My 2016 Albums of the Year
This is not some big revelation, but every thing needs to start somewhere. So let’s state the obvious: 2016 sucked.
But there was still a lot of great music released during a dismal year. I feel like I discovered a lot more new good (and often great) stuff throughout the year than I had in years past. Plenty of it served as great medicine for a year bathed in suckage.
And there’s still a big pile of stuff that I’m aware of but haven’t gotten to. (I’m looking at you Solange record.) Anyway, for the first time in my life I decided to compile a list of a bunch of my favorite stuff. Hope it helps someone else find some cool music. In no particular order here’s what I found inspiring in 2016.
Jamila Woods
HEAVN
When I say no particular order, of course I mean I’m starting with my favorite album of the year. Jamila Woods’ “HEAVN” has left me wanting to cry because it is both beautiful and sad. It’s an album about black love, self love and Chicago love among other things. The year was packed with standout works that could be labeled R&B. This was the strongest to me. It’s an album born from a singular voice but is also built on the past. Jamila creatively interpolates everything from Paula Cole to John Denver to Incubus to the “Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood” theme song in this 13-song work. It’s free to listen to on Soundcloud, and I won’t mind if you dip out of my review of the year in music and go listen to it right now.
Essential Cut: “Breadcrumbs”
Second Woman
Second Woman
Second Woman’s debut LP sounds a little like Tetris music to me. Not in the sense that it sounds anything like that Russian folk song that looped through the original version of Tetris. Just in the way that it sounds architectural with structure falling from the sky likely faster than you can keep up.
Essential Cut: “200601Je6"
Savages
Adore Life
January 2016 seems like a millennium away at this point. Pre-Brexit. Pre-Orange Bullshit Artist getting elected. Pre-all our heroes dying. But those were the simpler times when Savages released their second album. This felt like a punch to face back then. Rock music was largely a bummer to my ears in 2016. Savages were the exception. Everything about the band was just on point in 2016. The album art, the live presentation, the aesthetic and most importantly the music. “Adore Life” speaks to the complexities of life and love. And coming out the other side.
Essential Cut: “Adore”
The Black Queen
Fever Daydream
This record came out in late January and was perfect music to pair with the cold (or at least colder in Southern California) winter months. And then the rest of the year stayed gloomy and this record stayed on repeat. This was likely going to stick with me regardless of what was going on in the world. Josh Eustis has long been among my favorite artists (this is the second release he’s apart of on this list. See also: Second Woman). News came out years ago that he was teaming with Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato on a project. It seemed like an interesting mix. Puciato and Eustis, along with Steven Alexander, crush it here. Puciato shows a Mike-Patton-like ability to gracefully shift from the screaming metal insanity with DEP to chilled out melodicism here. There’s both a nod to past and future here with '80s R&B grooves and modern electronics.
Essential Cut: “Secret Scream”
Iggy Pop
Post Pop Depression
Who would have thought back in the ‘70s that Iggy Pop would outlast his buds David Bowie and Lou Reed? (To be fair, none of the three were exactly pillars of health in those days). But here Iggy is at age 69, and he is far from just enjoying a nice retirement on “Post Pop Depression.” (Although he has alluded to fact that this might be his last album.) Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua Homme and his crew combine with Iggy to make deserty, croonery songs that acknowledge the twilight but don’t give into it.
Essential Cut: “Sunday”
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani
Sunergy
Don Buchla’s death in September is one that will not get nearly enough attention in a year filled with notable deaths. Starting in the 1960s, Don created abstract synthesizers and pushed sythesis forward in ways others didn’t. Buchlas aren’t for everyone. Neither are the sounds that come from them. I love a lot of Buchla music but also acknowledge that it’s going to sounds like disorganized electronic chaos to others. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani provide a beautiful and accessible entry point for anyone interested in the madness that can be coaxed from a Buchla with “Sunergy.”
Essential Cut: “A New Day”
Serpentwithfeet
Blisters
I came to this five-song EP through Bobby Krlic/The Haxan Cloak (who’s “Excavation” was probably my favorite release of 2013). When I learned he was handling production work I knew I’d check it out.
And then I heard Josiah Wise’s (AKA Serpentwithfeet) voice. Wow. Wise’s classical vocal training is somehow a perfect match with Krlic’s subsonic electronic textures here. It’s operatic. It’s avant-gospel pop. It’s heartbreaking. It’s great.
I sure hope there’s more where these five songs came from.
Essential Cut: “Blisters”
A Tribe Called Quest
We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service
A Tribe Called Quest was always one of those groups I meant to check out. That this album is my first foray into ATCQ is not something I say proudly. I was aware of how highly respected they were back in the ’90s but being an alternative rock kid in suburban Pennsylvania it was unlikely they were going reach teenage me or that my ears would be open. The benefit to that, however, is I get to come to this album with fresh ears. I caught just a part of the SNL performance and thought, “Oh, a new A Tribe Called Quest album? I should finally check them out.” Hey, solid idea Matt. I’ve been rewarded over and over again. Now it’s time to go through the rest of the catalog …
Essential Cut: “We The People….”
David Bowie
Blackstar
I still distinctly remember the announcement for David Bowie’s penultimate album “The Next Day.” Word of Bowie’s first record in 10 years popped up in the early days of 2013. I was with a friend when the news broke and said, “The first good news of 2013? David Bowie’s releasing a new album.” My friend, sort of cynically, replied, “Well, that all depends if it’s good or not.”
I don’t recall responding, but I disagreed.
David Bowie was about possibilities. He was constantly changing, learning and staying inspired. The opposite of cynicsim.
Sure, there are hits and misses along the way. But even a failed David Bowie experiment was a worthwhile one because of the artistic integrity he approached his work with.
Bowie always had a focus on the future. In recent years he’d sung on songs with up and coming bands like TV on the Radio and The Arcade Fire. He was reportedly inspired by Kendrick Lamar for “Blackstar.”
Which brings us to his final album released just two days before Bowie died on Jan. 10 of liver cancer. Did you know you wanted a David Bowie jazz record? Nope. Bowie took another unexpected turn. It’s a brilliant curtain call for a brilliant artist.
The world is a worse place without David Bowie. It feels like a world with fewer possibilties.
Essential Cut: “Blackstar”
Frank Ocean
Blond
I’m not sure if there’s an artist I’ve gotten the goosebumps from more than Frank Ocean over the last five years. The songs are not as strong here on “Blond” as on Ocean’s 2012 debut “Channel Orange,” but there’s still a bunch of beautiful moments that give me the chills. That’s special.
Essential Cut: “Nikes”
Anohni
Hopelessness
If you wanted some escapism to try to forget what a mess we’ve made of the world, this would not be it. The song titles “Drone Bomb Me,” “Execution,” “Violent Men,” “Crisis” and “Hopelessness” should give you some solid clues on lyrical content. Still, Anohni manages to construct beautiful pop songs amidst the chaos.
Essential Cut: “4 Degrees”
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Gustavo Santaolalla and Mogwai
Before The Flood
Yes, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross very much have an aesthetic established in their scoring work, but they’ve managed to keep their work in movies relatively fresh with new challenges along the way. “Before the Flood” is the fourth film the Nine Inch Nails duo have collaboratively scored. Here Gustavo Santaolalla and Mogwai help expand their pallet for Leonardo DiCaprio’s global warming documentary. Sounds heavy? The music isn’t. If you want doom and gloom, listen to the three hours of music they put out for “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” soundtrack. Here Reznor, Ross and Co. mostly represent the beauty of our Earth that is still worth saving.
Essential Cut: “Before The Flood”
Autolux
Pussy’s Dead
Autolux has never been a conventional rock band. They stay unconventional with their third album. This is the Los Angeles trio’s least “rock” affair. “Pussy’s Dead” is still filled with distorted bass, guitar squalls and Carla Azar’s massive drumming, but there’s plenty of skittering electronics mixed in between. Somehow it all manages to make sense for a band like Autolux.
Essential Cut: “Soft Scene”
TOBACCO
“Sweatbox Dynasty”
TOBACCO’s music sounds like it’s been baked in the oven for about an hour too long. And that makes it perfect. I don’t know what else to say. Listen to it.
Essential Cut: “Gods In Heat”
Beyoncé
LEMONADE
Maybe you’ve heard of this one? What was probably the biggest pop album from the biggest pop star in the world. Yeah, that one. This seems like a fitting place to end our journey.
There’s a lot of music in the world that is just lazy. It’s there for little more than background while we shop at grocery stores. There is no room laziness on “LEMONADE.” This was an experience. From the roll out of “Formation” ahead of her Super Bowl performance, it was clear Beyoncé was on a different tip. Then came the HBO “visual album,” which was stunning. Beyoncé is leveraging her star status in a way that few are able to do. Of course, all of this wouldn’t matter if the songs weren’t actually good. They are excellent.
Essential Cut: “Formation”
Honorable Mentions: PJ Harvey “The Hope Six Demolition Project,” Wes Borland “Crystal Machete,” MJ Guider “Precious Systems,” Dillinger Escape Plan “Dissociation,” Noname “Telefone,” Aphex Twin “Cheetah EP,” anything that appeared on the HBO show “Insecure.”
Here’s a playlist I kept of various things that caught my attention throughout 2016.
