was largely informed by their relentless touring schedule and the band’s heightened personal and musical synergy. Lead singer Tom Mcgreevy leads the way with his calming but sure-handed vocals, singing songs about hopelessness that sound anything but. Elva's Winter Sun[Tapete] But many of our favorite records of the year, like Angel Olsen’s All Mirrors and The National’s I Am Easy To Find, fell somewhere in the middle, as each of those benefitted from swelling strings and grand arrangements. The songs quietly ask questions of themselves, about the past and what we're all up to, day by day. Instead, it feels like Mering knows exactly where she’s going. Film both reflected and refracted the homophobia. On “Ideal World” and “Crowded Stranger,” Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker sang in bright unison, delivering lyrics about the tribulations of teenager-hood through the vocal equivalent of a forced smile. The voices of Gus Lord and Claudia Serfaty alternate, overlap and complement each other, as the instruments do much the same. The On the Line singles are all illustrious earworms, but the album opener, “Heads Gonna Roll,” is especially grandiose. In 2019, much of Big Thief’s ethos feels like a throwback to the LP era: the prolific output (think Creedence circa 1969-1970), the album-stream-as-vinyl-sides, the band’s creative intimacy and affinity for recording live with minimal overdubs. Another somewhat rootsy tune “Hank Williams” is unexpected, but it’s one of the peppiest country-punk tracks since Iceage stomper “The Lord’s Favorite.” “The Craft” finds their eccentric post-punk at its sharpest and most cartoonish. Or it can leave you feeling high on independence. Expand your music horizons with the best indie songs of 2019. It’s easy to oversimplify the path that recovering addicts must take toward rehabilitation. Patience is the name for the personal pop project of Roxanne Clifford, singer for the adored early 2010s band Veronica Falls.

Her roots as an avant-garde violinist and appreciation for ethnomusicology frequently surface on her first full-length album, which merges minimal electronic beats with breathy R&B, windy psychedelia and dynamic strings. Perhaps most triumphantly, Yanya pulls off jazz-infused, scrappy guitar pop with much more emotional and musical nuance than the buzzy, male-dominated “sad boi” acts like Rex Orange County or other beanie-donning dudes with keyboards and Stratocasters. \Marking at least the second mention of cocktail ingredients on this album, “Red Bull & Hennessy” is a delicious display of desire. A record that’s roughly five songs too long and as many choruses too cheesy may not sound like the most enticing listen, but Ezra Koenig expertly spins even the shabbiest couplets into nuance—and he does it to the tune of pure sunshine. But it’s also rooted, deeply, in a sense of calm. “I have no idea what black midi sounds like,” I wrote, adding “But here’s what I do know: This is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.” That hasn’t changed after six months and another 50 front-to-back listens. Ulven’s debut album is expected to drop in 2020, so make sure you keep your tissues fully stocked. Olsen still deals with bad partners on her fourth album, All Mirrors, but this time around, she escapes their destruction and finds not just happiness, but catharsis. A closet full of monsters is a scary place where "straight people" can safely negotiate and articulate their fascination and/or dread of "difference" in sexuality. With this comeback, Koenig proves they’re not going anywhere.

—Max Freedman, Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion is an icon in the making, a force majeure in the lineage of Houston rap.

A few songs before the album’s end is a soaring piano number, “Endling,” that’ll make you think you’ve been sitting through a period piece film as opposed to an album. Keepsake's songs of heartbreak and infatuation feel comforting, familiar, yet exhilarating and new. The overall sullen tone makes it seem likely they're not finding easy answers to their questions. You can hear it in the robust string sections of album opener “A Lot’s Gonna Change” and the sturdy backbone-beat of “Andromeda” and the sentiments of “Wild Time,” a patient ambler with a ’70s soft-rock vibe (including a hint of “Landslide”) and a plainspoken bridge: “Everyone’s broken now,” Mering sings, “And no one knows just how we could have all gotten so far from truth.” —Ben Salmon, © 2020 Paste Media Group. In Carl Neville's latest novel, Eminent Domain, he creates complexities and then shatters them into tiny narrative bits arrayed along a non-linear timeline. What Chaos was produced by David Tolomei, who has engineered records for Beach House, Daughter, Torres, and other groups known for summoning darkness through bold vocals swirled into maelstroms of electronic noise. He’s been there long enough to write about the city with authority. On his latest and, sadly, last album—self-titled and released under the name Purple Mountains—Berman doesn’t sound like a different person than the one that walked away a decade ago. After a 2017 comeback of sorts, the group's new record finds them expanding their sonic by revisiting their hometown with a surprising degree of reverence.

—Lizzie Manno, To witness a shape-shifting musician like Jenny Lewis truly evolve throughout the years—succeed in multiple projects, try on manifold musical styles, experience pain and loss and outline it all in her songs—and then arrive at a sensational album like On The Line feels monumental.

The LP comprises vast, acerbic voids that fashion the bile of Ashworth’s personal turbulence into a balm for listeners experiencing similar woes. Not to mention exuberant group singalongs, all four women seemingly joining together for a chorus of delightful weirdness. But I haven’t connected with a band this hard in years. Some records demand to be heard with headphones. It’s a trick that only somebody who’s already put in her 10,000 hours could pull off so well, or maybe it’s just in her blood. Following their 2018 debut Dig Yourself, the Philadelphia trio led by Miri Devora have returned with even more affecting, tuneful melodies and bittersweet shimmers on their second album. Instead of diminishing the importance of "indie pop" as a separate category, those trends do the opposite. Jacklin said, in writing it, she realized “how not very special” she is (evident in “Body,” as she sings, “It’s just my body / I guess it’s just my life”). The songs have the ecstatic optimism of exploration, working through ideas in skeletal form.

2019 -- the 14th year I've attempted to summarize the year in indie-pop -- again brought a wealth of music within this segment.

The album thickens Girlpool’s sound by adding drum tracks, synthesizers, and even a string octet on the title track. Fontaines D.C. are more poetic than the bands they’re lumped in with, and their debut album Dogrel is a testament to a different set of concerns. —Joshua Bote, Masked country crooner Orville Peck is forging a path all his own. Sure, the band called this release Get Bleak, but there’s no chance you’ll feel any of the emotions they sing about throughout these four tracks—in fact, you’ll feel the exact opposite. Dogrel is an album of tremendous ardor and vivid landscapes, and interspersed with an Irish underdog spirit, Fontaines D.C. are nearly untouchable. With two EPs—chapter 1 and chapter 2—and a series of singles in hand, Ulven makes lo-fi pop for those who can’t get enough love-dovey heart flutters or photo booth strips with their significant others. Grammy-winning jazz composer Maria Schneider released Data Lords partly as a reaction to her outrage that streaming music services are harvesting the data of listeners even as they pay musicians so little that creativity is at risk. Scrobble songs to get recommendations on tracks you'll love. Artemis is an inconsistent outing, but it dazzles just often enough.

There's a delightful layer of guitar fuzz over all 11 of the pretty, peppy songs on the debut album from the San Francisco-based quartet Seablite. Rocketship's Thanks to You [Darla] God!” throughout “Piss River,” pausing to let each syllable hang in the air. Their highly-anticipated debut album, Active Listening: Night on Earth, released on DIY label Get Better Records (and later re-released on Fat Possum), is further proof that you can achieve the highest highs of pop via unconventional musical vehicles.

The Best Indie Pop of 2018 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2017 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2015 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2014 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie-Pop of 2013 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie-Pop of 2012 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2010 - PopMatters ›, The Best Indie Pop of 2008 - PopMatters ›, The 10 Best Indie Pop Albums of 2010 - PopMatters ›, Johnny Nash Refused to Remember His Place, In the Tempest's Eye: An Interview with Surfer Blood, John Hollenbeck Completes a Trilogy with 'Songs You Like a Lot', Matthew Murphy's Post-Wombats Project Sounds a Lot Like the Wombats (And It's a Good Thing), The Return of the Rentals After Six Years Away, Jazz Composer Maria Schneider Takes on the "Data Lords" in Song, 'Wildflowers & All the Rest' Is Tom Petty's Masterpiece.

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