Music of 2019 - Part 1

As another year draws to a close, it is time for music blogs the world over to start running down their Albums of the Year. Many have already posted theirs, but I always like to wait until the very last minute to publish mine. Picking Albums of the Year is always extremely difficult, and this year has been no different. I think that 2019 has been one of the strongest years for new music for a while. The previous years have always been strong, but this year has been something else. My Albums of the Year list, which I will publish tomorrow, contains four albums that all could be my favourite - with the remaining six coming from a pool of tens of possible candidates. Albums have continued to impress me over and over this year, and I am happy that many bands, old and new, are still taking the time to craft excellent new albums in a time that some (wrongly) say that the album as a format is dead. I hope bands will continue to push the album formula further, and there are plenty of new releases already to look forward to in 2020 - a new decade! As always however, there were plenty of albums that I never got a chance to review. This blog is a part-time venture, run for my own enjoyment against the backdrop of a full-time job and, at the moment, a part-time Masters which will certainly dominate the first three months of 2020 while I finish off my dissertation. I will continue to blog when I get the chance, and I will certainly need the occasional break from my studies, but it might be that some of January and February's new albums that I would have otherwise reviewed will drop off the schedule. It is for reasons like this that a few years ago I started doing this preview to my Albums of the Year post to include five mini reviews of albums that I missed out on during the year. There are many reasons for missing out on albums. Some of these I did not get around to picking up until quite a time after their release, and some are ones I only really came to appreciate later on. I am always happy to have the chance to give some additional releases a shout out, as there are plenty more excellent albums out there that I just have not had time to cover!

Up first is an album that, if I had picked it up earlier and reviewed it properly, could have appeared in my Albums of the Year list. Daytrip to Narnia is the third album by British pop rockers Cats in Space, a band I have been aware of for a while but only got into this summer. In my opinion, this is the band's best work yet. It mixes the band's penchant for poppy throwback glam hooks with the occasional burst of progressive songwriting - creating a quirky sound that is both familiar and also fresh. Fans of bands like Queen, Supertramp, and ELO will love Cats in Space, but they are not merely a throwback. There is a real freshness and energy in the band's sound, with the multi-part closing suite The Story of Johnny Rocket really showcasing the extent to which the band is willing to push their sound. Each song has a soaring chorus, the keyboards sound wonderfully vintage, and with great guitar playing throughout from Greg Hart and Dean Howard Daytrip to Narnia is an album that only gets better with each listen. It was also the band's last effort with original frontman Paul Manzi, who left the band earlier in the year. I am looking forward to seeing where the band go next with new singer Mark Pascall.

The second album to feature here is one that suffered from coming out very early in the year, when album prices seem to shoot up everywhere thanks to HMV's threatened closure. Even Amazon really jacked their prices up, so a few albums from January and February got left behind. Inglorious' third album Ride to Nowhere was one of them, but I also was put off picking it up due to the behaviour of frontman Nathan James who lost basically his whole band not long before the album's release and then spent his time filming quite vitriolic videos to spread over social media. This was all rather poor I thought, but I am glad I picked up the album eventually as it is actually rather strong. It sees James and co. pushing their throwback hard rock sound to new heights, with a heavier vibe featured throughout and songs that include a few extra twists and turns. Tracks like Liar showcase the band's new heavy strut, while the beautiful Glory Days shows how an all-acoustic ballad can fit on a hard rock album and not stick out like a sore thumb. In my opinion, Ride to Nowhere is the album were Inglorious came of age, it is just a shame it had to be surrounded by behaviour that did not demonstrate this maturity at all. With a new line-up assembled, I am looking forward to seeing where the band go from here.

The next album is one that I would never have reviewed here properly, because to keep things manageable I do not cover compilation albums, live albums, or collections of re-recordings. I covered Whitesnake's The Purple Album in this mini format in 2015, so it only seems right to include Marillion's excellent With Friends from the Orchestra here too. The album was the accompaniment to their UK tour which saw the band take a string section on the road with them, and featured nine songs from their back catalogue re-worked and re-recorded to feature the classical musicians. Their acoustic album Less is More was very divisive, but this one seems to have been much better received, with fans appreciating the lush arrangements and depth that the strings add to the songs. It helps that many of the band's most epic, fan-favourite pieces have been included here - with This Strange Engine particularly standing out with its new coat of paint. It is certainly not an essential addition to every Marillion fan's collection, but it is a great memento of a fabulous tour and a nice collection of some of the band's best long-form pieces. Marillion are possibly the most-popular that they have been for years again at this point and, with a new album touted for 2020, it is an exciting time to be a fan.

Doom metal has never really been my thing, but earlier this year I picked up the new album from Finland's Swallow the Sun in anticipation of their set at Bloodstock Open Air. The heavy, oppressive, yet beautiful When a Shadow is Forced into the Light took me by surprise, and it has been an album that over the year I have listened to a fair bit unexpectedly. I still feel that there is a lot for me to discover in the album, but I feel that Swallow the Sun are a band that I could potentially get quite into over the coming years. The band are masters at creating dense soundscapes, with layers of keyboards and oppressive guitars making up the heavy textures - while their secret weapon Mikko Kotamäki sings atop them. I usually find doom to one-paced, but Swallow the Sun have a lot of progressive tendencies in their writing, with lengthy, varied songs making up the eight-track album. Kotamäki is different from your average doom vocalist too, mixing gorgeous floaty cleans with the occasional black metal-esque rasp when things get really heavy. It is his vocals that have really helped me to get into Swallow the Sun, and I look forward to picking up some more of their albums going forward.

Another album I picked up in anticipation of Bloodstock, The Wildhearts' Renaissance Men was something of a hit from the off. I have been a casual fan of the band for some time now, but I have listened to this album a fair bit this year, impressed by its raw punk energy and classic rock strut. The Wildhearts are a band that mix a lot of sounds into their music, but this one feels like one of their most instantly-accessible collections of songs, with lots of big anthemic choruses that take hold after only a couple of listens. That being said, there is still the band's trademark variation and schizophrenic attitude to be found throughout. Opening track Dislocated has something of a crusty extreme metal overtone in places, while the following number Let 'Em Go is possibly the band's catchiest track for years. It is an album that squeezes an awful lot into its 38 minute runtime, and one that shows that main man Ginger has lost none of this venom, anger, or knack for a strong melody in the ten years since the band's last album.

Those are five additional albums from 2019 that you should all check out if you have not already, and they are all albums that I wish I had reviewed properly (with the exception of Marillion due to my self-imposed rules). I picked them all up too late to justify reviewing them, as I do not like to post new reviews several months after the albums have dropped! It has also become tradition during this round up the year to briefly talk about my favourite live release of the year. I do not cover live albums here, but I always like to highlight my favourite - and that accolade this year belongs to Toto's 40 Tours Around the Sun. Featuring a lengthy, career-spanning setlist that would have left the casual fan who turned up just to hear Africa and Hold the Line (the latter of which was thrown to the crowd very early in the set) choking the dust, 40 Tours Around the Sun showcases Toto at their very best. Jazzy, proggy, poppy, you name it and Toto can do it - and all sides of the band are showcased here. The jazzy instrumental workout that closes out Rosanna is draw-dropping, with Steve Lukather showcasing his guitar talents, while an extract from the Dune soundtrack showcases some great 1980s-style synth playing and the band's progressive credentials. The band's whole career was showcased throughout this current tour, with the band's four core members backed up by a host of excellent session players. Toto have released a lot of excellent live albums over the years, but this one might be their best yet - and with the band having entered into a second hiatus period following the end of the latest leg of tour in October this is the closest thing you will get to a Toto show for a good while!

With my additional musical coverage of the year wrapped up, all that is left to do now is write up my Albums and Gigs of the year lists which will come tomorrow. I wish send out a thank you to anyone who has read, shared, or liked one of my reviews over the year. Reading figures have been up quite a bit compared to average this year, and it feels good that there are at least a few people out there reading what I have to say. There is a lot to come in 2020, studying aside, and I hope you will all continue to follow new music with me. As for 2020, I already have albums from Demons & Wizards, Delain, and Sylosis to look forward - as well as albums from Conception and NeonFly that I pre-ordered a long time ago which should be released sometime during the year. I have no doubts that 2020 will be another excellent year for music and concerts - and it will all be covered here at WhoIsSamLewis.