The Fashionably Late Top 125 of 2019: Francis Lung

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: Francis Lung

What: A Dream is U

When: August 2019

Where: Memphis Industries

Why: "I want to be real/but not too real." It's a line from A Dream is U's "2 Real," and it makes for an interesting way to view the record. On the surface, Francis Lung's sound on his 2019 effort has a hesitancy to it, almost a shyness - guarded, maybe. It's actually more of a deliberate intimacy, rooted both in nostalgia and serious contemplation, and the softer songs on the record open up warmly. The album has a decided '60s/'70s pop feel, a delicate haze in the vein of the 3 Bs (The Beach Boys, Beatles, and Big Star) set to the modern day experience. "I really, really want to make music that makes people feel better, not worse," Lung says, and while there are some downhearted moments on A Dream is U, ultimately he's succeeded - for real.

[posted 3.20.20]