20) Jeff Rosenstock - WORRY.
The album cover of Jeff Rosenstock’s WORRY. is from a photo that was taken at his wedding last year. The album title appears to contradict the image of a man having the time of his life, but the sense of urgency behind WORRY. is something that cannot be understated. Rosenstock sings, “Yeah, ignorance is bliss until the day/The things you ignored all came into focus/And those conveniences and cavities/That can’t get fille ‘cause you didn’t notice,” on modern punk classic “Wave Goodnight To Me”. WORRY. plays unlike anything in Rosenstock or his former band, Bomb the Music Industry!’s catalog. The anxiety of working a 9 to 5 is used as Rosenstock’s muse on his best album to date.
19) Sing Street - Official Soundtrack
John Carney’s (Once, Begin Again) Sing Street was widely regarded as one of the best movies of 2016. The film follows 14-year-old Conor, who starts a band with fellow down-on-their-luck schoolmates that draws inspiration from groups like Duran Duran, The Cure, Hall & Oats, and others. The movie itself is heartwarming, but the soundtrack is the true prize of the project. The soundtrack progresses in a similar fashion to the film in that it sprinkles in 80s jams like Duran Duran’s “Rio” and The Cure’s “Inbetween Days” with original tracks that fit seamlessly amongst the classics. The pinnacle of both the movie and the soundtrack is the infectious “Drive It Like You Stole It” which is the dance song Hall & Oats wish they had written. Sing Street leaves a smile on the faces and a kick in the steps of viewers and listeners old and new.
18) Chicago Farmer - Midwest Side Stories
If Chicago Farmer’s 2013 album Backenforth, IL was his Bob Dylan album then 2016’s Midwest Side Stories is his Tom Petty one. That is not to say that Midwest Side Stories does not have its acoustic tales of living on the farm or getting into trouble in the big city — it certainly does. Midwest Side Stories differs from its predecessor with tracks like “Revolving Door” and “9pm to 5” where the electric guitar is far more prominent than his previous work. When the album wants to be serious, it does a great job of tackling serious ventures (“Umbrella”). When the album wants to get a little silly, it does a great job welding tales of small town tomfoolery (“Skateboard Song”). But the album shines brightest when it sticks to its small town sensibilities in “Farms & Factories” and “Two Sides of the Story”. There is something for everyone on Midwest Side Stories as Chicago Farmer builds strongly upon an already ever-growing foundation.
17) Childish Gambino - "Awaken, My Love"
Donald Glover was a busy man in 2016. He wrote and starred in the hit FX series Atlanta, he has parts in the upcoming Spiderman and Star Wars reboots, and earlier this month he released his most ambitious album to date. At times, “Awaken, My Love” sounds like a lost Parliament Funkadelic album, and other times Glover’s vocals are reminiscent of a young David Bowie (“Zombies”). Glover’s wailing vocals on “Me and Your Mamma” bring back memories of Prince as the backing chorus helps drive the heaviest track on the album. The low-fi guitars and atmospheric 70s era soul do the leg work for the renewed tone Glover has crafted. There were many tributes to the Bowie and Prince in 2016, but “Awaken, My Love” is by far the most original and fresh.
16) Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp
The line between emotional songwriting and indie pop can often be a very fine one. More times than not, the result is an album that comes off as pretentious, or on the other end of the spectrum, disingenuous. Michelle Zauner, better known as Japanese Breakfast, has managed to toe the line and come out victorious. Psychopomp draws its low-fi emotional strength on the fact that Zauner wrote the album while taking care of her mother while she was in hospice with terminal cancer. Understanding this is pertinent to understanding the album. Opener “In Heaven” is as uplifting as it is heartbreaking as Zauner painfully starts, “The dog’s confused/She just paces around all day/She’s sniffing at your empty room/I’m trying to believe/When I sleep it’s really you/Visiting my dreams/Like they say that angels do”. The lyrics do not get any less gut-wrenching as the album continues, but they work in the album’s favor. As Psychopomp continues, a certain guilt cannot be avoided as these songs are so personal. It almost feels as if you are listening to something you should not be listening to. However, Zauner did release Psychopomp to the world and the world is better for it.
15) Pusha T - Darkest Before Dawn
Pusha T technically released Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude in mid-December of 2015, but the album made its presence felt in 2016. Like 2014’s My Name Is My Name, Pusha T’s latest contains many features, but never truly relies on them. Tracks such as “Untouchable” illustrate Pusha T’s ability to boastfully thrust himself to the top of the rap game. The album itself is something to be blasted with subwoofers and speakers as the beats and samples are some of the best of the year. No track better illustrates this than the Timbaland produced “Got ‘Em Covered” where listeners can live vicariously through a story told by Pusha T as an infectious beat guides the song throughout. Darkest Before Dawn is daunting reassurance as to why Kanye West appointed Pusha T as president of G.O.O.D. Music, and it is safe to say that Pusha T will continue to thrive in the role.
14) The Avalanches - Wildflower
The Avalanches had been working on a followup to 2000’s critically acclaimed debut Since I Left You since 2005. Similar to artists like Girl Talk, the group’s first album contained samples of songs from varying genres and periods. The Avalanches were able to shed the dreaded sophomore slump because they upped the artistic achievement on Wildflower to a level previously uncharted for a sample exclusive artist. The album is chalked full of soon-to-be festival favorites such as “Frankie Sinatra” where Danny Brown drops verses over a King Houdini sample from 1947. “Subways” is a hypnotic tune that features too many 1970s funk songs to count. The goofy track “The Noisy Eater” offers listeners the perfect amount of cheesiness as Biz Markie raps about the audibility of his eating habits while a children’s chorus sings bits of The Beatles “Come Together” — as ridiculous as it sounds, it works very well. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Wildflower is The Avalanches’ ability to clear thousands of samples over the past 10+ years as they finally delivered a worthy predecessor.
13) A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from Here...Thank You 4 Your service
It was a rumor for nearly two decades, but 2016 brought us the sixth and final album from A Tribe Called Quest. The album does not break new ground, but rather builds upon the empire the group have lived upon over the past 26 years. “The Space Program” opens the album with a soothing jazz number as Q-Tip and the recently deceased Phife Dawg pick up where they left off, “It’s time to go left and not right/Gotta get it together forever/Gotta get it together for brothers/Gotta get it together for sisters…”. The album was released days after the 2016 presidential election and was offered up as an olive branch for those who were left feeling lost. Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, Busta Rhymes, and others all make seemingly effortless contributions on the record, but the most seamless feature is the Elton John sample on “Solid Wall of Sound”. The track takes a verse Sir Elton’s “Benny and the Jets” and loops it while all three MCs take turns rapping over a soothing piano track. We got it from Here… was the biggest surprise of the year and was a very welcomed one at that.
12) Bon Iver - 22, A Million
Justin Vernon AKA Bon Iver has collaborated with dozens of established artists including Kanye West and James Blake. Vernon won two GRAMMYs in 2012, and has proven himself a mainstay as a chameleon amongst genres. On “22 (OVER SOON)”, Vernon uses his insecurities and anxieties as a way to reassemble. “It might be over soon,” he opens through the white noise. The album is experimental through and through, but calls back to the heart of For Emma, Forever Ago on the standout track “29 #Strafford APTS”. The spirit of For Emma… may live on, but Vernon has departed from his acoustic guitar fused folk sound. 22, A Million is difficult in ways that Vernon’s previous work is not. The album is Vernon’s attempt to make his way through befuddling times without focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel, but rather on the journey that takes him towards that light.
11) Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
Atrocity Exhibition is the most appropriately titled album of 2016. Danny Brown, the self-proclaimed “hipster by heart” created an album that is impossible to digest after one listen. The title is borrowed from a Joy Division song, and is unlike anything else that was released this year. Brown borrows elements from System of a Down, Bjork, and too many others to name to fuse together the Frankenstein’s Bride of music projects. The album opens with “Downward Spiral” which could have been a B-Side his 2014 album Old, but Brown quickly changes pace with a Chicago drill-trap track with the enigmatic “Tell Me What I Don’t Know”. “Really Doe” calls upon hip-hop titans Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Earl Sweatshirt to pepper verses over a catchy chorus pieced together by Kendrick. “Ain’t It Funny” calls upon the System of a Down influence, “Funny how it happens/Who ever would imagine/That jokes on you/But Satan the one laughing”. The album never keeps a stable pace throughout and leaves listeners truly at a loss for what to expect from track to track, yet it works so well as a cohesive unit.
10) Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
Chance may be remembered for wearing his “3” hat exclusively this year, but as an artist he wore too many hats to count. Within the last two months, Chance produced a new song for Paul Simon, he wrote a new jingle for Kit-Kat, and he will be the music guest on the season finale of Saturday Night Live. Seeing a self-made artist continue to succeed at the highest level while remaining independent of a label is simply wonderful, and Coloring Book’s lead single “No Problem” tugs at those heartstrings while still managing to be the anthem of 2016. Lil Wayne returns to his Tha Carter roots with a fun, pun-riddled verse, and Chance flaunts his abilities in the face of labels all over the country as he chants, “If one more label try to stop me…” before going off on the world.
In typical Chance fashion, listeners are taken to church on tracks like “Blessings” and “Finish Line / Drown”. Each track is a retrospective look at Chance’s rise to fame over the last three years. “It seems like blessings keep falling in my lap,” he admits on the formerly mentioned “Blessings.” “Finish Line” is aided by an electric chorus performed by none other than T-Pain. Justin Bieber even makes an appearance on the autobiographical ballad “Juke Jam”. The album is not all a colossal celebration, however, as “Same Drugs” is a beautiful tribute to the friends Chance has lost touch with over the years. Coloring Book is glowing proof that the party seems to keep on going for one of music’s brightest and most positive voices.
9) Bayside - Vacancy
Bayside’s Anthony Raneri has remained a unique but constant voice in the alternative/punk rock scene for over 15 years. 2014’s Cult was a perfectly adequate album in Bayside’s collection, but the album lacked a certain bite to it that the group’s previous work held. Vacancy picks up where 2007’s The Walking Wounded left off while providing a refreshingly adult outlook on life. Raneri had his first child in 2013 and had never been happier, but in early 2016 Raneri split up with his wife and was left in an odd purgatory in Tennessee, “If our daughter stays here then I have to stay here,” he said in an interview in May.
Vacancy is the end result of impending purgatory. Raneri’s bandmates came down to Tennessee to write and record the album that gave him new purpose. “Two Letters” focuses on his heartbreak as Raneri sings, “Well I’m not so good with tenses/I’m tensing up thinking about/What I’m supposed to call you now”. Many of the album’s tracks focus on the same theme, but other songs illuminate anger (“Rumspringa”), regret (“The Ghost”), and promise (“Enemy Lines”). Vacancy is a practice in working through the stages of grief and is the most personal album the band has ever produced.
8) Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
One could draw many comparisons within the films of Paul Thomas Anderson and the music of Radiohead. In fact, Radiohead’s lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood composed score for three of Anderson’s films (There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice). So when Radiohead released their ninth studio album in May, it came as little surprise to anyone that Anderson had directed a music video for instant Radiohead signature “Daydreaming” before the album’s release. The relationship between Radiohead and Paul Thomas Anderson’s work has always proven euphoric – it is often difficult to dictate whether the music was written for the film or if the film was written for the music.
Thom Yorke’s vocals are as soothing as ever and counteract the abrasive strings of lead single “Burn the Witch” in typical Radiohead fashion. The lucidity and delivery of tracks like “The Numbers” provide a lingering chorus over Yorke’s voice that chill listeners to their core. A Moon Shaped Pool is proof of the “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” mantra. While the album may not bring anything new to the table stylistically, it easily sits in the upper half of the Radiohead’s illustrious discography.
7) Every Time I Die - Low Teens
“Though it may haunt us and break our hearts/Death cannot tear us apart,” shrieks Keith Buckley on heavy hitting opener “Fear and Trembling”. Low Teens is Buffalo native metalcore outfit Every Time I Die’s eighth studio album, and contains wonderful homages to the previous seven. The album features some of the most sludgy, brutal songs of the band’s discography (“I Didn’t Want To Join Your Stupid Cult Anyway” and “Glitches”). More surprisingly, however, is that the album at times tips its cap to a 90s alternative sound with tracks like “Two Summers”. Longtime fans get a taste of Buckley’s ever-changing vocals throughout Low Teens but the true reward is granted on “It Remembers” which features a haunting chorus provided by none other than Panic! At The Disco’s Brandon Urie. Urie’s smooth vocals counter Buckley’s tenacious growl in a way that works almost too well. The album highlights the idea of grasping life in the face of adversity and overcoming the hell and heartache it inevitably throws at us all. Low Teens is the exercise in triumph and the band’s best work yet.
6) Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
Technically the group’s thirteenth (thirteenth!) album, Teens of Denial broke a lot of ground in 2016 for Car Seat Headrest. The album is the band’s first to feature an outside producer and presents a very different sound than the previous 12. Front man and brainchild Will Toledo sings, “You have no right to be depressed/You haven’t tried hard enough to like it” on the chorus to album opener “Fill in the Blank” – the song is an earworm, and the most straight forward track on the album. The kick drum works like a metronome on the track before coming to a complete halt as the chorus repeats. “You have no right to be depressed/You haven’t tried hard enough to like it,” works as a summary for the album itself. “Vincent” comes in at almost eight minutes, and really gets moving around the two minute mark. “Connect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra)” opens as a fierce low-fi gem, but dies off around the four minute mark before capping the track with the most polarizing outro on the album. Teens of Denial rewards listeners who stick around and truly make an effort to find themselves in the album’s themes of self-reflection and tension. Toledo’s DIY sensibility shines through on “Destroyed By Hippie Powers” as a series of “la la la’s” playfully drives these themes home. Car Seat Headrest’s discography may contain 13 albums, but Teens of Denial is proof they are just getting started.
5) Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
Yeezy announced his plan ‘to run for president in 2020’ at the ‘MTV Video Awards’ last year, and has remained a TMZ mainstay pretty much weekly since that day. From his Twitter beef with Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose to his Kimoji app, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Kanye was one of the busiest visionaries in the music industry this year. With so many projects in the hopper, many wondered where Kanye would venture after his giant middle finger to, well, everyone, on 2013’s Yeezus. The result was a project unlike anything we have ever seen before. Regardless of one’s thoughts on Kanye’s 2016 album The Life of Pablo, it is impossible to deny that the album was revolutionary in many ways. In January, Kanye released “Real Friends,” which sounded like a return his 808s & Heartbreak days. The song itself stands alone as an adequate Kanye track. However, shortly after dropping that track, something strange happened. Kanye released The Life of Pablo to the world at the premiere of his ‘Yeezy Season 2’ fashion line. Within minutes of it’s conclusion, Pablo was all over streaming sites and was the subject of blogs and social media posts all over the world. The album was only available to download illegally for a couple of weeks before it’s exclusive release on Tidal. The Life of Pablo is as innovative as any other Kanye album, but what was so revolutionary about Pablo transcended the music itself. As the days went on, Kanye continued to make changes to the album. The initial release of The Life of Pablo was a look inside the enigmatic mind of Kanye West. The polarizing track “Wolves” initially included features from Frank Ocean and Sia, but within a few days Kanye had spliced the track and included Frank Ocean’s outro to the song as its own standalone track titled “Frank’s Song". As the days went on, Kanye continued to make changes to Pablo in real time. On Twitter, Kanye made it clear that Chance the Rapper convinced him to include “Waves”, which is arguably the most infectious track on the entire album. Lyrics were soon changed on “Famous” — the track that caused the largest divide in 2016 between Team Kanye and Team Taylor. The Life of Pablo was released as an album, but soon became a live-action project.
Musically, The Life of Pablo is a confident genre-bender that features party tracks such as “Pt. 2,” and “Fade". Each of these songs are undeniably Kanye, but contain ‘samples’ of the future of hip-hop. For example, “Pt. 2” samples Desiigner’s “Panda” that took off as a party anthem almost immediately following Kanye’s influence. The standout track is “Ultralight Beam” which opens the album with powerful church choirs and a heartfelt verse from Chance the Rapper that serves as his “I made it” moment in the hip-hop scene. The Life of Pablo is unapologetically messy. Kanye showed the world yet again that he is a perfectionist who is not only changing the idea of music as something we listen to, but music as an idea in and of itself.
4) Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid
A study once concluded that Aesop Rock used nearly 1,000 more unique words than the next closest hip-hop artist’s first 35,000 lyrics. A true student of the game, Aesop reads news and science articles to build his arsenal as he writes down the words he finds interesting. The Impossible Kid is further evidence of his second-to-none vocabulary, but also extends a commanding gaze into his soul. “Blood Sandwich” illustrates a tale of three brothers growing up under the same roof but under different circumstances (“Steps up to the plate little brother, little league/’87 he was 8 rookie season for the skinny slugger/Newly out of t-ball pit against a pitcher with a ripper you could eat off…/My little brother is a funny dude/A lot of funny shit happened to him/My other brother pretty funny too/Ain’t seen him in a minute though…/Just in case of rough waters, I want to put one up for my brothers”). The track is unapologetically first-person and a fun shout-out to the brothers who helped him develop into the wordsmith he is today. Album highlight “Dorks” is perhaps the most accessible track on the album, but offers the same reward Aesop Rock’s previous work has yielded, “The kid is comfortably numb, routine a tedious crunch/Steep in a self-imposed Stockholm and Lima in flux/Maybe an occupation popular with demons and ducks/Made any mingling akin to being seasoned and stuffed”. The Impossible Kid offers Aesop Rock’s most self-reflective work in his large catalog – and it does so as eloquently as ever.
3) American Football - American Football [LP2]
If distance makes the heart grow fonder, then the 17 years spanning between American Football releases has left a warmhearted void that could only be filled by 2016’s superb follow-up. Lead vocalist Mike Kinsella accredited the band’s initial breakup in 1999 to members no longer living in the same city and college courses coming to an end. At that time, the band’s first album reached only a limited audience in the surrounding Champaign, Illinois area. Flash forward a decade and the jazz-influenced, post-rock sound of American Football came to the vanguard in the form of bands such as Modern Baseball, The Hotelier, Into It. Over It., and countless others. The trend proved that history tends to repeats itself, but also that American Football were a pioneer of the quintessential emo sound.
LP2 boasts nine tracks that were written and shared amongst members via Google Dropbox, but the album’s cohesiveness makes this fact seem even more implausible. Lead single and album standout, “Desire Gets in the Way” proves that Kinsella and company have grown musically and lyrically without compromising the sound they perfected nearly two decades ago. “I’ve Been So Lost for So Long” illustrates Kinsella’s ability to convey the struggles of adulthood, “Every street’s a dead end/Every sign points behind me/If you need me, don’t/You can’t trust a man who can’t find his way home”). LP2 tackles broader themes, but holds true to the merit and charm of its predecessor.
2) Whitney - Light Upon the Lake
Born upon the depths of two Chicago indie staples, Smith Westerns and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Whitney took the year by storm with their soothing vocals and powerful hooks. On the opener, “No Woman” the duo of Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich warm listeners with the comfort of uncertainty, “I’ve been going through a change/I might never be sure/I’m just walking in a haze/I’m not ready to turn,” sings Ehrlich in his distinguished falsetto. Light Upon the Lake focuses on missed opportunity with lost love in a unique way that avoids sadness as a focal point. Upbeat 70s inspired ballads follow the quiet opener in the form of “The Falls” where an infectious piano serves as the metronome for a fun follow up to the album’s somber intro. The album’s lead single and most upbeat track “No Matter Where We Go” will put a smile on any listener’s face before the chorus hits. Truthfully, Light Upon the Lake is an absolute joy from start to finish. The duo are conscious of their audience as the album is self-aware in its track placing — in that, each upbeat track is followed up by a more tranquil yet appropriate tune. The best example of this counterbalance lies in the transition between the album’s sing-a-long third track “Golden Days” to the gut-wrenching “Dave’s Song”. The aforementioned “Golden Days” is worthy of a bright summer day, but the latter track is better suited for a moment of self-reflection. This seamless balance provides depth upon the album’s tracks to accommodate the most casual of listeners. Light Upon the Lake is selflessly stylish and will quietly be an album that people will remember decades down the road.
1) Anderson .Paak - Malibu
If 2015 was the resurgence of jazz and hip-hop fusion, then 2016 was the perfection of the combination. Anderson .Paak is no stranger to the scene as he provided the lion’s share of the wistful hooks on Dr. Dre’s Compton along with a track on The Game’s The Documentary 2.5. With multiple features on some of hip-hop’s biggest albums last year it is fair to say that it was only a matter of time before Anderson .Paak burst onto the scene — and burst he did in 2016. Malibu, Anderson .Paak’s third album, bursts at the seams with soul, originality, diversity, and most of all, talent. Mailbu is mainly autobiographical, and the tales that are spun paint a unique picture of life in California. The album’s tour de force, “Come Down,” is the quintessential anthem of the year. The track is the 13th song on a 16 song album, but showcases .Paak’s songwriting ability ‘as well as his musicianship as he is responsible for both the vocals and the drums on the song.’ “The Bird” is the album’s gripping opener that ‘showcases’ a horn fueled jazz tune proving Anderson .Paak is so much more than just a rapper from the West Coast. However, .Paak can hold his own with the best of today’s hip-hop artists. “The Waters” is proof that he may be the only legitimate mainstay of ‘XXL’s 2016 Freshman Class’ as he spits, “And I can do anything but move backwards/The hardest thing is to keep from being distracted.” Malibu does anything but move backwards as features from ScHoolboy Q, The Game, Talib Kweli, BJ the Chicago Kid, and a few others compliment the album without distracting from the narrative. Even with these features, Anderson .Paak shines through as the ringleader. Consciously or not, Malibu is a polarizing response to Kendrick Lamar’s jazz driven To Pimp a Butterfly that feels just as fresh and original as Kendrick’s masterpiece did last year.
Thank you for reading.
