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nonsubstantial · 7 years

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EVERY ALBUM I LOVED FROM 2016

alright. long list, but if you’re looking for music recommendations, save this somewhere. and fyi, these aren’t just albums I simply liked. every album on this list I loved, meaning that I probably listened to it at least 5 times, and that it had some special significance to me as a listener. I’ll start with the best first, and go roughly in order of importance. Lastly, the best way to know what you’ll like is just to listen, so I linked one song from each.

1. Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition

10 out of 10. My favorite album of 2016, and all time. Danny Brown became a pretty prolific name amongst people discussing experimental hip hop following his 2012 album, XXX, which focused on themes drug abuse, poverty, and the music industry... but with a uniquely personal and self reflective take. What interested me most was that his commentary on working with music could be abstracted into analysis of all forms of art, and I feel like that refreshingly analytical perspective, interspersing crude humour and bleak narratives, was what cemented the album as the classic it is today. His new album though, surpassed even that. The narrative depth here is on another fucking level. Everything I just praised XXX for is also true of Atrocity Exhibition, but instead of being drawn to certain standout moments on the album (like I was with XXX), literally the entire album feels like a standout moment. Every song carries a unique tone and a deep story worthy of intense investigation, and each is different and memorable, even compared to the other songs on the album. That variety means that no matter what mood I’m in, I can usually find some emotional payoff in at least one track. However, the album as a whole is not without a narrative thread. And that thread is Danny Brown himself. XXX invited us the see the humanity behind his music, and even if one couldn’t agree with or appreciate every set of bars, it still allowed for appreciation of Danny Brown as a fellow human being; to find value in learning from his flaws, which he was never shy about. He went as far as to ask in a chorus “what the fuck I got to lie for?”. His personality is explored to an even greater, and even more authentic extent on Atrocity Exhibition. Not to mention that if you appreciate experimental and meticulous production, this album delivers what feels like the contemporary payoff of the entire music industry’s sound refinement efforts over the past few decades. Every song is a fucking treat, genre blending ear candy for people who seek a wide variety of sound and style. A type of detail in its creation that still pays off even on my (presumably) 100th listen. Barring the specifics of what makes each individual song so great, in my honest opinion, it doesn’t get any better than this.

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2. The Drones - Feelin Kinda Free

This album goes hard as hell. In the way that Danny Brown’s album reflects upon the self, this album reflects upon society, and easily delivers more intelligent and elegiac political commentary than I could ever imagine writing into music. Taman Shud (linked) has got to be my favorite song of the entire year, addressing sensationalism in politics and media by using a notably Australian example to show how generalizing nuanced issues for the sake of appealing to the greatest audience of laypeople surrenders authenticity and impedes efforts of finding suitably nuanced solutions to those problems... and the rest of the album isn’t subdued either. I need also to mention the song Shut Down SETI, because not only does it reflect exactly why my massive childhood interest in extraterrestrials eventually tapered out, but I think that many things can be explained as the product of subtle egotism, and it’s important to try to analyze our behavior through that lens. The instrumentation is nice change of pace for this band, since their iconic blues guitar lead really met its apex on their 2013 album, I See Seaweed, and fortunately, the band was diligent enough to make it sound like they’ve always been producing this kind of eccentric noise rock.

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3. Street Sects - End Position

Contender for the most fucked up album on this list. It’s a roller coaster of horror and industrial noise, but it’s not without something deep to say. I think it ends up being profound in the way that it combines horror at the implicit ideological failings of society with horror at the explicit violence committed by people in society who feel forsaken. I don’t think I’ve ever started listening to this album and not felt compelled to keep listening for as long as possible. The wide variety of samples and noises keep it constantly interesting, and the tone of both those samples and the vocal performances flow as water from one idea to the next. In fact, every song bleeds into the next, and the album’s tension never slows down completely until about halfway through the last song, where its roller coaster finally screeches to a halt.

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4. Kero Kero Bonito - Bonito Generation

The most personally uplifting album on this list. One of Kero Kero Bonito’s previous songs, Sick Beat, is notable for being the greatest video gamer anthem ever produced, but unfortunately I felt like the rest of that first album lacked the kind of depth that the single had. All of the songs on their newest album, however, are memorable and thought provoking in the same way that Sick Beat was. Their oldest song that made it onto this project, Picture This, is about how the ability to take photos and selfies has become fundamental to our understandings of ourselves and others. Every word of that song is massively important, and manages to do justice to both the intimacy of creating art and the delight in being able to share it. One other song, Graduation, is literally about graduating from college, and holy shit if it didn’t perfectly encapsulate my experience of receiving my undergrad degree, the very same semester that the song came out, complete with both my enthusiasm and disillusionment towards the college experience!! I also can’t stop gaily repeating the line from Break, where the singer, Sarah Midori Perry, casually croons “I’ve got a smile on my face. cause now I’m taking a break” ... every time I, you know, take a break. I honestly can’t recommend this enough. Every song is deeply memorable, motivating, and motivated in its own intent: to portray life as beautiful and vibrant.

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while 1-4 are masterpieces that have affected me on a deeply personal level, 5-11 I would still consider artistic successes that excel in almost every way. I loved every song on these albums and highly encourage everyone to listen:

5. Death Grips - Bottomless Pit

6. Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone

7. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3

8. Weezer - The White Album

9. Vektor - Terminal Redux

10. Ştiu Nu Ştiu - Fake End

11. Fire! - She Sleeps, She Sleeps

the rest of this list I still highly enjoyed and would still highly recommend. while I don’t think they’re as profound as 1-11, I have consistently enjoyed them and I hope to relisten to them many more times:

12. Deerhoof - The Magic

13. G.L.O.S.S. - TRANS DAY OF REVENGE

14. case/lang/viers - case/lang/viers

15. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

16. Uyama Hiroto - freeform jazz

17. Show Me The Body - Body War

18. Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas - Mariner

19. Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing

20. Crying - Beyond the Fleeting Gales

21. Young Thug - Slime Season 3

22. The Body - No One Deserves Happiness

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

24. Blank Banshee - MEGA

25. Princess nokia - 1992

26. Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events

27. Katie Dey - Flood Network

28. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation

29. A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

30. The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns With The Devil In Confessional

31. Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered.

32. Beyoncé - Lemonade

33. Jerry Paper - Toon Time Raw!

34. The Avalanches - Wildflower

35. KRIMEWATCH - demo

36. Xenia Rubinos - Black Terry Cat

37. Ulcerate - Shrines of Paralysis

38. The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time

#i'll probably reblog this a couple of times #music recommendation #albums #2016 #SAVE AND SHARE IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR NEW MUSIC

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