Next week, you’ll get to learn the Indiecator’s picks for the top albums of 2019. For better or worse, that countdown will be limited to the nice round number of 10, meaning not everyone album can be a winner. Below are ten standout songs of 2019 from those albums that didn’t make the cut.
10. The Drums – Loner
Jonny Pierce, now the sole member of the Drums, has long excelled at matching super upbeat melodies with super downer lyrics. Therefore, while you might expect a song called “Loner” to have the chorus “And I don’t want to be alone/And I am scared of all the people in the world,” you probably wouldn’t expect said chorus to be on a generally peppy track that opens with a breakbeat and fuzzy electric guitar riffs. This is good, albeit expected fare from the Drums, but lyrics like the thinly-veiled innuendo “you said you could come and I said I could too” and the oddly-amusing metaphor “I’ve got 300 elephants shitting on my grave” set it apart, if nothing else for making you do a double-take. Lyrics aside, the real highlight of “Loner” comes in the form of a children’s choir that joins Pierce for the final chorus, which is both unexpected and impactful. I’m normally not a fan of the presence of children on rock songs, and this honestly might be the first time I’ve heard it work well. It’s a high point on the Drums’ fifth studio album Brutalism, which you can read more about here.
9. Cage the Elephant – Social Cues
If you’ve ever seen Cage the Elephant live, you know that their frontman Matt Shultz has a really outsized personality and is a top-notch performer. Therefore, it’s a little jarring to hear him sing a chorus of “hide me in the back room, tell me when it’s over, don’t know if I can play this part much longer” on Social Cues’ title track. It’s an excellent, explosive chorus, coming on the heels of verses that sound quite a bit like David Bowie. The whole thing has a bit of a psychedelic feel too, especially during the late-track instrumental break. Shultz doesn’t seem the type to confess his insecurities in this manner, but “Social Cues” tells how fame doesn’t mean a perfect life, even if others reassure him “at least you’re on the radio.”
8. Foals – Black Bull
On the Indiecator’s top song list for 2015, I sang the praises of Foals’ single “What Went Down” as “the ultimate ‘shit’s going down’ song” of that year. Little did I know, four years later Foals would outdo themselves in that category by releasing “Black Bull” on Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Vol. 2. Whereas “What Went Down” took its time to build in an increasingly aggressive crescendo, “Black Bull” rocks hard from start to finish. There are power riffs galore, pounding drums, and singer Yannis Philippakkis sounds like he’s about to blow a gasket as he howls the lyrics and lets out some primal grunts. I’m not going to even pretend I can understand said lyrics, or that the appeal of the song is its sophistication, but its juxtaposition against the moodier bits of the album does show off the band’s incredible range. Rock out for now, and read more about Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Vol. 2 here.
7. Belle and Sebastian – Sister Buddha
Back in 2002, Belle and Sebastian released the soundtrack to a relatively unknown movie called Storytelling, and the album was full of simple instrumental tracks and snippets of dialogue, making it a bit of a black sheep within Belle and Sebastian’s discography. Days of the Bagnold Summer is their second soundtrack album, and it does share some commonalities with Storytelling; you probably haven’t heard of the film Days of the Bagnold Summer, and this album likewise contains several instrumentals. However, this year’s soundtrack breaks the mold by giving us “Sister Buddha,” a single that could hold its own against anything the band has released in the last decade. It has all the bounce of 2015’s “Play for Today” without the synths, and brings back the horns that marked several earlier successes. It’s also plenty twee, with Stuart Murdoch’s simple narrative about the titular Sister Buddha describing an introspective adolescent. Basically, if you like Belle and Sebastian at all, there’s a good chance you’ll keep coming back to “Sister Buddha.”
6. Bag Raiders – In This Life
Bag Raiders’ long-awaited second studio album Horizons unfortunately didn’t seem to attract as much fanfare as their first, which got an odd leg-up of fame from an internet meme centered around their single “Shooting Stars.” Moving away from the memes and into the music, Horizons also had a much different feel from their debut, with less intensity and chiller vibes. “In This Life” strikes just the right balance between dance and downer; it has a hi-hat house beat and a strong synth outro, but also a fairly glum-sounding piano. Its only lyric is the phrase “in this life I just wanted to love you” sung over and over in the most dejected tone possible, and they really ensure the song carries emotional weight. Horizons is worth a listen even its less meme-able, and you can read more about it here.
5. Metronomy – Lately
Metronomy are best known for making electronic music that ranges from elevator muzak to club-friendly dancefloor tracks, so it’s surprising that the greatest bits of their sixth album Metronomy Forever were those that highlighted the band’s rock chops. “Lately” does have electronic elements – a keyboard melody introduces the song and reappears throughout – but it’s the muted guitar riffs and snare drums under singer Joseph Mount’s neurotic verses that really make it stand out. The result is the perfect blend of indie rock energy with synthpop hooks, and it’s easily one of Metronomy’s fines tunes. Also, be sure to check out “Insecurity,” which is another outstanding track from Metronomy Forever, which you can read a full review of here.
4. Stephen Malkmus – Come Get Me
Last year, Stephen Malkmus released Sparkle Hard with his band the Jicks, and you didn’t hear much about it on the Indiecator because I didn’t think it sparkled all that hard. However, this year Malkmus released Groove Denied under his own name, and it’s his first “true” solo album – earlier releases under his own name actually had the Jicks on them. If this weren’t a big enough landmark, Groove Denied is also mostly electronic-based, in contrast to the straightforward rock of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. That said, “Come Get Me” has far fewer synth effects than the rest of the album, relying on what sounds like a sitar and a good ol’ electric guitar. You might think this rock sound would make it sound like an outtake by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, but it actually bears a closer resemblance to Malkmus’ legendary 90s band Pavement than anything else he’s done in years. It’s a left-turn within the electronic left-turn of Groove Denied, and the worst part about “Come Get Me” is that it’s over too soon.
3. Hot Chip – Hungry Child
In case you didn’t see the countdown for the Indiecator’s top 10 music videos of 2019, which you should totally should go read, Hot Chip’s “Hungry Child” had the most innovative, well-done, and entertaining video of the year. The video centers around a couple cursed with hearing the song nonstop, which would annoy anyone, but this could actually be enjoyable in the short-term since it’s the best part of Hot Chip’s album A Bath Full of Ecstasy. Like all great Hot Chip songs, it has a simple start, gradually adding facets until it becomes a high-intensity musical collage. Here, this takes the form of slowly rising synths, disco piano, and finger snaps until it explodes into a four-on-the-floor house beat. Its lyrics are simple enough with repeated lines like “been trying hard to pull you back” and “a moment like a heart attack,” but a minute-long drum break followed by a beat drop certifies its cred as a banger. It’s got the liveliest pulse of anything on A Bath Full of Ecstasy, which you can read more about here.
2. !!! – Serbia Drums
Seasoned dance rockers !!! (pronounced chk-chk-chk) released their eighth studio album Wallop in August, and it was full of pump-you-up tracks with an old-school feel. The strongest among these was the album’s first single, “Serbia Drums,” which in a literal fashion was built around a recording of the band’s drummer Chris Egan during a Serbia tour. The titular drums beat has the “boom boom bap” feel of 90s hip-hop, which combines with some scattered guitar riffs and xylophone to make a really memorable fresh n’ fly (sorry) throwback instrumental. However, this upbeat jam is contrasted against frontman Nic Offer’s pessimistic lyrics, which are sung in a surprisingly natural voice for him. He recounts his frustrations with the music industry (“They know we have something they can sell and turn to dust”) and comes to grips with the fact that despite recent progress, the world still seems royally screwed up (“if you would have told me how things are, I would have thought that we’d have won”). It’s as thought-provoking as it is danceable, and is arguably the peak of Wallop, which you can read more about here. Also, check out the Spanish version of the song, “Tambores Serbia,” here.
1. Broken Social Scene – Can’t Find My Heart
Earlier this year, Broken Social Scene released two EPs that more or less flew under the radar, as is typical for EPs. They were titled Let’s Try the After, Vol 1 & Vol 2, and both were full of tracks that were as good as anything on Broken Social Scene’s full-length releases. Of the ten songs between them, “Can’t Find My Heart” is the most attention-grabbing. It builds slowly, but quickly establishes a motif of six-note bursts after each of Kevin Drew’s lyrical verses. These bursts are first done with guitar, but soon turn into horns for extra pizazz, and the song throws in a guitar solo and bonus verses just when you think it might be petering out. Drew’s vocal delivery is also in fine form throughout as he longingly asks “I can’t find my heart, so where’d you go?” Even if it doesn’t upend Broken Social Scene’s big-production rock style at all, “Can’t Find My Heart” has quickly become one of my favorite tracks by the band.
