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    • Nov 18, 2019

The Best (and Worst) Albums of 2019: The Bottom Tier

With the overwhelming abundance of media being released every passing year, it's hard to definitively say what the absolute best and worst pieces of music released were with any degree of certainty. So to keep our year in review a little more organized we've divided the records we've listened to into 5 tiers - this bottom tier contains the worst albums we actually took the time to listen to, although I'm positive there were much worse records released out there. These are the un-redeemable, bottom of the barrel, children caging, worst of the worst. We call this tier, the Trump Rally.

#116. Pitfalls by Leprous

Leprous has always been kind of a fun Between the Buried and Me alternative but if you think BTBAM has jumped the shark with their Dream Theater inspired prog pop, this latest effort by Leprous eliminates any metal aspect to the equation almost entirely. It's a bold move no doubt but the result sounds like the ugly marriage of Ratatat and Queensryche. A massive experimental misstep that should have never made it out of the studio.

#115. So Much Fun by Young Thug

With Old Town Road becoming the most dominant single in music history and Lil Nas X flatly crediting the roots of his hop hop / country crossover to Young Thug, I thought maybe this would be Thug's chance to shine. Nope. The 19 tracks drag on FOREVER and while it doesn't have any flat out embarrassing songs like his last record did, it's still unbelievably dull. The musical equivalent to riding public transportation for an hour with nowhere to go, just hoping something fun happens but never does.

#114. White Bat by He Is Legend

I gotta be honest here, this was my first He is Legend record. I heard about this new metal record called White Bat and assumed it was the band name. But needless to say, I was not a fan. There are some glimpses of innovation under the greasy layers of lazy metalcore butt rock but mostly, this is nothing new for a genre that's a decade past it's prime.

#113. LP3 by American Football

I didn't realize I was in the minority by actually liking LP2 until I saw how much praise LP3 got. But to me this one felt incredibly bland and unfocused. The expanded instrumentation felt interesting on the first track but after that, it just seemed like they were reaching for anything to expand their sound without a clear direction on what that new sound would be.

#112. Pretty Buff by Angel Du$t

I keep trying to like this band but this is definitely strike 3 for me. I'm not sure there's been a punk band whose success has baffled me this much in a bit. There's just nothing remarkable about their sound at all. It all just feels like filler. The instrumentals are Ramones level simple without the hooks or innovation and the vocals are equally boring.

#111. Come In by Weatherday

This record sounds like shit. And I don't just mean the lo-fi production, which has it's charm at times, but this sounds like a shitty demo in every possible way. The fact that this has people praising this band as the next Car Seat Headrest should piss Car Seat Headrest off. It's got some moments of promise but nothing to suggest this is a breakout album by any means.

#110. Jesus is King by Kanye West

I tried to go into this with an open mind but after the first three tracks, the album is without a doubt the worst material Ye's put out in his entire career. Selah and Follow God had a couple moments where they actually got their hooks into me but from the Chick-fil-a chorus on Closed on Sunday to the unbearably repetitive verses on Water - this is absolute rock bottom for Yeezy.

#109. The Black Album by Weezer

It really seemed like Weezer was back on the right track with Everything Will Be Alright in the End and the White Album. Still nowhere near the perfection of Blue or Pinkerton, but a hell of an improvement over Hurley and Raditude. But with these last two records (and that completely useless cover album) they seem to be right back in a familiar rut of trying way to hard to sound young and relevant. Rivers isn't rapping anymore but his Fortnite song about vaping is definitely a new career low.

#108. DSVII by M83

M83 clearly isn't interested in even trying to replicate the magic of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming and honestly that's fine. Junk actually had some interesting bits on it but this...This does not. It sounds like the soundtrack to a mid 2000's Gamecube Final Fantasy rip off in the absolute worst ways.

#107. Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood

There's been a big influx of hella moody female songwriters this year. Weyes Blood probably features some of the best lyricism of that rising sub genre but the music is just so uninteresting to me. The bellowing vocals over flat digital production just makes it feel so inhuman. Which I get, its kind of the intent, but it doesn't make for an engaging listening experience either.

#106. The Big Day by Chance the Rapper

I know there's a lot of skits sprinkled throughout the 22 tracks of Chance the Rapper's "debut" (what the hell was Coloring Book if not a debut?) but The Big Day is still 77 minutes long with about 4-5 scattered minutes being actually memorable. I'm sure Chance will bounce back but this was a bloated mess of a record and the dude needs to find some other themes to explore besides "hey, I'm different! I rap about being happy, glory be to God!"



View the Rest of the 2019 Tiers Here:



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