#vinyloftheyear

It’s that time of year once again for a music recap! I know I’ve pretty much abandoned the “First Impressions” thing, but I realized that I prefer to let my opinions ferment for some time and serve them up all at once at the end of the year, so that’s what I’ll be doing instead from now on--and in lieu of those posts being reminders of what albums I like, I made a “Best of 2017” playlist out of selected songs from my favorite records of the year. You can listen to it here on Google Play.

I’ve done my album rankings a bit differently this year as well: I’ve compiled a Short List of every album that had at least one song I liked on it, and I’ll be going through all of them one at a time, getting a bit more descriptive the higher up the list I go.

Here’s the Short List, sorted roughly by release date:

And without any further introduction, let’s do this!

36. Joji - In Tongues EP

Joji is George Miller aka Filthy Frank aka Pink Guy’s moniker for more-serious music, and his record debut is a collection of mellow, lo-fi beats with some shallow lyrics on top. I like some of the sounds on here, especially the ukulele sampling on Worldstar Money, but overall this just sounds like any other amateur lo-fi artist on SoundCloud.

35. Electric Guest - Plural

Electric Guest’s second album features more indie-pop tunes, most of which are completely forgettable in the sea of similar music--but Oh Devil and Back For Me are a couple of rare exceptions that return with the magic and groove of their much-better first record.

34. XXXTENTACION - 17

After hearing about how X seriously abused his ex-girlfriend, I pretty much gave up on liking him and instead hope his mental health improves. The 20-minute album he released is mostly some super-low-effort “I’m depressed” music, but the one stand-out track is Jocelyn Flores, and that’s much more thanks to the potsu song it heavily samples. So at least I can thank X for introducing me to potsu before I never listen to him again.

33. Migos - CULTURE

The Atlanta trap trio climbed to the top of the game with this album, and Bad and Boujee will be remembered for a long time for popularizing their flow and production style (provided by Metro Boomin), for better or worse. T-Shirt is another catchy track with a wonderfully unique flow throughout, but the album pretty much drops off after that for me.

32. SZA - Ctrl

SZA’s debut full-length album is critically acclaimed as a soulful and personal take on modern urban romance and the role she takes in it. I can appreciate the album for that, but it’s not really a concept that I can connect with personally, so this album doesn’t stick with me like it did others. However, the songs with more blatant concepts like The Weekend and Doves in the Wind are more replayable--especially the latter, with its hilarious Kendrick Lamar feature.

31. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

I really think this album should be labeled ‘FOR EMOTIONAL EMERGENCIES ONLY’. As the listener, you are taken through what is effectively just cathartic music-therapy for Phil Elverum after the very recent death of his wife, Genevieve. No deepy-contemplated lyrics or music here, just somber mostly-guitar ballads with very straightforward “lyrics” on top about his personal thoughts on various aspects of his life now that she is gone. It’s hardly music, but it’s not for the faint of heart--the first song, Real Death, however, is a good summary of the album’s aesthetic for those who don’t want to sob for 40 minutes.

30. Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream

OME is very hit-or-miss in my opinion: he is capable of some excellent flows and lyricism, and can really knock it out of the park with the right production behind him. This album didn’t completely hit--it was mostly too slow, and I admittedly don’t like it when he sings sometimes--but Tldr (Smithing) and Brick Body Complex both had enough of a driving beat to keep me listening.

29. Pink Guy - Pink Season

I was honestly surprised when the In Tongues EP came out that it didn’t have production nearly as good as Pink Season’s: regardless of whatever offensive thing he raps on top, Pink Guy has several solid beats on this album, especially in the food-based songs where the raps are more typical and less off-the-wall raunchy. Adding a few comedic diamonds in the rough, like She’s So Nice and Small Dick, makes the album worth coming back to every so often.

28. The Shins - Heartworms

The Shins have really carved out their own bubbly-indie-rock niche in music and made themselves comfortable, and Heartworms is no departure from that in the slightest. The result is an album that’s both easy to enjoy but hard to really celebrate. A few stand-out tracks are Rubber Ballz, Name For You, and Mildenhall, which each have a slightly different tone, but belong well within the Shins’ signature aesthetic.

27. Portugal. The Man - Woodstock

It must have been one hell of a year for PTM since they’ve gone from a lesser-known indie-rock group to Top 40 hitmakers, since it’s been weird to hear Feel It Still on the radio even as a fan of theirs. Besides that song and a couple others though, Woodstock just feels like a more popped-up and watered-down version of the slightly-less popped-up and watered-down Portugal that I grew to like when Evil Friends released.

26. Alt-J - RELAXER

The indie-rock powerhouse returned this year with a woefully underwhelming third album, stuffed with nicely-composed but lullaby-worthy tracks following in the wake of the more ambient sounds from their second record. In Cold Blood is by and large the standout track, bringing back the punchy rock feel and dynamic shifts that made An Awesome Wave so catchy and groundbreaking. Deadcrush also lends to this with its tough drum beat, but beyond that, a strange and ill-fitting attempt at garage-rock, and a much gentler cover of House of the Rising Sun, this album can be missed with no regrets, even for an Alt-J fan.

25. San Fermin - Belong

The eight-piece baroque-pop outfit came to my attention when opening for Alt-J live, and their infectious stage presence and unique ensemble led me to find their studio recordings, which were good in concept but unfortunately poorly-mixed for the most part. Their newest record, however, seems to be mixed and recorded much better, with songs like Dead and Cairo bringing that live energy properly into my earphones. Many tracks are good enough but a bit poppy and smooth for my taste, like Belong, but overall this is a great album for anybody who wants more horns and violins in their pop music.

24. N.E.R.D. - NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES

N.E.R.D. finally explains their name on their latest album, which still brings the experimental genre-mixing hip-hop that got them their initial fame, but the experiments seem to be overcooked a bit: there are some interesting samples and beats here, even going so far as combining an 80s new wave style beat with a Future feature on 1000, but most of the songs drag the beats out too long for me to stay interested. Lemon is an exceptional standout track, with one of the bounciest beats of the whole year, and Rihanna with an unprecedented rap feature.

23. Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog

The New York indie-rocker popularized his own “slacker rock” genre with his excellent album Salad Days, and This Old Dog proves that Mac is still the master of his own domain. He branches out his song foundations on this record to include acoustic guitar and piano, among other things, but maintains the psychedelic guitars and wavy synths that characterize his style. His lyrics also get more somber and personal than usual, a rare side to Mac’s music that slows it down a bit too much for my liking, but not enough that this album should be ignored.

22. Gorillaz - Humanz

Pretty much all of the singles from Humanz were great examples of genre-defying instrumentals with fitting rap features on top--Vince Staples does an awesome job on Ascension, DRAM gives Andromeda a nice bit of depth, and Let Me Out is a wonderful gospel-rap-fusion track with Pusha T and Mavis Staples (and the album’s De La Soul and Danny Brown features are good too). Unfortunately, the rest of the album is overloaded with production so all-over-the-place you can never stay immersed for more than a little while before you’re either bored or confused.

21. Smino - blkswn

The underground St. Louis rapper’s debut album is full of wavy beats that have a neo-R&B feel to them, similar to Chance the Rapper or Noname’s recent work, and flows in his own slightly-off-kilter sometimes-singing-sometimes rapping style. The whole album is definitely worth a listen, but most of the tracks are a little too off-balance in their beats and rhythms to really stick; the flow overtakes the underlying rhythm and makes it sound messy. Some tracks, however, like Blkoscars, Innamission, and Spitshine, strike a much better balance--and the soulful final track Amphetamine makes a wonderful closer, especially with Noname’s feature.

20. Vallis Alps - Fable EP

The Australian electropop duo released another EP that is wonderful in every sense of the word, with the only true crime being its short length. As with their self-titled EP, Fable is loaded with glittering synths and Parissa Tosif’s beautifully-airy voice on the high end, with driving percussion in varying amounts to balance it out and change the tone. Sometimes the composition is a little samey, like the repetitive chords in East and Fading, but that doesn’t stop me from coming back.

19. Lorde - Melodrama

Lorde needs no introduction at this point, and her newest album chronicling a relationship and subsequent breakup brings more of her personal side out, which is a welcome change--but the tone of the album is much more poppy, and most of Lorde’s characteristic darkness is washed out. Tracks like Homemade Dynamite and The Louvre show how the production behind her has improved and diversified, filling in the gaps in her old minimalist music quite nicely, but it is a balance that not a lot of the album strikes.

18. Foster the People - Sacred Hearts Club

Foster the People went much more electronic for their newest installment, bringing to the front lines what was once just some background effects. In many ways the change is great for the dancey energy of the band’s music, like in Doing It For the Money and Pay the Man, but other times it just makes the songs less interesting. The rare punk-rock track Lotus Eater also brings the band’s typical energy with a welcome new style that I hope to see more of in future albums.

17. Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, James McAlister - Planetarium

Stories of eponymous Roman myths with Sufjan’s poetic twist are sung through several effects on top of grandiose and often-overwhelming production throughout this technically-huge album. The main setback of this record is its length and overindulgence in its composition, like a musical all-you-can-eat that just keeps coming (and it’s a slight thorn in my side that the track order seems meaningless). In moderate doses though, tracks like Jupiter and Mars serve up lots of beautiful soundscapes with interesting dynamic shifts throughout.

16. 21 Savage, Metro Boomin, Offset - Without Warning

The back end of 2017 saw the release of several collaboration albums between various trap artists and producers--and this surprise Halloween-themed album is the only one worth coming back to. Metro Boomin provides beats that are as spooky as they are sticky for 21 Savage to rap on, but Offset is the true star of the album, bringing crazy flows that amplify the groove of the whole record, especially on Ric Flair Drip and Ghostface Killers.

15. Tame Impala - Currents B-sides & Remixes

The remixes on this album are okay, but it mostly has this rank because of its bonus material from my 2015 Vinyl of the Year. The three tracks sound from a time between Lonerism and Currents, where real drum beats dominate the driving percussion but synth leads take over the instrumental. List of People (To Try and Forget About) and Taxi’s Here are both excellent tracks that are better than some that actually made it to the real Currents, but I’m happy they hold their own separately, too.

14. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

Fleet Foxes continuously push the boundaries of folk music to new heights, and this album is no different, featuring an impressive amount of dynamic switches (especially in I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar), strange time signatures, and of course the characteristically-angelic harmonies and ambient guitars. Third of May / Ōdaigahara is the best blend of complexity and accessibility that Fleet Foxes has yet produced, with the rest of the album leaning a bit heavy toward the former, but I’m excited to see what they’ll do next.

13. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

The ex-Fleet Fox brings another dose of well-composed irony to the record press, this time focusing the negative energy of Americans everywhere in 2017 into a concentrated mass of pure sarcastic cynicism. The theatrical compositions Father John is known for get even better on this record as he places it in the modern age by singing about having VR-sex with Taylor Swift and updating his status one last time before dying. The result is a wonderfully relatable and over-the-top message about the folly of man and just how funny it can all be sometimes.

12. Jaden Smith - SYRE

I still can’t take Jaden seriously after this album came out, but the production on it is so good it makes me almost wish I could. Lido’s beats and instruments, especially in the opening medley BLUE, are impressive enough that they bring up the album quality by themselves, and while Jaden’s lyrics range from platitudinous to cheesy to insane, his flow is usually a pretty good fit with the beats, so not all is lost--though he could stand to use the triplet-style a little less.

11. Richard Dawson - Peasant

If Lord of the Rings is high fantasy and Game of Thrones is gritty low fantasy, then Peasant is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Dawson’s folk songs each discuss a different story from 6th-century Britain, most dealing with brutal subjects like a child prostitute or a poor beggar losing his dog. The compositions are also period-authentic with amazingly erratic guitar work and some modern production scattered throughout, for a wonderfully unique and just-accessible-enough blend of old and new.

And now, on to the Top 10!

10. The National - Sleep Well Beast

I heard rumors that this album would be more electronic before it came out, and I was hoping for more of a 22, A Million-type situation combined with Matt Berninger’s characteristically deep and smooth vocals. That did not happen (yet) but this album is still a great addition to the National’s catalogue, bringing their downtempo slow-burners like Guilty Party alongside more traditional tracks like Day I Die--a welcome change from their slightly-too-mellow previous record. The National also had their own foray into faster rock music with Turtleneck, which gives the album a nice dynamic change.

9. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

Quick disclaimer: I have yet to listen to Vince’s earlier and more-acclaimed album Summertime ‘06, so I can’t really discuss comparisons to it--but in a vacuum, Big Fish Theory is a grimy, groovy rap record in all the right places. Dirty industrial beats carry Vince’s top-notch flow while he raps about darker perspectives on fame and his current position. A lot of tracks are repetitive--sometimes making the song catchier and increasing overall bump-ability, other times dragging it out into a monotone--but both are seemingly by design, which shows that the producers really know their stuff, though I hope that Vince branches his sound out somewhat in his next (or previous) records.

8. Sampha - Process

This album is a real masterpiece of electrosoul: lyrically founded on Sampha’s personal struggles and tragedies, and musically ranging between punchy drums and soulful piano, the one-of-a-kind compositions on this album are still seriously impressive, and vary enough that there’s something for everyone to enjoy, from the trap-head to the chorus singer. What’s more, the production fits the mood of each song to the point where you’re joining Sampha on his cathartic journey across the record--and that immersion only makes Process more memorable.

7. Rapsody - Laila’s Wisdom

Rapsody entered my radar with her features on To Pimp A Butterfly and Malibu, and I’ve been waiting for a project from her ever since--and now that it’s here, it satisfies pretty much every expectation I had. The raps are personal and candid but also inspirational and confident, showing how Rapsody lets her past strengthen her present. She also hosts a huge variety of features that all fit very well where they’re placed, including a strong verse from Kendrick Lamar, a couple of choruses from Anderson .Paak, and a slightly-discomforting love rap from Busta Rhymes. The production is also top-notch, making great use of tempo shifts, sampling, and sound effect transitions. The thing that keeps me from really bouncing to these tracks though is Rapsody’s casual, off-tempo flow--it’s enough to make the raps sound more genuine but it also throws off their rhythm. That’s a small gripe for an overall-solid project, though.

6. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream

One of my favorite indie rock bands released their fourth album this year, and it did not disappoint. Like their past records that have a loose theme, this one roughly revolves around the crazy society that seems to have developed in the past year or so (as a lot of music this year also focuses on). Unlike their past records, however, the quality seems to be more in the slow-burner tracks than the energetic ones, which are seemingly more under-written than ever. That isn’t to say I don’t like them, though--the louder songs really punch with amped-up guitars, a driving rhythm section, and the band’s characteristically choral vocals. However, the mellower tracks have much more interesting and introspective lyrics, as well as instrumentals that are unique to the group’s discography and make for a unique tone in each song.

5. Big K.R.I.T. - 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time

There isn’t a lot about this album that really breaks any molds, or pushes any boundaries--it’s just a very, very solid rap project. The production is some of the best on any album this year, and most of it is done by Big K.R.I.T. himself, and his flows are marvelous whenever he raps. Tracks like Subenstein and Big Bank bring the hard beats on the first disc of the double-album without being overbearing, and the second disc has more melodic tracks like Miss Georgia Fornia (with some excellent vocals from Joi) and Bury Me in Gold (a wholesome wrap-up for the whole project). 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time is a mighty long album, though, so anyone listening might want to split it up into its two discs so they’re not too tired of it before it’s even finished (both are self-titled, the first his rap name, the second his real name). Oh, and the two skits are both hilarious.

4. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

The legend returned this year with an album that is equal parts evocative and enigmatic. Ignoring the lyrics/narrative for a moment, the production is very different from any prior project of Kendrick’s: he brings in instrumentals founded on guitars, ambient and/or erratic samples, and even U2, with the vocal effects varying across the album, matching Kendrick’s own vocal virtuosity. He even tries singing a few times, which is more fitting on some tracks than others. Lyrically, it feels like Kendrick is also getting more repetitive, but he uses that repetition to his supreme advantage when conveying ideas he wants to stick in your head, like his feelings of anxiety with fame and his worst fears throughout his life. The album’s narrative also takes different directions depending on how you listen, which is an amazing feature of this album that shows Kung-fu Kenny’s genius storytelling once again and reminds everyone why he’s staying on top.

3. BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION trilogy

Out of nowhere, this fourteen-person boyband collective hailing mostly from Texas saturated rap music with three full-length albums in the past six months, and they’re all insanely good. Mostly produced by Romil Hemnani, the instrumentals are incredibly eclectic and use an insanely wide variety of sounds, drums, and effects, that somehow blend really well together into a solid beat. Each of the rapping members of the group then use that beat to its maximum potential with their own characteristic style, akin to boybands of the past: Kevin Abstract gets passionate about his homosexuality and leads the group, Ameer Vann discusses his drug-dealing past to solidify his tough-guy persona, Dom McLennon brings fast, rhythmic, and candid bars, Matt Champion raps with infectious confidence and bravado, Merlyn Wood adds a not-usually-serious energy to the mix, and JOBA is a wild-card that can go from singing beautiful harmonies on one track to screaming about breaking necks on the next. I am confident that this type of prolific, eclectic, and personalized rap is where the genre is headed, especially now that this group is around, and I can’t wait for their next album--already slated for early 2018.

(The albums themselves are pretty similar, but I would rank them 2, 3, 1 (descending), which is really just based on the number of less-memorable tracks they have.)

2. Joey Bada$$ - ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

Lots of musicians had their take on the current events of the past year or so, but I don’t think anybody had a political message that was as focused, thought-out, and powerful as Joey Bada$$ did on this album. For starters, the instrumentals are really immersive, with triumphant horn sections and choirs leading some of the more confident tracks and grimy samples backing the more passionate and angry beats--and it’s all mixed pretty much perfectly, leading to a combination that keeps you moving to the beat. On top of the stellar production, Joey raps about what it’s like to be a black man in modern America, taking perspectives on fear of the police, gang violence, and hatred of the current government, all with the incredible rhyme schemes and flow that he is known for, even singing a few of the choruses pretty well. The overall theme is a duality between anger and disappointment at the current system and an inspiring call to action to improve the future, which is a large chunk of why I think this album is both firmly rooted in the present and timeless in its quality.

1. Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy

Tyler has always been one of my favorite rappers in the abstract, with his lyrical schemes, unpolished production, and unconventional narratives being the driving force behind his work--but Flower Boy is a newer, more mature Tyler than the one that’s been heard before. Both his lyrics and his production have stepped up so much on this album that it’s hard to even believe it was all done by Tyler himself. The lyrics are incredibly candid and rooted in Tyler’s own anxieties about fame, friends, and relationships, with his uniquely dynamic, almost chaotic rhyme schemes adding to the fittingly-awkward aesthetic of the lyrics. The production is also butter-smooth and usually based on laid-back, jazz-like piano or psychedelic guitar chords, with soulful vocal performances from Tyler, Frank Ocean, Rex Orange County, and Estelle to name a few--all of this culminating in a sound that’s just as much chill psychedelic rock as much as it is hip-hop. Tyler’s talent and maturity have really bloomed with this album, and its message connected with me personally: in a year that was filled with worries, loneliness, and shifting friendships, I could put this on and find peace in the moment--and that is why Flower Boy is my Vinyl of the Year for 2017.

That about wraps it up! If you liked what you read and are interested in any of these albums, remember you can listen to most of the music I just talked about in my Best of 2017 playlist. I’ll see you again this time next year with another playlist, countdown, and Vinyl of the Year.

It’s that time of year yet again! Except this time, I’m leaving for good.

Tumblr has been good to me the two years I used it, but I’m going to move on to more ambitious things. I will be turning this music review blog into a podcast that should be available on SoundCloud soon, and the first episode will be an Album of the Year discussion with a couple of friends. 

Here is the SoundCloud page (currently empty) where the podcast will be uploaded. I will be also posting review summaries on my new user page at rateyourmusic.com, which you can find here. My favorite 2018 albums list is already there if you want a sneak peek. Or, if you’re lazy, here’s my top 10:

1. Saba - CARE FOR ME

2. Kero Kero Bonito - Time ‘n’ Place

3. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs

4. KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS

5. Denzel Curry - TA13OO

6. JID - DiCaprio 2

7. Pusha T - DAYTONA

8. Smino - NOIR

9. Noname - Room 25

10. Mac Miller - Swimming

2018 was a great year for music, hip-hop especially, and I can’t wait to see what music closes out the decade in 2019. I look forward to giving the podcast to you all. One last time:

Hello again! Hope the first half of 2018 has treated you nicely. There’s been a lot of interesting music lately--Saba, Kali Uchis, Jack White, and more have contributed to the year’s best records already, but we still have six and a half months until VotY 2018 comes around.

As I’ve done every summer, in the meantime, I selected a vinyl record to get from last year’s great albums for its musical staying power and innovative appeal. And among every artist that made something I liked last year, the only one that I still talk about consistently is none other than the rap boyband BROCKHAMPTON. Since the SATURATION trilogy wrapped up last December, the group has gained even more popularity and publicity for their infectiously-inspiring raps, large group chemistry, and wild beat compositions.

I mentioned last year that my rank for the trilogy was 2>3>1, but as time passed I became less certain, and ended up loosely ranking every song one by one before deciding on a more definitive best album. SAT II was my favorite for a long time after SAT III released because JUNKY, GUMMY, and SWEET remain some of the boyband’s best work in my opinion--but SAT III actually had a much higher bar for consistent quality, with pretty much every song except LIQUID being memorable and enjoyable to me, whereas SAT II has a larger amount of forgettable tracks, like JESUS, FIGHT, or TOKYO. (That isn’t to say I hate these songs; the entire SAT trilogy still has its rightful place on the VotY 2017 list, they are just worse by comparison.)

So, in short, SAT III turned out to actually be a more consistently-strong album than SAT II, which had more peaks and valleys. And for that reason, 2018′s Lasting Impression vinyl will be BROCKHAMPTON’s SATURATION III... 

As soon as SATURATION III is actually available on vinyl. (Hopefully the recent signing with RCA will expedite this process.)

The first half of 2017 is coming to a close, which means it’s time to decide on a vinyl record to get. After a while of thinking about what criteria to use, I finally came up with a solution I like:

Lasting Impression: This title (and the vinyl) will henceforth go to any album released in the previous year that exceeded listening expectations set at the time. An album worthy of leaving a Lasting Impression usually takes a bit of time to grow on me, but once it does it becomes a previously-underrated classic.

With all of that in mind, the Lasting Impression Vinyl 2017 is:

Noname - Telefone

Listen here

The Chicago rapper most well-known from her features on Chance the Rapper albums released her own mixtape last summer, which made it to my 2016 top 10--but this year I’ve been listening to it probably more than any of the other records on the top 10 combined. Noname’s knack for poetic lyricism and flow, combined with the gentle, wavy R&B/electronica production style, makes this one of the kindest rap records ever made, shattering many common stereotypes about rap music. I’ve since used Telefone to break those stereotypes in some of my friends, the end result being a newfound appreciation for the genre. That alone gives Telefone a special place in my heart--but there are so many songs on here that are so damn soulful and groovy and catchy, that I can’t help but listen over and over again myself. For all of these reasons, Telefone is my Lasting Impression Vinyl for 2017--

Wait a second. They don’t sell Telefone on vinyl? That really sucks!

Time for vinyl plan B, which I’ve appropriately named Side B.

Side B: For any record that isn’t offered on vinyl, a replacement record will be bought from 10 years ago. This allows me to build my collection of favorite classics as well as modern records, and my collection doesn’t just have to be a bunch of second-bests.

The Side B year is then 2007: when iPhones threw the world into a new era of portable tech, YouTube was at the apex of its first golden age of viral videos, and I was a dorky kid in elementary school listening to classic rock while my friends jammed out to the new Fall Out Boy and Paramore albums. It took me a while after that to get into modern music as much as I am now, and since then I’ve realized 2007 as one of the more remarkable years in music of the new millennium: LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, and many others all dropped projects still hailed as classics. For me, however, one of these albums was a favorite even from the very beginning of my indie days:

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

Listen here

I’ve done a lot of growing in the past few months while I was trying to maintain this blog, which in itself has made it hard to keep up with new releases. After the spring wave has come and gone, with summer releases looming already (looking at you, Fleet Foxes), I’ve decided not to review every new album I listen to. 

When I started this blog I had the idea that I would be a sort-of Anthony Fantano as a side project to my real life, giving thoughtful reviews to every new album that caught my eye--but I forgot that this kind of thing is Fantano’s full-time job, and I had other stuff to worry about. It made listening to music more of a chore, and reviewing it on the blog a job, which is not the kind of relationship I want with the music I enjoy.

I still want to share my musical opinions with the world, but writing about them all the time is just not worth that much time to me anymore. Instead of the old process of first impressions, therefore, every time I get a vinyl I’m going to make a post like the one I made at the end of last year, highlighting briefly a bunch of albums I liked and ending with my vinyl pick. I will occasionally post other stuff too, when I have something worth sharing, but that will be the main focus--as it always has.

Also, I’ve decided on a criteria for the summer vinyls: Lasting Impression. As a sort of juxtaposition to the First Impression reviews I’ve been doing, the summer vinyl will go to a record from the previous year that I continued to enjoy through the first half of the current year--regardless of how it was ranked in the past. Everything Everything’s Get to Heaven, for example, fits this criteria very well: I didn’t enjoy it as much when it came out in 2015 as I did when I was listening to it non-stop in 2016, and I think records that make a splash like that for me deserve their own merit, despite being delayed.

So that’s that. You won’t be hearing from me for a little while, when I do a little write-up for the Lasting Impression vinyl for summer 2017, so until then...

Thanks for reading, and happy listening!

It’s finally here! And because I basically had to do one mega-review of every album I listened to in 2016, it’s very long too, culminating in a top-10 album countdown. This post is gonna start with an essay-style discussion of every album that isn’t in my top 10, followed by the countdown (number 1 of course also being the VotY). So, without further introduction, here’s a huge review of the music I listened to in 2016.

The image above is in order of release date. Unfortunately, 26 isn’t a great number for an even grid, and tumblr might mess with the image quality, so you can see a bigger, better version of the list here.

There are a few things to note about the discussion’s formatting before I actually get into it: 1) The albums aren’t in any particular order, just what made sense to write about next, but 2) the album titles are in bold so you can skip to them easier if you just care about some of them, and 3) they’re all links you can click to listen to the album via YouTube, or Google Play Music if there wasn’t a good YT link.

Here we go.

There were a few albums that came out early in the year that were good, but didn’t blow me away. Daughter’s sophomore LP Not to Disappear was great, bringing with it all the dark ambience I love from their music as expected, there just wasn’t much about it that stood out. A few songs sound in line with the quality that If You Leave has more of (Numbers, Mothers, and Made of Stone off the top of my head), but the rest was just forgettable. I tried to jump on the Animal Collective hype train as well once their album Painting With got released, but as I probably should have expected after disliking Merriweather Post Pavilion for the most part I just didn’t enjoy listening to it much. (That being said, FloriDada is fun and beachy and catchy as hell.) I gave the group’s style one more try with Deakin’s solo record Sleep Cycle, which has its pretty moments—namely the Pink Floyd-esque tune Golden Chords—but now I’m certain that they aren’t my style. The same went for James Blake’s record The Colour In Anything: I see the appeal in Blake’s lovely voice and the simple-yet-moving production, but the album just doesn’t vibe with me.

There were also a couple of rap albums that I appreciated more than I liked. Atrocity Exhibition, for one, was my first taste of Danny Brown on his own, and I thought it was good but not amazing. Amid some real bangers like Really Doe and Ain’t It Funny were songs I wasn’t sure what to make of, and not yet being totally used to Danny’s voice didn’t help much. This was my first listen to Danny Brown on his own, so I can’t really speak much for how much he or his music has evolved from previous albums, but if other music critics are trustworthy then it’s a solid improvement, and I respect that. I also respect A Tribe Called Quest for coming back with their last album as a full group, We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, in the wake of Phife Dawg’s unfortunate passing. Their style stays true as ever, the album has tons of modern and classic features, from Busta Rhymes to Kendrick Lamar to Jack White of all people, and the subject matter is tied strongly to the current events of the past year, and for all of that I think it’s a great album—I’m just way too new to Tribe and the time their music was steeped in, so their album wasn’t a personal favorite.

Of course, there were other big 2016 hip-hop releases that I liked more. I’ll talk about most of them a bit later, but one particular album made waves even several weeks prior to its release (when, fittingly, Waves was its working title): How could I not mention Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo? The hip-hop legend dropped this mishmosh of a record to critical acclaim, and I try not to use that term too negatively: West himself said the album is “a living, breathing, changing creative expression,” so I don’t fault him for leaving some breathing room in terms of production. There are some real standalone hits that stand out, of course; Ultralight Beam, No More Parties in LA, and the hilariously self-aware I Love Kanye are all fantastic in their own right. However, there are also many clear areas across the record that sound like they belong on the cutting room floor from one of Kanye’s previous albums—but that’s just what makes this album great. Whereas most notable albums these days are more cohesive, this album knits itself together more like a quilt: Very far from seamless, but that makes the effort and care that went into making it much more visible. Because of that, the album was a tough contender to the number 10 spot on my list.

Another close contender to the top ten this year was Glass Animals’ groovy album How to Be a Human Being. In previous albums they sounded samey to me, each song not deviating too much from the last one, but the band definitely seems to have fixed that with this record. Songs are backed with everything from video game sound effects to dreamy ambient synths to heavily distorted drums, and they’re all mixed really well with the trademark breathy vocals and wide scope of sounds. My favorite example of this on the album by far has got to be The Other Side Of Paradise, with stop-start synths that stick in your skull till sunrise—alliteration aside, I can’t listen to this song and not move to it, and it’s definitely one of my favorite tracks to come out this year. A good few of the tracks on How to Be a Human Being still sound way too similar though, and there’s lots of repetition within songs—for most of the tracks, you’ve heard it all after the first minute or so—but I commend Glass Animals for making their music more dynamic and hope that trend continues.

In the more EDM-influenced pop world, we saw two EP releases from the duo Lemaitre this year, 1749 and Afterglow. Both EPs show a huge improvement in Lemaitre’s mixing and composition talents from their Relativity EP series, but Afterglow was a bit less interesting than 1749 in terms of song diversity and uniqueness. Not Too Late remains my favorite track by this group, and with it Lemaitre really made themselves worth following as more than just nightclub fodder, but Afterglow seems to slip back into that mold a bit—albeit still being wonderfully composed and a delight to listen to, whether dancing in the club or sitting in bed.

On the flip side of the pop releases this year, there were a couple groups that decided to get funkier in 2016, as most pop seems to be doing these days (I blame Daft Punk and Bruno Mars): Namely, I’m thinking of Two Door Cinema Club’s Gameshow and STRFKR’s Being No One, Going Nowhere. These albums are far from bad, but the shift in sound they went with didn’t improve them much, and actually made them slightly worse just by sacrificing some of their uniqueness as a group to pursue the mainstream sound. Both records were interesting blends of funk elements with each group’s signature style, Two Door bringing their quick-guitar-riff driven rock and STRFKR using various catchy synth rhythms. While Gameshow sounds more like a watering-down of Two Door’s punchier sound to make room for a groove, STRFKR’s album is still an improvement from 2013’s Miracle Mile, when the group first started to experiment with adding a groove to their music. Being No One is certainly more seamless and even harkens back to their much earlier work in its tone, even using voice samples like they used to. If Gameshow becomes Two Door Cinema Club’s Miracle Mile, insofar as being a transition to a cleaner, more characteristic funky album later, then I understand its necessity and welcome their fourth record with open ears.

A few new names also appeared on my radar this year, these two with albums that are rock-oriented, and have well-written themes about growing up. Car Seat Headrest and their album Teens of Denial rocketed the small bandcamp group to stardom this past year, with dense, meaningful lyrics about the transition into adulthood and an accessible garage-rock style. I’ll admit that if I listened to this album more it very well may have ended up on the top ten, but unfortunately I didn’t get around to reading more into it. I fell into a similar situation with Mitski’s record Puberty 2, which had to do more with the teenage years themselves, lyrically focusing on the angst and anxiety that riddle them. This album was also a highly acclaimed one with many layers of meaning and depth, and one I also thought was just okay because I hadn’t listened to it more. I certainly won’t make the same mistake the next time either of these artists release an album (or with any album of note in 2017, for that matter).

Looking back, there were a lot of albums released this year that were incredibly relevant to the events of 2016 that were praised for being beautiful artistic expressions of a year that not a lot of people liked. As well as the aforementioned A Tribe Called Quest album, Solange’s A Seat at the Table was one of the most critically acclaimed examples of this, and I can hear why—the messages of black pride come through the pleasant and well-composed R&B songs on the album and the candid spoken intermissions between them, and playing the two off of each other really makes this album a unique take on what it means to be a black woman in today’s society (which is a phrase you may be tired of hearing verbatim by now if you’ve been reading about this album, but there isn’t a much better way to put it). 2016 will also be remembered for its numerous unfortunate celebrity deaths, beginning in earnest with David Bowie just two days after his swan-song of an album, Blackstar. He knew he wasn’t long for this world at the time, and you can hear that throughout the record (you don’t need much more proof of this than “Look up here, I’m in heaven”), and sad though it is, it shows Bowie’s amazing creative potential one last time. Last January I saw someone I don’t know on Twitter sum this up perfectly by saying “Bowie stared death in the face and thought ‘I can use this’”. In that way this album also seems to represent 2016 as the forced transition away from old times, saying goodbye to the classic, groundbreaking, and nostalgic works and their artists—in any medium—that brought us to this point, in favor of looking to the future and making a mark for this generation.

And now, onto the top 10!

10. JANK - Versace Summer

The best way I’ve found to describe JANK to someone in an X-meets-Y style is that they’ve got the lyrics and tone of an emo garage band, but with the intricate guitar work and immense overall talent of an early Modest Mouse. The more I listen to this album, the more little instrumental details I catch: every little guitar or drum fill, and just how much the tempo and dynamics change within and between songs is so impressive that you’d think that the songs would be about something more complicated than, say, a bicycle named Ralph—but it doesn’t even matter, because JANK pulls you into their mood until you’re singing every word regardless. And even still, a good number of their songs can really hit heavy—like that song about a bicycle named Ralph. Even Gucci Spring, the one out-of-place song on the album, is a chill tune with great composition. I really hope JANK keeps dropping albums—hell, as long as they keep releasing music, I’ll never feel older than sixteen and love it.

Favorite Tracks: Chunks (kool enuff), This is a Song About my Bike “Ralph” and it’s Called “Ralph”, #freesam

9. Noname - Telefone

Noname first made a name for herself through features on Chance the Rapper’s albums, but this mixtape marks her first solo venture, and it is one hell of an album. Telefone has got to be the calmest and kindest-sounding rap album I’ve ever heard, if only because of the lovely, smooth keyboard backs, but there’s so much more. All the singing is so well-mixed and pretty, and the rap verses aren’t too loud or aggressive; in a way, in lends them even more honesty—which makes the realer, darker songs about Noname’s life in the Chicago hood even more deep-cutting. Even still the album holds its optimism: the laments of the album are surrounded by a resoundingly positive attitude, smiling in the face of any obstacle. On top of that, the lyrics flow well with the music and have universal meaning behind them in just about every song, covering all the ups and downs that connect Noname and her Chi-town community. A hip-hop/R&B album like this is as pleasant as a surprise phone call from a loved one, and I can’t wait to hear another one from Noname.

Favorite Tracks: Diddy Bop, Reality Check, Forever

8. Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.

“EVEN THE B-SIDES!” cried the Kendrick fans in praise on all the hip-hop messageboards online circa March, and boy were they right. This is an album purely of live-only tracks, scraps, and B-sides from Kendrick’s previous masterpiece To Pimp A Butterfly, and it’s still just as genius and fantastic as anything he’s done before. What continues to blow me away with Kendrick’s work is his sound design: he uses so many different sounds, tones, voices, and effects in every single track he makes, and still puts it all together masterfully. Even within one song, Kendrick throws three different inflections on his own voice and uses each one to manipulate his flow—and that’s about average for this record. Don’t let the fact escape you that these songs were rejected from being published until now; one of the best rap albums to come out this year was picked up and dusted off from the studio floor. That alone should tell you what kind of talent Kendrick has, and why he’s considered one of the greatest rappers of this generation.

Favorite Tracks: untitled 02, untitled 03, untitled 07

7. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

If Noname is the girl keeping her block optimistic with Telefone, Chance is the older brother that takes that to the entire city.  It means a lot to be the second-biggest name in Chicago rap and Chance knows that, counting his blessings very explicitly on this record and letting everyone hear. Even this album has its down moments, mostly more somber tunes about Chance and his friends growing up and changing, but he uses a gospel choir and religious themes to keep the smile on his and any listeners’ faces. There have been some critiques of the mixing on this record, and I won’t deny that it’s a bit out of wack, but it’s nothing that makes the album even remotely unlistenable or dilutes its messages (and sure, All We Got is a bit of a shitshow, but I blame Kanye for that). All of the features are great too, and they run the gamut from gospel artist and choir director Kirk Franklin to Lil fucking Yachty. Overall in Coloring Book, Chance’s optimism and pride for himself and his city are contagious, and it makes me smile every time I listen to this record.

Favorite Tracks: Same Drugs, Angels, How Great

6. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 3

It’s a Christmas fucking miracle! RTJ dropped this album early online for the holiday, and at the last minute it made my top ten. Run the Jewels 2 was damn fantastic, and this awesome dynamic duo of hip-hop just keep getting better. El-P and Killer Mike bring even more trademark establishment-hatred and adrenaline-pumping arrogance with their latest installment, and they really sound like they’ve found their groove with this record. The proof is everywhere, from the production from El that’s more vivid and diverse than anything he’s made before, to the opinions of a pissed-off generation of millenials that fuel their lyrics, even down to the dynamics in their tone of voice. And as if it weren’t enough to improve on their style, RTJ even included a few tracks that are strong shifts in tone: Instead of their usual middle-fingers-up attitude to society, they rap some verses that sound just like shock and disbelief for how events turned out, even getting sentimental with the surprisingly personal Thursday in the Danger Room, which is equal parts banger and mournful tribute that cuts deep. I think that’s a feeling we all shared in 2016, a year where we needed voices like El’s and Mike’s to keep us strong and angry enough to do something about it—and they couldn’t have delivered more perfectly.

Favorite Tracks: Talk to Me, Hey Kids (Bumaye), Thursday in the Danger Room

5. clipping. - Splendor & Misery

Four words: Experimental space rap opera. Still interested? I didn’t think I was when this album first came around. As mentioned in this album’s Pitchfork review, I was surprised that clipping, now much closer to the spotlight after Daveed Diggs’s famous role as Lafayette/Jefferson in the hip-hop musical Hamilton, would use this opportunity to push something so bold and unique instead of an album full of experimental bangers like their last album CLPPNG was. But the more I listened, the more I thought it was the right move. Diggs and his crew bring their creativity to somewhere no artist has ventured before—an epic tale of a slave mutineer taking over a spaceship and flying it past war-torn planets in search of a new home. And while this album doesn’t have as many standalone hits (as it really shouldn’t), the incredible talent Diggs has for storytelling is brought to new frontiers in character development and worldbuilding (seriously, I get chills when he transitions from African world-shaping mythos to the human idols that moonwalk). From the cold, spacey production to the delightfully abstract storytelling this album brings, Splendor & Misery is my favorite narrative album since The Antlers’ Hospice, and a welcome twist to contemporary rap.

Favorite Tracks: All Black, True Believer, Air ‘Em Out

4. Childish Gambino - “Awaken, My Love!”

Speaking of twists in rap, how could you go much further than not rapping at all? Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino has gone from internet sketch comedy to writing for TV to acting on TV to doing stand-up comedy to dropping hip-hop albums to making his own (now Golden Globe-winning) TV show, and this album marks yet another sharp turn in his career to releasing an album of pure funk and R&B—and while other critics (and a few of my friends) aren’t so sure about this one, I enjoy every song on it. Across the record Gambino runs the full gamut of classic funk and soul styles, and on each one he distorts his voice differently to fit the song—belting passionate cries in one tune and pitched-up soulful melodies in another. Even California, the most-debated song on this record, lends itself some praise for being a catchy abstraction of Jawaiian reggae. If there’s any way to compare this with his previous records, it’s with production and instrumentation, and both seem vastly improved and expanded upon—really, my only gripe with this album is how poorly it’s mixed in some areas. If Gambino sticks with this funky pursuit for at least another album to iron out its few problems, though, we could see a real masterpiece in the future. Other artists that dabbled in funk this year should take note: sometimes it’s better to dive in headfirst.

Favorite Tracks: Me and Your Mama, Zombies, Redbone

3. Bon Iver - 22, A Million

Bon Iver has made a name for themselves over the past decade or so with their ambient, snowy-cabin music (including the hit Skinny Love) and features on Kanye West songs, and the three records they released before this one are all beautifully gentle explorations of abstractly-mixed soundscapes—but this record transcends that in favor of something almost completely different. Inspired in part by group founder Justin Vernon’s battles with personal and existential loneliness while recording it, 22, A Million shifts gears suddenly to a dirty, sample-based, electronic sound that is disorienting at first to say the least. It ranges from uncanny-valley distortions of otherwise mellow acoustic songs to broken percussion-heavy tracks, with lyrics full of half-phrases and made-up words—and while the details are incoherent, the way they’re put together results in a strange electronic recreation of Vernon’s signature calm, somber tone. The devil is in the details on this record, so to speak, and just how much there is worth discussing is impressive—like the amazing voice layering in 8 (circle), or the psalm sample in 33 “GOD”, or those chilling few seconds near the end of 29 #Strafford APTS. It’s a very postmodern album, all told, opting for the expression of raw stream-of-consciousness instead of being more explicit, and like many postmodern works, it can be analyzed from so many different angles and parsed to convey so many different ideas. 22, A Million is the kind of album that belongs in an art museum, and I’m so glad a record so unique, deep, and beautiful exists.

Favorite Tracks: 715 - CRΣΣKS, 29 #Strafford APTS, 8 (circle)

2. Anderson .Paak - Malibu

This album was the first I’d heard of Anderson .Paak like many other people this year, but after listening to this album I feel like I know him like a family member. On this album, Anderson celebrates himself and overcoming his difficult past with contagious honesty and confidence on top of beautifully-produced tracks that range from soulful R&B beats to dance-floor grooves. The wide range of instruments, effects, and beats applied on this record are all mixed seamlessly, and even the samples from old surfing movies between most songs carry the album’s tone beautifully while holding up the songs’ themes. It’d be good enough if it was just pretty, but it’s also by far the most personal and intimate album of 2016. In addition to offering his signature take on more classic R&B, taking after his own inspirations and revamping them for the present, Anderson sings and raps verses about his childhood, family, career, and relationships that are all equal parts candid autobiography and inspiring motivation. In a way, the combination goes so far as to put you into Anderson’s life story and create a potent sort of nostalgia for it: you’re where he was decades ago, letting the music on the record player push you to rise above the not-so-good situation you might have at home. And in that way, Anderson celebrates you, too, and you just can’t stop grinning.

Favorite Tracks: The Waters, The Season | Carry Me, Come Down

1, and the 2016 Vinyl of the Year:

The Avalanches - Wildflower

I’m not even sure where to begin with this freaking fantastic album. When I first listened to Wildflower, it was being raved about online, so I figured I’d see what the hype was about, in bed, with my laptop speakers. I didn’t want to leave that spot for the next hour as I listened—I even delayed plans I had made just to finish it. In a single word, this album is immersive, and there has been no other record that pulls me into the environment and atmosphere that it creates like Wildflower does. The hundreds, maybe thousands, of 1960’s samples that The Avalanches mixed together brilliantly instill an indirect but pure nostalgia for America in a unique and strange era, with a fantastic demonstration of show-don’t-tell and utilizing tone and instruments more than words—more blatantly, it’s at number one because it does artificial nostalgia better than Malibu and conveying raw feeling better than 22, A Million. Even the several excellent rap features don’t ruin the immersion, despite rap not being a thing back then: it’s almost like being at an alternate Woodstock with a more modern lineup of acts. The sheer amount of detail in the sound design is the key to how captivating Wildflower is: all of the samples that are used as background noise and sound effects take you to a different place and time for practically each song. That also makes this album excellent travel music: regardless of where you’re going or what you’re doing, you feel like you’re on summer break from school, having fun in the sun and enjoying the psychedelic era to its fullest. In several ways the current time parallels that one—a silent majority resulted in a publicly-disfavored president and a young counter-establishment attitude, and civil rights movements and vinyl record sales are making a nationwide resurgence, to name a couple—and whether by design or coincidence this album runs with that perfectly. It’s both here and there, in 2016 and 1966, within and without, a celebration of the moment as much as it can be an escape from it, and there’s just no other music quite like it. For all of these reasons, Wildflower is my Vinyl of the Year for 2016. 

Favorite Tracks: Because I’m Me, Frankie Sinatra, Kaleidoscopic Lovers

A quick post-script

In a little while I’ll update the blog theme from Currents to Wildflower. Looking back, I’m surprised how much hip-hop showed up in the top 10. It wasn’t really until this year that I began to follow it more actively, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite genres--if I can even put the music I like into genres these days, anyway. 

2016 has been a great year for music, but 2017 could easily top it: we’ve got anticipated/potential albums from The xx (who already released theirs), Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Portugal. The Man, The National, Arcade Fire, and many more brand-new artists to discover. I’ll be reviewing albums as I listen to them this year, so future VotY posts won’t be this huge, and you can keep up with VotY more regularly. I hope 2016 was a great year in music for you, too, and that 2017 proves to be even better!

A little more than a year ago now, I was diving headfirst into all of the top-albums lists that the internet music world had to offer. It was the first year that I began to stay on top of music as it came out, following online reviews and community discussion. So, naturally, I figured I would throw my own two-cent hat into the ring, in the form of Vinyl of the Year--but it wasn’t really until now that I wanted to have a place to dump opinions while thinking about my own personal favorites to go along with it. It’s a win-win situation: It will help me remember what I like about music as it gets released, and you, the reader, can more easily tell me why I’m wrong!

So without further exposition, here’s a look back on what I liked in 2015 (in order of release date):

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

Listen here

Throughout this whole record, Kendrick shows how much he’s grown from Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, from the amazing, complex production and instrumentals to the hilarious, heavy, and hard-hitting lyrics. Even the overarching theme of the album is centered on growing to his full potential, through the metamorphosis from the Compton streets to the Grammys--and the way this album sticks together to show that is one of the best parts about it. The monologue that builds up through the album takes the listener through various points in Kendrick’s development, and he’s able to seamlessly change the mood across tracks to match his perspective then--from triumphant, to suicidal, to arrogant, to enraged, to confident. With To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick gives us a complete view into how he got to the top, and if he keeps this quality up his reign is sure to continue--and hopefully he won’t get robbed of AOTY at the Grammys again when that happens.

Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves

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In their sixth album, Modest Mouse turn their trademark cynicism up to 11, while expanding in their musical style and using sounds that are a far cry from the band’s early days of guitar-centric rock. The change isn’t out of nowhere; a good chunk of the songs wouldn’t sound out of place if they were on previous records--and then there’s tracks closer to Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996), which completely push the boundaries of Modest Mouse’s musical niche with a mixed bag of criticism to go along with it. In a way, this album is also one of growth, showing that the band has not only expanded their repertoire of instruments and production tricks, but also the very subject of the album--for the first time the band criticizes society on a global scale, addressing humanity as the wasteful, malicious, selfish, and unbelievably short-sighted entity that it can seem to be. And yet, as the band’s views seem to strengthen, the way they’re conveyed seems for the most part weaker--Brock’s voice no longer punches you in the guts like it once would, and instead takes the easier way there by making the whole message easier to swallow with gentler, smoother production. Modest Mouse has ventured further into new territory than ever before with Strangers to Ourselves, and I think travelling back to their aggressive roots--and taking the tools and styles they’ve found back with them--would be the best next step.

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

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Carrie & Lowell is an album inspired by the passing of Sufjan’s mother Carrie in 2012, written and recorded as part of the grieving process he went through, and one can really hear the album progressing through its stages from shock through to acceptance, while using a healthy dose of nostalgia and memories to tie the feelings together. There’s a real beauty in the way everything flows and fades gently, even in the album’s darkest moments, easily making it one of the best albums to cry to. This album was my first experience with Sufjan, and after hearing his other work I think it would have been better to start elsewhere. On its own this album is immersive, gentle (almost to the point of sounding muffled), and depressing as hell--but after his earlier album Illinoise, which is much grander and brighter (and closer to baroque-pop), it becomes even more gripping and emotional in the very things it lacks by comparison. Sufjan’s tragedy is one that likely everyone will have to go through at some point in their lives, and I thank him for sharing his cathartic journey, and hope that he’s feeling better now.

Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color

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To most, southern rock is a genre that grew, blossomed, and wilted long ago--but Alabama Shakes continue to thrive from their southern rock roots, especially now that they’ve stepped out of the shadow of their influences (to borrow phrasing from Anthony Fantano) and made it to their own place in the sun. Their previous and first full album Boys & Girls was a delight of a rock record that is fully steeped in its inspirations, to the point where it wouldn’t sound out-of-place in a stack of ‘60′s-’70′s rock vinyls. This record, meanwhile, expertly keeps its feet planted while reaching out to modern, more complex production at the same time. From the more-monotone guitar-based tunes bloom some awesome dynamics, from the light and cheery melodies rise straight-up groovy and passionate songs, to show just a couple examples. Overall, Sound & Color leaves me excitedly wondering where the band’s talent will take them next, and whether they’ll end up uprooting some of their southern-rock core to continue branching further out.

Everything Everything - Get to Heaven

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I love this band, and I continue to be surprised that more folks don’t know about them (at least in America). Their third album continues the constantly-dynamic, instrument-rich, vocally-powerful, and lyrically-clever-and-intense style they’ve adopted and takes it to new, terrifying heights. Get to Heaven features punchy percussion, intricate guitar work, and grandiose soundscapes to push the central message of terrorism and the desperate actions of the disenfranchised (borrowing phrasing from Pitchfork’s review of this album). The album jumps around in its musical tone, but the lyrical themes don’t shy away from the message of doom even when the instruments seem to do so: songs range from extreme depictions of police riots and false prophets to downright groovy tunes about being desensitized to the atrocities of terrorism or growing to inevitably make the same mistakes as your forefathers. I am delighted that Everything Everything took their style to such a hot, era-defining topic and pulled no punches while doing so, and would love to see more concept albums like this from them in the future.

Tame Impala - Currents

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In the wake of their breakout hit album Lonerism, Tame Impala took their characteristic psychedelic sound and reworked it to become more poppy and much less rock-oriented or guitar-based. This caused Currents to get somewhat mixed reviews, with harsher critics claiming they diluted their sound to broaden appeal (similar to what I think Strangers to Ourselves was criticized for), and others simply pointing out that there are less good, memorable songs in this record among the repetitive pop style that band leader Kevin Parker utilizes. There are definitely a couple of yawners here (I don’t think Past Life is anyone’s favorite track, for one), but overall I still call this a fantastic album. Tame Impala’s production has finally left the garage and entered the studio proper with Currents, and the extra synths and instrumentation that come with it are composed with satisfying precision. Lyrically, the core theme of working through life’s changes is an almost painfully candid continuation of the saga that Lonerism began, with entire verses--hell, entire songs--that hit close to home. If nothing else, that’s proof that this album is far from diluted, and that Kevin is at least maintaining his composing/songwriting expertise, and at most vastly improving for this and future records.

Half Moon Run - Sun Leads Me On

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Another band I don’t think gets enough attention, Half Moon Run released this album a couple Octobers ago, their second record after their debut Dark Eyes. Listening to both albums in order feels like a long night followed by a sunny, pleasant morning, which the album titles almost imply by themselves. The atmospheric production and crisp vocals don’t contrast as much with darker lyrics and intense ambiance as they were in Dark Eyes, and instead they seem to fit perfectly with Sun Leads Me On‘s more light-hearted tone. What’s more, the few outlier songs that don’t fit this trend stand out nicely as experimental landmarks across the record--one moment you’re listening to a more traditional-sounding folk diddy, the next it’s a synth-centric pop song, and everything else seems to fall between those two extremes of the album. Half Moon Run has broadened their sound like several of the other artists I discussed, but unlike them I’m not sure which way I want Half Moon Run to go. Whichever musical path they take, be it more folk or more pop, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

And now, onto the VotY picks! You can probably already guess from the way the blog looks, but 2015′s Vinyl of the Year is:

Vinyl of the Year 2015: Tame Impala - Currents

2015 was a big year for me: I graduated high school, had my first semester of college, and went through several other major life changes either at the same time or as a result. For that reason especially, the way that Currents illustrated change and living with/through it really got to me. I played Yes I’m Changing probably every day that summer, and even louder on the drive to school--it and the rest of the album just felt like the perfect thing to listen to, and the perfect album to sum up 2015 for me.

Now, come summertime, I had an idea to also get a vinyl halfway through the year--but it couldn’t also be the last year’s worth of albums, or it’d overlap with the regular VotY. I’m still torn on what the criteria should be--”favorite album that I listened to in the past year regardless of release date”, “favorite album from exactly 10/15 years before”, and “favorite albums of all time” are all strong candidates. For summer 2016, I settled on the first one, and got a vinyl copy of:

Summer Vinyl 2016: Everything Everything - Get to Heaven

This album officially released over the summer in 2015, and I listened to it on YouTube on repeat for a while then while it wasn’t on Google Play Music. For some reason it had taken seven months or so for it to appear there, so I really grew to enjoy this album during this past year. Even more so, the album’s terror-based themes became more evident in 2016 with the increase of attacks and tragedy that this past year brought (especially over the summer when I bought the vinyl). Regardless of the terror it seemingly foretold, Get to Heaven is a fantastic record that I’m glad is now in my collection. (This album will also stay with the Summer Vinyl collection even If the criteria changes before summer 2017).