The Mainline is gearing up for our Best Atlanta Albums of 2019 list, but we have a few releases we want you to check out that, for one reason or another, didn’t quite feel right next to the rest of the albums on our list. Whether they are recordings that were released before 2019, don’t exclusively include artists from Atlanta, or they are just too off-the-wall, these releases are still worthy of your attention.
Consider this our high school yearbook superlative of “Most Unique.” Except we aren’t mean teens anymore just giving it to the girl who wore anime t-shirts and meowed whenever she was called on by the teacher.
So, we present to you our Five Honorable Mentions of 2019. Enjoy (=ↀωↀ=)
Absent Control
Vol. 1 compilation
A benefit compilation to help fund access to reproductive care in the Southeast, Absent Control Vol. 1 is a distorted, mish-mash of janky hardcore, metal, and punk from both Atlanta and Athens. Many of these tracks are rough around the edges, but they are from some musicians who’ve yet to give us any officially released recordings. This compilation includes a ton of bands we unabashedly adore like Nag, Riboflavin, and Warm Red. It also serves as a great tracklist of bands to watch out for in 2020. Here’s to hoping the crew behind Absent Control give us a second volume very soon.
Bradford Cox & Cate Le Bon
Myths 004
Deerhunter’s eighth studio album,Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?, was released at the top of the year to four-star and B-minus reviews. But as a die-hard Bradford Cox fan, this was a relatively disappointing effort. It felt uninspired in comparison to his previous works (aside from the song “Futurism,” which totally rips and is on our top tracks list, and I don’t know why it wasn’t the lead single for the record, but whatever). For most of 2019, I was convinced Bradford didn’t have the magic left in him that made Microcastle or Logos.
Then, in November 2019, Mexican Summer released Myths 004, Bradford Cox and Cate Le Bon’s collaborative EP recorded during their residency at the summer 2018 Marfa Myths festival. Maybe it was the process of making something off-the-cuff or the influence of Welsh singer-songwriter and Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? co-producer Cate Le Bon, but the work they created together is a clunky, wacky beacon of hope that Bradford still has some tricks up his sleeve.
DiCaprio
Sleep In EP
DiCaprio released its raucous banger of a single, “Sleep In,” in 2017. Then, mixing the old with the new, the Sleep In EP was released in July 2019. It provides us with new recordings of both “Sleep In” and “Hair,” which appeared on the band\’s 2017 full-length debut, I Went to the Mall Yesterday and I Got Sick, and two new tracks. Opener “Dog on a Hill” spends most of its duration building the sinister, pumping drive that carries the entirety of the record. New track “Numb Coast” is a sharp summary of the sound we’ve all come to know from DiCaprio. The band’s releases have slowed to a trickle in the last couple years, but who knows, maybe we will get another full length one day.
Nadia Marie
Weekday Weekend
Recorded in 2013 while recovering from an accident that left her with amnesia, Nadia Marie finally unveiled Weekday Weekend in August 2019. In this debut, Nadia brings us a dance-y, pop EP about being in bizarre circumstances. Since the EP\’s release, Nadia has rarely performed the songs of Weekday Weekend in her expertly crafted live shows. In the years since her accident, she’s become more clever and ambitious than Weekday Weekend can begin to show us, but this EP serves as a primer on Nadia’s past to understand what looks to be a compelling musical future.
Read our full feature on Nadia Marie HERE.
645AR
645 AR
Please, please, please listen to 645AR.
Please, don’t make me bear this alone.
Thank you.
