End of the year – you know what time it is.

A wise man named Smash (but it’s Dr. Mouth to you) once said “the years start coming and they don’t stop coming”. He was so right for that. 2025 felt a decade long, but also it’s already December again. What’s that about? Not a fan!

Some real bullshit in the world this year, dude! I know it’s not what you came here to read about, so I won’t get into it. But if life feels more and more like circling the drain these days, I get it, and implore you to hang in there. Yes, Dr. Mouth, our world is also on fire – but every now and then we get a One Battle After Another. Or go to Red Rocks for the first time. Or compete in a parallel parking contest. Or watch stand up comedy in a park on a summer afternoon. And it’s like, oh shit, life is pretty tight actually!

Wonderful year in music though – it was tough narrowing down to 50 selections. Can you believe I did it? Applause break please. My fun little annual project at the end of every year is to count down my list over the course of a week on Instagram stories – it’s not the ideal platform for something like that, but I like to think of it as an exercise in concise (and very casual) writing since there’s a limit on space for text. Below you’ll find my favorite albums of the year, with all of those little blurbs. If you don’t care about any of that, scroll to the bottom of this page for a screenshot of the list in its entirety.

What a year. It feels like at least one Friday a month I was rambling around the site about another incredible release day we were being treated to. When I sat down to make this list, the number of albums I’d listened to this year that I enjoyed wound up at about 270. And sure, there are some obvious factors to this that I think a lot of us share — the way this decade has sculpted how we consume music, for one. The 2010’s made discovering new music one of the single easiest things a person can do, and one of the most entertaining activities with ten bucks in your pocket and an internet connection.

But I think the ease and passion for discovery are only the cause for a bigger reason why this was such a remarkable year in music. Because naturally with more music will come more open mindedness, more inspiration, and more tools for artists to create a unique price of art. With each year, that tool belt grows, and we see artists framing their vision of certain sounds differently than we could have ever imagined — blending influences from all directions and being encouraged to tell their stories. In the passing of time, it becomes more difficult to not fall in love with an astonishing amount of music.

Read More “Trevor Graham’s Top Albums of 2019”