The Fashionably Late Top 125 of 2019: Fran

Another rough year corresponded to another bumper crop of excellent music. Once again, my list is huge, because I fell in love with each of these 125 records and found it impossible to not include all of them in my fashionably late list.

I'm choosing to post my favorites in alpha order from A-Z again this year. You'll probably find some records that everyone and their fifth cousin raved about, but I hope you'll also find a few records that might be new to you, and that you'll fall in love with them as much as I have.

My thanks, as always, to the artists who created these records.

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Who: Fran

What: A Private Picture

When: November 2019

Where: Fire Talk

Why: Chicagoland's Fran has a bit of a flair for the dramatic. The band's theatrical flourishes have more than a little to do with frontwoman Maria Jacobson, who opines that “I feel that I am a songwriter for the same reason I wanted to be an actor. I want to tell the truth." Jacobsen's truth takes voice in her chameleonlike vocals, ranging anywhere from plaintive to tender to demanding, set against the constant shift of noise behind her - a mingling of seething, gritty grunge, buoyant jangle, and something almost nodding back to vintage country ballads. A rather solid debut indeed.



[posted 3.20.20]

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