Give 'em Enough Rope

Other awards for 2016:

Best cover song that wasn’t “Changes” “The Soul Of A Man” or “In Bloom”: Mark Kozelek did a great version of Modest Mouse’s “Float On.” Also, everything from the Blind WIllie Johnson album was pretty good (including Tom Waits “The Soul of a Man,” which was by far the best). Dwight Yoakam’s version of “Purple Rain” wasn’t terrible. Least essential collection of covers: Sorry, it’s the Day of the Dead Grateful Dead compilation. There were some great artists on here, but they were doing pretty boring covers of Grateful Dead songs. And there were 5 discs worth (3 digital) of songs! It was 59 songs and not many stood out. There were some interesting things in there: Kurt Vile and J. Mascis’s version of “Box of Rain” was ok. Bonnie “Prince” Billy is always good for a cover (his version of “If I had the world to give” is excellent), but even I expected more from his version of “Rubin & Cherise.” Honestly, I was kind of hoping he would use Robert Hunter’s original ending lyrics that echo the tale of Orpheus more instead of the ones Jerry Garcia used. Sadly, no such luck. You’d think something with all these bands would be better: The National, Bill Callahan, Stephen Malkmus, The Flaming Lips, Lucinda Williams, The Walkmen, Kurt Vile, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Cass McCombs, Phosphorescent, Wilco, Angel Olson,  ANOHNI, Lucius, Courtney Barnett, Sharon Van Etten, Jim James, The War on Drugs, etc. This desperately needed the touch of Hal Willner.  Best musical feud of 2016: I’m going with the implied feud between David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors and former member Amber Coffman. I can’t help but listen to “Keep Your Name” and “All To Myself” as songs taking shots at each other.

Best Christine McVie impression: “Too Sweet” by Dusk. 

Most welcome comeback album: A Tribe Called Quest’s We Got It From Here. 

Least essential Comeback album: That Bon Iver album. I still don’t know what the hell that was. I think I have all the Bon Iver I need.

Most interesting experiment: Joe Henry and Billy Bragg’s Shine a Light, where they travel the nation by train recording songs about trains.   Their version of “The Midnight Special” is the best from the album, but the whole thing is an interesting musical experiment.

Least interesting experiment: Have you guys heard my album this year? It’s called Self-Titled, and you can find it here. Heads Up: it’s suppose to be funny....

100) Cloud Nothings –“Modern Act”

99) Fruit Bats-“From a Soon-To-Be Ghost Town”

98) PJ Harvey-“Guilty”

97) Kevin Gates-“2 Phones”

96) Alex Lahey-“You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me”

95) Randy Newman-“Putin”

94) Robbie Fulks-“Alabama At Night”

93) William Tyler-“The Great Unwind”

92) Julie Byrne-“Natural Blue”

91) The Magnetic Fields –“’74:No”

90) Parker Millsap-“Heaven Sent”

89) The Flaming Lips –“The Castle”

88) Amos Lee –“Running Out of Time”

87) Banks & Steelz-“Giant”

86) Muncie Girls-“Learn In School”

85) Shovels & Rope-“Botched Execution”

84) Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam-“In A Black Out”

83) Slow Club –“Ancient Rolling Sea”

82) Beyonce –“Sorry”

81) Radiohead-“True Love Waits” 

80) Esperanza Spalding-“Earth To Heaven”

79) Sturgill Simpson –“In Bloom”

78) Jessy Lanza –“It Means I Love You”

77) Ty Segall-“Orange Color Queen”

76) Slothrust-“Horseshoe Crab”

75) Sylvan Esso-“Kick Jump Twist”

74) Tegan and Sara-“Boyfriend”

73) Esme Patterson-“Feel Right”

72) Car Seat Headrest-“Fill In the Blank”

71) Kevin Morby-“Dorothy” 

70) Shovels & Rope –“St. Anne’s Parade”

69) Hinds-“Garden”

68) Margaret Glaspy-“Emotions and Math”

67) Parquet Courts-“Already Dead”

66) Whitney –“No Matter Where We Go”

65) Julie Rhodes-“Key Won’t Unlock My Door”

64) Margo Price- “Since You Put Me Down”

63) Japandroids-“Near To the Wild Heart of life”

62) Iggy Pop-“Gardenia”

61) Father John Misty-“Real Love Baby” 

60) Beth Orton-“1973”

59) Public Access TV-“End of an Era”

58) Parker Millsap-“Hades Please”

57) Angry Angles-“Things Are Moving”

56) Julie Rhodes-“In Your Garden”

55) Leyla McCalla-“A Day For the Hunter, A Day For The Prey”

54) Slow Club –“In Waves”

53) Kristin Kontrol –“X-Communicate”

52) Santigold-“Can’t Get Enough Of Myself”

51) The Shacks-“Left It With Moon” 

50) Joey Purp and Chance the Rapper-“Girls @”

49) Gregory Porter-“Take Me To The Alley”

48) Amber Coffman –“All To Myself”

47) Dirty Projectors-“Keep Your Name”

46) PJ Harvey –“The Wheel”

45) Nothing –“The Dead are Dumb”

44) Dusk –“Too Sweet”

43) Beyonce- “Daddy Lessons”

42) Dent May-“Face Down In The Gutter Of Your Love”

41) Mass Gothic-“Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me” 

40) Kevin Gates –“Jam (featuring Trey Songs, Ty Dolla $ign and Jamie Fox)”

39) Amanda Shires –“When You’re Gone”

38) NAO-“Girlfriend”

37) Sheer Mag-“Nobody’s Baby”

36) Rihanna-“Higher”

35) ANOHNI –“Drone Bomb Me”

34) Big Thief –“Masterpiece”

33) Field Music-“The Noisy Days Are Over”

32) The Orwells- “They Put a Body In the Bayou”

31) David Bowie- “Killing a Little Time” 

30) The So So Glos –“A.D.D. Life”

29) The Lemon Twigs – “These Words”

28) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “I Need You”

27) Frankie Cosmos- “On The Lips”

26) Regina Spektor – “Small Bill$”

25) The Avalanches – “Frankie Sinatra”

24) Moses Sumney- “Lonely World”

23) Tom Waits – “The Soul of A Man”

22) Whitney- “No Woman”

21) Lucy Dacus – “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore” 

20) Jamila Woods –“Heavn”

19) A Tribe Called Quest – “We The People”

18) Parquet Courts – “Berlin Got Blurry”

17) Bleached – “Wednesday Night Melody”

16) Beyonce –“ Hold Up”

15) Angel Olsen-“Shut Up Kiss Me”

14) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-“Jesus Alone”

13) Frank Ocean-“Ivy”

12) Radiohead-“Burn The Witch”

11) Anderson .Paak-“The Bird” 

10) Mitski- “Your Best American Girl”

09) PJ Harvey- “The Community of Hope”

08) DJ Shadow & Run The Jewels- “Nobody Speak”

07) Beyonce-“Formation”

06) Kanye West- “Ultralight Beam”

05)  David Bowie-“Lazarus”

04) Solange- “Cranes In The Sky”

03) Car Seat Headrest- “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales”

02) Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam- “A 1000 Times”

35) Charles Bradley- Changes (Daptone Records/Dunham Records)

34) Frankie Cosmos- Next Thing (Bayonet Records)

33) Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam -I Had A Dream That You Were Mine (Glassnote Records)

32) White Lung-Paradise (Domino Recording Company)

31) DTCV- Confusion Moderne (Xemu Records)

30) Pity Sex -White Hot Moon (Run For Cover Records)

29) Muncie Girls-From Caplan to Belsize (Animal Style Records)

28) Lucy Dacus- No Burden (Egghunt Records)

27) Pinegrove - Cardinal (Run For Cover Records)

26) Sturgill Simpson- A Sailor’s Guide To Earth (Atlantic)

25) Parquet Courts- Human Performance (Rough Trade Records)

24) ANOHNI- Hopelessness (Secretly Canadian)

23) Frank Ocean -Blonde (Boys Don’t Cry)

22) Esperanza Spalding- Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord)

21) YG -Still Brazy (Def Jam)

20) Slow Club - One Day All Of This Won’t Matter Anymore (Moshi Moshi Records)

19) Dowsing- Okay (Asian Man Records)

18) The Avalanches - Wildflower (Astralwerks)

17) Various Artists - God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (Alligator Records)

16) Kanye West - The Life Of Pablo (GOOD Music)

15) Solange - A Seat At The Table (Saint Records/Columbia)

14) Anderson .Paak - Malibu (Steel Wool Records)

13) Margaret Glaspy - Emotions and Math (ATO)

12) Angel Olsen - My Woman (Jagjaguwar)

11) Sheer Mag - III 7″ (Static Shock Records)

10) Whitney - Light Upon The Lake (Secretly Canadian)

09) PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project (Vagrant Records)

08) Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (Third Man Records)

07) Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book (Self- Released)

06) Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (Columbia)

05) Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered (Aftermath Entertainment)

04) Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (XL Recordings)

03) Beyonce - Lemonade (Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia)

02) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Key ( Bad Seed Ltd)

01) David Bowie - Blackstar (Columbia)

Man, that’s a lot of Columbia records...