FEATURE:
Off to a Strong Start!
PHOTO CREDIT: @divandor/Unsplash
The Best Debut Albums of 2019
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AS we see out the final weeks of this year…
IN THIS PHOTO: King Princess/PHOTO CREDIT: King Princess
everyone is putting together lists of their favourite albums. It has been great assessing the very best from 2019 and those albums that stand above the rest. Whilst it is important to celebrate the absolute best albums of the year, there have been some stunning debuts that warrant attention. Putting out the first album is tricky and can be a nerve-wracking experience. When an artist gets it right or releases an album that is truly special, we all stand up and take notice; we wonder where that artist will go next and how they will follow an incredible debut. 2019 has been a fantastic one for debut releases so, because of that, I have collected together my favourite. Have a look at these sensational debut albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Brittany Howard/PHOTO CREDIT: Brittany Howard
FROM a seriously remarkable year.
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Billie Eilish – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Release Date: 29th March
Producer: Finneas O’Connell
Labels: Darkroom/Interscope
Sample Review:
“From the opening line of hilarious opener "!!!!!!!," Eilish makes it clear that she is just like you, the listener, goofing off in the studio with her brother while she's supposed to be recording her major-label debut. As endearing as it is obnoxious, the track sets the tone and, from there, the album is a thrill. Bouncing from infectious dance-pop highs to tender, restrained lows, Eilish manages effortless cohesion, even within the span of a single song. "Bad Guy" throbs like the cavernous echo heard outside the club, sparking to life with a K-pop brightness before descending with a bellowing trap drop, while "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" rides a playful bass strum that manages to pull some G-funk effects into its orbit. The meme-worthy "My Strange Addiction" makes the inspired choice to interpolate dialogue from the "Threat Level Midnight" episode of The Office (which had already wrapped its entire televised run before Eilish even turned 12), all while managing to be one of the sleekest standouts on the album. Other highlights include the hypnotic minimalist single "Bury a Friend," an unnerving nightmare that is as disturbing as it is addictive; the twisted funhouse electro-pop "Ilomilo"; and "You Should See Me in a Crown," a spiritual descendant of Lorde's "Royals" that finds Eilish making a power grab to rule the one-horse "nothing town" instead of simply complaining about it. While empowering and vulnerable messages bleed through every song, the quieter moments allow her introspection to take the spotlight, especially on the restrained trio that closes the album. She contemplates ending her life on the swelling, piano-centric "Listen Before I Go" and offers an uncomfortably uncertain conclusion with "Goodbye," but it's the swelling storm of "I Love You," a heartbreaking acoustic beauty, that pegs Eilish as something more than a spooky, scare-the-parents gimmick. Indeed, with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, she demonstrates that she can do it all, hinting at a bright future that could truly go in any direction, as messy and hopeful as youth can get” – AllMusic
Standout Tracks: you should see me in a crown/all good girls go to hell/bury a friend
Key Cut: bad guy
Fontaines D.C. – Dogrel
Release Date: 12th April
Producer: Dan Carey
Label: Partisan
Sample Review:
“So it’s refreshing to hear a singer, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten, embrace of all the bleating music of a Dublin accent. For listeners not versed in the Irish punk scene, his extremely characterful voice is as bracing as Alex Turner’s was when Arctic Monkeys broke out, and he uses it to voice a boisterous cast of personae: bullish yuppie on opener Big; ranting preacher on Chequeless Reckless; fond documentarian on Liberty Belle: “You know I love that violence that you get around here / That kind of ready-steady violence.” That song and others here are fantastic ramalama surf-punk hits, but the five-piece have real range on this perfect debut. A stark Joy Division-style bass line props up The Lotts, with Chatten’s lines filling each bar to the brim, resulting in a deceptively simple, powerfully melancholy song. Roy’s Tune is equally sad and good, a steady Britpop ballad with a touch of the naivety of Ian Brown’s earliest performances. Television Screens has the kind of melody that would work in a traditional Irish folk ballad, but done as something Fugazi might play in their more tender moments. This is the kind of songwriting quality that bands can take years to reach, or never reach at all: brilliant, top to bottom” – The Guardian
Standout Tracks: Big/Roy’s Tune/Dublin City Sky
Key Cut: Boys in the Better Land
Sam Fender – Hypersonic Missiles
Release Date: 13th September
Producers: Bramwell Bronte/Rich Costey/Sam Fender
Label: Polydor
Sample Review:
“The Bruce Springsteen influence is further evidenced in current single ‘The Borders’ which is more upbeat. There are lyrics which you wouldn’t usually hear in a song (“[you] pinned me to the ground/eight years old with a replica gun pushing in my skull saying you’re going to kill me if I tell/Never did and I never will/that house was living hell”). Fender pulls no punches in how he is feeling. Surrounding these gritty lyrics is direct and anthemic music. However, the arena-sized sounds are just as impressive when listened to from the comfort of your living room.
‘Dead Boys’ was a significant track for Fender. It is a haunting account of the male suicide epidemic affecting young men. In this track, he addresses mental health and “toxic masculinity” head on. His powerful voice is more subdued in ‘Dead Boys’ but the message still hits home. ‘Play God’ and ‘That Sound’ are excellent tracks.
‘Saturday’ is highly relatable (“If Saturday don’t come soon, I’m gonna lose my mind”), whilst recent single ‘Will We Talk?’ tells the story of a one night stand. It is euphoric and again has an anthemic feel. ‘Call Me Lover’ is a slower, hypnotic song and subjugates the listener. It’s also one of the best tracks off the album, which is saying something as there is such stiff competition. ‘Use (Live From London)’ is a simple and stripped back song which continues to showcase Fender’s show-stopping, fiery vocals.
‘Hypersonic Missiles’ is packed with high octane hits, all of which translate into an impeccable record. Sam Fender’s debut is brave, confident and evocative” – CLASH
Standout Tracks: Hypersonic Missiles/The Borders/Will We Talk?
Key Cut: Dead Boys
Brittany Howard – Jaime
Release Date: 20th September
Producer: Brittany Howard
Label: ATO
Sample Review:
“The scraps are glued into place and luminously lit by Howard’s brilliant sense of melody, and her searing lyricism. The standout is Georgia, which begins with Howard repeating “I just want Georgia to notice me” in a girlish chant, as if picking petals off a daisy. Soon she is left with just a stalk, and the impossibility of her ardour hits her full-force: the song switches up with a stirring organ motif and becomes intensely moving, two scraps finessed into something whole. The excellent Goat Head lays out the racism her parents faced as a mixed-race couple in the American south, Howard’s lyric written with a child’s blend of clarity and confusion at the injustice.
But it’s emotionally as well as musically varied. He Loves Me sees Howard giving up church safe in the knowledge that God is still smiling on her when she’s drinking too much and smoking blunts; she finds herself in a different cloud on Stay High, of bliss that’s perhaps musical, perhaps post-coital, backed by twinkling waltz-time soul. Artists often take on solo projects to get things out of their system before regrouping, but those things are rarely as beautiful as they are here” – The Guardian
Standout Tracks: History Repeats/Stay High/13th Century Metal
Key Cut: Short and Sweet
slowthai - Nothing Great About Britain
Release Date: 17th May
Producers: Kwes Darko/Mura Masa/Anish Bhatt/JD. Reid/Slaves/Earbuds
Label: Method Records
Sample Review:
“For all his cartoonish videos and stage theatrics, slowthai’s role as a single character in this ensemble cast shows the integrity he brings to the task. Though he nods to the mannerisms of Dizzee Rascal and JME, Nothing Great About Britain avoids cross-generational pandering and bypasses territorial arguments over the borders of grime and UK rap. What binds the album is slowthai’s soul: his meticulously drawn characters, his affinity for left-behind outsiders like the glue sniffers sampled on “Doorman,” and his impatience with a profit-motivated world where, as he once put it, “You’re competing constantly without wanting to.” The Britain he envisions is fairer, more leisurely and attentive, and united in its resistance to authority. It’s who our society overlooks, he suggests, that determines what we need to overthrow” – Pitchfork
Standout Tracks: Dead Leaves/Peace of Mind/Missing
Key Cut: Doorman (ft. Mura Masa)
Kim Gordon – No Home Record
Release Date: 11th October
Producers: Kim Gordon/Justin Raisen
Label: Matador Records
Sample Review:
“Under the thunderstorm of ‘Hungry Baby’’s super-galvanising Stooges groove and a wickedly playful bass, Gordon’s urgent raspy vocals overstretch to tell a story with a dark thematic undercurrent of sexual harassment. Conflictingly, this is intuitively juxtaposed with jarringly innocent imagery, as if finding sly poetic victory in infantilising the oppressor.
The tastefully chopped no-wave guitar of ‘Air BnB’, straight out of Arto Lindsay’s DNA days, breaks on the chorus into a classic SY anthem. Its theme is the American idea of purchasing utopia through trying out lifestyles, people escaping themselves, going on a mini retreat from their lives. Hashtag superhosted supermodernity.
On No Home Record, Gordon sketches the great supermodern landscape of LA, in stark strokes of infectious, visceral weirdness. Like David Lynch, she exposes the ominous, hilarious, faux-profound undercurrents of American life, capturing “the madness of the times and the strangeness and the sadness” (to quote her colleague, guitarist Steve Gunn). Gordon’s bet is that the people are ready for weirdness, that the world can embrace its complexities. And the only way is forward” – The Quietus
Standout Tracks: Sketch Artist/Murdered Out/Hungry Baby
Key Cut: Air BnB
Sampa the Great – The Return
Release Date: 13th September
Label: Ninja Tune
Sample Review:
“While there are times Sampa The Great leans hard into hip-hop's history - ‘Time's Up’ and ‘Heaven’ In particular have a real 90’s skate shop vibe about them - on the whole this record is overwhelming about the future, not the past. The beats often break away from standard rap shtick, taking the listener beyond genre and into the unknown.
If there’s one potential criticism to be had with the record, it’s that there’s no huge moments. No runaway singles, no obvious “hits”. 'The Return' is an album full of album tracks. It’s an album that forces you to lean in and really listen. That’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable. Not at all. If anything, the lack of real standout tracks makes for a much better, more mature record. There’s certainly no filler, Sampa makes sure of that. Every track has a purpose. Everything is intentional, from the click of a drum to the syllables in a line.
‘Dare To Fly’ and ‘The Return’ highlight Sampa’s tendency to break down genre with her eclectic beats. The former leans heavily on acid jazz rhythms to create a hallucinogenic-fuelled jam so messed up that Thundercat would be proud of.
Title track ‘The Return’, meanwhile, also gives more than a nod to Portishead. The track is a trip-hop infused echo chamber. Its reverb-laden anti-beat adds a distinctly sinister edge to the albums climax.
With 'The Return', Sampa The Great expertly dismantles the notion of genre, proving that, when it comes to art, what really matters is content, not labels” – CLASH
Standout Tracks: Freedom/Grass Is Greener/OMG
Key Cut: Final Form
King Princess – Cheap Queen
Release Date: 25th October
Producers: King Princess/Mike Malchicoff/Tim Anderson/Teo Halm/Kid Harpoon
Labels: Zelig/Columbia
Sample Review:
“Sonically, this album has as much in common with the neo-soul and R&B of Erykah Badu and SZA as it does stadium ballads – with a little of the existential electronic pop of Christine & The Queens and Charli XCX thrown in, too. There are a few missteps – ‘Aint Together’ and ‘Trust Nobody’ – that come off as bland, predictable stabs stadium anthems. King Princess shines the brightest when the music around her is experimental and electronic, rather than piano-led. It’s no coincidence, then, that the latter part of the record, which totally fulfils this brief, sees her soar the highest.
The euphoric waves of electronica on ‘Hit The Back’ are exhilarating, and the song deserves to be aired enthusiastically not only in gay clubs, but across the pop charts too. She seductively talks about women in a way that’s rooted in the male gaze, with bars like, “Ain’t I the best you ever had?” sounding like they could have come from a cocky lothario. This feels intentional, with King Princess showing that it’s totally organic for young lesbians to embody the idea of the alpha male too. On this track, and the melancholic “If You Think It’s Love”, she genuinely sounds like she could be the heir to Robyn’s throne, with the songs sharing the ability to make you dance and cry in just the space of a few moments” – NME
Standout Tracks: Useless Phrases/Prophet/Hit the Back
Key Cut: Cheap Queen
Caroline Polachek – Pang
Release Date: 18th October
Producers: Caroline Polachek (exec.)/Danny L Harle (exec.)/Daniel Nigro/Jim-E Stack/Dan Carey/A. G. Cook/Andrew Wyatt/Valley Girl
Labels: Sony/The Orchard/Perpetual Novice
Sample Review:
“These are broad, expansive examples of modern indie pop, entrancing in their potential to effectively convey mood and ideas. "Shut Up" for example is a cavernous piece, equal parts seductive and bewildering, whilst "So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings" has all the trappings and swaggering femininity of the best '80s pop pieces. In turn, "Parachutes" displays Polachek’s ‘Organic Autotune’ to euphoric effect come the album’s close.
This is to say that the excellence and consistency is so uniform across the album that any one song could feasibly have been released as a single and it still wouldn’t have betrayed the excellence of the project.
There are moments that feel surplus to requirement at times or run slightly too long but this is to be pedantic in the face of the album's successes. Particular congratulations should go to the effortless perfection of the single "Door" as well as title track, "Pang" both of which are consummate modern pop songs and testament to Polachek’s talents as a singer, songwriter and producer.
Pang is a remarkable debut album assured of its legitimacy and brilliance, one that should be celebrated for its shimmering beauty and the success of its authorial intent” – The Line of Best Fit
Standout Tracks: Pang/Ocean of Tears/Hit Me Where It Hurts
Key Cut: Door