It is that time of year again when we take some time to look at all the wonderful music that has been released during the last twelve months. In previous years, we have ranked our favourite records from 2017 and 2018, but this year we’ve tried to do something a little bit different. Rather than ranking our favourite records in an arbitrary manner, we’ve decided to simply write a list of one hundred albums from 2019 that we highly recommend you spend some time with. So – in alphabetical order – here is the second part of Secret Meeting’s Records of 2019:

Cass McCombs – Tip of the Sphere

Tip of the Sphere, is in many ways the continuum on a theme. Like Mangy Love, Tip of the Sphere is an album that long term fans will grow to love. (PM)

Cate Le Bon – Reward

This is definitely a record that demands repeated plays, not only because it challenges its listener, but also because it is totally rewarding. The lyrics can be challenging, the music and singing jarring, but it will remain in your thoughts long after you’ve lifted the needle. (PS)

Chastity Belt – Chastity Belt

This fourth album is professionally wrapped in nostalgia – detailing the evolution of a band who continue to solidify their legacy of presenting artistically mellow and vulnerable tunes as mollifying escapism. (PSi)

Claire Cronin – Big Dread Moon

Big Dread Moon is rainy day or night time music. You decide. Either way – close the curtains, switch off from the real world and drift off into Claire Cronin’s haunting, gothic paradise. (PM)

Common Holly – When I say to you Black Lightning

Released almost exactly two years after her much acclaimed debut album, Playing House, it fulfils her potential as a songwriter – developing the best elements of her debut and shaping them into a more consistent and rounded record. (RW)

Cross Record – Cross Record

Cross Record’s difficulties are most certainly what makes it so charming. Every listen reveals another layer – another melody, another piece of instrumentation – that didn’t reveal itself on the previous play. This is an album that both requires time and deserves it. (PM)

Crushed Beaks – The Other Room

On The Other Room, Crushed Beaks have created an album that fulfils that difficult task of being both instant and layered, but the hooks and themes grow and envelope you over time. It’s an album that feels like it speaks both to and for a lot of people, and beneath its abrasive, outer shell is a heart that thumps defiantly in the face of the state of the world right now. (CH)

Damien Jurado – In The Shape of the Storm

At ten tracks and twenty seven minutes in length, In the Shape of a Storm is a perfectly weighted collection of songs that builds on, and even surpasses, the majesty of its predecessor. Recorded in just one two hour session, there is no fancy production, no strings or orchestral manoeuvring, and no knowing winks. Just a completely open account of its writer’s thoughts and emotions, presented in a form where there is nowhere to hide. And boy, does it deliver. It is an absolute triumph. (PS)

Daughter of Swords – Dawnbreaker

Break up albums are usually filled with pain, regret and even a slice of anger. But this debut offering from Alexandra Sauser-Monnig aka Daughter of Swords is different. Instead, it documents the period prior to the dissipation of her relationship and places its focus on an impending feeling of liberation. Simply put – Dawnbreaker is a beautiful record. (PM)

Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?

Without doubt, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is Deerhunter’s most eclectic record of their career – and is yet further proof that, at this point, American groups will not be losing their grip on the alternative music scene any time soon. (PM)

Dog Daisies – Eagletism

Eagletism speaks of those poignantly beautiful modern-day contradictions – those rolling green pastures interrupted by towering electricity pylons; those unnatural coastal reinforcements being lapped by fizzing, foamy waves. It’s the kind of stuff that whizzes by as you hurtle along on some long car ride, or that blurs past through the window of a train and leaves you in a woozy daze – but for all this rich, vivid imagery, it’s Hudson’s laser sharp songwriting that is the greatest success of the LP, striking a perfect balance between quirky, esoteric musings, and good old-fashioned, instant indie rock. (CH)

Erin Durant – Islands

One for times alone and personal reflection, her first record on new label, Keeled Scales, should build a platform for an exciting and successful career ahead. Islands is a place that’s an absolute pleasure to visit. (PM)

Erland Cooper – Sule Skerry

Cooper has instilled his own voice in a genre where it is easy to become be lost. Sule Skerry is a definite step forward in search of Cooper’s vision and, as his discipline and sound develops, he has given us a tremendous album in which to fully immerse. (JP)

Ex:Re – Ex:Re

Ex:Re is demanding of time on the turntable. Tonra’s lonesome drunken insults slither and snake a charm that is unique. Some records are tailor made for cosy autumnal evenings indoors though: lights off, candles lit, and wine open – on Ex:Re, Tonra has created just that; a long player where the mood is an even deeper blue than its sleeve. A crushingly uncomfortable, but captivating listen. (MJ)

Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes

This is not the return many will have expected – over the last few years, his record’s have harmlessly flirted with crossing over – but, given the world’s climate, it is undoubtedly the return that was necessary from one of contemporary America’s best writers. (PM)

Fat White Family – Serfs Up!

On Serfs Up, the band’s promise finally comes to fruition in the recorded form. And regardless of Bell’s involvement, this is certainly one of the most moreish albums of the year to date. It’s still got its fair share of cheeky chappery, but their interpretation of skewed pop definitely marks the next level for one of alternative music’s most exciting acts. (PM)

Fionn Regan – Cala

It’s this blend of light and dark that makes Cala so engrossing. Where one song grabs you by the heart, another slips its hands around your throat – capturing you under their spell. Simply put, this is a stunning collection of hypnotically brilliant songs. (PM)

Florist – Emily Alone

Just over 18 months ago, Emily Sprague upped sticks and moved from her upstate New York home to the West Coast. Her mother had just passed and a serious, long term relationship had concluded. The result – which was written and recorded following the move, and after six months of serious depression – is Emily Alone: twelve songs that are a brutally deep examination of self from a songwriter absolutely at the top of her game. (PM)

Fontaines DC – Dogrel

Fontaines D.C have introduced themselves unashamedly on this breakneck, rollicking debut, which in some ways feels as vital and refreshing as when Messrs Barat and Doherty appeared on the scene nearly twenty years ago. (JP)

Writers:

PM – Philip Moss

PS – Phil Scarisbrick

JP – Joseph Purcell

MJ – Mark Jackson

CH – Chris Hatch

RW – Richard Wyatt

PSi – Paige Sims

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