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Almost that time of the year. Top 10 albums of 2016


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Here is a list of my contenders for top 10 albums of the year in no particular order

Band of Horses-Why are you Ok?

Hamilton Leithauser- I Had a Dream

Jayhawks- Paging Mr. Proust

Nada Surf-You Know Who You Are

Parquet Courts-Human Performance

Pet Shop Boys-Super

Pete Yorn- Arranging Time

Radiohead-A Moon Shaped Pool

STRFKR-Being No One, Going No Where

Wilco-Schmilco

 

 

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The following are all top-10 contenders, but also in no particular order, yet:

  • Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Talk Tight*
  • Family Atlantica - Cosmic Unity*
  • Flamingods - Majesty*
  • Fumaça Preta - Impuros Fanáticos
  • Barry Adamson - Know Where To Run
  • Cate Le Bon - Crab Day
  • David Bowie - Blackstar
  • Klaus Johann Grobe - Spagat der Liebe
  • The Limiñanas - Malamore
  • Omni - Deluxe
  • Beef Jerk - Tragic
  • Dinosaur Jr. - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
  • Ultimate Painting - Dusk
  • The Flat Five - It's a World Of Love and Hope
  • Goat - Requiem
  • Tom Zé - Canções Eróticas de Ninar
  • Teenage Fanclub - Here

*likely top-5

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Angel Olsen - My Woman

Wilco - Schmilco

Big Thief - Masterpiece

Omni - Deluxe

Cate Le Bon - Crab Day

Ty Segall and the Muggers - Emotional Mugger

Nels Cline - Lovers

Eleanor Friedberger - New View

Charles Bradley - Changes

Morgan Delt - Phase Zero (this one is still growing on me, but it picks up steam with each listen)

 

 

I'm a little disappointed in some of the records I picked up this year, for different reasons:  PJ Harvey, Car Seat Headrest, Seratones

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Not a top 10 but here's the records I listened to most this year. Plus with small little write ups since apparently I'm procrastinating on my actual work this morning!

 

Wilco - Schmilco, of course.

Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop - Love Letter For Fire, the Sam Beam record I've listened to the most since Woman King or In The Reins. I assumed an entire album of duets would get old but there's a lot of variety and substance here.

Andrew Bird - Are You Serious, my favourite album from Andrew Bird since Armchair Apocrypha, all the songs on here are really solid.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool, not my favourite Radiohead album (that honour belongs to Kid A) but I think it's definitely a step in the right direction after The King of Limbs.

Bon Iver - 22, A Million, this might be the best produced album of the year. Making such a strong stylistic change can be risky but Justin pulled it off.

Margo Price - Midwest Farmer's Daughter, I've been consciously trying to listen to more music written and performed by women this year. So it was good timing that Margo's debut album came along and won my heart thanks to her good songwriting and amazing voice.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like A Levee, I actually haven't picked this up yet but I've streamed it at work a lot, I like every song on it.

Jack White - Acoustic In Idaho, this one's a bit of a cheat since it's a live album that wasn't commercially available but it's so good I don't care. I can't believe he didn't do a more public run of this in place of that acoustic compilation. These new arrangements are great and this might be the best work he's released.
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, ok another cheat, this time because this came out in 2015 but I only heard it this year AND IT'S GREAT! The only problem is it might just be too good;)

 

There's still a few albums I want to check out this year, good thing we have another 6 weeks of 2016.

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Excited about a lot of songs of 2016, but in terms of full records it's been disappointing.  

Yep. The Todd Snider and The Hard Working Americans new albums both suck (imo), especially the Todd one. Like it was written in on a stoney hazed afternoon with a few local high school kids. Not impressesd with the new Phish album, either.

 

I liked the new Rich Robinson album quite a bit, though!

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in no particular order aside from the first one...

 

Heron Oblivion - S/T

Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band - The Rarity Of Experience

Emma Pollock - In Search Of Harperfield

Drive-By Truckers - American Band

Gate - Saturday Night Fever

Mondo Drag - The Occultation of Light

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

Tales Of Murder and Dust - The Flow In Between

Nick Cave - Skeleton Tree

 

on the bubble:
Wilco - Schmilco

Ty Segall - Emotional Mugger

Neurosis - Fires Within Fires

 

 

 

 

disappointments:
Warpaint - Heads Up
Mogwai - Atomic (not bad, but not nearly as good as their recent soundtrack work)

Lydia Loveless - Real

 

 

and i must be getting old, since i just checked my 2016 purchases that i've filed via Discogs, and a lot of them were reissues.

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Dr. Dog - Abandoned Mansion 

Dr. Dog - The Psychedelic Swamp

Wilco Schmilco

M. Ward - More Rain

Lucius - Good Grief 

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

Honus Honus - Use Your Delusion 

Quiet Life - Foggy 

Hamilton Leithauser- I Had a Dream That you Were Mine 

Needle Points - Feel Young

David Bowie - Blackstar 

Mavis Staples - Livin' On a High Note 

Angel Olsen - My Women 

Leonard Cohen - I Want it Darker

Don't Never Change - The songs of Blind Willie Johnson 

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This is more of a list of my favorites rather than a "top ten." Also not sure if I can name ten, and this is in no particular order:

 

Alejandro Escovedo - "Burn Something Beautiful"

Mavis Staples - "Livin' on a High Note"

Big Thief - "Masterpiece"

Margo Price - "Midwest Farmer's Daughter"

Loretta Lynn - "Full Circle"

Drive-By Truckers - "American Band"

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - "It Is What It Is" (fans of Delta blues, particularly the "Bentonia School" of blues that includes Skip James, should check this one out)

Charles Bradley - "Changes"

Sturgill Simpson - "A Sailor's Guide to Earth"

St. Paul & the Broken Bones - "Sea of Noise"

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Walter Martin

Bob Mould

Andy Shauf

Whitney

Car Seat Headrest

Teenage Fanclub

Hamilton Leithauser/Rostam

John K. Samson

TUNS

Wilco

 

Honourable mentions:

Jim Bryson, Steve Mason, The Men, Holy Fuck, Kevin Morby, Thee Oh Sees x2 and anything Robert Pollard related

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I love lists! In no particular order other than #1:

 

1. Car Seat Headrest -- Teens of Denial

2. Drive-By Truckers-- American band

3. Alejandro Escovedo -- Burn Something Beautiful

4. Wilco -- Schmilco

5. The Handsome Family -- Unseen

6. The Gotobeds -- Blood, Sugar, Secs Traffic

7. John Doe -- The Westerner

8. Bob Mould -- Patch the Sky

9. Parquet Courts -- Human Performance

10. The Waco Brothers -- Going Down in History

 

All in all, 2016 was a great year in music.

l

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Ok I've thought about it and realized that there was not a lot that excited me this year, so in no particular order.,,

 

Lucinda Williams - Ghosts of Highway 20

DBT - American Band

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailors Guide to Earth

Dinosaur Jr - Give a Glimpse of What You're Not

Margo Price - Midwest Farmers Daughter

Brandy Clark - Big Day in a Small Town

Lydia Loveless - Real

 

Can't think of much else I've listened to more than two or three times.

 

 

Bruce Live - all three Meadowlands shows. Do these count?

 

Most of what I bought this year was older or re-issued. So not a lot of new. Heck I just purchased and listened to slider for the first time today.

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Somehow left DBTs off my list. Maybe the best of the year?

American Band is far and away my best album of the year. Such a strong statement album, very powerful and moving tunes. I think it's great from start to finish.

 

Also on my list, only:

 

Schmilco

 

Let Me Get By-deluxe box-Tedeschi Trucks Band

 

Not a great year for me in terms of new releases, I didn't listen to much.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Pretty much in order....

 

American Band/Drive-By Truckers

Teenage Hallelujah/Dexateens

Blackstar/David Bowie

Mudcrutch 2/Mudcrutch

Okey Dokey/Natural Child

The Rarity of Experience/Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band

Schmilco/Wilco

Of Course You Are/Robert Pollard

Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not/Dinosaur Jr.

Freetown Sound/Blood Orange

 

I need to spend more time with the new Alejandro Escovedo & Hiss Golden Messenger records.

 

My favorite new discovery of an older artist in 2016 was Todd Rundgren.  It was a fun plunge down that rabbit hole.

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Drive-By Truckers - American Band

Joseph Arthur - The Family
Lucius - Good Grief

Trapper Schoepp - Rangers and Valentines
RNDM - Ghost Riding

Soul Asylum - Change of Fortune
Heather Robb - Heather (EP)

Wilco - Schmilco

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Until the Hunter (just out/haven't actually heard it yet)

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Pretty much in order....

 

American Band/Drive-By Truckers

Teenage Hallelujah/Dexateens

Blackstar/David Bowie

Mudcrutch 2/Mudcrutch

Okey Dokey/Natural Child

The Rarity of Experience/Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band

Schmilco/Wilco

Of Course You Are/Robert Pollard

Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not/Dinosaur Jr.

Freetown Sound/Blood Orange

 

I need to spend more time with the new Alejandro Escovedo & Hiss Golden Messenger records.

 

My favorite new discovery of an older artist in 2016 was Todd Rundgren.  It was a fun plunge down that rabbit hole.

i am pretty surprised by the absence of Sturgill in your list.

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