Fake Blood (8.5/10)
Hilltop Hoods – The Great Expanse (4/10)
Hobo Johnson – The Fall Of Hobo Johnson (9/10)
Holy Holy – My Own Pool Of Light (7/10)
Honeyblood – In Plain Sight (7.5/10)
Hozier – Wasteland, Baby! (8.5/10)
I Prevail – Trauma (6.5/10)
Julia Jacklin – Crushing (7.5/10)
John Floreani – Sin (8.5/10)
K-Flay – Solutions (7.5/10)
Kanye West – Jesus Is King (7/10)
Kevin Abstract – Arizona Baby (7.5/10)
Khalid – Free Spirit (6.5/10)
Killswitch Engage – Atonement (6/10)
Knocked Loose – A Different Shade Of Blue (8.5/10)
L7 – Scatter The Rats (5/10)
La Dispute – Panorama (8.5/10)
Lande Hekt – Gigantic Disappointment (6.5/10)
Laura Stevenson – The Big Freeze (6.5/10)
The Lazy Susans – Now That The Party’s Over (9.5/10)
Le Butcherettes – bi/MENTAL (7/10)
Lewis Capaldi – Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (7/10)
Liam Gallagher – Why Me? Why Not. (8.5/10)
Little May – Blame My Body (7.5/10)
Lizzo – Cuz I Love You (9/10)
The Lonely Island – The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (7/10)
Madeon – Good Faith (7.5/10)
The Maine – You Are OK (8/10)
Married Man – Hard Bargain (6.5/10)
Marshmallo – Joytime III (6.5/10)
Mavis Staples – We Get By (8/10)
McCafferty – The House With No Doorbell (9.5/10)
Milky Chance – Mind The Moon (9/10)
Millencolin – SOS (8/10)
Mini Mansions – Guy Walks Into A Bar (8/10)
Montaigne – Complex (8/10)
Motionless In White – Disguise (6.5/10)
Naif – My Empire Of Dirt (5.5/10)
Naif – Twin Share (6/10)
The National – I Am Easy To Find (7/10)
Northlane – Alien (9/10)
Of Monsters And Men – Fever Dream (7.5/10)
One OK Rock – Eye Of The Storm (4/10)
Periphery – Periphery IV: Hail Stan (9/10)
Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie (8.5/10)
Polish Club – Iguana (9.5/10)
Post Malone – Hollywood’s Bleeding (7.5/10)
Press Club – Wasted Energy (8.5/10)
Pronoun – I’ll Show You Stronger (7.5/10)
Proper. – I Spent The Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better (7/10)
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – And Now For The Whatchamacallit (7/10)
PUP – Morbid Stuff (10/10)
Rammstein – S/T (7/10)
RY X – Unfurl (5/10)
Say Anything – Oliver Appropriate (7/10)
Setmeonfire – Lowtech (5/10)
Silversun Pickups – Widow’s Weeds (6.5/10)
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Safe And Also No Fear (9/10)
Sleater-Kinney – The Center Won’t Hold (8.5/10)
Sleep Talk – Everything In Colour (10/10)
Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind (9/10)
Sports Bra – Talk It Out (9/10)
Stella Donnelly – Beware Of The Dogs (8/10)
Stray From The Path – Internal Atomics (7.5/10)
Sum 41 – Order in Decline (8/10)
Sunsleeper – You Can Miss Something & Not Want It Back (7.5/10)
SWMRS – Berkley’s On Fire (8.5/10)
Tal Wilkenfeld – Love Remains (8/10)
Thelma Plum – Better In Blak (7.5/10)
Thornhill – The Dark Pool (5/10)
Thy Art Is Murder – Human Target (6.5/10)
Tiny Ruins – Olympic Girls (6.5/10)
Totally Unicorn – Sorry (6/10)
Tool – Fear Innoculum (5/10)
Turnover – Altogether (8.5/10)
Two Door Cinema Club – False Alarm (6.5/10)
Tyler, The Creator – IGOR (7.5/10)
Vampire Weekend – Father Of The Bride (9/10)
Various Artists – Death Stranding: Timefall (7.5/10)
Violent Femmes – Hotel Last Resort (3.5/10)
WAAX – Big Grief (10/10)
Wage War – Pressure (8/10)
Waterparks – Fandom (8/10)
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – Suffer On (7/10)
We Lost The Sea – Triumph & Disaster (7.5/10)
Weezer – The Teal Album (6/10)
Weezer – The Black Album (7.5/10)

EPs
Awaken I Am – The Beauty In Tragedy (6.5/10)
Bec Stevens – Why Don’t You Just (9/10)
Carla Geneve – S/T (7.5/10)
Clear Eyes Fanzine – Season One, Episodes 1-6 (8/10)
Cold Moon – Rising (7.5/10)
Dealer – Soul Burn (8.5/10)
Dog Blood – Turn Off The Lights (9.5/10)
Jeff Rosenstock and Laura Stevenson – Still Young (3.5/10)
Jon Walker – Impending Bloom (8.5/10)
Justin Courtney Pierre – Open Mic At The Lo-Fi, Vol. 1 (4.5/10)
Kelso – Always A Godmother, Never A God (7/10)
Knife Party – Lost Souls (6/10)
Mallrat – Driving Music (7.5/10)
Ruby Fields – Permanent Hermit (8.5/10)
Yours Truly – Afterglow (7.5/10)

RATING KEY

1 – it’s a crime against music and its creator should be prosecuted.
1.5 – it’s excruciatingly bad and no good human deserves to suffer through it.
2 – it’s truly awful. nobody in their right mind would choose to listen to it.
2.5 – it’s so bad, anybody who likes it deserves to be publicly shamed.
3 – it’s really, really fucking bad.
3.5 – it’s bad.
4 – it’s bad, but it’s not terrible.
4.5 – i don’t hate it, but it’s still pretty bad.
5 – it’s not bad, but there’s no way i’d choose to listen to it again.
5.5 – it’s not good, but there’s some audible talent in it.
6 – it’s inoffensive.
6.5 – it’s decent. i wouldn’t seek it out, but i wouldn’t skip it if it was on the radio.
7 – it’s good, but i don’t see much of an incentive to revisit it after a few playthroughs.
7.5 – it’s good, and i would happily listen to it again.
8 – it’s really good.
8.5 – it’s really good, and i’ll probably play it to death over the span of a month or two.
9 – it’s fantastic. easily worth shelling out for the overpriced vinyl.
9.5 – it’s incredible. worth buying the extremely overpriced deluxe edtion vinyl.
10 – it’s an absolute fucking masterpiece.