The 25 Best Electronic Albums of 2019

Electronic music is a huge tent with so many diverse approaches, and it's more international than ever with producers around the globe pushing music forward. The year's best albums featured returns from established talents, as well as ground-breaking newcomers, and a host of women changing the old boy's club of electronic music.

                                      
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Liam Gallagher brings the hits, Slaves bring out the anger, and Thom Yorke gets experimental in a cozy first night of the 14th edition of BBK Live.

Thom Yorke provides the finest in dreary ballads and glitchy music at a sold-out solo show at King's Theatre in Brooklyn.

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In jumping forward from the lackluster Pablo Honey, Radiohead finally started becoming the Radiohead that is idolized today.

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Amidst a transformational time in the post-Vietnam and post-Reagan eras, The Bends represented a transition between the tumultuous latter half of the 20th century and the new millennium ahead.

Even teenagers two decades removed from The Bends' original release can still find deep emotional connections to its depiction of isolation and dissatisfaction.

The Bends is the 20th century's identity emerging under pressure, forced to search bleakly for some form of cohesion among an increasingly artificial and commercial world.

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Jonny Greenwoods' musical achievements on The Bends represent as far as he was ever going to get by limiting himself to channelling his ideas through his guitar.

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No matter how many times someone writes that Radiohead and The Bends “changed the face of music” in 1995, the retail and radio numbers tell a different story.

With The Bends having such strong cultural and critical preconceptions behind it, hearing the album from the perspective of a new lister can help cut through the pre-ordained narrative.

PopMatters begins its look back at Radiohead's The Bends today. Here we examine The Bends track by track, examining it from angles spanning the cultural to the theoretical.

For artists a big as Beyonce, U2, and Thom Yorke, the surprise album release model offers minimal risk and maximal reward. It's a paradigm that's sure to be replicated by others going forward.

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Has this 2010 US campaign season turned into a referendum on women?

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Let me speak for L.A. when I say that you are welcome back anytime, Thom.

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