The singer-songwriter talks to Kevin EG Perry about his benefit album for Haiti, the calamitous state of the planet, Donald Trump’s ‘wild lies’, his fears about the election, and getting old

The morning after our interview I get a call from Jackson Browne. I stare at my phone in bleary-eyed confusion, trying to remember if one of the all-time great singer-songwriters had let slip anything scandalous he might be eager to recant, but when I pick up I hear his warm Californian tones overflowing with enthusiasm. I just realised I didnt finish telling you about Rick!
Rick appears in the third verse of Brownes song Love Is Love, the lead single from a new benefit album, Let the Rhythm Lead, which he recorded in Haiti along with a group of fellow musicians to support the charity Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ). Browne has been passionate about their work since playing a benefit concert after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and was impressed by APJs ability to swiftly build a school in Port-au-Prince that now provides free education to 2,600 of the most impoverished children in the western hemisphere. Moved by the stories he heard from Haiti, Browne wrote Standing in the Breach, the title track of his 2014 album about the disaster and the long history of colonialism and slavery that preceded it. Its a difficult subject, so it took me a long time to finish that song, he says. I think it took me longer to write than it took them to build the school.
Browne made his name in the Seventies as a writer of deeply introspective songs about love, death and desire. He had his first hit in in March 1972 with Doctor My Eyes, which was soon covered by The Jackson 5. A few months later, Eagles frontman Glenn Frey completed Brownes unfinished song Take It Easy and the track launched his bands career. As rock lore has it, Browne was stuck on the line: Well, Im a-standin on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, before Frey provided: Such a fine sight to see. Its a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin down to take a look at me.
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The 40 best albums to listen to before you die
1/40 The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), The Velvet Underground
It was Andy Warhol who wanted Lou Reed and John Cale to let his beautiful new friend Nico sing with their avant-garde rock band. Truthfully, though, Victor Frankenstein himself couldnt have sewed together a creature out of more mismatched body parts than this album. It starts with a childs glockenspiel and ends in deafening feedback, noise, and distortion. Side one track one, Sunday Morning, is a wistful ballad fit for a cool European chanteuse sung by a surly Brooklynite. Venus in Furs is a jangling, jagged-edge drone about a sex whipping not given lightly. Ill Be Your Mirror is a love song. European Son is rocknroll turned sonic shockwave. Thats before you even get on to the song about buying and shooting heroin that David Bowie heard on a test pressing and called the future of music. Half a century on, all you have to do is put electricity through The Velvet Underground & Nico to realise that he was right. Chris Harvey
2/40 I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Aretha Franklin
When Jerry Wexler signed the daughter of a violent, philandering preacher to Atlantic records, he “took her to church, sat her down at the piano, and let her be herself”. The Queen of Soul gave herself the same space. You can hear her listening to the band, biding her time before firing up her voice to demand R-E-S-P-E-C-T 50 years before the #MeToo movement. Helen Brown
3/40 Master of Puppets (1986), Metallica
Despite not featuring any singles, Metallicas third album was the UK rock radio breakthrough theyd been looking for. In 1986, they released one of the best metal records of all time, which dealt with the potency and very nature of control, meshing beauty and raw human ugliness together on tracks like Damage Inc and Orion. This album is about storytelling the medieval-influenced guitar picks on opener Battery should be enough to tell you that. Although that was really the only medieval imagery they conjured up they ripped Dungeons & Dragons clichés out of the lyrics and replaced them with the apocalypse, with bassist Cliff Burton, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and singer/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield serving as the four horsemen. Roisin OConnor
4/40 Remain in Light (1980), Talking Heads
Facts are simple and facts are straight / Facts are lazy and facts are late sang David Byrne, submerging personal and planetary anxieties about fake news and conspicuous consumption in dense, layers and loops of Afrobeat-indebted funk. Propulsive polyrhythms drive against the lyrical pleas for us to stop and take stock. Same as it ever was. HB
5/40 Catch a Fire (Jamaican version) (1973), Bob Marley and the Wailers
The album that carried reggae music to the four corners of the Earth and made Bob Marley an international superstar also set the political tone for many artists to follow. Marley sang of life where the living is hardest in Concrete Jungle and looked back to Jamaicas ignoble slaving past No chains around my feet but Im not free. He packed the album with beautiful melodic numbers, such as High Tide and Low Tide, and rhythmic dance tracks like Kinky Reggae. Released outside of Jamaica by Island Records with guitar overdubs and ornamentation, the original Jamaican version is a stripped-down masterpiece. CH
6/40 Revolver (1966), The Beatles
An unprecedented 220 hours of studio experimentation saw George Martin and The Beatles looping, speeding, slowing and spooling tapes backwards to create a terrifically trippy new sound. The mournful enigma of McCartneys For No One and the psychedelia of Lennons Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said, She Said can still leave you standing hypnotised over the spinning vinyl, wondering if the music is coming out or being sucked back in. HB
7/40 Like a Prayer (1989), Madonna
It may be the most serious album shes ever made, yet Like a Prayer is still Madonna at her most accessible pulling no punches in topics from religion to the dissolution of her marriage. In 1989, Madonnas personal life was tabloid fodder: a tumultuous marriage to actor Sean Penn finally ended in divorce, and she was causing controversy with the Like a Prayer video and its burning crosses. On the gospel abandon of the title track, she takes the listeners breath away with her sheer ambition. Where her past records had been reflections of the modern music that influenced her Like a Prayer saw her pay homage to bands like Sly & the Family Stone, and Simon & Garfunkel. The album was also about an artist taking control over her own narrative, after releasing records that asked the audience and the press to like her. RO
8/40 Led Zeppelin IV (1971), Led Zeppelin
Millennials coming at this album can end up feeling like the guy who saw Hamlet and complained it was all quotations. Jimmy Pages juggernaut riffs and Robert Plants hedonistic wails set the bench mark for all subsequent heavy, hedonistic rock. But its worth playing the whole thing to experience the full mystic, monolithic ritual of the thing. Stairway? Undeniable. HB
9/40 The Best of the Shangri-Las (1996), The Shangri-Las
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no, no one ever did teen heartbreak quite like the Shangri-Las. Long before the Spice Girls packaged attitude for popular consumption, songwriter Ellie Greenwich was having trouble with a group of teenagers who had grown up in a tough part of Queens with their gestures, and language, and chewing the gum and the stockings ripped up their legs. But the Shangri-Las sang with an ardour that was so streetwise, passionate and raw that it still reaches across more than half a century without losing any of its power. “Leader of the Pack” (co-written by Greenwich) may be their best-known song, but they were never a novelty act. This compilation captures them at their early Sixties peak. CH
10/40 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), David Bowie
Flamboyance, excess, eccentricity this is the breakthrough album that asserted Bowie as glam rocks new icon, surpassing T Rex. He may have come to rue his Ziggy Stardust character, but with it, Bowie transcended artists seeking authenticity via more mundane means. It was his most ambitious album musically and thematically that, like Prince, saw him unite his greatest strengths from previous works and pull off one of the great rock and roll albums without losing his sense of humour, or the wish to continue entertaining his fans. Im out to bloody entertain, not just get up onstage and knock out a few songs, he declared. Im the last person to pretend Im a radio. Id rather go out and be a colour television set. RO
11/40 Unknown Pleasures (1979), Joy Division
In their brief career, ended by the suicide of 23-year-old singer Ian Curtis, Joy Division created two candidates for the best album by anyone ever. Closer may be a final flowering, but Unknown Pleasures is more tonally consistent, utterly unlike anything before or since. The mood is an all-pervading ink-black darkness, but there is a spiritual force coming out of the grooves that is so far beyond pop or rock, it feels almost Dostoevskyan. There are classic songs “Disorder”, “Shes Lost Control” and “New Dawn Fades” and for those whod swap every note Eric Clapton ever played for one of Peter Hooks basslines, the sequence at 4:20 on “I Remember Nothing” is perhaps the single most thrilling moment in the entire Joy Division catalogue. CH
12/40 Hejira (1976), Joni Mitchell
Though her 1971 album, Blue, is usually chosen for these kinds of lists, Mitchell surpassed its silvery, heartbroken folk five years later with a record that found her confidently questioning its culturally conditioned expectations of womanhood. Against an ambiguous, jazzy landscape, her deepening, difficult voice weighs romance and domesticity against the adventure of strange pillows and solitude. HB
13/40 Body Talk (2010), Robyn
The answer to whether Robyn could follow up the brilliance of her self-titled 2005 album came in a burst of releases in 2010, the EPs Body Talk Pt 1, Pt 2 and Pt3, and this 15-track effort, essentially a compilation album. It includes different versions of some tracks, such as the non-acoustic version of Hang With Me (and we can argue all night about that one), but leaves well alone when it comes to the single greatest electronic dance track since I Feel Love, Dancing On My Own. Body Talk is simply jammed with great songs. CH
14/40 Off The Wall (1979), Michael Jackson
I will study and look back on the whole world of entertainment and perfect it, wrote Jackson as he turned 21 and shook off his cute, controlled child-star imagery to release his jubilant, fourth solo album. Produced by Quincy Jones, the sophisticated disco funk nails the balance between tight, tendon-twanging grooves and liberated euphoria. Glitter ball magic. HB
15/40 Illmatic (1994), Nas
How good can rap get? This good. There are albums where the myth can transcend the music not on Illmatic, where Nas vaulted himself into the ranks of the greatest MCs in 1994, with an album that countless artists since have tried and failed to emulate. Enlisting the hottest producers around Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Q-Tip, L.E.S and Large Professor was a move that Complex blamed for ruining hip hop, while still praising Nass record, because it had a lasting impact on the use of multiple producers on rap albums. Nas used the sounds of the densely-populated New York streets he grew up on. You hear the rattle of the steel train that opens the record, along with the cassette tape hissing the verse from a teenage Nasty Nas on Main Sources 1991 track Live at the BBQ: When I was 12, I went to Hell for snuffing Jesus. RO
16/40 Trans-Europe Express (1977), Kraftwerk
This is the album that changes everything. The synthesised sounds coming out of Kraftwerks Kling-Klang studios had already become pure and beautiful on 1975s Radio-Activity, but on Trans-Europe Express, their sophistication subtly shifts all future possibilities. The familiar quality of human sweetness and melancholy in Ralf Hutters voice is subsumed into the machine as rhythms interlock and bloom in side twos mini-symphony that begins with the title track. Released four months before Giorgio Moroders “I Feel Love”, Trans-Europe Express influenced everything from hip-hop to techno. All electronic dance music starts here. CH
17/40 Kind of Blue (1959), Miles Davis
With the sketches of melody only written down hours before recording, the worlds best-selling jazz record still feels spontaneous and unpredictable. Daviss friend George Russell once explained that the secret of its tonal jazz was to use every note in a scale without having to meet the deadline of a particular chord. Kind of Blue is unrepeatably cool. HB
18/40 Astral Weeks (1968), Van Morrison
If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream To enter this musical cathedral, where folk, jazz and blue-eyed soul meet is always to feel a sense of awe. Recorded in just two eight-hour sessions, in which Morrison first played the songs to the assembled musicians then told them to do their own thing, Astral Weeks still feels as if it was made yesterday. Morrisons stream-of-consciousness lyrics within the richness of the acoustic setting double bass, classical guitar and flute make this as emotionally affecting an album as any in rock and pop. CH
19/40 West Side Story Soundtrack (1961)
Life is all right in America / If you’re all white in America yelp the immigrants in this passionate and political musical relocating of Romeo and Juliet to Fifites New York. Leonard Bernsteins sophisticated score is a melting pot of pop, classical and Latin music; Stephen Sondheims lyrics sharp as a flick knife. An unanswered prayer for a united and forgiving USA. HB
20/40 Sign o’ the Times (1987), Prince
Sign o the Times is Princes magnum opus from a catalogue of masterworks a double album spanning funk, rock, R&B and most essentially, soul. It is the greatest articulation of his alchemic experiments with musical fusion the sum of several projects Prince was working on during his most creatively fruitful year. On Sign o the Times, the bass is king Prince cemented his guitar god status on Purple Rain. There are tracks that drip with sex, and love songs like Adore, which remains one of the greatest of all time. Stitched together with the utmost care, as if he were writing a play with a beginning, a middle and an end, the album is a landmark in both pop and in art. RO
21/40 Pet Sounds (1966), The Beach Boys
Caught in the psychological undertow of family trauma and all those commercial surf songs, 23-year-old Brian Wilson had a panic attack and retreated to the studio to write this dreamlike series of songs whose structural tides washed them way beyond the preppy formulas of drugstore jukeboxes. Notes pinged from vibraphones and coke cans gleam in the strange, sad waves of bittersweet melody. HB
22/40 Ys (2006), Joanna Newsom
Weave a circle round her thrice Joanna Newsom is dismissed by some as kookily faux-naif, but her second album, before she trained out the childlike quality from her voice, may be the most enchanted record ever made. At times, she sounds other-worldly, sitting at her harp, singing to herself of sassafras and Sisyphus, but then a phrase will carry you off suddenly to the hearts depths Still, my dear, Id have walked you to the edge of the water. Yss pleasures are not simple or immediate. Newsoms unusual song structures, with their fragmented melodies, and strange and beautiful orchestral arrangements by 63-year-old Van Dyke Parks, take time to work their magic. But once youre bewitched, Yss spell never wears off. CH
23/40 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), Public Enemy
Public Enemys second album is hip-hops game-changing moment, where a new musical form that arrived fully born after years of development away from meddling outsiders found its radical voice. It Takes a Nation of Millions is still one of the most powerful, provocative albums ever made, Here is a land that never gave a damn / About a brother like me, raps Chuck D on Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos. Producer Hank Shocklee creates a hard-edged sound from samples that pay homage to soul greats such as James Brown and Isaac Hayes, and Flavor Flav gives it an unmistakeable zest. CH
24/40 Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Pink Floyd
Its easy to knock these white, male, middle-class proggers, with their spaceship full of technology and their monolithic ambitions. But the walloping drums, operatic howls and quiet desperation of this concept album about the various forms of madness still resonates with the unbalanced, overwhelmed and alienated parts of us all. Play loud, alone and after dark. HB
25/40 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill raised the game for an entire genre with this immense and groundbreaking work. Flipping between two tones sharp and cold, and sensual and smoky the former Fugees member stepped out from raps misogynist status quo and drew an audience outside of hip hop thanks to her melding of soul, reggae and R&B, and the recruitment of the likes of Mary J Blige and DAngelo. Its sonic appeal has a lot to do with the lo-fi production and warm instrumentation, often comprised of a low thrumming bass, tight snares and doo-wop harmonies. But Hills reggae influences are what drive the albums spirit: preaching love and peace but also speaking out against unrighteous oppression. Even today, its one of the most uplifting and inspiring records around. RO
26/40 Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971), Serge Gainsbourg
The great French singer-songwriter provocateur probably wouldnt get too many takers today for a concept album about a tender love between his middle-aged self and a teenage girl he knocks off her bicycle in his Rolls-Royce. But, musically, this cult album is sublime, an extraordinary collision of funk bass, spoken-word lyrics and Jean-Claude Vanniers heavenly string arrangements. Ballade de Melody Nelson, sung by Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, is one of his most sublimely gorgeous songs. CH
27/40 In My Own Time (1971), Karen Dalton
Theres nothing contrived about Karen Daltons ability to flip out the guts of familiar songs and give them a dry, cracked folk-blues twist. Expanding the emotional and narrative boundaries of songs like Percy Sledges When a Man Loves a Woman is just what she did. Why has it taken the world so long to appreciate her? HB
28/40 Let England Shake (2011), PJ Harvey
Goddamn Europeans, take me back to beautiful England. PJ Harvey may have sounded like she was channelling Boris and Nige when she made this striking album in 2015, but few Brexiteers would want to take this journey with her. Let England Shake digs deep into the soil of the land, where buried plowshares lie waiting to be beaten into swords. Death is everywhere, sometimes in its most visceral form: Ive seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat, she sings on The Words That Maketh Murder, Arms and legs are in the trees. Musically, though, its ravishing: Harvey employs autoharp, zither, rhodes piano, xylophone and trombone to create a futuristic folk sound thats strikingly original yet could almost be from an earlier century. CH
29/40 Boy in da Corner (2003), Dizzee Rascal
Its staggering to listen back to this album and remember Dizzee was just 18-years-old when he released it. Rising through the UK garage scene as a member of east Londons Roll Deep crew, the MC born Dylan Mills allegedly honed his skills in production after being excluded from every one of his classes, apart from music. If you want any sense of how ahead of the game Dizzee was, just listen to the opening track Sittin Here. While 2018 has suffered a spate of half-hearted singles playing on the listeners sense of nostalgia for simpler times, 15 years ago Dizzee longed for the innocence of childhood because of what he was seeing in the present day: teenage pregnancies, police brutality, his friends murdered on the streets or lost to a lifestyle of crime and cash. Boy in da Corner goes heavy on cold, uncomfortably disjointed beats, synths that emulate arcade games and police sirens, and Dizzee himself delivering bars in his trademark, high-pitched squawk. RO
30/40 Hounds of Love (1985), Kate Bush
Proof that a woman could satisfy her unique artistic vision and top the charts without kowtowing to industry expectations, Kate Bushs self-produced masterpiece explored the extreme range of her oceanic emotions from the seclusion of a cutting-edge studio built in the garden of her 17th-century farmhouse. The human vulnerability of her voice and traditional instruments are given an electrical charge by her pioneering use of synthesisers. Thrilling and immersive. HB
31/40 Blue Lines (1991), Massive Attack
A uniquely British take on hip hop and soul that continues to influence booming modern genres like grime and dubstep, the Bristol collectives debut gave a cool new pulse to the nations grit and grey. You can smell ashtrays on greasy spoon tables in Trickys whisper and feel the rain on your face in Shara Nelsons exhilarating improvisations. HB
32/40 Surfer Rosa (1987), Pixies
It only takes 20 seconds of opening track Bone Machine to realise Pixies and producer Steve Albini have stripped down the sound of rock n roll and rebuilt it piece by piece. The angry smack of Led Zep drums, ripe bass, and sheet metal guitar straight off the Stooges Detroit production line are separated and recombined. Pixies sound is already complete before Black Francis embarks on one of his elusive pop cult narratives (your bones got a little machine). The tension between the savagery of his vocals and Kim Deals softer melodic tone wont reach its perfect balance until their next album but their debut, Surfer Rosa is gigantic, and deserving of big, big love. Its loud, quiet, loud tectonics would prove so influential that Nirvanas Kurt Cobain would later say he was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. CH
33/40 Talking Timbuktu (1994), Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder
If you ever doubt the possibility of relaxed and respectful conversation across the worlds cultural divisions, then give yourself an hour with this astonishing collaboration between Malis Ali Farka Toure (who wrote all but one of the tracks) and Californias Ry Cooder (whose slide guitar travels through them like a pilgrim). Desert meets Delta Blues. HB
34/40 The Great Gospel Men (1993), Various artists
Compared to the blues, the incalculable influence of gospel music on pop, soul and rock n roll has been underplayed. It can be found in every song on this brilliant 27-track compilation. If you cant hear James Brown in the foot-stomping opener Move on Up a Little Higher by Brother Joe May, youre not listening hard enough. The road to Motown from Lord, Lord, Lord by Professor Alex Bradford is narrow indeed, but you could still take a side-turning and follow his ecstatic whoops straight to Little Richard, who borrowed them, and on to the Beatles who copied them from him. The swooping chord changes in James Clevelands My Soul Looks Back are magnificent. All the irreplaceable soul voices, from Aretha Franklin to Bobby Womack, were steeped in gospel. This is a great place to hear where they came from. Companion album The Great Gospel Women is a marvel, too. CH
35/40 Hopelessness (2016), Anonhi
A lot of the music scene is just a wanking, self-congratulatory boys club, said this angel-voiced, transgender artist in 2012. Four years later, the seismic drums and radical ecofeminist agenda of Hopelessness shook that clubs crumbling foundations to dust. The horrors of drone warfare, paedophilia and global warming are held up to the bright lights in disconcertingly beautiful rage. HB
36/40 In Utero (1993), Nirvana
Kurt Cobain had one goal with In Utero: to pull Nirvana away from what he dubbed the candy-ass sound on Nevermind the album that had turned them into one of the biggest rock bands on the planet and take them back to punk-rock. He asked Pixies producer Steve Albini to oversee production. It didnt exactly eschew commercial success upon release (it went on to sell 15m copies worldwide), but the heaviness the band felt as they recorded it bears down on the listener from the opening track. Disheartened by the media obsession with his personal life and the fans clamouring for the same old shit, In Utero is pure, undiluted rage. GO AWAYYYYYYYYYYY he screams on Scentless Apprentice, capturing the essence of Patrick Suskinds novel Perfume: Story of a Murderer and using it as a metaphor for his disgust at the music industry, and the press. RO
37/40 Curtis (1971), Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield had been spinning golden soul music from doo-wop roots with The Impressions for more than a decade before releasing his first solo album, which contains some of his greatest songs. While some point to the 1972 Blaxploitation soundtrack Superfly as the definitive Mayfield album, Curtis is deeper and more joyous, its complex arrangements masterly. Mayfields sweet falsetto sings of Nixons bland reassurances over the fuzz-bass of (Dont Worry) If There Is a Hell Below Were All Going to Go; doleful horns give the politically conscious We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue a profound emotional undertow; Move On Up is simply one of the most exhilarating songs in pop. To spend time with Curtis is to be in the presence of a beautiful soul. CH
38/40 Rumours (1977), Fleetwood Mac
Before they went their own way, Fleetwood Mac decided to tell a story that would be the quintessential marker for American rock culture in the Seventies. As Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks tossed the charred remains of their relationship at one another on Dreams and Go Your Own Way, the rest of the band conjured up the warm West Coast harmonies, the laid back California vibes of the rhythm section and the clear highs on Gold Dust Woman, in such a way that Rumours would become the definitive sound of the era. At the time of its release, it was the fastest-selling LP of all time; its success turned Fleetwood Mac into a cultural phenomenon. RO
39/40 Are You Experienced? (1967), Jimi Hendrix
A virtual unknown to rock fans just a year before Hendrix used Are You Experienced? to assert himself as a guitar genius who could combine pop, blues, rock, R&B, funk and psychedelia in a way no other artist had before. Thats even without the essential contributions of drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, who handed Are You Experienced? the rhythmic bridge between jazz and rock. Few album openers are as exquisite as Purple Haze. Few tracks are as gratifying, as sexy, as the strut on Foxy Lady. And few songs come close to the existential bliss caused by The Wind Cries Mary. Hendrixs attack on the guitar contrasted against the more polished virtuosos in rock at the time yet it is his raw ferocity that we find ourselves coming back to. Few debuts have changed the course of rock music as Hendrix did with his. RO
40/40 We Are Family (1979), Sister Sledge
Discos crowning glory is this album that Chics Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards made with Kathy Sledge and her sisters Debbie, Joni and Kim. Nile and Nard were at the peak of their powers, classic songs were pouring out of them We Are Family was released in the same year as the epochal Good Times by Chic and this album has four of them, Lost in Music, Hes the Greatest Dancer, Thinking of You and the title track itself. Sister Sledge gave Rodgers a chance to work with warmer, gutsier vocals than the cool voices he used to give Chic records such laid-back style and the result is a floor-filling dance party, punctuated by mellow ballads. CH
1/40 The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), The Velvet Underground
It was Andy Warhol who wanted Lou Reed and John Cale to let his beautiful new friend Nico sing with their avant-garde rock band. Truthfully, though, Victor Frankenstein himself couldnt have sewed together a creature out of more mismatched body parts than this album. It starts with a childs glockenspiel and ends in deafening feedback, noise, and distortion. Side one track one, Sunday Morning, is a wistful ballad fit for a cool European chanteuse sung by a surly Brooklynite. Venus in Furs is a jangling, jagged-edge drone about a sex whipping not given lightly. Ill Be Your Mirror is a love song. European Son is rocknroll turned sonic shockwave. Thats before you even get on to the song about buying and shooting heroin that David Bowie heard on a test pressing and called the future of music. Half a century on, all you have to do is put electricity through The Velvet Underground & Nico to realise that he was right. Chris Harvey
2/40 I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Aretha Franklin
When Jerry Wexler signed the daughter of a violent, philandering preacher to Atlantic records, he “took her to church, sat her down at the piano, and let her be herself”. The Queen of Soul gave herself the same space. You can hear her listening to the band, biding her time before firing up her voice to demand R-E-S-P-E-C-T 50 years before the #MeToo movement. Helen Brown
3/40 Master of Puppets (1986), Metallica
Despite not featuring any singles, Metallicas third album was the UK rock radio breakthrough theyd been looking for. In 1986, they released one of the best metal records of all time, which dealt with the potency and very nature of control, meshing beauty and raw human ugliness together on tracks like Damage Inc and Orion. This album is about storytelling the medieval-influenced guitar picks on opener Battery should be enough to tell you that. Although that was really the only medieval imagery they conjured up they ripped Dungeons & Dragons clichés out of the lyrics and replaced them with the apocalypse, with bassist Cliff Burton, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and singer/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield serving as the four horsemen. Roisin OConnor
4/40 Remain in Light (1980), Talking Heads
Facts are simple and facts are straight / Facts are lazy and facts are late sang David Byrne, submerging personal and planetary anxieties about fake news and conspicuous consumption in dense, layers and loops of Afrobeat-indebted funk. Propulsive polyrhythms drive against the lyrical pleas for us to stop and take stock. Same as it ever was. HB
5/40 Catch a Fire (Jamaican version) (1973), Bob Marley and the Wailers
The album that carried reggae music to the four corners of the Earth and made Bob Marley an international superstar also set the political tone for many artists to follow. Marley sang of life where the living is hardest in Concrete Jungle and looked back to Jamaicas ignoble slaving past No chains around my feet but Im not free. He packed the album with beautiful melodic numbers, such as High Tide and Low Tide, and rhythmic dance tracks like Kinky Reggae. Released outside of Jamaica by Island Records with guitar overdubs and ornamentation, the original Jamaican version is a stripped-down masterpiece. CH
6/40 Revolver (1966), The Beatles
An unprecedented 220 hours of studio experimentation saw George Martin and The Beatles looping, speeding, slowing and spooling tapes backwards to create a terrifically trippy new sound. The mournful enigma of McCartneys For No One and the psychedelia of Lennons Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said, She Said can still leave you standing hypnotised over the spinning vinyl, wondering if the music is coming out or being sucked back in. HB
7/40 Like a Prayer (1989), Madonna
It may be the most serious album shes ever made, yet Like a Prayer is still Madonna at her most accessible pulling no punches in topics from religion to the dissolution of her marriage. In 1989, Madonnas personal life was tabloid fodder: a tumultuous marriage to actor Sean Penn finally ended in divorce, and she was causing controversy with the Like a Prayer video and its burning crosses. On the gospel abandon of the title track, she takes the listeners breath away with her sheer ambition. Where her past records had been reflections of the modern music that influenced her Like a Prayer saw her pay homage to bands like Sly & the Family Stone, and Simon & Garfunkel. The album was also about an artist taking control over her own narrative, after releasing records that asked the audience and the press to like her. RO
8/40 Led Zeppelin IV (1971), Led Zeppelin
Millennials coming at this album can end up feeling like the guy who saw Hamlet and complained it was all quotations. Jimmy Pages juggernaut riffs and Robert Plants hedonistic wails set the bench mark for all subsequent heavy, hedonistic rock. But its worth playing the whole thing to experience the full mystic, monolithic ritual of the thing. Stairway? Undeniable. HB
9/40 The Best of the Shangri-Las (1996), The Shangri-Las
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no, no one ever did teen heartbreak quite like the Shangri-Las. Long before the Spice Girls packaged attitude for popular consumption, songwriter Ellie Greenwich was having trouble with a group of teenagers who had grown up in a tough part of Queens with their gestures, and language, and chewing the gum and the stockings ripped up their legs. But the Shangri-Las sang with an ardour that was so streetwise, passionate and raw that it still reaches across more than half a century without losing any of its power. “Leader of the Pack” (co-written by Greenwich) may be their best-known song, but they were never a novelty act. This compilation captures them at their early Sixties peak. CH
10/40 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), David Bowie
Flamboyance, excess, eccentricity this is the breakthrough album that asserted Bowie as glam rocks new icon, surpassing T Rex. He may have come to rue his Ziggy Stardust character, but with it, Bowie transcended artists seeking authenticity via more mundane means. It was his most ambitious album musically and thematically that, like Prince, saw him unite his greatest strengths from previous works and pull off one of the great rock and roll albums without losing his sense of humour, or the wish to continue entertaining his fans. Im out to bloody entertain, not just get up onstage and knock out a few songs, he declared. Im the last person to pretend Im a radio. Id rather go out and be a colour television set. RO
11/40 Unknown Pleasures (1979), Joy Division
In their brief career, ended by the suicide of 23-year-old singer Ian Curtis, Joy Division created two candidates for the best album by anyone ever. Closer may be a final flowering, but Unknown Pleasures is more tonally consistent, utterly unlike anything before or since. The mood is an all-pervading ink-black darkness, but there is a spiritual force coming out of the grooves that is so far beyond pop or rock, it feels almost Dostoevskyan. There are classic songs “Disorder”, “Shes Lost Control” and “New Dawn Fades” and for those whod swap every note Eric Clapton ever played for one of Peter Hooks basslines, the sequence at 4:20 on “I Remember Nothing” is perhaps the single most thrilling moment in the entire Joy Division catalogue. CH
12/40 Hejira (1976), Joni Mitchell
Though her 1971 album, Blue, is usually chosen for these kinds of lists, Mitchell surpassed its silvery, heartbroken folk five years later with a record that found her confidently questioning its culturally conditioned expectations of womanhood. Against an ambiguous, jazzy landscape, her deepening, difficult voice weighs romance and domesticity against the adventure of strange pillows and solitude. HB
13/40 Body Talk (2010), Robyn
The answer to whether Robyn could follow up the brilliance of her self-titled 2005 album came in a burst of releases in 2010, the EPs Body Talk Pt 1, Pt 2 and Pt3, and this 15-track effort, essentially a compilation album. It includes different versions of some tracks, such as the non-acoustic version of Hang With Me (and we can argue all night about that one), but leaves well alone when it comes to the single greatest electronic dance track since I Feel Love, Dancing On My Own. Body Talk is simply jammed with great songs. CH
14/40 Off The Wall (1979), Michael Jackson
I will study and look back on the whole world of entertainment and perfect it, wrote Jackson as he turned 21 and shook off his cute, controlled child-star imagery to release his jubilant, fourth solo album. Produced by Quincy Jones, the sophisticated disco funk nails the balance between tight, tendon-twanging grooves and liberated euphoria. Glitter ball magic. HB
15/40 Illmatic (1994), Nas
How good can rap get? This good. There are albums where the myth can transcend the music not on Illmatic, where Nas vaulted himself into the ranks of the greatest MCs in 1994, with an album that countless artists since have tried and failed to emulate. Enlisting the hottest producers around Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Q-Tip, L.E.S and Large Professor was a move that Complex blamed for ruining hip hop, while still praising Nass record, because it had a lasting impact on the use of multiple producers on rap albums. Nas used the sounds of the densely-populated New York streets he grew up on. You hear the rattle of the steel train that opens the record, along with the cassette tape hissing the verse from a teenage Nasty Nas on Main Sources 1991 track Live at the BBQ: When I was 12, I went to Hell for snuffing Jesus. RO
16/40 Trans-Europe Express (1977), Kraftwerk
This is the album that changes everything. The synthesised sounds coming out of Kraftwerks Kling-Klang studios had already become pure and beautiful on 1975s Radio-Activity, but on Trans-Europe Express, their sophistication subtly shifts all future possibilities. The familiar quality of human sweetness and melancholy in Ralf Hutters voice is subsumed into the machine as rhythms interlock and bloom in side twos mini-symphony that begins with the title track. Released four months before Giorgio Moroders “I Feel Love”, Trans-Europe Express influenced everything from hip-hop to techno. All electronic dance music starts here. CH
17/40 Kind of Blue (1959), Miles Davis
With the sketches of melody only written down hours before recording, the worlds best-selling jazz record still feels spontaneous and unpredictable. Daviss friend George Russell once explained that the secret of its tonal jazz was to use every note in a scale without having to meet the deadline of a particular chord. Kind of Blue is unrepeatably cool. HB
18/40 Astral Weeks (1968), Van Morrison
If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream To enter this musical cathedral, where folk, jazz and blue-eyed soul meet is always to feel a sense of awe. Recorded in just two eight-hour sessions, in which Morrison first played the songs to the assembled musicians then told them to do their own thing, Astral Weeks still feels as if it was made yesterday. Morrisons stream-of-consciousness lyrics within the richness of the acoustic setting double bass, classical guitar and flute make this as emotionally affecting an album as any in rock and pop. CH
19/40 West Side Story Soundtrack (1961)
Life is all right in America / If you’re all white in America yelp the immigrants in this passionate and political musical relocating of Romeo and Juliet to Fifites New York. Leonard Bernsteins sophisticated score is a melting pot of pop, classical and Latin music; Stephen Sondheims lyrics sharp as a flick knife. An unanswered prayer for a united and forgiving USA. HB
20/40 Sign o’ the Times (1987), Prince
Sign o the Times is Princes magnum opus from a catalogue of masterworks a double album spanning funk, rock, R&B and most essentially, soul. It is the greatest articulation of his alchemic experiments with musical fusion the sum of several projects Prince was working on during his most creatively fruitful year. On Sign o the Times, the bass is king Prince cemented his guitar god status on Purple Rain. There are tracks that drip with sex, and love songs like Adore, which remains one of the greatest of all time. Stitched together with the utmost care, as if he were writing a play with a beginning, a middle and an end, the album is a landmark in both pop and in art. RO
21/40 Pet Sounds (1966), The Beach Boys
Caught in the psychological undertow of family trauma and all those commercial surf songs, 23-year-old Brian Wilson had a panic attack and retreated to the studio to write this dreamlike series of songs whose structural tides washed them way beyond the preppy formulas of drugstore jukeboxes. Notes pinged from vibraphones and coke cans gleam in the strange, sad waves of bittersweet melody. HB
22/40 Ys (2006), Joanna Newsom
Weave a circle round her thrice Joanna Newsom is dismissed by some as kookily faux-naif, but her second album, before she trained out the childlike quality from her voice, may be the most enchanted record ever made. At times, she sounds other-worldly, sitting at her harp, singing to herself of sassafras and Sisyphus, but then a phrase will carry you off suddenly to the hearts depths Still, my dear, Id have walked you to the edge of the water. Yss pleasures are not simple or immediate. Newsoms unusual song structures, with their fragmented melodies, and strange and beautiful orchestral arrangements by 63-year-old Van Dyke Parks, take time to work their magic. But once youre bewitched, Yss spell never wears off. CH
23/40 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), Public Enemy
Public Enemys second album is hip-hops game-changing moment, where a new musical form that arrived fully born after years of development away from meddling outsiders found its radical voice. It Takes a Nation of Millions is still one of the most powerful, provocative albums ever made, Here is a land that never gave a damn / About a brother like me, raps Chuck D on Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos. Producer Hank Shocklee creates a hard-edged sound from samples that pay homage to soul greats such as James Brown and Isaac Hayes, and Flavor Flav gives it an unmistakeable zest. CH
24/40 Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Pink Floyd
Its easy to knock these white, male, middle-class proggers, with their spaceship full of technology and their monolithic ambitions. But the walloping drums, operatic howls and quiet desperation of this concept album about the various forms of madness still resonates with the unbalanced, overwhelmed and alienated parts of us all. Play loud, alone and after dark. HB
25/40 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill raised the game for an entire genre with this immense and groundbreaking work. Flipping between two tones sharp and cold, and sensual and smoky the former Fugees member stepped out from raps misogynist status quo and drew an audience outside of hip hop thanks to her melding of soul, reggae and R&B, and the recruitment of the likes of Mary J Blige and DAngelo. Its sonic appeal has a lot to do with the lo-fi production and warm instrumentation, often comprised of a low thrumming bass, tight snares and doo-wop harmonies. But Hills reggae influences are what drive the albums spirit: preaching love and peace but also speaking out against unrighteous oppression. Even today, its one of the most uplifting and inspiring records around. RO
26/40 Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971), Serge Gainsbourg
The great French singer-songwriter provocateur probably wouldnt get too many takers today for a concept album about a tender love between his middle-aged self and a teenage girl he knocks off her bicycle in his Rolls-Royce. But, musically, this cult album is sublime, an extraordinary collision of funk bass, spoken-word lyrics and Jean-Claude Vanniers heavenly string arrangements. Ballade de Melody Nelson, sung by Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, is one of his most sublimely gorgeous songs. CH
27/40 In My Own Time (1971), Karen Dalton
Theres nothing contrived about Karen Daltons ability to flip out the guts of familiar songs and give them a dry, cracked folk-blues twist. Expanding the emotional and narrative boundaries of songs like Percy Sledges When a Man Loves a Woman is just what she did. Why has it taken the world so long to appreciate her? HB
28/40 Let England Shake (2011), PJ Harvey
Goddamn Europeans, take me back to beautiful England. PJ Harvey may have sounded like she was channelling Boris and Nige when she made this striking album in 2015, but few Brexiteers would want to take this journey with her. Let England Shake digs deep into the soil of the land, where buried plowshares lie waiting to be beaten into swords. Death is everywhere, sometimes in its most visceral form: Ive seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat, she sings on The Words That Maketh Murder, Arms and legs are in the trees. Musically, though, its ravishing: Harvey employs autoharp, zither, rhodes piano, xylophone and trombone to create a futuristic folk sound thats strikingly original yet could almost be from an earlier century. CH
29/40 Boy in da Corner (2003), Dizzee Rascal
Its staggering to listen back to this album and remember Dizzee was just 18-years-old when he released it. Rising through the UK garage scene as a member of east Londons Roll Deep crew, the MC born Dylan Mills allegedly honed his skills in production after being excluded from every one of his classes, apart from music. If you want any sense of how ahead of the game Dizzee was, just listen to the opening track Sittin Here. While 2018 has suffered a spate of half-hearted singles playing on the listeners sense of nostalgia for simpler times, 15 years ago Dizzee longed for the innocence of childhood because of what he was seeing in the present day: teenage pregnancies, police brutality, his friends murdered on the streets or lost to a lifestyle of crime and cash. Boy in da Corner goes heavy on cold, uncomfortably disjointed beats, synths that emulate arcade games and police sirens, and Dizzee himself delivering bars in his trademark, high-pitched squawk. RO
30/40 Hounds of Love (1985), Kate Bush
Proof that a woman could satisfy her unique artistic vision and top the charts without kowtowing to industry expectations, Kate Bushs self-produced masterpiece explored the extreme range of her oceanic emotions from the seclusion of a cutting-edge studio built in the garden of her 17th-century farmhouse. The human vulnerability of her voice and traditional instruments are given an electrical charge by her pioneering use of synthesisers. Thrilling and immersive. HB
31/40 Blue Lines (1991), Massive Attack
A uniquely British take on hip hop and soul that continues to influence booming modern genres like grime and dubstep, the Bristol collectives debut gave a cool new pulse to the nations grit and grey. You can smell ashtrays on greasy spoon tables in Trickys whisper and feel the rain on your face in Shara Nelsons exhilarating improvisations. HB
32/40 Surfer Rosa (1987), Pixies
It only takes 20 seconds of opening track Bone Machine to realise Pixies and producer Steve Albini have stripped down the sound of rock n roll and rebuilt it piece by piece. The angry smack of Led Zep drums, ripe bass, and sheet metal guitar straight off the Stooges Detroit production line are separated and recombined. Pixies sound is already complete before Black Francis embarks on one of his elusive pop cult narratives (your bones got a little machine). The tension between the savagery of his vocals and Kim Deals softer melodic tone wont reach its perfect balance until their next album but their debut, Surfer Rosa is gigantic, and deserving of big, big love. Its loud, quiet, loud tectonics would prove so influential that Nirvanas Kurt Cobain would later say he was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. CH
33/40 Talking Timbuktu (1994), Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder
If you ever doubt the possibility of relaxed and respectful conversation across the worlds cultural divisions, then give yourself an hour with this astonishing collaboration between Malis Ali Farka Toure (who wrote all but one of the tracks) and Californias Ry Cooder (whose slide guitar travels through them like a pilgrim). Desert meets Delta Blues. HB
34/40 The Great Gospel Men (1993), Various artists
Compared to the blues, the incalculable influence of gospel music on pop, soul and rock n roll has been underplayed. It can be found in every song on this brilliant 27-track compilation. If you cant hear James Brown in the foot-stomping opener Move on Up a Little Higher by Brother Joe May, youre not listening hard enough. The road to Motown from Lord, Lord, Lord by Professor Alex Bradford is narrow indeed, but you could still take a side-turning and follow his ecstatic whoops straight to Little Richard, who borrowed them, and on to the Beatles who copied them from him. The swooping chord changes in James Clevelands My Soul Looks Back are magnificent. All the irreplaceable soul voices, from Aretha Franklin to Bobby Womack, were steeped in gospel. This is a great place to hear where they came from. Companion album The Great Gospel Women is a marvel, too. CH
35/40 Hopelessness (2016), Anonhi
A lot of the music scene is just a wanking, self-congratulatory boys club, said this angel-voiced, transgender artist in 2012. Four years later, the seismic drums and radical ecofeminist agenda of Hopelessness shook that clubs crumbling foundations to dust. The horrors of drone warfare, paedophilia and global warming are held up to the bright lights in disconcertingly beautiful rage. HB
36/40 In Utero (1993), Nirvana
Kurt Cobain had one goal with In Utero: to pull Nirvana away from what he dubbed the candy-ass sound on Nevermind the album that had turned them into one of the biggest rock bands on the planet and take them back to punk-rock. He asked Pixies producer Steve Albini to oversee production. It didnt exactly eschew commercial success upon release (it went on to sell 15m copies worldwide), but the heaviness the band felt as they recorded it bears down on the listener from the opening track. Disheartened by the media obsession with his personal life and the fans clamouring for the same old shit, In Utero is pure, undiluted rage. GO AWAYYYYYYYYYYY he screams on Scentless Apprentice, capturing the essence of Patrick Suskinds novel Perfume: Story of a Murderer and using it as a metaphor for his disgust at the music industry, and the press. RO
37/40 Curtis (1971), Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield had been spinning golden soul music from doo-wop roots with The Impressions for more than a decade before releasing his first solo album, which contains some of his greatest songs. While some point to the 1972 Blaxploitation soundtrack Superfly as the definitive Mayfield album, Curtis is deeper and more joyous, its complex arrangements masterly. Mayfields sweet falsetto sings of Nixons bland reassurances over the fuzz-bass of (Dont Worry) If There Is a Hell Below Were All Going to Go; doleful horns give the politically conscious We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue a profound emotional undertow; Move On Up is simply one of the most exhilarating songs in pop. To spend time with Curtis is to be in the presence of a beautiful soul. CH
38/40 Rumours (1977), Fleetwood Mac
Before they went their own way, Fleetwood Mac decided to tell a story that would be the quintessential marker for American rock culture in the Seventies. As Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks tossed the charred remains of their relationship at one another on Dreams and Go Your Own Way, the rest of the band conjured up the warm West Coast harmonies, the laid back California vibes of the rhythm section and the clear highs on Gold Dust Woman, in such a way that Rumours would become the definitive sound of the era. At the time of its release, it was the fastest-selling LP of all time; its success turned Fleetwood Mac into a cultural phenomenon. RO
39/40 Are You Experienced? (1967), Jimi Hendrix
A virtual unknown to rock fans just a year before Hendrix used Are You Experienced? to assert himself as a guitar genius who could combine pop, blues, rock, R&B, funk and psychedelia in a way no other artist had before. Thats even without the essential contributions of drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, who handed Are You Experienced? the rhythmic bridge between jazz and rock. Few album openers are as exquisite as Purple Haze. Few tracks are as gratifying, as sexy, as the strut on Foxy Lady. And few songs come close to the existential bliss caused by The Wind Cries Mary. Hendrixs attack on the guitar contrasted against the more polished virtuosos in rock at the time yet it is his raw ferocity that we find ourselves coming back to. Few debuts have changed the course of rock music as Hendrix did with his. RO
40/40 We Are Family (1979), Sister Sledge
Discos crowning glory is this album that Chics Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards made with Kathy Sledge and her sisters Debbie, Joni and Kim. Nile and Nard were at the peak of their powers, classic songs were pouring out of them We Are Family was released in the same year as the epochal Good Times by Chic and this album has four of them, Lost in Music, Hes the Greatest Dancer, Thinking of You and the title track itself. Sister Sledge gave Rodgers a chance to work with warmer, gutsier vocals than the cool voices he used to give Chic records such laid-back style and the result is a floor-filling dance party, punctuated by mellow ballads. CH
Browne filled the remainder of the decade with a string of classic albums: 1973s For Everyman, 1974s Late for the Sky, 1976s The Pretender and 1977s Running On Empty, a portrait of life on the road which gave him his biggest commercial success. In the Eighties, Brownes songwriting became more overtly political as he began to turn his lacerating gaze outward.
It was only when he arrived in Haiti to visit the school that APJ built that Browne learned theyd also constructed an artists institute in the south coast town of Jacmel, where young people were learning to become sound engineers in a modern studio. When I saw it I thought, well, people from outside of Haiti should come here and work, he says. So I asked some people if they wanted to come.
The group he rounded up included the songwriter and producer Jonathan Wilson (A very willing partner and accomplice) and former Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis (One of my heroes. I love her music) as well as Paul Beaubrun, Habib Koite, Raul Rodriguez and Jonathan Russell. On the island they also teamed up with members of the Haitian roots band Lakou Mizik. They set about trying to capture the reality of the country in song, which brings us back to Rick, who Browne didnt finish telling us about. In the song hes riding a motorbike through the slums: The father and the doctor to the poorest of the poor / Raising up the future from the rubble of the past. As it turns out, hes a real person.
Father Rick Frechette is a major figure in this whole story, explains Browne. Hes a Catholic priest, but when he arrived in Haiti it was so rough he said: These people dont need a priest, they need a doctor. He went away, became a doctor and then came back to Haiti and built a hospital. Hes an inspiration, and he was instrumental in starting the school.
Brownes determination to shine a light on Rick and the work still being done in Haiti is in part motivated by the knowledge that the worlds attention has long since moved on. Its such a vibrant culture, he says. But the art and music and the incredible resilience of these people is matched by the environmental problems which have come with global warming, the hurricanes and the effects of centuries of deforestation. The problems are formidable.
Jackson Browne (fourth left) with the musicians who worked on charity album Let the Rhythm Lead
Browne is fiercely passionate about the environment. He lives in an off-grid ranch supported by wind and solar power, and since 2008 has banned plastic bottles from his tours. His 1974 song Before the Deluge spoke of anger at those who had forged the earths beauty into power, and warned of the magnitude of her fury in the final hour. It could almost have been written today, although Browne sadly points out our situation is now even more dangerous. That song was inspired by a writer named Paul Ehrlich, he says. He laid forth a scenario in which the worlds dysfunctions compound and create an apocalyptic outcome, but even he couldnt have predicted the calamitous situation were in now where we have a world leader who is flagrantly disregarding information from the scientific community.
As if to underscore his point, the day we speak the Trump administration announces it is scrapping pollution protections for Americas streams and wetlands. Browne says he doesnt believe America will re-elect their president this year, but his optimism is shaded with caution. I dont think its in the bag or anything, but I have to hope, he says. He didnt win the popular vote, and he only has a 30 per cent approval rating, but that 30 per cent of people are the ones Im worried about. I saw a photograph of him at a rally, and there was a sign saying: Thank Baby Jesus for President Trump. Holy s**t! Hes telling these wild lies and still receiving that sort of adoration.
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All of these issues will filter into his next album, which he plans to release in September. Hes currently finishing a track called Downhill from Everywhere, inspired by the oceanographer Captain Charles Moores remark that the ocean is downhill from everywhere. Another new song is called A Little Soon to Say. He recites a few lines of it: I want to see you holding out your light / I want to see you find your way / Beyond the sirens in the broken night / Beyond the sickness of our day / And after all weve come to live with / I want to know if youre OK / I have to think its gonna be alright / Its just a little soon to say.
Thats my way of touching upon what Im worried about most, he explains. I wonder how young people coming into positions of authority in this world are going to deal with what were leaving them. Even as my generation were somewhat myopic or idealistic or naive, we were right about so many things. Its the same people that opposed the Vietnam War, who wanted to protect the planet, who want to feed the hungry and educate the uneducated.
He sees echoes of that Sixties idealism in the very inspiring activism of Greta Thunberg. This generation coming into the world taking these problems seriously is exactly whats needed, he says. I dont feel I have the right to be pessimistic or feel defeated, but its a struggle I have every day because the news is so unremittingly bad. Activism by young people is one of the brighter spots.
For Browne, Americas problems are manifold but intertwined. He brings up the failings of the criminal justice system and the unchecked power of the industrial war complex that he sang about on 1986s Lives in the Balance. This is the worry I have about democracy, he says. It can be gamed by private interests, whether they be robber barons in the 1800s or the fossil fuel industry today. They get us to drag our feet so they can keep making their corporate fortunes. As Warren Zevon said in his great song: our s**ts f***ed up.
That would be Zevons My S**ts F***ed Up, released in 2000, which is about a man hearing bad news from his doctor. Two years later Zevon received his own terminal diagnosis, learning of the cancer that would kill him in 2003. Browne and Zevon had been friends and collaborators since the Seventies, and they shared a knack for sharply prescient songwriting. When Browne was on his most recent tour, with the headlines full of Russias attempts to influence American politics, he took to covering Zevons Lawyers, Guns and Money. It opens with the line: I went home with the waitress / The way I always do / How was I to know / She was with the Russians, too? Browne clearly got a kick out of its continued relevance. If you didnt know that song youd think it was written last week, he laughs. That song is 40 years old. It was funny then, and its even funnier now.
Let the Rhythm Lead interpolates languages like Creole and Spanish, much as Zevon did on his 1982 track The Hula Hula Boys. When I remind Browne of this he howls with delight. Do you know what the chorus of The Hula Hula Boys actually means? he asks mischievously. Its a saying in Hawaii that loosely means get to the point, but literally means sing the chorus. So when they sing the chorus, theyre singing sing the chorus. That is the funniest f***ing thing I have ever f***ing heard! Thats Warren Zevon at his best. With one stroke, hes saying nothing and everything. Zevon is a singular writer.
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The 50 best albums of 2019
1/50 50) Kim Gordon No Home Record
The debut solo album of the art-punk pioneer was never going to be predictable, easy-listening. No Home Record channels the dissonance and avant-garde vibe of New Yorks experimental no-wave movement in a nine-song, genre-defiant collection that jumps between industrial, minimal electro-rock and abrasive art punk. Uniting the tracks is their creators restlessly questing, non-conformist spirit. Its great to have her back. (EB)
2/50 49) Nilüfer Yanya Miss Universe
Nilüfer Yanya isnt down with the wellness industry. On her debut album, Miss Universe, the singer-songwriter makes this perfectly clear, tearing into all those improve yourself schemes littered across social media and parcelling up that angst as cerebral, skewed alt-rock. Synths and saxophone play their part on the smoother, more soulful Paradise and Baby Blu. Listen to the driving groove of Heat Rises, meanwhile, and youll be instantly reminded of Kelis and Andre 3000s Millionaire. That said, Yanya is very much her own artist: original and bold. (PS)
3/50 48) The Black Keys Let’s Rock
Five years since their last album, the Ohioan duo have gone back to basics. Gone are the subtle inflections and lacquered psychedelia of Turn Blue; Lets Rock is all about simple hooks and nagging choruses, an homage, in the words of drummer Patrick Carney, to the electric guitar. Get past the terrible title, and youll be rewarded with a viscerally entertaining album that never lingers for more than four minutes per song. If this is genre pastiche, its genre pastiche done with skill and savvy. (PS)
4/50 47) Bat for Lashes Lost Girls
Musically, Lost Girls couldnt be more Eighties if it were playing a Commodore 64 while eating Angel Delight. Like Stranger Things, everything about it is unashamedly nostalgic: the power drums, the moody atmospherics, the arpeggiated synths. Close your eyes and you can practically see Jason Patric on the Santa Cruz boardwalk in The Lost Boys. Yes, nostalgia is a fairly generic formula. But listened to as a whole, the album positively thrums with sonic invention, managing to feel both fresh and full of intrigue. Khan once again demonstrates a knack for uncanny storytelling. (PS)
5/50 46) Collard Unholy
On his debut album, the 24-year-old mixes sultry jams that recall the electronic funk of MGMT with nods to the greats: Prince, James Brown, Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. Throughout, Collard exhibits his extraordinary voice, which swoops to a devilishly low murmur or soars to an ecstatic falsetto. On the lustful Hell Song he sings less is more but more is good. Youre inclined to agree with him. (RO)
6/50 45) Angel Olsen All Mirrors
When the Missouri singer broke out in 2014, she became known for her lo-fi, introspective sound and the staggering range and power of her voice. On All Mirrors, she dials things up even further than 2016s Sixties-leaning My Woman, and turns her focus outwards it is an album, she says, about losing empathy, trust, love for destructive people and owning up to your darkest side. It is also balletic and haywire, refusing to follow traditional rules of song structure. Listening to it feels like accidentally pressing play on two songs at once, and finding the combination strangely inebriating. (AP)
7/50 44) Lizzo Cuz I Love You
This is a polished, playful album, though it has a DIY edge to it: S**t, f**k, I didnt know it was ending right there, she chuckles in the final few moments of Like a Girl. Girl, run this s**t back, she says after a vivacious flute solo on Tempo a song featuring a guest verse from Missy Elliott, the person who, Lizzo said on Twitter, made this chubby, weird, black girl believe that ANYTHING was possible. (AP)
8/50 43) Skepta Ignorance is Bliss
Theres no attempt to chase someone elses wave here; no token drill, afroswing or trap beats to satisfy playlist algorithms. Instead, his cold grime sonics are rendered down to their no-frills essentials brutalist blocks of sad angular melodies and hard, spacious drums. The result is a quintessentially London record, as dark and moody as it is brash and innovative. We used to do young and stupid, Skepta concludes on Gangsta. Now we do grown. (IM)
9/50 42) Ariana Grande Thank U, Next
It lacks a centrepiece to match the arresting depth and space of Sweeteners God Is A Woman, but Grande handles its shifting moods and cast of producers (including pop machines Max Martin and Tommy Brown) with engaging class and momentum. One minute youre skanking along to the party brass of Bloodline; the next floating into the semi-detached, heartbreak of Ghostin, which appears to address Grandes guilt at being with Davidson while pining for Miller. She sings of the late rapper as a wingless angel with featherlight high notes that will drop the sternest jaw. (HB)
10/50 41) Ezra Furman Twelve Nudes
The Chicago-born singers ninth album is a furious reaction to the social and political events of 2018 over 11 breathless tracks, he turns that anger into a howl of resistance. Each song feels personal yet relatable the deep-rooted despair felt on Trauma at the sight of wealthy bullies rising to power is a universal one, as is the sense of liberation in just letting go on What Can You Do But Rock n Roll. Twelve Nudes is Furmans most urgent and cathartic record. (RO)
11/50 40) YBN Cordae The Lost Boy
On his studio debut, YBN shows off his versatility, but not to the point that it distracts from the underlying message of each song. You have the menacing Broke as F***, where the beats and stark piano hook contrasts with Cordaes rags-to-riches rap. Aged 21, the North Carolina artist flecks songs such as the Anderson .Paak-featuring RNP with an endearing kind of nonchalance; over the woozy, psychedelic soul of opener Wintertime, meanwhile, he wonders how Corretta Scott King felt upon learning Martin Luther had cheated on her. Its by no means a perfect album in the grand sense of the term, but it is a perfect demonstration of everything Cordae is capable of. (RO)
12/50 39) Big Thief UFOF
Big Thiefs frontwoman Adrianne Lenker has an uncanny ability to make you feel like youre in on a secret. Her whispering, spectral delivery and deeply personal lyrics are the key to this. Even on the bands third album UFOF, with an audience that has grown exponentially in the past few years, the songs are still immensely intimate affairs. The albums deathly intrigue is drawn from her own personal traumas, which she successfully spins into something that feels universal. But you dont come away from this record feeling downcast. Its more a reminder of how fleeting yet beautiful life is, and an appeal to make the most of it. (RO)
13/50 38) Jenny Lewis On the Line
Here, Lewis does what she does best: adds the glossy sparkle of Hollywood and a sunny Californian sheen to melancholy and nostalgia, with her most luxuriantly orchestrated album yet. Even when shes singing, Ive wasted my youth, its in that sweet voice, with carefree doo doo doo doo doo doos, and at a pace thats so upbeat that it masks the sentiment. Its a bittersweet mourning of her past. (EB)
14/50 37) Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Few people have had as big a year as Billie Eilish. The first and currently only artist born in the Noughties to have a US number one single, she also released her double platinum debut album, the innovative and multifarious, if irksomely titled, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? There are some missteps Wish You Were Gay being one of them but for the most part this is an album as full of charm and bite as Eilish herself. And with a melody that ducks and dives in between the beat like a bank robber dodging lasers, the dark, dank pop-trap masterpiece Bad Guy is surely a contender for song of the year. (AP)
15/50 36) AJ Tracey AJ Tracey
One of the biggest new rap stars to emerge in 2019, AJ Traceys variety and the scale of his ambition on this album is breathtaking. Fans will be surprised to discover he sings almost as much as he raps, in pleasingly gruff tones. Each track is a standout, none more so than Ladbroke Grove, a hat-tip to classic garage in which Tracey switches up his flow to emulate a Nineties MC. Its a thrilling work. (RO)
16/50 35) Caroline Polachek Pang
The former Chairlift frontwomans solo debut (at least, her first under her own name) is an eccentric, experimental delight PC music by way of classical pop. The product of a divorce and a series of adrenal rushes she refers to as pangs, the album is musically agile and often lyrically stark: Sometimes I wonder/ Do I love you too much? Then I tell myself Caroline, shut up, she sings on Caroline Shut Up. Polacheks voice is her secret weapon so jolting and elastic she had to prove it wasnt autotuned in an astonishing Twitter video. (AP)
17/50 34) Sturgill Simpson Sound & Fury
Simpson recently said he wanted Sound & Fury to hit like a Wu-Tang record, so each intro is like a one-two punch loaded with brilliant hooks. Then theres the rollicking A Good Look and Last Man Standing its pure rock and roll: sleazy, slick and lots of fun. Sound & Fury marks another milestone for a remarkable artist. (RO)
18/50 33) Fontaines DC Dogrel
Of all the excellent bands to emerge out of Dublins booming music scene over the past few years, Fontaines DC are the best of them. Perhaps its the fact that theyre technically outsiders, having grown up on the borders of the city (or in their guitarist Carlos OConnells case, between there and Spain). Frontman Grian Chatten eschews punks tradition of valuing shock value over songcraft and instead offers searing, literary observations of a city with which he has a love/hate relationship. (RO)
19/50 32) Vampire Weekend Father of the Bride
Already subject to manic shifts in style and tempo, this hour-long LP roams in lounge pants from Deadhead jams to Zombies-catchy hooks, infectiously kitsch prog, highlife samples and on Sunflower a scat breakdown. An unfashionable record, then, and that may be its best asset. With such low stakes and barely any emotional intensity, Father of the Bride wont cement Vampire Weekends legacy. But after a highly strung decade on the indie-rock A-list, it gives them room to breathe. (JM)
20/50 31) FKA twigs MAGDALENE
Making this album has allowed me, for the first time, to find compassion when I have been at my most ungraceful, confused and fractured, FKA twigs writes in the albums press notes. I stopped judging myself, and at that moment found hope in MAGDALENE. At times, MAGDALENE is just as ungraceful, confused and fractured as its creator was a rush of baroque electronics, industrial noise, opera, synths, autotune and precarious falsetto. The follow-up to 2014s LP1 is the sound of a woman teetering on the brink of collapse, gathering herself, and then erupting into a kind of defiance. (AP)
21/50 30) Bill Callahan Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
Bill Callahan returns after six years with this homely, career-best album in which he sings of his own contentment. The panic room is now a nursery, he observes on Son of the Sea. Death still looms often in the form of a black dog that follows Callahan around various tracks but its inevitability seems more of a comfort than something to be feared: Everybody must walk the lonesome valley, he sings firmly. Yeah, they must walk it by themselves. (RO)
22/50 29) Shura Forevher
Arriving three years after the release of her debut, Nothings Real, Shuras excellent second record is camp and theatrical, pivoting between a big, poppy sensibility and a minimalist, lo-fi one sometimes on the same track. Lead single Religion (U Can Lay Your Hands On Me) is a slinky shoulder roll of a song, laden with passionate blasphemy: I wanna consecrate your body, turn the water to wine, I know youre thinking about kissing, too. Its laced, too, with piano an instrument shed always been allergic to before this record and opulent orchestral strings. (AP)
23/50 28) Cage the Elephant Social Cues
On Cage the Elephants fifth album, Social Cues, frontman Matt Shultz reacts to the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of three close friends. He undergoes a kind of Jekyll and Hyde transition through the 13 tracks, the result of which is the bands best work to date. Single Ready to let Go is by far the most explicit a moody swamp-rock jam where Shultz comes to terms with his impending divorce. He bares his soul on Social Cues, and apparently shakes off a few demons in the process. (RO)
24/50 27) Brittany Howard Jaime
Howard listened to Brazilian artist Jorge Ben where theres literally, like, 18 different things happening in the song while she was making the album, and it shows. 13th Century Metal builds like an alarm, while Baby is scatty and scattered, like something off The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Sometimes, there is one instrument too many, but usually the components crash together well. (AP)
25/50 26) Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow
Written during her recent pregnancy and the birth of her first child, Remind Me Tomorrow shows Van Etten dimming her spotlight on toxicity and instead casting a warm glow behind the records psychic overview. As well as expectations of confessional singers, she subverts folk musics focus on bare-bones songwriting. But the daintiest composition Stay is her most perfectly realised yet, over music box chimes and heel-clicking percussion she coos: You wont let me go astray/ You will let me find my way. After years of making peace with drift and uncertainty, shes never sounded more sure of anything. (JM)
26/50 25) Floating Points Crush
Inspired by the improvisations he was creating while on tour with The xx in 2017, Sam Shepherd found himself making some of the most obtuse and aggressive music Ive ever made. This newfound drive can be heard in singles such as LesAlpx, a mind-melting track that climbs breathlessly towards its summit with a pounding bass beat and high, whistling chirps that punctuate the tension. Its an insight into his brilliant mind and such is the sheer variety of the album a way to inspire ones own imagination. (RO)
27/50 24) Stormzy Heavy is the Head
There are three themes that run through the record: his defiance in the face of doubt; the pressure of high expectations; and his efforts to lift others up as his success continues to grow. He reminds himself constantly of who he is beneath the gloss that fame has brought: hes Rachaels Little Brother, Big Michael, a guy who likes to watch Avengers and Game of Thrones. All of his best traits are present and correct: sincerity, a smooth flow and forensic-like analysis of societal ills, laced with pathos and humour. The lasting impression is of an artist whose only way is up. (RO)
28/50 23) Marika Hackman Any Human Friend
A blunt, bold album on which Hackmans beatific voice sits atop methodically messy instrumentals. Songs such as All Night are so candidly carnal it feels inappropriate to listen to them in public; notes of riot grrrl, pop and rock come together throughout the record to create something that is, at times, quite striking. (AP)
29/50 22) Solange When I Get Home
The decades second great Solange album churns several deformed, jazzy aesthetics including Brainfeeders gloopy electro-funk and the concoctions of DJ Screw into a lustrous cloud of R&B. The result hints at Seventies soul voyagers like Stevie Wonder yet retains its future-shock, celebrating Houston futurism without pandering to fans of its explicitly political predecessor. (JM)
30/50 21) Cate Le Bon Reward
For her fifth studio album, Cate Le Bon went to live in a secluded cottage in the Lake District, where she sang to an empty house and took lessons in wood-carving. Yet her compositions on Reward are lush, warm and whimsical; opener Miami is resplendent with stately horns and percussion that reminds you of childhood. Theres a fantastic sense of space, too, spun from diaphanous arrangements such as The Light, where she meanders delightfully from a clear, lilting call to a deep vocal rumble. Its an album by an artist intent on readdressing her relationship with her own existence. (RO)
31/50 20) Sam Fender Hypersonic Missiles
Fender drew plenty of early comparisons to Bruce Springsteen on Hypersonic Missiles theyre entirely warranted, as much for the instrumentation as the lyricism and his vignettes of working-class struggle. There are sax solos (more than one), and pounding rhythms that make you want to jump in a car and drive down a highway at sunset, and blistering electric guitars next to classic troubadour acoustics. He has Springsteens rousing holler, and the early indications of someone who could be the voice of a generation not because he wants to be, but because he sees things and understands. (RO)
32/50 19) Taylor Swift Lover
Swifts sixth album Reputation was camp and melodramatic, killing off the old Taylor and waging war on anyone and everyone who dared to criticise her. It was sincerity veiled as self-parody, insecurity veiled as breeziness and all the better for that uneasy paradox. But Lover, her new, seventh album, feels like a partial resurrection of the Swift of old: moony romance and earnest earworms abound. Its the sound of a singer excited to be earnest again. Taylor Swift is dead. Long live Taylor Swift. (AP)
33/50 18) Michael Kiwanuka Kiwanuka
The record is an introspective mix of psychey soul, blues, rock and funk, which skips and strolls and swaggers through its 13 tracks but it is not simply an exercise in nostalgia. Its influences span decades; Gil Scott-Heron, Fela Kuti, Kendrick Lamar and Bobby Womack are all recalled. Im not going to have an alter ego, or becomes Sasha Fierce or Ziggy Stardust, says Kiwanuka. I can just be Michael Kiwanuka. With an album this good, its hard to argue with that. (AP)
34/50 17) Kano Hoodies All Summer
On his sixth album, Kanos powers of observation are at their peak. Home has always been at the heart of his music, so he maintains the close-quarters perspective of his 2005 debut Home Sweet Home; the swaggering confidence of that record, though, is replaced by a more thoughtful gravitas. Hes an elder statesman of grime, and you can almost see his furrowed brow and shake of his head on Trouble, while the frenetic Class of Deja, starring fellow veterans D Double E and Ghetts, reminds the listener how he lit the path for future generations. (RO)
35/50 16) Hot Chip A Bath Full of Ecstasy
Lyrically, the band offer up some of their most poignant phrases to date on this their seventh and best record. Second single Hungry Child, a trance-y floor-filler, contains the plaintive, Dreaming never felt so bad/ Lonely never felt so wrong before while, over the shuffling beats of Echo, Alexis Taylor sings of leaving your regrets behind while seeming to understand the effort required to achieve this. For all its glimmering synths and the robotic pathos of Taylors idiosyncratic vocals, this is a record with both heart and soul. (RO)
36/50 15) MUNA Saves the World
Saves the World should see MUNA joining the ranks of those who have brazenly borrowed their sound. Lead single Number One Fan banishes intrusive thoughts Nobody likes me and Im gonna die just in time for a lavish, self-celebratory chorus, one part earnest, one part tongue-in-cheek. Elsewhere, they are downright defeatist, laments the inevitable pull back to a recent ex (Stayaway) or reflecting on a lovers similarity to an adulterous father (Taken). Hands Off, meanwhile, toys with temptation before slamming the door shut. It is fierce and forthright. (AP)
37/50 14) Slipknot We Are Not Your Kind
Fans have already drawn comparisons between We Are Not Your Kind and Slipknots seminal 2001 album Iowa. While the latter was even heavier (it would be difficult if not impossible to outdo), the sheer ambition on We Are Not Your Kind is just as staggering. If anything, the dynamic created by placing a bigger emphasis on melody allows you to consider everything without being engulfed by noise. Critics may question how relevant Slipknot are in 2019. The pummelling force of We Are Not Your Kind should be enough to silence them this may be one of the bands most personal records, but the rage they capture is universally felt. (RO)
38/50 13) Rapsody Eve
Each song is titled after a black woman Rapsody admires: Serena Williams, Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelou, Aaliyah, Oprah Winfrey and for each one she explores these womens traits, successes and strife. As on Lailas Wisdom, Eve conveys Rapsodys natural feel for funk Michelle (Obama) bounces in on a jaunty piano riff but other tracks, such as Afeni, are pure soul. Nina Simone said an artists duty, as far as Im concerned, is to reflect the times. This is precisely what Rapsody has done, in the most resonant way possible. (RO)
39/50 12) Julia Jacklin Crushing
Theres a deeper sense of personal connection to anchor Julia Jacklins lyrical and melodic smarts. That snare drum on Pressure to Party keeps a relentless, nerve-snapping pulse throughout, while Dont Know How to Keep Loving You nails a depth of intimacy while acknowledging relationship ennui. Grunge-rinsed, feminist-flipped, upcycled Fifties guitar an all: Crushing is a triumph. (HB)
40/50 11) Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1
Philippakiss voice is shrouded in the smoke from societys wreckage. Lead single Exits, six scintillating minutes of Eighties sledgehammer pop that lumbers into view like a heavy artillery vehicle covered in sequins, concerns the one percenters building underground cities to escape global warming. Syrups has Yannis howling a passionate post-apocalyptic vision of robot invasions and sand-clogged towns over a corroded Gorillaz dub that builds to a motoric charge as global panic sets in. An inspired album of scorched earth music. (MB)
41/50 10) Dave Psychodrama
A talented pianist as well as a rapper and singer, Dave often spits over discordant chords to amplify the urgency of his chosen subject, or else raps in gruff, assertive tones across an emotional sequence that complements his stoic intensity. On Environment, he talks about the conflict between what people see of his apparently glamorous life, and the reality behind the scenes where the blood and sweat is drawn out of him. Hes put everything into this album. (RO)
42/50 9) Weyes Blood Titanic Rising
Weyes Blood, whose real name is Natalie Mering, accompanies her instrumental idiosyncrasies with strong, luscious melodies and unfussy lyrics. No ones ever gonna give you a trophy for all the pain and the things youve been through, she sings on Mirror Forever. No one knows but you.And then theres that voice at once warm and haunting, controlled and untethered. Its no wonder shes lent it to the likes of Perfume Genius, Drugdealer and Ariel Pink: it adds a touch of profundity to everything it meets. (AP)
43/50 8) James Blake Assume Form
The warm splashes of piano that washed over that song also break through the anxious rattle of dance beats on the albums eponymous opener, the singer so regularly reviewed as vaporous promises to leave the ether, assume form and be touchable, be reachable. His own sharpest critic, he winks at the journalists whove called him glacial as he drops from remote, icy falsetto into a richly grained, deeper tone to ask: Doesnt it seem much warmer? (HB)
44/50 7) Nick Cave Ghosteen
Following the traumatised chaos of 2016s Skeleton Tree, Ghosteen is a warm cloud of ambient solace a sonic evocation of the communion he has experienced through his newly porous relationship with his audience. He sounds buoyed, not weakened, by exposing his wounds. (HB)
45/50 6) Tyler, the Creator IGOR
The production here is superb. Tyler has never been one for traditional song structure, but on IGOR, which is undoubtedly a break-up album, hes like the Minotaur luring you through a maze that twists and turns around seemingly impossible corners, drawing you into the thrilling unknown. Its lack of resolution at the close surely the most torturous element of a great love lost makes it all the more powerful. (RO)
46/50 5) Big Thief Two Hands
The indie-rock bands second album in the space of five months (the first being UFOF), was described as the earth twin and, indeed, they sound utterly grounded to each other, and to their surroundings in the arid Chihuahuan Desert of Texas, near the Mexico border. In contrast to her fragile performance on UFOF, here Adrianne Lenker sings in lusty whoops and calls on Forgotten Eyes, while Not, the records dark, brooding soul, caterwauls with feedback screeches and a merciless, two-minute guitar solo that leaves you simultaneously devastated and enthralled. (RO)
47/50 4) Bruce Springsteen Western Stars
Bruce Springsteen seems to have told almost every tale in the grand old storybook of American mythologies, except perhaps one: a wide-eyed Californian dreamer finds the Golden State turns sour and flees back east, to some romantic speck of a town, to pine and rehabilitate. Its the classic pop plotline of Bacharach and Davids Do You Know the Way to San Jose?, and its a tale Springsteen taps repeatedly here, on his sumptuous, cinematic 19th album, which is nothing short of a late-period masterpiece. (MB)
48/50 3) Little Simz GREY Area
Few albums in 2019 have been as eclectic, or with as singular a vision, as Simzs GREY Area. She flips between two tones: formidable and reflective. On tracks such as Offence and Boss she drips with venom; delivering lines in a low, deadly buzz over killer bass hooks and punk distortion. On Selfish and Flowers shes softer allowing herself to be vulnerable because she knows she doesnt have to ditch all sentiment to compete with her male peers. Shes better because she embraces every facet of herself, and offers it to the listener in as clear a statement as possible. (RO)
49/50 2) Lana Del Rey Norman F***ing Rockwell!
Lana Del Rey has always been obsessed with the past. Hers is a sound rooted in nostalgia, a paean to everything she was born too late to live through: old Hollywood, Sinatra, beat poetry, Sylvia Plath and Fifties Americana. At her best, she mines something fresh from it all. At her worst, she wallows in it. Her new album Norman F**king Rockwell!, named after a 20th-century American artist, does both. (AP)
50/50 1) Aldous Harding Designer
When Aldous Harding performed in London this month, an enamoured fan cried out that they loved her. I appreciate that, she replied softly. But, Im busy. The response is Harding to a T wry, weird, introspective, focused. Her spectacular, singular third album, Designer, is all of those things. Taking the left-field folk that made her name and splashing post-psych pop and jittery orchestral flourishes onto the canvas, the New Zealander harbours secrets while beckoning you in.
It’s better to live with melody and have an honest time/ Isn’t that right? she asks on Fixture Picture, before wearily concluding that you can’t be pure and in love. On Zoo Eyes, on which her voice plummets to its lowest register, she asks two questions in succession, as if theyre of equal import: What am I doing in Dubai in the prime of my life? Do you love me? It is an exquisite, enigmatic record. (AP)
1/50 50) Kim Gordon No Home Record
The debut solo album of the art-punk pioneer was never going to be predictable, easy-listening. No Home Record channels the dissonance and avant-garde vibe of New Yorks experimental no-wave movement in a nine-song, genre-defiant collection that jumps between industrial, minimal electro-rock and abrasive art punk. Uniting the tracks is their creators restlessly questing, non-conformist spirit. Its great to have her back. (EB)
2/50 49) Nilüfer Yanya Miss Universe
Nilüfer Yanya isnt down with the wellness industry. On her debut album, Miss Universe, the singer-songwriter makes this perfectly clear, tearing into all those improve yourself schemes littered across social media and parcelling up that angst as cerebral, skewed alt-rock. Synths and saxophone play their part on the smoother, more soulful Paradise and Baby Blu. Listen to the driving groove of Heat Rises, meanwhile, and youll be instantly reminded of Kelis and Andre 3000s Millionaire. That said, Yanya is very much her own artist: original and bold. (PS)
3/50 48) The Black Keys Let’s Rock
Five years since their last album, the Ohioan duo have gone back to basics. Gone are the subtle inflections and lacquered psychedelia of Turn Blue; Lets Rock is all about simple hooks and nagging choruses, an homage, in the words of drummer Patrick Carney, to the electric guitar. Get past the terrible title, and youll be rewarded with a viscerally entertaining album that never lingers for more than four minutes per song. If this is genre pastiche, its genre pastiche done with skill and savvy. (PS)
4/50 47) Bat for Lashes Lost Girls
Musically, Lost Girls couldnt be more Eighties if it were playing a Commodore 64 while eating Angel Delight. Like Stranger Things, everything about it is unashamedly nostalgic: the power drums, the moody atmospherics, the arpeggiated synths. Close your eyes and you can practically see Jason Patric on the Santa Cruz boardwalk in The Lost Boys. Yes, nostalgia is a fairly generic formula. But listened to as a whole, the album positively thrums with sonic invention, managing to feel both fresh and full of intrigue. Khan once again demonstrates a knack for uncanny storytelling. (PS)
5/50 46) Collard Unholy
On his debut album, the 24-year-old mixes sultry jams that recall the electronic funk of MGMT with nods to the greats: Prince, James Brown, Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. Throughout, Collard exhibits his extraordinary voice, which swoops to a devilishly low murmur or soars to an ecstatic falsetto. On the lustful Hell Song he sings less is more but more is good. Youre inclined to agree with him. (RO)
6/50 45) Angel Olsen All Mirrors
When the Missouri singer broke out in 2014, she became known for her lo-fi, introspective sound and the staggering range and power of her voice. On All Mirrors, she dials things up even further than 2016s Sixties-leaning My Woman, and turns her focus outwards it is an album, she says, about losing empathy, trust, love for destructive people and owning up to your darkest side. It is also balletic and haywire, refusing to follow traditional rules of song structure. Listening to it feels like accidentally pressing play on two songs at once, and finding the combination strangely inebriating. (AP)
7/50 44) Lizzo Cuz I Love You
This is a polished, playful album, though it has a DIY edge to it: S**t, f**k, I didnt know it was ending right there, she chuckles in the final few moments of Like a Girl. Girl, run this s**t back, she says after a vivacious flute solo on Tempo a song featuring a guest verse from Missy Elliott, the person who, Lizzo said on Twitter, made this chubby, weird, black girl believe that ANYTHING was possible. (AP)
8/50 43) Skepta Ignorance is Bliss
Theres no attempt to chase someone elses wave here; no token drill, afroswing or trap beats to satisfy playlist algorithms. Instead, his cold grime sonics are rendered down to their no-frills essentials brutalist blocks of sad angular melodies and hard, spacious drums. The result is a quintessentially London record, as dark and moody as it is brash and innovative. We used to do young and stupid, Skepta concludes on Gangsta. Now we do grown. (IM)
9/50 42) Ariana Grande Thank U, Next
It lacks a centrepiece to match the arresting depth and space of Sweeteners God Is A Woman, but Grande handles its shifting moods and cast of producers (including pop machines Max Martin and Tommy Brown) with engaging class and momentum. One minute youre skanking along to the party brass of Bloodline; the next floating into the semi-detached, heartbreak of Ghostin, which appears to address Grandes guilt at being with Davidson while pining for Miller. She sings of the late rapper as a wingless angel with featherlight high notes that will drop the sternest jaw. (HB)
10/50 41) Ezra Furman Twelve Nudes
The Chicago-born singers ninth album is a furious reaction to the social and political events of 2018 over 11 breathless tracks, he turns that anger into a howl of resistance. Each song feels personal yet relatable the deep-rooted despair felt on Trauma at the sight of wealthy bullies rising to power is a universal one, as is the sense of liberation in just letting go on What Can You Do But Rock n Roll. Twelve Nudes is Furmans most urgent and cathartic record. (RO)
11/50 40) YBN Cordae The Lost Boy
On his studio debut, YBN shows off his versatility, but not to the point that it distracts from the underlying message of each song. You have the menacing Broke as F***, where the beats and stark piano hook contrasts with Cordaes rags-to-riches rap. Aged 21, the North Carolina artist flecks songs such as the Anderson .Paak-featuring RNP with an endearing kind of nonchalance; over the woozy, psychedelic soul of opener Wintertime, meanwhile, he wonders how Corretta Scott King felt upon learning Martin Luther had cheated on her. Its by no means a perfect album in the grand sense of the term, but it is a perfect demonstration of everything Cordae is capable of. (RO)
12/50 39) Big Thief UFOF
Big Thiefs frontwoman Adrianne Lenker has an uncanny ability to make you feel like youre in on a secret. Her whispering, spectral delivery and deeply personal lyrics are the key to this. Even on the bands third album UFOF, with an audience that has grown exponentially in the past few years, the songs are still immensely intimate affairs. The albums deathly intrigue is drawn from her own personal traumas, which she successfully spins into something that feels universal. But you dont come away from this record feeling downcast. Its more a reminder of how fleeting yet beautiful life is, and an appeal to make the most of it. (RO)
13/50 38) Jenny Lewis On the Line
Here, Lewis does what she does best: adds the glossy sparkle of Hollywood and a sunny Californian sheen to melancholy and nostalgia, with her most luxuriantly orchestrated album yet. Even when shes singing, Ive wasted my youth, its in that sweet voice, with carefree doo doo doo doo doo doos, and at a pace thats so upbeat that it masks the sentiment. Its a bittersweet mourning of her past. (EB)
14/50 37) Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Few people have had as big a year as Billie Eilish. The first and currently only artist born in the Noughties to have a US number one single, she also released her double platinum debut album, the innovative and multifarious, if irksomely titled, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? There are some missteps Wish You Were Gay being one of them but for the most part this is an album as full of charm and bite as Eilish herself. And with a melody that ducks and dives in between the beat like a bank robber dodging lasers, the dark, dank pop-trap masterpiece Bad Guy is surely a contender for song of the year. (AP)
15/50 36) AJ Tracey AJ Tracey
One of the biggest new rap stars to emerge in 2019, AJ Traceys variety and the scale of his ambition on this album is breathtaking. Fans will be surprised to discover he sings almost as much as he raps, in pleasingly gruff tones. Each track is a standout, none more so than Ladbroke Grove, a hat-tip to classic garage in which Tracey switches up his flow to emulate a Nineties MC. Its a thrilling work. (RO)
16/50 35) Caroline Polachek Pang
The former Chairlift frontwomans solo debut (at least, her first under her own name) is an eccentric, experimental delight PC music by way of classical pop. The product of a divorce and a series of adrenal rushes she refers to as pangs, the album is musically agile and often lyrically stark: Sometimes I wonder/ Do I love you too much? Then I tell myself Caroline, shut up, she sings on Caroline Shut Up. Polacheks voice is her secret weapon so jolting and elastic she had to prove it wasnt autotuned in an astonishing Twitter video. (AP)
17/50 34) Sturgill Simpson Sound & Fury
Simpson recently said he wanted Sound & Fury to hit like a Wu-Tang record, so each intro is like a one-two punch loaded with brilliant hooks. Then theres the rollicking A Good Look and Last Man Standing its pure rock and roll: sleazy, slick and lots of fun. Sound & Fury marks another milestone for a remarkable artist. (RO)
18/50 33) Fontaines DC Dogrel
Of all the excellent bands to emerge out of Dublins booming music scene over the past few years, Fontaines DC are the best of them. Perhaps its the fact that theyre technically outsiders, having grown up on the borders of the city (or in their guitarist Carlos OConnells case, between there and Spain). Frontman Grian Chatten eschews punks tradition of valuing shock value over songcraft and instead offers searing, literary observations of a city with which he has a love/hate relationship. (RO)
19/50 32) Vampire Weekend Father of the Bride
Already subject to manic shifts in style and tempo, this hour-long LP roams in lounge pants from Deadhead jams to Zombies-catchy hooks, infectiously kitsch prog, highlife samples and on Sunflower a scat breakdown. An unfashionable record, then, and that may be its best asset. With such low stakes and barely any emotional intensity, Father of the Bride wont cement Vampire Weekends legacy. But after a highly strung decade on the indie-rock A-list, it gives them room to breathe. (JM)
20/50 31) FKA twigs MAGDALENE
Making this album has allowed me, for the first time, to find compassion when I have been at my most ungraceful, confused and fractured, FKA twigs writes in the albums press notes. I stopped judging myself, and at that moment found hope in MAGDALENE. At times, MAGDALENE is just as ungraceful, confused and fractured as its creator was a rush of baroque electronics, industrial noise, opera, synths, autotune and precarious falsetto. The follow-up to 2014s LP1 is the sound of a woman teetering on the brink of collapse, gathering herself, and then erupting into a kind of defiance. (AP)
21/50 30) Bill Callahan Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
Bill Callahan returns after six years with this homely, career-best album in which he sings of his own contentment. The panic room is now a nursery, he observes on Son of the Sea. Death still looms often in the form of a black dog that follows Callahan around various tracks but its inevitability seems more of a comfort than something to be feared: Everybody must walk the lonesome valley, he sings firmly. Yeah, they must walk it by themselves. (RO)
22/50 29) Shura Forevher
Arriving three years after the release of her debut, Nothings Real, Shuras excellent second record is camp and theatrical, pivoting between a big, poppy sensibility and a minimalist, lo-fi one sometimes on the same track. Lead single Religion (U Can Lay Your Hands On Me) is a slinky shoulder roll of a song, laden with passionate blasphemy: I wanna consecrate your body, turn the water to wine, I know youre thinking about kissing, too. Its laced, too, with piano an instrument shed always been allergic to before this record and opulent orchestral strings. (AP)
23/50 28) Cage the Elephant Social Cues
On Cage the Elephants fifth album, Social Cues, frontman Matt Shultz reacts to the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of three close friends. He undergoes a kind of Jekyll and Hyde transition through the 13 tracks, the result of which is the bands best work to date. Single Ready to let Go is by far the most explicit a moody swamp-rock jam where Shultz comes to terms with his impending divorce. He bares his soul on Social Cues, and apparently shakes off a few demons in the process. (RO)
24/50 27) Brittany Howard Jaime
Howard listened to Brazilian artist Jorge Ben where theres literally, like, 18 different things happening in the song while she was making the album, and it shows. 13th Century Metal builds like an alarm, while Baby is scatty and scattered, like something off The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Sometimes, there is one instrument too many, but usually the components crash together well. (AP)
25/50 26) Sharon Van Etten Remind Me Tomorrow
Written during her recent pregnancy and the birth of her first child, Remind Me Tomorrow shows Van Etten dimming her spotlight on toxicity and instead casting a warm glow behind the records psychic overview. As well as expectations of confessional singers, she subverts folk musics focus on bare-bones songwriting. But the daintiest composition Stay is her most perfectly realised yet, over music box chimes and heel-clicking percussion she coos: You wont let me go astray/ You will let me find my way. After years of making peace with drift and uncertainty, shes never sounded more sure of anything. (JM)
26/50 25) Floating Points Crush
Inspired by the improvisations he was creating while on tour with The xx in 2017, Sam Shepherd found himself making some of the most obtuse and aggressive music Ive ever made. This newfound drive can be heard in singles such as LesAlpx, a mind-melting track that climbs breathlessly towards its summit with a pounding bass beat and high, whistling chirps that punctuate the tension. Its an insight into his brilliant mind and such is the sheer variety of the album a way to inspire ones own imagination. (RO)
27/50 24) Stormzy Heavy is the Head
There are three themes that run through the record: his defiance in the face of doubt; the pressure of high expectations; and his efforts to lift others up as his success continues to grow. He reminds himself constantly of who he is beneath the gloss that fame has brought: hes Rachaels Little Brother, Big Michael, a guy who likes to watch Avengers and Game of Thrones. All of his best traits are present and correct: sincerity, a smooth flow and forensic-like analysis of societal ills, laced with pathos and humour. The lasting impression is of an artist whose only way is up. (RO)
28/50 23) Marika Hackman Any Human Friend
A blunt, bold album on which Hackmans beatific voice sits atop methodically messy instrumentals. Songs such as All Night are so candidly carnal it feels inappropriate to listen to them in public; notes of riot grrrl, pop and rock come together throughout the record to create something that is, at times, quite striking. (AP)
29/50 22) Solange When I Get Home
The decades second great Solange album churns several deformed, jazzy aesthetics including Brainfeeders gloopy electro-funk and the concoctions of DJ Screw into a lustrous cloud of R&B. The result hints at Seventies soul voyagers like Stevie Wonder yet retains its future-shock, celebrating Houston futurism without pandering to fans of its explicitly political predecessor. (JM)
30/50 21) Cate Le Bon Reward
For her fifth studio album, Cate Le Bon went to live in a secluded cottage in the Lake District, where she sang to an empty house and took lessons in wood-carving. Yet her compositions on Reward are lush, warm and whimsical; opener Miami is resplendent with stately horns and percussion that reminds you of childhood. Theres a fantastic sense of space, too, spun from diaphanous arrangements such as The Light, where she meanders delightfully from a clear, lilting call to a deep vocal rumble. Its an album by an artist intent on readdressing her relationship with her own existence. (RO)
31/50 20) Sam Fender Hypersonic Missiles
Fender drew plenty of early comparisons to Bruce Springsteen on Hypersonic Missiles theyre entirely warranted, as much for the instrumentation as the lyricism and his vignettes of working-class struggle. There are sax solos (more than one), and pounding rhythms that make you want to jump in a car and drive down a highway at sunset, and blistering electric guitars next to classic troubadour acoustics. He has Springsteens rousing holler, and the early indications of someone who could be the voice of a generation not because he wants to be, but because he sees things and understands. (RO)
32/50 19) Taylor Swift Lover
Swifts sixth album Reputation was camp and melodramatic, killing off the old Taylor and waging war on anyone and everyone who dared to criticise her. It was sincerity veiled as self-parody, insecurity veiled as breeziness and all the better for that uneasy paradox. But Lover, her new, seventh album, feels like a partial resurrection of the Swift of old: moony romance and earnest earworms abound. Its the sound of a singer excited to be earnest again. Taylor Swift is dead. Long live Taylor Swift. (AP)
33/50 18) Michael Kiwanuka Kiwanuka
The record is an introspective mix of psychey soul, blues, rock and funk, which skips and strolls and swaggers through its 13 tracks but it is not simply an exercise in nostalgia. Its influences span decades; Gil Scott-Heron, Fela Kuti, Kendrick Lamar and Bobby Womack are all recalled. Im not going to have an alter ego, or becomes Sasha Fierce or Ziggy Stardust, says Kiwanuka. I can just be Michael Kiwanuka. With an album this good, its hard to argue with that. (AP)
34/50 17) Kano Hoodies All Summer
On his sixth album, Kanos powers of observation are at their peak. Home has always been at the heart of his music, so he maintains the close-quarters perspective of his 2005 debut Home Sweet Home; the swaggering confidence of that record, though, is replaced by a more thoughtful gravitas. Hes an elder statesman of grime, and you can almost see his furrowed brow and shake of his head on Trouble, while the frenetic Class of Deja, starring fellow veterans D Double E and Ghetts, reminds the listener how he lit the path for future generations. (RO)
35/50 16) Hot Chip A Bath Full of Ecstasy
Lyrically, the band offer up some of their most poignant phrases to date on this their seventh and best record. Second single Hungry Child, a trance-y floor-filler, contains the plaintive, Dreaming never felt so bad/ Lonely never felt so wrong before while, over the shuffling beats of Echo, Alexis Taylor sings of leaving your regrets behind while seeming to understand the effort required to achieve this. For all its glimmering synths and the robotic pathos of Taylors idiosyncratic vocals, this is a record with both heart and soul. (RO)
36/50 15) MUNA Saves the World
Saves the World should see MUNA joining the ranks of those who have brazenly borrowed their sound. Lead single Number One Fan banishes intrusive thoughts Nobody likes me and Im gonna die just in time for a lavish, self-celebratory chorus, one part earnest, one part tongue-in-cheek. Elsewhere, they are downright defeatist, laments the inevitable pull back to a recent ex (Stayaway) or reflecting on a lovers similarity to an adulterous father (Taken). Hands Off, meanwhile, toys with temptation before slamming the door shut. It is fierce and forthright. (AP)
37/50 14) Slipknot We Are Not Your Kind
Fans have already drawn comparisons between We Are Not Your Kind and Slipknots seminal 2001 album Iowa. While the latter was even heavier (it would be difficult if not impossible to outdo), the sheer ambition on We Are Not Your Kind is just as staggering. If anything, the dynamic created by placing a bigger emphasis on melody allows you to consider everything without being engulfed by noise. Critics may question how relevant Slipknot are in 2019. The pummelling force of We Are Not Your Kind should be enough to silence them this may be one of the bands most personal records, but the rage they capture is universally felt. (RO)
38/50 13) Rapsody Eve
Each song is titled after a black woman Rapsody admires: Serena Williams, Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelou, Aaliyah, Oprah Winfrey and for each one she explores these womens traits, successes and strife. As on Lailas Wisdom, Eve conveys Rapsodys natural feel for funk Michelle (Obama) bounces in on a jaunty piano riff but other tracks, such as Afeni, are pure soul. Nina Simone said an artists duty, as far as Im concerned, is to reflect the times. This is precisely what Rapsody has done, in the most resonant way possible. (RO)
39/50 12) Julia Jacklin Crushing
Theres a deeper sense of personal connection to anchor Julia Jacklins lyrical and melodic smarts. That snare drum on Pressure to Party keeps a relentless, nerve-snapping pulse throughout, while Dont Know How to Keep Loving You nails a depth of intimacy while acknowledging relationship ennui. Grunge-rinsed, feminist-flipped, upcycled Fifties guitar an all: Crushing is a triumph. (HB)
40/50 11) Foals Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1
Philippakiss voice is shrouded in the smoke from societys wreckage. Lead single Exits, six scintillating minutes of Eighties sledgehammer pop that lumbers into view like a heavy artillery vehicle covered in sequins, concerns the one percenters building underground cities to escape global warming. Syrups has Yannis howling a passionate post-apocalyptic vision of robot invasions and sand-clogged towns over a corroded Gorillaz dub that builds to a motoric charge as global panic sets in. An inspired album of scorched earth music. (MB)
41/50 10) Dave Psychodrama
A talented pianist as well as a rapper and singer, Dave often spits over discordant chords to amplify the urgency of his chosen subject, or else raps in gruff, assertive tones across an emotional sequence that complements his stoic intensity. On Environment, he talks about the conflict between what people see of his apparently glamorous life, and the reality behind the scenes where the blood and sweat is drawn out of him. Hes put everything into this album. (RO)
42/50 9) Weyes Blood Titanic Rising
Weyes Blood, whose real name is Natalie Mering, accompanies her instrumental idiosyncrasies with strong, luscious melodies and unfussy lyrics. No ones ever gonna give you a trophy for all the pain and the things youve been through, she sings on Mirror Forever. No one knows but you.And then theres that voice at once warm and haunting, controlled and untethered. Its no wonder shes lent it to the likes of Perfume Genius, Drugdealer and Ariel Pink: it adds a touch of profundity to everything it meets. (AP)
43/50 8) James Blake Assume Form
The warm splashes of piano that washed over that song also break through the anxious rattle of dance beats on the albums eponymous opener, the singer so regularly reviewed as vaporous promises to leave the ether, assume form and be touchable, be reachable. His own sharpest critic, he winks at the journalists whove called him glacial as he drops from remote, icy falsetto into a richly grained, deeper tone to ask: Doesnt it seem much warmer? (HB)
44/50 7) Nick Cave Ghosteen
Following the traumatised chaos of 2016s Skeleton Tree, Ghosteen is a warm cloud of ambient solace a sonic evocation of the communion he has experienced through his newly porous relationship with his audience. He sounds buoyed, not weakened, by exposing his wounds. (HB)
45/50 6) Tyler, the Creator IGOR
The production here is superb. Tyler has never been one for traditional song structure, but on IGOR, which is undoubtedly a break-up album, hes like the Minotaur luring you through a maze that twists and turns around seemingly impossible corners, drawing you into the thrilling unknown. Its lack of resolution at the close surely the most torturous element of a great love lost makes it all the more powerful. (RO)
46/50 5) Big Thief Two Hands
The indie-rock bands second album in the space of five months (the first being UFOF), was described as the earth twin and, indeed, they sound utterly grounded to each other, and to their surroundings in the arid Chihuahuan Desert of Texas, near the Mexico border. In contrast to her fragile performance on UFOF, here Adrianne Lenker sings in lusty whoops and calls on Forgotten Eyes, while Not, the records dark, brooding soul, caterwauls with feedback screeches and a merciless, two-minute guitar solo that leaves you simultaneously devastated and enthralled. (RO)
47/50 4) Bruce Springsteen Western Stars
Bruce Springsteen seems to have told almost every tale in the grand old storybook of American mythologies, except perhaps one: a wide-eyed Californian dreamer finds the Golden State turns sour and flees back east, to some romantic speck of a town, to pine and rehabilitate. Its the classic pop plotline of Bacharach and Davids Do You Know the Way to San Jose?, and its a tale Springsteen taps repeatedly here, on his sumptuous, cinematic 19th album, which is nothing short of a late-period masterpiece. (MB)
48/50 3) Little Simz GREY Area
Few albums in 2019 have been as eclectic, or with as singular a vision, as Simzs GREY Area. She flips between two tones: formidable and reflective. On tracks such as Offence and Boss she drips with venom; delivering lines in a low, deadly buzz over killer bass hooks and punk distortion. On Selfish and Flowers shes softer allowing herself to be vulnerable because she knows she doesnt have to ditch all sentiment to compete with her male peers. Shes better because she embraces every facet of herself, and offers it to the listener in as clear a statement as possible. (RO)
49/50 2) Lana Del Rey Norman F***ing Rockwell!
Lana Del Rey has always been obsessed with the past. Hers is a sound rooted in nostalgia, a paean to everything she was born too late to live through: old Hollywood, Sinatra, beat poetry, Sylvia Plath and Fifties Americana. At her best, she mines something fresh from it all. At her worst, she wallows in it. Her new album Norman F**king Rockwell!, named after a 20th-century American artist, does both. (AP)
50/50 1) Aldous Harding Designer
When Aldous Harding performed in London this month, an enamoured fan cried out that they loved her. I appreciate that, she replied softly. But, Im busy. The response is Harding to a T wry, weird, introspective, focused. Her spectacular, singular third album, Designer, is all of those things. Taking the left-field folk that made her name and splashing post-psych pop and jittery orchestral flourishes onto the canvas, the New Zealander harbours secrets while beckoning you in.
It’s better to live with melody and have an honest time/ Isn’t that right? she asks on Fixture Picture, before wearily concluding that you can’t be pure and in love. On Zoo Eyes, on which her voice plummets to its lowest register, she asks two questions in succession, as if theyre of equal import: What am I doing in Dubai in the prime of my life? Do you love me? It is an exquisite, enigmatic record. (AP)
Now 71, after more than half a century of songwriting, Browne still believes in the power of music to change lives. He was just 16 when he wrote These Days, which is made all the more remarkable by the fact it contains one of the most devastating lyrics ever committed to song: Dont confront me with my failures/ I had not forgotten them. Was the teenage Browne really that tortured, or was it a case of art imitating art?
I dont know, he says after a pause. I listened to a lot of old men making music when I was a kid. Blues and folk, as well as Bob Dylan, who sounded old. I was emulating them to an extent, but I wasnt just posing as an old person. That thought resonated with me. Ive had therapists say to me: What the hell happened to you when you were young? He thinks he was just always an old soul. He remembers reading a book of blues lyrics his mother had given him. There was a lyric where it arrived at the place: I got so old, he says. It hit me really hard. I thought: F***, thats going to happen. You get to a place where you cant believe how old you are. No one ever thinks its gonna happen to them, isnt that wild?
He may be of their generation, but The Whos line about hoping theyd die before they got old never rang true for Browne. Ive always disputed that inwardly, he says. Ive had a problem with my back most of my life. In my thirties it got to where it was so painful I could barely lean over the sink when I brushed my teeth. I thought: This is the onset of decrepitude, but I hadnt tried anything! With yoga and chiropractic doctors I eradicated the problem. I remember thinking with amusement: You were really ready to accept the idea that you were decrepit and there was nothing to be done about it. Thats maybe a metaphor for what were talking about, about hope in the world. Things are so bad, but I still dont hope the world dies before it gets older.
Let the Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol 1 by Artists for Peace and Justice is released today (31 January)