LINER NOTES
1. MFTR – Pusha T
We’re it not for the surprising late year entry of the Tribe album (with the caveat that Kanye has moved into his own intergalactic category) the year’s best rap album would have appeared (like the year’s best jazz album IMO, and Album) in January. And this biscuit right here possesses hands down the LLOTY (large line of the year) – “I’m the L Ron Hubbard of the cubbard.” Future generations will ponder this remark.
2. Come Down – Anderson Paak
Big year for this guy and top 10 album for sure. I initially docked a few points from this song because it sounded like it came right off Pimp a Butterfly… but then it occurred to me that if it had been on Pimp, it would have been one of the 2 or 3 best cuts on the record, which is quite a compliment.
3. I can’t give everything – Bowie
“I know something’s very wrong” – so begins the last song on Bowie’s last album. I listened to this record on Spotify the day it came out and that was the line that led me to text a friend: “have you listened to the Bowie album? I think he must be dying…” This whole album was just too much to take somehow, it frightened me even before he died. And to think this is how the year started! We should have known then what we were in for, a year of paranoia and outrage and dread, a year in which Bowie died and Trump was elected President. If only it had been the other way around.
4. Ain’t it a sin – Charles Bradley
Charles Bradley sounds like he is probably legitimately crazy in the grand old tradition of seriously crazy motherfuckers who bring the hard funk. As far as this tradition goes, he’s pretty much the last nutball still in the game. Long live Charles Bradley
5. Stargazer – Nap Eyes
Wikipedia tells me that Nap Eyes is a band from Nova Scotia that was formed when the singer joined the bassist and drummer’s band, which at the time was called The Mighty Northumberland. I wish they’d kept that name. Can’t remember how I stumbled onto this track but the indie rock meets Allmans at Fillmore West vibe gets my toe tapping every time it comes on. Also – “I have seen people go by me with such determination that it’s sick.” As someone who deals with grand central 10 times a week, I feel this. (Drums hard panned in the left channel though? What is this rvg stereo circa 1962? Strange choice, still works somehow, creates a lot of space)
6. Movement I – Ibrahim Maalouf
In a crowded field, my favorite jazz record of the year. Maalouf plays a quarter-toned four valve trumpet which allows him to play some truly unique Arabic scales… and this album is dedicated to Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum… and most of it (including this track) are variations on one of her most famous songs… and on and on and on. I’ll stop geeking out – suffice it to say I love this album, find it hauntingly beautiful and inspiring. Maalouf’s trumpet tone alone is enough to make this worth listening to at least once, there’s nothing like it.
7. Horn of the clock bike – Saul Williams
Paranoid freaky and probably pretentious (I haven’t paid close attention to the lyrics) surrealist poetry recited over a minimalist vaguely industrial backbeat with distinct reznorish overtones. This does not describe anything I would have expected to enjoy, but there you go.
8. Disappointed – Field Music
Makes me wish I had more time and fewer inhibitions and could go to the kind of utopian dance club that plays this song and others like it (does such a club exist?) so I could whirl myself around and generally carry on joyfully without even a trace of irony.
9. Earth to heaven – Esperanza Spalding
The unlikely virtuoso queen of the upright jettisoned the acoustic bass on this record to play both Jaco and Joni, and while I do love me some “Hejira,” I hope she changes paths before she goes too far down this road (before, say, she ends up in “Mingus” country). That said, this is a killer track, Joni inflections and all.
10. Masterpiece – Big Thief
Beneath it all I am just a suburban white boy raised on rawk who came of age in the glorious indie revolution of the 90’s. As such a raspy-voiced riot grrl can light me up any day of the week. I know this song came out in 2016 but in my mind it’s eternally being played live at Maxwell’s circa 1995 and I’m 3 40’s deep and being tossed around by the moshpit while I drunkenly swoon. Great great guitar non-solo too. I do wish they’d taken a little more care with the drumsounds but whatever…
11. Untitled 03 – Kendrick Lamar
I feel like I could get arrested by the rap cognoscenti for writing this but I liked this album more than Pimp. Just felt looser to me and a better time overall. Something tells me that’s akin to saying I prefer Adventure to Marquee Moon but damn the torpedoes (maybe it’s like saying I prefer Hard Promises to Damn the Torpedoes?). This was my favorite but I could have put any track on the record on here.
12. Circles – Anne Paceo
Mesmerizing album from this French drummer who manages to make orchestral music at the juncture of world beat, new age, avant jazz and… Stereolab. I am not ashamed to admit that I once spent many a wasted hour blissing out to Stereolab’s chilly French sexrobot vibe.
13. Free lunch – Isaiah Rashad
I could take this beat for a 12 minute extended mix. It’s that little percussive guitar riff that is just so… right. “Meal ticket ticket meal ticket ticket…” Headphoned and deep in my thing I rapped these words to many a confused fellow commuter on metro north.
14. Pra Fuder – Elza Soares
Get this one on the headphones and listen to just how much panoramic syncopation is going on to create the GSI (engineering term – groove per square inch). Known as the Brazilian Tina Turner, this woman is 79 years old. I put this one with Alberta hunter’s Amtrak blues for indomitable old ladies showing all the young whippersnappers how it’s done.
15. Feedback – Kanye West
“I been out of my mind… a long time.” No shit, we hadn’t noticed. Life of Pablo… a notch below Yeezus in my book but at the level he’s at right now such diminutions are meaningless. Is Sticky Fingers a notch below Exile? Who cares. This album, and this song in particular (you heard about the good news? y’all sleeping huh had a good snooze?), elicited some of my most embarrassing head-nodding teeth gritting white-boy’s-feeling-it-on-the-9:32-to-Grand-central performances of 2016.
16. JJ – Priests
Rager of a cut with a hilarious line at the center of it – “I thought I was a cowboy because I… smoked grass.” A concise summary of the liberal arts experience.
17. Time – Melissa Aldana
She studied the Sonny Rollins playbook and came out the other side with her own thing. What a tone this woman has for herself (what a bass sound too, so much… texture). This album captures some of the true bohemian eeriness, effortless spontaneity and space of the Night at the Village Vanguard pianoless strolling sound, the album that launched a thousand goatees.
18. Girls – Joey Purp
Bros need music too. The beat cannot be denied, anther entry in a long list of bootyslappers that prove how much can be achieved beatwise with so little. Chance the Rapper’s bars are so-so IMO, my only caveat.
19. Big big beat – Azalea Banks
I’m not sure ole Joey Purp could hang w Azealia. She seems like she’s crazier than Kanye, not nearly as talented but… man she’s got something. Or maybe the biggie sample just pushes my nostalgia button. Either way, this track gets my trunk bumpin and anyway when’s the last time Russell Crowe did anything worth a shit? I’m Team Azealia.
20. Amour – Rokia Traore
Oh Rokia Traore. She casts quite a spell.
21. Weight off – kaytranada
Speaking of Stereolab… their influence is felt far and wide. This could have been on Dots and Loops.
22. Rich Man – Slaves
A Well Respected Man for our time. Although listening to this I couldn’t help but think of the Gang of Four song “at home he’s like a tourist” and then think that Gang of Four could probably still kick these guys’ asses. No shame in that though mate. Someone should get Gang of Four out of retirement so they can defeat Isis.
23. Stop Go Start – Julian Lage
The twin towers of avant jazz guitar – Julian Lage and Nels Cline – both released great records this year, and while Cline’s got a lot more press (being a borderline Gil Evans type of production for Blue Note of all places) I preferred the Lage album for its angular spookiness (I reiterate though – they were both great records). All of these songs felt like they could be integrated into a soundtrack for a millennial remake of Touch Of Evil.
24. Get to know ya – Nao
Pure sinuous bootyshaking crack right here. Debated whether the lead vocal is sped up (I think just a hair) not that I care just curious. Couple of times right after this came out I listened to it twice in a row which is something I don’t do a lot.
25. I have been to the mountain – Kevin Morby
As you may or may not know about me… I don’t get with no Bon Iver. So, with a dearth of worthy 2016 entries to my ears (and honestly I’m not sure this record even qualifies for the category), I am forced to award this album the requisite Sad White Boy Acoustic Masterpiece of the Year title. A bumpin track represented here – no weepy Iberg, no weepy. We’ve come a long way since Iron and Wine.
26. Sun City Creeps – Woods
I wish it were shorter. That’s my only complaint. But… hippies! The jam in the bridge feels a little Moby Grape to me which I dig.
27. Speaking gently – BADBADNOTGOOD
Pretty good good not bad year for these post-rockers or whatever you want to call them – they were all over the place. Loved this whole album, every song took me somewhere. This track really kicks in when they break it down and the sax rolls in – bass player really brings the funk.
28. Brazil – Declan McKenna
What a hook. Pop song of the year IMO. A little vampire weekend, a little pumped up kicks. I love cuts like this, where it’s a triumph of pop production and yet I’d also like to hear him play it on an acoustic guitar with an upright and some bongos. I bet it would be just as good.
29. Frankie Sinatra – The Avalanches
Another album of the year candidate – top ten definitely – and this particular track is INSANELY catchy. If you haven’t heard it yet, I apologize, because you now have a few months ahead of you of waking around singing “ah Frankie Sinatra… ah Frank Sinatra…”
30. Lori McKenna – All these things
Where’s the annual earnest weathered seen-it-all folkie country singer-songwriter journeywoman track? Here you go. This song is from an album called “The Bird and the Rifle.” It’s ah… kind of a downer. But good.
31. Mac Miller – Dang
Anderson Paak plays the Pharrell role here and gives Mac Miller a bonafide blockbuster. Mac keeps the vibe going at a respectable clip but honestly fuckin Fabio could have rapped over this groove and it would have been a hit.
32. Pimp hand – Vince Staples
Blow up the club, this track is a mother. My buy it and bump it banger of the year. Pimp hand strong pimp hand strong.
33. Get low – James Vincent McMorrow
These sensitive white soul countertenor types are not my bag at all (and there’s one inexplicably megafamous short redheaded specimen who truly drives me bonkers) but this track grabs me with the call and response in the first ten seconds and never turns me loose.
34. Get Dressed – Jeff Parker
Tortoise guitar player with some avant jazz post funk something right here. Like Derek Bailey riffing over… a Fela meets PiL/metal box groove? Something just slightly off about the beat in this achingly perfect way that makes me want to do my Fred Sanford walk.
35. Tumbao de la unidad – Roberto Fonseca
Buena vista with a little more muscle and some cool guitar plugins. The ghosts of Black Betty hover around this cut. At first I was bummed that there was a false ending, thought I wanted the song to be over, then it got awesomer.
36. Macy Gray – I Try
Macy gray does an acoustic album with a small jazz combo in a giant church recorded in 192/24k resolution on a single microphone? Hells yeah. I urge you to listen to this record very loud on the best speakers you can find – it is an audiophile delight. The bass, Jesus, “cavernous” doesn’t do it justice. I could have chosen any song on the album but decided on this one for the fact that it takes this massive hit that I always hated (sounded like a Pepsi commercial to me from the first note) and transformed it into what should be a jazz vocal standard for the next hundred years. All that’s missing is for Kenny Dorham to magically appear and take it out with a nine minute trumpet solo.
37. Games without frontiers – The Bad Plus
Boulavardier that I am, I saw one live show in 2016, Bad Plus at the blue note w Mrs. Large for my birthday. Knocked my socks off. This song was the highlight, came out of nowhere and as the realization of what I was hearing hit me I suddenly discovered an affection for Peter Gabriel I never knew I had. Also – bad plus drummer is a straight up space alien.
38. Chrome exposed – Show me the Body
Beasties + wire/fall brand of jagged wiseass funk w some old school hardcore gesturing (that part feels a little forced to me) – overall this track regularly got me amped in an all ages at the trocadero kind of way.
39. All I need – Noname, Xavier Omar
I’m 46 and I don’t spend much time on the internet so maybe this is a whole hip hop subgenre that I don’t know about. But to me this album sounded very fresh. Love that she needs “a nigga to follow me to the rabbit hole and fall in where I fall in… I’m ballin.” Very much enjoyed that image in my head and overall was always very happy and ended up smiling when this song came on the shuffle.
40. We the people – Tribe Called Quest
What can I say about this that hasn’t already been said? Tribe comes back after almost 20 years gone with no Phife and a record like THIS? Oh man. Rap album of the year imo (caveat Kanye own category). Them doing this track on SNL the Saturday after the trumpocalypse was just too chillingly perfect.
41. Ponytail – Wild Beasts
Whatever that sped up sample is it is SICK. Has the potential I think to induce insanity. My first listen of this track when they brought it back hard at the end I thought I might suffer death by sample.
42. Junie – Solange
I saw some year end lists that had the solange record as album of the year. Not sure it was top ten for me but I did like it a lot, particularly this track, produced by throwback soul brother number one Raphael Saadiq (with something that sounds for all the world like a sample of some classic soul song and yet bizarrely I don’t think is). I admit I pulled back a little from my rampant Solangia when she did her 70’s Afro Star Trek routine on SNL which is unfair I know but It felt like the bridge too far.
43. Ketamine for breakfast – Kate Tempest
Dark observational east ender poetess who’s studied hard at the Ghostface academy (anything can happen out there in the world). How I love the way the epiglottal bermondsey twang makes the word “cold” like a five syllable word. I guarantee this one will get you some quality head nodding. Someday I’m going to listen to the lyrics and figure out what she’s on about. If anyone wants to enlighten I’d love to be saved the trouble.
44. Dori Freeman – where I stood
No one wrenches such sour heartache from the stale relationship lament like alt-country female singer songwriters of the acid-tongued variety. The chorus of this particular number is such harmonious bile. “What happened to your dreams, what happened to mine / you’re wasting my love and I’m wasting your time / I know you’d go back if you could / And you’d leave me standing right there where I stood.” Oof.
45. Junk – Craig Hartley
There’s an element of youthful conservatory cleverness to this guy and yet the talent and unfettered optimism of his approach carry the day. The soul of the Lafaro Motion Evans trio is in this record and that is deep soul, often sought and rarely captured. An example too of the best that jazz can be – taking a cloying sentimental McCartney throwaway (rejected from the white album! in other words not as good as ob-la-di ob-la-da) and finding such emotion and possibility in the simplicity of the melody. My wistful bittersweet farewell to a terrible year track. ( I really recommend his post-rock Cecil Taylorish freakout take on caravan… Duke E’s caravan).
46. Fdt – YG, Nipsey Hussle
There really is only one track to bid farewell to 2016 in all of its awfulness. I suspect it will be the track I’ll want to use to say goodbye to 2017 as well so I hope there’s a remix. Take it away YG, all bool balm and bollected…