As 2019 comes to an end, it's time to look back at our favourite content of the year! Each of our DJs have sent in their own curated list of "Best of" content for the year. Do you agree with their picks?
Francella is CJLOs Station Manager and hosts Superconnected every Monday at 11 a.m.
With the year (and decade) about to close, we at CJLO always take this time to reflect on our personal bests - from albums, to songs, to live shows, to moments, and more. We carefully and diligently curated and ruminated to offer a snapshot of the past year - and what a year it was! We had more live sessions than ever before from Orville Peck, Common Holly, WHOOP-Szo, and even Polaris Music Prize winner Haviah Mighty. We set the bar for our Funding Drive, raising an impressive $7200, and we saw more shows from women and non-binary folks added to our stacked programming lineup. As for the music, I personally made it my mission to listen to new releases every Friday, and while I couldn’t quite shed my daily Steely Dan intake, I discovered more artists and labels than ever before. Sometimes, it pays to keep your New Year’s resolution. Happy New Year from CJLO to you and your family!
Best Albums
Honourable Mentions
Best Songs of 2019
Honourable Mentions
Best Live Shows of 2019
Best Discoveries of 2019
Christmas: See below, but I drove everyone crazy talking about this band.
Orville Peck: Masked cowboy of the moment now selling out venues everywhere.
Fifth Column: Legendary proto-riot grrl band from Toronto whose debut album cannot be found anywhere. Luckily, I have a digital copy thanks to a friend back in Halifax (hi Stephen!)
Bernard Adamus: Best Montreal brunch album of 2019.
Bon Enfant: I love a Fleetwood Mac/disco/flare jeans moment.
CRABE: The best post-punk is Francophone.
Bleu Nuit: See above.
Best Obsessions of 2019
Christmas: This diamond-in-the-rough proto-prog band from Oshawa comprised of actual teenagers who made some of the most sophisticated and complex music Canada has ever known, I think. Heritage for Polaris Heritage Prize 2020.
Deep Purple: I would die for Ian Paice and Jon Lord.
Rush: I watched two Rush documentaries and learned that the trio would have sooner go back to their day jobs than forsake their vision on 2112. Had to respect that choice, and then reconsider my long hatred for the prog legends.
Karen Carpenter: One of the world’s greatest drummers, bar none, but often reduced to an embodiment of feminine tragedy. Justice 4 Karen.
Voivod: With an album like The Wake, how can you not be obsessed? This is the end of dormancy for Voivod, who have been overlooked by the Canadian music industry, but can now call themselves Juno winners and Polaris Music Prize long-listers.
Steely Dan: Yes, I put this down last year, but Pitchfork had a day celebrating The Dan with five new reviews on their most influential albums (although, I felt excluding Pretzel Logic was a tremendous oversight). Continue to get the fine Colombian, the Cuervo Gold, and never do it without the fez on. I am who I am.
Barrett’s Privateers by Stan Rogers: You can take the girl out of the Maritimes, but you can’t take the Maritimes out of the girl. Who among us are not broken men on a Halifax pier, the last of Barrett’s Privateers?
Alex hosts Ashes to Ashes every Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Top 10 Albums of 2019
Honourable Mentions
Top 5 EPs of 2019
Sylvain Verstricht hosts The Rest of Us every Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Best Albums of 2019
Best Singles of 2019
Most Memorable Concerts of 2019
Amrew Weekes is CJLO’s Hip Hop Music Director and co-hosts Limelight every Friday at 6pm.
Best Albums of 2019
I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed! Here are my top 10 albums, in no particular order, that I played on The Limelight and can be found in my music player.
Best Album of the Year
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana
Best R&B Song of the Year
Sam I Am Montolla - “The Game”
Best Hip Hop Song of the Year
Chris Orrick - “Out to Sea”
Best Film of the Year
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Best TV Show of the Year
Mindhunters (2017 - )
Emeline Vidal hosts Nozin’ Around, every Friday at 2pm.
Best Albums of 2019
Honourable Mention
DIIV - Deceiver
Chris the Frog hosts Sewer Spewer every Monday at 12pm.
Best Montreal Albums of 2019
Best Canadian Albums 2019
Best International Albums 2019
Kelly Belfo, aka Sugarface Bell Fo, is CJLO's World Music Director and founder of our longest running world music radio show, Beat The World, every Saturday at 12 p.m.
Top World Music Albums of 2019
Top 3 World Music Live Shows of 2019
Angelica hosts BVST every Wednesday at 7 p.m.
This year, I'm once again bringing you 10 of my favorite songs released this year, in no particular order. Could you extrapolate from this that these are also 10 of my favorite records released this year? Perhaps. Should you listen to them to find out whether they might be your favorites as well? Absolutely! Click here to listen to a playlist of all these selections.
1. Hard Charger - "No Home But the Road"
Steeped in the same drive-all-night, uppers-on-the-dashboard punk'n'roll tradition as my favorites Zeke, The Hookers, or Aussie blood rockers The Chainsaw Hookers, Hard Charger snarls and spits from Fredericton, NB, and like this track, leave skidmarks and road rash wherever they ride. CJLO was privileged to have the three-piece record a session in our studios, and I hope they come back soon!
2. Deathchant - "Hex"
One of my favorite records of the year, Deathchant's self-titled was officially released 10 days into 2019, and has been in my rotation ever since. Its messy, heavy psych smells of black leather and arcane rituals, and this track amps up that 1960s alchemy that turned rock music from The Beatles into Black Sabbath.
3. Zeal & Ardor - "Baphomet"
Originally a bedroom project by a single songwriter, Manuel Gagneux now tours with a full band and multiple backup singers out of necessity. Previously unreleased until this appearance on Zeal & Ardor's first (double length!) live album, this song is a great example of the vocal interplay that happens onstage, and gives me honest-to-god full-body goosebumps.
4. Waingro - "Merrin"
This Vancouver trio are back with another mean slab of no-bullshit, punk-tinged heavy rock. Laying riffs on riffs on riffs, this ferocious record, like this song, is full of moments reminiscent of Cursed (R.I.P.), but with way, waaay more bong hits tempering its otherwise furious pace.
5. Torche - "Slide"
Known for taking the heaviest elements of metal and deftly blending them with accessible harmonies and pop-oriented melodies, Admission feels like a synthesis of all of their strongest output. I can't resist this song, whose greasy stomp melts into grunge revisionism and buzzsaw guitars for a headbanging good time.
6. He Is Legend - "Boogiewoman"
Fifteen years on from their debut, I Am Hollywood, He is Legend have released arguably their strongest record, packing all the same intensity of their earlier releases but with the maturity and musical range that comes with experience. This track is heavy on groovy, ass-shakin' rock'n'roll swagger with all the outlaw romance of desert shootout.
7. Texas Hippie Coalition - "Bring It Baby"
I was so hooked by this incredibly polarizing record, by a deeply polarizing band that I uncharacteristically wrote a review about it. This is not a song that will appeal to many, or even most, but I can't resist the way this song sounds at once dangerous and sweet, like a lapdance at a bordertown biker strip club.
8. Crobot - "Low Life"
This is one of those bands that I don't listen to enough. This is a catchy, riffy track that lures you in with a throwback 90s radio rock intro before exploding outward, making maximum effect of lead singer Brandon Yeagley's powerful, elastic rock'n'roll vocals.
9. Dirty Honey - "Down the Road"
At once new and very familiar, LA-based former bar band Dirty Honey isn't ashamed to dig into Aerosmith's early sound and shake it up with a little G'n'R danger. I'm a sucker for the vocal virtuosity and flashy guitars of this ballad, all layered over some organ for the full 70s stadium rock treatment. Keep your lighter in your pocket, go on, I dare you.
10. Lil Nas X - "Old Town Road (Remix)"
Maybe a left-field pick to some, a played-out one-hit-wonder to others, but this version of OTR took hold of me on the day of release, and still hasn't let go. It took a small town Georgian teen to accidentally perfect what many have attempted with varying success before, and as someone who has listened to her fair share of country rap, hick hop and other Southern-fried crossovers, it would be an oversight to not include the song that will define the wild days of 2019 for years to come.
JP, Co-host of The Iron Club, Thursday at 1PM.
Best Albums of 2019
Best Metal Song of 2019
Most Memorable CJLO Moment
My most memorable CJLO moment has to be attending my first Heavy Montreal festival with the whole CJLO gang. It was so much fun! Seeing bands live on stage, interviewing some of them in the media tent, and running around the whole site definitely sounds like a JP day to me. It was my best summer yet!
Zakary Slax is CJLO’s Head Music Director, and hosts Slax Trax, every Monday from 6 to 7 PM.
2019 was an insanely good year for music in my estimation. A definite challenge to pare it down to 10 albums, but here goes (not in order of importance):
Top Albums of 2019
Top Trax of 2019
In most cases, the following artists also released fantastic albums that I found hard to omit from my top 10... read: they had other trax just as brilliant as these
Favourite Concerts
Best Label
Constellation Records - Gotta give credit where credit is due. In addition to Lungbutter, I was tempted to put many of their 2019 releases in my top 10: Fly Pan Am, Matana Roberts, Land of Kush, etc.
Andrew Wieler, aka Andrew Wixq, is CJLOs Metal Music Director and hosts Grade A Explosives every Sunday at 4pm.
Best Albums of 2019
1. Sleep Token - Sundowning
Mixing elements of metal, R&B, Hip Hop, and Pop and set around some weird, almost impenetrable backstory, Sleep Token is hitting on an interesting interpretation of all of the above genres and much like so many great artists before them (him?) make music interesting, which is a feat more people should try.
2. He is Legend - White Bat
Who would have thought some white belt wearing, swoopy haired fashioncore boys would eventually have a southern metalcore record which is both satisfying on a song to song level, but also a great concept album about a murderer finding truuuueeee loooove. It's basically a Lifetime original in metalcore form.
3. Crobot - Motherbrain
Very few rock bands get played anymore in mainstream circles, but if there was ever a band that should be able to pull rock back onto radio, Crobot is doing their damnedest to do so. "Lowlife" alone is a song that both speaks to weirdos and normals alike and really should be showcased for people. If you're a fan of Monster Truck and don't have these guys in rotation you are doing yourself a disservice.
4. Norma Jean - All Hail
Every norma jean record and I start off the same way. First listen: "Yeah, this sure is Norma Jean I guess". Second listen: "Huh... this is pretty good." Ten listens later: "F*** me, this is sooo goood." If you're looking for some of the best metalcore can offer this is it, no way around it.
5. Sandveiss - Saboteur
Quebec City is known for many things, but stoner rock is not one. This may change with this Sandveiss album. It's catchy, upbeat, immensely polished, and mmm... that is some tasty riffs, I'll tell you what.
6. Thank You Scientist - Terraformer
A weird Coheed and Cambria with horns, and if you think that sounds bad, you, my friend, are dead inside.
7. Goo Goo Dolls - Miracle Pill
Yes, this record really is good. It’s a pop classic and though the Goo Goo Dolls are no longer the grunge darlings they were in the 90s, that’s okay. I had way more fun with this record than so many from this year. Oh, and by the way, "metal cred" is not something I value highly, so your comments about how this negates it does not affect me.
8. Deathchant - Deathchant
Californians that know how to make some pretty great psych based garage stuff. Largely an album that people have slept on, I got to see and interview them at SXSW this year and it's as good live as the record would indicate. I also hear they make a delicious hot sauce, that if they want to send it to me, they are more than welcome to do so.
9. Torche - Admission
Torche is always hit or miss for me, and this one is a home run out of the rink. Heavy when it needs to be, accesibile when it wants to be, the level of songwriting prowess here is deep and really pulls from all of their previous works.
10. Toothgrinder - I Am
For the life of me, I cannot understand why this band has not crossed over onto "modern rock radio". The title track on this alone is great and accessible enough to play. Of course, "trve" people would say this is bad, but fuck that man, I can sing along to this and some of the guitar work on this is like a second singer. In the future I will not be shocked to see this band cited as many people's "crossover" metal artists.
Honorable Mentions
Woodhawk - Violent Nature
Dem are some tasty riffs right there.
White Ward - Love Exchange Failure
Since Shining (Norway) has decided they want to be Thirty Seconds to Mars in the worst way for some reason, White Ward will have to fill my black jazz void.
Waingro - III
A new record from these sludgy, vaguely southern, hardcore-ish boys. It is also named III so even a simpleton like me can know what record it is in the discography, which is nice.
Gypsy Chief Goliath - Masters of Space and Time
A more spacey than stonery album from these fine Ontarians.
SECT- Blood of the Beasts
10 songs; 17 minutes; all solid hardcore.
Allison O’Reilly is CJLO's Program Director and hosts Transistor Sister and Femme AM.
Top 10 Albums of 2019
Top 15 Songs of 2019
Best Live Shows of 2019
Alex, aka MNJIVR, hosts Autobeat every Sunday at 3 p.m.
Best Albums of 2019
Here’s my best and Favourite albums of 2019
Honorable Mentions
Favourite EPs of 2019
Masheyla hosts of Gothic Runoff every Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Top Albums of 2019
Honourable Mentions (Albums and Singles)
Top Shows of 2019
Best CJLO Moment
Being able to participate in talk episodes of Femme AM, as well as conducting my first live sessions/interviews! Also chatting with Allison, Jessica, and Francella after my show every week!
Phil, aka Philliam, hosts Turn On the Darkness every Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Best Albums of 2019
Runner- up
Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas
Honorable Mentions
Weirdest Albums of 2019
Best Concerts 2019
Best Poutine
Best Games 2019