| |
Achilles 2016: Fantastic Music and Where to Find It
Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 2,512
|
When I first heard Jennifer's album I just KNEW Drunk In Heels had to be a Brandy co-write. (Hadn't looked up the credits at the time) The whole album is really good.
Dolly's album is really nice too. She really did well really embodying the songs she's singing.
Lemonade and Dangerous Woman are great too.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/17/2012
Posts: 33,611
|
I always thought Ariana was super mediocre/decent and all her stuff fell in between that limited spectrum but she proved me wrong this year.
I enjoy LYTD and Lemonade a ton!
Excited for the top 10 but disappointed some of these didn't make it!
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,973
|
Lemonlegend 
10 places too low 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 10/5/2009
Posts: 137,162
|
Dangerous Woman  But you just got into Into You LAST MONTH?  Girl you played yourself. Whew your trintiy tho  Thinking Bout You got snubbed but it's still really solid. Lemonade   Bey did that, altogether and individually.
Quote:
A few hints for the top 10:
No pop albums
|
Canceled!
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 21,143
|
|
|
|
|
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 22,126
|
Lemonade missing T10 
Tegan & Sara - Love You To Death
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/27/2016
Posts: 3,111
|
Lemonade
DW is full of jams
|
|
|
|
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 43,104
|
Dangerous Vagina
Lemonade is p low, but for you I guess that's pretty good 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 37,384
|
The Ariana Butera praise
didn't know you enjoyed Bey
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/12/2012
Posts: 27,814
|
Thinking Bout Jesus getting snubbed like that
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/16/2011
Posts: 50,981
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Temporal
Dangerous Vagina
Lemonade is p low, but for you I guess that's pretty good |
I had her in my top 10, but then a last minute addition punched her ouT. 
(I'll mention which when we get to it).
I probably could've swapped her with the album that did take the #10 spot, but that's WaterUnderTheBridge.mp3 now.
Quote:
Originally posted by Jackson
The Ariana Butera praise
didn't know you enjoyed Bey |
Beyoncé is my seventh most played artist of all time. 
I just don't connect with this album much.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,973
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Achilles.
I had her in my top 10, but then a last minute addition punched her ouT.
(I'll mention which when we get to it).
I probably could've swapped her with the album that did take the #10 spot, but that's WaterUnderTheBridge.mp3 now.
Beyoncé is my seventh most played artist of all time.
I just don't connect with this album much. |
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 12/1/2011
Posts: 24,324
|
lemonada talent did that
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/16/2011
Posts: 50,981
|
It should be noted that this list was created by me ranking every 2016 release that I've heard from worst to best. Just because an album appears here does not mean that I listen to it often (or even more than once), or that I think it's a particularly good album.
10. Anohni - Hopelessness
Quote:
|
Anohni starts off Hopelessness with a song about the guilt and complicity of average citizens in foreign policy catastrophes and other government failings—and it only gets more political from there. Whether it's global warming, disillusionment with beloved politicians, intrusive government surveillance,or hypocrisy, Anohni has something to say about it. What truly elevates the project is her readiness to acknowledge her own culpability. Nowhere is this more apparent then on the incredible title track, where she asks "How did I become a virus?" as she laments how hopeless it is to try to stop being part of the problem. Overall, Hopelessness is an amazing, intense, complex, and challenging socially conscious electronic album.
|
9. Alicia Keys - HERE
Quote:
|
"Girl on Fire" was basically my introduction to the music of Alicia Keys, so you can imagine how little I've liked her. But that's all in the past now. She started the year by dropping "In Common," a heavenly musing on a dysfunctional relationship. She made the mistake of leaving that masterpiece off of HERE, which is nonetheless an incredible album. Throughout the album, Alicia offers a broad-ranging spectrum of sociopolitical commentary—always addressed with excellent hooks and melodies, sonically cohesive production that masterfully blends R&B with soul, hip-hop, dancehall, pop, and a slew of other sub-genres of music. Race, sexuality, class, and religion all emerge and intersect as recurring themes throughout the album (see album highlights "Holy War" and "The Gospel"). Throughout the album, she embodies a variety of costumes—an addict on "Illusion of Bliss" or a lesbian on "Where Do We Begin Now"—to help tell her stories. Ultimately, Here manages to toe the fine line between personal and universal as it offers important social commentary without letting the message overpower the music.
|
8. Lori McKenna - The Bird & The Rifle
Quote:
|
I can count on two hands the number of truly great songwriters working in mainstream country music today, and Lori McKenna is approximately half of them. From the devastating opening track "Wreck You" and onwards, Lori crafts poignant illustrations of everyday life. Title track "The Bird & The Rifle" takes a Modern Family joke and turns it into a powerful story about an abusive relationship, and her own recording of "Humble & Kind" tugs at the heartstrings. "Giving Up On Your Hometown" is perhaps one of the most chilling songs about the death of small town America to come out in the past few years. Overall, this is an excellent album from a very gifted writer.
|
7. Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
Quote:
I decided to give Leonard Cohen's final album You Want It Darker a listen after seeing it top Red's Best Albums list; it was so difficult to imagine someone beating out Bowie on his list that I just had to hear it for myself. You Want It Darker grips you right from the opening notes of its title track. The lyricism here is simply exceptional, purely poetic reflection, rumination, and retrospection from end to end. [Note: You Want It Darker is the last minute addition that gave Beyoncé the boot. #whitemaleprivilege].
Every song seems to view death from a different perspective. On "Treaty," he puts forth his best apology to an unspecified subject (a lover, or God) for treating them as a "ghost" instead of as a fully realized individual. "You Want It Darker" finds Cohen reckoning with God, asking if He will "let me out of the game," while "Traveling Light" calls to mind the idea that materialism isn't important because you can't take it with you when you go. There's such depth to the writing here that I can absolutely imagine myself returning to this album in the future.
(I'm adding this paragraph to tell you all that I was just looking at the writing credits for this album and half of the songs on this album were written / co-written by Patrick Leonard, who is involved in so much of Madonna's greatness. He co-wrote and produced "Like A Prayer" and "Frozen." Gays, please, I'm having a pop emergency right now).
To return to the initial Bowie versus Cohen argument, I'll say that having listened to You Want It Darker, I can absolutely understand why Red chose it over Blackstar. After listening to it only once, I found myself questioning whether I too might put it ahead of Blackstar. It's an impossible decision (but one that I clearly managed to make).
If Blackstar is the soul's ascension to the great starry beyond, then You Want It Darker is the body's descent into the cold, hard ground.
|
6. Margo Price - Midwest Farmer's Daughter
Quote:
Margo Price made a pretty decent splash with her album Midwest Farmer's Daughter, which ranks as the highest debut album of any genre in this chart. I've already highlighted the standout "Hands of Time" in the Top Country Singles list, so I'll discuss a few other standouts here.
The songs of Midwest Farmer's Daughter show that Margo certainly has some attitude. First up is "About To Find Out," whose hook "how does it feel to be put in your place / well, I guess you're about to find out," calls to mind Taylor Swift's "Better Than Revenge." There's also "This Town Gets Around," which features the lines "as the saying goes it's not who you know / but it's who you blow that'll get you in the show." While "About To Find Out" may come across as a putdown, "This Town Gets Around" lacks condescension.
"Four Years of Chances" is sung from the perspective of a woman on the brink of divorce after four years of trying to make it work, while "How The Mighty Have Fallen" is an amazing song about a man who leaves his hometown (and his woman) to find a better life, only to end up right back where he started.
Margo also sings about country music, and her place in it. "Tennessee Song" is about East Nashville, where the more traditional, less mainstream type artists work. The lines "I'm an outcast and I'm a stray / and I plan to stay that way" from "Since You Put Me Down" read like a career mission statement; a promise to never sell out in order to find success. Finally, the album ends on "Desperate and Depressed," an interesting take on a really bad tour experience.
This is—without doubt—the best mainstream debut in country music this year, and Margo Price is one of country music's most promising new acts. But the powers that be chose Maren Morris to reap the blessings of hit songs and award show recognition, and Lord knows that the country industry only has enough room for one new female artist at a time. Poor that.
|
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/23/2007
Posts: 65,087
|
Dangerous Woman is an amazing song! Ariana  I need to listen to Alicia Keys' latest work!
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 37,384
|
Midwest Farmers Daughter glad to see some talent here
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,973
|
YES at Hopelessness (if i had discovered it sooner, it would've made my top10) and Here
Queens!!
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/27/2016
Posts: 3,111
|
omg, Hopelessness in top 10  
Quote:
|
Hopelessness is an amazing, intense, complex, and challenging socially conscious electronic album.
|
Here yeah, I'm still mad at her over In Common drop out 
|
|
|
|
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 4/24/2011
Posts: 8,547
|
Love ANOHNI, Ariana, T&S and Bey! Should have listened to the Leonard album a bit more, but I love him too. 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/17/2012
Posts: 33,611
|
I wanna hear that Leonard album but right now I'm just being a lazy hoe 
|
|
|
|
|
|
