We recently concluded our countdown of Albumism’s 50 Best Albums of 2019 overall, and now it’s time to showcase our talented team of writers’ respective picks for their five favorite albums of the year. Even the most cursory scan of the selections presented below reveals just how unique and varied our staff’s musical tastes are, which certainly shines through all of our articles throughout the year.

Check out our choices—as well as our picks for our most memorable live shows this year, older albums we were happy to rediscover in 2019, and the forthcoming albums we’re most looking forward to in 2020—and let us know what your favorite albums of 2019 are in the comments below!

Justin Chadwick (Albumism Founder & Editor-in-Chief)

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Rosie Lowe | YU | Buy | Listen

“Perfectionism is the killer of creative freedom,” Rosie Lowe opined during my interview with her earlier this year. And while I understand her point and respect her for embracing it within her ever-evolving approach to her songcraft, for me, YU sounds closer to perfection than any other album that I’ve heard in 2019.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Kacey Musgraves | Radio City Music Hall | New York, NY | October 15, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Tom Misch | Beat Tape 2 (2015) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Jessie Ware | TBD (Fourth Studio Album)

Patrick Corcoran

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Dave | PSYCHODRAMA | Buy | Listen

Psychodrama bristled with wit, wisdom and created a finely detailed snapshot of life as a black man in modern Britain. Showcasing his vulnerability alongside his impeccable musicianship, it touched hearts and moved minds as well as hips—a special album by any measure. To be the best of a golden year for British hip-hop inspired music was an amazing achievement.

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Sons of Kemet | Your Queen Is a Reptile (2018) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Noname | Factory Baby

Jesse Ducker

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Little Brother | May The Lord Watch | Buy | Listen

Little Brother left a pretty sizable hole in hip-hop’s music soul when they stopped releasing music together nine years ago, and that was never more apparent than when they released May the Lord Watch, a revelation of an album. May the Lord Watch never sounds like Phonte and Big Pooh cashing in on nostalgia. Instead, it’s unquestionably another successful collaborative project by the Little Brother unit (9th Wonder didn’t participate for complicated reasons). The two emcees team up with a myriad of producers to create music that’s fun, dynamic, and mature, resulting in one of the best “grown-up” hip-hop albums ever released.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Herbie Hancock & Kamasi Washington | Greek Theatre | Berkeley, CA | August 23, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Bushwick Bill | Little Big Man (1992) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
The Roots | End Game

Mike Elliott

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Gary Clark Jr. | This Land | Buy | Listen

Not a political album; it knows politics is just talk and spin. Clark instead spends his time on the sprawling This Land emphasizing family, love, and all they entail. When he's most defiant, it's when he's defending his land and his way of life. No red-blooded American could argue with that, right?

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Buddy Guy & Shemekia Copeland | Durham Performing Arts Center | Durham, NC | September 10, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
The White Stripes | The White Stripes (1999) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Dixie Chicks | Gaslighter

Quentin Harrison

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Carly Rae Jepsen | Dedicated | Buy | Listen

Artfully structured and expertly executed, Carly Rae Jepsen's Dedicated is the type of pop record that has the ability to cut across any and all demographics because of the strength (and clarity) of its content. Three cheers for Ms. Jepsen!

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Carly Rae Jepsen | The Tabernacle | Atlanta, GA | July 28, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Nerina Pallot | Year Of The Wolf (2011) | Buy

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Mandy Moore | TBD (Seventh Studio Album)

Andy Healy

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Billie Eilish | When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? | Buy | Listen

Throughout the year I kept coming back to Billie Eilish’s haunting vocals, expressive lyrics, and quirky compositions. When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is an album that intrigues and delights with its mix of moody, glitching beats and melodies, and Eilish’s trademark brash brilliance.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Janet Jackson | Park Theater | Las Vegas, NV | May 21, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Pete Josef | Colour (2015) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
The 1975 | Notes On A Conditional Form

Kenneth Hicks

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Anderson .Paak | Ventura | Buy | Listen

There's a lot to praise about Ventura, from its soulful sound to the distinctiveness of .Paak's vocals. But what stands out most to me is the energy that the album gives off. It has the power to uplift, whether the song is about a one night stand or issues of race in the U.S.

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Earth, Wind & Fire | Faces (1980) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Usher | Confessions 2

Rayna Khaitan

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. The National | I Am Easy To Find | Buy | Listen

Since its May arrival, I Am Easy to Find has been the only CD I’ve played in my car, almost immediately becoming a security blanket for my turbulent mind. Tracing its melodies is reliably stilling therapy, while its words celebrate the enduring correspondences that give meaning to life. Magnificently sweeping across small exchanges, grand milestones and everything in between, I Am Easy to Find quests for the ties that bind us—to each other and ultimately to ourselves. I truly don’t know how I’d have survived the year without it.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
The Cure | Malahide Castle | Dublin, Ireland | June 8, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
The City Gates | Forever Orbiter (2018) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
The Cure | Live From The Moon

Jeremy Levine

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Guster | Look Alive | Buy | Listen

Like most high school companions, Guster and I grew apart for a while. Then, this year’s Look Alive brought me right back. Over an expanded instrumentation, Boston’s favorite weirdos address our political moment with a despair so vigorous it sidesteps the overwrought. Standout tracks like “Look Alive,” “Terrified,” and “Hard Times” feel like some of the only honest brokerage we’ve gotten in past years—not preaching or self-pitying, but truth. Somehow, it means so much more coming from the guys who once re-recorded an entire album with cats meowing in the place of vocal tracks…these are hard times.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Rayland Baxter & Illiterate Light | Gateway City Arts | Holyoke, MA | January 30, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
The Hold Steady | Boys and Girls in America (2006) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Matt Berninger | Serpentine Prison

Mark J. Marraccini

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Labrinth | Imagination & the Misfit Kid | Buy | Listen

Imagination & the Misfit Kid is the only album of 2019 that hits me in the head, the heart and the hips all at once. It’s a rare album creation that swerves in and out of revelatory autobiography and boundless imaginary storytelling with an IDGAF disregard for genre lanes and de rigueur song structuring. Within Imagination’s legion of sonic journeys and lyrical clues, Labrinth further reveals himself to be a ridiculously talented and wildly inspired writer, musician, producer and collaborator who’s freely coloring outside the lines as he expresses his life experiences with abandoned constraint. This album is true fire.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Carly Rae Jepsen | The Wiltern | Los Angeles, CA | August 10, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Millie Jackson | Caught Up (1974) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Pet Shop Boys | Hotspot

Steven Ovadia

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Lee Moses | How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965–1972 | Buy

Is it fair to pick a compilation for your album of the year? When it's as good as Lee Moses' How Much Longer Must I Wait?, it's more than fair. Moses made one beautiful album (Time and Place in 1971). The album didn't do well and Moses up and left music, playing Atlanta clubs and dying in 1991 at just 56. Moses is a soulful singer and an equally emotional guitarist. The tracks radiate with a garage rock energy but a rhythm and blues polish. There was a lot of amazing new music released in 2019, but this is the best thing I heard all year, so Moses deserves the crown.

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Talking Heads | Stop Making Sense (1984) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
My Bloody Valentine | TBD (Fourth Studio Album)

Sarah Paolantonio

My Five Favorite Albums of 2019:

1. Angel Olsen | All Mirrors | Buy | Listen

All Mirrors is the most compelling record of 2019. The string arrangements sandwiched between heavy synthesizers on "New Love Cassette" drip with an ooze I want to swim in. The piano and drum fills intro on "Spring" suck me into the sixties and the bass synthesizer sends me back to the future. Olsen's voice flies up and down in range and feels like glass—sliding on it, cutting myself on it, and seeing myself from every angle.

Best Live Show I Attended in 2019:
Joanna Newsom | El Museo Del Barrio | New York City, NY | September 12, 2019

Older Album I Was Happy to Revisit in 2019:
Sleater-Kinney | The Woods (2005) | Buy | Listen

Forthcoming Album I’m Most Excited About for 2020:
Fiona Apple | TBD (Fifth Studio Album)