For Billboard’s 2019 Year in Music, various musicians picked their favorite album released in the past 12 months -- and talked about why it’s stuck with them.
There weren’t many albums that stuck with me this year besides [House of Sugar]. I actually opened up for [Alex G] in 2015 in San Antonio, and that was kind of my introduction to him. It was before [my group] Brockhampton was any sort of popular. A producer and friend of mine, Michael Uzowuru, showed me the song “Sarah” [from 2015’s Trick], and I used to listen to that song a lot when I was 19. I never talked to him, but he’s one of those artists that I kind of don’t want to meet because his shit is so magical and I like appreciating it from afar. But I also would love to meet him and pick his brain.
I was just alone in my bedroom when someone sent [House of Sugar] to me. I don’t want to say that I didn’t fully get it at first, but it took a second to fully grow on me in all the right ways. I wish the hook on “Gretel” went a few more times, but I love that it didn’t -- I love the sense of restraint. The combination of the lyric “I don’t wanna go back/Nobody’s gonna push me off track” and the melody really stuck with me.
