Thread for all 2016 albums of the year lists

it was so depressing when I realised that was the reason for it (also means I feel no inclination to vote for the song in any individual tracks context)

zara larsson made some superb pop this year, "ain't my fault" was a v underrated banger

"no" would be decent b-tier pop in someone else's hands but meghan trainor sounds so flat and bland on it. the song itself might not deserve visceral hatred but it reminds you of all the stuff she's done that absolutely does

not to ride for tedious viral culture and whatnot BUT secretly i actually kinda think the kernel of the mannequin challenge as commentary on the vibe of 'black beatles' is quite cool spontaneous groupcrit

but we've developed a nu-rockism around pop artists [prockimism?] that the "good" pop artists are album artists and the "bad" pop artists are singles artists

N O N E of these critics lists are going to ride for the actual hit pop singles of the year that didn't come from album artists — Lukas Graham, Sia, Gnash, Meghan Trainor, DJ Snake, Kent Jones, DNCE, etc

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, December 15, 2016 3:00 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

very good point. I hadn't really noticed although once you point it out it's obviously true

black beatles was already in the top 20 and climbing prior to the mannequin challenge fwiw, that just pushed it over the top

Whiney bemoaning the lack of critical appreciation for Lukas Graham? Well, I'm back

Although I will say that the lack of PPAP in these lists is deeply troubling, so maybe he has a point

those non-album examples are universally unappetising but his broader point stands

I mean, I do not like that Lukas Graham song but I'm also not going to pretend there's some objective reason that it's "not as good" as Drake's "Controlla" or w/e

And, like, I can sing it right now which is more than I can say about literally anything Frank Ocean did outside of "Nikes"

what he did inside of nikes was very memorable tho

the catchy well-written pop of frank ocean

but whiney as an editor with actual clout what do you want (or intend?) to do about this structurally? i agree with the thrust of your complaint but when the entire music journalism industry seems invested in doubling down on this direction it feels pointless (not in a "we shouldn't care" way but in a "nothing will change for the better" way)

feel like a key problem is potentially brilliant individual voices getting subsumed into the brands of whoever they write for. is there space for any writer to kick against their own publication's consensus any more?

I don't think there needs to be some **structural overhaul**, it's just funny that we've replaced one brand of corny opinions with another brand of corny opinions and call it "poptimism"

well, YOU call it optimism

poptimism even

pop-timism, the new dad rock

I guess I'm happy to live in a safe, sane world where Drake, Kanye, Lukas Graham, and Trainor are stuck in a burning building with no one do save them.

two of those artists are not like the other two alfred

I will not go into the gradations of awfulness.

are you certain the people behind these lists think Frank Ocean is objectively better than Lukas Graham?

its not really poptimism though, considering its still basically just auteurism

That is true too

it's market poptimism. it's often practiced with chartbeat screens dancing in editors' and writers' heads.

also i wish any of sia's songs this year weren't just big minor key BLAAAATTTSS that doubled as excuses for maddie ziegler to make funny faces. i want to like a lot more of the stuff that's popular than i do, trust me! but gnash, which is for people who think "closer" has too much pep in its step? cmonnnn

kent jones and dnce have bops though. dnce's set was the highlight of jingle ball

please keep bops off ilm i cannot

1. 'Gyal You A Party Animal' is a straight up top 20 pick for this year easily.

2. Anyone using the word 'poptimism' in any context in 2016 "needs to take a long hard look at themselves.

it isn't auteurism, though, or if it is it's bullshit auteurism -- no one gives a shit about the writers, producers, or generally people involved unless they're well-known enough to misattribute things to (max martin, dr. luke) or celebrities (see: the instant reappraisal of "This Is What You Came For" when it "became" a Taylor Swift song). it's celebrity gossip, and not even particularly informed celebrity gossip.

idk people seem pretty invested in those celebrities' "genius"

it's a mixture of things encouraged by music critics, celebrity gossip hacks and social affairs writers encroaching on each other's territory.

lots of music critics still subscribe to auteurism, yes, which means that pop singers are still divided into critically worthy/unworthy as whiney said.

celebrity journalists care about celebrities ofc.

writers whose primary beat is political or social care to the extent that an artist or a song is an avatar of whatever political issue is at stake - ie they care about eg beyoncé and taylor swift because that's their peg to talk about feminism; an obscure artist tackling the same issues is of limited use to them.

(the penny dropped re: the latter in a conversation with a friend and political journalist about "blurred lines" in its year, and i was like, look, the actual lyric is ambiguous and thicke has been respected by the predominantly female r&b audience for years now. she was like, as an activist you use what's in the headlines to make your point.)

anyway all of this - plus the demon SEO - combines for a situation where there are now only five artists of any ~relevance left. and let us not pretend there is any motivation or desire among any of these groups or their editors to change it, so y'know get used to it, or get used to not clicking to stave off the fatigue of it all.

ok but pursue this line of argument much farther and you've written that piece in the nation

(i.e. I know or at least hope this isn't what you're going for, but "political journalists" and "social affairs writers" used in this context really do seem like euphemisms for "those damn SJWs")

I think it's a point about alleged "critical music writing" being used in the service of an agenda more than an evaluation?

that is an interesting summary in my opinion, throws a lot of these EOY lists into a wider perspective that has more to do w/the specific media outlets and their motives/aesthetics/funding

I mean, I'm not a paid critic and haven't been published since the 90s but lex's breakdown makes sense to me as someone who reads a ton of music writing but is also involved in politics

(re: the three areas blurring together)

no, it's definitely not a criticism of music criticism becoming more woke or attuned to social justice, diverse representation etc. that's long overdue.

also it's a question of cumulative effect, i have read lots of extremely thoughtful pieces by both writers from the music critic end and the activist end that don't just seize on a big star for a lazy peg but do dig deep - but they get shared around a bit one day and then everyone moves on, and it barely dents the larger effect of something keeping kanye in the headlines every day.

Said The Gramophone's Best song 2016:

http://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/best_songs_of_2016.php

Sean always has some nice surprises in his top 100. Definitely recommend that one... there's the consensus picks + some more personal choices which is where it shines.

Also it is one of the few lists where each selection gets a blurb. Most are lazy and just put a list.

like, to be clear, i am firmly pro SJW, and writers from that perspective are very attuned to how things look from a non industry perspective, which is very valuable bc quite a lot of music writers are way too wrapped up in the industry. but at the same time they mostly don't - and nor is it their job to - pore over credits, dig deep into the tropes of a genre they only casually follow, even consider beyoncé's last two albums in the context of her entire career (side note: how many articles about the s/t and lemonade read as if the writer has never previously heard a beyoncé album?)

which brings me to another problem which is the 24-hour churn! good writers aren't being given the time (OR MONEY) to do the research, a lot of the time.

thanks moka!

posting the RS electronic list

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/20-best-edm-and-electronic-albums-of-2016-w455395

And the records you didn't hear list

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/15-great-albums-you-didnt-hear-in-2016-w456193

I'm not defending Blonde, but I bothered to listen to "Pink + White" and "Ivy" about 4 times and I can remember how they go even though I haven't listened to either since summer. And for me, "Nikes" is the one where I'm kinda baffled that anyone might consider it memorable.

thanks moka!

― sean gramophone

No, thank you! Yours is honestly one of the lists I always look forward to each year. I'm only on the top 25 and I've already found several songs which I haven't seen anywhere else and are pretty good (Snowblink, World Provider, Sugarboy, Waclaw Zimpel, John K Sampson)

I... really don't think it's the 24-hour churn. the only person I can speak for is myself, but the problem isn't that I have insufficient time, the problem is that I suck

if anything the nebulousness of album releases, and the cordoning off of where they are hearable when (and everyone thought US/UK releases were bad) has sort of, in my experience, paradoxically freed a lot of publications' strategy. they know they can get someone to write a quick 15-minute take and then another reviewer several days later, or a week or two of thinkpieces, or what have you

This is a personal list, and not published anywhere, but I'm curious what any other writer ILXors' equivalent lists would look like. These are the 10 best 2016 albums I actually paid for. (#s 1-5 are albums I pre-ordered, #6 I bought in a store in Helsinki, #s 7-10 were from Bandcamp.)

1) Metallica, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct
2) Opeth, Sorceress
3) Perturbator, The Uncanny Valley
4) Amon Amarth, Jomsviking
5) Gojira, Magma
6) Nyrkkitappelu, Mitä Saisi Olla?
7) Kurushimi, s/t
8) Air, Astronoid
9) Tommy ’86, Transhumanism
10) Cønjuntø Vacíø, X ≠ X

I really like that Kurushimi album. It's like a smoother Zu or something

posting the RS electronic list

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/20-best-edm-and-electronic-albums-of-2016-w455395

And the records you didn't hear list

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/15-great-albums-you-didnt-hear-in-2016-w456193

I'm definitely getting more out of these specialized lists. I sampled from everything from the didn't hear list (the Elephant9 album made my list last year) and I like most of it, esp Terrace Martin and Phony Ppl.

http://www.terrorizer.com/news/features-2/terrorizers-albums-year-2017-part-1/
http://www.terrorizer.com/news/features-2/terrorizers-albums-year-2016-part-2/
http://www.terrorizer.com/news/features-2/terrorizers-albums-year-2016-part-3/