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Vinyl of the Year 2016

It’s finally here! And because I basically had to do one mega-review of every album I listened to in 2016, it’s very long too, culminating in a top-10 album countdown. This post is gonna start with an essay-style discussion of every album that isn’t in my top 10, followed by the countdown (number 1 of course also being the VotY). So, without further introduction, here’s a huge review of the music I listened to in 2016.

The image above is in order of release date. Unfortunately, 26 isn’t a great number for an even grid, and tumblr might mess with the image quality, so you can see a bigger, better version of the list here.

There are a few things to note about the discussion’s formatting before I actually get into it: 1) The albums aren’t in any particular order, just what made sense to write about next, but 2) the album titles are in bold so you can skip to them easier if you just care about some of them, and 3) they’re all links you can click to listen to the album via YouTube, or Google Play Music if there wasn’t a good YT link.

Here we go.

There were a few albums that came out early in the year that were good, but didn’t blow me away. Daughter’s sophomore LP Not to Disappear was great, bringing with it all the dark ambience I love from their music as expected, there just wasn’t much about it that stood out. A few songs sound in line with the quality that If You Leave has more of (Numbers, Mothers, and Made of Stone off the top of my head), but the rest was just forgettable. I tried to jump on the Animal Collective hype train as well once their album Painting With got released, but as I probably should have expected after disliking Merriweather Post Pavilion for the most part I just didn’t enjoy listening to it much. (That being said, FloriDada is fun and beachy and catchy as hell.) I gave the group’s style one more try with Deakin’s solo record Sleep Cycle, which has its pretty moments—namely the Pink Floyd-esque tune Golden Chords—but now I’m certain that they aren’t my style. The same went for James Blake’s record The Colour In Anything: I see the appeal in Blake’s lovely voice and the simple-yet-moving production, but the album just doesn’t vibe with me.

There were also a couple of rap albums that I appreciated more than I liked. Atrocity Exhibition, for one, was my first taste of Danny Brown on his own, and I thought it was good but not amazing. Amid some real bangers like Really Doe and Ain’t It Funny were songs I wasn’t sure what to make of, and not yet being totally used to Danny’s voice didn’t help much. This was my first listen to Danny Brown on his own, so I can’t really speak much for how much he or his music has evolved from previous albums, but if other music critics are trustworthy then it’s a solid improvement, and I respect that. I also respect A Tribe Called Quest for coming back with their last album as a full group, We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, in the wake of Phife Dawg’s unfortunate passing. Their style stays true as ever, the album has tons of modern and classic features, from Busta Rhymes to Kendrick Lamar to Jack White of all people, and the subject matter is tied strongly to the current events of the past year, and for all of that I think it’s a great album—I’m just way too new to Tribe and the time their music was steeped in, so their album wasn’t a personal favorite.

Of course, there were other big 2016 hip-hop releases that I liked more. I’ll talk about most of them a bit later, but one particular album made waves even several weeks prior to its release (when, fittingly, Waves was its working title): How could I not mention Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo? The hip-hop legend dropped this mishmosh of a record to critical acclaim, and I try not to use that term too negatively: West himself said the album is “a living, breathing, changing creative expression,” so I don’t fault him for leaving some breathing room in terms of production. There are some real standalone hits that stand out, of course; Ultralight Beam, No More Parties in LA, and the hilariously self-aware I Love Kanye are all fantastic in their own right. However, there are also many clear areas across the record that sound like they belong on the cutting room floor from one of Kanye’s previous albums—but that’s just what makes this album great. Whereas most notable albums these days are more cohesive, this album knits itself together more like a quilt: Very far from seamless, but that makes the effort and care that went into making it much more visible. Because of that, the album was a tough contender to the number 10 spot on my list.

Another close contender to the top ten this year was Glass Animals’ groovy album How to Be a Human Being. In previous albums they sounded samey to me, each song not deviating too much from the last one, but the band definitely seems to have fixed that with this record. Songs are backed with everything from video game sound effects to dreamy ambient synths to heavily distorted drums, and they’re all mixed really well with the trademark breathy vocals and wide scope of sounds. My favorite example of this on the album by far has got to be The Other Side Of Paradise, with stop-start synths that stick in your skull till sunrise—alliteration aside, I can’t listen to this song and not move to it, and it’s definitely one of my favorite tracks to come out this year. A good few of the tracks on How to Be a Human Being still sound way too similar though, and there’s lots of repetition within songs—for most of the tracks, you’ve heard it all after the first minute or so—but I commend Glass Animals for making their music more dynamic and hope that trend continues.

In the more EDM-influenced pop world, we saw two EP releases from the duo Lemaitre this year, 1749 and Afterglow. Both EPs show a huge improvement in Lemaitre’s mixing and composition talents from their Relativity EP series, but Afterglow was a bit less interesting than 1749 in terms of song diversity and uniqueness. Not Too Late remains my favorite track by this group, and with it Lemaitre really made themselves worth following as more than just nightclub fodder, but Afterglow seems to slip back into that mold a bit—albeit still being wonderfully composed and a delight to listen to, whether dancing in the club or sitting in bed.

On the flip side of the pop releases this year, there were a couple groups that decided to get funkier in 2016, as most pop seems to be doing these days (I blame Daft Punk and Bruno Mars): Namely, I’m thinking of Two Door Cinema Club’s Gameshow and STRFKR’s Being No One, Going Nowhere. These albums are far from bad, but the shift in sound they went with didn’t improve them much, and actually made them slightly worse just by sacrificing some of their uniqueness as a group to pursue the mainstream sound. Both records were interesting blends of funk elements with each group’s signature style, Two Door bringing their quick-guitar-riff driven rock and STRFKR using various catchy synth rhythms. While Gameshow sounds more like a watering-down of Two Door’s punchier sound to make room for a groove, STRFKR’s album is still an improvement from 2013’s Miracle Mile, when the group first started to experiment with adding a groove to their music. Being No One is certainly more seamless and even harkens back to their much earlier work in its tone, even using voice samples like they used to. If Gameshow becomes Two Door Cinema Club’s Miracle Mile, insofar as being a transition to a cleaner, more characteristic funky album later, then I understand its necessity and welcome their fourth record with open ears.

A few new names also appeared on my radar this year, these two with albums that are rock-oriented, and have well-written themes about growing up. Car Seat Headrest and their album Teens of Denial rocketed the small bandcamp group to stardom this past year, with dense, meaningful lyrics about the transition into adulthood and an accessible garage-rock style. I’ll admit that if I listened to this album more it very well may have ended up on the top ten, but unfortunately I didn’t get around to reading more into it. I fell into a similar situation with Mitski’s record Puberty 2, which had to do more with the teenage years themselves, lyrically focusing on the angst and anxiety that riddle them. This album was also a highly acclaimed one with many layers of meaning and depth, and one I also thought was just okay because I hadn’t listened to it more. I certainly won’t make the same mistake the next time either of these artists release an album (or with any album of note in 2017, for that matter).

Looking back, there were a lot of albums released this year that were incredibly relevant to the events of 2016 that were praised for being beautiful artistic expressions of a year that not a lot of people liked. As well as the aforementioned A Tribe Called Quest album, Solange’s A Seat at the Table was one of the most critically acclaimed examples of this, and I can hear why—the messages of black pride come through the pleasant and well-composed R&B songs on the album and the candid spoken intermissions between them, and playing the two off of each other really makes this album a unique take on what it means to be a black woman in today’s society (which is a phrase you may be tired of hearing verbatim by now if you’ve been reading about this album, but there isn’t a much better way to put it). 2016 will also be remembered for its numerous unfortunate celebrity deaths, beginning in earnest with David Bowie just two days after his swan-song of an album, Blackstar. He knew he wasn’t long for this world at the time, and you can hear that throughout the record (you don’t need much more proof of this than “Look up here, I’m in heaven”), and sad though it is, it shows Bowie’s amazing creative potential one last time. Last January I saw someone I don’t know on Twitter sum this up perfectly by saying “Bowie stared death in the face and thought ‘I can use this’”. In that way this album also seems to represent 2016 as the forced transition away from old times, saying goodbye to the classic, groundbreaking, and nostalgic works and their artists—in any medium—that brought us to this point, in favor of looking to the future and making a mark for this generation.

And now, onto the top 10!

10. JANK - Versace Summer

The best way I’ve found to describe JANK to someone in an X-meets-Y style is that they’ve got the lyrics and tone of an emo garage band, but with the intricate guitar work and immense overall talent of an early Modest Mouse. The more I listen to this album, the more little instrumental details I catch: every little guitar or drum fill, and just how much the tempo and dynamics change within and between songs is so impressive that you’d think that the songs would be about something more complicated than, say, a bicycle named Ralph—but it doesn’t even matter, because JANK pulls you into their mood until you’re singing every word regardless. And even still, a good number of their songs can really hit heavy—like that song about a bicycle named Ralph. Even Gucci Spring, the one out-of-place song on the album, is a chill tune with great composition. I really hope JANK keeps dropping albums—hell, as long as they keep releasing music, I’ll never feel older than sixteen and love it.

Favorite Tracks: Chunks (kool enuff), This is a Song About my Bike “Ralph” and it’s Called “Ralph”, #freesam

9. Noname - Telefone

Noname first made a name for herself through features on Chance the Rapper’s albums, but this mixtape marks her first solo venture, and it is one hell of an album. Telefone has got to be the calmest and kindest-sounding rap album I’ve ever heard, if only because of the lovely, smooth keyboard backs, but there’s so much more. All the singing is so well-mixed and pretty, and the rap verses aren’t too loud or aggressive; in a way, in lends them even more honesty—which makes the realer, darker songs about Noname’s life in the Chicago hood even more deep-cutting. Even still the album holds its optimism: the laments of the album are surrounded by a resoundingly positive attitude, smiling in the face of any obstacle. On top of that, the lyrics flow well with the music and have universal meaning behind them in just about every song, covering all the ups and downs that connect Noname and her Chi-town community. A hip-hop/R&B album like this is as pleasant as a surprise phone call from a loved one, and I can’t wait to hear another one from Noname.

Favorite Tracks: Diddy Bop, Reality Check, Forever

8. Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.

“EVEN THE B-SIDES!” cried the Kendrick fans in praise on all the hip-hop messageboards online circa March, and boy were they right. This is an album purely of live-only tracks, scraps, and B-sides from Kendrick’s previous masterpiece To Pimp A Butterfly, and it’s still just as genius and fantastic as anything he’s done before. What continues to blow me away with Kendrick’s work is his sound design: he uses so many different sounds, tones, voices, and effects in every single track he makes, and still puts it all together masterfully. Even within one song, Kendrick throws three different inflections on his own voice and uses each one to manipulate his flow—and that’s about average for this record. Don’t let the fact escape you that these songs were rejected from being published until now; one of the best rap albums to come out this year was picked up and dusted off from the studio floor. That alone should tell you what kind of talent Kendrick has, and why he’s considered one of the greatest rappers of this generation.

Favorite Tracks: untitled 02, untitled 03, untitled 07

7. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

If Noname is the girl keeping her block optimistic with Telefone, Chance is the older brother that takes that to the entire city. It means a lot to be the second-biggest name in Chicago rap and Chance knows that, counting his blessings very explicitly on this record and letting everyone hear. Even this album has its down moments, mostly more somber tunes about Chance and his friends growing up and changing, but he uses a gospel choir and religious themes to keep the smile on his and any listeners’ faces. There have been some critiques of the mixing on this record, and I won’t deny that it’s a bit out of wack, but it’s nothing that makes the album even remotely unlistenable or dilutes its messages (and sure, All We Got is a bit of a shitshow, but I blame Kanye for that). All of the features are great too, and they run the gamut from gospel artist and choir director Kirk Franklin to Lil fucking Yachty. Overall in Coloring Book, Chance’s optimism and pride for himself and his city are contagious, and it makes me smile every time I listen to this record.

Favorite Tracks: Same Drugs, Angels, How Great

6. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 3

It’s a Christmas fucking miracle! RTJ dropped this album early online for the holiday, and at the last minute it made my top ten. Run the Jewels 2 was damn fantastic, and this awesome dynamic duo of hip-hop just keep getting better. El-P and Killer Mike bring even more trademark establishment-hatred and adrenaline-pumping arrogance with their latest installment, and they really sound like they’ve found their groove with this record. The proof is everywhere, from the production from El that’s more vivid and diverse than anything he’s made before, to the opinions of a pissed-off generation of millenials that fuel their lyrics, even down to the dynamics in their tone of voice. And as if it weren’t enough to improve on their style, RTJ even included a few tracks that are strong shifts in tone: Instead of their usual middle-fingers-up attitude to society, they rap some verses that sound just like shock and disbelief for how events turned out, even getting sentimental with the surprisingly personal Thursday in the Danger Room, which is equal parts banger and mournful tribute that cuts deep. I think that’s a feeling we all shared in 2016, a year where we needed voices like El’s and Mike’s to keep us strong and angry enough to do something about it—and they couldn’t have delivered more perfectly.

Favorite Tracks: Talk to Me, Hey Kids (Bumaye), Thursday in the Danger Room

5. clipping. - Splendor & Misery

Four words: Experimental space rap opera. Still interested? I didn’t think I was when this album first came around. As mentioned in this album’s Pitchfork review, I was surprised that clipping, now much closer to the spotlight after Daveed Diggs’s famous role as Lafayette/Jefferson in the hip-hop musical Hamilton, would use this opportunity to push something so bold and unique instead of an album full of experimental bangers like their last album CLPPNG was. But the more I listened, the more I thought it was the right move. Diggs and his crew bring their creativity to somewhere no artist has ventured before—an epic tale of a slave mutineer taking over a spaceship and flying it past war-torn planets in search of a new home. And while this album doesn’t have as many standalone hits (as it really shouldn’t), the incredible talent Diggs has for storytelling is brought to new frontiers in character development and worldbuilding (seriously, I get chills when he transitions from African world-shaping mythos to the human idols that moonwalk). From the cold, spacey production to the delightfully abstract storytelling this album brings, Splendor & Misery is my favorite narrative album since The Antlers’ Hospice, and a welcome twist to contemporary rap.

Favorite Tracks: All Black, True Believer, Air ‘Em Out

4. Childish Gambino - “Awaken, My Love!”

Speaking of twists in rap, how could you go much further than not rapping at all? Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino has gone from internet sketch comedy to writing for TV to acting on TV to doing stand-up comedy to dropping hip-hop albums to making his own (now Golden Globe-winning) TV show, and this album marks yet another sharp turn in his career to releasing an album of pure funk and R&B—and while other critics (and a few of my friends) aren’t so sure about this one, I enjoy every song on it. Across the record Gambino runs the full gamut of classic funk and soul styles, and on each one he distorts his voice differently to fit the song—belting passionate cries in one tune and pitched-up soulful melodies in another. Even California, the most-debated song on this record, lends itself some praise for being a catchy abstraction of Jawaiian reggae. If there’s any way to compare this with his previous records, it’s with production and instrumentation, and both seem vastly improved and expanded upon—really, my only gripe with this album is how poorly it’s mixed in some areas. If Gambino sticks with this funky pursuit for at least another album to iron out its few problems, though, we could see a real masterpiece in the future. Other artists that dabbled in funk this year should take note: sometimes it’s better to dive in headfirst.

Favorite Tracks: Me and Your Mama, Zombies, Redbone

3. Bon Iver - 22, A Million

Bon Iver has made a name for themselves over the past decade or so with their ambient, snowy-cabin music (including the hit Skinny Love) and features on Kanye West songs, and the three records they released before this one are all beautifully gentle explorations of abstractly-mixed soundscapes—but this record transcends that in favor of something almost completely different. Inspired in part by group founder Justin Vernon’s battles with personal and existential loneliness while recording it, 22, A Million shifts gears suddenly to a dirty, sample-based, electronic sound that is disorienting at first to say the least. It ranges from uncanny-valley distortions of otherwise mellow acoustic songs to broken percussion-heavy tracks, with lyrics full of half-phrases and made-up words—and while the details are incoherent, the way they’re put together results in a strange electronic recreation of Vernon’s signature calm, somber tone. The devil is in the details on this record, so to speak, and just how much there is worth discussing is impressive—like the amazing voice layering in 8 (circle), or the psalm sample in 33 “GOD”, or those chilling few seconds near the end of 29 #Strafford APTS. It’s a very postmodern album, all told, opting for the expression of raw stream-of-consciousness instead of being more explicit, and like many postmodern works, it can be analyzed from so many different angles and parsed to convey so many different ideas. 22, A Million is the kind of album that belongs in an art museum, and I’m so glad a record so unique, deep, and beautiful exists.

Favorite Tracks: 715 - CRΣΣKS, 29 #Strafford APTS, 8 (circle)

2. Anderson .Paak - Malibu

This album was the first I’d heard of Anderson .Paak like many other people this year, but after listening to this album I feel like I know him like a family member. On this album, Anderson celebrates himself and overcoming his difficult past with contagious honesty and confidence on top of beautifully-produced tracks that range from soulful R&B beats to dance-floor grooves. The wide range of instruments, effects, and beats applied on this record are all mixed seamlessly, and even the samples from old surfing movies between most songs carry the album’s tone beautifully while holding up the songs’ themes. It’d be good enough if it was just pretty, but it’s also by far the most personal and intimate album of 2016. In addition to offering his signature take on more classic R&B, taking after his own inspirations and revamping them for the present, Anderson sings and raps verses about his childhood, family, career, and relationships that are all equal parts candid autobiography and inspiring motivation. In a way, the combination goes so far as to put you into Anderson’s life story and create a potent sort of nostalgia for it: you’re where he was decades ago, letting the music on the record player push you to rise above the not-so-good situation you might have at home. And in that way, Anderson celebrates you, too, and you just can’t stop grinning.

Favorite Tracks: The Waters, The Season | Carry Me, Come Down

1, and the 2016 Vinyl of the Year:

The Avalanches - Wildflower

I’m not even sure where to begin with this freaking fantastic album. When I first listened to Wildflower, it was being raved about online, so I figured I’d see what the hype was about, in bed, with my laptop speakers. I didn’t want to leave that spot for the next hour as I listened—I even delayed plans I had made just to finish it. In a single word, this album is immersive, and there has been no other record that pulls me into the environment and atmosphere that it creates like Wildflower does. The hundreds, maybe thousands, of 1960’s samples that The Avalanches mixed together brilliantly instill an indirect but pure nostalgia for America in a unique and strange era, with a fantastic demonstration of show-don’t-tell and utilizing tone and instruments more than words—more blatantly, it’s at number one because it does artificial nostalgia better than Malibu and conveying raw feeling better than 22, A Million. Even the several excellent rap features don’t ruin the immersion, despite rap not being a thing back then: it’s almost like being at an alternate Woodstock with a more modern lineup of acts. The sheer amount of detail in the sound design is the key to how captivating Wildflower is: all of the samples that are used as background noise and sound effects take you to a different place and time for practically each song. That also makes this album excellent travel music: regardless of where you’re going or what you’re doing, you feel like you’re on summer break from school, having fun in the sun and enjoying the psychedelic era to its fullest. In several ways the current time parallels that one—a silent majority resulted in a publicly-disfavored president and a young counter-establishment attitude, and civil rights movements and vinyl record sales are making a nationwide resurgence, to name a couple—and whether by design or coincidence this album runs with that perfectly. It’s both here and there, in 2016 and 1966, within and without, a celebration of the moment as much as it can be an escape from it, and there’s just no other music quite like it. For all of these reasons, Wildflower is my Vinyl of the Year for 2016.

Favorite Tracks: Because I’m Me, Frankie Sinatra, Kaleidoscopic Lovers

A quick post-script

In a little while I’ll update the blog theme from Currents to Wildflower. Looking back, I’m surprised how much hip-hop showed up in the top 10. It wasn’t really until this year that I began to follow it more actively, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite genres--if I can even put the music I like into genres these days, anyway.

2016 has been a great year for music, but 2017 could easily top it: we’ve got anticipated/potential albums from The xx (who already released theirs), Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Portugal. The Man, The National, Arcade Fire, and many more brand-new artists to discover. I’ll be reviewing albums as I listen to them this year, so future VotY posts won’t be this huge, and you can keep up with VotY more regularly. I hope 2016 was a great year in music for you, too, and that 2017 proves to be even better!

Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

#vinyloftheyear #VotY2016

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