I give you the 2019 (eighth annual!) year-end playlist. While the best songs aren't as good as some best songs of years prior, I think it's a deeper list than usual, as evidenced by the record-setting length (46 songs, nearly 2 hours 40 minutes, up from 40 songs each of the past two years and well above the low, the 24-song debut playlist from 2012).
www.dropbox.com/sh/agqsyqiz5i2tte4/AADQBGH46ky56HMazGymZmbra?dl=0Sorry, but you're going to have to sort them manually--which as always I HIGHLY recommend. The track order is tremendously important (to me...). Naturally I've played a few little games with that sort of thing.
Same rules as always: one song per band/artist, and fit within track list matters alongside the more obvious criterion of quality of song. I think of these in terms of sides, so there are usually things to notice within the 5-song groupings or links (or disconnects) between them.
Without further ado:
(Track number, Song title, Artist, Album name)
1. Honeybody, Nu Deco Ensemble & Kishi Bashi, (single)
2. Why I Came to California, Dent May, (single)
3. This Life, Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride
4. Summer Girl, HAIM, (single)
5. Everyday, Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising
6. I Dare You, The Regrettes, How Do You Love?
7. Dirty Teenager, Kate Davis, Trophy
8. Seventeen, Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow
9. Wasted Youth, Jenny Lewis, On the Line
10. Forever Young, Forever Beautiful, Jens Lekman, Correspondence
11. The Surprise Knock, The New Pornographers, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
12. In a Hurry, Paul McCartney, (single)
13. Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying, Belle & Sebastian, Days of the Bagnold Summer
14. Dylan Thomas, Better Oblivion Community Center, BOCC
15. Joining a Cult, Annika Norlin, Correspondence
16. Unshaken, D'Angelo, (single)
17. Stay Flo, Solange, When I Get Home
18. Make it Better, Anderson Paak feat. Smokey Robinson, Ventura
19. 2 AM, Mark Ronson feat. Lykki Li, Late Night Feelings
20. Sharpest Edges, Gallant, Sweet Insomnia
21. No One's Sleeping, Deerhunter, Why Hasn't Everything...
22. UFOF, Big Thief, U.F.O.F.
23. Strange Maneuvers, Lady Lamb, Even in the Tremor
24. Days Fade Away, The Resonars, No Exit
25. Possum By Night, The Mountain Goats, In League with Dragons
26. Inferno (Brisbane in Summer), Robert Forster, Inferno
27. Running Around Again on Me, Black Yaya, Songs by Turner Cody
28. Sober in Barcelona, Stanley Brinks, Tequila Island
29. Getting Clean, Ryan Pollie, s/t
30. T-Shirt Tux, The Hold Steady, Thrashing Thru the Passion
31. Marry Me, Meghan Trainor, The Love Train
32. This Isn't Gonna End Well, John Paul White feat. LeeAnn Rhimes, The Hurting Kind
33. I'll Be Gone, Milk Carton Kids, The Only Ones
34. If She Ever Leaves Me, The Highwaywomen, s/t
35. What Does a Woman See in a Man?, Harry Nilsson, Losst and Found
36. East, Earl Sweatshirt, Feet of Clay
37. Time Most Slower Here, Chester Watson, (single)
38. Risk, Domo Genesis, (single)
39. Greatest That Never Lived, Brother Ali, Secrets & Escapes
40. 207, Your Old Droog, Transportation
41. Father Mountain, Iron & Wine and Calexico, Years to Burn
42. Saying Goodbye, JS Ondara, Tales of America
43. Manifest, Andrew Bird feat. Erika Wennerstrom, (single)
44. Sleepy Joe's Cafe, Bruce Springsteen, Western Stars
45. Great Auk Stories (New Years Eve 2019), Cotton Mather, (single for Patreon patrons)
46. Dog, Nataly Dawn, For You EP