New York, NY (Top40 Charts) BBC
Radio 6
Music today announces that Fontaines D.C. album, Dogrel, has topped the list of 6
Music Recommends: Albums of the Year 2019. The station's 22 presenters, including regular guest host Cillian Murphy, selected their top albums from 2019 which were collated to create the final Top 10.
The list represents the wealth of music that can be found on BBC
Radio 6
Music from an eclectic range of artists and genres, both newer talents and established names.
Fontaines D.C. say: "We're delighted that 6
Music have chosen Dogrel as their Album of the Year. Most of the album is about our experiences in Dublin - and the songs can sort of be divided between the hopeless and the hopeful - but it's essentially about the weight of the world that's pressing against you, and struggling to find a balance, an equilibrium.
"It would mean a lot to win this title any year really, but this year in particular there have been a lot of really great, substantial bodies of work, and so for that reason we're particularly chuffed. So thank you 6
Music for all the support."
Jeff Smith, 6 Music's Head of Music, says: "I'm so proud that Steve Lamacq and 6
Music have been such early supporters of the brilliant Fontaines D.C. It's been a great year for the band, from playing the 6
Music Festival, launching their debut album to making the Mercury Prize shortlist and now topping 6
Music Recommends Albums of the Year, as chosen by the station's presenters."
Steve Lamacq has championed Fontaines D.C. in his 6
Music show from their debut single,
Liberty Belle, in June 2017. Later that year he heavily supported their second single, Hurricane Laughter. The station put their next track, Chequeless Reckless, onto its playlist in July 2018 and that month the band performed their first BBC radio session in Steve's 6
Music Recommends show.
The band went on to perform at the 6
Music Festival in Liverpool in March this year. Steve Lamacq will be talking to them in his show today (4pm-7pm) and looking back at the Fontaines D.C.'s history on 6 Music, with archive of their first plays and sessions up to the 6
Music Festival in March this year.
On BBC
Sounds in 6
Music Album of the Year, Fontaines D.C. talk through their winning album track by track. Also on BBC
Sounds is Handpicked by 6 Music: Albums of the Year mix - a huge playlist of songs from the presenters' favourite records of 2019.
The Top Ten 6
Music Recommends: Albums of the Year 2019 are:
1 Fontaines D.C. - Dogrel
Steve Lamacq says: "Dogrel opens up a door to another world. A lot of it is just about the everyday and the everyday people, but these stories and the people in them are told in such an understanding, almost conversational, way that is really impressive. It's like poetry that's been hewn from the cut and thrust of a pub conversation and this is one of the album's greatest achievements - turning the mundane into the magical.
Musically, it understands tension and melody and how you can invoke different sorts of moods. It's like they've created a tribute to the part of a city that we never see, but it's the part of the city which really provides that city's soul."
Fontaines D.C. performance at 6
Music Festival here
2 Sleaford Mods - Eton Alive
Tom Robinson said: "Early in the year, Sleaford Mods returned with their strongest record to date. The trademark driving beats and savage humour are augmented by marimba samples, actual singing and even a rogue kazoo. Despite its superficially topical title, Eton Alive offers a nuanced exploration of a world going noisily mad - a world every one of us can recognise as we hide behind our firewalls and hope for the best."
3
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Mark Radcliffe said: "His Love & Hate album of 2016 was a revelation then, and KIWANUKA continues that expansive sweep of his work. He has incorporated classic soul, funk, gospel, film soundtrack, psychedelia and an adventurous use of audio clips and samples to create another compellingly fine work. He was pretty good to begin with. He's even better now."
4 The Comet Is Coming -
Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery
Tom Ravenscroft said: "This album is a journey - a fabulous cosmic trip into the future led by Shabaka, Danalogue and Betamax Killer. Nothing else, I think, sounds like this record. It has this kind of other worldly quality to it - total escapism. It has an amazing kind of meditative quality which I know I need in my life. I think everybody else should listen to this on a regular, regular occasion. The three of them are so flipping talented it's outrageous. More power to them: they build worlds that I want to live in."
5
Little Simz - GREY Area
Lauren Laverne said: "It's so confident and self-assured, but also, it's this incredibly rich sound-world that she's been developing record to record. It's an interesting mix of the personal, the political and the powerful stories really that I can't tell whether they are fact or fiction, but it doesn't matter because they have the poet's truth."
6 Warmduscher - Tainted Lunch
Marc Riley said: "Warmduscher have succeeded where many others have tried and failed, and that is in getting me to dance frantically whilst battling against my better judgement. This album is riddled with mischief and a wicked, dark sense of humour. Stylistically it's all over the place, and I mean that in the best possible way. They are probably the best night out in Britain at the moment and this Dan Carey produced album captures them in all their glory. I'm HOOKED!"
7 Kate Tempest - The Book Of Traps And Lessons
Stuart Maconie said: "Kate Tempest's voice is authentic and contemporary.She addresses the personal and the social in her work and unites the fields of poetry and music without compromising either."
8
Brittany Howard - Jaime
Guy Garvey said: "Brittany Howard's first solo album is not just a masterclass in song writing and a real soulful and personal and beautiful piece, but she's produced it as well, and it can't be overstated how amazing it is on that front. It makes her the most exciting person in music at the moment, working across all the different fundamental elements of making a record. It sounds absolutely current while retaining a huge heart and a real sense of heritage. It's a brilliant tour de force; a wonderful record."
9 The Specials - Encore
Don Letts said: "Forty years on from their brilliant debut, the basic elements we loved The Specials for in the first place are still right there on Encore - even though many of the original band members are not. Political and deeply personal at the same time, Terry's vocal delivery, combined with bass heavy grooves, provide the perfect soundtrack for the times in which this record was made."
10 Nick Cave and the BadSeeds - Ghosteen
Mary Anne Hobbs said: "This masterful new album of 2019, Ghosteen, is Nick Cave's beautifully bound expression of loss. As fans, it brings us a clarity in understanding where he resides emotionally in this moment, as a beloved artist and a human being. A testimony too, to his extraordinary creative relationship with Warren Ellis, which continues to bloom on the most challenging terrain."
For 22 days from Friday 29 November, each of the presenters' album of the year choices will be played on 6 Music. And
Thursday 12 December is 6
Music Recommends Day where, from 7.30am through to 7pm, shows will be featuring the best of the new music that has been played on 6
Music throughout the year.
Across the day, presenters from
Lauren Laverne, Mary Anne Hobbs, Shaun Keaveny to Steve Lamacq will be sharing their personal favourites, from the unsigned and undiscovered, to new tracks from bigger artists and bands.
