Category: music

Before putting my list together this year, I spent some time looking back over the previous ten years in “Best of” posts. I was curious to see whether I’d still agree with my picks, how they’d hold up with time. There were a few oddballs in there (some intentional, some not). My early lists (which was pre-Spotify and the onset of unlimited access to new music) lacked some diversity. But for the vast majority of it I’d still endorse my picks.

As with other years, my favorite albums of 2017 have a bit of variety. Some rap, some indie-pop, electronic pop, folky stuff, singer-songwriter tunes. One area lacking this year was in the alt-country/Americana front. Most of my picks will probably be found on other “Best of” lists you see, but as usual I threw in a couple dark horse selections which may not resonate with others but they’re still my favorites and what I’d like to help make sure folks know about.

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FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2017

1. Run the Jewels 3, Run the Jewels – These guys are easy to take for granted or underestimate, but this album is the obvious, no-doubt-about-it, standout album of the year for me. This is the album I’ve turned to far more then anything else in the last 12 months. It’s the album that’s been my sounding board. It’s been my antidote to waves of Trumpism, kept me buoyed during darker times, helped me celebrate when I was looking for an instant party. This isn’t just great rap; it’s smart, powerful music with a social conscience.

2. Jacob the Horse, Jacob the Horse – This album could be the soundtrack to the best John Hughes movie we all somehow missed. From start to finish this album is my favorite kind of rock n roll. Whether by intent or simple dumb luck, these guys perfected the deceptively difficult balancing act of creating catchy, straight forward rock with undertones of sarcasm, self-depreciation, humor and irony.  What might start off sounding like melodramatic 80’s era overkill is undercut by tongue-in-cheek wit, tipping us off to the contradictions that make music/life interesting.

3. DAMN., Kendrick Lamar – Another smart, powerful, rap album. There’s no denying the originality and creativity, but while other recent trend-setting rap artists ended up with music that lacked flow, I think Lamar’s album maintains a musical soul that keeps me engaged along with the complex content.

4. Process, Sampha – A meditative set of songs that sound like the 70’s soul music of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Marvin Gaye channeled through the lens of today’s electronic R&B. The stand out track is Sampha’s heartbreakingly beautiful “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano” but there’s plenty here to enjoy.

5. Turn Out the Lights, Julien Baker – Julien Baker is small, quiet, awkward, and unassuming but if you’re not careful, if you let yourself listen, she will break your heart. She did it with her debut album in 2015 and she’s come back even stronger here. It’s her specialty. I’ve warned you. (And if you see her perform live, you’re really in for it.)

6. Everybody Works, Jay Som – I hadn’t realized how much I enjoyed this album until I looked at my end-of-year track summary from Spotify and saw that I listened to it almost as much as anything else. That may demonstrate the subtle but beguiling nature of Duterte’s song writing. A mix of jangly pop and shoe gaze, the album sounds intimate but is full of masterfully catchy tracks which quickly build a sense of familiarity like the best pop music should.

7. Aromanticism, Moses Sumney – I came to this album late in the year and feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s there but I knew it was special. In some ways, it makes me think of a classical rhapsody composition done with R&B styling. Beautiful, complex and genre defying music.

8. Preservation, Nadia Reid – I don’t think I can explain exactly why, but there are certain female voices that have an extra resonance for me. Folks like Neko Case and Jenny Lewis have been my prime examples but recently Nadia Reid has also joined that club. I don’t know much about the New Zealand artist but I stumbled onto her 2015 debut album and kept going back to it. Probably falling somewhere in the category of “indie-folk,” her new album Preservation added a bit more song writing complexity, a little more to the production value, while maintaining the succulent voice and rich layers of sound.

9. What Now, Sylvan Esso – A bit of an electro-pop chameleon, What Now can feel like a dance album, or dark and brooding, or sultry, or light-hearted and fun. I think all those layers are there and it just depends on what mood you project when you listen – which makes it a versatile album and I expect something that will hold up well over time.

Honorable Mention: Together at Last, Jeff Tweedy – If this album was a collection of new music, it would have made the top of my list. To be honest though, it’s really just a “best of Jeff Tweedy” collection done with new solo acoustic arrangements. But what a collection. Along with many others, I’ve argued for years that Jeff Tweedy is the best modern (and maybe beyond) song writer. These stripped down acoustic tracks highlight his lyrical craft and allow for a reflection on an amazing career that we’re all just lucky to benefit from.

There’s lots of talk about 2016 being a tough year, a strange year – a year full of drama, tension, uncertainty, frustration… sounds a lot like my teenage years.  And one thing I did as a teenager was look for comfort and identity in music.  I’d say I did quite a bit of that in 2016 as well. 

Here’s part 1 of my annual “Best of” music review.  The music I’m listing is the “Best” based on it being my personal favorite:  the music that I listened to the most, that I found the most interesting, that spoke to me the most, or that I felt was most worthy of recommending.

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FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2016

1. Teens of Denial, Car Seat Headrest – No hesitation, no debate.  This was clearly my favorite album of the year.  Each song in the album twists and turns, changes direction, sometimes almost frantically, but like the best joy ride it rattles along on the edge of control without ever loosing momentum or intent – and always remaining kick-ass rock and roll.

2. We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, A Tribe Called Quest – This band was my gateway into (good) rap music back in the 90’s although I didn’t come to fully explore and appreciate their full catalog until a decade later.  Now they come back with an album that maintains the same soulful groove of their original sound while making it fresh and topical – so topical that the timing was almost eerie.

3. MY WOMAN, Angel Olsen – Olsen’s last album was all low-fi and although it was well received by the critics I felt all the fuzz and distortion got in the way of song writing that would pull me in.  With this 2016 release, Olsen has changed gears significantly and put together the album Kurt Cobain was thinking of when he said the future of rock and roll was women.

4. A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, Sturgill Simpson – I had to sit with this album a bit to fully appreciate it.  I think the key was listening to it all the way through, in it’s entirety, as a complete work – and that’s exactly how Simpson intended it.  (Seeing Simpson touring for the album and playing it live also helped solidify it for me.)  The album is many things:  it’s a touching perspective on fatherhood, a blurring of musical genres while paying special homage to the soul and R&B influenced country of the 70’s, and it’s a second middle-finger to the mainstream country music establishment (Simpson’s previous album being the first middle -finger).

5. American Band, Drive-By Truckers – This isn’t my favorite DBT album.  I’ll say up front that I think it lacks the same musicality and catchy tunefullness that many of their past albums have.  But its lyrical power and timeliness are undeniable and make this an album that has to be appreciated.  Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley have always embraced the complexity of real people and this album is probably their most impactful work from that standpoint.

“He was running down the street when they shot him in his tracks
About the only thing agreed upon is he ain’t coming back
There won’t be any trial so the air it won’t be cleared
There’s just two sides calling names out of anger and of fear
If you say it wasn’t racial when they shot him in his tracks
well I guess that means that you ain’t black, it means that you ain’t black
I mean Barack Obama won and you can choose where to eat
but you don’t see too many white kids lying bleeding on the street” – from “What It Means”

6. Dancing with Bad Grammar, L.A. Salami – This is an album that seems to take the lyrical poetry hinted at in the best hip-hop and bends it towards Bob Dylan’s rambling acoustic style.  There’s a lot going on with his lyrics, more then I’m sure I’ve grasped, but it’s a great album to digest and another one that seems very well timed for 2016.

7. Goodness, The Hotelier – There’s a lot of personal tragedy, layered meaning and even transcendentalism behind these 13 tracks but for me it’s just a good rock album.  The kind of album I could pull up on any day, cranked loud or just laying back.

8. Hurtling Through, Tiny Ruins & Hamish Kilgour – I’ve realized I tend to have one mood record each year that ends up on my list, an album that’s meaningful to me for the way it instills a particular feeling or has the ability to transport me to a certain space and time.  Hurting Through is sparse and feels small in some way.  At first glance it has a melancholy that might fool you – but listening more, letting it wash over me, I found a quiet and contended happiness.  I doubt you’ll find Hurtling Through on any other “Best of” lists and I don’t know if it will work for others, but this is an album that transports me to the bitter-sweet feel of a quiet, shaded back porch in early summer, drifting in and out of sleep as the afternoon slips away.

9. Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic, The Gotobeds – Pitchfork slammed this album, which can sometimes indicate it’s actually really good.  They did have a point about it not being anything terribly original, but I’m okay with that.  There is a distinct argument that nothing in music (or art) is original anymore and often, the more original it is the less accessible (or enjoyable) it tends to be.  With The Gotobeds, I’m more then happy to get a fresh hit of Pavement, Silkworm, and Television for 2016.

10. Revolutionaries, You Won’t – This is my second dark horse on the list.  I questioned whether to include it.  As with Hurtling Through, it’s probably not an album you’ll find on other lists and Josh Arnoudse’s voice is not going to win any beauty contests.  But it’s the albums I went to most when I needed something upbeat in 2016 and I’ll stand by it’s witty, infectious folk-rock.

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Lemonade, Beyonce – I’ve only listened to this album a handful of times.  I can’t say it’s something I’m going to throw on when I’m hanging around the house.  But I can’t deny that this is a great album.  Beyonce has done lots of catchy pop tunes before, but this is a true album and it goes well beyond catchy – it is influential, meaningful, and sincere.

22, A Million, Bon Iver – I still don’t know exactly what to think of this album and that’s why it’s here in the Honorable Mentions category.  Is it a beautiful, ambitious work filled with layers of mystery that pull you in?  Or is it a muddled, self-important, pretentious self-masturbation?  When I just let the music play without thinking about it,  loosing myself in the soundscape, then I start to think this could be a great album…  But the lyrics?  And the numerology, and all the hokey symbols, and the antics of Justin Vernon’s showmanship with the media?  That’s when I start to think this could be the result of an artist who no longer has anyone around him willing to call bullshit.  Ironically, my favorite song from this album is actually a cover done by Gordi which strips away the extracurricular activity and finds the beautiful core within.

Blonde, Frank Ocean – I came to this one late because, despite the critical acclaim, I wasn’t really that into his last album and kind of expected the same for this one.  But with Blonde, Ocean focuses his music a bit more, simplifies it just a bit, while still deftly mixing genres and producing a powerful orchestration.  This is an album that I feel I struggle to fully appreciate but it’s one I enjoy coming back to.

To share a little more of the music I’ve enjoyed this year, here’s my list of favorite songs.  I’ll include a link to my 2015 Spotify playlist at the end.  Hope you enjoy – and please feel free to let me know what you think.

 

 Favorite Songs of 2015 (in no particular order):

The Front Bottoms, “HELP” – The anthem I adopted for 2015.  (“This is what I want Motherfucker, Make it Happen For Me.”)  I can’t say it it got me anywhere, but it made me feel a little better.

Buddy Guy, “Come Back Muddy” – Like a lot of people (especially generations of semi-cultured white Americans) I was introduced to the blues through B.B. King and his passing this year felt particularly significant. With most of the blues giants already gone, it felt like the closing of an era in music that will never be repeated. Ironically, it’s the one blues icon still alive, Buddy Guy, who captures this sadness best with this tribute to the great Muddy Waters.

Hop Along, “Horseshoe Crabs” – It starts with a simple, stutter-step melody that sets the foundation for a roots rock ballad. Then Frances Quinlan uses the harsh edges of her voice to pile on a layer of punk rock anger.

Sufjan Stevens, “John My Beloved” – The most touching track from a very melancholy album.

Bill Ryder-Jones, “Satellites” – A dreamy, sedated ballad that finally bubbles up.  Admittedly, this probably rides the edge between meaningful and over-dramatic but sometimes that’s right where you want to be.

FIDLAR, “Punks” – No surprises here. If the title doesn’t clue you in, you’ll get the picture in the first raspy scream, “Well I’m still alive!”  I put this one in the category of aggression pallet cleanser.

The Underachievers, “Illusions” – Take a little philosophy and mix with New York rap – follow the lyric and see where your mind ends up.

John Moreland, “Hang Me in the Tulsa County Stars” – Moreland is a talented guitar picker but it’s his vocal delivery in this rather traditional country-blues song that grabbed me.  The song doesn’t sound new – it feels like it came off a Steve Earle album (or then again, maybe a Tom Waits album).  But I guess it shows there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a classic sound.

Sweet Spirit, “If You Wanna” – Mixing a bit of 50’s pop, 80’s  punk and 90’s grunge-guitar, this siren song has given me something to fantasize about.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightlife, “S.O.B.” – Some might criticize as being derivative, hipster music stylings but I’ll go ahead and take the Blues Brothers nod for what it is because sometimes fun is what you need.

 

 

Bonus Pick:  Favorite Video for Getting Over a Crap Day

In the tradition of Red Fang‘s best work, I found the video for “Paradise Day” from The Armed a useful tool for getting a little release after especially crap days.

I may have only written two posts in all of 2015 but somehow not doing my Best Music list would seem like giving up entirely.  So, ignoring the mountain of more constructive things I should be doing, let’s take some time to prattle on about my favorite music this year.

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Overall, I don’t feel 2015 was a particularly exciting year in music.  I bought less music this year then any year since I graduated from college (and was too poor to buy any music).  And this was the first year in a long time when I struggled to come up with ten albums I would but on a “Best of” list.  At first I thought this might be a personal issue; maybe I was too distracted to really notice and appreciate what was out there.  And maybe there is something to that, but I’ve talked to other friends who’ve said the same thing about 2015 so I’m not so sure.  Whatever the case, there were still some gems out there and plenty to keep me interested.

Best Album of 2015

Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I just Sit – Barnett has a particular music style (most obvious, her speak-singing vocals) that some people will either love or hate but the song writing is hard to deny and she brings a bit more rock-n-roll intensity to this album that she didn’t have in her previous EP release.  I think the Nirvana comparisons that some critics have made is stretching it, but still an album every rock fan should get to know.

Albums Tied for Second Place

Beach Slang, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us – I know there are any number of 90’s era albums you could point to as influences in their sound.  (For me, it was the All Shook Down era of The Replacements that drew me in.)  But somehow they do it without sounding overly dated or derivative.  A great rocker.

Jason Isbell, Something More than Free – Once again, Isbell shows his mastery of writing  song lyric that cut to the bone.  (It’s a Thursday night but there’s a high school game / Took a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name / These 5A bastards run a shallow cross / It’s a boys last dream and a man’s first loss)  I loved Isbell’s contributions to the Drive-By Truckers but I have to admit that since leaving that band and sobering up he’s reached a level that solidifies his place as one of the best current song writers in America.  If you’re not a country music fan, good – because “Country” music doesn’t want what Isbell has to offer.

Bully, Feels Like – Loud, fuzzy, Grrrl rock that’s got some 90’s vibe to it and maybe even a bit of surf rock. I saw them perform at the Mississippi Studios this year and Alicia Bognanno had punk rock intensity to spare.  Recommend sampling at extremely elevated volume for full appreciation.

Other Heavy Rotation Albums in 2015

Iron and Wine & Ben Bridwell, Sing Into My Mouth – This is an album of covers, many of which are songs that I had not previously cared much about.  But Sam Beam and Ben Bridwell bring a smooth, sultry style that breaths in new life.  Across the album it feels as if they’ve taken a 70’s sound, stripped away all the crap and updated it with a modern sensibility.  (The strategic use of slide guitar doesn’t hurt either.)

The Milk Carton Kids, Monterey – Simply a sweet, beautiful album.  Nothing fancy.  No groundbreaking, genre defining sounds.  It’s just a record that made me feel better every time I played it.

Telekinesis, Ad Infinitum – Looking over my list, I guess this would be the closest thing I have to a “dance” record this year.  This Seattle band has put out some great individual tracks in the past (see 2009 Best Songs list) but I think this is the first solid full length album they’ve done.

– posted by Colby

There were great albums released this year – albums that I was drawn back to over and over again without them ever getting old or tired.  As soon as I sat down to review the contenders and do my end-of-year review, research and sorting I immediately knew who the top picks were.  But picking a #1 was difficult.  And ranking a Top 10 just didn’t seem to fit this year.  So, I’m going to use a little different format for my list this time.

Best Album of 2014 – a three-way tie for overall album of the year.

Benjamin Booker, Benjamin Booker – This kid is awesome. Mash together Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, the Ramones and crank it up with grit and distortion.  This album will make you move.  It will make you want to drink hard liquor.  It will make you think about your youth and scream about the injustices of the world.  Even if you can’t tell what he’s singing about.

Spoon, They Want My Soul – I try not to be biased when a favorite artist puts out new music. I want to listen to it with fresh ears and let my impressions come honestly.  I think I generally do a good job of that (ex. sadly, no New Pornographers album on this year’s list).  So, upon first listen to this new Spoon album, I had to hesitate a bit.  It sounded really good.  Was it?  Was I just getting swept up in the hype?  I listened again.  And again.  I went back and listened to older Spoon albums to compare.  Oh no.  It is that good.  Standing on it’s own today, or compared to their back catalog – it’s great.

Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music – I grew up on Outlaw Country.  I didn’t know what it was at the time – I was eight – but I knew the sound of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Charlie Daniels.  It wasn’t until I hit my 30’s that I realized how much those early sounds really meant to me and how strongly they influenced my musical sensibility.  Needless to say, Sturgill Simpson immediately resonated with me.  However, what’s most impressive about Metamodern Sounds is that it honors the ethos of Outlaw Country while still being original instead of being another trite parody of it like so much of mainstream Country these days.  If you’ve never been a country music fan but have wanted to give it a try, this is the album.

Most Impressive Albums of 2014 – the albums that blew my mind with power, emotion and/or beauty.

Rodrigo Amarante, Cavalo – A masterfully delicate album. I was not familiar with Amarante before I heard this album, however, it took just one listen to strike me as something special. I rarely hear an artist who can be this beautiful and tender without slipping in to “precious.” This is an album that some might play as simple background music while those who hold their headphones close and listen carefully will be swallowed up in Amarante’s wonderfully illuminated world.

Run The Jewels, Run The Jewels 2 – I’ve been a fan of El-P as a producer and rapper for some time and I thought there were good tracks on the first Run The Jewels album he did with Killer Mike.  But I was not expecting much from the second release – and maybe it was that underestimation that helped accentuate the impact this album made. Aggressive, deadly-serious, while never afraid to laugh at themselves.

Sun Kil Moon, Benji – To be honest, I’ve had a hard time getting in to Sun Kil Moon in the past, but right away I was sucker punched by this album.  His vocal delivery may not suite everyone and there’s not a lot of musical range in this album but it’s all about the lyrics.  The stories he tells, the pictures he paints, are so raw and emotional that you can’t turn away. Some might find the overall tone too dark (I could almost imagine this as an album adapted from some Daniel Woodrell collection) but I see it balanced with wonder, love of family, and hope for a better life.

Heaviest Rotation Albums of 2014 – the albums that simply drew me back over and over again without wearing out.

James Vincent McMorrow, Post Tropical – Justin-Vernon-like falsetto, some R&B sensibility, a little James Blake pacing, and some 80’s schmaltz combined under an intentionally cheesy (I hope) album cover.  This is the dark horse on my list.  It’s certainly not an album I’ve seen on any other Top Album lists.  Simply put though, iTunes and Spotify told me it was the album I listened to most this year.  (Note: it did get helped in that scoring by an early January release.)  But I can’t deny the personal appeal and in the final equation there’s a bitter-sweet charm in McMorrow’s songs that created a sustainable draw for me.

The Orwells, Disgraceland – As long as there are bands still making music like this, the world has not gone completely to shit.

TV on the Radio, Seeds – I heard some music reviewers criticize Seeds for not being as experimental as their earlier albums. It might not be. Instead, it’s an album full of sonically fresh anthemic rock – not an easy task. I’ll agree this isn’t the most innovative album TV on the Radio have done, but it’s one that felt natural and hard to say no to.

The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream – From the first airy guitar riffs of track one, I knew I loved this album.  Almost everything has reverb. There’s driving beats, slightly tempered to create a touch of tension.  Guitar lines that sweep back and forth like waves.  And lyrics that come in and out of focus like the music.  A lot has been written about his Dylan-esque vocals on certain tracks.  To me, this album has a sound like something from my past.  Thinking about now, I’d almost say it’s a purified version of what late 80’s rock wanted to be when it matured.

Honorable Mention

St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Half the City – I couldn’t finish my 2014 list without these guys on there.  I saw Paul and the Bones back in March with my friend Henry and it had to be one of the most captivating shows I’ve ever seen.  With an insane wealth of charisma, sincerity and raw energy, Paul Janeway fronts this band channeling the Blues Brothers and Southern Soul.  If you ever have the chance to see them live, do not pass it up.