1. Justin Moore - Late Nights And Longnecks
6 of the 10 songs on the aptly titled Late Nights And Longnecks are about drinking, from "Why We Drink" to "Airport Bar" (and not even counting the single "The Ones That Didn't Make It Back Home," which suggests holding up a beer to salute fallen heroes). And that suits me just fine as somebody who once made a playlist of all of the George Jones songs about booze. Justin Moore's deep Arkansas twang is one of my favorite voices in country music today, the only artist who I included 6 years in a row on my annual country single lists. And his 5th album might be his strongest set of songs to date, the first since his debut where he co-wrote every song. Here's my 2019 albums Spotify playlist that you can find all of these records in.

2. DDm - Beautiful Gowns
I remember when a teenager named Midas started winning rap battles in Baltimore in 2005, his wit and his love of performing just totally outshining the competition. And I've really enjoyed getting to know that kid and watching him grow up, find his musical voice, come out of the closet, bounce from one crew to another and change his stage name to Dappa Dan!!! Midas and then DDm (and now sometimes Unkle Lulu) and make a wide range of music and occasionally go viral for things like his dramatic readings of Omarosa's memoir last year. DDm has said in the run up to Beautiful Gowns that it's his last album, and I never believe any musician when they say that, but it would be a solid finale if it is, it's a really eclectic and imaginative rap album, "Fly On The Wall" and "Closed" are the kind of thought provoking songs only he could have written but there's also a lot of funny, danceable stuff on here.

3. Chance The Rapper - The Big Day
As I accurately predicted when I posted a Chance playlist here a few weeks ago, the slowly turning tide of public opinion in the three years since Coloring Book has crested into a full-on backlash for Chance's new album. And I get it, but I don't. It's not his best record, but it's still pretty strong and of a piece with his back catalog. Even when he was a kid who made school suspensions and tripping on psychedelics the themes of his first 2 mixtapes, he was overwhelmingly wholesome compared to any other young rapper -- this is just the same guy as a married dad a few years. It's a lot to take in -- almost 80 minutes, none of the 7 singles he released over the previous year (though any of them would've been welcome on the album, aside from "Groceries"). But the unhurried sprawl and genuinely odd array of guests (Randy Newman's voice was where I did a double take) remind me of Surf more than any Chance solo project, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, it's very relaxed and easygoing. The chorus of the first song starts with "we can't be out here pleasing everybody/ we know who we are" and to my ears this whole record follows through on that philosphy -- Chance is never gonna be the rapper that everybody agrees on but he's really good at being himself and has already taken it farther than I honestly thought was possible. That first verse of "Roo" and "Sun Come Down" stand out as some really interesting writing, and there are entertaining left turns like the sudden screamed "fuck it, fuck it, fuck it" tangent in the middle of the otherwise placid title track.

4. Maxo Kream - Brandon Banks
I didn't hear Maxo Kream's previous projects so it's possible tuning in for his big Roc Nation debut is the wrong move and I'm catching up to the wrong thing. But this is really good, he has a pretty distinct voice and perspective, only the Travis Scott collab that sounds like everyone else's Travis Scott collab edges it into cookie cutter major label rap album territory but throwing that into the first 4 tracks really is a bad idea. But by the end it really builds well to some of the most autobiographical songs, "Brothers" and "Dairy Ashford Bastard." The buzz that Jay-Z helped sequence the album makes me wonder which choices were his.

5. BJ The Chicago Kid - 1123
I didn't realize BJ The Chicago Kid has been around as long as he has, that he's 34 and has been writing and singing backup for major artists dating back to 2001. Maybe the 'kid' part threw me off. He's talented, though, I'm glad he squeaked out another major label album after the last one did little and his singles continue to get ignored by radio, this one has some great production and is probably as good as 2016's In My Mind, maybe better. And the dancey Afrojack collaboration may look funny on paper, but it works really well as an album closer.

6. Yuna - Rouge
Yuna's voice is gorgeous and it's cool to see a Malaysian artist make some inroads to American R&B radio, this record's lead single is her 3rd charting song in the states. Unfortunately, Rouge is like an American R&B album in the respect that I'd like it a lot more without any of the rap features, it would flow a lot better without verses from G-Eazy or Kyle.

7. E-40 - Practice Makes Paper
A couple weeks ago my family went on vacation for a few days, and I took it as a sign of good luck when our rental car was waiting in a parking spot marked 'E40.' Other artists might have larger catalogs counting mixtape, but E-40 is probably the first rapper to have made 28 albums, all sold and distributed on a national level. And Practice Makes Paper is another long one, 86 minutes after last year's The Gift Of Gab was a rare short E-40 album. At this point his formula is so set in stone that you either love it or hate it and no new record is gonna change that, but it's fun to hear new combinations of artists, what it sounds like to have Roddy Ricch or Tee Grizzley or Redman on an E-40 song. And E-40's brazenly unique approach to flow still turns up some interesting new approaches, like the echoing triplet ad libs on "Imma Find Out."

8. Sabrina Carpenter - Singular Act II
20-year-old former minor Disney Channel star Sabrina Carpenter has been hovering around the cusp of graduating from Radio Disney to actual Top 40 stardom for a few years now without quite getting there. I didn't care much for her earlier singles or last year's 8-track mini-album Singular Act I, but the new 9-song sequel is sounding a little stronger, she's got some old pros like Stargate and Warren "Oak" Felder and has found out a good way to use her kinda nasal voice. Even a spare ballad like "Tell Em" comes off really well where I think it would stop some other pop albums in its tracks, so I think she's onto something.

9. Tituss Burgess - Saint Tituss EP
Last weekend, Tituss Burgess performed at the Kennedy Center, and I had the opportunity to run the lyric prompter for the concert. It was a great show and I really enjoyed working with Tituss, he was such a pro and so kind to everybody. But I didn't even realize until the next day that he'd just released a 6-song EP. None of these songs were in his setlist (which included of a lot of Stevie Wonder and gospel and "Love Shack"), so it's interesting to hear another side of him on original material like this, which ranges from the witty political opener "45" to the piano ballad "I'll Be Alright."

10. Nas - The Lost Tapes 2
I think a lot of hyperbole and sketchy received wisdom has kind of grown around Nas and his catalog. Obviously most of the albums since Illmatic have been less than perfect and sometimes poor beat selection and leaving good tracks off the albums have been to blame. But the extent to which those things are true has sometimes been exaggerated to the point that 2002's The Lost Tapes has been built up as one of his best albums (which I never agreed with), and expectations were absurdly high for the sequel, even among people who have nothing good about the albums it consists of outtakes from besides Life Is Good. And that culminated in the somewhat over-the-top reactions to the first single "Jarreau of Rap (Skatt Attack)," which I think is a typical endearingly clumsy Nas misfire -- for my money "Tanasia" is the worst song here, everything I hate about mediocre Nas songs bottled up in one. But most of the stuff on here is pretty good, I really dig "The Art of It" and "Highly Favored," nice palette cleanser after that Nasir crap.

The Worst Album of the Month: Bryce Vine - Carnival
I tend to group Bryce Vine into a vague cohort with Bazzi and Lauv, guys making fratty vaguely R&Bish top 40 pop, and his debut album is a brisk 26 minutes long like a Soundcloud rap album. At one point, he sings nostalgically about "the days of Looney Tunes and watching 'Entourage,'" and I think I would've assumed that watching Vinnie Chase and Johnny Drama was a formative experience for him even if he'd never mentioned it. There's a somewhat clever, savvy, self aware personality somewhere in there, but Bryce Vine would have to start singing and/or writing a lot better to come off as more than a genre-blurring douchebag.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 02, 2019 at 12:16 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.