Things have been quiet here at DFSBP, but as always, I wanted to try and round up my favorite sounds of the year. To anyone tuning in, thank you, and I hope you find something you enjoy.
Before I get to the picks — divided into an overall top 10, a metal-/rock-centric section, a jazz list and a rundown of my favorite live shows of the year — I just want to say, again, thanks for reading this and/or keeping up with my work in any way during this busy, transitional year. With Twitter on the rocks, it seems harder than ever to spread the word, so your attention means a lot.
Here goes!
P.S. All album-title links below go to Bandcamp.
P.P.S. The DFSBP year-end list archives have been updated to reflect the below: overall and jazz-only.
P.P.P.S. Here is a best-of-2022 playlist featuring 22 tracks drawn from the releases below. The inspiration was my old friend John's "50 Cuts of '22" opus.
OVERALL TOP 10, PLUS
Right up front, I want to say that my absolute favorite release of the year was:
I'm leaving this off the proper top 10 for a couple reasons: 1) It's a four-song EP rather than an album, lasting just shy of 14 minutes, and 2) it was originally self-released by the band in 2021 but got a much-deserved reissue this year via the respected metal label 20 Buck Spin. Anyway, I spun this thing dozens of times and also caught a great set by this Texas quartet in Brooklyn a few months back.
Bleed are a great illustration of why I can never really invest in objective discussions about the "best" music — of a given year, of all time, etc. This is a band that pushes my particular buttons, namely tapping into my deep love of '90s alt-metal, and coming up with a heavy, atmospheric and extremely catchy sound that, as I wrote elsewhere, "plays like a fan-fic collab between Helmet circa Aftertaste and White Pony–era Deftones."
Does that description intrigue you? If so, great! If not, this might not excite you as much as it does me. But Bleed also exemplify a loose trend in recent years, across various genres, where you see young bands zeroing in on these very specific bygone micro-eras, right down to the cover art and production aesthetic, with incredibly satisfying results. There's really no downside to pastiche when you do it this well. Bleed also put out a fine stand-alone single in October, and I can't wait to hear more.
And with that shout-out behind us, here are my favorite albums of the year, arranged in an imprecise and somewhat arbitrary order. Also, there's not 10; there's 11. I really can't decide which of these to leave off, and since no one's forcing me to make that tough call, this is the list! Each selection includes a brief annotation and a link to prior coverage where applicable.
I also love the Darkthrone record, which has sparked a re-engagement with their revelatory run of recentLPs.
Another recent listening project: a first-time immersion in Frusciante-era(s) Chili Peppers, sparked by the two new double albums and a fascinating run of Rick Rubin–conducted interviews on the Broken Record podcast. Have really dug both Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen so far and look forward to getting to know them better.
Two new Krallicealbums! As ever, I'm a few years behind these guys, but every record is a revelation once you really wrap your head around it.
The Drug Church record is strong, though it didn't prepare me for what a massively entertaining live band they are. More on that below.
PS to this section: I love reading/watching year-end metal round-ups. The genre is basically impossible to keep comprehensive tabs on so I always learn a ton from these. Check out best-of-'22 posts from:
Below is the ballot I submitted for the annual Jazz Critics Poll — formerly masterminded by Francis Davis and now run by Tom Hull — with two additional historical titles added. Full 2022 results should be online soonare online now.
new releases:
1. The Bad Plus, The Bad Plus [see top 10 entry above] 2. Zoh Amba, O, Sun [see top 10 entry above] 3. Makaya McCraven, In These Times[timeless instrumental-R&B majesty, filtered through contemporary jazz aesthetics; had the pleasure of profiling Mr. McCraven for the recently relaunched Creem but the piece is print-only] 4. Tyshawn Sorey, The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism[raucous romps through standards both familiar and fresh] 5. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, MSM Molecular Systematic Music - Live[an authoritative statement from my favorite of JBL's several excellent working bands] 6. Eubanks-Evans Experience, EEE[an unexpected and beautifully diverse duo set from mid-career masters Kevin Eubanks and Orrin Evans] 7. The OGJB Quartet, Ode to O[Oliver Lake, Graham Haynes, Joe Fonda and Barry Altschul doing gritty yet graceful stuff that sounds like it could have come out on Black Saint in the mid-'80s; side note: it's a real shame that you can't purchase TUM albums in any digital form] 8. Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride and Brian Blade, LongGone[the all-star band to beat] 9. Karl Berger and Kirk Knuffke, Heart Is a Melody[timeless free-bop warmth from a beautifully matched quartet with Jay Anderson on bass and Matt Wilson on drums] 10. Tumi Mogorosi, Group Theory: Black Music[a powerful return to early-'70s choral jazz à la Billy Harper's Capra Black and Max Roach's Lift Every Voice and Sing]
Khruangbin @ Radio City Music Hall (March 10) The ultimate party band. See them at all costs.
Gulch @ Saint Vitus (April 30) The final New York appearance by the new kings of hardcore. These guys left behind a smoking crater.
Maryland Deathfest; Baltimore (May 26–29) Extreme-metal heaven (hell?). Highlights too numerous to name, but catching Coroner (big bucket-list check-off), Demilich, Immolation, Deicide, Tom G. Warrior, Obituary, Carcass, Deeds of Flesh, Autopsy, Atheist, Massacre, Monstrosity, Nocturnus A.D. and other giants in the same weekend — along with cult masters Rottrevore, Divine Eve and Drawn and Quartered — was life-altering.
Rage Against the Machine @ MSG (August 8, 14) Rex @ Tubby's; Kingston, NY (August 17) Afghan Whigs @ Brooklyn Steel (September 15) Jawbox @ Le Poisson Rouge (July 22) Crowbar @ Bottleneck; Lawrence, KS (September 4) Sunny Day Real Estate @ Brooklyn Steel (September 29) Mars Volta @ Terminal 5 (September 30) For a few months there, it was like my CD wallets from the '90s and early 2000s had come to life. The highlight was seeing RATM for the first time, but every other one of these — from my first time seeing Rex (after having the honor of profiling them for TIDAL) in around a quarter century to my first times seeing Mars Volta, SDRE and Afghan Whigs at all — was an utter joy.
Anteloper @ Public Records (July 16) This is how I will always remember jaimie branch, thrillingly engaged and supercharging every moment.
Ravi Coltrane Freedom Trio @ Mama Tried (August 4) The second of two great Ravi sets I caught at MT this year. The first was pure abstraction; this was a funk-fusion mega-jam.
Greg Tardy, Christian McBride and Johnathan Blake @ Village Vanguard (August 11) This was supposed to be a Bill Frisell gig, but COVID intervened, Christian McBride subbed in, and it turned into the ultimate late-night Vanguard hang.
Makaya McCraven @ Public Records (September 19) Look, the album is really good, but hearing it live in full with a string quartet, Brandee Younger on harp and De'Sean Jones on sax and EWI was the peak In These Times experience.
Gospel + Uniform @ Saint Vitus (August 12) City of Caterpillar + Foxtails @ Saint Vitus (October 2) Saetia + Pique + Uniform @ Le Poisson Rouge (November 19) Always go see the screamo reunion! Props to Foxtails and Pique, standouts of the new guard, and Uniform, who never fail to bring the noise.
Domi and JD Beck @ Le Poisson Rouge (October 19) This made me feel old! In a good way.
The Chats + Drug Church + Scowl @ Brooklyn Steel (October 22) Punk gig of the year. Three different flavors of awesome.
Chat Pile @ Saint Vitus (October 24) The nastiest songs of the year were even nastier live.
Hammered Hulls @ TV Eye (December 2) D.C. comes to Queens in style. Was sad not to see usual Hulls bassist Mary Timony, but the fill-in (Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty) wasn't too shabby.
Orrin Evans Quintet with Gary Thomas, Nicholas Payton, Robert Hurst and Marvin "Smitty" Smith @ Smoke (December 11) The single best hour of jazz I heard in 2022. This band apparently hit the studio the next day and I can't wait to hear the results.
Charles McPherson Quintet with Terell Stafford, Jeb Patton, David Wong and Billy Drummond @ Smoke (November 6) George Coleman Quintet with Eric Alexander, Emmett Cohen, David Williams and Joe Farnsworth @ Smoke (December 22) Always go hear the masters!
AND TWO TO GO OUT ON
My favorite songs of the year by artists not mentioned above are…
Avril Lavigne, "Bite Me" (late 2021 single release ahead of a 2022 album)
First, a bit of a disclaimer: Keeping up with new music in any kind of orderly way was pretty much an impossibility for me in 2021. Between work obligations and personal pursuits (guitar, etc.), there just wasn't a whole lot of time and space left over. So I heard what I heard. Categories fell by the wayside — as did the hope of putting together an informed genre-oriented survey, as I've done in recent years for new jazz releases.
I'm fortunate to be in a position where people (publicists, label folks, the artists themselves) often send me new music. I'm grateful for every submission. I also try as best I can to manage expectations. I make no promises re: coverage — ultimately, I'm an editor by trade, and each year, I'm only able to take on a select amount of writing projects — and in 2021, the gap between the amount of music that made its way to me and the amount I was able to publicly acknowledge seemed wider than ever.
Still, I heard a fair amount and some of it really connected. And though, as I pointed out around a decade ago now (!) on this very blog, I identify much more as an all-purpose music lover than as a partisan of any particular genre, I stayed as current as I could re: jazz, metal and other areas I've often gravitated toward, while taking in whatever else happened to call out to me. The bottom line is that if music hits you, and, especially, if it sticks with you after making an initial impact, it doesn't really matter what kind it is — the important thing is that it lingers, intrigues and ideally makes you want to go back. And in the arbitrary parameter of a year, you never (or at least I never) have time to go back to everything that grabbed you. So you do your best and then, come December, you see what you've got to work with. Whatever your taste profile, I hope you find something below that interests or excites.
Lastly, I just want to say that if you've engaged with anything I've worked on this year (writing, music, podcast), I sincerely appreciate it. Attention is at a premium for all of us, and I don't take it for granted that anyone would expend a bit of theirs on something I've had a hand in. Thank you.
By the way, just stating for the record that the most gratifying projects I worked on this year were this Spiderland feature and thisJourney in Satchidananda podcast. Check 'em out if you haven't! And now, on to the lists and annotations.
/////
Overall 2021 top 10 [w/ a few links to prior coverage where applicable]:
Turnstile, Glow On
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, Promises
An annotated version of the above can be found here, alphabetized within Rolling Stone's annual collection of staff lists. I'll just say that aside from Promises, which is more like a holistic sound bath, with every one of these — from the Amyl to the Willow to the Leo, Bonnie/Sweeney, Mastodon, Assertion, Carcass, Moran and of course the Turnstile — what did it was the songs. An abundance of tracks that dug in and stayed put.
The two records not listed above that came closest to making the cut were Bo Burnham's Inside (The Songs) and Mustafa's When Smoke Rises. The former was an odd case: the soundtrack to a Netflix tragicomedy special that doubled as a one-man musical. Ultimately I elected to leave it out of the running, but really only on a technicality (it didn't seem quite fair to stack up a multimedia product against other audio-only albums; or put another way, even when listening to Inside as an album, I still felt like I couldn't separate it entirely from its visual counterpart). The truth is that, song for song, the Burnham stuck with me as much as anything I heard this year aside from the Turnstile LP, which rarely left my heavy rotation after an initial spin. (I had a new favorite song roughly every week, from "Holiday" to "New Heart Design" to the brief but brilliant "No Surprise") If you haven't seen Inside, I recommend it wholeheartedly, and if you do watch it and don't spend weeks or months with its tunes rattling around inside your head — well, to quote one of the special's best songs, "Welcome to the Internet," "If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first…" (The Phoebe Bridgers cover of "That Funny Feeling," honestly probably better than the original, really drives home how strong Burnham's writing is here.)
And the Mustafa record is just lovely and intimate and quietly devastating. It's all there in the opening track, "Stay Alive." This Pitchfork interview from 2020 offers valuable context, and this review of When Smoke Rises by my RS colleague Mankaprr Conteh eloquently sums up what makes it so special.
I also participated in an RS metal list for 2021, where I wrote up the Mastodon and the Carcass, as well as King Woman's Celestial Blues, an immersive opus that drew me in immediately once I checked in with it late in the year. I wholeheartedly second the votes on those Maiden and Converge selections as well — both bands are legacy acts who are still out there pushing.
2021 jazz top 10 [w/ Bandcamp links where applicable]:
Note: This is the list I submitted to the annual Jazz Critics Poll, hosted by Francis Davis and Tom Hull. Full results should be online within a week or so can be found here.
Jason Moran stood out this year as something of an MVP, an honor he's almost always in the running for. The duo albums with Shepp and Graves (mentioned in the afore-linked RS staff round-up) were handsome mementos of exemplary intergenerational collabs, but the solo record sounds to me like a career highlight to date. Absolutely gorgeous and entirely beyond category. As for Promises, I wondered for a second whether it even made sense to classify it as a jazz record — maybe "minimalist classical work with improvising soloist" would be more accurate — but I feel alright about using Pharoah's presence as a loophole there. It's a spellbinding record that frames a legend in an entirely new light. James Brandon Lewis is just a full-on star at this point. He puts out a lot of music but phones nothing in. I've loved his duo discs with Chad Taylor from the past few years, and their work together in JBL's larger bands is just as impressive. The quintet albumJesup Wagon earned a lot of well-deserved praise this year, but Code of Being hit me even harder. There's a gravity and intensity to this one that really makes it feel top-shelf. In a jazz bandleader, you want to hear a highly developed instrumental and compositional vision and JBL is simply there on both counts. I'll be listening for whatever he does next. The Weiss/Okazaki is a high-order musical brainteaser and a memento of a deep, longstanding mind-meld between these two. The Mela really stood out to me from the jump.
I'm still digesting this one in full but re: this particular tune… wow. I wrote to a friend that it sounds a bit like the Motian/Frisell/Lovano trio with Milford Graves sitting in for Paul (nothing wrong with the original of course, but I loved hearing this spin on their approach). Fascinating and singular stuff. Cannot wait to catch this band live at some point. The Artifacts disc impressed me as a document of a band really growing into itself, and I could say the same of Chris Potter's Circuits Trio with James Francies (also a key presence on Pat Metheny's debut Side-Eye record and a second-time Blue Note bandleader with his own Purest Form) and Eric Harland, and Barry Altschul's ass-kicking inside-outside 3Dom Factor band with Jon Irabagon and Joe Fonda. The Cookers remain simply one of my favorite active bands in jazz, and anything they put out is going to have a shot at my year-end list, esp. if it's as strong as this latest disc — master player and composers, beautifully showcased. Don't know what more you could ask for from a new jazz record, really. And amid the slew of music that William Parker put out this year (I still need to make time for Cisco Bradley's bio!), the sizzling Mayan Space Station disc with Ava Mendoza and Gerald Cleaver stood out immediately as a fresh spin on the guitar trio — in some ways a spiritual cousin to the classic Gateway records.
Speaking of slews of music, I felt like I only scratched the surface of the many worthy box sets that came my way: Wadada Leo Smith's Chicago Symphonies (w/ Henry Threadgill, whose own latest Zooid disc was typically enigmatic and alluring; John Lindberg; and Jack DeJohnette) and Sacred Ceremonies (w/ Bill Laswell and Milford Graves)— just two of three multi-album sets he released via the Finnish Tum label to commemorate his 80th birthday year, along with another trio disc featuring DeJohnette and Vijay Iyer (sadly, all these seem to be entirely absent from the digital marketplace; really would love to see Tum on Bandcamp one of these days); Anthony Braxton's 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017, a sonic world unto itself — don't miss the visual documents; and Matt Mitchell and Kate Gentile's weird and wonderful Snark Horse. I came away from each of these highly impressed and hoping to immerse more in 'em going forward.
And on the live front, the jazz highlight of the year for me had to be seeing Darius Jones play his moving, exacting new solo album Raw Demoon Alchemy in the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetary. Unforgettable.
A few other stray mentions of albums or songs that spoke to me:
Two albums from the Chicago label American Dreams left strong and immediate impressions: Lamplighter, a luminous and enveloping trio disc from guitarist Matthew Rolin, hammered-dulcimer player Jen Powers and drummer Jayson Gerycz that struck me as something like "if Takoma met FMP"; and Patrick Shiroishi's masterful overdubbed saxophone opusHidemi, which brought to my mind a one-man World Saxophone Quartet.
The new Dinosaur Jr. album is a delight. You could play "I Ran Away" for someone who'd never heard them and their core charms would all be readily apparent.
Whereas Dinosaur Jr.'s genius lies in never fixing what ain't broke, the
Flying Luttenbachers have always been about restless forward
progression, esp. since their reboot a couple years back.
Their new one, Negative Infinity — their first where founder/leader
cedes drum duties; Sam Ospovat simply destroys in the role — is an
absolute monster, reminiscent at times of the rigorous savagery of the
band's Cataclysm
era but challenging and overwhelming in all its own ways. I hear
there's another new one due soon from this lineup and I can't wait to
hear it.
This Heart Attack Man song is an emo-punk-pop mini masterpiece. The video is also a blast.
As with "Pitch Black" above, every moment of Pom Pom Squad's "Head Cheerleader" is a hook. Songwriting excellence.
More monster hooks here, courtesy of some guy named Lindsey Buckingham:
And still more, courtesy of some of the guys also responsible for the Turnstile masterpiece:
(Note: The Angel Du$t track above first turned up on a 2020 EP, but makes a return appearance on the band's great 2021 album YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs.)
And who could deny this velvet juggernaut of the airwaves?
This year, I released 10 episodes of the Heavy Metal Bebop Podcast, featuring interviews with Black Sabbath's Bill Ward, Living Colour's Vernon Reid, Jan Hammer, Dave King and more. Please check them out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean if you haven't already. More to come in 2020!
And thanks to these and other music/etc. podcasts that have enriched and inspired me; I strongly encourage you to give them all a look/listen:
And thank you to anyone still making their way to this webspace! It's less active than it has been in years past as more of my work appears elsewhere, but it's still meaningful to me as a personal archive and occasional writing outlet.
Here, via Rolling Stone, is a rundown of some of the 2019 jazz releases I enjoyed most. I'm not remotely able to keep up with everything these days, so I'm grateful to The New York City Jazz Record; Downbeat; Jazz Times; The Wire; Phil Freeman's monthly Ugly Beauty column at Stereogum; Giovanni Russonello's regular coverage at The Times; the work of writers such as Seth Colter Walls, Piotr Orlov, Andy Beta, Marcus J. Moore, Matthew Kassel and Mark Richardson at Pitchfork and other outlets; some of the same writers and others at Bandcamp Daily; and The Free Jazz Collective; as well as the artists and publicists who send me music directly, for helping me keep up.
The 2019 top 10 I submitted to Francis Davis' annual critics' poll, the results of which should be online before too long, is as follows. Each of these titles is discussed at least briefly in the RS piece; there are also links there to my prior coverage of some of the artists/albums, and links to hear/buy the music via Bandcamp, where applicable. Two notes on the selections:
1) Categories ultimately mean very little to me, but yes, I do think the Messthetics album could reasonably be called a jazz record; I argue the case a bit in the aforementioned article.
2) The 10³²K album did in fact come out in 2018, but it emerged late in the year, and I was not really aware of it till this year. Regardless, I think it's fantastic, and I stand by its inclusion here. This process remains very much an inexact science!
New Releases
1. Angel Bat Dawid, The Oracle (International Anthem)
2. Branford Marsalis Quartet, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul (Okeh)
3. The Messthetics, Anthropocosmic Nest (Dischord)
4. Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity, To Whom Who Buys a Record (Odin)
5. 10³²K, The Law of Vibration (self-released)
6. Joel Ross, KingMaker (Blue Note)
7. Chris Lightcap, SuperBigmouth (Pyroclastic)
8. Blacks' Myths, Blacks' Myths II (Atlantic Rhythms)
9. Steve Lehman Trio & Craig Taborn, The People I Love (Pi)
10. JD Allen, Barracoon (Savant)
Here is my all-genres-in-play 2018 top 10, as submitted to two independent year-end surveys — neither of which is online yet — along with links to my coverage of each album.
1. The Bad Plus, Never Stop II (review)
2. Esperanza Spalding, 12 Little Spells (review)
3. Haunt, Burst Into Flame (review)
4. Dan Weiss, Starebaby (feature)
5. Voivod, The Wake (review)
6. Wayne Shorter, Emanon (review)
7. Peter Brötzmann / Heather Leigh, Sparrow Nights (review)
8. Tomb Mold, Manor of Infinite Forms (blurb)
9. Harriet Tubman, The Terror End of Beauty (track write-up)
10. Tyshawn Sorey, Pillars (review)
Some of these records also appear on my respective jazz and metal lists; some are unique to the above; all hit me hard. (See here for some thoughts on why the Spalding and Sorey discs did not appear on the jazz lists I compiled, despite their inclusion here.)
Here, for fun, is an archive of all my year-end top 10s stretching back to 2005, the first year I was employed as a staff writer-about-music.
And here is a playlist of some songs I really liked this year, some from the albums I've cited and some not.
Here is Rolling Stone's list of 2018's 20 best metal albums, as chosen and annotated by my colleagues Suzy Exposito, Kory Grow and Chris Weingarten, along with myself. My personal top 10 picks, many of which I wrote up for the main list, are as follows:
1. Haunt, Burst Into Flame 2. Voivod, The Wake 3. Tomb Mold, Manor of Infinite Forms 4. Deceased, Ghostly White 5. Immortal, Northern Chaos Gods 6. Turnstile, Time and Space 7. Judas Priest, Firepower 8. At the Gates, To Drink From the Night Itself 9. Portal, Ion 10. Corrosion of Conformity, No Cross No Crown
If I'd heard Messa's Feast for Water before the polls had closed, I almost certainly would have made room for it on my ballot. Really impressive album. Here are a few late-to-the-party thoughts.
The below is an un-annotated survey of Hank Shteamer's all-genres-in-play "Albums of the year" top 10 lists, stretching back to 2005, compiled for various publications and polls. Jazz-only lists from 2008 on can be found here.
Highlighted titles are ones that have really "lived on" for me beyond the year in question — each is an album I feel comfortable calling a modern classic.
1. Pile, Sunshine and Balance Beams 2. Deftones, Private Music 3. Propagandhi, At Peace 4. Deadguy, Near-Death Travel Services 5. Guided by Voices, Thick Rich and Delicious 6. Wednesday, Bleeds 7. Ghost, Skeletá 8. Jim White, Inner Day 9. Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Purple Bird 10. Bob Mould, Here We Go Crazy
1. The Jesus Lizard, Rack 2. Gouge Away, Deep Sage 3. Pearl Jam, Dark Matter 4. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis 5. Upright Forms, Blurred Wires 6. Tyshawn Sorey Trio, The Susceptible Now 7. Chat Pile, Cool World 8. Tarbaby, You Think This America 9. Luke Stewart Silt Trio, Unknown Rivers 10. Dirty Three, Love Changes Everything
+
J. Robbins, Basilisk [2024's year's customary late-breaking add]
1. Richard Inman, Inman 2. Scream, DC Special 3. Foo Fighters, But Here We Are 4. Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman… 5. Mendoza Hoff Revels, Echolocation 6. Khanate, To Be Cruel 7. Jeromes Dream, The Gray in Between 8. John Zorn, Full Fathom Five 9. James Brandon Lewis, Eye of I 10. Tomb Mold, The Enduring Spirit
1. Gospel, The Loser 2. Fleshwater, We're Not Here to Be Loved 3. Chat Pile, God's Country 4. Meshuggah, Immutable 5. Faetooth, Remnants of the Vessel 6. The Bad Plus, The Bad Plus 7. Messa, Close 8. Afghan Whigs, How Do You Burn? 9. 40 Watt Sun, Perfect Light 10. Zoh Amba, O, Sun 11. Hammered Hulls, Careening
[couldn't narrow this down to 10, or more accurately, saw no reason to!]
+
Bleed, Somebody's Closer [favorite release of the year but left off above b/c it's an EP and technically came out first in 2021]
1. Turnstile, Glow On 2. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, Promises 3. Mastodon, Hushed and Grim 4. Assertion, Intermission 5. Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Superwolves 6. Willow, Lately I Feel Everything 7. Jason Moran, The Sound Will Tell You 8. Amyl and the Sniffers, Comfort to Me 9. Leo Nocentelli, Another Side 10. Carcass, Torn Arteries
+
Bo Burnham, Inside (The Songs)[honorary inclusion]
2019
1. Moon Tooth, Crux
2. Tomb Mold, Planetary Clairvoyance
3. Arch/Matheos, Winter Ethereal
4. Sheer Mag, A Distant Call
5. Angel Bat Dawid, The Oracle
6. Lizzo, Cuz I Love You
7. The Messthetics, Anthropocosmic Nest
8. Branford Marsalis Quartet, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
9. Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains
10. Hole Dweller, Flies the Coop
Read more.
2018
1. The Bad Plus, Never Stop II
2. Esperanza Spalding, 12 Little Spells
3. Haunt, Burst Into Flame
4. Dan Weiss, Starebaby 5. Voivod, The Wake
6. Wayne Shorter, Emanon
7. Peter Brötzmann / Heather Leigh, Sparrow Nights
8. Tomb Mold, Manor of Infinite Forms
9. Harriet Tubman, The Terror End of Beauty
10. Tyshawn Sorey, Pillars
1. Sheer Mag, Need to Feel Your Love
2. Vijay Iyer, Far From Over 3. Elder, Reflections of a Floating World
4. Mastodon, Emperor of Sand
5. Queens of the Stone Age, Villains
6. Code Orange, Forever
7. Jason Moran, Thanksgiving at the Vanguard
8. Cheer-Accident, Putting Off Death
9. Morbid Angel, Kingdoms Disdained
10. Chris Pitsiokos Unit, Before the Heat Death
1. Esperanza Spalding, Emily's D+Evolution 2. The Hotelier, Goodness
3. Bob Mould, Patch the Sky
4. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke
5. Metallica, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct
6. Deftones, Gore 7. 40 Watt Sun, Wider Than the Sky 8. Crying, Beyond the Fleeting Gales
9. Billy Mintz, Ugly Beautiful
10. Meshuggah, The Violent Sleep of Reason
1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
2. The Bad Plus Joshua Redman, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman
3. Henry Threadgill Zooid, In for a Penny, in for a Pound
4. Title Fight, Hyperview
5. Blind Idiot God, Before Ever After 6. Krallice, Ygg Huur
7. Black Star Riders, The Killer Instinct
8. Laddio Bolocko, Live and Unreleased 1997–2000
9. Mary Halvorson, Meltframe
10. Revenge, Behold.Total.Rejection
1. Future Islands, Singles 2. Antemasque, Antemasque 3. Alvvays, Alvvays 4. La Dispute, Rooms of the House
5. Juan Wauters, N.A.P. North American Poetry
6. Cloud Nothings, Here and Nowhere Else 7. Mitski, Bury Me at Makeout Creek
8. Mark Turner, Lathe of Heaven
9. Run the Jewels, RTJ 2
10. White Lung, Deep Fantasy
1. RVIVR, The Beauty Between 2. Haim, Days Are Gone 3. Carcass, Surgical Steel 4. Diarrhea Planet, I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
5. Queens of the Stone Age, ...Like Clockwork
6. Suffocation, Pinnacle of Bedlam
7. Black Sabbath, 13
8. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
9. The Men, New Moon
10. Gorguts, Colored Sands
1. Christian Mistress, Possession
2. Japandroids, Celebration Rock
3. Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind
4. Pallbearer, Sorrow and Extinction 5. Propagandhi, Failed States
6. fun., Some Nights 7. Loincloth, Iron Balls of Steel
8. Billy Hart, All Our Reasons
9. Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
10. Corin Tucker, Kill My Blues
1. Frank Ocean, Nostalgia, Ultra
2. Anthrax, Worship Music 3. Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo, Songs of Mirth and Melancholy
4. Drake, Take Care
5. Deceased, Surreal Overdose
6. Gerald Cleaver’s Uncle June, Be It as I See It
7. The Strokes, Angles
8. Disma, Towards the Megalith
9. New Zion Trio, Fight Against Babylon
10. Ben Allison, Action-Refraction
1. Francis and the Lights, It'll Be Better
2. Drake, Thank Me Later 3. The Bad Plus, Never Stop
4. Buke and Gass, Riposte
5. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
6. Graham Smith, Accept the Mystery
7. Ludicra, The Tenant
8. Sia, We Are Born
9. Charred Walls of the Damned, Charred Walls of the Damned 10. Dan Weiss Trio, Timshel
1. Propagandhi, Supporting Caste
2. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
3. Ran Blake, Driftwoods
4. Julian Casablancas, Phrazes for the Young
5. Chad Taylor, Circle Down
6. Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures
7. Dinosaur Jr., Farm
8. Sean Kingston, Tomorrow
9. Jon Irabagon with Mike Pride, I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues
10. Heaven and Hell, The Devil You Know
2008
1. Graham Smith & KGW, Yes Boss 2. Cynic, Traced in Air
3. Dennis Wilson, Pacific Ocean Blue [reissue]
4. Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy
5. Krallice, Krallice
6. Andrew Hill and Chico Hamilton, Dreams Come True
7. Metallica, Death Magnetic
8. Josh Fix, Free at Last
9. Randy Newman, Harps and Angels
10. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
2007
1. Pissed Jeans, Hope for Men
2. Muhal Richard Abrams, Vision Towards Essence
3. Sigh, Hangman’s Hymn
4. Thurston Moore, Trees Outside the Academy
5. Deerhoof, Friend Opportunity
6. Zs, Arms
7. Rob Crow, Living Well
8. Levon Helm, Dirt Farmer
9. Tyshawn Sorey, that/not
10. Ween, La Cucaracha
2006
1. Baby Dayliner, Critics Pass Away
2. Ocrilim, Anoint
3. Xiu Xiu, The Air Force
4. This Heat, Out of Cold Storage [reissue] 5. Melvins, (A) Senile Animal
6. Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
7. The Lemonheads, The Lemonheads
8. The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers
9. Nels Cline, New Monastery
10. Joanna Newsom, Ys
2005
1. Deerhoof, The Runners Four
2. Orthrelm, OV
3. Matthew Welch, Dream Tigers 4. Sicbay, Suspicious Icons 5. Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney, Superwolf 6. Big Business, Head for the Shallow
7. Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Mostly Other People Do the Killing
8. Sunn O))), Black One
9. The Locust, Safety Second, Body Last
10. Coptic Light, Coptic Light
This year, I have voted (or will vote) in at least three different year-end polls, Rolling Stone's metal survey; Francis Davis' esteemed annual Jazz Critics Poll; and the Village Voice's annual everything-in-play poll, which is apparently no longer called Pazz and Jop. I may share each of those lists (my jazz ballot is here), but honestly they seem to matter less to me than a more intuitive survey, an honest recap of what new music has entered my bloodstream, so to speak, which is a very different thing than me, either at the time I cast my ballot or at some earlier date, deeming a certain record worth of mention in some "official" regard.
Just as an example: I really enjoyed Beyoncé's Lemonade, both the film and the music. It's clearly a consensus album-of-the-year favorite, as it damn well should be. It's an intensely provocative, passionate, just all-around striking statement from pop's most dominant star. But aside from the incredible "Don't Hurt Yourself" — I'm still thinking about that ferocious VMAs performance — this is not a record that I've spent a lot of recurring personal time with since its release. That's no knock on the record; it's just the truth. There's a difference, in other words, between an album being "in the air" and in heavy rotation on my iPod.
In these list situations, you can call out the in-the-air picks, either because that's honestly what you spent all year listening to or because you feel obligated to aim at some kind of (false) universality. Yes, a record may have owned "the" year, but did it own yours? These kinds of lists too often read like mere checklists of Albums That People Were Talking About. If we're going to do this at all, we might as well get honest and idiosyncratic.
Some of the pertinent questions for me are: What new music did you listen to when you had the luxury of free choice? What did you go back to, sometimes again and again? Will those albums mean anything to you in a year, or five, or 10? That last part is, I believe, truly impossible to reckon with — there are really only like five new records from the past 10 years or so that have entered my personal canon in that way, Propagandhi's Supporting Caste probably being at the top of that list — but the other questions are fairly easily answered, maybe with the help of some notes.
Here are 15 new releases that have mattered a lot to me this year, in the ways outlined above, with a bunch more "bonus track" picks afterward. There's no ranking here: I picked the records I wanted to focus on and then, over a few days, wrote the below entries in an intuitive order, blurbing each as I felt like it.
40 Watt Sun, Wider Than the Sky (Radiance)
Singer-songwriter and 40 Watt Sun leader Patrick Walker started out playing doom metal and has slowly shed the trappings of genre like a wandering hermit gradually phasing out of society at large. His music stands alone and stands firm at this point, a kind of epic, transportive dirge-rock, methodical, entirely resistant to anything less than a complete kind of engagement. I feel a deep and almost dangerous sense of surrender when I really let this music in, so strong is its emotional pull, so raw and true is the feeling at its center, so ancient-seeming and wisdom-filled is Walker's gift for writing and singing melody. No other music I heard this year came anywhere close to this record in terms of this kind of gravity, potency, just realness. The most direct way I can put it is that Wider Than the Sky is unspeakably beautiful, a true gift. At this point, I basically can't put it on and not feel instantly transported and awed. Take 16 minutes and listen to "Stages," or more accurately, let it happen to you, and then take the time to savor each of the other songs on its own. They're each almost too much to reckon with any other way.
Deftones, Gore (Reprise)
A totally different sound, but I would place this album on a similar plane as the 40 Watt Sun. I'm awed by how completely this band commits to a mood on Gore and sustains it throughout the course of the album. Deftones, a band that came of age in the '90s, are working with fairly simple, time-tested, quintessentially of-that-era concepts here — the juxtaposition of swimming, swooning atmosphere and torrential crunch-rock climax, explored by everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to Slint. That said, I completely buy both this album's sense of dreamy entreaty and and its fearsome payoffs; it all feels true to me. Like Wider Than the Sky, Gore is a joy to surrender to, to swim in, in large part because the great majority of these songs boast gorgeous, instantly indelible Chino Moreno vocal hooks. I should note that I'm not a Deftones lifer — for whatever reason, I wasn't paying attention in the '90s, when this band was really on the ascent — and it almost makes me respect them even more that I could step into albums like Gore and its predecessor, 2012's Koi No Yokan, with little prior knowledge and be completely blown away. How many other bands are still operating at this level of conviction and excellence more than 20 years after their debut album?
If this does not move you, we have very different tastes:
Meshuggah, The Violent Sleep of Reason (Nuclear Blast)
Another legacy band that I only came around to fairly recently. It's hard for me to tell whether this album was really that much better than the Meshuggah albums that came before it, or if I'm just indulging in latecomer's bias, but having worked my way through their full discography just a couple months back, I truly believe that Meshuggah hasn't released a better — i.e., more ferocious, overwhelming, sheerly gigantic — album than Violent Sleep. A definitive album from a justly legendary band. Further thoughts here and on the RS metal list.
Crying, Beyond the Fleeting Gales (Run for Cover)
No 2016 album surprised or delighted me more than this. Like Gore, Beyond thrives on juxtaposition — between the delicate and the bombastic — but instead of Gore's shimmering dreamstate, this album achieves a kind of manic, candy-colored immediacy. Some sort of wild fusion of indie-pop delicacy and Big '80s Rock flash. A sound that can at first seem borderline absurd but makes more and more harmonious sense the more time you spend with the album. Elaiza Santos' gorgeously precise vocal melodies and disarmingly plainspoken lyrics bring what could be a relentlessly loopy album down to earth, adding a crucial sincerity to the band's weird stylistic mash-up. This is an absolutely insane, ecstatic, wonderful album that I've had on repeat for weeks and weeks. Absolutely, without question the best "new band discovery" I've made this year.
Esperanza Spalding, Emily's D+Evolution (Concord)
I see an affinity between this and the Crying LP just in the sense of aesthetic precision: both that band and Esperanza Spalding are aiming at something very specific, idiosyncratic and ambitious. Every time I put this on, I'm shocked by how many ideas are just spilling out of this thing. I paid less attention that I should've to Spalding's prior records, but this one just grabbed me right away. The extremely ballsy "Good Lava," easily one of the year's most audacious tracks, comes off as a fusion of Fishbone and Shudder to Think (in other words, it's basically heaven-sent to my ears). And then that sort of prog-alt-rock madness mingling with '70s-Joni prog-jazz-folk on tracks like "Earth to Heaven." (If it's not abundantly clear, I'm determined to make "prog" mean something again, way beyond genre — what I really mean is music that strives, reaches, and isn't afraid to show it.) Heartbursting hooks spilling out on "One," delivered with shocking vocal poise and command. You (or at least I!) simply do not hear this kind of virtuosity and vision in any kind of contemporary pop very often. There's a huge difference between the sort of "promising talent" that Spalding was portrayed as in the media just a few years ago and the awe-inspiring aesthetic dynamo she has grown into. This is an album that challenges you to forget genre entirely and just listen. What you're rewarded with is something shockingly advanced, absolutely singular and profoundly engaging.
The Hotelier, Goodness (Tiny Engines)
This album is a new obsession for me; I barely feel like I've scratched its surface. But I feel comfortable calling Goodness a major achievement on the order of the Spalding, a triumph of young musical vision in its boundless prime. People call it emo, or punk, or what have you. All those things make sense but I'm no taxonomist. What I hear here is extremely thoughtful, deeply felt rock music, made by a band that's clearly invested in putting it all in there: emotions, intellect, words, sensations. A deep kind of personal truth. I can see why these "emo" bands (another one that comes to mind is La Dispute, an incredible band, also currently in its aesthetic prime, with a somewhat similar stylistic approach) inspire such fierce devotion in their fans. They're working incredibly hard to capture ideas and feelings, crafting these sort of album-length audio movies, complete with spoken-word passages, acoustic interludes, an overwhelming sense of elegiac beauty and almost scarily liberated catharsis. I'd guess I'd call it something like sophisto-punk, what I hear on Goodness, an illustration of how a DIY aesthetic can grow up to a kind of glorious young-adulthood, retaining its wonder and its desperation but marrying those elements to unflashy virtuosity, dynamic command and real literary clout. (See: the astonishing "Soft Animal" with its unforgettable shouted refrain, pitched between triumph and desperation: "Make me feel alive/Make me believe that I don't have to die.") Honestly, what this record, again after limited exposure, really reminds me of is Bruce Springsteen, at the peak of his visionary-American-rock phase (Darkness on the Edge of Town, say). The Hotelier is after something vast and magical and their abilities seem absolutely up to the task. As someone with a bone-deep connection tp this kind of emo/indie-rock/what-have-you (shout-out to Boys Life, Giants Chair and other '90s KC legends), I feel with a pretty fierce certainty that there's genius all over this album.
Asphyx, Incoming Death (Century Media)
There's a lot above about artists with major scope of vision, and the flipside of that is this kind of arresting myopia. Asphyx want exactly one thing, to blow you out of the water, and even after the departure of their drummer/co-founder, the esteemed Bob Bagchus, they're still managing to further that mission. I put this record on and feel nothing but white-hot conviction and mastery. The voice of Martin Van Drunen is not the expression of something so small and puny as "death metal"; it's the sound of a true life's purpose, amplified and and projected and vomited forth. Metal, like any other style, can basically be about anything (shout-out to Gorguts' outstanding, proudly enlightened Pleiades' Dust), but for Asphyx, it's about colossal girth, steamrolling momentum, overwhelming disgust. Real destroyer-of-worlds shit — whether that's in the form of a tidal-wave-in-slo-mo dirge like "The Grand Denial" or a rotten-rawk rager like "It Came From the Skies" — and no one does this better than they do. Every album is better than the last, ergo Incoming Death is my favorite Asphyx album right now.
Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith, A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke (ECM)
Lots of talk about lifers above, and the now 75-year-old WLS of course qualifies. He shows off new facets of his genius on this record, a fact that's sort of staggering given how much music he's been releasing during the past decade or so. A Cosmic Rhythm is about hush and communion and coexistence — in the macro sense, the record is essentially an album-length ballad — with Iyer (mostly) playing the role of master texturalist, laying out these sorts of sparkling sonic environments for Smith to explore. Smith's breath and vulnerability and imperfection contrast movingly with Iyer's subtle, carefully wrought creations. To me, the most fascinating moments here are when Iyer either augments the acoustic piano with electronics — as on "All Becomes Alive," where he layers lyrical keyboard work over a dubbed-out bass throb — or switches over altogether — as on "Notes on Water," where he achieves a wonderfully murky, pealing sound on Rhodes. A Cosmic Rhythm is not an album you (or at least I) dip into casually, but when I've put it on and really had the time to submerge in it, I've been totally fascinated and enthralled. Long live the WLS renaissance. (Awesome to see this duo live on Monday at Harlem Stage, by the way; I loved how they reprised motifs from the album but took many of these pieces somewhere entirely new. The Iyer/Smith duo, spun off from their outstanding work together in Smith's Golden Quartet, now feels to me like a true and proper band.)
Billy Mintz, Ugly Beautiful (Thirteenth Note)
It's hard for me not to get a little ax-grind-y when I talk about Billy Mintz, once of my favorite living drummers and bandleaders and a good candidate for the title of most underrated jazz musician on the planet. Ugly Beautiful should be a critically adored Jazz Event Album, on the order of Iyer/WLS above; instead, it's practically invisible. At this moment, I can't turn up a single Google result for it, which is actually pretty depressing. As with most Thirteenth Note discs, no press push on this one, just a quiet roll-out. I ordered it after spotting it buried deep in a Downtown Music Gallery newsletter a couple months back. (If you're interested, and you should be, I'd suggest e-mailing or calling DMG, or dropping a line to Thirteenth Note, whose website hasn't been updated in a while.)
Simply put, Ugly Beautiful is an opus — more than two hours of music, spread across two discs. And it takes about that long to show off every worthy facet of Mintz's extremely broad, subtle and idiosyncratic talent. I wrote a while back about Mintz's "jazz infinity," as expressed on this disc's 2013 predecessor, simply called Mintz Quartet, the way he unfussily embraces the full spectrum of the so often pointlessly factionalized genre. Ugly Beautiful, featuring the incredible cast of John Gross and Tony Malaby on saxes, Roberta Piket (Mintz's wife and frequent collaborator) on piano and various keyboards, and Hilliard Greene on bass, is an even more potent illustration of this principle. There is just so much going on here: smeary, free-time, Paul Motian–y dirge ("Angels"), raging/rollicking inside/outside postbop ("Dit," "Relent"), stunningly precise yet beautifully laid-back neo-Tristano-ism ("Flight"), arrestingly somber ballad miniatures ("Vietnam," "Dirge"), borderline psychedelic groove pieces driven by Piket's expressive keys ("Umba," "Tumba"). And all powered by Mintz's phenomenally deep, drum sound. This man, who will turn 70 next year, has a groove that rumbles up from the earth, the way Elvin Jones' did; that bends time, the way Motian's did. I just get such an earthy, elemental feeling of authority from the way he interacts with the instrument and drives a band. And the fact that he wrote all this music (some pieces are reprised from earlier releases) makes this whole package even more stunning. I would like nothing more than to be able to embed a track here, but that's not possible, so I will just say: seek this out. And for God's sake, get hip to Billy Mintz; this great Shaun Brady Jazz Times profile from 2015 is a great place to start.
[Note: I've heard from Robert Piket that Ugly Beautiful only got a soft release this year via Downtown Music Gallery — stay tuned for a proper roll-out in 2017!]
Darkthrone, Arctic Thunder (Peaceville)
Speaking of earthy, elemental authority. I have not rocked out harder to any album this year. I love super-technical, nerd-out metal, but on the flip side, as ought to be clear from my short-listing of the Asphyx record, I also adore the raw, turn-off-your-brain-and-let-loose shit. I spent a good deal of time a few months back immersed in the Celtic Frost discography, and Arctic Thunder was a great follow-up to that phase. Lifers' mastery combined with a deeply ingrained don't-give-a-fuck-ness. This record is just so nasty and single-minded and, on the sly, intelligent in its composition. You don't just land by accident on this many profoundly awesome riffs. More on this one at RS.
Metallica, Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct (Blackened)
If I have an Album of the Year, it's probably this one. As predicted here, whatever reservations I may have had about this one at the outset have basically melted away — I've found something to love about every track here, even "Murder One" and "Am I Savage?," both of which sounded like duds at first but now work just fine for me in context. There's just so much great writing and convincing execution here. I don't think there's another album listed above where I could sing a part from every track on command, and for a song-focused listener such as myself, that's a very attractive feature. For all their niche "thrash" affiliation, Metallica's chief objective is the composition and delivery of Sturdy, Memorable Mainstream Rock Music. In this pursuit, they have succeeded handsomely on Hardwired. This album is not going to change the world the way the Black Album did, but if my reaction is any indication, this album has warmed the heart of a many a longtime fan — no small achievement for a band of Metallica's stature. I mean, goddamn, these songs! "Atlas, Rise!," "Moth Into Flame," "Confusion," "Here Comes Revenge" and, sweet Jesus, the utterly phenomenal "Spit Out the Bone," which I'd rank with their true classics. This album just fucking rules.
[Warning: The music video below is, sadly, horrendous. I recommend ignoring all visual content and focusing solely on the song.]
The Snails, Songs From the Shoebox (self-released)
The costumed, unassuming alter ego of the mighty Future Islands (who made my fave album of 2014) — sort of: the bands share two members, singer Samuel T. Herring and bassist William Cashion, both of whom perform under aliases here. But Herring's voice and conviction are unmistakable, even on a song called, accurately, "Barnacle on a Surfboard (Barnacle Boogie)." This is ostensibly a party album, driven by boogie-friendly lead-sax lines and taut, dance-punky rhythms. But as the album progresses, the songs just keep getting better: the hooks sharper, the emotional content more urgent. "Streets Walkin'" gives me more of classic-Fugazi feeling than anything I've heard since that band broke up, and soon after comes the driving, ecstatic twofer of "Tea Leaves" and "Flames," songs that, taken together, illustrate why Herring is one of the great frontmen on earth right now. (The chorus of the latter is utterly feral and insane.) And then the band winds things down with another sweet party jam in "Snails Christmas (I Want a New Shell)." A deceptively casual album with surprising punch, affect and staying power. (See also: Rolling Stone review.)
Sheer Mag, III and Compilation (Wilsuns)
Oh, what to do with you, Sheer Mag? They keep putting out these perfect four-song EPs that hit me harder than any full-length in sight. Their 2015 release, II, contained my favorite music of that year, and the same is true of III. I don't even want to think about how intense my obsession will become once they finally put out a proper LP (supposedly next year). Several times this year, sometimes in an attempt to get friends to accompany me to the two incredible Sheer Mag shows I saw in 2016, I've called them the best band in America. They make what is, for me, perfect rock/pop/soul music without an ounce of filler. Their songs are shrines to the enduring power of crunching, soaring, fiercely harnessed guitar, yearning vocals, cruising beats and a sort of elusive quality of toughness, authenticity, pathos. I weep thinking about the riffs in "Can't Stop Fighting," "Worth the Tears" and ... deep breath ... the mind-meltingly great "Nobody's Baby." I am always on the lookout for rock and roll that feels right and true to me, and though I often have to turn back the clock for that (Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath and, lately, .38 Special), with Sheer Mag, I can have it all right here, right now. The EP is four tracks of grooving, snarling perfection that I can't not dance and sing to whenever they come on. This music does what I want all music, really of any kind, to do: (to paraphrase Ween) takes me away to some other land. (For the record, the Compilation LP reissues III, II and those EPs' only slightly less-incredible 2014 counterpart, I, on a single 12-inch — a must-buy for those, like me, who simply cannot stop playing this shit and are tired of flipping the 7-inches on the turntable.)
Bob Mould, Patch the Sky (Merge)
This guy, the 56-year-old master of the defiant three-minute pop-punk-before-it-had-a-name anthem, just won't stop pushing. So much passionate, authentic, driving, furiuosly hooky rock here. The style of Patch the Sky is similar to that of his last two, the equally excellent Silver Age and Beauty and Ruin, but Patch the Sky has a sort of weird, bold production sheen to it, with the vocals sitting oddly in the mix. The overall sonic picture perplexed me a little at first, but my hang-ups disintegrated as I played this thing over and over — and then bought it on vinyl and played it still more. I don't have anything deep to say here: Bob Mould just fucking rocks, OK? Especially with his current trio — feat. Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster — which, let's face it, is probably the best band he's ever been a part of. I'm absolutely a Hüsker Dü fan, but for me, this new stuff is where it's at. This music has a single-minded purpose, a rugged, sturdy excellence, that I find extremely appealing. No real surprises here, just wall-to-wall Mouldian quality, baby.
Jack DeJohnette / Ravi Coltrane / Matthew Garrison, In Movement (ECM)
This trio, with Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison, has been playing NYC sporadically for the past few years, and I've been meaning to go check them out. After hearing this, their debut album, I'm kicking myself, because they really and truly slay, and in ways I wouldn't have expected. The opening version of "Alabama" here, which builds gradually from poetic wash to steely churn — dig Garrison's nasty fuzz bass — is one of the only John Coltrane covers I've ever heard that comes close to honoring the gravity of the original. And everything the band plays feels similarly unexpected yet right-on: from the lyrical, almost electronica-like dance of "In Movement" and "Two Jimmys" (which seem like a continuation of the sort of trance-jazz-drift aesthetic heard on '70s DeJohnette albums like New Directions) to the nasty, atmospheric funk of "Serpentine Fire" and the pristine palate cleanser "Soulful Ballad (2)." A veteran drummer in his prime, jamming out on some loose but stimulating and compellingly varied material with two strong-voiced younger players. This is every bit as good as last year's more high-profile Made in Chicago, and I hope this renewed DeJohnette/ECM hot streak continues.
/////
Here are a bunch of others (272829303132 33 selections plus three archival bonus cuts) that I really dug. On any given day, many of these could've ranked in the upper tier above, or vice versa. Bandcamp links only b/c you know where to look otherwise.
Jason Moran, The Armory Concert (Yes)
A great,
wide sweep of virtuosity and invention, with clearly delineated moods
and, for all its experimentalism, a showman's versatility and verve. (In light of those qualities, the whole album strikes me as a clear hat-tip to Jaki Byard and, just maybe, to the perennially
underrated genius Dave Burrell.) Shockingly accomplished yet warmly
approachable.
Mitski, Puberty 2 (Dead Oceans)
This record hasn't yet completely stolen my heart the way Bury Me at Makeout Creek did in 2014, but harsh, true, white-hot — in other words, quintessentially Mitskian — songs abound here ("My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars" — wow...). I sense her work will only get better and more fearsome from here...
Gorguts, Pleiades' Dust (Season of Mist)
The Luc Lemay renaissance continues. Another singular work of passion and thinkin'-person's-metal genius from this international treasure. (See also: Rolling Stone metal list.)
Descendents, Hypercaffium Spazzinate (Epitaph)
Not the best Descendents album, but a very good, worthy one, with some songs (classic Bill Stevenson heart-renders like "Without Love" and "Spineless and Scarlet Red") that I just could not shake. (See also: Rolling Stone feature, these awesome live-in-studio versions.)
Ethan Iverson, The Purity of the Turf (Criss Cross)
The ever-exemplary Iversonian project of showcasing his jazz heroes in new and flattering-but-not-fawning lights continues. (Here, the honoree / guest star is Ron Carter, with the magisterial Nasheet Waits on drums.) A scrappy, engaging, idiosyncratic trio record that's every bit as good as the ones he's made with Albert "Tootie" Heath.
Wakrat, Wakrat(Earache)
A batshit yet surprisingly sturdy first effort from a killer new math/prog/punk band fronted by Rage Against the Machine bass lord Tim Commerford. Some admirably frenetic energy at work here, as well as some honest-to-God killer, hook-filled songwriting. This album was majorly slept-on and deserved way more attention than it got. (See also: RS interview — it was a blast to talk to Tim and to see him play earlier this year with Prophets of Rage.)
Masabumi Kikuchi, Black Orpheus (ECM)
Slo-mo solo sorcery from the late master/enigma. I didn't throw this record on often, but when I gave myself time/space to immerse, I fell in deep.
Warfather, The Grey Eminence (Greyhaze)
Another completely and sadly slept-on record. Familiar style (intricate but accessible Morbid Angel–esque death metal from Steve Tucker, that band's former and current frontman/bassist/songwriter); near-flawless execution.
Joyce Manor, Cody (Epitaph)
I wish I'd loved this whole thing as much as I adore opening track "Fake ID," but there's a plainspoken poetry, and no shortage of hooks, running throughout this brief, scrappy album — the high-school-essay counterpart to the Hotelier's emo master's thesis? — that keeps me coming back. Joyce Manor come off like slackers, but they're pros at this emo/punk/pop shit.
Crowbar, The Serpent Only Lies (eOne)
Not necessarily the gold-standard Crowbar record — I have to say: the aggressively Pro Tools–ed drum production on this and their other recent albums really bums me out, esp. in contrast to the raw, enormous sound they achieved on albums like Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form and Lifesblood for the Downtrodden — but the majority of these songs are great (let's hear it for the incredible "Embrace the Light") and very much up to the Kirk Windstein Standard, a statement I don't make lightly. (See also: Rolling Stone feature, DFSBP thoughts.)
Andrew Cyrille, The Declaration of Musical Independence (ECM)
Delicacy and idiosyncrasy by the pound from another (i.e., like Mintz, DeJohnette) elder drum master, who has found inspiration and refuge on ECM, a label that's really been outdoing itself in recent years. What a weird band Cyrille assembled here — Bill Frisell, Ben Street and the wild card Richard Teitelbaum on piano and electronics— but everyone commits fully and it all works beautifully, yielding a patient, wispy, tactile sound. I'll be going back to this one, for sure. (For the record, I dug the Cyrille / Bill McHenry duo on Sunnyside plenty, but this one lingered longer.)
Husbandry, Fera (Aqualamb)
Bold, progressive, melodic heaviness of a sort you just don't hear a lot of these days. (Shout-out to my youth.) Exceedingly rare blend of virtuoso band and vocal dynamo who can really and truly sing. If bands like Shudder to Think, Into Another and Quicksand get you going, you have to hear this. (PSA: I'm thrilled to report that my band STATS will share a killer bill with Husbandry and the esteemed Blind Idiot God at Saint Vitus on 2/15/17.)
Todrick Hall, Straight Outta Oz (Self-released)
A DIY Lemonade response that, while it didn't aim at the imposing gravity and depth of the original, still told a poignant autobiographical tale via a diverse set of instantly memorable pop songs (with full visual accompaniment to boot). I would love to see this thing onstage. Probably the capital-P Pop album I went back to most this year. (See also: Stephen Daw's great Rolling Stone feature.)
Jasmine Lovell-Smith's Towering Poppies, Yellow Red Blue (Self-released)
Outside-the-box jazz that's tuneful and melodic and accessible — doesn't seem like an outlandish concept, but it's pretty rare these days. A tremendously assured band (their last one was great too) that wears its authority lightly: bright, joyful, handsomely orchestrated chamber-bop that anyone could dig.
Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Ana (PNL)
Free jazz meets Brazilian music for a raucous, rollicking avant-blowout. It's awesome to see this improv heavyweight putting forth such a strong, coherent vision as a big-bandleader/composer.
Aluk Todolo, Voix (The Ajna Offensive)
Darkly psychedelic instrumental jam rock. Wild-eyed guitar/bass/drums music that writhes, sprawls, throbs, convulses and hurtles ever-forward. Metal/prog/fusion/whocaresjustlisten.
Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker (Sony)
As much as I dig what I know of Bowie's work, I don't (yet) have a strong personal relationship with his canon, Blackstar included. But Cohen's death hit me hard. You can't hear this and not feel the gravity of the End, and hear the resounding echo of a life really and truly lived to the last.
Virus, Memento Collider (Karisma)
More noir-ish "what in the living fuck..." goth-prog-rock from Czral and his band of Norwegian lunatics. So far out in left field, and yet sounding so relaxed, confident and complete within itself. Step into the black flux.
Bobby Kapp and Matthew Shipp, Cactus (Northern Spy)
A blessed intergenerational jazz meeting. Call it "free" if you must — something like "organic" sounds more right to me. Recording quality/presence are beyond A+; performances are curious and ever-engaged. Mary Halvorson, Away With You (Firehouse 12)
Vanguard improvising, visionary composition — often strikingly weird but as with the Lovell-Smith above, never willfully obscure — and serious group unity. A hell of a working band captured in peak form.
Defeated Sanity, Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata (Willowtip)
An utterly demented band challenging itself to a friendly game of split-personality disorder. Half resolutely vomitous caveman-death; half hyperactive, dorked-out extreme prog. This album (or these two mini albums) brim with wild-eyed, for-the-love-of-the-craft glee. Can't wait to see what these maniacs do next.
Mannequin Pussy, Romantic (Tiny Engines)
Loud, raw, heart-spilling grunge that often reaches cataclysmically confessional peaks. These high-order punk tantrums are frequently unhinged but never sloppy or haphazard.
Sorcery, Garden of Bones (Xtreem)
Pure serrated-edge riff-barf from old-schoolers who eat this style (1991-y Swedish death metal) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Think of them as Asphyx's keg-party counterpart: equally single-minded, but with more rawk abandon and diabolical mirth. I loooooved their 2013 comeback album, Arrival at Six, and though I haven't spent as much time with Garden of Bones, I can attest to the fact that it's another shaggily hulking bruiser. Why can't every metal album sound this nasty?
The Primitive, The Primitive EP (self-released)
More supremely rawking death metal, and an immensely charming (seems like a silly descriptor for a release of this nature, but go figure — this stuff is basically like no-nonsense blues to me at this point) labor of love from unsung drum hero Jim Roe, best known for his work on early Incantation classics like 1992's utterly disgusting-in-a-good-way (thanks in large part to Roe) Onward to Golgotha. In his current project the Primitive, Roe handles vocals and every instrument, and goddamn, this man is a pro. Alternately lumbering, charging nastiness with a deep, organic feel — extreme metal that maintains its connection to the dark, rich soil of rock and fucking roll. Shades of his Incantation work here, but this stuff has its own vibe. (Note: This is one of two EPs Roe put out this year under the Primitive handle; see also Founded in Hell, as well as Legion of Gore, an impressive two-song EP by veteran Cleveland band Terror that features Roe behind the kit — anything this guy does is worth savoring.)
Incantation, XXV (self-released)
Speaking of Incantation ... No Jim Roe here, but this vinyl-only 25th-anniversary set is nonetheless essential for any fan. This band's early work is undisputed canon, but as discussed here, core members John McEntee and Kyle Severn have surged back in recent years with a series of huge-sounding, gorgeously imposing LPs. This cool comp, which looks backward in terms of repertoire but showcases the band's current lineup exclusively, features one new song, some re-recorded old stuff and one side's worth of excellent live recordings.
Erica Freas, Patient Ones (Don Giovanni)
Coffeeshop-punk profundity from one of my favorite living songwriters. Fresh versions of some recent classics from last year's incredible Tether EP, as well as delicately devastating new songs. Freas is a movement unto herself. (See also: this Somnia record that I still need to catch up on.)
Diarrhea Planet, Turn to Gold (Infinity Cat)
As with the Mitski, this one didn't level me and own my year in quite the way I hoped it would based on my feelings for their last one. But these guys are still delivering the maximal-rock party-punk goods with serious panache.
Richard Sears Sextet feat. Albert "Tootie" Heath, Altadena (Ropeadope)
Either this one flew seriously under the radar, or I just missed it entirely. Would've been a strong contender for my jazz top 10 if I'd heard it in time. That said, I'm grateful to The New York City Jazz Record and Phil Freeman for the review in their December issue, which tipped me off. After one listen, I'm seriously impressed: a diverse, thoroughly engaging and surprisingly progressive little-big-band suite that reminds me of something Wayne Shorter might have put together in mid-'60s. A very natural blend of buoyant hardbop and a darker, freer postbop sound. Tootie is of course outstanding, and this might be the most ambitious setting I've heard him in; great follow-up to the ongoing Iverson/Street chapter of his brilliant six-decade career.
The Cookers, The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart (Smoke Sessions)
The latest dispatch of pure class and fire and soul — they just keep getting better — from one of my favorite bands on the planet, in any genre. Ineligible for me jazz-poll-wise b/c I worked on the liner notes (a huge honor), but I was a die-hard fan before that and would be all over Call regardless. If you dig 'em already, you'll love this; if you aren't yet hip, get it immediately. (Check out the EPK too.)
Voivod, Post Society (Century Media) Latest dispatch from a veteran band in the midst of an unlikely new golden age. I've had my moments with the classic stuff, but it's in the post-Piggy era, from 2013's Target Earth forward, that I've really become a Voivod fanatic. A shining example of a band carrying on and, improbably, thriving after a core member's death. Absolutely cannot wait for the next LP.
Dysrhythmia, The Veil of Control(Profound Lore)
Take the time to really engage with this band and they're never going to disappoint you. The sort of communal interband Venn-diagram flowering that continues among Dys, Gorguts (see above), Krallice (see also 2016 dispatches Hyperion and the brand-new Prelapsarian), Behold ... the Arctopus (see Cognitive Emancipation), etc. has been such a glorious thing to watch up close. Drink in the rigor and the intrigue and the muscle-prog majesty on Veil — the latest brilliant chapter in the ever-unfolding Kevin Hufnagel / Colin Marston metal-vanguard multiverse.
Plus three on the archival tip: Peter Kuhn, No Coming, No Going — The Music of Peter Kuhn 1978–79 (NoBusiness)
Squawking, swinging, shimmy-ing '70s loft jazz at its finest, via clarinetist Kuhn and his extraordinary band of like-minded ramblers, including trumpeters Toshinori Kondo and Arthur Williams, bassist William Parker and the late marvel Denis Charles on drums. The full disc of Kuhn/Charles duos is a thing of wild beauty. Check it.
Herbie Mann, Live at the Whisky 1969: The Unreleased Masters (Real Gone)
Still wading through this one, but what a heady bit of Sonny Sharrock lore, to say nothing of the rest of the band. We all know about the standout jazz-gone-rock/pop/funk revolutions of the day, but Mann was a badass in his own right — playing what he wanted to play, hiring who he wanted to hire, posing with his shirt off and just getting the fuck down. Kudos to him for turning Sonny — and Linda, on a couple tracks! — loose. It's beautiful to think of this and the Mann-produced Black Woman as part of the same weird hippie-jazz idiom. Wonder what the backstage hang was like?
Miles Davis, Freedom Jazz Dance, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5 (Sony/Legacy)
Like the Dylan Bootleg Series, the Miles one just keeps digging up more and more from the periods you long ago thought were exhausted. On paper, this almost seems like a parody of a box set — complete session reels for Miles Smiles, band chatter and all — but I mean, this is Miles fucking Smiles we're talking about. I've only given this one concerted listen, but I got serious fly-on-the-wall goosebumps hearing this legendary day in the studio unfold in real time.
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Postscript: Five perfect pop (etc.) songs, 2016
Will leave you with this rawk monster from Dunsmuir. Glad tidings, and thanks as always to anyone readin'! -HS
