Welcome to The List 2016

Each year, my friend Adam and I rank and review our favourite 20 albums of the year, in a tradition that goes back to the year 2000. 

The rules are simple: to qualify, an album needs to have been released in the relevant year, be studio recorded, and full length.  No live albums, no EPs.

This is my list for 2016.

NB: a couple of the sample YouTube videos seem only to work on a computer (not tablets/smartphones).  I have no idea why...

20. HIGHLY SUSPECT - Mister Asylum

A very late entry at number 20, Highly Suspect’s second album is a rip-roaring ride of blues-tinged rock.  It’s a record that manages the impressive feat of feeling grimy and catching the essence of raw live performance, while at the same time sounding produced and potentially stadium filling.  They’re getting a huge amount of buzz and have bagged some high-profile support slots, so the signs are that they’re only going one way.  On this evidence they’d deserve it.  Yes, they have ridiculously styled hair and, as a result, look, in some photos, like a 2010s era Bros tribute band.  And, yes, Royal Blood have recently been doing something quite similar to this, but doing it better. Nonetheless, this is fun from start to finish: no bad tracks and lots to enjoy.  And a key USP for Highly Suspect is their use of lead guitar.  I miss really good guitar solos and lead guitar riffs in this breed of straight ahead blues-rock.  Highly Suspect have no fear of noodling.  Overall, while there’s no wheel reinvention going on here, Mister Asylum sure rocks.

sample track: Lost

19. AVENGED SEVENFOLD - The Stage

Avenged Sevenfold’s new record is a mixed bag.  This is the first time I’ve listened to one of their albums – they’re new to me even though they’ve been making music for over 15 years and this is album seven.  So I’ve no frame of reference as to how The Stage compares with their previous material, but I bought it on a recommendation and found much to love.  It’s a record that is full of interesting, progressive metal songs.  Indeed, this is an album that is as much about the mellow parts, the layers and the key changes as it is about punching riffs (although there are some pretty good riffs on show here too: ‘Simulation’, for example, has a central riff that recalls Metallica’s 1988 classic ‘Blackened’, before shifting tone and drifting into shoegaze territory).  This is metal with an accompanying string section, and occasionally a brass section too.  The quality dips every so often: it’s definitely a patchy affair.  And the pseudo-Layne Staley style vocals grate a bit after a while.  But when it’s good, it’s really good.  The unexpected trumpet-bounce that suddenly happens part way through ‘Sunny Disposition’ is worthy of a special mention.

sample track: Sunny Disposition

18. OSCAR - Cut and Paste

Oscar’s debut is sun-drenched dream pop, with an interestingly inventive indie underbelly.  Cut and Paste is a beautiful record, although one that, for all its sheen, has a melancholic core.  The clean guitar sound sometimes slides into darker distortion (see ‘Daffodil Days’), but, elsewhere, floaty keyboards take the lead (‘Gone Forever’).  This is a debut that has ambition, but its key strength is its accessibility: a number of these songs stick in the head and get hummed unexpectedly on commutes.  Oscar’s voice isn’t the strongest – more vocal range would have helped lift this further – but the song-writing is really strong.  The lead single ‘Beautiful Words’ sums the record up well: catchy and (yes) beautiful, but with a deeper, darker core than is immediately obvious.  

sample track: Beautiful Words

17. BIFFY CLYRO - Ellipses

The Biff have undoubtedly slipped a bit since 2009’s Only Revolutions, but this is more consistent than the shouldn’t-have-been-a-double-record overreach of 2013’s Opposites, if, perhaps, rather less inventive.  Ellipses plays it pretty straight, with some great riffs and melodies, but few surprises.  There’s plenty here to enjoy, though.  Standouts include ‘Animal Style’, which is a great punchy rock song, and ‘Re-arrange’: a beautiful little ballad with a fantastically sweet, and memorable, chorus.  Equally, for all its quality, there are already three or four better Biffy Clyro albums out there.  So it’s hard to get too excited about this.  Certainly enjoyable enough to fully deserve its place on this list, but it was never going to get anywhere near the top.  There’s not a dud track here, but there’s not a truly great one either – for my money no single track on Ellipses is as good as anything on Only Revolutions.  Overall: fun but only ‘solid’ from a band as capable as the Biff.

sample track: Animal Style

16. MILK TEETH - Vile Child

The starting point for Milk Teeth is very much punk in the 90s grunge mould, but – within that general template – there’s a wide amount of variety.  For one thing, the switches between male and female vocals on different tracks immediately creates diversity.  More than that, though, the songs range from The Joy Formidable’s style of slow, prog-grunge on ‘Driveway Birthday’, through wonderful ‘Something in the Way’-alike plodathon ‘Kabuki’, to the pounding bile-punk of ‘Get a Clue’.  The last of these three songs, by the way, is just wow.  This is a record that hits hard when it wants to, but has a lot more depth and range to offer than its shouty tracks might initially suggest.  Vile Child is perhaps not quite as focused as last year’s Sad Sack EP – it dips here and there – but it’s still a great debut album that bodes well for a young band finding its feet.  A record that channels the 90s but sounds very 2016.

sample track: Get a Clue

15. IGGY POP - Post Pop Depression

I’ve dabbled occasionally with Mr Pop’s work over the years.  I own a couple of great Scrooges records, ‘The Passenger’ has always been a favourite track of mine, and, of course, there’s that lusty Trainspotting song, but I’ve never exactly been a huge fan.  My way in here was, predictably, the presence and song-writing input of Josh Homme (and various other Queens Of The Stone Age associates).  The resulting collaboration is an interesting mix, which has QOTSA influences throughout while always sounding like something different.  The album’s title is apt – depression is a key theme (lyrically and musically).  Standout tracks include ‘Paraguay’ (a fantastic closer that’s more traditional Iggy than QOTSA) and the slightly creepy, xylophone/detuned-bass combo of ‘American Valhalla’.  Post Pop Depression is a consistently interesting record, which – slightly surprisingly, given the personnel – adopts Leonard Cohen-esque stark acoustic guitar and minimal piano as its main musical touchstone.  It’s not all great: ‘Gardenia’, for example, is pretty dull (I can’t help but wonder why the worst track on the album was its lead single).  But overall this is darkly soulful stuff.

sample track: Paraguay

14. SAVAGES - Adore Life

Savages’ second record is an exhilarating leap forward from their (already quite excellent) debut.  Channelling Sleater-Kinney through an angry-funnel, Savages make harsh, intelligent post-punk.  Like Sleater-Kinney, they have been cited as feminist champions, but, unlike Sleater-Kinney, that has more to do with the largely irrelevant fact that they are an all-female band than it does with any sort of explicit feminist manifesto.  Adore Life is definitely not an album about ‘the female perspective’, but it is an album that is about love from a female perspective.   Not a stereotypically gooey female version of love, though.  This is an album of raw emotion and, at times, deep pain.  It’s a howling appraisal of bad relationships in an Is This Desire? era PJ Harvey vein.  Technically proficient but for the most part musically quite restrained, Adore Life has emotional depth and some fantastically immediate songs.  The simple, pounding bass – underpinning many of the tracks on show here – is just a joy.

sample track: Evil

13. RADIOHEAD - A Moon Shaped Pool

This is my favourite Radiohead album since 2003’s wonderful Hail to the Thief, and yet it still finds itself down in 13^th place on this list.  That fact probably says quite a lot about my frustrations with Radiohead over the last decade or so.  They’ve always commendably, and uniquely, grown and evolved – just not necessarily in ways that have been to my taste.  A Moon Shaped Pool has some of the same elements of drifting melancholia as In Rainbows and, particularly, King of Limbs – and it certainly eschews both the electro-muscle of Kid A and the adventure-rock of OK Computer.  But this manifestation of Radiohead’s post-rock odyssey is a less electronically-led journey than their last couple of records (and, therefore, is more suited to my aural palate).  The core here is made up of Jonny Greenwood’s orchestral arrangements, which soar when needed but are never excessive, married with simple but brooding guitars and piano.   Thom Yorke’s voice is, of course, amazing across the whole album, providing the emotional resonance that Radiohead always possess, whatever direction they’re headed in.  Objectively, everything that Radiohead have ever done has been amazing, but subjectively, it’s been a long time since I personally enjoyed a Radiohead record this much.  A Moon Shaped Pool has got some outstanding moments.  And yet, given that this is one the best bands in the world, this still isn’t quite what I want from them.

sample track: Daydreaming  

12. SLAVES - Take Control

Hot on the heels of last year’s near flawless debut, Are You Satisfied? – which came third on this list 12 months ago – Slaves are back.   The results are mixed for the two-piece force of nature.  On the one hand, Take Control is a notable progression.  The tracks on Are You Satisfied? are pretty much uniformly awesome, but were all essentially set to the same 3 minute punk template (title track aside).  They’d hit upon something fantastic, and went with it.  Kudos to them, then, for ensuring that album 2 both recaptures some of the same blistering slurred Brit-punk of album 1 (‘Take Control’, ‘Fuck the Hi-Hat’) while at the same time exploring new ground.  ‘Steer Clear’ is a thoughtful little rumination on the ills of drink driving, while ‘Angelica’ experiments with elements of both electronica and blues.  There’s way more range here than before.  On the other hand, the songs just aren’t quite as good.  Still close to bothering the top 10, this is excellent stuff, but the standards set last year were so high.  This all feels a little rushed.  Song-writing of the standard of album 1 combined with the range and diversity on show on album 2 would have been unstoppable.  Instead they’ve taken steps both forward and back.

sample track: Spit it Out

11. WOLFMOTHER - Victorious

Whenever Australia’s Wolfmother release a record it’s pretty much guaranteed to find a place somewhere in the middle of my list.  You always know what you’re going to get – classic 70s rock, with all of the solos, Hammond organ sections and all-round rawk that goes with it.  Musically proficient and fantastic live, Wolfmother have been ploughing a fairly similar furrow for a decade now.  Unsurprisingly, there are no surprises on album four, but the consistency of the song-writing on Victorious means that it’s probably their best record since 2006’s eponymous debut.  The title track has a super palm-muted verse, ‘City Lights’ is led by some great squealing guitars, and ‘Gypsy Caravan’ is simply 1971 in a bottle.  The influence of Zeppelin, Sabbath and Purple is, as ever, undisguised, but it’s one hell of a ride.

sample track: Gypsy Caravan

10. BAND OF SKULLS - By Default

Another regular mid-table, 70s influenced, band, this mirrors Wolfmother’s Victorious in many ways.  Gloriously similar to what they’ve done before, but with more consistency and an overall increase in the quality of the song-writing.  Unarguably brilliant live.  Album number 4, the best since album number 1.  But there are differences too: Band Of Skulls are more noticeably blues influenced, and the addition of female vocals changes the dynamic.  There are also a few unexpected twists here.  ‘Tropical Disease’ reminds me of some of the tracks on Dave Grohl’s ‘97 Touch soundtrack, while both ‘Erounds’ and ‘Something’ move from 70s to 80s in structure and style (the former through classic rock, the latter through thoughtful ballad).   Like Wolfmother, Band Of Skulls have a formula and execute it outstandingly.  But, for the first time in a while, By Default also demonstrates a more adventurous streak.  Every song is great, and if you liked anything they ever did before, you’ll like this too.  If not, go buy their debut, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey.

sample track: Black Magic

9. PIXIES - Head Carrier

Pixies’ second record after their long hiatus is an improvement on 2014’s Indie Cindy, in that it’s a far more consistent and cohesive record.  That’s not much of a surprise, as Indie Cindy began life as three EPs – which explains its variations in quality and tone – whereas Head Carrier is their first ‘true’ album since Trompe Le Monde in 1991.  ‘Baal’s Back’ is great: all primal and jagged at the edges.  ‘Um Chagga Lagga’ is a punk/blues mashup in classic Pixies style.  ‘Plaster of Paris’ has that same surf rock vibe that they’ve used before.  The best track of all here is ‘Might as well be Gone’, which recalls Pixies’ 1989 classic ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’.  Wonderful stuff.  Elsewhere there are some weaker songs (‘Classic Masher’, for example, is ‘fine’ rather than ‘great’), and overall Head Carrier never meaningfully competes with the work of their late 80s/early 90s heyday.  The loss of Kim Deal from the band is certainly felt, and this is neither as visceral nor as beautifully crafted as Pixies at their best.  But it’s a step forward from Indie Cindy, and has plenty about it to love.

sample track: Might as well be Gone

8. METALLICA - Hardwired…To Self-Destruct

Released in late-November, I feel like I’m still digesting Metallica’s first record in 8 years.  As I write, I think this is probably my least favourite Metallica album ever (NB: I still love 2003’s St. Anger and don’t care what anyone – i.e., everyone – else says).  Despite that damning sounding verdict, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct has still made a healthy 8^th place on this list, which probably says a lot about how much I love this band.  Plus I get the sense that it may grow in my estimation given more time.  Terribly named (self-conscious ellipses, much?), Hardwired…To Self-Destruct definitely has its moments.  The opener ‘Hardwired’ is galloping late-80s Metallica thrash (though the profanity doesn’t distract anyone from the fact that you’re in your 50s, guys), ‘Atlas Rise’ is a real wallop, and album best ‘Moth into the Flame’ is flawless stuff.  But we’ve got through these 3 tracks by song 4.  Of course, there’s still much more to enjoy amongst the remaining 7 tracks: ‘Am I Savage?’ belongs on one of the unfairly maligned Load/Reload records from the 90s, and ‘ManUNkind’ has a great groove.  However, there are some duds here too (see ‘Murder One’ – sigh).  They’re still better than the vast majority of their metal counterparts, but compared to Metallica’s first 20-odd years, this feels a little rote at times.  Having said that, in its good moments, it still destroys all challengers.

sample track: Moth into the Flame

7. THE 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It

Contradictory to their very core, are The 1975 a boyband, or subversive prog-pop interlopers?  On I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It (a brilliant album title or a horrifically pretentious one? – my answer depends on my mood), they suggest that they’re both and neither at the same time.  There are tracks like the none-more-mainstream dancehall filler of ‘The Sound’ on the same album as the Sigur Rós sounding post-rock of ‘Please be Naked’.  What is this?  In 2016 they both supported One Direction, and released ‘URH!’, one of the most honest songs about cocaine abuse I’ve ever heard.  Indeed, ‘URH!’ is the best individual track released by anyone in 2016 (track of the year, bar none).  Having an American wife, ‘She’s American’ is also a favourite for me lyrically.  I Like It When You Sleep… contains some of the most intelligent and artistic pop I’ve heard in ages (spread across a whopping 17 tracks) – the closest comparison I can think of (sadly, aptly for 2016) is Prince.  Veering from guilty pleasure to massively misunderstood pop geniuses (again, depending on my mood), ultimately, The 1975 are, quite simply, The 1975.  Beloved by 12 year old girls and mid-30s law professors alike.  

sample track: URH!

6. SPRING KING - Tell Me If You Like To

The debut record by Manchester’s Spring King is rooted in classic garage rock.  Scattered and chaotic drum beats, 100 mile an hour guitar (backed by a rumbling bass and, occasionally, some blaring trumpets), this is all great fun.  Spring King rarely let up (though when they do, on the likes of ‘Take Me Away’, they show that they can turn their hand equally well to beautiful, stripped-down psychedelia – albeit with a lyrical focus on the injustices of Thatcherism that would be more at home on one of the other, rockier, tracks on the record).  MC5 are definitely a touchstone, but in amongst the DIY garage rock noise, there are also nods to the Beach Boys, Arcade Fire and even Elton John (who’s a big fan of, and has been a major advocate for, this band – it’s clear why).  Much will depend on whether Spring King can sustain this level of quality on a second album (Tell Me If You Like To feels like it was made with nothing held back), but on this evidence at least, they are major new contenders.  And having your drummer double as your lead singer is just cool.

sample track: City

5. SEGO - Once Was Lost Now Just Hanging Around

Another debut, Sego’s Once Was Lost Now Just Hanging Around is a brilliant record about the nature of 21st century life.  The LA-based duo arrive fully formed: they have a range of tools, all of which they’re in total command of, and they gleefully and expertly employ every one of them to form an exhilarating, cohesive whole.  90s indie, hip-hop beats, early-Bloc Party style dance rock, soaring choruses, moody trip-hop, spoken word (at times highly, and weirdly, distorted), synthetic beeps and a dab of Two Door Cinema Club’s early twinkle – it’s all here.  The range of musical influences on show is amazing, and yet this never feels disjointed.  Once Was Lost Now Just Hanging Around is truly its own thing: a seamless blend.  Every aspect of this is adventurous, but it’s also focused and, crucially, all about fun.  I can’t believe that – in the final analysis – this only came 5^th (there were ultimately 4 2016 albums I enjoyed more, I guess: that’s how it works).  Outstanding stuff, and the first must have album on this list.

sample track: 20 Years Tall

4. AGAINST ME! - Shape Shift With Me

Against Me! have been putting out consistently awesome records for almost 15 years now, and Shape Shift With Me is another strong addition to their impressive back catalogue.  It’s unlikely that Against Me! will ever again reach the heights of their 2007 classic New Wave (which topped this list that year – it remains a particular favourite of mine).  But Shape Shift With Me is probably their best record since.  It begins in pummelling style with the fantastic ‘ProVision L-3’, all thunderous guitars and howled vocals about the ‘culture of oppression’.  They’ve not lost any of their anger, but they’ve not lost their accessible edge either: ‘Boyfriend’ is incredibly catchy and is as much pop as rock (despite the swearing and detuned bass).  Album best ‘Norse Truth’ has an unsettling spoken word verse before launching in to a chorus to die for, with a should-never-work-but-does chord progression that veers all over the map.   Of course, entirely understandably given that they’re fronted by a transgender woman, the lyrical content is notably focused on trans rights and trans oppression, but Laura Jane Grace here also tackles a range of other things that make her mad.  This is, throughout, more confident and less self-conscious than 2014’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues (which was Against Me!’s first record after Grace’s transition).  Like their entire back catalogue, Shape Shift With Me is consistently excellent grungy rock and roll.

sample track: Norse Truth

3. RIVAL SONS - Hollow Bones

This is the highest entry on this year’s list to fall broadly into the ‘classic-rock-influenced’ bracket, beating like likes of Wolfmother, Highly Suspect and Band Of Skulls by some distance.  On album 5 – which was my introduction to Rival Sons (although since getting it I have investigated backwards) – they perfect their blues-led, big-riff template to create something thrilling.  First off, the musicianship is out of this world, and Jay Buchanan’s vocals are more than a match for the high standards set by his bandmates (reaching those octaves when needed and belting out the choruses in fine style).  The band’s exemplary rhythm section is just as important as its reliance on flashier vocal and lead guitar elements (even if that’s not immediately obvious): this is four people who are all at the top of their game.  Blues rock doesn’t get much better than this.  The closest reference point to Rival Sons is probably The Black Keys, but Hollow Bones is better than anything that Auerbach and Carney have put out since at least Brothers in 2010, if not Attack and Release in 2008.  Admittedly, it’s a shame that the epic 10+ minute title track – which was clearly written as one song – was split into two, with the second ‘part’ coming 8 tracks after the first (a decision that reeks of record exec meddling).  An example of how to annoyingly dilute a masterpiece.  And the cover of Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘Black Coffee’ feels a little crowbarred in here.  But these slight issues aside, this is fantastic stuff.

sample track: Tied Up

2. SUNFLOWER BEAN - Human Ceremony

Human Ceremony was released in early February, and, from then until November it was definitely my favourite album of 2016.  It was pipped at the last by a late entry.  Not by much, though: usually it’s clear which album will top this list when I come to write it, but, this year, I agonised over the top spot for ages.  Human Ceremony was ultimately a very, very close second.   Capturing the energy of their live show (they were thrilling in close quarters in Bristol in September), while at the same time not being afraid of some pretty serious production value, Sunflower Bean knock it out of the park on their debut.  The New York three-piece mix swirly psychedelia with a brand of post-punk that has its roots in Hüsker Dü and Fugazi.  Julia Cumming’s ethereal vocals are juxtaposed brilliantly with Nick Kivlen’s New York punk drawl: a vocal contrast that significantly shifts tone across the album and even within songs.  The musicianship is outstanding too, and there’s a likable swagger to go with it.

Post-punk, psyche-rock and a dab of classic power-pop are all blended together here to make something great.  The opening title track whirls and shifts, ‘Wall Watcher’ is a scuzzy bass-led tale about a stalker and album best ‘I Was Home’ is a dance-tastic call-and-response pop song.  Human Ceremony is hugely inventive, but also keeps half an eye on the classics (albeit classics from a range of genres).  Sunflower Bean, like Sego, arrive fully formed on a debut that overflows with ideas.  Indeed, I’m still not convinced that this isn’t my album of the year.  In the end I just had to pick one from two: and it came down to the fact that there is one weak(er) track on this record.  ‘Creation Myth’ is, unfortunately, a little plodding (albeit that it’s hardly ‘bad’).  That one minor blip aside, the other ten tracks are essentially all perfect.  A must buy.

sample track: Human Ceremony

1. THE HIDDEN CAMERAS - Home On Native Land

Just shading top spot, Home On Native Land is a joy-filled oddity.  The Hidden Cameras is the nom de guerre for Canadian maestro singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, and whatever collection of friends and allies he can find at any given time to flesh out the project at hand.  On his seventh record (my introduction to his work), the supporting cast has again been rotated, with the album featuring contributions by, amongst others, Rufus Wainwright, Feist, Pet Shop Boy’s Neil Tennant and Ron Sexsmith.  It is a weird and magnificent ride.  In some respects it shares strands of DNA with my number 1 record from last year, Father John Misty’s I Love You Honeybear: the lyrics are highly intelligent, original and visceral, and the music is often simplistic but always soulful.   But Home On Native Land veers in so many directions that in truth it can’t meaningfully be compared to anything.  Gibb has said that The Hidden Cameras make ‘gay church folk music’, which is an accurate but under-inclusive description.  There are definite gospel influences on this album (at times it borders on the hymn-like), but classic country, folk, indie and rock also all feature too.

Lyrically, there are two main points of focus.  The first of these is Canada and its wildernesses.  The beauty and isolation of the Canadian outback is lovingly sketched and serenaded.  Indeed, a couple of the tracks are reworked Canadian folk songs, altered to evoke diversity and modernity: a sort of revisionist history of the macho woodsman myth.  The second lyrical theme is homosexuality.  This shouldn’t be in any way remarkable, but sadly it is: it’s still rare for lyrics in mainstream music to feature gay love songs in this way.  The result is heart-warming and yet never sickly, and deals with both the joy and pain of relationships in a personal way.  This is the sound of a gay man weaving his sexuality into his songs naturally without it ever feeling political or forced.  More camp-fire than camp, Home On Native Land is an album that has something very real, and very beautiful at its core.  This is what the world really sounds like in 2016: love not hate.

Overall, Home On Native Land is a joy to listen to – intelligent, arresting but non-confrontational, wildly varied musically and full of songs that are impossible to get out of your head.  For me, with this record, Joel Gibb joins the other greats that have emerged from Canada over the last decade or so: Arcade Fire et al.  It is a wonderful album.  Time to investigate the back catalogue.

sample track: Log Driver’s Waltz

The end.

Very well done.  You made it.

Hope you had fun.  See you in 2017.

If you are now hoping to fill the time until then by looking at my lists for previous years, then you are in luck:

2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004 (added online in 2014)
2000-2003 (added online in 2014)