{"id":1379,"date":"2016-12-31T14:23:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T20:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youpoordevil.com\/?p=1379"},"modified":"2016-12-31T14:25:42","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T20:25:42","slug":"top-5-best-albums-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youpoordevil.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/31\/top-5-best-albums-of-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Top-5 Best Albums of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

They say that in times of strife good music is made. 2016 seems to be proving that adage correct for it was a great year for music despite the gutting losses of musical icons – literal paragons of their artform (David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, and Phife Dawg\u00a0to name a few). And the eerie final-works delivered just before their deaths from Bowie and Cohen (and Phife not too long after) only added to the pain of our loss.<\/p>\n

I am going to have to find a way to cull my list. I always do this- but there are so many great albums put out this year- I have a hard time sticking to my self-imposed Top-5 rule. Again, these are the albums that were released this year that I went back and listened to the most or was most taken by. One album, which I absolutely loved, I’ll leave out of the Top-5 only because it is a compilation of songs from the 70s, and I think the spirit of this list works best when recognizing new music. That album is Wayfaring Stranger No 58 from Numero Group<\/a>– the compilation of “cosmic American music”; in a nutshell – basically music inspired heavily by Gram Parsons and his particular influence on The Byrds. The rest will have to fend for themselves.<\/p>\n

I will say, it’s been a while since I’ve randomly stumbled upon new music that’s really caught my attention, partially because of the way I am introduced to music now (i.e. NOT MTV or WOXY<\/a>), and because I am busy adulting and being a husband<\/a> to fully delve into musical releases. Two albums from this year actually caught my ear from the first time I heard them and have kept me coming back: I heard “Something Soon<\/a>” by Car Seat Headrest on a blog somewhere and played it several times in a row, forcing me to check them out (though that song is not from their release this year). And someone posted about the band The Hanging Stars<\/a> on the\u00a097X WOXY<\/a> Facebook page, I found a teaser video for the song “Golden Vanity<\/a>“, and once I heard the pedal-steel I was hooked. I felt like a kid discovering these new bands. The rest of this list and the contenders for it are almost all established and consistent favorites of mine (Tortoise, Wussy, The Besnard Lakes).<\/p>\n

Here, in no particular order, are my Top-5 albums of 2016:<\/p>\n

<\/a>1. various artists\u00a0–\u00a0Day of the Dead<\/em><\/h1>\n

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On the surface, I shouldn’t have liked this album as much as I do. I heard rumblings about this project years ago- The National<\/a>\u00a0doing a Grateful Dead cover album? Really? The current-day incarnation of the terse, taught, and dark Joy Division covering The Dead? I like The National. A lot. And I love\u00a0the Dead. But just because I like both of these things doesn’t mean that they pair well together. I didn’t see the overlap or influence. As it turns out, the album isn’t just the 5 guys from Cincinnati covering Dead tunes, and that may be why this “compilation” works so well. Curated by the brothers Dessner, most of The National act as the backing-band along with additional musicians or to fill out any given band performing a particular\u00a0song- as opposed to a random assortment of different bands playing different songs. Certainly, some songs are just the named band playing their respective song, but most of them have this part-National\/part-ensemble combination. And, ohmygod this list of (unlikely?)\u00a0collaborators<\/a>: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy<\/a>, The War on Drugs<\/a>, Kurt Vile<\/a>, Courtney Barnett<\/a>, Grizzly Bear<\/a>, Cass McCombs<\/a>, Tunde Adebimpe<\/a>, Tim Hecker<\/a>(?!), and Sharon Van Etten<\/a>– to name a few.<\/p>\n

I was a fan of the album Deadicated<\/a><\/em> when it came out, but after repeated listening, I found that I’d skip over many of the songs just to get to the ones that I liked more. The album is just uneven. Because of Day of the Dead<\/em>‘s\u00a0ensemble approach, there is a theme or vibe that carries through most of the songs that helps it gel a lot more. After repeated listens I still only skip over the Mumford & Sons take on “Friend of the Devil”- which is a shame because\u00a0I love<\/em> that song.<\/p>\n

I will do my best not to name the whole album, but as far as stand-outs, there are many<\/em>\u00a0on this\u00a05-disc CD compilation\/10-disc LP set<\/strong>(!). Some are fairly\u00a0true to the original like The War on Drugs’ “Touch of Grey<\/a>“,\u00a0Jim James<\/a> & friends’ “Candyman”, \u00a0Kurt Vile and the Violators’ “Box of Rain”, and Lee Ronaldo<\/a>‘s(?!) “Mountains of the Moon”. Most take the song and refine it ever-so-slightly and make something special like\u00a0Phosphorescent<\/a> & Jenny Lewis<\/a> doing “Sugaree<\/a>“;\u00a0The Lone Bellow<\/a> doing “Dire Wolf” (which I could have easily mistaken for Los Lobos); or Courtney Barnett(!) doing “New Speedway Boogie” with a sultry smoky barroom lilt that works a little more for her that Jerry and the boys. Some are true to the vibe of the song\u00a0but the orchestration is quite different like The National’s “Morning Dew” or “Peggy-O”. Also take for instance Bruce Hornsby’s “Black Muddy River”. Not exactly a Dead-classic, Hornsby, a long-time Grateful Dead collaborator, takes the almost too-smooth\u00a0sound of the original studio version and turns it into something akin to an Irish dirge. Cass McCombs flips the idea on its head by taking a tape-loop laden and reverby but altogether short “Dark Star” and actually works it into an intro of sorts to a more-ensemble jam called “Nightfall of Diamonds”.<\/p>\n

I’ll end on the song that I think is the crown-jewel of this album; a medley of sorts called “Garcia Counterpoint” written and performed by Bryce Dessner. This song takes melodic motifs of Jerry Garcia guitar-licks and weaves them into, out of, and on top of each other into a veritable mix-tape of Jerry’s greatest hits. It is from this song that I can tell how much at least the Dessner brothers appreciate and were influenced by Jerry and the Dead.<\/p>\n

And just for fun, if you’ve not seen this- there is a sneak-preview of this album on YouTube:
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