#top10of2016

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Sorry in advance. This review is stilted in politics given that every critic out there seems to want to tackle race politics with this film.

Despite all of the stuff I don’t talk about below, this film has memorable performances, tremendous editing and pace, and some of the most breathtaking cinematography of the year. But permit me to digress…

There’s a great moment when Ryan Gosling’s character Seb is awaiting Mia for their second date to watch "Rebel Without a Cause" after he finds out she’s never seen it. When she finally arrives with a wash of the Nicolas Ray film upon her silhouetted body, their eyes meet. It’s in the intimacy of the theatre that they share their first touch and almost their first kiss. That is until the film burns out.

The allusion to the classic film is obvious: both share narratives about two misfits who fall in love, both are shot in beautiful Cinemascope, and both are about the disenchanted youth of America.

The fundamental difference, though, is everything. Where "Rebel Without a Cause" is about Jim Stark’s resistance against authority, his latent homosexuality and the outdated modes of society imposing their will upon him, "La La Land" actually finds little to rebel against.

Damien Chazelle quite literally projects these images of rebellion upon Mia, a protagonist who’s intrepid disposition is stunted by the grind of Hollywood. True to the title, the character is, for all intents and purposes, a rebel without a cause. In fact, her dreams to succumb to the galvanized Hollywood system fall in line with the comforts of conformity. So what is she rebelling against?

Seb’s invitation to the film is a de facto attempt to have Mia embrace those who came before her, just as his gushing of the “jazz greats” is an attempt at having her embrace nostalgia. When Mia does commit to full homage, entrusting Seb’s “you can never be too nostalgic” advice, she produces a one-act play about her Aunt in Paris and it fails...miserably. Living in the past, it seems, is not all it’s cracked up to be.

This is a film about the dangerous relationship to one’s past, not one which celebrates it, like so many critics seem to confoundedly surmise.

As Mia starts embodying the “virtues” of the past and Seb surrenders to his future of living in a modern jazz band, they come to odds with each other and themselves. It erupts into an arguement over a meal between the two. Behind them an eerie emerald green light projects through the transparent curtains.

The image is a disturbing echo of Hitchcock’s own film about the danger or recreating the past, 1958’s "Vertigo," in which John (Jimmy Stewart) attempts to recreate his dead lover through the character of Madeline. After her successful transformation into John’s ex-lover, she’s illuminated by a green light which at both times represents a false recreation of all things living and the tone of a corpse.

Mia’s similar transformation through Seb’s obsession with the past is not as morbid as Hitchcock’s, but the sentiment is still there: why do we wish to hold so dearly onto the past that we end up destroying the present?

When John sees Madeline for the first time in "Vertigo," she adorns a beautiful green dress, one akin to the one worn by Mia when she first sees Seb at the old movie theatre.

But where Madeline falls prey to this recreation, Mia ascends to greater heights.

Her audition at the end has her reflecting on the past through song. It is Mia’s reflection of a reflection, one step removed from the past and, as any auditioning actor will tell you, steeped solely in the present that garners her triumphant success.

Critics seem to be decidedly drawn to the comparisons of the American Hollywood Musicals of the 1950s, arguing La La Land feels stuck in the past. But its influences cheekily span from the early 20th century musicals like "Dames" to the Jacques Demy musicals that were so popular in 1960s France to its opening scene reminiscent of the 1998 Bollywood film "Dil Se..." (translated to America as "From the Heart" a play on the title of Coppola’s infamous 1982 Musical flop, "One From the Heart"), where countless extras dance atop a moving train. Chazelle drives the cultural simile home, even going as far as opening the movie with an Indian actress.

The other parallel argument is that Seb is the “white savior” of jazz, despite him representing a form of antagonism to Mia: he misses her performance, he talks over Jazz (that which he loves), and essentially belittles Mia for “wanting to feel better about herself” when he won’t take responsibility for his own unhappy success. And after Legend offers him a seat in his band (a symbolic gesture of accepting the future of jazz), he arrogantly rejects it…twice. This character is by no definition a hero, let alone a “saviour.”

But don’t tell that to the pseudo-political critical circle who are convinced the film is nothing but a liturgy of “better times” and is expunged of any contemporaneousness or, better yet, any diverse representation.

More puzzling about the argument for racism in this film is the critical oversight of John Legend’s character, which one critic described as:

“a smoothie sell-out, who may not be the villain of the piece but doesn’t make much sense as a character anyway,”

 A sentiment that seems more racist than the racial rhetoric critics lazily apply.

John Legend offers Sebastian a position in his band, not only drawing the character out of his cobwebs, but ensuring his legacy to jazz isn’t tarnished. Legend, in an interview, described the song he wrote for the film as:

“a single that still has some jazz influence, but could tell it was leaning in more of a pop direction than most music you would call jazz.”

It’s because of Legend’s carrying of the torch that ensures Seb’s financial security which permits Jazz to have a place in both the mainstream audiences and the carved niches in obscure Los Angeles nightclubs.

You needn’t a film history degree to understand the roots of racism in the musical genre, the first ever of which produced 90 years ago, The Jazz Singer, not only featured blackface, but exploited the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur to guarantee its financial success. This type of cinema “divides America…” contributing nothing to the “cooperative creation of something new but assimilation to old inequalities.” (Rogin, 101)

These old inequalities can be seen challenged in Chazelle’s debut, "Musical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench," which featured an interracial couple dancing throughout New York, made on a shoestring budget. And the same of which are being challenged in "La La Land," though admittedly much subtler. But the conspiratorial racist narrative wrapped around his work remains.

Rebels without a cause.

Despite the fact that Ray’s radical outlook on homosexuality and youth culture in his work set the tone for cinema for a century (even today, films like "Moonlight" harken back to similar themes), Chazelle is well aware that a mirrored attempt to project that radicalism upon a very inoffensive, parochial love story would render it as fake as the hollywood backdrops to which the act of Summer opens upon.

However both are aligned in their staunch rejection of their ancestral origins. When Mia is describing the show she's auditioning for to Seb, she remarks “it’s like the O.C. meets Dangerous Minds. No, wait, it’s more like Rebel Without a Cause.”

One is a television show which revolves around the rich white youth of Orange County, the other is about a Caucasian teacher (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who tries to bring order and discipline to an inner-city school.

When she compares the blend of these to “Rebel Without a Cause,” it’s so perverted from either stories, Seb can detect she hasn’t seen it or worse simply doesn’t understand it.

“I guess the joke’s on history?” Seb would later jest.

And the present, apparently. Critics bemoan a film which is obviously hyper-critical of nostalgia and thus begs the audience to consider their time and place now, even in a cultural landscape obsessed with its own conception like Hollywood.

This is where the third act repels the phantoms of the "Hollywood ending." Mia doesn’t fall in love with Seb, a personification the past, she leaves him. But not before she descends into the catacombs of history once more at his Jazz nightclub.

Directed by Adam Curtis

There’s a poetry to Curtis’ exhaustive journalistic film essays. He’s one of the few directors these days that truly takes advantage of the fabric of time. 

As an editor, it’s the reason why he keeps showing up on my list every year. Here is someone who can fold wide expanses of time and still make it legible and interesting. The sheer amount of ground he covers within one minute would take most documentary mini-series full episodes worth of time. But we’re talking technique.

There’s no living filmmaker, fiction or non-fiction, who is so contemporary and yet so far ahead of his time. 

HyperNormalisation is of no exception. By traversing the narrative along stretches of time and places, he eventually ends up where he always does, steeped solely in the politics of present day, occasionally visually foot-noting the past in his recipe for prophecy.  

It’s a trademark, I don’t doubt, will prove him withstanding for many years to come. His previous film and my personal favourite, The Century of the Self already has its fingerprints on current global geopolitics in the worst ways possible. 

The worst ways possible made so comforting by Adam Curtis’ narration, which acts as this calm, soothing alarm bell repeating the jangling cries of danger and doom.

It took me a long time to not only decide on my top 10 albums of 2016, but to also write this whole thing up once I finally got my list all straightened out. If anyone reads this, I hope you enjoy what I have written and check out some of the albums that I have included on my list if you have never listened to them before. Thank you to everyone (including all of the awesome musicians out there) for another great year on the radio. I am very thankful for everyone who has ever listened to or supported Broken Sound in any way, shape, or form. Thanks again and see you all in 2017!

1. Balance And Composure - Light We Made

If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that this record was going to be my AOTY, I would have told you that you were crazy. Believe it or not, I was not that big of a Balance And Composure fan when they were on the rise. Yes, I do like a lot of their songs. Every release that they have ever put out (even dating back to their early EPs that came out in the late 2000s) has had some really good songs on them. I still have a few of my old mix tapes that I would make for myself to put in my car before I had a stereo that worked that featured a lot of Balance And Composure songs on them. Overall though, Balance And Composure were never one of my favorite bands because I felt as though they just blended in with a lot of the other bands that were on their way up during what many fans consider to be their prime (i.e. 2010 – 2013). During that time period, a lot of bands that Balance And Composure either toured with or sounded similar to were putting out some of their best music (ex: Title Fight, Citizen, Turnover, Basement, Tigers Jaw, Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Superheaven, etc). I just feel like Balance And Composure kind of faded into the mix during this time, and while they did put out some good songs, these other bands were putting out better and more complete albums than Balance And Composure were.

Fast forward to the year 2016. All of the aforementioned bands (including Balance And Composure) have grown a little older and have decided to go in different directions with their music. Now, the band that I once felt faded into the mix has (in my opinion) surpassed most of their competition by releasing their best and most complete record to date. It is now their competition (with the exceptions of Touché Amoré and Basement, whose newest records are also on this list) that has faded into the mix. When the first single for Light We Made dropped (“Postcard”), producer Will Yip had this to say about the record:

“This spring I made a record with some of my best friends for over 6 weeks. I guarantee you this will be one of the most important records to come out in this world. We pushed each other for 6 weeks and exhausted ourselves over countless ideas. Our goal was to make a special record we can respect ourselves. The band along with myself have never made the same record twice, and we never intend to. This is a representation of who the guys are at this point of their lives and it's a collection of their best songs to date. I promise any balance fan that when they finally live with this record, it'll become a mainstay. The band is getting better and better, and even more creative. I can't wait until this thing is alive to the world. I love these guys and I back them forever. Light We Made.”

After listening to this album countless times since its release, I have to say, Will Yip was pretty spot on with his comments. Light We Made is definitely Balance And Composure’s best work to date. It is also without a doubt a very important record. It is important because it removes any and every boundary that Balance And Composure’s competition has put on themselves in terms of how far they are able/allowed to experiment. No longer should bands that have been a part of the scene that some used to refer to as “the wave” be afraid to experiment with new sounds and think outside the box. This album is also important because it forces fans within the scene to grow and to accept new types of music. Yes, some fans probably just scoffed and disowned Balance And Composure after Light We Made’s release, while others did what exactly what Will Yip challenged them to do; live with this record. I went through this process myself. If you would have told me three years ago when I spent most of my time listening exclusively to Pop Punk and Hardcore that I would someday listen to a Shoegaze/Dream Pop album whose sound was derived from bass, drum machines, and special effects, I would have told you to fuck off. But here we are; its 3 years later and I haven’t listened to Pop Punk on purpose in over a year, and Light We Made is my favorite album of 2016.

  2. Touché Amoré - Stage Four

  If this list were to be titled “Most Depressing Albums of 2016,” this record would be #1 on my list, not #2. Touché Amoré has always been a band who has been known for the deeply emotional and introspective nature of their lyrics. Stage Four is no exception to this aspect of the band’s reputation.  A little over two years ago, Touché Amoré’s frontman Jeremy Bolm lost his mother to cancer. As one could imagine (especially those who have lost a loved one to cancer, or any disease for that matter), a loss like this takes quite some time to heal from. In what many have described as a lyrical masterpiece, Touché Amoré’s newest album Stage Four describes in great detail the struggles that Jeremy has gone through as he has attempted to cope with the loss of his mother. The feelings that are expressed on this record are as real as they get, which is why Stage Four has found itself at the top of countless people’s end of the year “Best of 2016” publications (including numerous world-renowned music websites, journals, and magazines). Stage Four doesn’t just give you a case of “the feels.” It makes you really feel something. Every time that I listen to this album, I get really choked up. It had been quite some time since I had ever been as moved by someone else’s words as much as I was when I first listened to Stage Four.

 I am a huge fan of Touché Amoré, so I am being honest when I say despite this record’s lyrical brilliance, it is not the band’s best album (Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me still holds that title in my opinion). However, unlike some of the band’s longtime fans who have criticized some of the changes that they made to their sound on this album (ex: longer songs, clean vocals, less aggressive/somber instrumentation), I can honestly say that I like all of these changes. Overall, Touché Amoré still stays true to what gained them the following that they have today, but they also explore new territories in attempts to both grow as a band as well as have their music appeal to new audiences.

 Stage Four is bittersweet for me. Lyrically, this album is pretty sad and can really bring you down depending on your mood/circumstances. On the other hand, musically, this album is a banger and has helped create a number opportunities for a great band who deserve to be recognized for all of the hard work that they have put in over the years.

  3. Descendents - Hypercaffium Spazzinate

  Seeing that I am probably one of the biggest Descendents fan boys that you will ever meet, I am just as surprised as you are that this record was not my AOTY. It still made my top 5 though, and there are a lot of good reasons for that. The Descendents’ newest album Hypercaffium Spazzinate, which marked the band’s first new release in over 12 years, definitely showed/shows that the Descendents should still be considered as one of the best Punk Rock bands of all time. In my opinion, the Descendents are like fine wine; they get better with age. Now that lead vocalist Milo Aukerman has kissed science goodbye and finally committed to music full time (which is something that you would expect someone to do in their 20’s, not their 50’s), the Descendents are not only back, but better and more lively than ever before. I would not go as far to say that Hypercaffium Spazzinate is the band’s best album (Milo Goes To College still holds that title for me), but it is definitely one of the band’s better releases, as well as the best comeback album of the year (if you want to call it that). All of the songs on this record fit the classic Descendents formula that was laid down nearly 40 years ago (i.e. fast, emotional, and silly). Even though the band has gotten older, they don’t miss a beat on this album. All of the instrumentation is in sync and tight, the vocals/melodies are clean, and the lyrics hit close to home. What I like the most about this record is that leading up to its release, and even now that it has been out for about 5 months, there has been no talk of the band “burning out” or “selling out.” There has been nothing but good feelings surrounding this album from both the band and their fans, which makes me look forward to whatever they decide to do next.

 4. Gouge Away - , Dies

  If you have never heard of Gouge Away before, they are a Hardcore band from Fort Lauderdale, FL. Gouge Away is hands down my musical discovery of the year. I saw these guys open up for Touché Amoré at a show in San Diego, and they completely blew me away. I was definitely not prepared for the 20 minute fury that Gouge Away would lay into me as well as the rest of the small crowd of approximately 100 people that were packed into that venue that night. Gouge Away is fucking pissed off, and for a lot of good reasons. There are a lot of problems in this world, and Gouge Away lets you not only know that they exist, but that you should be doing something about them. I love angry music, but there are very few bands whose intensity and anger can really make me feel just as intense and angry. Gouge Away is one of those bands. Their debut full-length album entitled “, Dies” (which clocks in at about 23 minutes), is a super awesome record that I have listened to multiple times this year. Within those 23 minutes, Gouge Away talks about a lot of the issues that plague the world that we live in today such as: police brutality, sexual assault/violence, women’s rights (or a lack thereof), and animal cruelty. What really puts this album over the top is lead vocalist Christina Stijy’s loud and screeching voice, in which true passion and anger can be heard as she sings about these issues. Not only does this album send out a message to those doing wrong in the world; it also sends out a message to the scene in which the band calls home. In a scene that has been historically dominated by males, Gouge Away makes it known that women deserve more acknowledgement in the Hardcore scene and that girls can do hardcore just as well as boys do (maybe even better).

  5. No Better - Forget Me Not - EP

  If you have never heard of No Better before (it’s ok, a lot of people around here haven’t heard of them), they are an Emo band from Redlands, CA. The first time that I encountered these guys was when I saw them open for Touché Amoré (who played a surprise set that night) and Warm Thoughts at a small venue in Fullerton called the Anchor (which is basically just a rec room at a church with a PA in it) in the summer of 2015. I have been a fan of these guys ever since that day. What first stood out to me about these guys when I saw them was that they were on stage playing all of this super cool emotionally charged music that sounded a lot like Jawbreaker (one of my favorite bands of all-time) while sporting Have Heart, In My Eyes, and other awesome Hardcore band t-shirts. Right there and then I knew that I had to look them up as soon as I got the chance. When I got home later that night, I listened to their first EP (which was the only music that they had released at that point in time), and ever since then I have been patiently waiting for them to put out more music (you can only put four songs on repeat for so long). Earlier this year, the wait was finally over. Over the summer, No Better put out their second EP entitled Forget Me Not, and just like their first EP, it is nothing short of golden. Besides the fact that the songs on this EP sound a whole lot like Jawbreaker (and a lot of other bands on the scene today now that we are currently in what has been termed the “Emo Revival”), I also like this release because of how well I am able to relate to all of the lyrics. The songs on EP discuss a lot of things that college aged kids such as myself have gone through at one point or another such as: heartbreak, juggling school, work, and loved ones, and just growing up in general. This EP really helped me get through some tough times this year, and I hope after reading this, some of you check it out and are able to reap in the same benefits that I did.  

  6. Pity Sex - White Hot Moon

  I remember that when it was getting close to the release date for White Hot Moon earlier this year, I read and interview online somewhere that was done with Pity Sex’s guitarist/vocalist Britty Drake that still makes me laugh to this day. When most artists have a new album coming out, they usually try to hype it up by saying the usual clichés such as: “This is our best material to date,” or “With this new record, we did things that we have never done before musically,” and things of that nature. When asked to describe White Hot Moon, Drake said something along the lines of (I am just paraphrasing here of course, so don’t like attack me), “Yeah, we have a new album coming out. It sounds like our last album, but a little better…so yeah, check it out.” While Drake’s modesty was and still is appreciated, White Hot Moon is more than just “a little better” than Pity Sex’s previous release. While it is true that the band didn’t bust out a complete 180 with their sound like some of their colleagues did this year (i.e. Balance And Composure), I feel as though they did put out some of their best material to date on this record (no cliché intended). When compared to their previous releases, all of the musicianship on this album seems to sound a bit more in sync, both Drake and Pity Sex’s other guitarist/vocalist Brennan Greaves’s vocal melodies seem mesh better, and the lyrics seem to hit harder and make you really feel something. I am by no means saying that Pity Sex’s other releases are bad. In fact, Feast Of Love was probably one of my favorite records released in 2013. What I am trying to say is that White Hot Moon is the band’s most complete record from front to back (in my opinion of course). It sickens me to know that the band broke up a couple of months ago. Why is it that great bands always seem to break up once they finally reach their full potential? Instead of being a stepping stone towards greatness to come, White Hot Moon will simply be an artifact that will hopefully influence the next generation of young aspiring Shoegaze/Emo/Alternative bands/artists.

 7. Praise - Leave It All Behind - EP

  If you have never heard of Praise before, you are definitely missing out. Hailing from Baltimore MD, Praise are 5 piece Punk/Hardcore band who have really made a name for themselves with their own unique brand of melodic Punk/Hardcore music that is hard to come by in today’s national Punk/Hardcore scene. I really enjoy Praise’s music, mostly because unlike the majority of the more popular Hardcore bands within Baltimore/D.C. scene with whom Praise shares members with (i.e. Trapped Under Ice, Turnstile, Angel Du$t,), Praise actually models their sound after some of the Godfathers of D.C. Hardcore such as: Minor Threat, Fugazi, Dag Nasty, Embrace, Rites Of Spring, etc. Leave It All Behind is a great record that continues this trend and is very reminiscent of some of the music that was being put out during what has come to be known as the “Revolution Summer” of 1985. During this time, a lot of Punk/Hardcore bands within the D.C. scene started to experiment with what was then called “Emotive Hardcore”, which is basically just Punk music with emotional lyrics. A lot of people rejected this notion of Hardcore music being emotional (and still do to this day) seeing that the two concepts seem to clash, but I personally love the idea, which is why I am such a big fan of Praise as well as all of the bands that I listed above as being the Godfathers of D.C. Hardcore. Despite my high opinion of this record, I feel as though it was/is somewhat overlooked seeing that a lot of the more popular D.C./Baltimore Punk/Hardcore bands were pretty busy this year as well (ex: Mindset’s farewell record/tour, Angel Du$t’s new record, Turnstile’s new EP/world tour, etc.). Regardless of this, I still love this record and highly recommend that you check it out.

 8. The Interrupters – Say It Out Loud

  In my opinion, The Interrupters are one of the best modern Punk/Ska bands on the scene today. I have always had a sweet spot for some Ska, so when this album came out and I saw how much hype that it was getting, I had to check it out. I can proudly say after listening to Say It Out Loud on repeat for like two weeks straight earlier this year, it definitely lived up to all of its hype (and then some). The thing that makes the Interrupters so great is that the best way that I can think to describe them is as being a ton of fun. All of the songs on this record (as well as their first record) are super upbeat, catchy, and easy to sing along to. In a year where a lot of the bands that I like to listen to were focusing on politics, it was nice for a change to see a band that was able to put that aside and just focus on having a good time. While some songs are stronger than others on this album, I can’t say that there is a single bad song or “filler track.” Every song has a good beat, a catchy sing along chorus, and everything else that you would expect to be on a great Ska record. On a side note, I think in order to truly appreciate some of the music on this album; you have to see The Interrupters live. Once you see how crazy these guys are live and how loud their fans sing along, you gain a new love and respect for the band and their music.

  9. Hesitation Wounds - Awake For Everything

  If you have never heard of Hesitation Wounds before, they are a Hardcore side-project featuring Jeremy Bolm of Touché Amoré, as well as current and former members of Slipknot, The Hope Conspiracy, and Trap Them. I am a huge fan of Touché Amoré (which I’m sure you already know by now after reading this far), but that is not the reason for this record being on my list. Hesitation Wounds is its own entity that deserves recognition for the music that they have put out as a group, not the music that its individual members have put out with their other respective projects. Even though Bolm does the majority of the song writing for Hesitation Wounds (as he does for Touché Amoré), their songs sound nothing like Touché Amoré. When writing for Touché Amoré, Bolm usually focuses on more introspective issues and communicates them with emotion/angst as opposed to flat out anger (even though he does do a lot of screaming in Touché Amoré). What we learn from Hesitation Wounds however is that Bolm has a lot of pent up anger, which is clearly expressed throughout their debut full length album entitled Awake For Everything. Now that the election has passed, it is as clear as daylight what type of political climate we live in. However, in the months leading up to the election, we only had an idea of what direction this country was heading in. Hesitation Wounds discuss quite a few of the pressing issues that have come up throughout this election year (i.e. hatred, racism, intolerance, ideology, violence, etc) and at this very moment, they almost seem prophetic in terms of the warnings/concerns they presented when this album came out in May versus where we sit today. I love this record for how angry, heavy, and dark it is, and I wish that the band wasn’t just a side project so that they could be more active in getting their message out there. Nevertheless, Awake For Everything is a great album that came out during a time period where it was desperately needed/very relevant. On top of that, this record is also pretty fucking hard.  

 10. Basement – Promise Everything