Rage feels like therapy: February 2017 music diary

It's another year of cranky album reviews that you can tell are by me and me alone because I somehow mention Tracey Thorn three times in them.

***

Run the Jewels 3 (Mass Appeal) [hr]
Nobody but these two is liable to arouse suspicion with a whopping two years between albums, but there's no loss of momentum to be heard on these 14 searing cuts, hitting as hard as ever with the maturity and effortlessness that only a truly solid partnership can bring. You can be forgiven for having little call to distinguish between the three albums El-P and Killer Mike have released under this name; they're essentially one long attack divided into thirds, and if they seem a little madder as time goes on it's mostly the result of an accelerating disappointment we can all understand. Moreover, the choice of guests is masterful apart from an errant Zack de la Rocha, with welcome interjections from Tunde Adebimpe, Trina and Danny Brown. El-P lends his most irresistibly earth-shaking beats to "Legend Has It," "Hey Kids" and "Panther Like a Panther," all unstoppable monsters, but Mike as usual is the man with the uncompromising, unhesitant truth. He starts "2100" by worrying about the pending holocaust, then lays it down, the battle scars of 2016 on all of us unmissable even if he wrote these words beforehand: "I refuse to kill another human being in the name of a government / Cause I don't study war no more, I don't hate the poor no more."

The Flaming Lips: Oczy Mlody (Warner Bros.) [hr]
Every good Flaming Lips song released in the current decade has been a dirge. Everyone knows this, including -- apparently -- the Flaming Lips. But whereas The Terror went too far with this theory by melding their once-distinctive sound into a flattened, interminable slog, and their work with Miley Cyrus seems to have hinged upon a "weird for weird's sake" sensibility that has its novelty but quickly wears thin, their latest album hedges its bets in the best way by burying surprisingly credible dream pop in its bubbling ambient grooves. So while the record makes an initially good impression as one of the best in their long sporadic series of indulgent psychedelic-electronic soundscapes, it keeps you coming back because there is music, hooks even, buried within it, like Forever Changes hiding in a Tim Hecker release. The songs never assert themselves strongly but they're in there, which threatens to make this -- while too low-key to be the group's best effort -- perhaps their most addictive album. Proofs of life: "There Should Be Unicorns," "Sunrise," "The Castle."

The xx: I See You (Young Turks) [r]
Contrarian here: Coexist was terrific, intimate, hushed, romantic. This is Jamie xx dicking around as usual with Sim and Croft as his capable vocal agents, singing beautifully but matched with often bizarrely incongruous electronic and dance music. The sound never coalesces the way that, say, Ben Watt's production used to behind Tracey Thorn's voice, with the rather irritating single "On Hold" and its busy hip hop-infected Hall & Oates sampling something that would have been much more at home on Jamie's solo record In Colour. That said, most of the new songs are well-written and lovely, especially "I Dare You," and I still enjoy this, I just don't find it as magic as its predecessor, which everyone else hated, so... you know.

SOHN: Rennen (4AD) [r]
SOHN's underrated debut Tremors was one of the best of the mid-'10s crop of blue-eyed electro-R&B albums; the follow-up is four minutes shorter but feels half an hour longer. It opens gorgeously with a procession of irresistible melodies, strong beats and radio-worthy hooks but the entire second half apart from the lovely, Perfume Genius-like title cut is meandering and repetitive, basically everything the hip record store clerk in your life accused the first record of being. As so often with promising artists' sophomore records, this might have worked better as an EP, but don't deny yourself the pleasures of its four-track opening rush, especially "Conrad" and "Signal."

Allison Crutchfield: Tourist in This Town (Merge) [r]
Crutchfield is a singer-songwriter, born in Birmingham (with her twin sister, Katie Crutchfield a.k.a. Waxahatchee) and based in Philadelphia, formerly of Swearin' -- a band that also included her former boyfriend and whose breakup inspired much of this raucous, emotionally thorny if carefully performed album. The sound is the grab-bag of influences you'd expect for someone of Crutchfield's generation working within this confessional mode, with the strong presence of new wave synthesizers, traditional Americana song forms and the wordy, wizened speak-singing of Loudon Wainwright or Frankie Cosmos. It's all sharp and pleasingly catchy, and kind of comes and goes. But then you read the words, which are so easy to miss while it's all playing so effortlessly, and holy shit: "Go out and kill some memories." "We sleep in the same bed at the opposite times." "Was this based in love or was it based in admiration? Was it mutual respect or was it the mutual frustration? Was it the great moonlight that night in July? Just remembering the heat's enough to make me cry." "The things you used to hate about me are all heightened now." "I'm figuring out how to not always apologize just cause I'm the one who's always so upset." "Maybe you would be proud, I speak out so loud, but I'm still so self-conscious." "I know you're different now, and I'm still tragically sentimental. But the words I sing don't intoxicate you, they're not even true. Like how I remember making you tea on the last morning we shared, or how more than anything I just wish I didn't care." This stuff is raw, and familiar: forget Vunicura, the cycle of doubt and loathing and confusion that follows the demise of a relationship hasn't been so nakedly, fearlessly captured on a rock record since probably Beulah's Yoko; the challenge of trying and failing to move on and the absolute loneliness of coping not brought out so painfully since Tracey Thorn wrote "Single." But the melodies and vocals can't seem to give full justice to the power of the lyrics; they're like a secret, like she doesn't really want you to parse them out. And maybe that too is finally appropriate.

Ty Segall (Drag City) [r]
Give it up to this guy for sticking to what he knows. Distorted guitars, solid melodies, you only say "so what" because you already know what's coming.

Mark Eitzel: Hey Mr. Ferryman (Merge) [c]
Mindnumbingly boring song cycle from the chief singer-songwriter of former indie darlings American Music Club, about whom I confess I know nothing, but whatever led Eitzel to be once named the best songwriter in the country by Rolling Stone, he's proven no more capable of retaining it than most everyone else who seemed very cool in 1991. I promise I'll listen to one of the old AMC albums -- my knowledge of early '90s indie is a huge gap -- but I must remark that the only appealing song here cribs its hook from the Magnetic Fields, about whom I do know something.

Elbow: Little Fictions (Concord) [NO]
Guy Garvey and Elbow's brand of mediocrity is quite different from the mediocrity of, hmm, Ryan Adams or Frank Ocean or Allison Crutchfield or Win Butler, all of whom have released middling and space-filling music and all of whom nevertheless seem like people who work hard and do their best for their faithful; Elbow, the Mercury Prize-winning Ramsbottom quartet that's been foisting their specific brand of carefully engineered apathy upon the world and the waiting earbuds of various lowly, resentful, mature adults for nearly two decades, does not work for a living. They are not paid to make music any more than Donald Trump is paid or expected to make policy decisions. Elbow is a manmade construct built to faintly and none too enthusiastically push buttons that in some pre-zombie state a large group of people wanted pushed; if Coldplay's music is the half-hearted memory of a memory, Elbow's is the memory of a memory of a memory at best, and at worst a group of nefarious robots' best approximation of what they read in a sensitive teenager's diary about why they enjoyed a Suede concert -- I say "nefarious" because this is part of a plot to make us all calmly accept that it's come to this, even though really it hasn't. But we're all busy and may not have time to verify as such, especially if we're using something like this to try to close our eyes tight and flash back to adolescence. Even if bottom-tier power ballad rock & roll is your sole lifeline to sanity, then jesus ball-crushing christ at least Future Islands are risky and human in their indulgences; at least Chris Martin's written a few songs with hooks, melodies, some sort of actual appeal, and moreover my sources verify that he must have had sex at least twice; at least the most one-dimensional song Bob Segar ever records won't sound this dead-eyed and disaffected. There's no point anymore in pretending this is anything but insipid, colorless trash; whatever goodwill they might glean for generating nostalgia for Britpop groups that actually had some sort of a personality, their work remains the most grating and watery variety of weakly played lifestyle music and there was a time it seemed gauche to fault someone for being dull, but y'know the thing is I never want this Five for Fighting-esque bilge piped into my ears again so goodbye.

Sampha: Process (Young Turks)
Sequencer-oriented singer-songwriter from London lights some incense and drones on into that good night; you can almost feel your opening-act impatience building. As background noise, it's fine.

Surfer Blood: Snowdonia (Joyful Noise) [r]
Modern indie's weirdest, most uncomfortable drama continues with Surfer Blood's first album without guitarist Thomas Fekete (dead of cancer at just 27), whose distinctive tones defined the band's sound and were their saving grace at even their darkest time. In addition, their fourth full-length record recruits new bassist Lindsey Mills, who also contributes backing vocals, so to say the least, the band sounds a bit different. Despite the losses and the attendant controversy, the progression is mostly a positive one and feels like a reasonable approximation of where the group was inevitably headed without the temporary Warner Bros. distraction. The songs are longer, more ornate, and more casually beautiful than ever, and as on the underrated 1000 Palms there's every indication that John Paul Pitts -- who sang "I'm too young to be defeated" just seven fucking years ago before he proceeded to engineer that defeat himself -- has acquired something like humility; without indulging in his own grievances the way he did on Pythons, his lyrics grapple with death and loss without surrendering to it. The music is expansive and smart but never over-indulgent, detailed but never slick, using the band's best song "Anchorage" as its starting point and making the best of the absence of the guitarist who made that track such a propulsive masterpiece. In some universe Pitts' stubborn refusal to hang this thing up is a lingering thread of his adolescent violence, but if this band's incremental evolution into hard-working pop masters presses on like it has, the reward of a career full of immersive music may outpace the reward of the most morbidly fascinating story in modern guitar music.

The Menzingers: After the Party (Epitaph)
This Scranton punk band's been paying their dues for a long while now; I remember wandering around during a performance of theirs nearly a decade ago and thinking that they outran most of their national-touring peers in enthusiasm if nothing else. Assuming you can best past your prejudices -- which is perhaps insurmountably difficult if you're as sick of modern groups that sound like this as I am -- their songs are solid, the lyrics resonant and thoughtful, and the band's distinctiveness manages to peek out. I say this with full honesty: I expected to hate this but my head ends up bobbing on almost every cut. If this is your sort of thing, I bet there aren't many albums out now you'll be bound to love more.

Lupe Fiasco: Drogas Light (Thirty Tigers) [r]
There are times that you could seriously mistake Lupe Fiasco's sixth record as the work of someone who doesn't approach every project with approximately 70 tons of baggage, and for the first half or so (with solid guest shots from Ty Dolla $ign and Rick Ross) this sounds like real hip hop circa 2017; you have to keep looking at the screen to remind yourself who it is. He's still kind of a dummy, and the more he lets little parts of his persona slip back in, the more you recall how charming Kanye West's tone-deaf cluelessness is by comparison. But the emancipation from Atlantic really has been a godsend for Lupe, at least musically; this bangs (check out "Jump") and even at its weakest never strains credibility the way everything else he's done since The Cool has.

Julie Byrne: Not Even Happiness (Basin Rock)
What's the difference between acoustic-based singer-songwriter Byrne, hailing from western New York state and whose second album this supposedly is, and a Lyla Foy or a Kristian Matsson or a Meg Baird? They're all nice people with guitars and the music is pleasant, even (at the right time) reassuring. To remind myself I played a little of Foy's already unjustly forgotten Mirrors the Sky and you know, it's the emperor of all clichés to talk about the medium not being the message but good lord, the difference between a song ("No Secrets") that immediately hurls you around the room and one that flies out of your memory the moment it ends is stark no matter who's playing it, when or how. Byrne's record is mundane, tonally consistent, perfectly straightforwawrd. It might even be what you're looking for in a certain kind of scenario. But should generic indie folk really be striving for the same goals as ambient music?

Priests: Nothing Feels Natural (Young Turks)
Bubblegum DC-area post-punk is flatly produced, its hard-won sarcasm hard to trust as more than a stylistic affectation, but it also feels unfair to judge a debut album in the context of stuff like Savages, who put most of their resources on the "post," and even Iceage, ditto "punk." (God forbid we bring up Sheer Mag or Terry Malts, who have "songs.") Protest music is of course a necessity in this moment, but there already was no shortage of it, and this is too much of a compromise between L7 and Joy Division to hang anything on, though it's not impossible that the boredom could alleviate when they have less to prove.

Migos: Culture (Quality Control) [c]
Unimaginative sophomore album from mysteriously acclaimed Atlanta trap trio sounds ancient already, though "Bad and Boujee" struck some sort of a chord that sold them lots of album-equivalent units and got overly kind writeups across the meme-addled universe. The group's widely celebrated sense of freewheeling fun seems tied to their admittedly tireless penchant for goofy adlibs; theirs is an album of novelty songs and not even entertaining enough to keep one's attention for half its excessive length. More groundless hype for us to look back on in despair.

Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (Secretly Canadian)
Fourth album (since 2004) by Swedish singer-songwriter who writes verses, not songs, with slick adult contemporary production, a superficial love of stylistic pastiche, and some scattered moments of sly wit. He gets compared to Stuart Murdoch but knows more about human emotions and less about record collecting, more about quality control and less about melody than Stephin Merritt. It's been over a decade since I last sampled Lekman's work but my impressions are similar enough that I figure his progress has been incremental, apart from an apparent sideline into mournful breakup-lamenting on his prior record. This is OK. One of the songs contains Tracey Thorn. I don't really get it and never have -- as with a lot of wordy pop from Game Theory to Bright Eyes, lyrics wedged painfully into tunes, my brain doesn't handle this style very well -- but at least he's writing about other people now (though it's... something that he had to be commissioned specifically to consider doing so) and he does indeed write better lyrics than lots of people with better voices who write better songs.

***

FURTHER INVESTIGATION TO COME
* American Wrestlers: Goodbye Terrible Youth
* Romare: Love Songs, Pt. 2
* Bonobo: Migration
* Foxygen: Hang
* Loyle Carner: Yesterday's Gone
* Lowly: Heba
* Jesca Hoop: Memories Are Now
* Tinariwen: Elwan
* London O'Connor: Circle/Triangle
FaltyDL: Heaven Is for Quitters
Madness: Can't Touch Us Now
Tove Lo: Lady Wood
Steve Hauschildt: Strands
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions: Until the Hunter
Jim James: Eternally Even
Lee Fields & the Expressions: Special Night
Martha Wainwright: Goodnight City
Emeli Sande: Long Live the Angels
Loscil: Monument Builders
Simian Mobile Disco: Welcome to Sideways
Dawn Richard: Redemption
Brian Eno: Reflection
Austra: Future Politics
William Basinksi: A Shadow in Time
Rose Elinor Dougall: Stellular
Denzel Curry: Imperial
Moon Duo: Occult Architecture, Vol. 1
Teen Daze: Themes for Dying Earth
Molly Burch: Please Be Mine
Moire: No Future
PVT: New Spirit
Dutch Uncles: Big Balloon

REJECTS
Marching Church: Telling It Like It Is
Frank Iero and the Patience: Parachutes [NYIM]
Esben and the Witch: Older Terrors
Shirley Collins: Lodestar [NYIM]
Kristin Hersh: Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
Sad13: Slugger
Bruno Mars: 24K Magic
Miranda Lambert: The Weight of These Wings [NYIM]
Justice: Woman
Devonwho: Luz
Childish Gambino: Awaken, My Love!
John Legend: Darkness and Light
Pete Rock & Smoke DZA: Don't Smoke Rock
Tech N9ne: The Storm
Dropkick Murphys: 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory
Mick Harvey: Intoxicated Woman [NYIM]
AFI: AFI (The Blood Album)
Michael Chapman: 50 [NYIM]
Throwing Snow: Embers
Gabriel Garzon-Montano: Jardin [NYIM]
Emptyset: Borders
Tift Merritt: Stitch of the World
Sacred Paws: Strike a Match [NYIM]
Piano Magic: Closure
James Johnston: The Starless Room
Cloud Nothings: Life Without Sound [NYIM]
Delbert McClinton & Self-Made Men: Prick of the Litter [NYIM]
Eliza Carthy: Big Machine
Duke Garwood: Garden of Ashes
The Sadies: Northern Passages
Chuck Prophet: Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins
Bing & Ruth: No Home of the Mind [NYIM]
Meat Wave: The Incessant
Son Volt: Notes of Blue [NYIM]
Ryan Adams: Prisoner
Lawrence English: Cruel Optimism
Nikki Lane: Highway Queen

******

The List of Lists 2016

Being all about economy and the environment these days, I'll recycle my introduction from last year: For the uninitiated: this is the annual post in which I dump part of my reserve of meaningless ranked lists and usually create a few new ones for the occasion. It normally is posted at the end of December but I put it off in order to stay on top of current work. These are meant to be fun and subjective and frivolous, and some are obviously more thoughtful than others, some are not particularly broad-minded, but hey, they might be a kick to peruse. In that spirit, onward.

Also want to mention that the archival yearly lists were all made in 2009 and we're reaching the point when they're less and less reflective of my current tastes, though I still sort of stand by them. I'm not changing them now because I don't want to waste the ones I haven't posted yet and would like to keep track of how my thoughts change over time. A whole new set will be crafted for the 2020s.

THE TEN GREAT BOXES
New list, briefly resurrecting the now-dormant CD boxed set industry to fill you in on which ones were/are actually valuable. Some are even streaming now, or at least very cheap on Amazon. This is the only "tie" you'll ever see here, much less a five-way tie, but it illustrates how confused the boxed set idea really was in the CD period. James Brown is on top because it's the best greatest hits collection you'll ever encounter and a pretty much perfect listening experience. Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday on top because they're superb archival sets of the best music ever recorded in America. Phil Spector is on top because the box fills a need never properly addressed by any other release. And the Beatles are on top because they're the Beatles, and because it's the most convenient way to hear almost their entire body of work the way it was actually heard at the time, and with very few exceptions, the way it became internationally beloved (strangely, the mono versions aren't streaming yet). There are a few big ones I haven't heard like Yoko Ono's and Roy Orbison's and the various Miles Davis session boxes; we'll tackle more of them in the Essentials posts that will resume hopefully later in the spring. A fond parting word also to the Police boxed set, Message in a Box, that I loved so much when I was 13.

1. James Brown: Star Time (Polydor 1991)
1. Charlie Parker: Complete Dial Sessions (Jazz Classics 1996)
1. Billie Holiday: Lady Day - The Master Takes and Singles (Columbia 2007)
1. Phil Spector: Back to Mono (Abkco 1991)
1. The Beatles: The Beatles in Mono (Apple 2009)
6. The Everly Brothers: Heartaches and Harmonies (Rhino 1994)
7. Howlin' Wolf: The Chess Box (MCA 1991)
8. The Carter Family: In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain (Bear Family 2000)
9. Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: The Music of Bill Monroe (MCA 1994)
10. Patsy Cline: The Patsy Cline Collection (MCA 1991)
... and the honorable mentions:
Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions (Specialty 1989)
Chuck Berry: The Chess Years (Charly 1991) [the complete UK-issued collection of his work for the label, not the more compromised Chess Box]
Charlie Parker: Complete Savoy Sessions (Savoy 1988)
Thelonious Monk: The Complete Blue Note Recordings (Blue Note 1994)
Fats Domino: Walking to New Orleans (Capitol 2002)
Frank Sinatra: Best of the Columbia Years (Columbia 1995)
The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys (Capitol 1993)
The Velvet Underground: Peel Slowly and See (Polydor 1995)
Eddie Cochran: The Eddie Cochran Story (Liberty 2009)
Sam Cooke: The Man Who Invented Soul (RCA 2000)
The Beach Boys: The Pet Sounds Sessions (Capitol 1997)
Doc Watson: The Vanguard Years (Vanguard 1995)
The Velvet Underground: The Singles 1966-69 (Sundazed 2009) [vinyl only]

1956 SONGS
Brand new list for this terrific, transformative, head-spinning year; I expect in future lists we will track rock & roll history up through '61 then roll back to cover the genre's origins in the 1952-55 period. This could just as well be labeled "1956 singles" because all but two of these were 45s at some point, including the tracks noted from Elvis Presley's debut album. The sole exceptions are from Miles Davis' Relaxin' and Gene Vincent's Bluejean Bop!. To create this list I worked both from my own knowledge of rock & roll, pop, country, R&B and lounge then filled in some gaps with various historical sources and online lists, especially regarding doo wop and rockabilly. I'm sure I've missed some big titles, but I've tried to represent everything I could. (In this case "represent" is the accurate word; almost everything on the R&B charts this year was at least interesting if not outright compelling. If you go deep you'll find some ordinary records but very few bad ones.) Discovered some major stuff by doing this, which is one reason I look forward to the List of Lists every year and don't ever intend to skip it. Top forty-one songs I've listed here are all masterpieces. Maybe more than that.

Sources of mild chronological controversy: Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (December 1955), Chuck Berry's "No Money Down" (half my sources cite 1955, the others '56, which is when it charted), Ruth Brown's "Lucky Lips" (a hell of a song but unfortunately it's from 1957, despite several lists claiming the contrary), and the Del-Vikings' or Dell Vikings' "Come Go with Me," a regional hit this year and a national one the next. I decided to let that one slide; a year later, when Paul McCartney would hear John Lennon's voice for the first time, he was covering this song.

1. Etta James "Tough Lover" (Modern)
2. Carl Perkins "Sure to Fall" (Sun)
3. Chuck Berry "Too Much Monkey Business" (Chess)
4. Little Richard "Rip It Up" (Specialty)
5. Chuck Berry "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (Chess)
6. Gene Vincent "Who Slapped John?" (Capitol)
7. Little Richard "Slippin' and Slidin'" (Specialty)
8. Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You" (OKeh)
9. Elvis Presley "Heartbreak Hotel" (RCA)
10. Mickey & Sylvia "Love Is Strange" (Groove)
11. The Johnny Burnette Trio "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (Coral)
12. Bo Diddley "Who Do You Love?" (Checker)
13. Ann Cole "Got My Mo-Jo Working (But It Just Won't Work on You)" (Baton)
14. Gene Vincent "Bluejean Bop" (Capitol)
15. Ray Charles "Lonely Avenue" (Atlantic)
16. Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two "There You Go" (Sun)
17. Little Willie John "Fever" (King)
18. Chuck Berry "You Can't Catch Me" (Chess)
19. Little Richard "Ready Teddy" (Specialty)
20. Elvis Presley "Don't Be Cruel" (RCA)
21. Little Richard "Long Tall Sally" (Specialty)
22. Wanda Jackson "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad" (Capitol)
23. Sanford Clark "The Fool" (MCI)
24. Howlin' Wolf "Smokestack Lightnin'" (Chess)
25. Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two "I Walk the Line" (Sun)
26. Chuck Berry "Roll Over Beethoven" (Chess)
27. The Johnny Burnette Trio "Honey Hush" (Coral)
28. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (Capitol)
29. James Brown and the Famous Flames "Please, Please, Please" (Federal)
30. Elvis Presley "Blue Moon" (RCA)
31. Clarence "Frogman" Henry "Ain't Got No Home" (Argo)
32. Fats Domino "Blueberry Hill" (Imperial)
33. Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes" (Sun)
34. Jimmy Reed "You've Got Me Dizzy" (Vee Jay)
35. Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two "Get Rhythm" (Sun)
36. Little Richard "Heeby-Jeebies" (Specialty)
37. The Staple Singers "Uncloudy Day" (Vee Jay)
38. Wanda Jackson "I Gotta Know" (Capitol)
39. The Coasters "One Kiss Led to Another" (Atco)
40. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps "Woman Love" (Capitol)
41. Elvis Presley "Hound Dog" (RCA)
42. The Coasters "Down in Mexico" (Atco)
43. The Chips "Rubber Biscuit" (Josie)
44. Carl Perkins "Boppin' the Blues" (Sun)
45. Fats Domino "I'm in Love Again" (Imperial)
46. Elvis Presley "Tryin' to Get to You" (RCA)
47. Etta James "Good Lookin'" (Modern)
48. Frank Sinatra "Too Marvelous for Words" (Capitol)
49. Little Richard "The Girl Can't Help It" (Specialty)
50. Fats Domino "Blue Monday" (Imperial)
51. The Cadets "Stranded in the Jungle" (Modern)
52. Warren Smith "Black Jack David" (Sun)
53. Elvis Presley "My Baby Left Me" (RCA)
54. The Del-Vikings "Come Go with Me" (Dot)
55. Shirley & Lee "I Feel Good" (Aladdin)
56. Big Joe Turner "Lipstick, Powder and Paint" (Atlantic)
57. Patsy Cline "I've Loved and Lost Again" (Decca)
58. Ray Charles "Hallelujah I Love Her So" (Atlantic)
59. Howlin' Wolf "I Asked for Water" (Chess)
60. Miles Davis Quintet "If I Were a Bell" (Prestige LP)
61. Otis Rush "I Can't Quit You Baby" (Cobra)
62. Shirley and Lee "Let the Good Times Roll" (Aladdin)
63. Roy Orbison "Ooby Dooby" (Sun)
64. Bill Haley and His Comets "See You Later Alligator" (Decca)
65. Jesse Belvin "Goodnight My Love" (Modern)
66. The Cleftones "Little Girl of Mine" (Gee)
67. Bo Diddley "Diddy Wah Diddy" (Checker)
68. Barbara Pittman "I Need a Man" (Sun)
69. Valentines "The Woo Woo Train" (Rama)
70. Big Joe Turner "Corrine, Corrina" (Decca)
71. Bob "Froggy" Landers "Cherokee Dance" (Specialty)
72. Screamin' Jay Hawkins "Little Demon" (OKeh)
73. Bill Doggett "Honky Tonk" (King)
74. LaVern Baker "Jim Dandy" (Atlantic)
75. Fats Domino "My Blue Heaven" (Imperial)
76. The Five Satins "In the Still of the Night" (Ember)
77. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" (Gee)
78. The Drifters "I Gotta Get Myself a Woman" (Atlantic)
79. Willows "Church Bells May Ring" (Melba)
80. Muddy Waters "Forty Days and Forty Nights" (Chess)
81. Carl Perkins "Matchbox" (Sun)
82. LaVern Baker "Tra La La" (Atlantic)
83. The Drifters "Ruby Baby" (Atlantic)
84. Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio "Tear It Up" (Coral)
85. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps "Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine)" (Capitol LP)
86. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers "Who Can Explain?" (Gee)
87. Ray Charles "Drown in My Own Tears" (Atlantic)
88. Six Teens "A Casual Look" (Flip)
89. Carl Perkins "Honey Don't" (Sun)
90. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps "Race with the Devil" (Capitol)
91. LaVern Baker "I Can't Love You Enough" (Atlantic)
92. The Platters "(You've Got) The Magic Touch" (Mercury)
93. Hal Willis "My Pink Cadillac" (Atlantic)
94. Chuck Willis "It's Too Late" (Atlantic)
95. Sonny Burgess "Red Headed Woman" (Sun)
96. The "5" Royales "I Could Love You" (King)
97. Big Maybelle "Candy" (Savoy)
98. The Moonglows "See Saw" (Chess)
99. Ray Price "Crazy Arms" (Columbia)
100. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers "I Want You to Be My Girl" (Gee)
101. Little Richard "She's Got It" (Specialty)
102. The Flamingos "A Kiss from Your Lips" (Chess)
103. Frank Sinatra "(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know" (Capitol)
104. Earl Bostic "Harlem Nocturne" (King)
105. Elvis Presley "Blue Suede Shoes" (RCA)
106. Chuck Willis "Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Baby Leaves You" (Atlantic)
107. Muddy Waters "Don't Go No Farther" (Chess)
108. Joe Clay "Duck Tail" (Vik)
109. Fats Domino "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Imperial)
110. The Clovers "Love, Love, Love" (Atlantic)
111. Buddy Knox with the Rhythm Orchids "Party Doll" (Roulette)
112. Clyde McPhatter "Treasure of Love" (Atlantic)
113. The Platters "My Prayer" (Mercury)
114. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" (Gee)
115. Carl Perkins "Dixie Fried" (Sun)
116. The Cleftones "Can't We Be Sweethearts" (Gee)
117. Charlie Feathers "One Hand Loose" (King)
118. Chuck Berry "Havana Moon" (Chess)
119. Les Baxter and His Chorus and Orchestra "The Poor People of Paris" (Capitol)
120. Jimmy Reed "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" (Vee Jay)
121. Slim Rhodes "Take and Give" (Sun)
122. The Cadillacs "Betty My Love" (Josie)
123. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers "I Promise to Remember" (Gee)
124. Smiley Lewis "One Night" (Imperial)
125. Sil Austin "Slow Walk" (Mercury)
126. The Teen Queens "Eddie My Love" (RPM)
127. Johnnie Ray "I Want to Be Loved (But Only by You)" (Columbia)
128. Clyde McPhatter "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" (Atlantic)
129. The Dells "Oh What a Nite" (Vee Jay)
130. Elvis Presley "Love Me Tender" (RCA)
131. Frank Sinatra "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Capitol)
132. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers "The ABC's of Love" (Gee)
133. Count Basie Big Band "April in Paris" (Clef)
134. Brenda Lee "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" (Decca)
135. The Channels "The Closer You Are" (Whrilin Disc)
136. The Clovers "Devil or Angel" (Atlantic)
137. B.B. King and His Orchestra "Sweet Little Angel" (RPM)
138. Harry Belafonte "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" (RCA)
139. Elvis Presley "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)" (RCA)
140. Frank Sinatra "Hey! Jealous Lover" (Capitol)
+
Elvis Presley "Love Me" (RCA)
The Cadillacs "You Are" (Josie)
Doris Day "Que Sera, Sera" (Columbia)
Jim Lowe "The Green Door" (Dot)
Tennessee Ernie Ford "That's All" (Capitol)
Eddie Fisher "Cindy, Oh Cindy" (RCA)

1966 ALBUMS
Errata: One of the best album years ever obviously; though the Remains' record is an admirable example of the album as greatest hits collection, with the CD bonus tracks included (under the Barry and the Remains title), it could maybe stand to be below Redding and the Stones. Otherwise hard to argue with this. Note that I strenuously urge you to regard the vinyl version of the Monk album as just a preview for the extraordinary CD version (also streaming); for the same reason, avoid the American truncation of Revolver at all costs, especially with it now inexplicably available on CD. On the other hand I prefer the American Aftermath, though both are good; and I include both variants of the Yardbirds' album here. The Real Folk Blues is technically a compilation but many discographies file it as an album because it's the first LP appearance of nearly all of its tracks and I'm not opposed to any opportunity to bring up Howlin' Wolf, who should be everyone's introduction to the blues.

1. The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (Capitol) A+
2. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (Columbia) A+
3. Howlin' Wolf: The Real Folk Blues (Chess) A+
4. The Beatles: Revolver (Parlophone) A+
5. The Kinks: Face to Face (Pye) A+
6. Miles Davis: Miles Smiles (Columbia) A+
7. Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (Columbia) A+
8. Love (Elektra) A
9. The Byrds: Fifth Dimension (Columbia) A
10. The Remains (Epic) A
11. The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul (Volt) A
12. The Rolling Stones: Aftermath (London) A
13. The Yardbirds: Roger the Engineer/Over Under Sideways Down (Columbia/Epic) A-
14. Buffalo Springfield (Atco) A-
15. The Exciting Wilson Pickett (Atlantic) A-
16. Them Again (Parrot) A-
17. John Lee Hooker: It Serves You Right to Suffer (Impulse!) A-
18. The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (International Artists) A-
19. The Seeds: A Web of Sound (GNP Crescendo)
20. Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful (Kama Sutra)

1976 ALBUMS
Errata: I expect Station to Station isn't higher because of how much I hate "Golden Years"; damn the consensus, I Want You is a bit too low as well, but I can't argue with any of these records really, they're all terrific. The only problem with this list really is that it's much too short. Need to work harder on that backlog.

1. Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (Tamla) A+
2. Parliament: Mothership Connection (Casablanca) A+
3. Ramones (Sire) A+
4. The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (Sire) A+
5. Patti Smith: Radio Ethiopia (Arista) A
6. Labelle: Chameleon (Epic) A
7. David Bowie: Station to Station (RCA) A
8. Funkadelic: Hardcore Jollies (Warner Bros.) A-
9. Blondie (Chrysalis) A-
10. Marvin Gaye: I Want You (Tamla) A-
+
Burning Spear: Man in the Hills (Island)
Parliament: Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (Casablanca)

1986 ALBUMS
Errata: The Smithereens and Loudon Wainwright have floated downward in my estimation since I started all this, but otherwise this looks fine to me, with Please and Control ideally in the top ten in place of Especially for You and the Mantronix album. When you really think about what Pet Shop Boys have achieved over thirty years it's staggering. Pageant is my favorite R.E.M. album these days, which is neat because my favorite R.E.M. song shows up in a different list below. Incidentally, on a recent New Order binge I realized I included Republic on these lists when I likely meant to include Low-Life, a correction I'll be sure to verify and make on the 2.0 version of all this.

1. R.E.M.: Lifes Rich Pageant (I.R.S.) A+
2. XTC: Skylarking (Geffen) A+
3. Run-DMC: Raising Hell (Profile) A+
4. The Go-Betweens: Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (Big Time) A+
5. Peter Gabriel: So (Geffen) A
6. Depeche Mode: Black Celebration (Sire) A
7. The Smithereens: Especially for You (Engima) A-
8. New Order: Brotherhood (Qwest) A-
9. Mantronix: Music Madness (Sleeping Bag) A-
10. Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.) A-
11. Pet Shop Boys: Please (EMI America) A-
12. Janet Jackson: Control (A&M) A-
13. The Saints: All Fools Day (TVT) A-
14. Loudon Wainwright III: More Love Songs (Rounder) A-
15. Miles Davis: Tutu (Warner Bros.) A-

1996 ALBUMS
Errata: Uh... actually I agree with this pretty much to the letter. Switch #4 and #5 maybe? Also it remains to be seen if Eels will survive The Great 2020 Purge, I very seldom listen to them/him anymore... but who knows! Looking at Pazz & Jop to get ideas for the song list below I was thrilled to see how highly Walking Wounded placed -- it's one of those albums that sometimes makes me feel very lonely.

1. The Fugees: The Score (Columbia) A+
2. R.E.M.: New Adventures in Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.) A+
3. Pet Shop Boys: Bilingual (Atlantic) A+
4. Belle & Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister (Jeepster/Matador) A
5. Everything But the Girl: Walking Wounded (Atlantic) A
6. The Cardigans: First Band on the Moon (Mercury) A
7. Outkast: ATLiens (Arista) A-
8. Nas: It Was Written (Columbia) A-
9. Olivia Tremor Control: Dusk at Cubist Castle (Elephant 6) A-
10. Lightning Seeds: Dizzy Heights (Epic) A-
11. The Roots: Illadelph Halflife (Geffen) A-
12. Lou Reed: Set the Twilight Reeling (Sire) A-
13. A Tribe Called Quest: Beats, Rhymes and Life (Jive) A-
14. Patti Smith: Gone Again (Arista) A-
15. Neutral Milk Hotel: On Avery Island (Merge) A-
16. Lush: Lovelife (4AD) A-
17. eels: Beautiful Freak (Dreamworks) A-
18. De La Soul: Stakes Is High (Tommy Boy) A-
19. Asylum Street Spankers: Spanks for the Memories (Spanks-A-Lot) A-
20. Wilco: Being There (Reprise)

1996 SONGS
Brand new list, with twenty truly great songs and many other fine cuts. A combination of (a) research specifically for this post on the charts, the favorites, the big ones plus supplemental reading on electronica and trip-hop (big year for this), R&B/hip hop (great year for this) and indie/alternative (very bad year for this); and (b) what I remembered from sixth and seventh grade, a period when I had the radio on often but no cable -- which explains a few former blind spots -- and was transitioning between a love of mainstream alternative rock and Britpop into slightly older stuff, particularly U2. It also was in February or March '96 that I bought my first R.E.M. album, and while it was a few years before they became a full-on obsession, I became enough of a fan to get their tenth album as soon as it released; it took a bit to grow on me but remains a favorite, and contains my all-time favorite song of theirs (also the first single released from it), which tops this list. This also was the year I first heard Pet Shop Boys; a song from Bilingual got some airplay on the alternative station and I loved it, and loved the music video "Single-Bilingual" (issued in November; it reminded me of two other favorite clips, Radiohead's "Just" and Cake's "The Distance," which I've fallen out of love with and isn't here, but the video's still pretty great) even more. By this time my sister had temporarily moved back in with us and, bemused by my enthusiasm for what I thought was a relatively new band, showed me gobs of MTV footage from the 1986-88 period, and I was pretty quickly on board. Anyway, sorry for the tangent.

Rules for this list: If it was a single, it can be included, hence all the EBTG stuff; only one "album track" per album. Release date controversies abound in this period. I tried to treat it as if it was in real-time; if a song was originally released in 1995 but I'd have been unlikely to hear it until '96, it's here. If it was a single in 1997 but it's on a 1996 album by an artist who's important to me, here it is. Fiona Apple's 1997 singles and hits are here for this reason, and though I'm not so much into them anymore, so are Counting Crows'. Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" from her '95 album Daydream should probably be 1995 by any logical measure but I'm sorry, my memories of playing Sega while listening to that song in '96 are too cherished. OMC and Spice Girls didn't make it to America in 1996 but it would seem a bit gauche to retroactively ignore their two great singles here for this reason. (Other Spice Girls hits would count for the following year.) But that still leaves several borderline selections that I'll mention here in case I forget someday when I do this for the years on either side: Alanis Morrissette's "Head Over Feet," "Ironic" and "You Learn"; Michael Jackson's "Stranger in Moscow" (probably in the top five if I felt it qualified, but the album was '95 and the U.S. single was '97) and "They Don't Care About Us"; Blur's "Charmless Man"; Pulp's "Common People"; and R.E.M.'s masterful cover of "Wall of Death," a b-side this summer but actually issued on a Richard Thompson tribute album two years earlier.

1. R.E.M. ft. Patti Smith "E-Bow the Letter" [New Adventures in Hi-Fi + single]
2. Everything But the Girl "Mirrorball" [Walking Wounded]
3. Nas ft. Lauryn Hill "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" [It Was Written + single]
4. The Fugees "Killing Me Softly" {Roberta Flack cover} [The Score + single]
5. Keith Sweat "Twisted" [s/t]
6. Pet Shop Boys "A Red Letter Day" [Bilingual + '97 single]
7. Ginuwine "Pony" [The Bachelor]
8. En Vogue "Don't Let Go (Love)" [EV3]
9. The Cardigans "Lovefool" [First Band on the Moon + single]
10. The Fugees "Ready or Not" [The Score + single]
11. Everything But the Girl "Single" [Walking Wounded + single]
12. R.E.M. "Electrolite" [New Adventures in Hi-Fi + '97 single]
13. Mariah Carey "Always Be My Baby" [Daydream]
14. Outkast "ATLiens" [ATLiens + single]
15. The Fugees "Fu-Gee-La" [The Score + single]
16. Pet Shop Boys "Up Against It" [Bilingual]
17. The Chemical Brothers ft. Noel Gallagher "Setting Sun" [Dig Your Own Hole (1997)]
18. Belle & Sebastian "If You're Feeling Sinister" [If You're Feeling Sinister]
19. R.E.M. "Leave" [New Adventures in Hi-Fi]
20. Everything But the Girl "Wrong" [Walking Wounded + single]
21. Busta Rhymes "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check" [The Coming]
22. Everything But the Girl "Before Today" [Walking Wounded + '97 single]
23. Autechre "We R Are Why" [mail-order 12"]
24. Aaliyah ft. Timbaland, Missy Elliott and Ginuwine "One in a Million" {remix} [12" single]
25. Duncan Sheik "Barely Breathing" [s/t]
26. Beck "Where It's At" [Odelay + single]
27. OMC "How Bizarre" [How Bizarre]
28. Spice Girls "Wannabe" [Spice + single]
29. Primitive Radio Gods "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand" [Rocket]
30. Tracy Chapman "Give Me One Reason" [New Beginning]
31. Jewel "You Were Meant for Me" [Pieces of You (1995)]
32. Aphex Twin "Girl/Boy" [The Richard D. James Album]
33. The Roots ft. Raphael Saadiq "What They Do" [Illadelph Halflife + single]
34. Nas "I Gave You Power" [It Was Written]
35. Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony "Tha Crossroads" [E. 1999 Eternal]
36. Orbital "The Box Parts I & II" [In Sides]
37. La Bouche "Sweet Dreams" [Sweet Dreams]
38. Fiona Apple "Sleep to Dream" [Tidal + single]
39. Pet Shop Boys "Se A Vida E (That's the Way Life Is)" [Bilingual + single]
40. LL Cool J "Doin' It" [Mr. Smith]
41. Keith Sweat ft. Athena Cage "Nobody" [s/t]
42. DJ Shadow "Stem" [Endtroducing...]
43. Stone Temple Pilots "Lady Picture Show" [Tiny Music]
44. Neutral Milk Hotel "Naomi" [On Avery Island]
45. Lightning Seeds "Imaginary Friends" [Dizzy Heights]
46. The Fugees "How Many Mics" [The Score]
47. Thievery Corporation "The Foundation" [Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi]
48. Sneaker Pimps "6 Underground" [Becoming X]
49. Outkast "Elevators (Me & You)" [ATLiens + single]
50. De La Soul "Stakes Is High" [Stakes Is High]
51. Pet Shop Boys "Single" [Bilingual + single]
52. Fiona Apple "Shadowboxer" [Tidal + single]
53. Brandy "Sittin' Up in My Room" [Waiting to Exhale OST]
54. The Charlatans UK "One to Another" [Tellin' Stories]
55. A Tribe Called Quest "Motivators" [Beats, Rhymes & Life]
56. The Fugees "No Woman, No Cry" {Bob Marley & the Wailers cover} [The Score + single]
57. Olivia Tremor Control "No Growing (Exegesis)" [Dusk at Cubist Castle]
58. The Roots "Clones" [Illadelph Halflife]
59. Quad City DJs "C'mon N Ride It (The Train)" [Get on Up and Dance]
60. Hooverphonic "2 Wicky" [A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1997)]
61. Lush "Ladykillers" [LoveLife + single]
62. Lightning Seeds "Ready or Not" [Dizzy Heights + single]
63. The Cardigans "Your New Cuckoo" [First Band on the Moon]
64. Pet Shop Boys "Before" [Bilingual + single]
65. Fiona Apple "Criminal" [Tidal + '97 single]
66. Everything But the Girl "Walking Wounded" [Walking Wounded + single]
67. Toni Braxton "You're Makin' Me High" [Secrets]
68. Outkast "Two Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac)" [ATLiens]
69. Alice in Chains "Heaven Beside You" [s/t + single]
70. Beck "Jack-ass" [Odelay]
71. Wilco "Far, Far Away" [Being There]
72. Pet Shop Boys "How I Learned to Hate Rock & Roll" [b-side]
73. Lush "Runaway" [LoveLife]
74. Belle & Sebastian "The State I Am In" [Tigermilk]
75. D'Angelo "Lady" [Brown Sugar]
76. Boards of Canada "Chinook" [Boc Maxima]
77. Asylum Street Spankers "Shave 'Em Dry" {Lucille Bogan cover} [Spanks for the Memories]
78. Maxwell "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)" [Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite]
79. Radiohead "Talk Show Host" [b-side + Romeo + Juliet OST]
80. Yo La Tengo "Blue-Green Arrow" [non-album single]
81. Jodeci "Get on Up" [The Show, the After Party, the Hotel]
82. Backstreet Boys "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" [s/t]
83. Counting Crows "Monkey" [Recovering the Satellites]
84. Lightning Seeds "You Showed Me" {Turtles cover} [Dizzy Heights + '97 single]
85. Lou Reed "NYC Man" [Set the Twilight Reeling]
86. R.E.M. "Bittersweet Me" [New Adventures in Hi-Fi + single]
87. The Bluetones "Slight Return" [Expecting to Fly + single]
88. My Bloody Valentine "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" {Wire cover} [Whore: Various Artists Play Wire]
89. *NSYNC "I Want You Back" [s/t]
90. eels "Novocaine for the Soul" [Beautiful Freak + single]
91. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ft. PJ Harvey "Henry Lee" [Murder Ballads]
92. Gin Blossoms "Follow You Down" [Congratulations, I'm Sorry]
93. Counting Crows "A Long December" [Recovering the Satellites + '97 single]
94. Patti Smith "Summer Cannibals" [Gone Again]
95. eels "Not Ready Yet" [Beautiful Freak]
96. Fiona Apple "Never Is a Promise" [Tidal]
97. The Cardigans "Been It" [First Band on the Moon + single]
98. Nas "Street Dreams" [It Was Written + single]
99. A Tribe Called Quest ft. Tammy Lucas "1nce Again" [Beats, Rhymes & Life + single]
100. My Bloody Valentine "Incidental One" [Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip]
+
Lightning Seeds "What If..." [Dizzy Heights + single]
Garbage "#1 Crush" [Romeo + Juliet OST]
Alice in Chains "Over Now" [s/t + single]
Lightning Seeds "Sugar Coated Iceberg" [Dizzy Heights + '97 single]
Yo La Tengo "Wig Out with Charlie Dapper" [b-side]


2006 ALBUMS
Errata: Actually not unhappy with this. The J. Dilla and Kaki King albums I didn't discover until running this blog so their placement is a best guess. The YLT is one of the few albums of modern vintage I knew was a masterpiece pretty much right away. Joanna Newsom should obviously be above the Decemberists, and Hot Chip probably should be as well, with both Mates of State and Lupe Fiasco needing to be moved several spaces lower. The top six are all wonderful records I still listen to regularly and I believe they have aged extremely well. A Hundred Miles Off is one of the most underrated rock albums of the last ten years. I even stand by the Muse album as being a genuine blast, even though it's now been a long time since I was able to listen to them without chuckling. (They are, like Ben Folds Five, a leftover passion from high school.) Finally, seeing Get Lonely reminds me that it and Heretic Pride, two of the first Mountain Goats releases I heard in full, belong on these lists far less than All Hail West Texas (2002) and We Shall All Be Healed (2003), neither of which are currently on my countdowns for those years, a problem I'll correct in the next run. My excuse is that I was only just learning about Darnielle when I made these lists. For the record my '06 top ten in "real time" (it's dated April 2007, so I guess my new habits are old) was YLT, TVOTR, Cat Power, Walkmen, Roots, Mates of State, Lupe, Muse, B&S, and a Madonna album from 2005 that I apparently thought was newer. (Concurrent singles list reminds me that I called it early on Rihanna being awesome.)

1. Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador) A+
2. J Dilla: Donuts (Stones Throw) A+
3. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope) A
4. Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit (Matador) A
5. Cat Power: The Greatest (Matador) A
6. Camera Obscura: Let's Get Out of This Country (Merge) A
7. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (Capitol) A-
8. Mates of State: Bring It Back (Barsuk) A-
9. The Roots: Game Theory (Def Jam) A-
10. Lupe Fiasco: Food & Liquor (Atlantic) A-
11. Joanna Newsom: Ys (Drag City) A-
12. Hot Chip: The Warning (astralwerks) A-
13. Kaki King: ...Until We Felt Red (Velour) A-
14. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone: Etiquette (Tomlab) A-
15. M. Ward: Post-War (Merge) A-
16. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show Your Bones (Interscope) A-
17. The Walkmen: A Hundred Miles Off (Record Collection) A-
18. Alexi Murdoch: Time Without Consequence (Zero Summer) A-
19. The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely (4AD) A-
20. Muse: Black Holes and Revelations (Warner Bros.) A-
+
Old Crow Medicine Show: Big Iron World (Nettwerk)
Gossip: Standing in the Way of Control (Kill Rock Stars)

******

I hope you've enjoyed another year of intense if succinct and perpetually late coverage of new music. How the timeline for 2017 works depends on how quickly I'm able to make up lost time, but once everything's running properly I should be able to integrate supplemental projects with my regular work here much more capably than I did in '16. Hoping to get Beatles and possibly Dylan explored here before snow hits the ground again, but no promises.

The Best Albums of 2016

I'm in a hurry to get this out and move on with life, though this long day of listening to the "A" albums on vinyl that I picked up throughout the year was certainly a treat, and resulted in a lot of shuffling around. I'm again presenting a top fifty this year. Actually a top hundred, though the lower reaches are down below and when you get to the eighties and nineties you're seeing some records I only heard a couple of times so it's arbitrary, but may it be known that I sampled 427 albums this year, 173 of which I heard in full multiple times and reviewed. (The sampling process is why my results skew in favor of recommendations; chances are if something's bad I won't hear all of it.)

Life moves fast and brutally -- this list contains two people who've died since their albums were released, plus one who died beforehand, and at least one band that's already broken up.

I'd like to make two quick points:
- Last year I had a bit of an identity crisis described in this space when I noticed that my favorite records seemed to skew in favor of guitar bands suddenly. This year seems to have been a major correction, with R&B and hip hop dominating my listening habits for most of the calendar year and comprising half of the top ten. Guess it was a fluke, or maybe just my mood in 2015.
- A couple of things to say about the top two here... Though the Kanye vs. Vampire Weekend showdown in 2013 comes close, this was the hardest time I've had so far making a final choice on my top record for the year, not a problem I especially mind having. I still wonder now if I was right to edge in favor of Yeezus, but I'm marginally more comfortable with my final decision this year, though it changed at the very last possible second (later than the last possible second if you remember that it's March and I should have done this in December). Both albums are extraordinary mirrors of this chaotic, terrifying time that has abruptly become even more chaotic and terrifying... both by artists who seem to have seen it coming. In the long run I suspect we'll remember them as coming around later than they did, so don't forget please that they surfaced a week apart in September and October 2016. What struck me about my top two choices from last year was that they seemed absolutely timeless; not so for Danny Brown's pure alienation and Kate Tempest's poetic deconstruction -- both are like the soundtrack to a single and specific and harrowing moment, and a reflection of times that one day we'll wish we could forget.

My golden list of highly recommended favorites (the most ever, I believe) is bolded. The top ten is enlarged.

50. Archy Marshall: A New Place 2 Drown (Matador)
49. Kaytranada: 99.9% (XL)
48. Young Thug: JEFFERY (Atlantic)
47. Joey Purp: iiiDrops (s/r)
46. Glenn Jones: Fleeting (Thrill Jockey)
45. Mavis Staples: Livin' on a High Note (Anti-)
44. Kamaiyah: A Good Night in the Ghetto (s/r)
43. Maxwell: blackSUMMER'Snight (Columbia)
42. King: We Are King (King Creative)
41. Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool (s/r)
40. Rae Sremmurd: SremmLife 2 (Interscope)
39. Shura: Nothing's Real (Polydor)
38. Terry Malts: Lost at the Party (Slumberland)
37. William Bell: This Is Where I Live (Stax)
36. The Radio Dept.: Running Out of Love (Labrador)
35. Blood Orange: Freetown Sound (Domino)
34. Kyle Craft: Dogs of Highland (Sub Pop)
33. John Cale: M:FANS (Double Six)
32. Samiyam: Animals Have Feelings (Stones Throw)
31. Savages: Adore Life (Matador)
30. The Jayhawks: Paging Mr. Proust (Sham)
29. Nels Cline: Lovers (Blue Note)
28. Holy Fuck: Congrats (Innovative Leisure)
27. Tegan and Sara: Love You to Death (Warner Bros.)
26. The Wave Pictures: Bamboo Diner in the Rain (Moshi Moshi)
25. Lydia Loveless: Real (Bloodshot)
24. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam: I Had a Dream That You Were Mine (Glassnote)
23. Pity Sex: White Hot Moon (Run for Cover)
22. Pet Shop Boys: Super (x2)
21. Pusha T: King Pusha: Darkest Before Dawn - The Prelude (Def Jam)
20. Pinkshinyultrablast: Grandfeathered (Club AC30)
19. Beyoncé: Lemonade (Columbia)
18. Leonard Cohen: You Want It Darker (Columbia)
17. Lizzo: Big GRRRL Small World (s/r)
16. PJ Harvey: The Hope Six Demolition Project (Vagrant)
15. Flock of Dimes: If You See Me, Say Yes (Partisan)
14. Swet Shop Boys: Cashmere (Customs)
13. Kendrick Lamar: untitled unmastered. (Interscope)
12. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree (Bad Seed Ltd.)
11. Solange: A Seat at the Table (Columbia)


10. A Tribe Called Quest: We Got It from Here, Thank You 4 Your Service
(Epic) | A- | review

9. Rihanna: ANTI
(Universal) | A- | review

8. David Bowie: Blackstar
(Columbia) | A | review

7. Anthony Joseph: Caribbean Roots
(Heavenly Sweetness) | A | review

6. Whitney: Light Upon the Lake
(Secretly Canadian) | A | review

5. The Wave Pictures: A Season in Hull
(s/r) | A | review

4. Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: A Man Alive
(Ribbon Music) | A | review

3. Nicolas Jaar: Sirens
(Other People) | A | review

2. Danny Brown: Atrocity Exhibition
(Warp) | A | review

1. Kate Tempest: Let Them Eat Chaos
(Fiction) | A | review

***

THE NEXT FIFTY
100. Jeremih: Late Nights - The Album (Def Jam)
99. Bombino: Azel (Partisan)
98. Frankie Cosmos: Next Thing (Bayonet)
97. Allen Toussaint: American Tunes (Nonesuch)
96. Xylouris White: Black Peak (Bella Union)
95. Anderson .Paak: Malibu (EMPIRE)
94. Lake Street Dive: Side Pony (Nonesuch)
93. Fantasia: The Definition Of... (RCA)
92. Imarhan (City Slang)
91. Field Music: Commontime (Memphis Industries)
90. The Julie Ruin: Hit Reset (Hardly Art)
89. Tinashe: Nightride (RCA)
88. Beth Orton: Kidsticks (Anti-)
87. Tycho: Epoch (Ghostly)
86. Loretta Lynn: Full Circle (Columbia)
85. Rival Consoles: Night Melody (Erased Tapes)
84. dvsn: Sept. 5th (Warner Bros.)
83. Kaitlyn Aurealia Smith & Sizanne Ciani: Frkways Vol. 13: Sunergy (RVNG)
82. Andrew Bird: Are You Serious (Loma Vista)
81. Konono Nol. 1: Meets Batida (Crammed Discs)
80. Lapsley: Long Way Home (XL)
79. A$AP Ferg: Always Strive and Prosper (RCA)
78. Nothing: Tired of Tomorrow (Relapse)
77. Hieroglyphic Being: The Disco's of Imhotep (Ninja Tune)
76. Thee Oh Sees: A Weird Exits (Castle Face)
75. Underworld: Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (Caroline)
74. Kevin Gates: Islah (Atlantic)
73. Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch (Sacred Bones)
72. Tacocat: Lost Time (Hardly Art)
71. Junior Boys: Big Black Coat (City Slang)
70. Eleanor Friedberger: New View (Frenchkiss)
69. Oddisee: The Odd Tape (Mello Music)
68. Kanye West: The Life of Pablo (Def Jam)
67. Venetian Snares: Traditional Synthesizer Music (Planet Mu)
66. Nao: For All We Know (RCA)
65. Lucy Dacus: No Burden (EggHunt)
64. Michael Kiwanuka: Love & Hate (Interscope)
63. The Range: Potential (Domino)
62. Basia Bulat: Good Advice (Secret City)
61. Jamila Woods: HEAVEN (Closed Session
60. Chance the Rapper: Coloring Book (s/r)
59. The Rolling Stones: Blue and Lonesome (Interscope)
58. Laura Gibson: Empire Builder (Barsuk)
57. M.I.A.: AIM (Interscope)
56. Gold Panda: Good Luck and Do Your Best (City Slang)
55. Elza Soares: The Woman at the End of the World (Mais Um Discos)
54. Bobby Rush: Porcupine Meat (Rounder)
53. Public Access TV: Never Enough (Cinematic)
52. William Tyler: Modern Country (Merge)
51. Poliça: United Crushers (Mom + Pop)

***

ALSO RECOMMENDED IN 2016
Weyes Blood: Front Row Seat to Earth (Mexican Summer)
Venice Dawn/Adrian Younge: Something About April II (Linear Labs)
Anohni: Hopelessness (Secretly Canadian)
Yello: Toy (Factory Floor)
Factory Floor: 25 25 (DFA)
Mogwai: Atomic (Temporary Residence)
Zo!: Skybreak (Foreign Exchange)
Sidestepper: Supernatural Love (Society of Sound)
Phonte / Eric Robertson: Tigallero (Foreign Exchange)
Esperanza Spalding: Emily's D+Evolution (EMI)
Explosions in the Sky: The Wilderness (Temporary Residence)
clipping.: Splendor & Misery (Sub Pop)
Goat: Requiem (Sub Pop)
De La Soul: And the Anonymous Nobody (AOI)
The Avett Brothers: True Sadness (Island)
BadBadNotGood: IV (Beat)
Mark Pritchard: Under the Sun (Warp)
Jessy Lanza: Oh No (Hyperdub)
Common: Black America Again (Def Jam)
Rokia Traore: Ne So (Nonesuch)
Frank Ocean: Blonde (s/r)
Mitski: Puberty 2 (Dead Oceans)

EXTENDED-PLAYS THAT WOULD BELONG ON THE ALBUM LIST IF THEY COUNTED
Sheer Mag: III (s/r)
Ezra Furman: Songs by Others (Bella Union)

OTHER EXTENDED-PLAYS RECOMMENDED IN 2016
clipping.: Wriggle (Sub Pop)
Yossou N'Dour: Senegaal Rekk (Prince Arts)
Lizzo: Coconut Oil (Atlantic)
Ezra Furman: Big Fugitive Life (PIAS)

***

The Best Songs of 2016

Sheer Mag destroys the room, via Rolling Stone.

***

This year I decided to use the lateness of this post to my advantage by listening through several other people, friends and publications' song lists, which resulted in the integration below of a fair bit of stuff I wasn't familiar with or had heard but hadn't really hit me. I've made a Spotify playlist of the top 40 songs (missing the acoustic Wave Pictures song and replacing it with one from their commercially released album from this year, which also slots in below; also put on Pet Shop Boys instead of a second Lizzo song since she's already represented.) which you can find by clicking here.

As usual, I only permit one song per album on each list, from up to three "finalists," so to speak, and I just want to mention that in multiple cases the task of narrowing these records down to even three songs was difficult. This was particularly true of Danny Brown's album; I'm not sure I've ever left off as many songs I think are absolutely masterful due to this restriction as I did this year. Anyway, what's here is fucking great; I don't think I've ever been happier with one of these, though I think everything in the top ten or eleven could honestly have justifiably taken the top spot.

Note that we're exactly one song off from having a top hundred.

1. Kate Tempest "Tunnel Vision" [Let Them Eat Chaos]
2. Underworld "Nylon Strung" [Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future]
3. Thao and the Get Down Stay Down "Millionaire" [A Man Alive]
4. Rae Sremmurd "Black Beatles" [SremmLife 2]
5. Sheer Mag "Nobody's Baby" [III EP]
6. Whitney "No Matter Where We Go" [Light Upon the Lake]
7. Nicolas Jaar "The Governor" [Sirens]
8. Anthony Joseph "Neckbone" [Caribbean Roots]
9. Blood Orange "EVP" [Freetown Sound]
10. Rihanna "Love on the Brain" [ANTI]
11. Shura "Touch" [Nothing's Real]
12. The Weeknd "Secrets" [Starboy]
13. Chance the Rapper ft. Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz "No Problem" [Coloring Book]
14. Nao "Get to Know Ya" [For All We Know]
15. Danny Brown "Dance in the Water" [Atrocity Exhibition]
16. Leonard Cohen "You Want It Darker" [You Want It Darker]
17. Solange ft. Lil Wayne "Mad" [A Seat at the Table]
18. Kendrick Lamar "unitled 08" [untitled unmastered.]
19. Lizzo "Jang a Lang" [BIG GRRRL SMALL WORLD]
20. A Tribe Called Quest "Black Spasmodic" [We Got It from Here, Thank You 4 Your Service]
21. Kamaiyah "Niggas" [A Good Night in the Ghetto]
22. Lapsley "Operator (He Doesn't Call Me)" [Long Way Home]
23. Joey Purp ft. Chance the Rapper "Girls @" [iiiDrops]
24. The Avalanches ft. Danny Brown "Frankie Sinatra" [Wildflower]
25. The Radio Dept. "Committed to the Cause" [Running Out of Love]
26. The Wave Pictures "The Coaster in Santa Cruz" [A Season in Hull]
27. Flock of Dimes "Birthplace" [If You See Me, Say Yes]
28. Kyle Craft "Balmorhea" [Dogs of Highland]
29. Terry Malts "Gentle Eyes" [Lost at the Party]
30. NxWorries "Scared Money" [Yes Lawd!]
31. Pusha T "Untouchable" [King Pusha: Prelude]
32. Cass McCombs "Bum Bum Bum" [Mangy Love]
33. Eleanor Friedberger "He Didn't Mention His Mother" [New View]
34. Lizzo "Phone" [Coconut Water]
35. Jessy Lanza "Never Enough" [Oh No]
36. Swet Shop Boys ft. Ali Sethi "Aaja" [Cashmere]
37. Basia Bulat "Long Goodbye" [Good Advice]
38. Alex Cameron "Happy Ending" [Jumping the Shark]
39. Pity Sex "Burden You" [White Hot Moon]
40. BJ the Chicago Kid "Turnin' Me Up" [In My Mind]
41. Pet Shop Boys "Undertow" [Super]
42. Tegan and Sara "Faint of Heart" [Love You to Death]
43. Lydia Loveless "Out on Love" [Real]
44. Alicia Keys "In Common" [Here]
45. Kyle ft. Little Yachty "iSpy" [non-LP single]
46. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Rings of Saturn" [Skeleton Tree]
47. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam "Rough Going" [I Had a Dream That You Were Mine]
48. Mavis Staples "Action" [Livin' on a High Note]
49. Beyoncé "All Night" [Lemonade]
50. David Bowie "Lazarus" [Blackstar]
51. Kevin Gates "2 Phones" [Islah]
52. The Wave Pictures "Panama Hat" [Bamboo Diner in the Rain]
53. Ezra Furman "Teddy I'm Ready" [Big Fugitive Life]
54. Angel Olsen "Shut Up Kiss Me" [My Woman]
55. Young Thug ft. Wyclef Jean "Kanye West" [JEFFERY]
56. Tacocat "Talk" [Lost Time]
57. Hoops "Cool 2" [EP]
58. Michael Kiwanuka "One More Night" [Love & Hate]
59. Frank Ocean "Pink + White" [Blonde]
60. Kanye West "FML" [The Life of Pablo]
61. M.I.A. "Birdsong" [AIM]
62. Holy Fuck "Neon Dad" [Congrats]
63. Kaytranada ft. Craig David "Got It Good" [99.9%]
64. Mr. Fingers "Qwazars" [Outer Acid EP]
65. Poliça "Lose You" [United Crushers]
66. PJ Harvey "The Wheel" [The Hope Six Demolition Project]
67. Robert Pollard "My Daughter Yes She Knows" [Of Course You Are]
68. Bat for Lashes "Sunday Love" [The Bride]
69. Todd Terje & the Olsens "Baby Do You Wanna Bump" [The Big Cover-Up]
70. Vince Staples ft. A$AP Rocky "Prima Donna" [Prima Donna EP]
71. Lake Street Dive "Close to Me" [Side Pony]
72. A$AP Ferg ft. Missy Elliott "Strive" [Always Strive and Prosper]
73. Ariana Grande "Into You" [Dangerous Woman]
74. The Jayhawks "Lovers of the Sun" [Paging Mr. Proust]
75. Ezra Furman "Crown of Love" {Arcade Fire cover} [Songs by Others]
76. Nels Cline "Snare, Girl" {Sonic Youth cover} [Lovers]
77. Brian Eno "Fickle Sun (iii) I'm Set Free" {Velvet Underground cover} [The Ship]
78. D.R.A.M. ft. Erykah Badu "WiFi" [Big Baby D.R.A.M.]
79. Common ft. Bilal "Home" [Black America Again]
80. Drive-By Truckers "What It Means" [American Band]
81. Maxwell "Fingers Crossed" [blackSUMMER'Snight]
82. Andrew Bird ft. Fiona Apple "Left Handed Kisses" [Are You Serious]
83. Skepta "Man" [Konnichiwa]
84. Savages "I Need Something New" [Adore Life]
85. The Julie Ruin "I Decide" [Hit Reset]
86. Jeremih "Paradise" [Late Nights - the Album]
87. Laura Gibson "Two Kids" [Empire Builder]
88. Radiohead "Identikit" [A Moon Shaped Pool]
89. Kate Jackson "The End of Reason" [British Road Movies]
90. Anohni "4 Degrees" [Hopelessness]
91. Public Access TV "Evil Disco" [Never Enough]
92. Sidestepper "Lover" [Supernatural Love]
93. Half Waif "Turn Me Around" [Turn Me Around]
94. Iggy Pop "Sunday" [Post Pop Depression]
95. Pantha du Prince "You What? Euphoria!" [The Triad]
96. Azealia Banks "The Big, Big Beat" [Slay-Z]
97. Gold Panda "Time Eater" [Good Luck and Do Your Best]
98. case/lang/veirs "I Want to Be Here" [s/t]
99. Yello "Limbo" [Toy]

******

I have a lot of re-listening to do before my albums list but it will honest to god be here next weekend.

Even hipsters ain't safe: 2016 new release rush

When I worked at the grocery store one of my coworkers and I used to complain a lot about how the time clock was unpredictably three to five minutes off from the reality of actual defined time; the shorthand we developed when we asked one another what time it was (this was when not everyone had a cell phone on them all the time) was: "in their world, it's 6:03," etc. So these are the last reviews for the calendar year that ended, in their world, two and a half months ago. I don't care. After all, what have "they" done for us lately?

***

Lambchop: FLOTUS (Merge) [NO]
So, this is garbage. Lambchop have made pleasant, even moving records in the past but their latest "experiment" is listlessness disguised as experimentation, an hour of interminable minor-key ballads with a Vocoder mumbling into endless oblivion. Every song sounds the same, and every second is nails on a chalkboard. It's like listening to a Dire Straits album fronted by the Bon Iver guy.

Common: Black America Again (Def Jam) [r]
Common's obligations as a sort of diplomatic figurehead were affecting his music adversely as early as fifteen years ago, and there hasn't been much evidence that he was interested in scaling back to focus on creating an exceptional album since 2000's wonderful Like Water for Chocolate; this highly political comeback of sorts is a fine compromise despite having a few too many throwaway cuts. Producer (and jazz drummer) Karriem Riggins gives the new songs a lush, inviting throwback feel that feels of a piece with other recent protest albums like To Pimp a Butterfly and Black Messiah without matching the vitality of either. And don't expect a channeling of Common's most alarming past missives or most seductive past romances; his naive fantasy about women overtaking the planet is reductive and tiresome, entirely foregoing the wit of something like Parliament's "Chocolate City," the didactic stuff (always a weakness for Common) sometimes travels down the same odd road as KRS-One preaching the gospel against greasy food, and the love songs bubble without coming to a boil. But Bilal is a superb match for Common, and the three tracks on which he appears are highlights, putting the lackluster contributions of John Legend and (gulp) Stevie Wonder in a rather harsh light. Despite all that, this is most agreeable soul music with generally righteous and timely politics.

A Tribe Called Quest: We Got It from Here, Thank You 4 Your Service (Epic) [hr]
This exciting grand finale from one of the greatest American bands of my lifetime requires more thought than a capsule review can really muster. It would be easy to say "it's like they never left," and in terms of Q-Tip and Phife Dawg's energy and the potency of their lyrics that's obviously true, but ATCQ had already become something of a creaky machine by the time of their last record, The Love Movement, in 1998. Their sixth album was recorded spontaneously and secretly in the months ahead of Phife's untimely death, and it's sufficiently overflowing with ideas and complex emotions that it could only have come into being after a lengthy hiatus. It could be the best "reunion" album ever, since it seems to exist in the clear spirit of having something to prove, the way a group's first or second record often does; in other words, they sound older in the best of ways but they're also brash, youthful, hungry. In a chaotic time, the nonchalant warmth and peace in this album's grooves are a godsend for us as well as for them, a casual cornucopia of timeless, decades-summarizing hip hop; with vocal contributions from Talib Kweli, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak and Busta Rhymes among others, it seems to compress the entirety of the culture since 1998 into an irresistible, enticing package. It flows marvelously. But the ageless sound of it all is of course an illusion, the tumultuous mood behind the years it captures illustrated best by Q-Tip on "Melatonin": "Population gettin' tired now, everybody wants inspired now, racist emails fire out [...] The world is crazy and I cannot sleep but they don't know [...] I read the paper so that I can see what they don't know / I'd rather stay indoors and make a beat but they don't know." It's incredibly heavy, somehow heavier when it comes from a voice you've spent much of your life trusting. You can be forgiven for reveling in the last boasts and challenges-to-a-duel we'll ever get to hear from Phife, on the ironically titled finale "The Donald," which also give a nod to external aids that weren't around when he last said his piece: "Off top on the spot, no reading from your Whackberry [who but Tribe could get away with that one?] / leave the iPhones home, skill sets must be shown / I'mma show you the real meaning of the danger zone." Now that he's gone, now that they're gone, their winning streak is destined never to be broken.

The Rolling Stones: Blue and Lonesome (Interscope) [r]
This collection of raw blues rock is as much a coda as the ATCQ album, only these guys don't know or won't admit it. On record at least, the Rolling Stones haven't sounded this tight, or even this much like a rock band, in decades; and by their choice of material -- covers of Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam, Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon et al. -- there's a sense that they're not pretending or operating strictly by obligation as a corporate entity for a change. Don't get too excited; there's more resignation than fire, and several songs wander into boredom (twice courtesy of special guest Eric Clapton), and why are new chapters of this story really necessary in the first place? But as a wistful and defiant nod to the past in the vein of John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll and as proof that these dinosaurs still are capable of getting their shit together long enough to groove, it's a surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable listen that doesn't require a lot of apology. Mick sounds fantastic; what sort of deal with the Devil did that man make?

Flock of Dimes: If You See Me, Say Yes (Partisan) [hr]
Flock of Dimes is Jenn Wasner, half of Wye Oak, a band freely defined for years by the sound of her guitar playing; this project bears little resemblance to the impulses that seem to drive her full-time outlet. Instead, this is the music of my private universe: synth-layered dreampop with touches of trip hop and '90s mainstream radio, and infused with an emotion in the vocals and arrangements so lush you could fall into it. I don't remember thinking of Wasner as an Elizabeth Fraser disciple, but her writing and singing both call Cocteau Twins to mind here, and the plaintive, floating vibes are distinctly welcoming of intense reflection. It's not all shoegazing or easy listening by any means; the songs, productions and arrangements do probe: witness the use of chanting on "Minor Justice" or the way the opening and closing suite "Sometimes It Is Right... To Have No Answer" leaves its incomplete sentence hanging for the full duration. But somehow Wasner seems most in touch with herself when the songs fall fearlessly into off-kilter nostalgia; "Semaphore," for example, builds upon itself toweringly, gracefully, and could be a lost mid-'80s Kate Bush composition. Regardless of such contextualizing, this is one of the most beautiful, seductive and inviting pop albums of the year.

Swet Shop Boys: Cashmere (Customs) [hr]
Heems recorded a fine solo album last year, Eat Pray Thug, and it deserved many times the attention that it got, but ever since the heartbreaking disintegration of Das Racist -- the closest our generation got to a Sex Pistols -- there's been a gap in the world, in the shape of a collective of MCs anchored by a fucking great rapper who was always best in a group context. If you didn't realize how much you missed hearing him bounce off another relentlessly probing and funny entertainer, Swet Shop Boys' proper debut will fix you; Heems teams up here with British-Pakistani actor and rapper Riz MC (you saw him in Nightcrawler), easily his partner's equal in speed and humor if not self-deprecation. The record is an absolute gift; it comes out swinging with the TSA-attacking banger "T5" followed neatly by the hook-filled "Shottin" and the flagrantly odd "Aaja." If you're looking for Heems being Heems but also hints of the same wide-ranging ambition in production and style that made Relax such an out-of-time gift, try "Tiger Hologram." What people always miss about Heems when they dismiss him as a novelty rapper is how much pain is centered in his humor: "I'm so fly bitch / but I'm on the No Fly list" is a joke, and yet it's not a joke at all, and it's funny, but it really isn't. The pair's sensibility and perspective are unique, fresh and challenging in a manner you simply won't find elsewhere in music, within or without hip hop -- and in the decade after music stopped being a viable avenue to riches and power, we get the intellectual equivalent of a classic rap boast: "Gettin' paid to lecture at unis that turned me down." Right on, man -- I hope they're paying you a fucking lot; I'd buy your music a hundred times if I could.

The Wave Pictures: Bamboo Diner in the Rain (Moshi Moshi) [hr]
This may be the most consistently inspired rock band currently going, and they're also one of the most prolific -- their energy and lyrical inventiveness a bottomless resource in the vein of John Darnielle, their unassuming charm and thoughtfulness a callback to giants like the Only Ones and the Go-Betweens, their riffing and vamping stronger than you'd ever expect within such tight compositions. The Wave Pictures already put out an album this year, the galvanizingly lovely A Season in Hull, recorded acoustically and only available on vinyl, and this unfocused, even haphazard canon release might seem slight in comparison, but only with the most cursory of glances. The opening ramble "Panama Hat" anchors another of Dave Tattersall's friendly animal stories ("you made friends with my black and white cat / I never saw him take to someone new like that") against another engaging, introspective ballad on human relationships, with plenty more to follow. The performances are as spontaneous-sounding and robust as ever -- Tattersall's great, dirty soloing on "H.D. Rider" a clear standout, along with the delicately pretty instrumentals "Bamboo Diner Rag" and "Meeting Simon at the Airport" -- and run the same gamut of reflection and slight poetic menace as Hull, with "Now I Want to Hoover My Brain Clean" adopting the "House of the Rising Sun" riff to unsettling effect behind words about personal failings ("I used to be argumentative and I still am"). The big standout is "Pool Hall," a sort of bohemian "Come Dancing" story (they're tearing it down) with anger over changing and aging buried under the inability to turn off one's philosophical acceptance. And once again, the record ends with a rocker ("The Running Man") that fails to seem at all like an ending. This is a tricky recommendation because I don't think you should start with it if you're new to the band -- I haven't reviewed it yet, but 2013's City Forgiveness edges close to masterpiece level -- but once you do know them, you'll treasure every precious second of it. To be honest, they are now possibly my favorite currently operational and at-peak guitar band.

Ezra Furman: Songs by Others (Bella Union EP) [hr]
An enthusiastic musical omnivore, Furman lays out his influences and makes something out of every one of them -- Beck is made noisy and chaotic, Arcade Fire is transformed into doo wop, LCD Soundsystem's "I Can Change" is brought down to its pained essence, and the Replacements' "Androgynous" attains the anthemic quality the (gorgeous) original version sidesteps. All but two of these cuts were issued as a bonus disc on Perpetual Motion People, but Furman threw in Jackie Wilson and Little Richard for a vinyl-only reissue this past Record Store Day, and it's worth the trouble of seeking out.

/
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
This annual section is where I methodically check in on artists whose work I dug at some point in the last ten years but whose latest releases somehow fell under my radar. Sometimes there are gems, usually there aren't, but we made a commitment and we'll stick by it! Most of what's below from the better artists (Cut Copy, Furman, Lady Lamb) is special releases -- side projects, EPs, mixtapes, etc. -- as opposed to studio albums; generally I noticed that those happened if they were worth seeking out. That doesn't apply to Terry Malts, for instance, who've never been covered by most major outlets, or to anyone whose release had fanfare but I just missed it. I should also mention Curren$y, who as usual released about thirteen mixtapes this year, most of which are on Spotify (and are very badly recorded or at least badly mastered), and I just don't have time to listen to them. Sorry.

Azealia Banks: Slay-Z (s/r) [c]
Banks gets a lot of flack for doing the same sort of dunderheaded shit Kanye West does; the press doesn't make him suffer for it nearly as much, and I can't imagine why. I still like her a lot -- great voice, creatively adventurous, and admirably unaffected by outside judginess of her sexuality or outspokenness, though yeah, the Trump stuff is bullshit -- but this mixtape slash EP is a big disappointment, full of bad cut-and-paste and worse generic club production on the dance songs, plus at least one inexcusable vocal that really needed another take. The single, "The Big Big Beat," is good and has the relentless, fire-breathing infectiousness of her classic blog singles from the early 2010s, but it's not enough to redeem seven lackluster cuts. She's constantly the best part of her music, but she's surrounded by mediocrity.

Chatham County Line: Autumn (Yep Roc)
Increasingly listless-sounding bluegrass quartet's work is as prettily moody as ever, but they're neither as haunting nor as catchy here as they've been at their height. Still solid, just a little underwhelming; I've not been in the mood for this genre lately but if it's your focus you're likely to really get a lot more from this.

clipping.: Wriggle (Sub Pop EP) [r]
This is stronger, faster, meaner than the album and offers a good opportunity to hear Daveed Diggs spit at highest velocity. If they'd combined this with the conceptual material on Splendor & Misery I might have enjoyed their new output as much as CLPPNG.

Cut Copy: January Tape (Cutters) [r]
Cut Copy's one of my favorite bands running so I'm not sure how this slipped under the radar; it's an interesting curio that I like quite a bit as a fan, in much the same way I really like (and constantly listen to) Yo La Tengo's The Sounds of the Sounds of Science and They Shoot, We Score despite not necessarily thinking they'd appeal so much to the general public. Billed as an ambient mixtape of sorts with no song titles, it's not really ambient by any stretch -- it has beats, to start with -- though it is mostly instrumental. It doesn't resemble background music or Eno so much as the nifty electronic instrumentals Depeche Mode used to put on their b-sides. I'll take it.

Ezra Furman: Big Fugitive Life (PIAS EP) [r]
Again, I would have reviewed this right away had I been aware that it existed, but since the American music press refuses to take Ezra seriously if it acknowledges him at all I guess I shouldn't be surprised. "Teddy I'm Ready" and "Haley's Comet" are Furman and his band at their searing rock & roll best, then Furman chooses to slow it down with a few acoustic numbers, which limits the appeal of this to extant converts... but that's what EPs are for generally, right?

Lady Lamb: Tender Warriors Club (Mom + Pop EP)
This feels a bit more like leftovers to me, with none of the material really rising up to the sublime After; as on that record, Lady Lamb's voice can slip periodically into a hazy anonymity... but that only makes it more breathtaking when she picks the passion back up.

Male Bonding: Headache (s/r)
Promising British pure rock / punk / thrash unit made a wonderful record called Nothing Hurts for Sub Pop in 2010, went into a lower-key direction with Endless Now, and have now possibly ceased to exist, quietly self-releasing this third album that attempts to reacquire the energy of the debut, but the melodies and hooks are now sorely lacking even if the speed is intact. There are some bright and engaging tidbits, so don't skip it altogether if you like the old stuff.

Pink Martini: Je dis oui! (Audiogram)
The Muzak globetrotters are still at it, but of course they made their point years ago and did we honestly need another version of "Blue Moon"? This is the very definition of lifestyle music -- occasionally impressive, just as often dim and passionlessly twee.

September Girls: Age of Indignation (Fortuna POP!)
Pretty disappointing follow-up from this shoegaze collective loses the production shimmer, reveals weak songwriting and listless playing underneath it all.

Terry Malts: Lost at the Party (Slumberland) [r]
The most interesting release on this short list. In my mind I classify Terry Malts with Surfer Blood and Male Bonding as promising melodic guitar bands from the early part of this decade, but they're really quite different apart from their love of big loud hooks, Malts the punkiest and smartest of the trio. Whereas Surfer Blood had the most dramatic crash and burn of a rock band in decades and Male Bonding quietly slipped from public view, Terry Malts never attained the public notice they deserved; I said as much at the time but every song on Killing Time is incredibly catchy (at least half of them brilliant) and performed with Ramones-level abandon. Their third album, a huge improvement on the second, has the same narrative thread as the Avalanches' Wildflower: it starts bright and poppy with all hands on deck and the usual disaffected vocals that mask the genuine feeling in the songs themselves, peaking with the improbable "Gentle Eyes." Then the group seems to abruptly age several years and plays us out with half an hour or so of shimmeringly pretty but dark New Wave, fusing nostalgia with futurism in the tradition of the Barracudas (the band, incidentally, that I expected Surfer Blood to turn into). Bassist and singer Phil Benson really stretches himself on the shorter cuts, and the group's gradual, casual transformation to a kind of lo-fi Big Star seems to be nearly complete. So it's your call whether you prefer the intense rock & roll or the dramatic introspection, but no question this is the best maturation process of a guitar band imaginable these days. Just glad they're OK.

Tinashe: Nightride (RCA) [r]
A sonic tour de force wherein fifteen veteran and cutting-edge producers seem to bury the fine singer on her own album, with some of the druggiest and most otherworldly sounds heard in 2016, and the only record apart from Danny Brown's that sounded completely new and fresh in strict terms of its sound. But these are half-finished songs, and occasionally songs that shouldn't have even made it past demo stage ("Spacetime" and "Party Favors" particularly) weaved into hazy oblivion by bells and whistles. The phrase "no 'there' there" comes to mind, regardless of how good Tinashe's vocals still are.

ALSO RECOMMENDED
- Venetian Snares: Traditional Synthesizer Music (Planet Mu) - recommended by Ryan Nichols, this is exactly what it says it is, bubbles and tickles like no tomorrow, and it's going right in the silent scoring file
- Tycho: Epoch (Ghostly) - same except peaceful
- Public Access TV: Never Enough (Cinematic) - bargain bin power pop, a wonderful rush of simpler impulses come flooding back ["Evil Disco" / "Sell You on a Lie"]
- Yello: Toy (Universal) - Swiss authors of ubiquitous 1985 hit "Oh Yeah" (and some other solid '80s proto-techno, now forgotten) present grumbled Leonard Cohen house music, pleasant dream-pop, weird novelty and all the fun of buying your first keyboard ["Limbo" / "Magma"]
- Xylouris White: Black Peak (Bella Union) - interesting hybrid of laouto drone, surprisingly evocative of John Cale, and traditionalist Greek vocals; starts out rocking and eventually goes pure ambient, then for unsettling, out-of-time folk melody
- Goat: Requiem (Sub Pop) - ramshackle songs and colorful experiments out of Swedish multi-genre fusion whatsit band

REJECTS:
Itasca: Open to Chance
D.R.A.M.: Big Baby D.R.A.M.
John K. Samson: Winter Wheat [NYIM]

ORPHAN TUNES:
D.R.A.M. feat. Erykah Badu "WiFi" [Big Baby D.R.A.M.]

ALBUMS RATED (NOT REVIEWED) THIS PERIOD:
Tracey Thorn: Love and Its Opposite (Merge 2010) [r]

******

I will be posting an official year-end list for '16 soon but I expect I will not bother with a full essay, just to keep things moving around here. The end of the decade is nearly upon us and it will portend some changes in how I approach new music here, but I will be doing an extensive 2010s retrospective in a couple of years and then I can say whatever needs to be said about how this year's best efforts operate in a wider context. See you shortly.

The kids are all right, but the kids will get older: October 2016 music diary

One hell of a month. Goodbye to one of the mavericks, hello again to three people with more talent in an eyebrow and more capacity to fearlessly expose themselves than you and I will ever muster. Plus old friends and new. It's beautiful.

Didn't want to put this in the review so it's up here: When Old Ideas came out I said in Metro Times that I wished it was angrier, a diagnosis I later regretted; he of course never read that and wouldn't have cared if he had, but the chiding sneer of the very title and chorus of "You Want It Darker" feels like a rebuke and I'm going to pretend it's my hero yelling at me and I fully accept it.

***

Beach Slang: A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (Polyvinyl) [c]
The rating is just honest and firmly biased. Hard to get much pleasure out of listening to this, but it's also simple enough to understand why it's necessary -- so much less than the classicist rock & roll expression of freedom, this aggressive, dramatic combination of Future Islands and Cloud Nothings is the music of comfort to a person raised in a certain timeframe. It suggests long nights drinking with the friends you've been playing Sega with since midle school. It sounds like a closed-down Kmart, music more dead than alive, but maybe that's just because you're not privy to the intricacies in the conversation it backgrounds.

Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam: I Had a Dream That You Were Mine (Glassnote) [hr]
In my world the Walkmen are deeply missed, and with keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij newly gone from Vampire Weekend, I fear I'm destined to feel similarly about them. Somehow it's appropriate that the Walkmen's leader follows up his decent grower of a solo debut with a richly inviting, lovingly textured collaboration with Batmanglij that sounds exactly the way you'd expect and is as a result an immediate and sumptuous pleasure. The Walkmen during their You and Me and Lisbon period had come ever closer to a full-on emulation of unadorned Sun Records and country blues roots-rock, and the pair's new songs are a cornucopia of late 1950s and early 1960s rock & roll tinged with the probing, friendly intensity of Batmanglij's simple but impeccable soundscapes on Contra and Modern Vampires of the City. It's a happy match, to say the least, and often exhilarating; "Sick as a Dog" is pure Walkmen reincarnated, "Rough Going" the second best doo wop song of the year after Rihanna's, "In a Black Out" a Leonard Cohen interpolation with a driving primal beat, "When the Truth Is..." a New Orleans soul pastiche, and "You Ain't That Young Kid" is nothing more than an "Oh Yoko!" rewrite, but what the world needs now is more "Oh Yoko!" rewrites.

M.I.A.: AIM (Interscope) [r]
Slight compared to M.I.A.'s best work but still cutting and surprisingly fun; politics and abrasiveness take sort of a rear-seat priority to catchiness but it wouldn't seem nice to complain much when this music's vitality still makes it stick out in an overcrowded marketplace. "Birdsong" and "Fly Pirate" are the songs that wander the least from their focus, and their frenetic energy is bracing, but "Borders" and "Go Off" could be recast by a matter of degrees into timeless radio songs. It's maybe to Maya Arulpragasam's credit that she resists taking the easy route to pleasure.

Nicolas Jaar: Sirens (Other People) [hr]
Five years after the enchanting and truly original Space Is Only Noise, with interim work on the collaborative ambient unit Darkside, the eccentric and intimidatingly gifted Jaar returns with one of the great sonic thrills of recent years. Sirens is much more driven by songs than its predecessor, but if the irresistibly weird, guttural hooks on "Space Is Only Noise" and "Problems with the Sun" gave you a start, wait till you get a load of the towering Eddie Cochran-as-DJ Shadow monster "The Governor," to say nothing of the bubbling rhythmic trickery and sensual, expansive moments at the core of "No" and "History Lesson" (incongrouous '80s sax break and all), always anchored by Jaar's surprisingly swaggering vocals. There's also plenty of noise and hauntingly strange captured ambiance, and virtually every second is inspired and addictive, moving teasingly on to each new frontier at the perfect moment. The sort of album that demands to be played as loudly as possible; James Blake wishes.

Drive-By Truckers: American Band (ATO)
Long-running Athens, GA band is beloved in many quarters, including the alt-country circles I ran around devotedly within about ten years ago. I've tried time and time again to hear what others do in them, never harder than with this profane, politically charged, strangely listless and bland new album. There are occasional hooks that call up favorable thoughts of the Jayhawks, but the songcraft by and large is undistinguished, and the lyrics can't compensate when they tend toward either obscurity or the childlike embarrassment of "Sun Don't Shine"... with the notable exception of "What It Means," an impassioned ode to the Black Lives Matter movement that means probably more as a political gesture in alt-country's tradition of prejudice rejected than Chatham County Line's "Birmingham Jail" because it stands up directly to current events. For someone living in a Trump state, the demonstration that compassion does exist in the South is welcome in this terrible age.

Bon Iver: 22, A Million (Jagjaguwar) [c]
I recoiled so violently at this at first -- its hilariously pretentious song titles probably putting me immediately on the offensive, admittedly -- that it made me question the entire future of this blog. Namely: does the world need me to announce what I think of Bon Iver? Come 2020, probably not -- my decade-long experiment will be complete and I'll probably stick to reviewing only stuff that strikes my fancy after a few tracks. For now, though, I'm obligated to listen more carefully than comes natural to me, and my conclusion is that the music is less cringeworthy than it initially seems. There's dimension and depth and texture to the arrangements if not the ponderous, melodramatic songs themselves and certainly not the strained hyperseriousness of Justin Vernon's tinker-tron vocals, a bad soundtrack to a bad science fiction opus. You can sense, though, how the music's attachment to pure, smoothed-down, static beauty might move somebody without the inclination to hear it as toothless. In civilian life, though, I get to just tell you that I don't want to understand Bon Iver, and I get to also tell you that the treacly, dippy, comically overblown "29 #Strafford APTS" is the worst fucking song I've heard in months.

Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch (Sacred Bones) [r]
A body horror narrative from this Norwegian experimental musician, much ado about menstrual blood, vampires and Italian giallo films. Hval's kitchen sink conceptual approach distracts a bit but at its best this is genuinely beguiling and unnerving. Closest comparison I can think of is some of Yoko Ono's work, though I hesitate to think Ono would have married herself so passionately to so limited a narrative conceit. Hval, like Ono, has a genuinely seductive pop sensibility that many will ignore. I can't see myself listening to this often but it is an impressive and enjoyably restless creation.

Danny Brown: Atrocity Exhibition (Warp) [hr]
Not that long ago, Detroit's auteur of discomfort was thought of as a novelty rapper, all high-pitched chirp and stoned nonsequiturs. If the terrific Old didn't persuade everyone of his depth and alarming creative antsiness, his truly extraordinary third album should put the old image to bed forever. Old was about failing to come to terms with one's identity, borrowing themes from Arthur Lee. Atrocity Exhibition, taking musical cues from Brian Eno's worth with Talking Heads (listen to the trippy, wilding "Dance in the Water" or the bubbling, swampy "Rolling Stone"), is the sound of a bleaker kind of confusion and despair. It even opens with the disorienting sound of Brown caving in, a world falling apart... but then again, the other thing the record is about is Brown demonstrating an absolute brilliance, consistency and generosity that manages to make most other tentpole hip hop records of the past few years appear weak and thin. Longtime collaborator Black Milk produces most of the tracks, and virtually all of them are worlds unto themselves. The instant classic "Really Doe," with its jingling minimalism and inescapably catchy Kendrick Lamar hook, would be far and away the highlight of a lesser album. Here, I'm not sure it's even close. "Tell Me What I Don't Know" invites its own essay with its stark synth, shuffling beat and despairing rhymes about living in hell. Brown shifts personalites with jack-in-the-box relentlessness but his paranoia is a constant, and how can it not be when he watches TV, puts on the news? This may not have the conceptual soundness of Lamar or Kanye West's albums but it outruns either in its unique and singular sound, its fevered intensity, its city night drive clusterfuck, and frankly the forward-looking caliber of its guests, with both Petite Noir and Kelela putting in significant time. You don't hear music this exciting in its madness very often.

Solange: A Seat at the Table (Columbia) [hr]
Solange Knowles turned thirty in 2016, which is staggering when you consider the maturity and sense of history involved in her brilliant, politically direct third album, which at times amounts to a sound collage about black identity. Being part of a famous family and a celebrity unto herself, Solange has approached her career carefully, with much deliberation over each successive movement, and it's all led up to this, a moment that's completely earned its fanfare. It means to speak specifically and without dilution to a black millennial audience and stakes its claim as giving voice to a broad base of people far afield of the life experience of not just many of its listeners but Solange herself. It might be protest music but it's meditative protest music. It's also powerfully performed, instantly and warmly addictive, varied and seductive. It's of a piece with the chain of landmark R&B LPs since Beyoncé's black album in 2013, and with the spoken passages, the hooks passed along and discarded, the well-maintained intimacy and sprawl, it's the most successful synthesis of its commercial ideas to date while also managing to be nothing more or less than a singer-songwriter's album, moments like "Cranes in the Sky" even calling to mind '70s anthems of the Joni Mitchell and Marvin Gaye variety. That personable sensibility is maintained even on a bumping dance song like "Mad" (with Lil Wayne's best interlude in years), but never more elegantly than on the opening salvo "Rise," which shakes you to the core in under two minutes. The album's slightly front-loaded, its best moments all in the first half apart from "Scales" (when is the Kelela revolution underway again?) but taken together it just has the most incredibly lively feeling about it.

Kate Tempest: Let Them Eat Chaos (Fiction) [hr]
Tempest's first album Everybody Down comprised in its irresistible beats and rhymes a witty, intricate story about London dirtbags getting swept up in minor intrigue; it had such detail and charm she turned it into a novel. Her second record is a warning signal -- about a group of strangers bound together by an unexpected event in a single minute of their lives. She takes flight from this strange moment to examine more disparate lives, but now with a touch of dread and resentment in her voice as she watches society fall apart; it's a sort of leftist Magnolia without the bourgeois sensibility, but so vastly better than that makes it sound. "Europe is lost. America -- lost," Tempest announces near the beginning. It's something you probably already knew, but you've never heard it expressed with the breathless passion and desperation brought to it by this astonishing artist. There are still jokes, still touches of unmistakable reality, and still there are exhilarating performative moments of Tempest soaring at the microphone, still exquisite beats and tour de force slaps to fall into. But she can't keep her distance anymore. Her narrative positions her as the opposite of the God imagined by Ray Davies in "Big Sky" back in 1968, the last year in which the world seemed to face quite so much insurmountable uncertainty. She can't hide her hopelessness, but nor can she hide how absolutely much she loves the people stuck in this fucked up situation of being alive. On the last song, "Tunnel Vision," she lays it out. Read the words online if it's the only way I can persuade you to listen to this fucking album, but you really don't hear her message until you hear the way her voice breaks when she says it and when she begs us to act... not even by protesting, though that would be nice, but by connecting. You might never look at your neighbors the same way, and maybe you'll even speak to them tomorrow. Whatever the case, Tempest is one of the most extraordinarily talented people currently recording music in the entire world.

Yossou N'Dour: Senegaal Rekk (Prince Arts EP) [r]
Only learned this existed via Christgau's review. All but automatically recommended because it's Yossou N'Dour and he and his band are among the best and tightest musicians in the entire world; they and Bassekou Kouyate's band are the closest we all get to a modern day James Brown and the Famous Flames, language barrier notwithstanding. Recommended, not highly, also by default because the difficulty of finding it (it's on Youtube in rather dismal quality, which doesn't count it) is hard to justify when you can so much more easily track down more and better work from this artist.

Lizzo: Coconut Oil (Atlantic EP) [r]
Best left to some expert in "the industry" to explain why an EP is seen as the best option for a promising, self-sustaining artist just signed to a major. Apart from that I just hope that the smoothed edges of this perfectly fun, charming twenty-minute set aren't a harbinger of things to come. Big GRRL Small World had some soppy ballads, but it also slammed -- the only truly nasty and unconventional moment here is the irresistibly bratty "Phone," which does have Lizzo's most supernaturally infectious hook to date. Nevertheless, everything here is good, and maybe it serves as a smoother way in... but I hope her full-length Atlantic debut is a lot meaner and messier, as I'm not ready for this voice to get sucked into the machine yet.

The Radio Dept.: Running Out of Love (Labrador) [r]
My records indicate that I enjoyed this band's 2010 album Clinging to a Scheme but it's retroactively blended in with the glut of terrific music released that year, so I was genuinely surprised by how effective this set of atmospheric synthpop is, sung with surprisingly touching disaffection by Johan Duncanson. The scope of influences has narrowed a bit, moving away from shoegaze and Cocteaus toward O.M.D. and Orange Juice. For anybody who loves those bands and likes a touch of dream pop, this will be something like heaven, though the sound very frequently outruns the songs (not necessarily a bad thing if it's the mood you're seeking). There are significant exceptions, though, stacked mostly toward the beginning -- "Swedish Guns" and "We Got Game" are two of the catchiest and best-produced throwbacks this side of Cut Copy's "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" or Egyptian Hip Hop's stunning "SYH" -- and on "Committed to the Cause," the group shows conscientious attention toward something alien to so many of their peers: groove.

Leonard Cohen: You Want It Darker (Columbia) [hr]
Difficult not to take this as a personal missive meant for each of us individually, like the last message from one's teacher or mentor. Hearing it before he died it seemed strong, brief and distant, a good downward shift in mood and tone from Popular Problems and Old Ideas; hearing it afterward it became different, as he undoubtedly knew and intended, more deliberate in its thorniness. First of all it isn't a decisive or resolved farewell. It's unsettling, troubling, challenging, leaving an upset confusion in its wake. The move away from tin can noises and toward something more naturally lush -- his most modern-sounding album since The Future, his least arid or awkward in production terms since New Skin for the Old Ceremony -- is used not to make music that sounds more inviting but music that sounds more infused with inevitability and dread despite its evident timelessness, appropriate for a shadowy exit in the world's final act. The credits indicate that two of the best songs are cowrites: the forcefully pretty "On the Level" (with one of the best, most soulful vocal performances of his career; genuinely upsetting he'll never get to play it live); and the instantly legendary title cut, which makes a promise that the remainder more than delivers on in its chilling gospel tones and evocative spiritual gloom. But then there's "Steer Your Way," a desperate minor key groove growling off into eternity that's all the Leonard we love to speak with, through and through. And of course, so is this: "I don't need a lover / the wretched beast is tame / I don't need a lover / so blow out the flame." What will we do without Cohen's mysteries to solve? Small consolation is that I'll be long dead myself by the time we decipher them all. RIP, master. I'll never forgive myself for missing Durham '09.

NxWorries: Yes Lawd! (Stones Throw)
This R&B duo (pronounced "No Worries" but it's so much more fun if you treat it phonetically) includes Anderson .Paak of Anderson .Paak fame and producer Knxledge, both of whom released very good albums this year that are more focused and appealing than their collaboration... which nevertheless has some great moments of under-the-skin banging and levity, the best of both worlds being the delightful lost-FM throwback "Scared Money," like a misplaced Bill Withers song revitalized with a couple of enthusiastic geeks feeling every word.

Weyes Blood: Front Row Seat to Earth (Mexican Summer) [r]
It drags at times, but the third album from the Californian (and how very) singer-songwriter Natalie Mering is a lovely, ethereal, melodramatic, slightly tongue-in-cheek tour of florid chamber pop -- it's going straight into the Rabbit-Friendly Music playlist.

***

ALSO RECOMMENDED
De La Soul: And the Anonymous Nobody (AOI) - in marked contrast to other elder-statesmen hip hop, you want to spend more time with the chillingly good production and beats than with the rapping
Bobby Rush: Porcupine Meat (Rounder) - a crazed, monumental blues performance, every bit of 82 years but still fuming

FURTHER INVESTIGATION TO COME
* Flock of Dimes: If You See Me, Say Yes
Public Access TV: Never Enough
Itasca: Open to Chance
Yello: Toy
Xylouris White: Black Peak
Goat: Requiem
Swet Shop Boys: Cashmere
D.R.A.M.: Big Baby D.R.A.M.
John K. Samson: Winter Wheat [mostly out of obligation; I wasn't feeling it much but I loved the Weakerthans dearly back in the day]

REJECTS
Robert Glasper Experiment: ArtScience
LVL UP: Return to Love [NYIM]
Merchandise: A Corpse Wired for Sound
How to Dress Well: Care
Warpaint: Heads Up
Devendra Banhart: Ape in Pink Marble
Skylar Grey: Natural Causes [NYIM]
Yellowcard
Banks: The Altar [NYIM]
S U R V I V E: RR7349 [NYIM]
The Wytches: All Your Happy Life [NYIM]
Van Morrison: Keep Me Singing
Van der Graaf Generator: Do Not Disturb
Ultimate Painting: Dusk [NYIM]
NOFX: First Ditch Effort
Norah Jones: Day Breaks
Joyce Manor: Cody
Julia Jacklin: Don't Let the Kids Win [NYIM]
Luke Haines: Smash the System
Hiss Golden Messenger: Heart Like a Levee
Green Day: Revolution Radio
Shovels & Rope: Little Seeds
Katie Gately: Color
Jamie Lidell: Building a Beginning
The Orb: COW / Chill Out, World! [NYIM]
Lemon Twigs: Do Hollywood
The Early Years: II
C Duncan: The Midnight Sun [NYIM]
D.D. Dumbo: Utopia Defeated [NYIM]
Conor Oberst: Ruminations
Donny McCaslin: Beyond Now
Kero Kero Bonito: Bonito Generation
Tanya Tagaq: Retribution
Jimmy Eat World: Integrity Blues
Syd Arthur: Apricity
David Crosby: Lighthouse
Pretenders: Alone
Agnes Obel: Citizen of Glass

OLD RECORDS RATED (NOT REVIEWED) THIS MONTH
The Apples in Stereo: Her Wallpaper Reverie (SpinART 1999) [r]
The Apples in Stereo: Let's Go (SpinART 2001 EP) [c]
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul (Atlantic 1968) [r]
Aretha Franklin: Soul '69 (Atlantic 1969) [r]

***

Next post is likely to be fairly short. I posted a preliminary list of my top 2016 albums on Twitter but I felt kind of crappy about it so I won't duplicate it here. Not likely to write very much about my final choices, maybe a pargraph or two, because I'm very anxious to move on and try again at the "keeping up" thing...