It’s been a lousy year. It’s fair to say pretty much everyone agrees to describe 2016 as the worst year the world’s known since we can remember. Countless legends left us, from Bowie to Prince, Gene Wilder and we’re not gonna go down that road to avoid pouring tears on our expensive laptop.
Socially and politically, the world’s been going insane. No need to mention what happened, the point is, it wasn’t pretty. Let’s stop lingering on that, though. Everyone’s been saying it and we get it, we all wish so many things had gone differently but that’s just how life goes. We’re not saying we’re stuck with that, and, especially in the world of arts, we’re all determined to act to change things for the better. But we’d like to talk about something many have ignored during the past 52 weeks: gratefulness.
From our perspective, and while reading the dozens of articles saying how rotten the year was, we realized quite a few good things happened. Silver linings can be found in the most unlikely places. Case in point: the United States Congress. Those guys passed a law criminalizing the use of robots to scalp tickets. Sure, this may not singlehandedly make 2016 the best year on record, but it’s already pretty cool.
Now, why would this be the opening for the most significant ranking of our end-of-year list? Well, we believe that the best things that happened this year are the 100 names and titles you’re about to read. In fact, in terms of music released, 2016 was probably the best year of the decade so far, and everyone took it for granted. Iggy Pop, Underworld, The Rolling Stones, Metallica and Paul Simon all came back with new albums, newcomers are insanely promising, and just a single look at our honourable mentions will make you realize how awesome the music of the past 366 days was:
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – A Man Alive
Devendra Banhart – Ape In Pink Marble
18h15 – Okänd
Yumi Zouma – Yoncalla
Mark Pritchard – Under The Sun
Moor Mother – Fetish Bones
Sunflower Bean – Human Ceremony
Bernardino Femminielli – Plaisirs Américains
Lambchop – FLOTUS
Powell – Sport
Hiss Golden Messenger – Heart Like A Levee
Isaiah Rashad – The Sun’s Tirade
Cass McCombs – Mangy Love
Ka – Honor Killed The Samurai
Joey Purp – iiiDrops
Pantha Du Prince – The Triad
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Nonagon Infinity
Cate Le Bon – Crab Day
Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Void Beats/Invocation Trex
School Of Seven Bells – SVIIB
Moodyman – DJ Kicks
Seth Bogart – Seth Bogart
Julia Jacklin – Don’t Let The Kids Win
BJ The Chicago Kid – In My Mind
Benjamin Biolay – Palermo Hollywood
Quilt – Plaza
Eleanor Friedberger – New View
Jeff Rosenstock – Worry.
Charlotte Day Wilson – CDW
Crying – Beyond The Fleeting Gales
Any other year, those amazing records could make up our top 30. But as we learned, 2016 is the manifestation of exception. Nothing’s as it would be in “normal” time. So, it is with extreme gratefulness and incredible delight that we’ve listened to countless albums and compiled the 100 best in one list.
These are the recordings that will keep a bit of 2016 in your 2017.
