Down The Middle News: The Year In Music 2019 : All Songs Considered : NPR

Clockwise from higher left: Burna Boy, Large Thief, Lizzo, Tyler, The Creator, Billie Eilish, Higher Oblivion Neighborhood Middle

Courtesy of the artists

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Courtesy of the artists

As we listened again to the previous yr in music we heard quite a lot of the cultural and political angst you’d count on in a turbulent (and relentless) information cycle. However the albums that appeared to resonate essentially the most in 2019 had been extra private and inward trying, overflowing with love and defiant optimism. Sharon Van Etten mirrored on motherhood, Amanda Palmer shared tales of survival and David Bazan, again as Pedro the Lion for the primary time in 15 years, returned to his childhood, making the private common. Brittany Howard wrote songs of therapeutic on an album she named after and devoted to her sister who died on the age of 13, whereas the members of the Rwandan group The Good Ones sang songs of forgiveness within the wake of unspeakable genocide.

For different artists, 2019 was a yr of renewal. Angel Olsen, Michael Kiwanuka, Sleater-Kinney, Raphael Saadiq and extra all reinvented their sound, pushing themselves in dramatic new instructions as a testomony to the resilience and restlessness of the artistic spirit.

Sure, Lizzo, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X all dominated the charts and headlines this yr (and for good causes). However 2019 was rather more than that. On this year-in-review version of All Songs Thought of, we glance again on the albums, songs and artists we’ll bear in mind most and talk about the marks they made on our cultural panorama.