Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2019. Our next list is from DJ and Programming Committee member Tyler Clark.

I've been making these lists informally since 2003, for CHIRP since 2014, and for Consequence of Sound since 2017, and this year's was easily the most difficult to finalize. Despite everything going on in our rapidly deteriorating world, music managed to produce some real bounty, a richness that left the top crowded and the honorable mentions littered with records that might've been in the Top 5 in other years. As a counterbalance to anxiety and socio-cultural hopelessness, it's a pretty good start.

#1   Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains (Drag City)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

The saddest moment of my entire year came when I got the email notifying me that I'd received a refund to the Purple Mountains show at Sleeping Village that David Berman was no longer alive to play.

Favorite Track: "Darkness and Cold"

#2   Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood (Sub Pop)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Like the underwater bedroom on its cover, the best record ever released by Natalie Mering infuses its self-targeted torch songs with the cinematic weightlessness usually found at the bottom of swimming pool.

Favorite Track: "Picture Me Better"

#3   LEGACY! LEGACY! by Jamila Woods (Jagjaguwar)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

I wasn't sure Chicago's R&B poet laureate could top the work she did on 2016's Heavn. She did, of course, and we're all the richer for it.

Favorite Track: "BASQUIAT"

#4   Jaime by Brittany Howard (ATO)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

I've probably listened to "Short & Sweet" 30 times over the last few weeks, and my breath still catches in my chest every time the 3:00 mark rolls around. It's arresting, and so is the rest of the record.

Favorite Track: "Short & Sweet"

#5   Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend (Columbia)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Only Ezra Koenig could get away with cribbing from "Touch of Grey"-era Grateful Dead and somehow manage to produce a record that's both artistically and culturally interesting in 2019. That f**kin' rascal.

Favorite Track: "How Long?"

#6   All Mirrors by Angel Olsen (Jagjaguwar)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Is Angel Olsen preparing to assume the powers of Stevie Nicks when the latter sheds her mortal form and ascends to the fey realms via an incantation hidden in the liner notes to Tango In The Night? With this record, signs point to yes.

Favorite Track: "Spring"

#7   House of Sugar by (Sandy) Alex G (Domino)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

This record plays like it was written by an mp3 blog with seasonal affective disorder. That's maybe the highest compliment someone of my age and musical temperament can deliver.

Favorite Track: "Southern Sky"

#8   Miss Universe by Nilüfer Yanya (ATO)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

When you live in a place like Chicago, you naturally develop a deep and meaningful "first warm days of spring" playlist to get you through the long-and-lonelies. The sun-baked pop on this one found a permanent place on mine.

Favorite Track: "In Your Head"

#9   U.F.O.F./Two Hands by Big Thief (4AD)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Indie rock's unlikely saviors released the kind of record that careers hinge upon in 2019, and then they did it again. Breaking the tie feels like line-editing a prayer, so I won't do it. Everybody wins.

Favorite Track(s): "Cattails"/"Not"

#10   Morbid Stuff by PUP (Rise/Little Dipper)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Thirtysomething existential angst set against the backdrop of my generation's seemingly permanent financial quagmire? Yeah, inject that right into my veins.

Favorite Track: "See You At Your Funeral"

The Rest of the Top 25 (and Favorite Tracks):

11) Jessica Pratt, Quiet Signs ("This Time Around")
12) Tyler the Creator, IGOR ("EARFQUAKE")
13) Lizzo, Cuz I Love You ("Juice")
14) Kim Gordon, No Home Record ("Don't Play It")
15) Helado Negro, This Is How You Smile ("Running")
16) oso oso, basking in the glow ("dig")
17) slowthai, Nothing Great About Britain ("Doorman")
18) Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Bandana ("Crime Pays")
19) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ghosteen ("Ghosteen")
20) Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow ("Seventeen")
21) Oh Sees, Face Stabber ("The Daily Heavy")
22) Caroline Polachek, Pang ("So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings")
23) Guided By Voices, Sweating the Plague ("Unfun Glitz")
24) Toro y Moi, Outer Peace ("Ordinary Pleasure")
25) FONTAINES D.C., Dogrel ("Liberty Belle")

50 Songs I Loved from Artists Who Didn't Make the Top 25:

100 gecs, "money machine"
Angel Bat Dawid, "Black Family"
Anna Meredith, "Killjoy"
Arthur Russell, "I Never Get Lonesome"
Avey Tare, "Saturdays (Again)"
Battles, "Titanium 2 Step"
Beirut, "Landslide"
Better Oblivion Community Center, "Forest Lawn"
Billie Eilish, "my strange addiction"
black midi, "Near DT, MI"
Carly Rae Jepsen, "Now That I Found You"
CHAI, "I'm Me"
Damien Jurado, "Newspaper Gown"
Deerhunter, "What Happens to People?"
Devendra Banhart, "Is This Nice?"
Dry Cleaning, "Viking Hair"
Durand Jones and the Indications, "Morning in America"
Ezra Furman, "Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone"
Faye Webster, "Room Temperature"
Girlpool, "Hire"
hand habits, "can't calm down"
Harry Nilsson, "U.C.L.A."
The Hold Steady, "You Did Good Kid"
Hot Chip, "Hungry Child"
International Teachers of Pop, "Age of the Train"
the japanese house, "f a r a w a y"
Jay Som, "Superbike"
Jenny Lewis, "Red Bull and Hennessey"
Julia Jacklin, "Pressure to Party"
Little Simz, "Boss"
Malibu Ken, "Acid King"
The Menzingers, "Strangers Forever"
The Mountain Goats, "Cadaver Sniffing Dog"
The National, "I Am Easy to Find"
The New Pornographers, "Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile"
Orville Peck, "Dead of Night"
Panda Bear, "Dolphin"
Ride, "Future Love"
Ra Ra Riot, "A Check for Daniel"
Royal Trux, "Whopper Dave"
Sleaford Mods, "Discourse"
Sleater-Kinney, "Hurry On Home"
Snail Mail, "The 2nd Most Beautiful Girl in the World"
Stephen Malkmus, "Rushing the Acid Frat"
Sturgill Simpson, "Mercury In Retrograde"
Trey Gruber, "Summer City"
Two Door Cinema Club, "Talk"
Warm Human, "Stranger"
Wilco, "Everyone Hides"
Yeasayer, "Let Me Listen In On You"