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So many of you enjoyed my list of my favourite films of the decade, and I know you were wondering when I was going to get around to my favourite records of the decade - here it is! There are so many more records I have heard compared to films I have seen, so this one took a long time to put together. Unlike my film list I am not going to be expanding on why these are my picks, because that took such a long time to complete, and that is time that I don't have when it comes to putting this together. Only one entry per artist, and I am not going to be putting them in any particular order, unless you know the alphabet. Hopefully you come across some records that you might not have heard. Enjoy! Kodama by Alcest LP3 by American Football thank u, next by Ariana Grande Colourmeinkindness by Basement The Satanist by Behemoth Migration by Bonobo Science Fiction by Brand New There Is A Hell... by Bring Me The Horizon GINGER by BROCKHAMPTON Love Is Not Enough by Casey Drag It Do...

Honourable Mentions: Mayhem - Daemon Thornhill - The Dark Pool Tiny Moving Parts - breathe Thy Art Is Murder - Human Target Denzel Curry - ZUU black midi - Schlagenheim Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race Top 50: 50) Ariana Grande - thank u, next 49) Bring Me The Horizon - amo 48) Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence 47) Coldplay - Everyday Life 46) Clowns - Nature/Nurture 45) Tyler, The Creator - IGOR 44) Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q. 43) Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2 42) Post Malone - Hollywood's Bleeding 41) Taylor Swift - Lover 40) Swans - leaving meaning. 39) BROCKHAMPTON - Ginger 38) Tropical Fuck Storm - Braindrops 37) JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs 36) Sampa The Great - The Return 35) James Blake - Assume Form 34) Shadow Of Intent - Melancholy 33) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen 32) Press Club - Wasted Energy 31) Angel Olson - All Mirrors 30) Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride 29) Sun O)))...

We are at the point in Kanye's career where weird and unexpected album rollouts - often seemingly random and unprofessional from the outside - have become commonplace. By the time we had been given a third release date for what was supposedly going to be Kanye West's ninth album Jesus Is King there had been so much noise and meaningless chatter and back and forth on the internet from not only Kanye himself but seemingly everyone else in the music industry that I was on the verge of not caring anymore. Normally I try to take every album on its own merit as much as I can and take outside influence and context to further inform my opinion as is appropriate, but in the case of Jesus Is King all of the bullshit surrounding it was unavoidable. I was always going to have something to say about the idea of Kanye West releasing a "gospel album", and by the time it was actually available to listen to my mind had almost entirely been made up already. Which was unfair to a degree...

For those that are unaware, clipping. are a trio made up of producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, with Daveed Diggs providing the lyrical content, delivered with unbelievable skill and dexterity. They are known for their experimental sounds, driven often by noise, static, field recordings and distortion, and their previous album Splendour & Misery used their signature sound to carve out a concept album about an escaped prisoner in space - I wrote about it a while back, you can read that piece  here . On their newest release, There Existed An Addiction To Blood , clipping. take their cinematic and world-building approach to music making and use it to craft what is essentially a horror-themed rap album. Firstly, the sound of the album. Hutson and Snipes' work on this album is really excellent. Coming from a film and sound design background, those influences really show through on There Existed An Addiction To Blood, an album that dives deep into modern and classic sou...

Hell yes to this album. Hell. Yes. Following up 2016's  Polar Similar , which in my opinion is a near-perfect album, Norma Jean have returned with  All Hail . While I don't think it quite matches  Polar Similar , it is still a smackingly great album with everything in it that made its predecessor so good, as well as some new additions that allow it to stand out as another step forward for a band that has come to be defined by its ability to fearlessly change. All Hail  is maybe Norma Jean's most sonically diverse album to date - the moody, atmospheric stuff has a greater presence, but there is also some of the band's heaviest material present. Musically it is constantly interesting, never stagnant, crystal clear in its messiness of performance and production (provided by Will Putney of Graphic Nature Audio, who is having a killer year of releases), and when it decides to be it slaps unbelievably hard. The strongest element of  All Hail  is something - ...

Hyperdaze is Melbourne-based metalcore band Void of Vision 's second full length after 2016's Children of Chrome  and 2017's excellent EP Disturbia. I've been keeping an eye on this band for a while, because while I have enjoyed their material in the past, I have always felt like they have never quite put together the release that really nails down their unique and exciting sound in a killer album. Disturbia gave me optimistic feelings about their future, as did their standalone single last year, 'Kill All My Friends'. And here we are in 2019 with Hyperdaze. I'm happy to say that it is their best release so far, by some distance. After the intro track 'Overture', 'Year of the Rat' slaps hard with a down tempo riff that sets the tone for this collection of groove-oriented jams and tasteful choruses. The two main selling points of the band so far - the riffs and vocalist Jack Bergin - are shown off to their full potential on Hyperdaze , but a...

This year has been fantastic for pop music - Ariana Grande , Billie Eilish and Lana Del Ray have all released killer albums that have been on repeat for me on the regular. Charli XCX was not on my radar at all until I heard the absolute anthem that is 'Gone' , a track that will almost certainly be on my end of year list of favourite singles. It was then that I began to take notice of her, and I am incredibly pleased that I did, because Charli  blows the other major pop albums of the year out of the water, in my humble opinion. 'Next Level Charli' kicks things off in the best possible way, introducing us to the cocktail of classic 80s pop and forward thinking post-modernity that comes to define the rest of the album. And don't get it wrong, this is a pop album. It's not setting out to reinvent the wheel, it's not trying to rewrite the rulebooks for what music should sound like. But what it does do is redefine how pop music and culture collide with creativit...

Danny Brown is one of the most unique and interesting musicians working today in the rap scene. The combination of his look, his strange and enigmatic style of delivery, and the forward thinking production on his music combine to manifest something greater than the sum of their parts. 2016's Atrocity Exhibition is a shining example of this, an album that manages to be impenetrable, catchy, uncomfortable, disgusting, profound, profane and exciting all at once. It's an album that you will likely need to acclimate to before you are able to really sink into, but once you are in it you will not be able to shake yourself free of its atmosphere. But it's been three years since Atrocity Exhibition , so what's changed in that time? Well, seemingly not much, but at the same time uknowhatimsayin? is worlds away from Atrocity Exhibition. Let's get this straight immediately, though; this is an awesome album. The most noticeable thing about this album is that it is substant...

Ghost Of Me is Darwin-based group Tapestry’s follow up to their debut EP Growth , and showcases the band maturing and improving on that release. The restraint shown throughout this release in terms of songwriting is perhaps the biggest strength to be found; such a willingness to let songs breathe allows tracks like “Dark Shade” to really stand out as a highlight of the EP. There is an abundance of super-compressed clean guitars (a production choice that you’ll either not mind or be constantly annoyed by), pained screams and surprisingly effective clean vocals, all of which aren’t exactly game-changers for a genre that often feels like it has given everything it has to offer, but amount to only a little more than the sum of its parts. “Ghost” is perhaps the most generic track on this release, and could perhaps do with a little more ebb and flow between sections to make it really stand out – for the most part it is your standard melodic hardcore scream-fest without a wh...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been monsters of the music industry for a long time, and for good reason - some would say they are one of the most important rock bands in music history. Having been active since the early 1980s, they have been around long enough to have seen and done it all, and eleven studio albums deep into their career they are still touring and (reportedly) writing new music.  It's my job today to try and rank them. I've been tossing and turning as to whether I should be trying to approach this as objectively as possible or simply rank them in order of my personal preference, and in the end I've decided to attempt to achieve a balance between the two. There aren't a whole lot of bad Chilis albums, so some tough choices had to be made - let's jump into it. 11) The Getaway (2016) I was sorely disappointed with The Getaway when it dropped, and while it has grown on me a little since its release it still remains the weak lin...