Top 100 Music Albums of 2019 by 
babyBlueSedan 
Some people measure the passage of time with each birthday, I do it with each year chart intro I write. As always, here are the dumb rules I follow:
1. Everything I listen to will be here because I am a completionist
2. The comments will vary wildly in quality and effort
3. Everything rated 70 or higher will someday work its way into my collection. Anything rated 65 or maaaaybe 60 is still recommended but I probably thought it had "consistency problems" or "no real standouts"
4. I've gotten a bit more critical with my rating scale because I noticed I rate 80% of albums a 65, so there may be a few more lower-rated albums this year
- Chart updated: 05/29/2020 17:15
- (Created: 01/23/2019 01:52).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 2 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Music Albums of 2019 has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 7 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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65/100
Indie alt-country?
There are a bunch of different directions I could take this write-up, and against my better judgement I'm going to try them all instead of focusing on one. First off we have the members of this band. Stranger in the Alps was my favorite album of 2017 and Me & My Dog was one of my favorite songs of 2018, so you could say I'm a pretty big fan of Phoebe Bridgers. On the other hand, we have Connor Oberst. I've heard one Bright Eyes album and only gave it one listen because I had no opinion on it. So the amount I care about both artists is a bit unbalanced, and rather than approaching this as an amazing team up I'm approaching it as Phoebe's next album, which is...the wrong way to approach it, I admit. While this still has the same wit and self-deprecation as the rest of Bridgers's work, it's very different musically, at least as different as vaguely indie rock/folk can be. So my first struggle with this album is that it's a new direction from one of my favorite artists that I'm not really big on.
Secondly, I think I'm a guilty of giving up on artists when they go a direction I wasn't expecting or didn't care for. I remember writing off albums by Everything Everything (A Fever Dream) and Vince Staples (Big Fish Theory) in 2017 only to come around to them eventually and put them on par with the rest of the artists' stuff. So part of me worries that I'm doing the same thing hear. I'll honestly admit I wanted another Stranger in the Alps, and this album makes me slightly scared I won't get it. I've also got a bit of FOMO as Bridgers is getting bigger and I'm not really along for the ride. So even after three lukewarm listens I worry that I'm prejudiced against this album and should just let it go.
But thirdly, the issue I have with this album is that it contains almost nothing of what made me fall in love with Bridgers's music in the first place. Stranger in the Alps was such a revelation for me because of how restrained and slow-burning it was despite packing so much of an emotional punch. It felt so understated, but at the same time you could hear rage and sorrow bubbling under the surface. BOCC is a lot more straightforward musically, as it's basically a straight indie rock record. Which isn't really bad per se, but none of these songs really catch my ear even after multiple listens. There's no sudden climaxes like in "Georgia," no weird feedbacky intros like in "Killer." There is the weirdly synthy "Exception to the Rule," which suffers both from feeling really out of place and from having some of the worst lyrics on the album. And there's the suddenly rocky "Big Black Hearts," which sounds like a rock song by someone who has no idea how to write a rock song. The rest places it fairly safe, and it's telling that my favorite songs - "Chesapeake" and "Didn't Know What I Was In For" - lean the closest to Stranger in the Alps.
And more than anything else, I liked Bridgers for her lyrics. I loved how she blended really general emotions with really specific details that framed everything. This album feels a lot less vulnerable lyrically, as in all of the messages are really standard and just feel like vague platitudes. It also feels a bit preachy in places, which may just be me. I'm also not a fan of the dual vocals. I don't hate Oberst's voice (but I kind of dislike it), but I wish he would just let Phoebe sing. "Chesapeake" would be even better if Oberst would keep quiet and let her sing. I'd even be fine if the vocals were split evenly between the tracks, but their voices just don't sound good together.
So those are my probably terrible opinions. Maybe I'll come back to this one at the end of the year and enjoy it more. But until then I feel a bit let down and somehow guilty. Music is confusing, eh? [First added to this chart: 02/14/2019]
Indie alt-country?
There are a bunch of different directions I could take this write-up, and against my better judgement I'm going to try them all instead of focusing on one. First off we have the members of this band. Stranger in the Alps was my favorite album of 2017 and Me & My Dog was one of my favorite songs of 2018, so you could say I'm a pretty big fan of Phoebe Bridgers. On the other hand, we have Connor Oberst. I've heard one Bright Eyes album and only gave it one listen because I had no opinion on it. So the amount I care about both artists is a bit unbalanced, and rather than approaching this as an amazing team up I'm approaching it as Phoebe's next album, which is...the wrong way to approach it, I admit. While this still has the same wit and self-deprecation as the rest of Bridgers's work, it's very different musically, at least as different as vaguely indie rock/folk can be. So my first struggle with this album is that it's a new direction from one of my favorite artists that I'm not really big on.
Secondly, I think I'm a guilty of giving up on artists when they go a direction I wasn't expecting or didn't care for. I remember writing off albums by Everything Everything (A Fever Dream) and Vince Staples (Big Fish Theory) in 2017 only to come around to them eventually and put them on par with the rest of the artists' stuff. So part of me worries that I'm doing the same thing hear. I'll honestly admit I wanted another Stranger in the Alps, and this album makes me slightly scared I won't get it. I've also got a bit of FOMO as Bridgers is getting bigger and I'm not really along for the ride. So even after three lukewarm listens I worry that I'm prejudiced against this album and should just let it go.
But thirdly, the issue I have with this album is that it contains almost nothing of what made me fall in love with Bridgers's music in the first place. Stranger in the Alps was such a revelation for me because of how restrained and slow-burning it was despite packing so much of an emotional punch. It felt so understated, but at the same time you could hear rage and sorrow bubbling under the surface. BOCC is a lot more straightforward musically, as it's basically a straight indie rock record. Which isn't really bad per se, but none of these songs really catch my ear even after multiple listens. There's no sudden climaxes like in "Georgia," no weird feedbacky intros like in "Killer." There is the weirdly synthy "Exception to the Rule," which suffers both from feeling really out of place and from having some of the worst lyrics on the album. And there's the suddenly rocky "Big Black Hearts," which sounds like a rock song by someone who has no idea how to write a rock song. The rest places it fairly safe, and it's telling that my favorite songs - "Chesapeake" and "Didn't Know What I Was In For" - lean the closest to Stranger in the Alps.
And more than anything else, I liked Bridgers for her lyrics. I loved how she blended really general emotions with really specific details that framed everything. This album feels a lot less vulnerable lyrically, as in all of the messages are really standard and just feel like vague platitudes. It also feels a bit preachy in places, which may just be me. I'm also not a fan of the dual vocals. I don't hate Oberst's voice (but I kind of dislike it), but I wish he would just let Phoebe sing. "Chesapeake" would be even better if Oberst would keep quiet and let her sing. I'd even be fine if the vocals were split evenly between the tracks, but their voices just don't sound good together.
So those are my probably terrible opinions. Maybe I'll come back to this one at the end of the year and enjoy it more. But until then I feel a bit let down and somehow guilty. Music is confusing, eh? [First added to this chart: 02/14/2019]
Year of Release:
2019
Appears in:
Rank Score:
277
Rank in 2019:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
11Total albums: 1. Page 1 of 1
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Top 100 Music Albums of 2019 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| Big Thief | 2 | 2% | |
| Lana Del Rey | 1 | 1% | |
| Better Oblivion Community Center | 1 | 1% | |
| Downfall Of Gaia | 1 | 1% | |
| Earl Sweatshirt | 1 | 1% | |
| Orville Peck | 1 | 1% | |
| Black Midi | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
73 | 73% | |
 |
11 | 11% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of 2019 chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
 Up 4 from 23rd to 19thReflections by Hannah Diamond |
| Up 3 from 21st to 18th OOFIE by Wiki |
| Up 3 from 18th to 15th Guns by Quelle Chris |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 13 from 12th to 25th Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
| Down 3 from 19th to 22nd Ventura by Anderson .Paak |
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Other year charts (from the 2010s) by babyBlueSedan
Top 100 Music Albums of 2018 by babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 100 Music Albums of 2017 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 100 Music Albums of 2016 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 100 Music Albums of 2015 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 57 Music Albums of 2014 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 30 Music Albums of 2013 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 16 Music Albums of 2012 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 17 Music Albums of 2011 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 12 Music Albums of 2010 by
babyBlueSedan (2020)Top 100 Music Albums of 2019 ratings
89/100 (from 7 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 7 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
95/100  | 01/12/2021 11:17 |  Larcx13 | | 86/100 |
100/100 | 08/05/2020 12:01 |  Purplepash | | 88/100 |
 80/100 | 11/15/2019 07:30 |  mickilennial | | 77/100 |
| 100/100 | 11/09/2019 15:26 |  Mattdup279 | | 88/100 |
| 85/100 | 10/06/2019 05:27 |  Arthurknight | | 89/100 |
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95/100
From Larcx13 01/12/2021 11:17
Larcx13 01/12/2021 11:17
Once again, good work put in. I just cant stand IGOR at all....
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From mickilennial 11/15/2019 07:31
mickilennial 11/15/2019 07:31
Solid list. Interesting to see some artists as high as they are, but I really like the commentary and placements.
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