Posting these separately, starting off with top 2 songs
An electropop song about a young Afghan girl whose family has been killed by a drone bomb sung by a middle-aged white woman and somehow it…works? Again, if not ANOHNI, then who will bring up those issues and at the same time be as poetic, subtle and sophisticated as her?
Yes, “Happy” is unbelievably good, but the real star of ‘Puberty 2’ is its lead single and album’s centrepiece, “Your Best American Girl”. I haven’t heard such breathtaking, raw, emotional and honest piece of music in a too long. Literally everything about this track screams “PERFECT” - the lyrics, the pounding chorus, the additional instrumental coda. Whew, she really did THAT!
I’ve been following Dev’s Blood Orange project since “Sutphin Boulevard” off his (then forthcoming) debut ‘Coastal Grooves’ dropped. Loved him ever since, though what I always wanted from him was a cohesive album. And here we are five years later - his third, ‘Freetown Sound’, is everything I ever hoped for. Cohesiveness (thank god), amazing collaborations (Carly Rae Jepsen, Nelly Furtado, Empress Of, Debbie Harry) and BOPS (“Best to You”, “E.V.P.”). Once again Dev outdid himself.
Rising star CupcakKe has delivered not one, not two, but three groundbreaking mixtapes in 2016. Throughout the year we could not only see how she’s matured, but also grown as an artist. On ‘*** Cake’ she’s concentrated on storytelling, while on introspective ‘S.T.D.’ and unapologetic ‘Audacious’ she's more focused on pushing the boundaries further and further.
Seriously though, who would have ever thought that the artist behind ‘I Am a Bird Now’ would release this? ‘HOPELESSNESS’ is a major departure from ANOHNI’s Antony and the Johnson work, but at the same time is a big step forward. What was described as “electronic record with some sharp teeth” is as bold as it could be, both sonically and lyrically.