Best of 2019: Overall top 10 + songs + shows

Here are my 10 favorite records of 2019, with corresponding links to prior coverage where applicable. (ICYMI, here's the jazz-only list.)

1. Moon Tooth, Crux
2. Tomb Mold, Planetary Clairvoyance
3. Arch/Matheos, Winter Ethereal
4. Sheer Mag, A Distant Call
5. Angel Bat Dawid, The Oracle
6. Lizzo, Cuz I Love You [she owned the culture this year, and rightfully so]
7. The Messthetics, Anthropocosmic Nest
8. Branford Marsalis Quartet, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
9. Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains [this record made me realize just how much I'd overlooked w.r.t. the late, great David Berman. R.I.P.]
10. Hole Dweller, Flies the Coop [stumbled across this one only a few weeks ago; it's just fantastic — transporting lo-fi synthscapes inspired by The Hobbit!]

Here are some others that came close to making the cut:
-La Dispute, Panorama
-Bob Mould, Sunshine Rock [he just keeps making solid, no-nonsense rock records]
-Jeromes Dream, LP
-Sleater-Kinney, The Center Won't Hold [such a bummer that the band basically imploded during the making of this, but there are good songs here]
-Darkthrone, Old Star

Here are a couple more that I just really liked and look forward to spending more time with:
-Giants Chair, Prefabylon
-Liturgy, H.A.Q.Q. [this is visionary music, plain and simple]

Here is a reissue that absolutely floored me:
Santa Lucia, Perse Palaa

Here are 15 miscellaneous songs I loved this year:

Billie Eilish, "Bad Guy"
Luke Combs, "Even Though I'm Leaving"
Haunt, "Mosaic Vision"
Lizzo, "Juice"
Vampire Weekend, "Harmony Hall"
Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, "Old Town Road"
Sheer Mag, "Chopping Block"
Moon Tooth, "Crux"
Lizzo, "Jerome"
Mannequin Pussy, "Drunk II"
Lizzo, "Truth Hurts"
Haunt, "Callouses"
Billie Eilish, "Bury a Friend"
Orville Peck, "Hope to Die"
Sam Fender, "Hypersonic Missiles"

And here are 20 particularly memorable shows I saw:

Jan 25/26 - Black Flags Over Brooklyn at Brooklyn Bazaar
Mar 7 - Cannibal Corpse + Morbid Angel + Blood Incantation at Playstation Theater
May 9 - Feast of the Epiphany at Vital Joint
May 12 - Eyehategod + Sheer Terror at Kingsland
June 1 - Bikini Kill at Terminal 5
June 11 - Andrew Cyrille "Lifetime Achievement" concert at Vision Fest
June 15 - Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison at Central Park SummerStage
June 22 - Jawbox at Brooklyn Steel
June 29 - Moon Tooth at Amityville Music Hall
July 26 - Jeromes Dream at Saint Vitus
July 27 - Iron Maiden at Barclays
Aug 10 - Cheer-Accident at Ceremony
Sept 13 - Pat Metheny Side-Eye (w/ James Francies and Marcus Gilmore) at Sony Hall
Sept 21 - King Crimson at Radio City Music Hall
Oct 9 - Sheer Mag at Elsewhere
Oct 10 - Melvins + Redd Kross at Warsaw
Oct 18 - Battles at Max Fish
Nov 2 - Mike Watt and the Missingmen at the Echo (L.A.)
Nov 3 - John Zorn Masada (w/ Julian Lage, Jorge Roeder and Kenny Wollesen) at Village Vanguard
Nov 29 - Giants Chair at the Brick (KC)