From Dessa & the Minnesota Orchestra to Big Thief and Lizzo: the best of 2019 arts and entertainment included these top albums and concerts.
Best local albums
1. Dessa & the Minnesota Orchestra, "Sound the Bells: Recorded Live at Orchestra Hall." While Lizzo had to leave town to prove Minnesota-molded hip-hop could crack the Billboard top 10, Dessa went deeper into the local talent pool and cracked the ceiling artistically. Arranger Andy Thompson and the biggest band in town helped flesh out the lyrical drama and moody ambience of old songs like "The Chaconne" and the new "Grade School Games" in ways that at times sounded as much like Leonard Cohen as Doomtree.
2. Humbird, "Pharmakon." Minneapolis wanderer Siri Undlin's debut album as experimental folkie Humbird is the musical equivalent of a gorgeous piece of driftwood, with a natural, wavy sonic ambience and deep-rooted traces of the old-world folk songs and tales she studied abroad.
3. The Cactus Blossoms, "Easy Way." Brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum's second studio LP put a bluer hue on their Everlys-style, retro-twang harmonies while adding meatier guitar textures.
4. J.S. Ondara, "Tales of America." The Dylan-loving, Kenya-reared strummer's deceptively raw but elegant Verve Records debut lays bare his piercing voice and personal songs, equal parts coming-to-America and coming-of-age.
5. Dua Saleh, "Nūr." The Sudan-born, St. Paul-raised rapper/singer/poet explores gender and racial issues and fantasies in a purring delivery over a surrealistic electronic soundscape that deserves the FKA Twigs comparisons but is really like nothing else.
6. Nur-D, "Songs About Stuff." Late-bloomer suburban rapper Matt Allen riffs on comic books, superheroes and his own normalcy and awkwardness with a Chance the Rapper-like blend of playfulness and soulfulness on his sophomore album, which earned him the top spot in City Pages' Picked to Click poll.
7. Lydia Liza, "Of Unsound Mind." The former wunderkind of Bomba de Luz and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" revisionist notoriety faces adult problems with a still-youthful zeal and a Sharon Van Etten-like power, from the urgently orchestral "Josephine" to the fuzzed-out rocker "Crow on a Branch."
