Nick Cave has the best-reviewed major album of 2019

2019 | 96 Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
2018 | 93 Room 25 by Noname |
2017 | 95 DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar |
2016 | 95 Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
2015 | 96 To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar |
For the second time in four years, Nick Cave has topped our final list of the year's highest-scoring albums. He joins Kendrick Lamar as the only artists in Metacritic's 19-year history to be repeat winners of our album of the year honors.
Cave's previous top-ranked album, 2016's Skeleton Tree, was recorded around the time of the death of Cave's teenage son. This year's double album Ghosteen deals in part with that loss, and finds' Cave stretching his legs musically into more electronic and minimalist territory, forgoing percussion on many of its tracks (and even music altogether on the spoken-word "Fireflies").
Overall, it was an especially strong year for women. Cave, whose album is our highest-scoring release since 2015, is actually an outlier; eight of our 10 highest-scoring albums of 2019 came from female artists.
You'll find their names along with the rest of the year's top artists below. Our final ranking of the best full-length studio albums (in Metacritic's database) released during 2019 is determined by their Metascores, which represent an average of all reviews by professional critics at the time of each album's original release. Note that live albums, reissues, EPs, box sets, multi-artist soundtracks, and other compilations are excluded from this chart, though they are listed separately a bit further down this page
The 40 best-reviewed albums of 2019 (min. 15 reviews)
#1
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
96 Ghosteen (self-released)
Critics had nothing but tremendous praise for Cave's haunting album upon its release in October. But Ghosteen is currently only in fourth place in our combined list of critic year-end top 10 lists, suggesting that it may not actually be reviewers' favorite album of 2019.
"Yes, it can be painful, but there’s a beautiful catharsis contained within Ghosteen that makes it one of the most essential records of recent times – a lifejacket for anyone surfing that dreadful wave of grief."
—musicOMH More reviews...
#2
Weyes Blood
91 Titanic Rising (Sub Pop)
Natalie Mering's Sub Pop debut and fourth overall LP as Weyes Blood is her best release to date. Mering co-produced the album (titled, presumably, after the fake Titanic sequel from Homecoming) with Jonathan Rado of Foxygen.
"Like all the best musicians and songwriters before her, she’s plumbed the depths of her imagination and brought forth a masterpiece from the depths."
—The Line of Best Fit More reviews...
#3
Little Simz
91 Grey Area (Age 101)
The year's best rap album comes from London artist Simbi Ajikawo. Her third LP features appearances by Little Dragon, Michael Kiwanuka, and Chronixx.
"At turns both acerbic and unguarded, GREY Area feels like the grand culmination of everything Simz has been puzzling out to this point. She’s a preternaturally gifted lyricist, a prodigy who recorded her first raps at nine and released her earliest tapes in her teens; it simply took a while for her to apply that acuity to her songcraft."
—Pitchfork More reviews...
#4
Michael Kiwanuka
89 Kiwanuka (Interscope)
The third and best-reviewed record from the genre-melding British singer-songwriter (though, oddly, his only LP not to be nominated for the Mercury Prize) was produced by Danger Mouse and Inflo.
"It’s very easy for a reviewer to play armchair warrior and forward claims for all sorts of nonsense for music they like. But this is a glorious, heart-stopping, essential album. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it."
—The Quietus More reviews...
#5
Jamila Woods
89 LEGACY! LEGACY! (Jagjaguwar)
The second LP from Chicago-based singer/songwriter/poet Jamila Woods (following 2017's also excellent HEAVN) features 13 tracks, each a tribute to a legendary black artist.
"Quite frankly, LEGACY! LEGACY! is one of the albums of the year. It’s a confident and self-assured project that affirms Woods’ own place alongside the historical greats she praises."
—NME More reviews...
#6
Angel Olsen
89 All Mirrors (Jagjaguwar)
The singer-songwriter's first studio album since 2016's My Woman is produced by John Congleton and features a 14-piece orchestra. It's her highest-scoring release to date.
"Her newfound embrace of violins, violas and cellos elevates her shadowy, often synth-infused rock to extraordinarily goosebump-inducing heights, making All Mirrors her third consecutive (and likely best) masterpiece to date."
—Paste More reviews...
#7
Solange
89 When I Get Home (Columbia)
Released in March with little advance warning, the fourth solo album from Solange Knowles matches the career-high score she established with her 2016 set A Seat at the Table. Subject matter revolves around Houston, her hometown, and guests include Playboi Carti, Sampha, and Gucci Mane.
"Remarkable... a lovingly assembled production that rarely goes where you expect it to — but, like Solange herself, always puts across a clear sense of place."
—Los Angeles Times More reviews...
#8
Aldous Harding
88 Designer (4AD)
Frequent PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish produced this third LP (and follow-up to 2017's Party) for the New Zealand singer-songwriter.
"Highly eccentric and blisteringly beautiful--a record destined to worm its way deep under the skin."
#9
FKA twigs
88 Magdalene (Young Turks)
It may have taken five years, but singer-songwriter Tahliah Barnett finally returned last month with a full-length successor to her Mercury Prize-nominated debut, LP1. Another triumph, the mostly self-produced set spans nine tracks and includes contributions from Skrillex, Future, Jack Antonoff, Nicolas Jaar, and Oneohtrix Point Never.
"It’s beautiful, inventive, catchy, heartbreaking, addictive, and bursting at the seams with ideas. It captures a performer truly at the top of their game, throwing everything into a project so that not one second is wasted. It’s a record that makes you fall in love with music again, a record you feel privileged to experience and a record that imparts fundamental human truths."
—No Ripcord More reviews...
#10
Brittany Howard
88 Jaime (ATO)
Frontwoman for the band Alabama Shakes, Brittany Howard struck out on her own for the first time in 2019 with her solo debut, Jaime, titled after her late sister. Howard received two Grammy nominations for her work.
"It’s an album which documents a fierce imagination at play; a truly invigorating piece of work that pushes her songwriting forward."
—DIY Magazine More reviews...
Album/Artist | Score | Stream It | Buy It | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
11 | ![]() | Bandana by Freddie Gibbs & Madlib | 88 | ![]() | ![]() |
12 | ![]() | Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest by Bill Callahan | 88 | ![]() | ![]() |
13 | ![]() | U.F.O.F. by Big Thief | 87 | ![]() | ![]() |
14 | ![]() | Reward by Cate Le Bon | 87 | ![]() | ![]() |
15 | ![]() | Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains | 87 | ![]() | ![]() |
16 | ![]() | Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey | 87 | ![]() | ![]() |
17 | ![]() | Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
18 | ![]() | thank u, next by Ariana Grande | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
19 | ![]() | House of Sugar by (Sandy) Alex G | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
20 | ![]() | Dogrel by Fontaines DC | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
21 | ![]() | Life Metal by Sunn O))) | 85 | ![]() | ![]() |
22 | ![]() | Two Hands by Big Thief | 85 | ![]() | ![]() |
23 | ![]() | Miss Universe by Nilüfer Yanya | 85 | ![]() | ![]() |
24 | ![]() | On the Line by Jenny Lewis | 85 | ![]() | ![]() |
25 | ![]() | Crushing by Julia Jacklin | 85 | ![]() | ![]() |
26 | ![]() | Any Human Friend by Marika Hackman | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
27 | ![]() | It Won't Be Like This All the Time by The Twilight Sad | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
28 | ![]() | Eton Alive by Sleaford Mods | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
29 | ![]() | The Practice of Love by Jenny Hval | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
30 | ![]() | The Book Of Traps and Lessons by Kate Tempest | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
31 | ![]() | Western Stars by Bruce Springsteen | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
32 | ![]() | Quiet Signs by Jessica Pratt | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
33 | ![]() | ANIMA by Thom Yorke | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
34 | ![]() | Thanks for the Dance by Leonard Cohen | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
35 | ![]() | Cuz I Love You by Lizzo | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
36 | ![]() | Athena by Sudan Archives | 83 | ![]() | ![]() |
37 | ![]() | uknowhatimsayin¿ by Danny Brown | 83 | ![]() | ![]() |
38 | ![]() | A Bath Full of Ecstasy by Hot Chip | 83 | ![]() | ![]() |
39 | ![]() | Forevher by Shura | 83 | ![]() | ![]() |
40 | ![]() | At the Party with My Brown Friends by Black Belt Eagle Scout | 82 | ![]() | ![]() |
What about albums with fewer reviews?
Here is a look at the albums that received extremely positive reviews, but not enough of them to qualify for our list above. (In other words, consider them the year's best under-the-radar releases.) Albums on this list received 7-14 critic reviews. (Titles with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded from all year-end charts.)
Album/Artist | Score | Stream It | Buy It | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Gold & Grey by Baroness | 91 | ![]() | ![]() |
2 | ![]() | Jimmy Lee by Raphael Saadiq | 90 | ![]() | ![]() |
3 | ![]() | Eve by Rapsody | 90 | ![]() | ![]() |
4 | ![]() | Psychodrama by Dave | 90 | ![]() | ![]() |
5 | ![]() | We Are Not Your Kind by Slipknot | 89 | ![]() | ![]() |
6 | ![]() | War Music by Refused | 88 | ![]() | ![]() |
7 | ![]() | Caligula by Lingua Ignota | 88 | ![]() | ![]() |
8 | ![]() | Midsommar (Original Score) by The Haxan Cloak [Bobby Krlic] | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
9 | ![]() | Punk by Chai | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
10 | ![]() | There is No Other by Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
Albums released between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019 with 7 or more reviews (15 or more for the first chart) in Metacritic's database were eligible for inclusion. Reissues and other older material, EPs, live albums, holiday albums, greatest hits albums, multi-artist soundtracks, and other compilations are excluded from the above lists. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Albums are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding. All scores on this page are from December 19, 2019.
More bests and worsts
If you read the fine print under our list of high-scoring albums above, you noticed that reissues, compilations, live sets, and other album types were excluded from our best-reviewed albums charts (which are intended to include only new full-length studio albums). Here are the highest-scoring "disqualified" albums of the year:
Album/Artist | Score | Stream It | Buy It | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 1999 [Super Deluxe Edition] by Prince | 100 | ![]() | ![]() |
2 | ![]() | Abbey Road [50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition] by The Beatles | 99 | ![]() | ![]() |
3 | ![]() | Tunes 2011-2019 by Burial | 96 | ![]() | ![]() |
4 | ![]() | No Other [Deluxe Edition] by Gene Clark | 94 | ![]() | ![]() |
5 | ![]() | Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings [Box Set] by Bob Dylan | 90 | ![]() | |
6 | ![]() | Dead Man's Pop [Box Set] by The Replacements | 89 | ![]() | ![]() |
7 | ![]() | Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 by Various Artists | 88 | ![]() | ![]() |
8 | ![]() | Originals by Prince | 88 | ![]() | ![]() |
9 | ![]() | DJ-Kicks by Laurel Halo | 86 | ![]() | ![]() |
10 | ![]() | Everything Hits at Once: The Best of Spoon by Spoon | 84 | ![]() | ![]() |
Thousands of albums are released each year, and most of those don't even make their way to reviewers; as a result, the vast majority of the awful albums recorded each year do not show up on Metacritic. However, there are always some major releases this year that fail to impress critics, and we now share with you the 10 disappointing albums receiving the worst reviews in 2019:
Album/Artist | Score | ||
---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | LP1 by Liam Payne |
44 |
2 | ![]() | Harverd Dropout by Lil Pump |
46 |
3 | ![]() | Weezer [Black Album] by Weezer |
53 |
4 | ![]() | Jesus Is King by Kanye West |
55 |
5 | ![]() | Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne |
55 |
6 | ![]() | Closer Than Together by The Avett Brothers |
56 |
7 | ![]() | Why You So Crazy by The Dandy Warhols |
56 |
8 | ![]() | California Son by Morrissey |
57 |
9 | ![]() | No. 6 Collaborations Project by Ed Sheeran |
57 |
10 | ![]() | Rise by Hollywood Vampires |
57 |
What do you think?
What were your personal favorite and least favorite albums of 2019? Let us know in the comments section below, and don't forget to vote for your favorite albums of the year in our Best of 2019 User Poll. And for more of 2019's best albums, see which titles critics are including on their year-end top 10 lists, or view our list of this year's best debut albums. We also have a round-up of the best albums of the entire decade.
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