Last year, we saw visionaries such as Courtney Barnett, Kendrick Lamar, and Sufjan Stevens topping all the lists. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, 2016 managed to add some gorgeous albums to an infinitely expanding body of music. Here are some of my personal favorites.
1. Pyschopomp by Japanese Breakfast
If I had to pick a favorite album this year, it would be this one. Michelle Zauner’s creates a world that captivates you from start to finish. The most compelling aspect of this album is its turn from upbeat, poppy expressions of desire to the darker side of this same desire.
Notable Tracks: “Heaven”, “Everybody Wants to Love You”, “Triple 7”
2. Dancing With Bad Grammar by L.A. Salami
In light of Bob Dylan’s recent Nobel Prize win, I would like to offer up another singer/poet whose lyrics are worthy of recognition. He battles existential questions, identity, and love in ways that are not often explored in music today. It doesn’t hurt that his melodies and arrangements are gorgeous.
Notable Tracks: “The City Nowadays”, “Def(A)Ormation Days”, “Aristotle Ponders the Sound”
3. Is The Is Are by DIIV
This is not the happy, chill, summer album you might think it is upon listening to the opening track “Out of Mind”. To catch what is really going on beneath the surface of these upbeat tunes, pay attention to the lyrics, tonal changes, and recurring musical motifs. Let’s not forget how good that hazy guitar is.
Notable Tracks: “Bent (Roi’s Song), “Blue Boredom”, “Valentine”, “Healthy Moon”
4. 22, A Million by Bon Iver
Upon listening to 22, A Million I was not surprised by the stylistic change from previous Bon Iver albums. Although the transition from folk fixtures to more electronic sounds seems drastic, it sounds so familiar. There is warmth present in this album even when its innovative sounds attempt to estrange a listener. Thematically, their lyrics are as poetic as ever as they grapple with uncertainty, reality and illusion, and the good old existential.
Notable Tracks: “29 Strafford APTS”, “8 (circle)”, “00000 Million”
5. Teens Of Denial by Car Seat Headrest
This is an album you will see on every single music critic’s “Best of 2016” list. Will Toledo doesn’t sing about your average forms of heartbreak. He’s spewing witticisms about mental health, challenging our clichéd perception of anguish, and ultimately showing listeners how pain produces art. This isn’t your average angst-fest.
Notable Tracks: “Fill in the Blank”, “Not What I Needed”, “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales”, “Unforgiving Girl (She’s Not An)”
6. MY WOMAN by Angel Olsen
I really felt the drama on this album. From the upbeat “Shut Up Kiss Me” to the slower ballad-like tracks, Angel Olsen is the master of projecting her reality onto listeners. Her confidence and charisma shine while endearing listeners to her as she denies love; however, Olsen uses this denial to process grief and the pain of heartbreak as a way of reclaiming the self.
Notable Tracks: “Never Be Mine”, “Shut Up Kiss Me”, “Not Gonna Kill You”, “Those Were The Days”
7. Not to Disappear by Daughter
Daughter’s second full-length album deals primarily with the anxieties of womanhood in its many forms. Elena Tonra tackles the emotions women feel, are supposed to feel, or don’t feel at all. Either way, they are condemned to misery. There’s an obsession with the meaning/futility of words, the physical modes of communication, and changing conditions. There is no hope for redemption in this album, and sometimes it’s just best to get that idea out there.
Notable Tracks: “Doing The Right Thing”, “No Care”, “To Belong”, “Fossa”
8. Puberty 2 by Mitski
Mitski’s lyrics are just as jarring as her sounds and not at all easy to digest. She does not welcome you kindly into her world of despair and anguish with “Happy” as her opening track. She wants you to work hard to understand what she’s really trying to say. Her anxieties surrounding quotidian existence are made as large as her anxieties surrounding love and heartbreak. Even a more palatable moment of the album, such as “Fireworks”, is tough to get through as it forces the listener to confront the pain of memory and our familiar selves.
Notable Tracks: “Dan the Dancer”, “Fireworks”, “Your Best American Girl”, “A Burning Hill”
Honorable Mentions: Hinds, The 1975, Frank Ocean, Local Natives, Frankie Cosmos, Deep Sea Diver, Radiohead, Juliana Barwick
Click here for a Spotify playlist with some of the above mentioned albums. Happy listening, everyone!
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