# Best music of 2016 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021 "2017-01-01T03:03:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/1 "2017-01-01T03:03:11Z")
I’ll start with my Top Ten. Would love to hear feedback on my choices, and please chime in with your own picks! My [#10 song of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M6P76W5wDY) is “Sun Don’t Shine” by the Drive-By Truckers. This one hooks you right in with the piano and drums, almost sounding “pretty”; then it builds into a more typical lovably scuzzy DBT sound when the vocals and guitar kick in. My [#9 track of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rq-AHTFxOU) is “Atomic Number”, from the supergroup case/lang/veirs, the only act to land two spots in my Top Ten (and four spots in my Top 50 list overall). Neko Case and k.d. lang should need no introduction. Laura Veirs has had a little lower profile; but I was psyched to see her get this level of recognition, as I’ve liked her for a while (her 2005 tune “Galaxies” is a particular favorite). I’m a sucker for alt-country with a traditional country sound, and Margo Price fits that bill nicely. Here she is from her SNL appearance earlier this year, playing “Since You Put Me Down”, my [8th-ranked song of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w49MDt1afY). This next tune has a dreamy, languid sound and au courant lyrics. It’s my [#7 song of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7b3Mrtzm-0), John K. Samson’s “Select All Delete”: I’m looking forward to seeing the big Oscar contender “La La Land”. In the meantime, I can swoon over this highlight from the soundtrack: Emma Stone’s “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”. Her slight imperfections as a singer make it all the more charming, and help make it my [6th-favorite song of 2016.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIo3RDs4xFI) When a band I loved years (decades!) ago reunites and releases new material, I always kind of hold my breath and steel myself for the likelihood that it’s not going to be any good, and may even tarnish their reputation. So what a pleasant surprise that the new Lush record is _great_. Holds up against almost any of their classic output. “Out of Control”, my [#5 track of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4O20ePnXo). I’ve always loved the Nirvana song “In Bloom”. And as mentioned earlier, I’m a sucker for alt-country artists who channel a classic sound. So this track could have been engineered in a lab for me personally. It’s Sturgill Simpson, with his cover of “In Bloom”, [coming in at #4 on my Top Ten of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDYfkymaSE) countdown. As promised, case/lang/veirs are back, [this time at #3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDljUTAxyMo) with “Supermoon”. Like most discerning music fans, I’ve loved Wilco’s music for years. I’m also an impish sort, who enjoys teasing my wife in various ways, including responding to things she says with “schm\*\*\*\*”, as in “Dinner, schminner”. So I was beside myself when Wilco released their album “Schmilco” this year (yes, I know Harry Nilssen did it years ago, but still), hoping it would be great. It is, especially this track, “If I Ever Was a Child”, my [second-ranked song of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WyJMgz9dw). ::drumroll:: My [#1 song of 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iIFWzbxi3s) is kind of an outlier. Unlike most of my Top Ten, it’s neither a group I have any history with, nor are any other tracks from the album even in my Top 50 playlist. I just really, _really_ love this one song of theirs for whatever reason. Check it out, and see if you do too. It’s The Yearning, with “When I Lost You”. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d26b3c/32.png) [@black\_rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rainbow)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/2 "2017-01-01T23:11:39Z")
I don’t listen to a whole lot of pop music, but I really loved Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Frank Ocean put out an amazing record. Radiohead put out good music after two mediocre records. David Bowie’s blackstar is one of my faves too. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/3 "2017-01-01T23:18:16Z")
> [@black\_rainbow](#): > > Radiohead put out good music after two mediocre records. David Bowie’s blackstar is one of my faves too. I really like that new Radiohead record too. I wanted to like the Bowie (I love so much of his older stuff) but I just couldn’t get into it. ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/4 "2017-01-03T23:35:39Z")
I enjoyed listening to “The Record Company”. Notably “Off the Ground” and “Rita May Young”. The Revivalists “Wish I Knew You” is kind of catchy. And another track I found quite interesting was “Devil’s Teeth” by the Muddy Magnolia’s. I listen to “The Spectrum” on SiriusXM, that’s where I find my new music. You know actual music, not some auto-tune synth pop garbage. MtM ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/5 "2017-01-04T04:27:05Z")
> [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](#): > > I enjoyed listening to “The Record Company”. Notably “Off the Ground” and “Rita May Young”. > > The Revivalists “Wish I Knew You” is kind of catchy. > > And another track I found quite interesting was “Devil’s Teeth” by the Muddy Magnolia’s. > > I listen to “The Spectrum” on SiriusXM, that’s where I find my new music. You know actual music, not some auto-tune synth pop garbage. > > MtM I definitely get a sense of your taste from listening to these. I had never heard of these groups or songs, but I liked them, especially “Rita Mae Young” and “Wish I Knew You”. Added them to my ever-expanding music catalogue–thanks! I agree with you about “auto-tune synth pop garbage” (although I suspect unlike you, I can dig an actual creative piece of synth music that’s not just Scandinavian assembly line dance pop). And what makes me really mad is how people who feel that way about corporate pop music are [attacked](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/at-the-top-of-the-pop-music-heap-theres-no-criticizing-the-view/2015/04/16/d98d53a8-e1f2-11e4-b510-962fcfabc310_story.html?utm_term=.2e36a2591a6d) in this “[poptimist](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/magazine/the-pernicious-rise-of-poptimism.html?_r=0)” era as being old fogeys (into “dad rock”) and probably [racist and sexist](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2006/05/blacklisted.html) besides. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/6 "2017-01-04T13:26:12Z")
I consume music in album form, so here’s my top 10 albums of 2016: 1. BJ Barham, _Rockingham_ 2. Whiskey Myers, _Mud_ 3. Mark Chesnutt, _Tradition Lives_ 4. Blackberry Smoke, _Like An Arrow_ 5. Dori Freeman, _Dori Freeman_ 6. Erik Dylan, _Heart of a Flatland Boy_ 7. Margo Price, _Midwest Farmer’s Daughter_ 8. Drive-By Truckers, _American Band_ 9. Kelsey Waldon, _I’ve Got A Way_ 10. Cody Jinks, _I’m Not The Devil_ It was a great year for traditional country, heartland, and roots music, with career-defining works by established acts like DBT, Mark Chesnutt, and BJ Barham (known best as the frontman of American Aquarium), and stellar debut or sophomore albums by up-and-comers like Cody Jinks, Margo Price, Kelsey Waldon, and Dori Freeman. The future appears to be in good hands. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/7 "2017-01-04T17:04:06Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > 1. Margo Price, _Midwest Farmer’s Daughter_ > 2. Drive-By Truckers, _American Band_ These two points of agreement make me eager to check out your other eight picks, none of which are familiar to me. Thanks! Surprised though given your fairly specific genre tastes (mine are all over the map) that you don’t have Sturgill Simpson on there. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/8 "2017-01-04T17:19:16Z")
New Bon Iver ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/9 "2017-01-04T18:29:52Z")
I’m one of those stick-in-the-mud Bon Iver fans who liked their old sound much better. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/10 "2017-01-04T19:02:42Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > These two points of agreement make me eager to check out your other eight picks, none of which are familiar to me. Thanks! Surprised though given your fairly specific genre tastes (mine are all over the map) that you don’t have Sturgill Simpson on there. _Metamodern Sounds In Country Music_ is one of my favorite albums, so I rushed out to Target on release day and bought _A Sailor’s Guide To Earth_…and hated it. Over many re-listens, I’m at the point where I find it good, but not great. I enjoy the sentimentality, the politics, and Simpson’s vocals. The problem is the arrangements: too many songs are drenched with horns, keyboards, and strings. It’s not the instruments themselves that are the problem - I like the brass-heavy Morphine a lot, and Kacey Musgraves’ _Pageant Material_ last year used strings here and there to good effect - I simply don’t much care for these particular arrangements. So, it’d make top 20, or Honorable Mention, but not top 10. Which is a shame, because it would have put two Kentuckians (Kelsey Waldon is the other) in my Top 10. Maybe next year. If you like Drive-By Truckers, BJ Barham (& American Aquarium) should be up your alley. _Rockingham_ is more country-oriented than _American Band_, both musically and in terms of subject matter, but both are critiques of the American status quo and the forces that maintain it. You get that Patterson Hood-y goodness on songs like “American Tobacco Company” and “Water In The Well”. Oh, and as a Simpson fan, note that he’s playing SNL on the 14th; hopefully with stripped-down, minimalist cuts from _Sailor’s Guide_. The songs are crying out for a _Let It Be Naked_-style paring down. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/11 "2017-01-04T19:15:11Z")
Fair enough. I would agree at least that \*Metamodern \*is better than _Sailor’s_, though I like them both a lot. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/12 "2017-01-04T19:54:55Z")
To me, the best albums this year (in no particular order) were “Jeffery” by Young Thug, “Puberty 2” by Mitski, “untitled unmastered” by Kendrick Lamar, “Freetown Sound” by Blood Orange, “Hopelessness” by ANOHNI, “Blackstar” by David Bowie, “The Life of Pablo” by Kanye West, “Lemonade” by Beyonce, “A Seat at the Table” by Solange, “Blonde” by Frank Ocean, and my #1 was “Coloring Book” by Chance the Rapper. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/13 "2017-01-04T20:47:06Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m one of those stick-in-the-mud Bon Iver fans who liked their old sound much better. I felt the same at first. But the new stuff grew on me. The melodies are still there. Just instead of a guitar it’s electronic stuff… ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/14 "2017-01-05T00:43:55Z")
Caveat: I still haven’t heard Bowie’s Blackstar because I want to hear all his albums in chronological order and I’m way behind on that. 1. Niki & The Dove - [So Much It Hurts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abHqD3RRdk8) - Stevie Nicks as produced by Quincy Jones is an A-OK concept by me, plus one of the coolest videos of the year. 2. Shura - [What’s It Gonna Be?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ4uBdmnKds) - I wanted to give this song a hug. 3. Hurry - [Nothing To Say](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Ka57RsBbY) - I feel like I should like this band more than I do because I like their influences (Teenage Fanclub being the obvious one here), but this song is my favorite of theirs. 4. Duel - [The Kraken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_OC1dcEomE) - what would have Black Sabbath have sounded like with Jim Morrison as a frontman? Awesome if he sings about releasing the kraken. 5. Chris Jewell - [Rise And Fall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzcQaqr10yA) - I did not hear this song in a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble but it does sound like the kind of music you’d hear there. I hope to hear more from this new artist in the future. 6. Into It. Over It. - [Adult Contempt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMcWHq48Lso) - I do like some emo. 7. Lydia Loveless - [European](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gdf1SDyPwU) - thought her latest album was a disappointment but I did like this one a lot. 8. Metallica - [Moth Into Flame](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tdKl-gTpZg) - I guess the Dopers around here didn’t really care much for the new album but I really liked this song from it. 9. Black Wizard - [Revival](https://blackwizard.bandcamp.com/track/revival) - almost 7 minutes in length but the recurring parts that somehow keep coming back heavier and heavier makes me wish it was even longer. 10. Bleached - [Wednesday Night Melody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hFYgMBDPFE) - a blend of Joan Jett meets Weezer that I found irresistible and my most listened-to track of 2016. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-music-of-2016/776021/15 "2017-01-06T18:00:11Z")
Very cool. I already know I don’t like Metallica, Beyonce, or the final Bowie album, and that I do like Mitski, Drive-By Truckers, and Margo Price. So I want to make a playlist of the other nominees to investigate. But would it be unconscionable to ask \*\*ISiddiqui \*\*and **Human Action** to nominate one song from each album? A 24-song playlist is far more digestible than one with presumably over 200 tracks on it.