http://chirpradio.org/blog/chirp-radio-best-of-2016-al-gabor
David Bowie BlackStar
A brilliant coda to an
amazing career. Given Bowie’s shape-shifting career, it’s fitting that his last
album is totally different than anything he recorded before and yet unmistakably
Bowie.
Blood Orange Freetown Sound
After the election, I rediscovered this album and played it
incessantly. All of the strong female voices—sometimes lead, sometimes half a
duet, sometimes choir; sometimes earthy, sometimes ethereal—seemed the best balm
for the sorry state of things.
Explosions in the Sky The Wilderness
Their best since The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. The
drive, the sense of grandeur and space are still here, but the aural textures
are richer and more nuanced.
Chairlift Moth
Desperate times need perfect pop records. Chairlift delivers
big time.
Angel Olsen My Woman
My Woman is a huge
step forward in songcraft and production. Angel Olsen’s vocals
have never been stronger or more evocative.
Highlight: the slow- burning ‘Sister’ with its refrain “All my life I thought
I’d change” repeated as the guitar lines grows more frantic.
Mitski Puberty 2
Japanese-born Mitski
(Miyawaki) uses a cool,
almost distant, vocal style--a stark contrast to all the agitation and anxiety
in the lyrics--showing how a person’s mid-twenties can seem like a reprise of
the awkwardness and the sexual/personal confusion occurring with puberty.
Standout: “Your Best American Girl” a slow-building orchestral pop that posits
love as a type of assimilation.
Car Seat Headrest Teens of Denial
At times, Teens sounds
like combination of Television and Pavement--all in all, not bad choices of
bands to emulate. But lead man Will Toledo plays and writes his way out from
under these influences to a sound that is all his own, creating an album with
urgency, wry humor, shrewd observations, unpredictable transitions and great
crunchy rock moments.
Mavis Staple Livin’ on a High Note
After two acclaimed
albums produced by Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples tapped M. Ward as producer and
asked a slew of songwriters to contribute “joyful” songs for Livin’ on
a High Note. The songs gathered here—written by Neko Case, Nick Cave,
Valerie June Justin Vernon and other elite songwriters—are a restrained kind of
joyful: more a reflective appreciation of the love of family and friends than
any lighthearted larks. Mavis’s voice retains the warmth, moral fervor and
emotive power of her youth.
Anderson .Paak Malibu
Effortlessly moving from hip
hop to Stax-like soul to R&B to dance grooves, Anderson Paak put out one of
the year’s most multifaceted albums. A joy from start to finish.
Frank Ocean Blonde
Following the release of
2012’s Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
had a yearlong bout of writer’s block. He broke through only after he decided
he needed to revisit some of the events of his youth. The biographical elements are present in Blonde but more as hints and fragments
than fleshed out narratives. He uses a myriad of voice distortions to indicate
points of view from different phases in his life. Still, Ocean remains elusive
but the music is mesmerizing.
Honorable Mentions:
Eleanor Friedberger, New View
The Range, Potential
Savages, Adore Life
Lydia Loveless, Real
Bombino, Azel
