Music of 2016

These were the albums that lived with me this year in no particular order:

PJ Harvey – Community of hope

Trentmoller – Fixion

Make-Overs – Try me

Savages – Adore life

Minor Victories – Minor victories

Daughter – Not to disappear

Medicine Boy – Kinda like electricity

DJ Shadow – The mountain

Hante. – No hard feeling

Lisa Hannigan – At swim

Duchess Says – Sciences Nouvelles

A dead forest Index – In all that drifts from the summit down

Xiu Xiu – Plays the music of Twin Peaks

Julianna Barwick – Will

Agnes Obel – Citizen of glass

Weyes Blood – Front row seat to earth

Ultimate Painting – Dusk

Nails – You will never be one of us

Nick Cave and Angel Olsen didn’t make the list. Nor did Frank Ocean despite his stylist’s selection of a JAMC sweater for a photo shoot to excite the aged indie kids. Bowie & Cohen didn’t make it either even though they are two legends with high catalogue rotation. Metallica wasn’t naff but I just couldn’t commit. Pixies continued the ‘Frank Black b-sides’ tradition of new albums (with the addition of terrible artwork) and all traditionally left-of-centre and respected music sites/blogs that put Beyonce at #1 were promptly unsubscribed from.

There were, however, tons of really great songs released this year. Some came from so-so albums while others were only singles. A few come from albums I’ve just not listened enough to yet.
Standouts were Parquet Courts, Tacocat, Tribe Called Quest, Magik*Magik, Eagulls, Avalanches, Josh Kempen, Black Mountain, Frankie Cosmos, Honne, Grandaddy, LA Witch, Anohni, Blood Orange, Heron Oblivion, Bat for Lashes, Porridge Radio, Flume, Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm, Mitski, Wye Oak, Alice Phoebe Lou…

I’ve compiled two extended playlists of my top songs. Sometimes a mix is just not long enough…Check them out on Deezer here:

Best of 2016 Indie-Freak-out playlist

Best of 2016 Comedown Playlist

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