Year-End Lists

Bob Boilen: Best Albums of 2019, as posted by NPR

[see also 2018, 2017, 2011]

1. Big Thief — Two Hands
2. Big Thief — U.F.O.F.
3. Angel Olsen — All Mirrors
4. Better Oblivion Community Center — Better Oblivion Community Center
5. Aldous Harding — Designer
6. Lankum — The Livelong Day
7. Mdou Moctar — Ilana (The Creator)
8. Kate Davis — Trophy
9. Joan Shelley — Like the River Loves the Sea
10. The Good Ones — Rwanda, You Should Be Loved

Ann Powers: Favorite Albums of 2019, as posted by NPR

[see also 2017, 2016, 2011]

1. Angel Bat Dawid — The Oracle
2. Adia Victoria — Silences
3. Mereba — The Jungle Is the Only Way Out
4. Mekons — Deserted
5. Philip Bailey — Love Will Find a Way
6. Jazzmeia Horn — Love and Liberation
7. Hiss Golden Messenger — Terms of Surrender
8. Matthew Halsall — Oneness
9. Erin Enderlin — Faulkner County
10. Joe Henry — The Gospel According to Water

Reverse Shot: Best Films of 2019

[see also 2010s, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012, 2011]

1. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
2. The Souvenir — Joanna Hogg
3. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
4. Atlantics — Mati Diop
5. Uncut Gems — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
6. Transit — Christian Petzold
7. A Hidden Life — Terrence Malick
8. High Life — Claire Denis
9. Portrait of a Lady on Fire — Céline Sciamma
10. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino

Mallory Andrews: Best Films of 2019, as posted to Letterboxd

[see also 2018, 2017]

1. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
2. Uncut Gems — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
3. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
4. High Life — Claire Denis
5. The Souvenir — Joanna Hogg
6. The Farewell — Lulu Wang
7. Apollo 11 — Todd Douglas Miller
8. Little Women — Greta Gerwig
9. The Hottest August — Brett Story
10. Ad Astra — James Gray

Dan Sallitt: Favorite Films of 2019, of those "that played at least one week in Manhattan for the first time in 2019, in approximate order of preference"

[see also 2010s, 2018, 2017, 2012]

1. Styx — Wolfgang Fischer
2. Grass — Hong Sang-soo
3. Diane — Kent Jones
4. Los Reyes — Ivan Osnovikoff and Bettina Perut
5. Our Time — Carlos Reygadas
6. In My Room — Ulrich Köhler
7. Light from Light — Paul Harrill
8. The Chambermaid — Lila Avilés
9. Dragged Across Concrete — S. Craig Zahler
10. The Crossing — Bai Xue
11. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino

A.A. Dowd: 100 Favorite Metal Albums of the Decade, as posted to Twitter

1. Panopticon — Kentucky
2. Agalloch — Marrow of the Spirit
3. Nux Vomica — Nux Vomica
4. Converge — All We Love We Leave Behind
5. Bell Witch — Mirror Reaper
6. Gorguts — Colored Sands
7. Kylesa — Spiral Shadow
8. Elder — Reflections of a Floating World
9. Altar of Plagues — Teethed Glory and Injury
10. High on Fire — De Vermis Mysteriis
11. Panopticon — Autumn Eternal
12. Carcass — Surgical Steel
13. Dawnbringer — Into the Lair of the Sun God
14. Oranssi Pazuzu — Värähtelijä
15. Torche — Harmonicraft
16. Liturgy — Aesthethica
17. Cleric — Retrocausal
18. Kvelertak — Kvelertak
19. Zeal & Ardor — Stranger Fruit
20. Shining — Blackjazz
21. Mutoid Man — Bleeder
22. Big Brave — A Gaze Among Them
23. Astronoid — Air
24. The Armed — Only Love
25. Blut Aus Nord — 777 - Sect(s)
25. Blut Aus Nord — 777 - The Desanctification
25. Blut Aus Nord — 777 - Cosmosophy
26. Inter Arma — Sky Burial
27. Whores. — Gold
28. Fuck the Facts — Desire Will Rot
29. Wizard Rifle — Speak Loud Say Nothing
30. Evoken — Altra Mors
31. Power Trip — Nightmare Logic
32. Pallbearer — Foundations of Burden
33. Svalbard — It's Hard to Have Hope
34. Elder — Lore
35. High On Fire — Electric Messiah
36. Windhand — Eternal Return
37. Brutus — Nest
38. Planning For Burial — Below the House
39. Between the Buried and Me — The Parallax II: Future Sequence
40. Numenorean — Adore
41. Deafheaven — Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
42. The Atlas Moth — An Ache for the Distance
43. Black Breath — Sentenced To Life
44. Locrian — Infinite Dissolution
45. Napalm Death — Apex Predator - Easy Meat
46. Kvelertak — Meir
47. Ex Eye — Ex Eye
48. Cloud Rat — Moksha
49. The Secret — Agnus Dei
50. Godflesh — Post Self
51. Inter Arma — Paradise Gallows
52. Cobalt — Slow Forever
53. Burning Love — Rotten Thing to Say
54. Indian — From All Purity
55. Pinkish Black — Bottom of the Morning
56. Lingua Ignota — Caligula
57. Wreck and Reference — Indifferent Rivers Romance End
58. Bosse-de-Nage — All Fours
59. Chelsea Wolfe — Hiss Spun
60. Glorior Belli — Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls
61. Big Brave — Ardor
62. Russian Circles — Empros
63. Slugdge — Esoteric Malacology
64. Lord Mantis — Pervertor
65. Demonic Death Judge — Seaweed
66. Deafheaven — Sunbather
67. The Oath — The Oath
68. Neurosis — Honor Found In Decay
69. ASG — Blood Drive
70. Skeletonwitch — Devouring Radiant Light
71. Glorior Belli — The Great Southern Darkness
72. KEN mode — Entrench
73. Wreck and Reference — Want
74. Napalm Death — Utiltarian
75. Elizabeth Colour Wheel — Nocebo
76. Panopticon — Roads to the North
77. Big Business — The Beast You Are
78. In Solitude — The World.The Flesh.The Devil
79. Agrimonia — Rites of Separation
80. Eight Bells — Landless
81. Today Is the Day — Pain Is a Warning
82. Cave In — Final Transmission
83. Behemoth — The Satanist
84. Yakuza — Beyul
85. Kylesa — Exhausting Fire
86. Couch Slut — Contempt
87. Tribulation — Down Below
88. Early Graves — Red Horse
89. Christian Mistress — Possession
90. Judiciary — Surface Noise
91. Pyrrhon — The Mother of Virtues
92. Cult of Luna — Vertikal
93. Oathbreaker — Rheia
94. Testament — Brotherhood of the Snake
95. Frontierer — Orange Mathematics
96. Spirit Adrift — Curse of Conception
97. Morne — Asylum
98. Falls of Rauros — Patterns in Mythology
99. The Sword — Apocryphon
100. The Dillinger Escape Plan — One of Us Is the Killer

Marya Gates: Favorite Fifteen Films of 2019

1. Pain and Glory — Pedro Almodóvar
2. Dolemite Is My Name — Craig Brewer
3. Rolling Thunder Revue — Martin Scorsese
4. A Hidden Life — Terrence Malick
5. Anima — Paul Thomas Anderson
6. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
7. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood — Marielle Heller
8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire — Céline Sciamma
9. Blinded by the Light — Gurinder Chadha
10. Us — Jordan Peele
11. Marriage Story — Noah Baumbach
12. The Nightingale — Jennifer Kent
13. Dancing with the Birds — Huw Cordey
14. The Last Black Man in San Francisco — Joe Talbot
15. Family — Laura Steinel

Fernando F. Croce: Favorite 2019 Movies, as posted to Letterboxd

[see also 2012]

1. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino
2. The Image Book — Jean-Luc Godard
3. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
4. A Hidden Life — Terrence Malick
5. Ash is Purest White — Jia Zhang-ke
6. High Life — Claire Denis
7. Peterloo — Mike Leigh
8. Long Day's Journey Into Night — Bi Gan
9. Uncut Gems — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
10. Atlantics — Mati Diop
11. Pasolini — Abel Ferrara
12. An Elephant Sitting Still — Hu Bo
13. Transit — Christian Petzold
14. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
15. Dark Waters — Todd Haynes
16. Under the Silver Lake — David Robert Mitchell
17. In Fabric — Peter Strickland
18. Invisible Life — Karim Aïnouz
19. Amazing Grace — Sydney Pollack
20. Domino — Brian De Palma

Caden Mark Gardner: Top 25 Films of 2019, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2018]

1. My First Film [live] — Zia Anger
2. A Hidden Life — Terrence Malick
3. The Irishman — Martin Scorsese
4. Uncut Gems — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
5. Her Smell — Alex Ross Perry
5. The Souvenir — Joanna Hogg
6. So Pretty — Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli
7. Dark Waters — Todd Haynes
8. Atlantics — Mati Diop
9. Too Old to Die Young — Nicolas Winding Refn
10. Relaxer — Joel Potrykus
11. Empty Metal — Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer
12. Coincoin and the Extra-Humans — Bruno Dumont
13. Knife+Heart — Yann Gonzalez
14. Synonyms — Nadav Lapid
15. Us — Jordan Peele
16. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open — Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn
17. Little Women — Greta Gerwig
18. Chained for Life — Aaron Schimberg
19. Pain and Glory — Pedro Almodóvar
20. Diamantino — Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt
21. Knives Out — Rian Johnson
21. Parasite — Bong Joon-ho
22. The Gospel of Eureka — Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri
23. High Flying Bird — Steven Soderbergh
24. Peterloo — Mike Leigh
25. Under the Silver Lake — David Robert Mitchell

American Songwriter: Top 25 Albums of 2019, listed alphabetically

[see also 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012, 2011]

• (Sandy) Alex G — House of Sugar
• Angel Olsen — All Mirrors
• Bill Callahan — Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
• Brittany Howard — Jaime
• Caroline Spence — Mint Condition
• Craig Finn — I Need a New War
• Duster — Duster
• Dylan LeBlanc — Renegade
• Gary Clark Jr. — This Land
• Jenny Lewis — On the Line
• J.S. Ondara — Tales of America
• Justin Townes Earle — The Saint of Lost Causes
• Kelsey Waldon — White Noise / White Lines
• Marc Cohn & The Blind Boys of Alabama — Work To Do
• Michael Kiwanuka — Kiwanuka
• Purple Mountains — Purple Mountains
• Reba McEntire — Stronger Than the Truth
• Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi — there is no Other
• Sharon Van Etten — Remind Me Tomorrow
• Sturgill Simpson — Sound & Fury
• The Claypool Lennon Delirium — South of Reality
• The Highwomen — The Highwomen
• The Lumineers — III
• The Raconteurs — Help Us Stranger
• Yola — Walk Through Fire

Other Great Albums of 2019

• Allison Moorer — Blood
• Billie Eilish — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
• Bon Iver — i,i
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy — I Made a Place
• Bruce Springsteen — Western Stars
• Charles Wesley Godwin — Seneca
• Dan Luke and the Raid — Out of the Blue
• Ed Sheeran — No.6 Collaborations Project
• Emily Scott Robinson — Traveling Mercies
• Erin Enderlin — Faulkner County
• FKA twigs — Magdalene
• Horse Jumper of Love — So Divine
• Jason Hawk Harris — Love & the Dark
• Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage — Bad Wiring
• Josh Ritter — Fever Breaks
• Lana Del Rey — Norman Fucking Rockwell!
• Leonard Cohen — Thanks for the Dance
• Liam Gallagher — Why Me? Why Not.
• Liz Brasher — Painted Image
• Mavis Staples — We Get By
• Michaela Anne — Desert Dove
• Molly Tuttle — When You're Ready
• Neil Young — Colorado
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — Ghosteen
• Paul Cauthen — Room 41
• people-proof — invisibility
• PUP — Morbid Stuff
• Spencer Radcliffe — Hot Spring
• Steve Gunn — The Unseen In Between
• Strand of Oaks — Eraserland
• Taylor Swift — Lover
• The National — I Am Easy to Find
• Vampire Weekend — Father of the Bride