We All Want Someone To Shout For

Artwork by Anthony Bauer

2019 is now technically hours away from wrapping up, and with it, a whole decade. We have had some time to sit and think about our favorite albums of the year and now we present our 100 favorite songs of the year. It’s always hard to put this together, a lot more thought goes into it than you think. How many tracks do I include from an album I listed in my top 5, what if those songs work better as a complementary piece than an individual track? How do you rank a bunch of songs that you love?

But in the end, these are 100 songs that soundtracked my year. While compiling this list, I went through a journey of my literal year of moments, good hangouts, lonely drives, good times, bad times, and everything in-between. That’s the beauty of this sort of thing and music in general.

Stay tuned as in the new year we will be doing the best of the decade in both albums and songs as well as something else that we are eager to share with you guys. But for now, find my top 100 songs of 2019 posted below listed in reverse order. You can also find a Spotify playlist right here, as well as embedded at the end of the list.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and anything you wished I included.

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Artwork by Anthony Bauer2019 came and went in a blink of an eye. Our parents always told us that time would fly by at an unthinkable and unmanageable speed the older and busier we got, and boy was it true this year more than ever. But during this warp-speed time travel, we still found time to indulge in a ton of great music, from artists both familiar and completely brand spanking new.

If you’re familiar with this space, you know I always try and wait until, you know, the year is actually over to publish my best of list. While many others are in an arms race to publish first before the Thanksgiving spread has even hit the table, I spend the last few weeks of the year revisiting albums and obsessively changing the order of my list.

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Photos by Bryan Lasky

On December 28th Phish kicked off their New Year’s run through New York at Madison Square Garden which will end with a giant bash on New Year’s Eve. The band played a typically expansive 28-song setlist which included a cover of Gene Autry’s “20/20 Vision (And Walking Around Blind), “The Who’s “Drowned” and Felice & Boudleaux Bryant’s “Rocky Top.”

Our photographer Bryan Lasky was there to capture photos from their night 1 performance, all of which can be found posted in the gallery below, along with the setlist.

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Article + Photos by Joe Saturday

The Ally Coalition, founded in 2013 by Jack Antonoff, Andrew Dost, and Nate Ruess of the band fun. as well as fashion designer Rachel Antonoff, serves to provide support to organizations that benefit LGBTQ youth. On December 12th, The Ally Coalition held its 6th Annual Talent Show at the Town Hall.

Hosted by Rachel Antonoff, the event advertised appearances by musicians and comedians such as Andrew Dost, Bleachers, Chris Laker, Dixie Chicks, Jacqueline Novak, Jason Isbell, Mike Birbiglia, Roy Wood Jr. and “very special guests.” Much like last year’s talent show, which we were also fortunate enough to cover, the surprise guests were indeed special; Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, Dev Hynes, and Carly Rae Jepsen all made unannounced appearances.

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Smalltalk is the San Francisco duo of Peter Fenn and Parker Livingston.

They returned this year with their new album I Met Jesus; She Called Me Sweetie which features the genre-defying track “Feels.” On it they dabble from everything from chill electronica and hip-hop, adopting an approach similar to The Avalanches, creating something that feels familiar yet very much in its own arena.

Find “Feels” streaming below and the whole album available to check out on their Spotify.

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moleslope is a Japanese instrumental band consisting of an eclectic ensemble of seven experienced musicians. They have combined elements of jazz, Canterbury rock, post-rock and minimal music to create something of their own, as seen on their debut full-length album SLOPE.

Today we’d like to share with you the swift and jazzy effort “Changing” which opens the EP. This is a smooth and cleanly produced jazz effort that sounds like it would’ve been right at home on the Whiplash soundtrack. If this is how they’re kicking off the album, you know the rest of it must be pretty damn good.

Find the album streaming on Spotify and find a stream of “Changing” below.
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“Sir Francis Drake” is the debut single from Cartography, written, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by the project’s mastermind, Trevor Misplay.

The track indulges in a touching and personal folk-rock arena while taking its glance towards a more lush and dreamy psych-rock sound that glows with shimmering beauty.

This is one hell of a debut effort, one that feels fully realized and formed.

Find a bit about the songwriting process from Msiplay below, along with the stream of the track:

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Photos by Brian Berson

New Jersey punk rockers The Bouncing Souls celebrated their 30th anniversary as a band with the release of their new EP Crucial Moments as well as a tour. They brought their show to Brooklyn on December 20th for a performance at Brooklyn Steel along with openers The Bronx, Strike Anywhere, The Bar Stool Preachers.

Our photographer Brian Berson was there to capture photos from all four performances, all of which can be found posted in the gallery below along with The Bouncing Souls’ setlist.

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Photos by Brian Berson

Earlier this year we caught Jesse Malin at Webster Hall, a celebration for the release of his new album Sunset Kids, which was released via Wicked Cool Records.

On December 19th he brought a different sort of celebration of the album to New York for a performance at Bowery Ballroom which featured many special guests, including Lucinda Williams, who served as a co-producer on the record along with her husband Tom Overby and helped lend her songwriting talents on vocals on a handful of tracks.

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Photos by Killian Young

A$AP Ferg wrapped up his “Floor Seats” tour in support of his new EP Floor Seats, which was released earlier this year. On December 20th he kicked off the first of his two-night run at Terminal 5 and our photographer Killian Young was there to capture photos from his performance.

Find a gallery of shots from Night 1 at Terminal 5 posted below, along with the setlist.

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