Well 2019 has come and nearly gone, scattering an array of musical treats as it shot by faster than any other year ever has. Here are the Tracksuite select ten albums of the year, listed in no particular order. With some added extras of note.

Roseanne Reid – Trails

I first saw Roseanne Reid appear at a Townes Van Zandt tribute night at the Glasgow Americana Festival a couple of years ago. As with all the performers that night, she did one Van Zandt cover and one tune of her own. I recall her as very quietly spoken but what appeared first as timidity, soon disappeared as a gentle confidence brought a beautiful performance. As good as all the other acts were, Roseanne’s own song that night stood out as something considerably more special to my gig companion and me. We were looking forward to following the progression of this career very closely. And so, after a steady drip feed of fantastic new work development on social media, the album ‘Trails’ finally arrived in April this year, courtesy of a crowd funding campaign and the sought production talents of Teddy Thompson. It was so worth the wait, a thing of absolute beauty from start to finish. Downplayed and subtle – heartbreaking and breathtaking. The first release ‘Sweet Annie’ features Steve Earle no less! But the most surprising thing about guest vocals from someone of the status of Steve Earle is just how so unsurprising it sounds. Yes, they’ve known each other for a few years after Reid attended one of Earle’s Camp Copperhead songwriting workshops, where apparently Earle heard a first draft of Sweet Annie among others but the point is that nothing here sounds like a debut. Reid’s ageless folk country sound speaks tales of love and heartache seemingly from a wise old soul tested and unbroken, and with a tenderness that surely couldn’t fail to affect even the hardest hearted listener.

Blanck Mass – Animated Violence Mild

In amongst the best in this year’s music, mostly dominated by fairly classic song styling, Blanck Mass smashed its way through with ‘Animated Violence Mild’, released in August on Sacred Bones, a refreshingly welcome wall of violent noise. Joe Creely gave it a 5 star review in the Skinny, saying the latest work by Edinburgh based artist Benjamin John Power, one half of the electronic duo Fuck Buttons, ‘may well be Power’s finest solo record, a continuation of the last decade-and-a-half of pushing himself into new sonic realms. It’s an astonishing work; actively abrasive and incandescent with fury with a core of unaffected raw feeling.’ After the intro the album’s rage builds instantly on ‘Death Drop’ and give or take a couple of small points of respite, it relentlessly feeds the fire for the duration. Those amongst us for whom this appeals, and I would argue to a whole load more who might not think it would, this is an epic treat. Upon its release Power released this accompanying statement as a reference point “In this post-industrial, post-enlightenment religion of ourselves, we have manifested a serpent of consumerism which now coils back upon us. It seduces us with our own bait as we betray the better instincts of our nature and the future of our own world. We throw ourselves out of our own garden. We poison ourselves to the edges of an endless sleep. I believe that many of us have wilfully allowed our survival instinct to become engulfed by the snake we birthed.” – and if that’s not terrifying enough, this album is the perfect apocalyptic soundtrack to that vision.

Lankum – The Livelong Day

In the autumn of 2017 I heard the opening song ‘What Will We Do When We have No Money?’ from the album ‘Beneath the Earth and Sky’ by Lankum (formerly Lynched) the self described Dublin folk miscreants. Instantly I heard the sound of what folk music could, and arguably, should be. In this same blog of that year, I described how the song on first listen made me cry and has done on every listen since. What I failed to clarify was why. It wasn’t because of any saccharine sentiment but simply because it had sheer weight of power. The music seemed to channel the souls of people long since dead who suffered under the weight of this world but yet who bore their burden steadfastly. That power and strength is for me, what lies at the heart of Lankum’s music. The new album ‘The Livelong Day’ released in October on Rough Trade continues reinterpreting folk music of the past but again, as with all they’ve ever done, nothing sounds like the treading of familiar ground. You may think there’s no new way to go with the well frequented folk staple ‘The Wild Rover’ but well into the full 10 min album track version (the video below is shortened, seek out the album version), all has changed and the instrumental torment that closes the track just may have you questioning your own sanity and may have nudged you from whatever soft safety you thought you had before you started listening. I knew immediately it had to be the closing track for Tracksuite’s Best Tracks of 2019 playlist, which will be coming soon. It was between that and the gorgeous ‘The Dark Eyed Gypsy’, a story of hard fought love played at such a sluggishly slow pace that would be usually unbearable but which Lankum have truly mastered as the means to the message. Jude Rogers wrote in The Guardian ‘Nothing less than a thorough exploration and devastation of folk’s most conventional tropes is Lankum’s impressive game.’

Fontaines D.C. – Dogrel

This startling piece of work is undoubtedly on the vast majority of Best album lists this year and the second Dublin based album in Tracksuite’s short list. Susan Hansen of Clash Mag wrote ‘Dublin in the rain belongs to Fontaines D.C., and rather than being too real this album is just right, it is a ragged delivery. The trick lies in the seemingly un-filtered rawness combined with its stark poetic reality. The three components help secure this album’s position as an example of authenticity; authenticity in its most concentrated and truest form and expression.’ The two words raw and authentic are open terms but do accurately sum up the quality on show in this startling debut by post punks Fontaines DC. They are so good but also more importantly, so accessible that they’ve gone from scene stealing upstarts to dominant untouchables in the space of a year. The Guardian said ‘This is the kind of song writing quality that bands can take years to reach, or never reach at all: brilliant, top to bottom.’ They are many a dichotomy this band – poetic yet visceral, underdog yet accomplished, familiar yet mould shattering. The mid album stormer ‘Hurricane Laughter’ is Tracksuite’s pick for the ‘best of’ playlist - DIY Mag describes ‘its verses full of stream-of-consciousness intrigue before building to a moshpit-inducing, shout-along inclusive chorus’. The opening track is called ‘Big’, they know they are something special.

Reese McHenry – No Dados

North Carolina’s Resse McHenry is such a force of nature that not even a major stroke, several life threatening aftershocks and an irregular heartbeat can stop her. Instead, where the level of personal health scare she’s had might force the most die-hard rocker to take pause, McHenry seems only spurred on. As put by Zachary Lipez of Bandcamp following much medical attention ‘Maybe it’s overly sentimental to put too much on the rebuilding of a heart, but McHenry makes garage rock and soul for thick-skinned romantics: it just comes with the territory’. After her first solo work ‘Bad Girl’ in 2017, the follow up ‘No Dados’ is a non-stop bonanza of high quality furious garage rock loaded with soul. The sheer blistering passion behind the first four tracks ‘Magnolia Tree ‘Detroit’ ‘Bye Bye Baby’ and ‘Fever’, played straight feels like a dive bar moshpit you’re never getting out of and don’t mind one bit. Her full dial powerhouse vocal style, reminiscent of the great Janis Joplin, carries the fire of any straight rocking number but its not too much to compare her further to Joplin to say she also has the range in that voice to lace incredibly affecting blues and soul into the slower numbers. Eric Danton of Paste Mag said ‘A voice like hers is a rare quality, and it’s surely as gratifying to McHenry as it is to her fans that she finally has a chance to make the most of it.’

Brighde Chaimbeul - The Reeling

The debut album from young Skye piper Brighde Chaimbeul has had lavish critical recognition since its release in mid January on the River Lea label. It received 5 star reviews in fRoots and Songlines, came down to last 20 of the Scottish Album of the Year award and The Guardian named it album of the month, calling it "Simultaneously ancient and modern, profound and direct." Recorded live in a church on the Black Isle town of Cromarty and produced by Lau’s Aidan O’Rourke, Chaimbeul’s mastery of the Scottish pipes is obviously evident but she’s literally breathing new life into the sound. The songs feel fresh and light, almost playful in parts, dropping any macho laden pre conceptions you might have with the instrument. Don’t worry though, none of the passion and heart that the sound of the pipes has conjured in a thousand odd years has been lost here. The music has been reinvigoured from an impassioned and youthful heart.

Black Pumas - Black Pumas

Another one of four debut releases in this years list. Much like the others but arguably more so – this Black Pumas record sounds like the distillation of many years crafting a sound rather than a debut. Damian Morris wrote in the Guardian: ‘Like Portishead 25 years ago, it’s a debut so perfectly realised by the standards they’ve set themselves that you wonder what could possibly come next.’ The Texan duo of Adrian Quesada and Eric Burton released this collection of heavy beat backed soulful delights back in June on ATO and are among the nominations for Best New Artist at next years Grammys. From the moment the lazy kick groove comes in on the brilliant opener ‘Black Moon Rising’ and Burton’s quality vintage voice pours over, you know there’s some aural honey coming your way. Leading straight into the incredibly beautiful ‘Colors’, the Tracksuite favourite picked out for the playlist. As Hal Horowitz writes in American Songwriter – ‘it’s so inviting, subtle and enticing, you can’t help but be sucked into Black Puma’s heartfelt musical swirl’. Indeed you can’t. Infact why fight it? Find your space and time for this album, it deserves it, a luscious package reminiscent of a plethora of great soul records from the golden eras of the genre but one which still feels perfectly placed for right now.

Lillie Mae - Other Girls

Well ain’t I a sucker for a genuine country croon? Lillie Mae has Patsy, Loretta, Dolly and Tammy all wrapped up in her old timey heart wrenching voice. Coupled with classic string soaked composition and production, this is a fantastic set of songs that just carry on breaking your heart over and over again. This wanders along standard country music roads of longing, heartache, love both lost and unrequited but when you’ve got song writing and performance this authentically good, who could possibly mind? It plays a familiarity that you don’t know you need till it fills your ears and heart, and she knows her craft well. She started to play and perform live at the age of 3, guitar at 5 and fiddle at 7, performing with her family for years before going on to work closely with Jack White on a series of projects. She released, both her debut ‘Forever and Then Some’ in 2017 (produced by White) on White’s Third Man Records, and also this her follow up record in August, this time produced by multi Grammy award winning producer Dave Cobb, maybe most famous recently for his contributions to The Star is Born movie soundtrack. While pausing from touring as she recalls for the first time in her memory, she told Rolling Stone ‘This has been the slowest year of my life’ and Pitchfork notes that ‘the effects of this slowdown can be heard everywhere on this album. Regrets and disappointments linger in the music the way they do in life, casting long shadows. On her last album, she was at her finest when near breathless, but here she soars in the pauses.’

Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury

The fourth full-length album release for the outlaw country’s outlaw. Another stunning piece of complete work fired off at yet another tangent for the artist who can’t be pinned down. Nothing necessarily experimental or unapproachable here though, Simpson simply describes it as a ‘Sleazy, Steamy, Rock ‘n’ Roll record’, it’s just nothing like he’s done before. Released in Sept on Elektra, and launched by the furiously enjoyable ‘Sing Along’ with a video that referred to the albums accompanying anime film on Netflix, apparently loosely based on the Kurisawa samurai epic Yojimbo. I haven’t seen the film and although I’m sure I probably would enjoy it, I’m happy to just let the songs tell their own story for now. It’s a massively exciting ride from start to finish and you do hear the cited influences Simpson claims of everything from T.Rex to La Roux. He builds up his heavy country sound through glam rock and synth pop, tears through classic rocking numbers and finishes it all off with the extraordinary ‘Fastest Horse In Town’, a slow paced epic scuzzy brooder of a track that took me back to the early Soundgarden album ‘Louder Than Love’ with tracks like ‘Hands All Over’ and ‘Loud Love’. As Alexis Petridis wrote in his 5 star Guardian review ‘He isn’t the first musician to throw his label a curveball while protesting about the pressures of fame and the grim nature of the music business. That said, it’s hard to think of anyone else who’s done it by making an album as gripping and enjoyable as this.’ Tracksuite is immensely grateful to a friend who has held on to tickets to see Simpson in Glasgow next year, despite my tardiness in replying to the invite – thank you David, can’t wait.

Various Artists - Digital Kabar (Electronic Maloya from La Réunion Since 1980)

Released in June on the alt electronic French label InFine. Possibly the first compilation album featured in a Tracksuite best of list. Strange, because I am drawn to these things like a pet to a shiny Christmas bauble. Rare geographical musical setting, old meets new, folk/roots meets modern electronic – give me the shiny thing now! Unfortunately, temptations like these rarely fulfill the promise, there always tends to be considerable filler. However, this collection succeeds and delivers throughout. Maloya is a slave/roots style that dates back to 17th century from tiny French island of La Reunion, some 500 miles off the coast of Madagascar. Then in the 60’s, the church controlled political establishment suppressed and outlawed it. It reemerged again alongside the electronic musical developments of the 80s and 90s and this album picks up the story from there, selecting original material from that period aswell as work remixed by contemporary artists. If that sounds remotely like your thing then get around it. Alex Barck of Germany’s Sonar Kollectiv has built one of the scene’s figureheads Christine Salem’s track Oh Africa into a sublime tech house groover. Probably the most radio play was got by the Sheitan Brothers track, Gardien Volcan, a highly infectious shaker with lots of Arabic influence known to their work. Tracksuite’s pick is the amazing pounding, driving techno rework by Swiss outfit Alma Negra of Christine Salem’s band Salem Tradition’s song Kabaré, and as I think is clear by now, you can find that in the Best Tracks of 2019 Playlist, coming very soon to this here blog.

There’s a suggested ten must haves. Here’s some more highly recommended.

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Ancestral Recall

Subjective - Act One. Music for Inanimate Objects

Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds - Singing it All Back Home

Thats it for now. Thankyou for your time, go get around the music. Best Tracks of 2019 playlist and the fast developing traditional Xmasuite playlist coming soon to the blog.

Much Love

D@Tracksuite