Best Albums Of 2019
The Cups N Cakes Network grew exponentially in 2019. In past years, founder Jeff MacCallum had all the say in the “Best Of” lists but for the first time, the entire team (fourteen strong) pitched in with their choices for all the “Best Of” coverage. As a team, we are very excited to finally reveal our favourite albums of 2019!
Browse these amazing releases, give them a listen, and if you like what you hear, please give them your support.
#25 - Melted Mirror
Past Life // Independent
With Past Life, Calgary’s Melted Mirror have crafted a perfect album for our present dystopian times. There is a sense of dread, regret and doubt in lyrics juxtaposed by catchy melodies and synth-lines that offers some respite. The world maybe going to shit but at least we have Melted Mirror’s Past Life as a soundtrack.
- Piyush Patel
#24 - Tara Kannangara
It’s Not Mine Anymore // Independent
Tara Kannangara’s sophomore release is an extremely focused effort that blends synth-pop with jazz. Kannangara joins others finally giving a middle finger to the jazz-hole purists by cross-pollinating their old and tired sounds with something new and fresh.
- Jeff MacCallum
#23 - FET.NAT
Le Mal // Boiled
FET.NAT return providing their most ambitious offering yet. Twisted vocals and chopped beats provide a point of focus as wailing sax and warped bass lines glide along to create a truly unique experiment in music.
- Kennedy Pawluk
#22 - Owen Davies
Lollipop Pumpkinhead // So Sorry
Owen Davies is easily the most underrated songwriter in Canada. The way he blends classical elements with electronic sounds is nothing short of amazing. On Lollipop Pumpkinhead, multiple ideas and styles smash together in a collision that creates no damage, only beauty.
- Jeff MacCallum
#21 - Kimmortal
X Marks The Swirl // Coax
A hip-hop tear down of misogyny, racism, and homophobia. If you don’t believe it’s as difficult for women (even more so, women of colour) to navigate the world as Kimmortal expresses on X Marks The Swirl, then you’re part of the problem.
- Jeff MacCallum
#20 - Tunic
Complexion // Self Sabotage
2019 brought us Tunic’s longest and most blistering release yet. Driving bass underlies screeching guitars with the pound of thrashing percussion to give us 21 minutes of unrelenting force.
- Kennedy Pawluk
#19 - Common Holly
When I say to you Black Lightning // Solitaire
Experimental enchantress Brigitte Naggar has captured a peculiar poised weirdness that captivates you from beginning to end on her sophomore effort When I say to you Black Lightning.
- Nicola Gunter
#18 - Bridal Party
Too Much // Kingfisher Bluez
Bridal Party’s debut record Too Much is a stylish, melodically inventive pop record that is ripe with hooks and earworms. The band’s wry, sardonic, lyricism is a perfect fit atop songs that feel carefree and instantly likeable, but reveal harmonic depth and complexity on repeated listens.
- Sean Newton
#17 - Merival
Lesson // Independent
Merival’s beautiful songwriting shines on Lesson, which is equal parts despair and fresh air. The songs seem to dance with the excitement of moving on and learning from past hurts, never wallowing in self pity but rising above with a new lease on life.
- Jeshaiah David
#16 - The Bobby Tenderloin Universe
Self-Titled // Keeping On
The debut release from The Bobby Tenderloin Universe is the feverish fantasy of a concussed cowhand as he is nursed back to his senses after stepping on a rake.
- JD Ormond
#15 - Begonia
Fear // Rex Baby Records
On Fear, Begonia doesn’t play it safe. She is an incredible singer that knows how to use her voice to go off with confidence or dial it back with purpose. The album proves the perfect vehicle for her incredible talent to bloom; there’s enough space for her huge voice to have maximum impact, as well as enough room to explore the softer and more experimental side of her songwriting and personality.
- Greg Torwalt
#14 - Deliluh
Beneath The Floors // Telephone Explosion
Beneath The Floors is an album that sneaks up on you and surprises you with its heaviness. The band starts the album out with a steady pulse that becomes frantic as they descend into darkness with melancholic experimentation.
- Jeshaiah David
#13 - Slam Dunk
In Hell // Independent
Always leaving us craving for more, Slam Dunk, graced us with the release of In Hell this year and, once again delivered their rambunctious feel-good, frenzied garage rock. This time sans-saxophone but still maintaining all the idiosyncratic elements of their admired signature sound.
- Nicola Gunter
#12 - The Shiverettes
Real Shrill Bitches // Independent
Impassioned, fierce, and rightfully pissed off, Real Shrill Bitches, is loaded with aggressive bass lines, rousing guitar shrills and heated drum crashes with lyrics that inspire a revolution. Touching on a variety of issues, each song brings a fresh style of frustration and call to action. Dynamic and thrilling screams ring through each powerful verse of instrumentals to create an air of urgency, demanding attention. Slower and lingering breakdowns are followed by spirited chants and confrontational choruses to keep the inspiring drive from the start to the end.
A modern take on what it means to be a Riot Grrl, The Shiverettes give an honest and assertive narrative to the adversity still faced today.
- Jackie Klapak
#11 - Eamon McGrath
Guts // Saved By Vinyl
The juxtaposition of the opening title track’s relaxed percussion and piano with McGrath’s tender, aching shouts from a distance invites the listener to lean in and examine his ‘guts still laying all over the bathroom floor’. The combination of thoughtful production choices like this with honest songwriting makes Guts one of the most touching, soulful releases of 2019.
- Greg Torwalt
#10 - Fly Pan Am
C'est ça // Constellation
The war is long over. It was an ugly 22 years, too many perished and no clear winner emerged. The peace treaty between the Humans and the A.I.’s was signed over fifty years ago and we are just now slowly learning to accept, understand, and rely on each other. Many look to small acts that led us to this new outlook on Human/A.I. relations. Maybe it’s because of my background as an A.I. music journalist, but I always pinpoint Fly Pan Am’s incredible album, C'est ça, as one of the major catalysts towards the acceptance both species now have for each other. The recording came at a time when Human created music ceased to exist in the charts. Music was a formula and the world had forgotten what Human emotion could bring to art. C'est ça was the first ever case of Human’s and A.I.’s working together to create art, and lets not forget that it came at a time when interspecies tensions were still very high. The album carries both the beauty of a new understanding but also the aggression that still boiled over from the long war. It was a statement to the world that it was okay to begin the healing and that it was time to work harder to accomplish co-habitation. It was more important than it will ever get credit for.
- AI874930
#9 - Blessed
Salt // Independent
Since Blessed’s beginnings they have gone on to become one of Canada’s hardest working bands. Years of relentless touring and a couple stellar releases prepped Blessed to unleash their first full-length. Having already established themselves as a band to watch, Salt met all the hype and expectations and gave us an art-rock masterpiece.
Masterful production by Jace Lacek provides a perfect stage to showcase the intricate layers of guitar interplay throughout the album. Tonally the record is unrivaled allowing for space between each instrument, no parts ever battling one another. Blessed write music with purpose and force. Every song throughout Salt contains vast dynamics. Tracks like “Zealot” or “Pill” provide us opuses that take the listener through many moods as the band measures out each part with such conviction. Their ability to glide-along a seamless melody over numerous variations of a riff/part is truly impressive. Within one song, Blessed can give you a melody with so much space and air between the notes then immediately cut to an almost spastic, rhythmically complex freakout. It’s in these moments that Blessed truly shine.
Salt is the expression of a band in its finest moment (so far). All things they hinted at in past releases fully present themselves throughout this album in a fully realized piece of intricate music.
- Kennedy Pawluk
#8 - Kacy & Clayton
Carrying On // New West
Saskatchewan folk duo Kacy & Clayton released their fourth LP in 2019, now their second record that’s been recorded in Chicago with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Carrying On adds a tinge of 60’s psychedelic influence (and more full band material) to the duo’s well established sense of country and folk music conventions. It’s hard not to get caught up in the band’s sheer enthusiasm for playing these tunes; everyone involved in the creation of the record has such earnest love for this type of country music, and you can hear it on every song. For anyone who has fond memories of rural prairie livin’, this one’s for you.
- Sean Newton
#7 - Jom Comyn
Crawl // Double Lunch
Edmonton’s Jim Cuming (aka Jom Comyn) has a style that could only be created on the Canadian prairies. His music has space... a lot of space, and it always seems to feel like a soundtrack to his geographic landscape. On Crawl, Cuming collaborated with Chris Dadge (Lab Coast, Alvvays) to once again capture the icy groove that he has become known for. The album has deep layers to explore and plays from start to finish better than any album released this year. Cuming croons with a warm baritone over masterfully crafted songs that include guest appearances from some of Calgary’s finest, like the incredible slide guitar from Chad VanGaalen that gives the track “Away” some twangy charm. As gifted as Cuming has become at encapsulating the cold dark winter, Crawl isn’t really a seasonal record. The eager drive of “Change Your Mind” creates a perfect road trip tune, while “Chapel Of Chimes” drives forward with calm urgency. Collaborating in the studio with Chris Dadge proved genius as Dadge’s perfectly precise drumming lays the foundation for Cuming’s delightful low register and signature guitar tone to shine brightly. In between each others main assets as musicians, the two come together with gorgeous ideas and experimentation to craft a truly wonderful listening experience.
- Jeff MacCallum
#6 - WHOOP-Szo
Warrior Down // You’ve Changed
WHOOP-Szo returned in 2019 to give us Warrior Down, an album full songs that have been staples in their live set for years. On this release, this London band gave us one of the most socially conscious albums of the year. Throughout its mighty ten songs, the band sings of injustices to Canada’s indigenous community. Tracks referencing Canada’s residential school system, missing and murdered indigenous women and a personal anecdote about singer Adam Sturgeon’s cousin unjustly being murdered by a cop. Their ability to sing about meaningful subjects in a genre (psych) where moments of truth and meaning often come second to musical theatrics is what makes WHOOP-Szo one of Canada’s most important bands right now.
While WHOOP-Szo have become well known for having many sides, Warrior Down often showcases their heavy side but gives us much more. An album hard to classify, it displays their ability to take elements of psych, grunge, and folk to create an emotional yet beautiful output of heavy topics and heavy feelings. While the themes present on the release can often be heavy-handed, the album never becomes wistful or sappy. The sheer force and emotion that WHOOP-Szo exert in their music decrees to the listener that these issues matter. These problems are ever-present in our communities and our history and must be acknowledged and reconciled.
- Kennedy Pawluk
#5 - Ada Lea
what we say in private // Next Door
Ada Lea’s debut album, what we say in private, at face value chronicles heartbreak, but upon closer inspection is an expedition into freedom. The latest of the Omaha based record label Saddle Creek (homes to the likes of Big Thief, Bright Eyes and Hop Along), Alexandra Levy is in good company for a nearly impeccable release. The album that may be best categorized as chaotic pop, but it’s not without its subtleties. Sonically abstract, and flipping between fuzzy bass sounds, arpeggiated synth, overdriven guitar lines, to muted guitar and even an auto-tuned narration of the purchase of a dove, Levy keeps us on our toes from start to finish.
At times the album feels so personal, we shouldn’t be listening at all. This is truly the beauty of Levy’s talents as a songwriter, not only are we given a peek behind the curtain with her confidential lyrics, but as well into real-life sounds; janky voice memos and clinking glasses. We are taken with her in the quiet moments and in the symphonies of sound. What we say in private is a collage of many times and colourful places that are not to be easily forgotten.
- Ella Coyes
#4 - A.Y.E.
Soul Food the Autobiography Of... // Makebelieve Records
MC A.Y.E. (aka Calgary's Jahimba Hutson) and his band The Extraordinary Gentlemen hit an excellently executed bob and stride on their third full length, Soul Food the Autobiography Of...
The album is full of soundbites of family and friends, voicemails, snippets of conversation all warm, curious and inviting.
The release is a statement on life, love, family and the human condition. Jahimba draws the link to nourishment, both in a physical and spiritual sense. It was imperative that Jahimba give back to the community that surrounds and enriches his life. In the same way, this album is a grateful gift, reminding you that love, family and human interaction are food for your soul.
I've found myself head-bobbing, cooking, eating, lounging and contemplating to this album. Nourishing my mind, body, and soul.
- Drew Cox
#3 - Dominique Fils-Aimé
Stay Tuned! // Ensoul
Blending Neo-Soul with R&B, Jazz, and Gospel, Dominique Fils-Aimé’s impeccable sophomore album Stay Tuned! commands attention. Silky smooth vocals are looped to create gorgeous harmonies that make up the melodies on this album. They rise like a choir as Fils-Aimé uses her voice as the most integral instrument. Knowing when to let her voice go to work, and when instrumental flourishes are needed, her band showcases a complete understanding of the albums vision. Lyrically, Stay Tuned! focuses on the civil rights movement of the 60’s and pays homage to some of its integral historical figures, but it also remembers the unsung (and unknown) heroes who gave just as much. It’s an album that can be played for any occasion but is best heard as a mystifying, deep-listening experience.
- Jeff MacCallum
#2 - Necking
Cut Your Teeth // Mint
Vancouver’s Necking are a force of nature. 2019 is the year they have taken the music scene by storm, creating a tidal wave of followers from the west coast to the east coast all the way down to LA and Chicago while touring their acclaimed release Cut Your Teeth (clocking in at 22 minutes of boisterous post-punk). They have the essential contemporary anti-establishment ethos with songs ranging from cheeky and blunt social commentary on power dynamics and art spaces to the vulnerability of personal relationships and mental health. Punching drums, propulsive bass, catchy riffs, and anthemic vocals propelled by seemingly limitless energy, Necking’s potent debut is unforgettable and forecasts them as an unstoppable punk quartet.
- Nicola Gunter
#1 - Motherhood
Dear Bongo // Forward Music Group
Looking at the cover of Motherhood’s fourth record Dear Bongo, you can immediately get a feel for the kind of kaleidoscopic, hiccup-punk contained within. With their latest endeavour, the band sets up a sonic big-top tent and explores every inch of its interior over the record’s nine songs. Absent are the usual trappings of conceptual albums that make such endeavours unapproachable, from drawn-out narratives to tangible whiffs of pretension. Instead, Motherhood delivers careless, reckless, fun with flawless performances that exude confidence and chemistry.
Of course, there are still threads that tie these songs together, as is customary on Motherhood releases: a loose narrative about a painter appears throughout, and there’s a particularly strong shared musical syntax that makes every track sound like a cog in a well oiled machine. The record seems to have a fascination with references and in-jokes, from the tag at the end of “Bird Chirp” (where fellow New Brunswickers The Hypochondriacs play “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”), to the Beach Boys vibes on “Way Down”, to even the video for “Pick of the Pugs” (where the band apes an old Captain Beefheart TV appearance).
There’s a danger with these types of references that it can feel like the artist is asking you to “get it”, but Dear Bongo never comes across that way. It feels instead, like Motherhood is solidifying a vocabulary that they’ve developed over four records and seven years releasing music that places creativity, ideas, and cultural ephemera front and centre. This is what makes Dear Bongo, Motherhood’s best record so far and our pick for the best record of 2019; it’s such an honest expression of the band’s personality and where they’re at that you don’t have to “get it” to enjoy it... you just have to listen to it.
- Sean Newton
That wraps up our “Best Of” coverage for 2019. Come back in the new year for our “Best Albums of the Decade” and “Most Anticipated of 2020”.
If you missed our ongoing coverage of the “Best of 2019”, check out past articles on: