Best Of Edmonton 2019 – Top 10 Albums
The local music scene continues to see deep wells of talent across the spectrum of genres, from folk to metal to punk to indie. Some genres have defacto leaders, others coalesce around a few bands, and others still have a bevy of grand projects orbiting their sphere. While any year-end listing of albums or music of any sort will undoubtedly leave some feeling like their favorites were slighted, our listing of Edmonton’s top 10 albums has a greater range than perhaps any of our previous lists, and there’s good reason for that – and even grander hope for the future because of it. Here they are:
10. Juliet Ruin, Old Stardust Love and Chaos
Formed in 2015 out of the ashes of Fiction of Fate, this Jess Fleming-led metalcore project (above) released their debut album in early September. The result is an extraordinary work of super-technical guitars, an insane level of hooks and cacophonous drums, and with just the right amount of angst and anger. A masterful debut. Standout track: Seasons.
9. Seriously Fun, A Place To Call Home
An upbeat flare-up of jangly bop and indie pop, this trio’s very first show was just nine months ago, in March, and already the project has coalesced into a very impressive debut album with seven songs, each equally as extraordinary as the other. Standout Track: The Top.
8. Ground Level Falcons, Good Living Foundation
This alternative album follows the epic tale of a missing tour guide along Highway 93 (the one that stretches from Jasper to Lake Louise to Banff), from her partner first starting to retrace her steps, to the eight-plus-minute denouement. The Falcons have really outdone themselves here, a mammoth effort that features near-perfect pacing and constant shifts in emotion and vibe. Standout Track: Another Diamond Way.
7. Tyson Kerr, Balloon Loop
Gritty yet sensual, Kerr – a graduate of the MacEwan, University of Toronto, and Banff Centre music programs – has assembled an acoustic-jazz jaunt through pianos, accordions, violins, trumpets, and upright bass, that tells the tale of a cross-Canada journey by train, with mishaps, shenanigans, and of course, music. The included free improvisations both manage to move the story forward, and yet are both wondrous and hearken to some of jazz’s most historic works. The whole fandango is en-mired in an east coast vibe that is both inescapable and brilliant. Standout track: Safe Journey Tiny Pink Guitar
6. New Pleasure, Imprints
A haughty instrumental blend of Journey, Yes, and Rush, modernized for the twenty-first century, the duo (K. Wilson and D. Burkosky) revel in an intriguing prog-rock salute, with subtle textures of classical and symphonic music. Standout track: Rovente.
5. Lucas Chaisson, Most True Thing
Chiasson’s 2019 album is chock full of beautiful prose and gorgeous harmonies, the kind of music you’d like to just sit in a cozy chair with a beer (or something harder) and cry to. Standout Track: I Will Always Be With You
4. Jom Comyn, Crawl
One is never surprised to see Comyn’s name on a list such as this. Never. One of the most talented and prolific musicians in the city, his folk-rock albums are journeys in themselves, loaded with deep, sentient, living lyrics, incredible and particular guitar work, and extraordinarily-placed changes of pace. This album is no different, and is likely one of the strongest of his career. Standout Track: Mountain
3. Matthew Cardinal, Music From Digging In the Dirt
This album is the original score to the documentary Digging In the Dirt by Omar Mouallem and Dylan Rhys Howard, a film about mental health in the energy industry. A cinematic opera in and of itself, the album features ambient electronica with soaring peaks and devastating lows, and a stark sparseness like the ravaged tundra of the North. You cannot help but be pulled along on the journey, your emotions left raw and cascading over themselves; infinitely aware of your own unease with the emotions the music is unabashedly and alarmingly drawing out from your soul, unable to forge any kind of defense against it. Not that you would want to. Standout Track: Tar Sand Cradle Song
2. Black Mastiff, Loser Delusions
Another regular of the local scene, these stoner-psych demigods didn’t disappoint with their 2019 release, a herculean effort full of fuzzy guitars and blistering solos that will soothe even the stingiest heavy rock critic. A suite of 10 discrete journeys, slow-plodding, guitar-heavy psych-heavy tracks that punch you in the gut, throw you into a brick wall like in an action movie, and then leave you breathless as you absorb the music through every bone in your being. This local band has been putting out kickass rock ‘n’ roll for a long time – and they likely will for a long time more. Standout Track: Star Base 77
1. Glenroy, Heart On My Black Sleeve
Glen Erickson is another musician of great repute in the local scene, having been part of the extraordinary alt-country group The Wheat Pool for seven years. This album, his first solo effort, follows Erickon’s passions, foibles, regrets and hopes, through an indie-rock-Canadiana montage of vocals and guitars, with subtle drums and bass intricately placed throughout. Produced by local luminary Jesse Northey (who also performed some of the instruments), and mastered by fellow local celeb Nik Kozub (Shout Out Out Out Out), the album is a sheer delight of tranquility and soul-searching, darkness without light, and lightness without dark. Standout track: English Bay
