The Fashionably Late Top 125 of 2019: Purple Mountains

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: Purple Mountains

What: Purple Mountains

When: July 2019

Where: Drag City

Why: An especially bittersweet listen after the passing of David Berman. Berman's gut-wrenching, beautifully wry lyrics on the self-titled Purple Mountains record offer a portrait of an artist in a difficult, dark place, his slightly throaty delivery rich and raw with emotion deeper than many can imagine. These country-tinged songs are larger than life, plumbing bleak emotional depths while also being incredibly listenable. Already a classic as far as I'm concerned - Berman is gone but not forgotten.

[posted 4.2.20]