THE TOP 10 BEST (AND WORST) ALBUMS OF 2016

Settle in, because this is a long one.

INTRODUCTION

I started making Year End lists as far back as 2001.  Not just lists, but write ups.  I didn't know what a blog was until I got on MySpace in 2006 (my family and I were very late adapters of the internet).  That's where Nutterblog got started, June of that year.  Seventeen years ago.  And sure, there's plenty of years from 2001 thru 2017 where I could redo the whole thing because my picks would've changed drastically, but there were only ever two that felt like they "got away": 2013 and 2016.

2013 I was so burnt out from college I damn near decided to delete all of Nutterblog.  I posted the list of albums I heard in alphabetical order and said "I'll let cha know" whether or not I would continue.  I eventually did, sort of putting together a patched-up half-assed thing just before the 2014 lists came out.  I made my peace with 2013.

So why 2016?  And why now?

It never sat right with me that I'd punted on a Year End list for 2016.  Sure I did the songs (which aren't up anymore; I mainly did it as two episodes of my radio show Expect The Unexpected), but the albums...at the time there were two things stopping me from putting together a full list, which were: Depression (brought on by the recent election of Food Poisoning Shits incarnate as POTUS) and I hadn't found an album I could comfortably say was #1.  I think at the time I would've rated my choice a 3.5 out of 5, and that just doesn't cut it.  There had to be something better.

Turns out there was, because spoiler alert: that album's still good, better than before even, but it's sitting at #8.  By February 2017, I heard albums I would've ranked above it, but it was too late.  December of '16 I needed a Best Albums episode, so I put everything into tiers and called it a day.

My music tastes have also changed drastically since then.  They tend to, but on top of that 2016 was a big pivot year.  This was the last gasp of Rock And Roll.  This was the ascension of a new genre to the center of the popular consciousness: Trap.

I use Trap for lack of a better term; genre is so hyper-specific yet also blended with all other genres at the same time so coming up with some kind of catch-all term is hard, but Trap seems to fit the best.  Much like Rock's usurpation of Jazz's throne starting in the 1950's and culminating in the Summer Of Love in 1967,"Trap" (which also has four letters) started its primitive beginnings in the early 2000's and evolved into its psychedelic phase right around the same timeframe.  "Trap" is the new Rock and Roll and Autotune is the new electric guitar.

But I didn't recognize that at the time.  Not even a little bit.  As a result, I was not  prepared for how music was sounding, because I didn't like Trap (or giant chunks of modern music at all) until they clicked into place for me in 2018.  A lot of reviews I did from back then read pretty ignorant.

I also took music and art more "seriously" - as in, I thought I knew a lot more than I did by the sheer fact I'd been making those things for 20 years by that point.  Now I try to see other people's point of view, at least; like, why they might enjoy something I don't.  And that's a theme with most of the albums I listened to for this project; even the ones in the Bottom Ten List.  I can at least understand them a lot more, if not find a new appreciation for them outright.  I'm honestly glad I went back and re-listened to every single one of these 105 projects.

TL;DR: 2016 was a year of tumult, of personal and global confusion, of change (most of which was no fun at all), and by the end of it I kinda wanted to block it all out and never think about it again.  But I kept thinking...and now, seven years later, here we stand.  

2016 was a lost year for me.  I'm glad I found it again.

A QUICK EXPLAINER OF THE TIER SYSTEM

The way I do a Year End list is I pile in every album I heard all year and break them up into sections.  There are numbered lists at the top and bottom, A Top 20 and a Bottom 10.  Inbetween are "Meh", "Okay" and "Pretty Good" tiers, which have quick bullet points about a few notable releases.  There are "Honorable Mentions" as well, which I consider the same tier as the Top 20, but since there are only 20 slots, that's basically the overflow.  This time around, I have four "Dishonorable Mentions" as there were notable stinkers that stuck out from "Meh", but weren't numerically convenient enough to get in the Worst list.  

All right, I guess it's time to make a few enemies, because I am going to kill a few critical and fan darlings with these bottom tiers.  I don't take pleasure in it, but I'm not going to shy away from how I really feel about an album.  If I did, why would you be reading this or I be writing it?

Here we go:

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

Bon Iver "22, A Million"

This was an interesting project to revisit.  I had a bit of an existential quandary the first time I listened to this (or more accurately, read peoples' reactions to it), and I can say this album sounds kinda tame now.  Still different, but much tamer.  I can hear what people like about it now, certainly; I can even hear a part or two I vibe with.  

But Justin Vernon's voice is an unshakable albatross 'round the neck of 22, A Million.  If a different vocalist made an album like this, with similar effects...okay, it still wouldn't be my cup of tea, but it would have a chance.  Who knows, maybe someone who doesn't insist on a braying falsetto could bring something out of the sounds.  But the instrumentation and arrangement are still way too sparse for it to be great.  I'm not baffled by this one anymore, but it's still kinda ass.  

 

Frost* "Falling Satellites"

The synth sounds and production on Falling Satellites had me considering putting Frost* in the Bottom Ten.  That should not be possible.  They've done great music before and after this.  Frost* went through a pretty rough patch, I guess.

Periphery "Periphery III: Select Difficulty"

I don't know why this album doesn't work for me.  I loved their first one (if I'd done a Top 20 Of The Decade instead of my weird, truncated list, they would've made it) and the new one from 2023 is actually pretty good.  It's not even that different from Select Difficulty here.  On paper, this album should whip ass, but it's a dull thud of a pile of nothing.  It's so indistinct while doing essentially the same things that work at either ends of their career, yet comes out bland.  Feels like a waste of time.  Inexplicable.

And now the one that's gonna get my car flipped over and set on fire:

Beyoncé "Lemonade"

So.

With the context of seven years of hindsight, I do understand this album better now.  I get where it's coming from.  I just don't like it very much.

I'm also fully aware it's not meant for me.  I'm a white male in his early 40's; I'm the one you're supposed to get in "Formation" against.  (I ain't even mad at that; mediocre white dudes need to GTFO.)  But I don't have to like something if it's boring or sounds bad.

There are good songs on here; some really good ones.  "Freedom" rules (though I think it would actually be better without Kendrick), "Sorry" and "Daddy Lessons" whip, opener "Pray You Catch Me" is decent.  I can even get the appeal of "6 Inch", even if I think a pair of singers with rougher voices would make the song better as opposed to the purer tones Beyoncé & The Weeknd put on display.

Actually, that might be my problem with Beyoncé (besides the constant over-singing and messianic BeyHive following).  Her voice is juuuust a little too smooth.  It doesn't get there for me in the soul department (blasphemy, I know).  It's frustratingly close, but that coupled with not caring for most of the actual songs to begin with is just the cherry on top.  I've wrestled with why Beyoncé has never quite clicked for me, and I think if she had a little more grit in there, it might change my mind.

Also "Formation" is just "7 Rings" minus the appropriation with a slightly worse beat.  [Ducks firebomb]

All rightee then, now that my house is on fire, let's get the Worst list proper out of the way.  Starting off with (oh god, this'll bring a mortar shell down on me):

THE BOTTOM TEN

10. Frank Ocean "Blond"

This is another one I feel like I understand what people hear in it now, but it's deeply not for me.  Ultimately, it's a sad boy folk album with an electro-emo spin, and I've never liked emo.  "Ivy", "Solo (Reprise)" (because it's just Andre 3000) and the back half of "Pretty Sweet" were all right, the rest was vibey enough to ignore in places and actively annoying in the rest.  

9. Circus Maximus "Havoc"

In theory this should just be bland, but it's the combination of certain intangible elements that get under my skin.  The deluxe edition has a live set from Tokyo where they play songs from their first three albums and it's like a completely different band.  If Dream Theater's When Dream And Day Unite had a slight nu-metal edge to it, that's what it would be like.  The main disc of Havoc (this was before I hopped on the streaming bandwagon) consists of the hollowed out husk of whatever band that's playing live.

I, of course, didn't remember that.  This is only the third time I've ever listened to Havoc, and the first in at least five years.  I remember it being annoyingly soulless, except for a handful of shockingly genuine moments like "Loved Ones", which is a cheesy prog power ballad in the middle of a bunker of butt-rock.  Even though there are three songs I think are okay, I gotta chalk Havoc up as a misfire on every level.

8. Ingrid Michaelson "It Doesn't Have To Make Sense"

I used to love Ingrid Michaelson.  "Mountain And The Sea" hit me in the chest, Human Again really got to me, and Lights Out had it's moments too, though she was threatening to get more commercial and less relatable.  It Doesn't Have To Makes Sense is where she fell over the edge, never to recover.

You can hear her being swallowed by mediocrity as the album progresses: "Light Me Up" is pretty good, "Whole Lot Of Heart" is all right, "Miss America" is mediocre, "Another Life" is a lifeless attempt at a pop song, "I Remember Her" and "Drink You Gone" are as boring or worse than anything John Legend has been slagged for, and "Hell No" can fuck right off, complete with its cutesie Insta-filter music video.  She'd never blatantly rode a trend before, but gyAT-DAIUM this was trash.

"Still The One" is a Meghan Trainer knock-off!  How did we get here?!?!  "Celebrate" is corny but it's at least fun?  It's her trying to write a jingle.  And it closes with another boring dirge.  This was sort of a divorce album, so I get it, but it wound up being my divorce from listening to Ingrid Michaelson.

Now she writes music for TV shows or something.  At least she's still working, I guess, but wow it didn't have to be like this.  

7. School Of Seven Bells "SVIIB"

This was a shock.  I never cared for SVIIB, but this go-round was awful.  I still like the song "Signals" but the rest of the album is one of the most tepid, not really there puddles of sludge I've listened to for this whole 2016 project.  I hated listening to this.  I hope trying to go back and hear Ghostory (2012) doesn't yield similar results.  Oof.

6. Ulver "ATGCLVLSSCAP"

I've heard a handful of Ulver's albums now, and they've been wildly different from one another.  Knowing that, I try to go in to each of them as blind as possible.  So I'm in the car, nice Saturday drive, track one is going.  And going.  And going.  Or rather, failing to go anywhere.  Okay, I'm sensing this is going to be ambient music; I can handle that.  I did end up skipping ahead after 5:30 because I felt like I'd given this 7:39 long "song" a fair shot and nothing happened.

The next two songs were tolerable, sort of reminded me of the less interesting bits of Massive Attack's Danny The Dog score.  Track 4 "Chromagnosis" actively leans into that comparison and I was settling in, finally felt like I was adopting the right frame of mind to hear this kind of music...

That being said...track five doesn't exist and you can't prove it does.  Track six is a nice, vibey time; I'll give it points for that, but the rest of the album is a GIANT pile of nothing.  I sat in front of the house, fast forwarding through nine minute tracks trying to find a sign of anything happening at all, and even on fast forward no signal cut through.  Just a wash of digital lack.  Even on track 10, where they DARE to start having vocals it's still painfully boring.  I figured this'd end up in "Meh" and I'd move on, but this went out of its way to bore me to tears.

5. Izzy Bizu "A Moment Of Madness"

Sounds like somebody doing a baby talk mock impression of 2000's RomCom Soundrack Core.  The lyrics are the most basic thing ever written and her voice sounds like an animal being stepped on.  And the annunciation: Someone so rich they flex by buying all the vowels and forget to make room for consonants.  TRASH.  (And I used to like "White Tiger"!)

4. Netherlands "Audubon"

What a pile of turgid dogshit.  I liked albums before and after this in their discography quite a lot, and Audubon doesn't even differ in sound, but for some reason this is just unlistenable.  The songs are not there.

[Icing on the cake: I bought a physical copy of Audubon, but the CD didn't have CD tracks on it; it was just .WAV files.  I had to use Audacity to work around not being able to even rip the damn thing.  And it was all to hear *this garbage*, so double fuck me, I guess.

3. Dream Theater "The Astonishing"

I went into it with an open mind, but I also figured this was the Worst Album of 2016.  To my surprise, it was not.  As a matter of fact, I found a few hidden gems on The Astonishing.  I can now say there is about 40 minutes of material on here that doesn't suck.  The other NINETY MINUTES is dogshit, but hey; last time I heard this seven years ago, there was only FOUR minutes I liked.  On this playthrough, things improved tenfold!

The album is still mostly 70BPM lighter-wavey Peter Cetera with distortion bullshit, but by pushing through/ignoring a lot of the banal dreck up front, the back half had a few songs with a pulse.  Not enough to save the project (nor the band) from certain doom, but it's not the total loss I remember.  (The lyrics and the "plot" on the other hand, are another matter.  Read the Wikipedia page for this and tell me the story isn't something you'd write in 7th grade.  I can't say that because I wrote some extremely similar crap in 7th grade, minus the music angle.)

2. Young Thug "Jeffrey"

I've never understood Young Thug.  It took me awhile to get trap (and even autotune itself), but I understand the appeal now.  I get trap.  I get "mumble rap" (which is a shitty name for it, since I think to call this kind of music "Rap" at all sells it short; "Trap", for lack of a better term, has evolved into something new).  I even like it.  Seven years of every musical genre starting to sound like this later, I at least have context going into Jeffery this time.  What I still don't get is:

Why Young Thug?

Yes, in 2016, there were things he was doing that hadn't been driven into the ground yet, but triplet flow was Migos's thing first, sing-rapping with autotune was Lil Wayne's first (but that didn't stop Thug from ripping off a SHIT ton from Weezy including having a producer named Weezy that wasn't Lil Wayne how the fuck did dude get away with that nickname), the trap sound and Soundcloud rap were well established before he came along, the slurred delivery of a Future...hell, Quavo and Offset are on "Guwop" and they smoke Young Thug.  I've heard all these sounds, and I heard them done better before Young Thug came along.

This album in particular is annoying as shit.  The song "Harambe" sounds like dude dying.  Is he trying to imitate the death rattles of the titular gorilla?  Who's to say?  When he puts a little grit into his voice he has a bit of soul, but when he whines (which is 97% of every song I've heard him on) it's insufferable.  I don't need to hear any more songs about how he gets head, drinks lean or owns a car.  Anthony Fantano once said of Miley Cyrus's Dead Petz "We know you smoke weed.  No one cares."  Why does anyone care Young Thug does lean?  It's even more blatant here.  (Shit, I'd rather listen to Dead Petz.  Dead-ass.)

I got a smidgeon of context for this album this time around, but my God was it not worth the 38 minutes of poorly executed brain damage.

1. Kanye West "The Life Of Pablo"

This is the first time since the end of 2019 I've even listened to Kanye.  It's also the first time I've heard this album since the initial mix; I never went back after first exposure, so I don't know what he updated.  It's been seven years since I've touched most of this, so I'm coming at it pretty fresh.  To the point where I feel like I've never even heard "Ultralight Beam" before.  It sounds super underwhelming, but...fine?  "Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1" starts strong though, but then the bleached asshole line and oh, right.  Now I remember.  

When an acapella about how people miss the old you is one of the best moments on your whole album (and make no mistake, the best thing that came out of this whole session is the Seinfeld theme mashup with "I Love Kanye")... I don't even know what to say to that.  How the fuck did this guy put out what people were calling the "Sgt. Peppers Of Hip Hop" in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy just two albums before this?  That wasn't just the last great Kanye album, it was the last GOOD one.

Most of The Life Of Pablo is empty.  It confuses his celebrity, wealth and very slight lip-service to Christianity for some kind of depth.  "Famous" and "Low Lights" are two tracks apart.  I didn't buy any of this shit in 2016 and I damn sure don't buy it now.

I put this at the bottom of the list because of what it represents.  It's the point where Kanye stopped being worth it for not just me but quite a few.  2018 was an even bigger inflection point on that front, then 2022 was where he lost a lot more.  You could make the argument Yeezus was the beginning, but The Life Of Pablo is where it really started.  We were willing to put up with eccentricity, we were even willing to put up with a bad album, but this was where Kanye started exhibiting contempt for his audience.

He'll give you the exact minimum amount to trick people into thinking he's still gonna make a classic.  "Yeah, most of this album is whack, but did you hear 'No More Parties In L.A.?'  He's still got it!"  Less and less people have been fooled as the years drag on and the songs get worse.  And it remains frustrating because he does sprinkle the good stuff in; you think he's still capable of getting his shit together in there somewhere, but he seems to choose not to.

Well, that's his right.  If he wants to pose himself as the Andy Kaufman of music, so be it.  He wants to excuse his abhorrent behavior toward his wife, the Black and Jewish communities, even his own sponsors and fanbase as some kind of genius 4D Chess moves as a master troll (because he'll definitely also claim mental unwellness if he gets into too much trouble, but he still knows what he's doing; make no mistake) (Nobody has any idea which is which and that's the point; he's unwell but I think he also uses that to hide behind sometimes)...The situation is so confusing my attempts to describe it are as jumbled as the man's career and personal life have become.

To cut a long story short, this is where it all came apart for me as a fan.  Other people have their own points, but I haven't listened to anything he's put out after this besides clips.  I knew better.  I hope he gets help, I genuinely do, but I ain't holding my breath.

MEH

Alter Bridge "The Last Hero"

Bruno Mars "24K Magic"

E-40 "The D-Boy Diary Book 2"

Flotsam And Jetsam

The Happy Fits "Awfully Apeelin'"

Little Big Town "Wanderlust"

Lucius "Good Grief"

Nonpoint "The Poison Red"

Opeth "Sorceress"

The Pretenders "Alone"

RatBatSpider "Sharksquatch V.S. Chupacoctopus"

The Royal Blue "Ramshackle Groove"

Suicidal Tendencies "World Gone Mad"

Sultry Sounds Of The Underground "Catharsis"

Tegan And Sara "Love You To Death"

Trackwide & AbJo "Cheers"

YG "Still Brazy"

• At the time, Alter Bridge would've made my Top 20 had I done one.  Now I like the first four songs and the others are all the Galloping riff from "Children Of The Grave".
• You're telling me an R&B album from 1991 won seven fucking Grammys in 2018?  Including all three major categories?!?  Look, I like "Finesse", "That's What I Like" isn't bad and the title track is legit one of the best songs of the 2010's, but come ON.  (For real though: the only real crime 24k Magic commits is it's a way-too faithful re-creation of an era and genre of music I've never clicked with.  Not even really a crime, but, y'know.  Still, fuck the Grammys, amirite?  Just, in general; not even for this.)
• Was originally gonna put The D-Boy Diary Books I & II as one entry, but Book II is so much worse I just couldn't.  You can hear E-40 run out of ideas in real time.
• Going in, I remember only liking the title track to Sorceress.  Now I like maybe half of it?  Still in the same tier somehow.
• Alter Bridge, Flotsam And Jetsam, Opeth and Suicidal Tendencies could have (and should have) made it into "Okay" or even "Pretty Good", but they needed to cut some bloat and tighten up some of what was left.  They were close, but just wasn't feelin' em.  

OKAY

Aby Wolf "Call The Rocks"

Austin Wintory "Abzu"

The Bang Bang "Funny Love"

Busta Rhymes "The Return Of The Dragon: The Abstract Went On Vacation"

Childish Gambino "Awaken, My Love!"

The Comet Is Coming "Channel The Spirits"

De La Soul "and the Anonymous Nobody"

DJ Shadow "The Mountain Will Fall"

50 Breaks "The Tear"

Highly Suspect "The Boy Who Died Wolf"

Hiromi Umehara "Spark"

Home "Falling Into Place"

King "We Are King"

Kongos "Egomaniac"

Macklemore "This Unruly Mess I've Made"

The MC Lars & Mega Ran Experience

Megadeth "Dystopia"

NOFX "First Ditch Effort"

Plaid "The Digging Remedy"

Redemption "The Art Of Loss"

Skunk Anansie "Anarchytecture"

Solange "A Seat At The Table"

Textures "Phenotype"

Thee Oh Sees "A Weird Exits"

VOLA "Inmazes"

• My initial impression of Awaken, My Love! when I heard it for the first time in 2022 was it would've made the Top 5.  Needless to say, my feelings have cooled (or my feelings on a LOT of other albums have warmed; take your pick; they're both true.)
• The Mountain Will Fall was another one-song wonder when I first heard it (obviously the Run The Jewels one), but this time around I think the album is decent.  A little formless on the back half, but worth a listen.
• The Boy Who Died Wolf cooled on me too.  Thought for sure that'd make the Top 20.
• King has three of the best songs of the decade on We Are King and the rest of the album has a lot of really beautiful musical ideas, but it just winds up being a snoozefest in execution.  I'd take it over a lot of albums, but I reserve the right to hit the skip button liberally.
• Macklemore was a tough one.  Some of the songs are actually great, but when it sucks it's some of the worst shit you may have ever heard.  It felt impossible to gauge this one, so I put it right in the middle.
• Musically, Dystopia is the best Megadeth album since 2004.  Lyrically, it's cringe as fuck and I'm not even talking the political stuff (but that too).  You'll never feel cool listening to this, and if you do, know you're being laughed at.
• The Art Of Loss has some really good stuff on it.  The 22 and a half minute closer "At Day's End" earns its length, the duet with Jon Bush on The Who cover "Love, Reign O'er Me", the meditation on betrayal that is "Thirty Silver" and holy shit "Hope Dies Last".  "Hope Dies Last" would've made the songs list had I done a new one; the lyrics alone put it over the top.  Shame the rest is serviceable but forgettable.  But like, that's 40 minutes of good stuff, so I ain't complainin'.
• I really thought Anarchytecture would be the second worst album of 2016.  Don't remember why I felt that way; this is the most 2.5 out of 5 album that ever 2.5'd.  "Victim" is worth hearing, the rest is the very embodiment of Okay.  None of it actually sucks.
• A Seat At The Table proves even further how much of an anomaly When I Get Home (2019) was.  I thought maybe I was allergic to Solange, but it's just that album.  This might've hit my Top 20 had the back half not gotten infernally boring.
• Everything about Textures's Phenotype is a shame.  It's a shame it's their final album, it's a shame I could forget the existence of a song as ferocious as "Oceans Collide" (no other band has ever knocked off Meshuggah's I before to my knowledge, especially the really hard part), and a shame the back half of the album just dissipates like a nu metal methane fart cloud because wow I wanted to like this more.

PRETTY GOOD

AEges "Weightless"

Babymetal "Metal Resistance"

The Beths "Warm Blood"

Billy Cobham "Drum 'N' Voice 4"

The Chainsmokers "Collage"

Crumb

Diamond Head

Ex Reyes "Do Something"

Full Shred Ahead "Guns 'N' Drugs"

Kendrick Lamar "Untitled Unmastered."

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard "Nonagon Infinity"

Lemon Demon "Spirit Phone"

Lizzo "Coconut Oil"

Migos "YRN 2"

Mojave Phone Booth

Paul Simon "Stranger To Stranger"

Prong "X - No Absolutes"

Public Speaking "Caress, Redact"

Radiohead "A Moon Shaped Pool"

Rictus Grin "Burning A Cold Fire"

Testament "Brotherhood Of The Snake"

Thank You Scientist "Stranger Heads Prevail"

Tiebreaker "Death Tunes"

Ukandanz "Awo"

Vanishing Twin "Choose Your Own Adventure"

• Coconut Oil is where "Good As Hell" comes from.  You know, the top ten smash that was on the charts right before the pandemic hit.  (Linear time is for chumps; Lizzo has that shit for brunch and washes it down with a mimosa.)  
• I like YRN 2 better than Culture or Culture 2.  That being said, they could've stopped after 10 tracks; I got the idea.  (But those 10 tracks had me having a good time.)
• REAL big glow-up for A Moon Shaped Pool.  I've never really liked Radiohead; I think In Rainbows is good, they've had several other songs, but mostly I just think they're overrated and their singer sucks.  This time I feel like his voice fits the material.  I really liked how the band tackled anxiety and agoraphobia.  Pleasant surprise.  Speaking of which:
• Albums & EPs that had a glow up bigger than I expected: The Chainsmokers, Ex Reyes, Full Shred Ahead, Mojave Phone Booth, Radiohead and Rictus Grin.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Andrew Bird "Are You Serious"

Billy Cobham & Frankfurt Radio Big Band "Broad Horizon"

E-40 "The D-Boy Diary Book 1"

Gojira "Magma"

Steve Conte "International Cover-Up"

THE TOP 20

20.  Metallica "Hardwired...To Self Destruct"

Ask me again in five years and this might be back down in my Bottom Ten where it was when I began this experiment.  What the hell happened here?!?!  Last time I heard this (which I chronicled in my 72 Seasons review a couple of months ago) I kinda hated it and thought it was the most boring thing Metallica had done.  Now we're here and...what?

Hardwired still has problems.  The songs are too long, some of them don't even justify their existence, but like the majority of albums I heard for this project, I have a new appreciation for the material here.  My opinion of Hardwired has been all over the map since it came out and I think that pendulum will continue to swing.  For now, it's up.

19. Soilwork "Death Resonance"

I kinda feel weird putting a B-Side album by Soilwork over any of the Honorable Mentions, but at the same time, this is a B-Side album coming hot off the heels of my favorite Soilwork album, 2015's The Ride Majestic.  Also, Soilwork whips ass; what do you want from me?

18. Moon Tooth "Chromaparagon"

Whacked-out fun with 8-strings, whammy petals, gritty blues vocals and riff changes a mile a minute.  An acquired taste but an intriguing one.

17. Bonnie Raitt "Dig In Deep"

Yeah, I guess we're making it official.  Bonnie Raitt has put out some of her best work in the last decade.  I'd say this is her best since 1991's Luck Of The Draw, but Just Like That topped it last year, so whoops.  Still, no shame in Ms. Raitt's game.  She doesn't have to brag or be loud about how she rules; she just does it.

16. Devin Townsend "Transcendence"

Took awhile to get into this one.  Loved the singles leading up to it but at the time the album was a bit of a letdown.  Over the years, I've come to appreciate the disciplined approach Transcendence takes, it's deliberate tone.  "Failure" and "Secret Sciences" are still far and away my favorites, but songs like "Truth", "Higher" and "Offer Your Light" also shine quite bright.

15. Animals As Leaders "The Madness Of Many"

This is another one I've had an up and down relationship with.  Part of it was their previous two releases Weightless (2011) and The Joy Of Motion (2014) being some of the best albums of the 2010's (honorable mention to Animals side project T.R.A.M. as well).  The Madness Of Many doesn't get up to that level, but having had enough time removed from the expectation I can hear it on its own merits now.

You do have to be in the mood for some tech djent wildness, but if you're down for some gonzo instru-metal, this will do the job quite well.  Though the absolute highlight is the acoustic number "The Brain Dance".  It's easily the most memorable piece, the most notable licks and riffs and it just vibes good.  Check out the opener "Arithmophobia" (my second favorite) to get an idea what you're getting into first, but if you like what you hear, dive right in. 

(Also, props for naming a song "Backpfeifengesicht", which translates to "The Face In Need Of A Fist".  It's kind of hard imagining Tosin Abasi reading Cracked.com, but that's where I learned that shit.)

14. Case / Lang / Veirs

Neko Case, K.D. Lang and Laura Veirs doing what they do best together.  This is like the sad girl CSN.

13. Meshuggah "The Violent Sleep Of Reason"

If you'd've asked me 18 months ago what I thought of this album, I'd've said "It's Meshuggah's second worst album."  But after the disappointment of Immutable (which will hopefully undergo the same transformation in five or six years), I reassessed this one and now here we are.  It finally unlocked for me.  A big part of that was hearing The Violent Sleep Of Reason was written and recorded as a live band in the studio.  Thinking of the songs in a jammier context made them work better for me; it put things in a different set of expectations.

"Clockworks" is the technical spectacle to get it started, then "Born In Dissonance" is the groovier single, told from the perspective of a group of asteroids coming to kill Earth a thousand years from now.  Then there's the fucking WALLET CHAIN SHIT of "Monstrocity"; it just makes me wanna stalk around and whip the ground with a wallet chain (which is an object I've never owned; it's just the most ig'nant, teenage activity I could think of).  "By The Ton" is certainly heavy as a cargo ship.  "Nostrum" is one of those thrashy later in the album tracks to pick the energy back up with the tense dissonant harmony underpinning it to ratchet it up.  It won't be everybody's cup of tea (hell, it wasn't even mine until recently), but if you have the patience and are in the mood for brutality, let this one take you.

12. Giraffe Tongue Orchestra "Broken Lines"

My favorite project William DuVall's ever been on.  He's good in Alice In Chains, he wrecks face here.

Following statutes that have since been repealed, every metal supergroup had to have a former or current member of either The Mars Volta or The Dillinger Escape Plan, so to be safe GTO opted for both.

The lineup was DuVall on vocals, Ben Weinman (formerly of Dillinger) on guitar, Brent Hinds of Mastodon on guitar and backing vocals, Pete Griffin from Dethklok and Zappa Plays Zappa (but not of Family Guy) on Bass and Thomas Pridgen (formerly of Mars Volta, nowadays in Fever 333) on Drums.  Originally, Juliette Lewis was gonna be the singer; that would have been different, to be sure (I'm not even so sure she's not on backing vocals for the chorus of "Back To The Light"; the woman singing there is not credited).  Also would've been Eric Avery (original bassist for Jane's Addiction) and Jon Theodore on Drums (also used to be in The Mars Volta.  See what I mean?  Couldn't throw a cat around a supergroup for a ten year span there without hitting an ex-Volt-ier.)

What's the album like?  Really solid, hooky hard rock with layered vocals and occasional momentary metal freak-outs.  It walks a fine line with aplomb.  It's not revolutionary, it's not rocket science, it's just really well executed.  

11. A Tribe Called Quest "We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service"

The fact that Tribe and Kanye had a lot of the same guest stars and wildly different results says a lot.  It helps that Tribe wrote better songs, had Busta Rhymes on here like five times and wrote one of the best songs of the decade in "Melatonin".  A fitting end which should have been a fitting reunion for this stalwart rap group. 

10. Band Of Skulls "By Default"

Appropriately named, Band Of Skulls was originally my choice back in 2016 for number two By Default.  Y'know, being I didn't feel like there was a real number one.  It's still good; I've cooled on it a bit, but something doesn't make the Top 10 without being an album I go back to multiple times.  The production on this is close to my platonic ideal for a rock record (specifically "Black Magic" and "Killer").

9. Avenged Sevenfold "The Stage"

Held up way better than I expected.  Synyster Gates and Brooks Wackerman both fucking BRING it on this one.  Being a drummer, guitar leads are usually something I don't listen to on the first couple plays, so I think this is the first time I really noticed the utter six string heroics on display.  The prog thing really fits them; they're a band loaded with theatricality and technicality.  Damn shame they didn't keep it up, but we've got what we have.  And what we have rips!

8. Royce Da 5'9" "Layers"

Back in 2016, I was facing the prospect of making this my album of the year, and I knew it couldn't be the best thing that came out.  It's good, even great at times, but something just didn't feel right.  So I came up with a tier system and nothing wound up being #1; I  didn't really even have a Top 20.  I was burnt on life, much less music.  

Much like a lot of these entries, I have a whole new appreciation for Layers.  And that's in spite of what I think of Royce now; it's one of the rare instances where I can listen to the back catalogue and not have it tainted by the bullshit they've done since.  (To be fair, it's not on a Kanye level; there's not a lot that gets that far gone.)

The first four tracks are untouchable (especially "Tabernacle" & "Hard"; best shit he's ever done), "America" is unflinching, "Starter Coat" is a hell of a scene to set, "Gottaknow" is a thoughtful coda...As things stand, it's a really good album, but there were some legendary titles from 2016 that I hadn't heard yet.  Crowning it Number One wouldn't have been right after all.  I think I needed to do this to sort my past, revisit it, make sense of it, see what depression and despair couldn't allow me to see.  It's a metaphor, but it helps.

7. Jasmine Rodgers "Blood Red Sun"

Takes awhile to get started (not that the first three songs are bad, just good not great), but from "Icicles" onward this is a helluva ride.  "Icicles" makes you perk your head up and go "Oh?", then "Follow You" makes you go "Oh!", and "Between Spaces"?  "YOOOO!"  I think "Sense" is the first song with drums, so that takes everything on this folksy escapade to a groovier level.  "Underwater" is a tumultuous whirlwind of uneasy emotion.  All in all, this is the album you might've expected in 2003 to follow up her turn on the Armitage: Dual Matrix soundtrack, but it's here now instead and we are better for it.  I wish she'd do more.

6. Fates Warning "Theories Of Flight"

The first time I heard this album I was driving back and forth moving from my old apartment to the new one.  I had just graduated college and had no clue what I would do next.  And the lyrics hit pretty hard at the time.  It's about accepting change, moving on, fighting for a tomorrow.  It really resonated with me.

And then I forgot it existed after one listen.

Which is wild, because the music is on point too.  This is up there with my two favorite Fates Warning albums A Pleasant Shade Of Gray and Disconnected.  It might even be better than Disconnected with the lyrics because oh God do they hit even harder now.  Seven years is a fitting timeframe because coincidentally "Seven Stars" is the single, which touches not only on the journeying aspect but the other theme throughout Theories Of Flight, the loss of innocence.

This album dropped smack dab in the middle of 2016, July 1st.  It was early, but we were already in the time of Trump.  Things had been getting bad and weird for awhile to set the stage, but this was the opening act of the horror show we've all lived since then.  What I guess I didn't know is that I would need to take another journey away from the wreckage both I and the world at large had wrought seven years on.

It's still kind of shocking to me I can write at all.  I've been feeling crippling creative burnout since 2016 and you might even say since 2012.  I fucked up so much in this life and I have nothing to show for it.  But I'm still here.  Too tired to form a thought most of the time, but somehow I can bang out something like this if I chip away at it.  I dunno.  It's getting harder.  But that want is still under there somewhere.

Oh, right.  This is an album review.  Uh, it's real good.  If you like some thrashy groove prog with tasty drumming and more backbone than frills, this could work for you.  The main event's the lyrics though; it is a great meditation on transition.

5. Anthrax "For All Kings"

I think I like this album now more than I ever have.  It's their most diverse record; For All Kings does a lot of tricks with arrangement Anthrax hasn't tried before.  Also, for a band at the 35 year mark the music still has quite a bit of life and energy in it.  Thinking about it now, this is the best album to come out of The Big Four since Death Magnetic (2008).  (Oh God, that's actually true.)  Looking forward to the next one in 2024 (allegedly)!

4. Death Grips "Bottomless Pit"

This was my first (and second) listen to Bottomless Pit.  I heard Ex-Military at some point in the 2010's, took three tries to listen to The Money Store last year before it stuck, then this February I clicked with No Love Deep Web immediately.  I think I like this one better.  The Money Store is so dense I need to analyze it further; I'd honestly recommend something like Bottomless Pit to a Death Grips neophyte because it's the style and the substance but not as much signal is slamming into you at once and you can kind of digest it better.

But even Death Grips on Medium difficulty is still abrasive and gives no fucks.  "Giving Bad People Good Ideas" can't go hard in the paint because it peels any paint it shares a vicinity with.  "Hot Head" is even more fraught and frantic.

The beats, rhymes, delivery, samples and effects are all the experience of partying with hard drugs and doing petty larceny up to getting in bloody fights without having to actually get in danger.  (So wait, if they sell this as art, are they gentrifying that experience?  I feel like I'm high for even typing that.)  Another thing is a bunch of turns of phrase you don't really expect to hear happening all over the place.  Slam poetry is definitely alive and flailing murderously on this one.

I admit, I'm not even trying to absorb it all or go that deep to begin with.  I figure that's gonna be the next several listens.  Right now I'm riding off the central vibe, and this shit whips ass in different and exciting ways.

3. Rihanna "Anti"

A Moon Shaped Pool might have the biggest increase in my estimation of it, but Anti is the biggest shock as far as placement.  I never suspected it was this good.  I've heard it before, obviously, but I'd always thought it was kind of hit or miss, like a 3 out of 5.  

But wow did that change on this listen.

"Consideration".  That's your first clue this isn't gonna be your average Rihanna affair.  It's got a slow, skipping beat with a menacing bass line and some great vocals from her and SZA.  Then the interlude "James Joint"...how is this not written by Thundercat?  "Kiss It Better" is that Prince-esque, 80s space capsule type sex jam.  "Work" is such a vibe Drake's even good on it.

And that's it, really.  VIBES.

That's what Rihanna tapped into with this whole album.  Even when it takes a weird turn like "WOO", a discordant, moody trap experience with vocoder and Travis Scott doing Travis Scott things, it works (though in that case I think it's because Rihanna sells the shit out of it).

The atmosphere of Anti is you, the listener, should feel bad for fucking up what could have been a happily ever after with Rihanna.  She's pouring her heart out, letting you know she wanted to make this work, that part of her might even want you back, but you fucked it up and you need to feel sad.

Even when she does karaoke, it's to make you feel her pain (and the love that was/is there in her heart).  And yes, track nine is literal karaoke, using the entire music bed of Tame Impala's "New Person, Same Old Mistakes".  Controversial, yes.  But I like this version a little more than the original, based on the context of the album and Rihanna's voice being more pleasant.  (Maybe you think it's fake...maybe fake's what I like.)

"Never Ending" is a simple acoustic number but like I said, the vibes.  Rihanna just nails the atmosphere.  This is also the point in the album where she changes her mind: she wants to fall in love with you all over again.  Which leads into "Love On The Brain", a desperate plea for reconciliation.  "Higher" shows things are still rocky, but even though she's drunk right now, she still loves you, you asshole.  "Close To You", the closer, is realizing this person is never going to openly reciprocate her affections again, but she still suspects (wishes) that there's something there.

Look, fuck, I've rambled on about this one long enough.  If what I wrote doesn't make you curious to check this out...just listen to it anyway.  It's a trip.

2. Aesop Rock "The Impossible Kid"

This is the album I heard in February 2017 that made me feel justified I hadn't just crowned a default #1.  I checked it out because Muse from the Goin' Off Podcast had it as her #1 for the year.  I wasn't super familiar with Aesop; most I'd heard was "None Shall Pass" on an Adult Swim comp in 2007.  So I went in blind.

And was blindsided.

"Mystery Fish" throws so much shit at you I still haven't unpacked it all.  It's a barrage of words and layered metaphors that might mean everything or nothing, and it ain't tellin'.  But it's definitely a good primer for what is to follow, which is the portrait of a complex creative mind needing help but being too guarded to receive it.

"Rings" huuuurts.  It HUUUURRRTS.  "Used to paint.  Hard to admit that I used to paint."  I throw my hand up so fast it dislocates my shoulder and choke out "It me!" through the tears.  My canvas has always been words, but HARD SAME.  Shit, let me just quote it:

        "Routine day with a dirt cheap brush

          Then a week goes by and it goes untouched

          Then two, then three, then a month

          And the rest of your life, you beat yourself up

          I left some seasons eager to fall

          I left some work to bury alive

          I let my means of being dissolve

          I let my person curl up and die

          Eating up his innards, an unfeasible anxiety

          Has brutally committed to relinquishing his privacy

          Aligning with the trials of the anti-Midas

          Nap on the back lawn, look up in the sky, it's…"

I spent most of my adult life still thinking I was going to "make it" as a writer.  As a creative.  The only time I ever got paid to write was twenty-three years ago in my high school magazine.  That shit over.  I'm not so sure I'd even want to get paid; I'd feel like an impostor.  What have I written in the last four years?  Fucking NOTHI...

What?  How many words you say this was?

Oh.

That's the bullshit right there that eats our brains alive.  There's millions more like me; I ain't special.  Niether is Aesop.  But coming to terms with all that takes a lot of untangling, a lot of soul-searching and a lot of healing.  Healing we usually have no idea how to do.

One of the best lines on an album full of them is a simple flip of a hip-hop cliché: "Part Over Here?  I'll be over there."  Aseop chooses a life of isolation so he doesn't have to deal with the "herds of sheep" he sees as lesser, while simultaneously feeling like they're all secretly better than him (a secret he doesn't admit even to himself).  That's the layers of coping mechanisms taking their toll; the guarded nature putting another band of topsoil over the scar to make sure it never gets revealed.  It's like an auto-immune disease of the psyche and having lived through it, I know it makes it really tough to form relationships.

But fuck all that; a storm approaches.  "Super Cell" has the best beat on the album.  The warped organ, the shuffling, dragged feel of the drums that still pound with purpose and the deep yet melodic bass line grant it the thunder it requires.  The maelstrom of words spit on top is the warm and cold fronts slamming together to form the tornado.  And when he says "Ghost" on the chorus everything shatters into ice crystals, dashed to pieces on the torrents.

Figuring out what "Super Cell" is about is hard.  Aesop Rock is one of the most verbose rappers you'll ever hear, and his metaphors are intentionally about three layers deep (which makes rapping about being guarded as a coping mechanism really easy).  The line that cracked it open for me was "Either stomach all the hubris, cash in his two cents".  There's way too much else that develops the picture here (especially the third verse), but this is someone struggling with suicidal thoughts and is forced into an intervention.  Someone who starts the song thinking themself a powerful wizard but is really an old man with nothing left in his cupboards (metaphorically speaking).  Looking up "Hecate" (a goddess of night magic and necromancy among other things) and hesitating to "pass the poultry" to her (I told you this was layered), I figured out that this was the struggle.  The desire to just say "fuck it" (or "Die Already", which are the first two words of the song) and let go, but understanding that this is a fundamentally awful idea, no matter how bad you want to throw the towel in.

Yeah, I been on the edge of that knife.

"Get Out Of The Car" has a really cool atmospheric guitar riff on loop, a really spare bass line, some light keys and that's it; no drums.  It's about the death of his friend and labelmate Camu Tao and how's he's basically been a "Ghost", been numb, been missing ever since.  It also features the album title:

"Watch The Impossible Kid

Everything he touches turns promptly to shit"

He refers to the "anti-Midas" in "Rings" as well; the feeling like nothing will ever go right for him, that he won't be, can't be okay.  Like, ding-ding-ding "IT ME" vibes again all through here.

Which leads to "Shrunk".  You wanna talk about being guarded, the entire first verse is a list of how Impossible he is to identify (look up the lyrics; it's a doozy).  Us creative types think we're all special and unique to some degree, so when something goes wrong on the inside, we often think we're Impossible to fix.  "I'm a mess!  How can some doctor know what's wrong with my inner workings?"  Or, maybe more accurately, we don't want anyone else to know how fucked up we are because we think it must be uniquely bad.  The shame, the fear of being even more of an outcast than we've already made ourselves...it's too much to bear.

But Aesop sucked it up, stacked his chips, signed up for therapy and now here he is, not really appreciating the process.  He's used to dealing in metaphor, the doctor is trying to bring it down to Earth.  But he's gonna keep trying.

I could go on, but this is 10,000 words.  Suffice it to say there's a LOT to unpack when you hear The Impossible Kid.  It's full of layered metaphor, deals with grief, loss, being unsure of one's path, and is really well put together.  It was the album that, until 8:10 P.M. the night before I uploaded this I thought would be Number One.  But as I listened to the last few tracks, as the last thing I listened to for this experiment ran down, I knew there was one better:

1. Esperanza Spalding "Emily's D-Evolution"

I had no idea there was anything unique you could do with rock music anymore, but here comes Esperanza Spalding simultaneously shutting my mouth and putting my jaw on the floor.

First off, she uses a lot of jazz phrasings instead of typical rock chords.  The opener "Good Lava" will blindside you if you're expecting a "rock" record, with its bizarre, out progressions and the rising lilt of the backing "Ooh hooos".  She's flowing like lava; it's supposed to make you dizzy.

And now that you're properly discombobulated, it's time for the pillowy float back down to Earth of "Unconditional Love".  Ride a feather down the side of the volcano into the arms of this velvet jam.

"Judas" has been stuck in my head for over a month (Man-made).  This album starts at a four out of five, but this is where it goes to five and rarely dips back down again.  The lyrics are hard to parse because WOW is there a lot going on in this gorgeous tapestry of vocal harmonies, acoustic and electric guitars, groovy bass and splashy drums.  But the words paint a story of people branded "sinner" (but are really just victims of the people and systems doing the branding).

"Earth To Heaven" starts with some teeth, utilizing some low end and striking a gut punch without having to even be aggressive.  It points out that Heaven won't be what we think it's like because our concept of it only comes from the mortal perspective.  There's a lot more to find out, so I hope you like learning.  We'll all be learning for a long time.

"One" not only has a powerful hook but an album title drop in the second verse.  The guitar solo is also as beautiful as it is off-kilter.  A longing to glimpse the stream of ancestors, perchance to dive in.  The Lava vibe that started with the first song becoming not just a reshaping and structuring of landmass, but an open portal through the heat mirage to new dimensions.  A siren song for those seeking escape.  (Even the letters on the album cover give hint of this.)

Which leads to the libidinous exploits of "Rest In Pleasure", a more intimate kind of creation.  The little death and the big rebirth?  Perhaps nothing so grand, but you don't know if you don't try, right?

"Ebony And Ivy" is one of the best songs of 2016, easily.  What the fuck!?!?  It's so good!!!  It starts with a frantic, spoken/sung barrage of words that would be monotone if not for the multiple pitches (duotone?  tritone?).  The verses are peaceful bastions of calm (belied by the acid bite of critique against Ivy League elitism and racism), then the chorus does that thing again.  The subtle hammer; the gut punch without having to make a fist.  It rocks without having to be aggressive.  As a metal kid, this is a magic I never knew.

"Noble Nobles" starts off almost like a Sevendust power ballad, but then the jazziness comes in and it really has a 70's singer-songwriter feel, warm and natural.  Lyrically its a treatise on how the victors not only write history, but edit inconvenient idea (and people) out of it at will.  Where they have to bring it up, they look down upon them.  Call them savages and the like.  The idea of Nobility itself is taken to task for being the real savageness.

Speaking of singer/songwriter feel, "Farewell Dolly" is two minutes of basically just Esperanza and her standup bass (there's like a few extra bits of ambiance, but let's not be pedantic).  A bit of calm before "Elevate Or Operate" brings the reality-altering lava flow crashing back in for another go 'round.  We've been on quite a journey, but now Spalding threatens to "Turn this thing around", and given what she's displayed thusfar you have to wonder if this being of Musicmagic might just have the power to do so.

"Funk The Fear" is less concrete in subject matter despite having the most solid groove on the record.  "Funk the fear, live your life" sums it up.  "I Want It Now" is literally a cover of Veruca Salt's song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) but with a slippery, sinister jazz background that paints a more realistic picture of the greed she sings of.

Normally that's where the album stops, but I think the bonus tracks really fill it out.  "Change Us" is the most traditional "rock" song on this rock-adjacent album, sounding kind of like something you'd hear at the Horde Festival in the 90s.

Everything wraps up with a nine and a half minute reprisal of "Unconditional Love".  The production definitely sounds like this was recorded live and tweaked later, like they were jamming on this song to expand it to triple the length.  It ends up more emotionally resonant, has more room to fill in the cracks and crannies of its space.  And then it goes off on some post rock, space shit halfway through and it just ices it all.  Emily's D+Evolution rules.

HOOF.  Finally.  I unburden myself of this.  I processed this year, made it real, found ways to love and loathe it for what it really was instead of just sweeping it under my rug.  Someday is now, and I feel better.

It took two months and change to put this together, six weeks of listening, another four of writing, meddling with the order and figuring out how to even release it.  There are other projects I'd like to check off my list, so maybe now that I'm writing again, I'll get to one of those sooner rather than later.  I might even review some more 2023 music at some point.  Who knows?

Until then, thank you so much for reading.  I hope you found something you loved in this smorgasbord.  It was fun to do, which I can't say about much writing I've done in years.  Stay safe, try to stay sane and Live your Life to the fullest you can manage.

Onward & Upward.