Before I get to the list, I'll share a slight taste of the comments to this list, which reveal a bit of why America will soon be great again.
That is beautiful. Just straight up future of American discourse right there, in a little cute nutshell. Here are the Spin top ten records, and here is a link to my Rolling Stone top ten as well so that you can see more comments on the ones on both lists (Ocean, Bowie, Beyonce, Chance, and Radiohead).
- Solange - A Seat at the Table. I knew that this was Beyonce's sister, but otherwise had no clue what kind of music this gal was into. Don't think I've read anything about the album or even noticed that it existed, and yet Spin thinks it ruled the entire year. Interesting. Most of the tracks on here have about 4 million streams, but three have more (6.6, 7.5, and 13.1), so its definitely getting play. But I am a little confused about what I am hearing here. Does anyone else think this is just an old Janet Jackson album with a few good cameos? Spin says "No other work in 2016 quite captured the feeling of living through a year of numbness. No other work in 2016 was quite as comforting in the sense that, as helpless as we feel, we’re never really in this alone." Interesting. Can't say that I agree, but I'm also just not that into chilled and quiet R&B music either.
- Frank Ocean - Blonde. Yeah, as I mentioned in the Rolling Stone list discussion, not bad, but not great either. Some of it reminds me of the depressed R&B stuff of the Weeknd. Seems like I need to give this one many more listens to see what everyone else is seeing.
- David Bowie - Blackstar. Not interested.
- A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it From Here... Damn right. This one is good stuff.
- The 1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it. Damn, that album title. I was not complimentary of this music when I reviewed it earlier this year. I just tried it out again and stand by my original analysis. This is derivative and not that great. Spin calls them "the only pop-aspiring rock band worth a damn this year," but nah, this isn't worth a damn.
- Beyonce - Lemonade. Probably lovely, if I could just hear the whole thing (without buying it or subscribing to dumb Tidal).
- Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book. Good not great.
- Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool. Bleh. I can almost guarantee I'll never go listen to that album again.
- Angel Olsen - My Woman. Interesting. Kind of torchy Lana Del Rey feels at first based on a more electronic sound, which bleeds into a rock-ish sound (like the great "Shut Up Kiss Me"), then it slowly shifts into some Cowboy Junkies sense of more Americana/indie/folk sound. I wouldn't peg this in my top ten, but it is nice.
- Bon Iver - 22, A Million. Challenging album. Spin calls it "a degraded world of agrarian space-folk." I have no clue what that is supposed to mean. Don't even get me started on the song names, which each make use of the wingdings keyboard or something to create weird-ass song titles. The album opener is absolutely gorgeous - I heard it on KUTX the other day and got a lump in my throat thinking I was listening to a new Peter Gabriel track that had been specifically written for my brain. Something about it is just perfect. Unfortunately, the title of the song involves the use of two infinity symbols, which is annoying, but that doesn't modify the sound. I call the album challenging because after this beautiful opener, there is a ton of weird stuff and autotune smearing (like Kanye on 808's) that isn't my favorite. You can definitely tell when Spotify moves on from this album and goes to his last one - 2011's Bon Iver - because the autotune drops away in favor of his pretty singing voice.
2 comments:
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE LOVE FRANK OCEAN OH DEAR GOD WHY!!!!!
I remember 2011's Bon Iver. it was boring as all crap. I shall listen to this one and see if it too is boring as all crap. (pretty boring mind you!)
Post a Comment