2019 is already here, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Yep, that’s right: we’re all one year closer to the grave, hurtling towards a strange, unknowable future, while clinging to a rapidly warming planet full of tone deaf politicians, bigots, and people who think Antoni is the best member of Queer Eye’s Fab Five.
But hey, it ain’t all bad. 2019 is set to be a bumper year for music, with a bevy of LGBTIQ and LGBTIQ-friendly musicians rumoured or confirmed to be dropping records this year. So hey, at least we’ll have some good tunes to soundtrack the end of the world, right?
Alex Lahey
Alex Lahey is one of the most talented songwriters in Australia, a musician who excels at transforming the minutiae of daily life into crowd-pleasing bangers. Lahey’s songs know you somehow; they know how you think, and how you feel. They hold you to a memory, or to a feeling, and then they nail you there.
After first emerging in late-2016 with the endearingly lo-fi B-Grade University, Lahey cemented her star power a year later, dropping her debut record I Love You Like A Brother, courting international attention (including Pitchfork’s coveted ‘Best New Track’ plaudit), and playing sold out shows across Australia.
Her 2018 was quieter – aside from American and European tours, the musician stayed holed up, presumably working on her sophomore effort, due (so the rumours go) sometime this year. We can only hope we get it sooner rather than later.
Deerhunter
When Deerhunter first started making waves in the Atlanta, Georgia indie scene, some 18 years ago, few would have expected that they’d end up flirting with mainstream success. But that’s exactly what’s happened, thanks in no small part to the poppy Fading Frontier, the band’s seventh record and magnum opus, written while lead singer Bradford Cox recovered from a car accident.
Whether or not Deerhunter aim to lean into that success with their upcoming record, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared, dropping in the second half of January, remains to be seen. Certainly the band have never stuck to a sound for very long in the past – fans will well remember the way their early, fuzzy style bled into abstract music concrete stylings by the time Monomonia was released.
Oh, and the guest list on Why Hasn’t certainly implies that Deerhunter are breaking strange new ground – everyone from weirdo folk-rock legend Cate Le Bon to White Fence’s Tim Presley appear.
So yeah, however the thing turns out, it’s safe to say it won’t be boring.
Girlpool
Are there any indie acts that have had a more fascinating transformation than Girlpool? First exploding onto the scene with their stripped-down, Beat Happening influenced debut record, Before The World Was Big, the two-piece have slowly expanded their sound (not to mention their line-up).
Their sophomore release, Powerplant introduced drums, and bigger, meatier choruses; apparently their third, What Chaos Is Imaginary, releasing early February 1, is set to get even bigger. According to Pitchfork, the thing will be full of synths, orchestra parts, and some of the band’s most complex songwriting to date. But OG Girlpool fans shouldn’t be disheartened – the band’s size hasn’t hurt their heartfelt lyrics or humanely wrought choruses one iota.
Lana Del Rey
To be honest, it’s hard to imagine a more Lana Del Rey-esque album title than Norman F**king Rockwell. Which is fitting really, given the two singles we’ve heard from the singer’s upcoming record, her sixth. ‘Venice Bitch’ in particular is Lana at her biggest and her most melodramatic, seeing her expand and explode the stuff that made her debut record such a masterpiece. But what else would anyone expect? Lana’s never let us down before, and it doesn’t seem like she’s about to now.
Oh, and Lana obsessives take note – Norman Fucking Rockwell, alleged to drop around March, isn’t the only treat that we’re going to get this year. Del Rey has said she’ll be dropping a book of poetry in 2019 as well, the excellently-titled Violent Bent Backwards Over The Grass. We stan a multi-hyphenate legend, clearly.
Carly Rae Jepsen
Speaking of LGBTQI legends, 2019 might also be the year that we finally get a new record from indie pop queen Carly Rae Jepsen. Since curing all disease and cracking the code for world peace with her masterpiece Emotion back in 2015, Jepsen has been rather quiet.
Sure, last year she dropped ‘Party For One’ an excellent single dedicated to the beauty of self-love (which can be interpreted as raunchily as you like, to be honest) and, perhaps most importantly of all, finally got the sword we’ve all waited so long for her to be blessed with. But things have been rather low-key on the new music front.
Well, that’s all set to change in 2019. Very little is known about Jepsen’s new record; even when it’ll drop is a mystery, though given how recently we were blessed with ‘Party For One’, we probably won’t be waiting too long.
Exactly the impact the new record is set to have is another mystery – given Emotion solved every problem humanity has ever faced, it’ll be interesting to see how her yet to be titled masterpiece brings us closer to a divine state.
Joseph Earp is a music and film critic who writes about horror cinema, bad TV, post-punk and The Muppets. You can follow Joseph on Twitter @TheUnderlook.
