The Top Songs of 2019 (70-66)

There have been a lot of really great songs released in 2019. This year, we will be revealing our top 100 songs five tunes at a time all the way to number one. Here are our picks for 70-66.

Go back in time to picks 100-96

Go back in time to picks 95-91

Go back in time to picks 86-90

Go back in time to picks 81-85

Go back in time to picks 80-76

Go back in time to picks 75-71

70. Petrov – Divine Wine

Petrov is another one of the great bands to come out of North Carolina, this time Charlotte. With the addition of Mary Grace McKusick as the primary songwriter and lead vocalist, an added Post-Punk attitude was developed giving the band a bit of a harder edge. With a passing resemblance to the Police song “Message in a Bottle”, this is the sort of song that might be what Janis Joplin would have been recording.

69. Tiny Ruins – School of Design

It is hard to imagine that a chance wandering into the library of a school of design to kill some time would yield such elegance, but imagine no more. This sparse pastoral beauty finds beauty in simple things like the well-designed clocks all ticking in time.

68. Bryan Adams – Whiskey in A Jar

Listen closely, as you likely will never see this sentence written in this space ever again. This new Bryan Adams song is really cool, and unironically so. Playing things acoustically safe Adams’ gargle with razor blades voice seems to be perfectly suited to this Thin Lizzy rocker. Sure, he goes all Rod Stewart unplugged on the arrangement, but hey, it is sort of good to see the guy relevant again in this new Millenium.

67. The National – Light Years

As you work your way through the highly excellent new National L.P., I Am Easy To Find, and the 16 songs presented to you, there, at the very end, the last track on the record is “Light Years.” It seems like a simple song, starting off with a piano melody morphing into the hushed vocals of Matt Berninger. Simple it may be, but it is a beauty.

66. Anderson . Paak – Make It Better (feat. Smokey Robinson)

This one is clearly the bedroom, between the sheets, jam of the year. Who among us wouldn’t want to rekindle a bit of romance by getting jiggy with it in a motel room just like you used to do? With Smokey Robinson in fine form, this one could have come right from a 1972 hot tub time machine.

 

 

 

 

 

Best Albums of 2019: Tiny Ruins – Olympic Girls

Tiny Ruins is a band out of Aukland, New Zealand that Hollie Fullbrook put together to release her solo material. Described as the sonic equivalent of dancing around the moon, Tiny Ruins is a beautifully understated gem.

With a voice that is warm and textured at the same time, one can close their eyes and open their ears to hear a bit of Joni Mitchell in Fullbrook’s gentle vocal delivery, particularly so on the song “Bounty.”

The title track, “Olympic Girls,” has a more pastoral feel to it and would not have been too far out of place on a back in the day Pentangle album.

The song “Holograms” (Fleetwood Mac on acid) evokes a tinge of Carole King in it’s DNA, seems to be the centerpiece of the record.

Every song on this record seems richer and more expansive than the last. This is an album that demands a sit down and let this one wash over you sort of listening experience with multiple sessions yielding layers upon layers of musical morsels to delicately digest.