Let’s say I synced my year on the lunar calendar, which will give a kind of excuse for this year’s delay in publishing lists (an exercise that still tickles my rational/irrational relationship to music).
This year saw the beginning (and then a complete neglect) of dddance+microclimat office playlists. The year in music then revolved much more than usual on single songs, one-hit discoveries, music blogs, spotify+deezer recommendations, etc. A few numbers explanation: In a way the list could have been quite long, but here are the 100 most played/curious songs. Ranking mattered only for the first 75, so it starts in alphabetical order. This is a much different exercise than ranking albums: I focus on replays, songs I shared, songs that were contagious to others.
Here is the playlist in full:
via SPOTIFY
ALSO ON DEEZER HERE
Adult Jazz – Eggshell
Bess Atwell - Cobbled Streets
Cass McCombs - Opposite House
Drake - One Dance
Explosions in the Sky - Desintegration Anxiety
Flume - Smoke & Retribution (feat. Vince Staples & Kučka)
Francis and the Lights - Friends (feat. Bon Iver)
Griefjoy - Scream Structure
Her - Five Minutes
Honus Honus – Santa Monica
Justice - Safe and Sound
La Femme - Le Sphynx
Lady Gaga – Joanne
Mark Pritchard - Beautiful People (feat. Thom Yorke)
Masasolo - Really Thought She Loved Me
Midnight Faces - Heavenly Bodies
Miya Folick - I Got Drunk
Nicolas Jaar - Killing Time
Niki & the Dove - So Much it Hurts
Plants and Animals - No Worries Gonna Find Us
Two Door Cinema Club - Bad Decisions
We Are Wolves - Wicked Games
Wilco - If I Ever Was a Child
Wild Beasts - Get My Bang
Wild Nothing - Reich Pop
75. Adele - Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
Always start the list with a pretty good joke. I know this album is 2015, but this single is 2016, and I danced on that in the office, sang it in a Karaoke in Tokyo and here I am a single-only Adele fan !
74. Rihanna - Work (feat. Drake)
73. Leonard Cohen - You Want it Darker
72. Larry Gus - At Your Desk
71. Moby & The Void Pacific Choir - Are You Lost In The World Like Me
70. Childish Gambino - Redbone
69. Car Seat Headrest - Fill in the Blank
68. Suuns – Translate
67. Radiation City – Separate
66. Preoccupations – Anxiety
65. Massive Attack - Voodoo in My Blood (feat. Young Fathers)
64. Bat For Lashes - Sunday Love
63. Animal Collective - Golden Gal
62. Islands - The Joke
61. James Blake - I Hope My Life
60. Kendrick Lamar - untitled 06 | 06.30.2014
59. The Avalanches – If I Was a Folkstar
58. Yeasayer - Gerson's Whistle
57. Peter Bjorn and John - Breakin' Point
56. Palace Winter - Positron
55. Prism Tats - Death or Fame
54. Deakin - JUST AM
53. Funeral Suits - Tree Of Life
52. Los Porcos - Do You Wanna Live?
51. Dinner - Turn Me On
50. Bibio – Petals
49. Local Natives - Past Lives
48. Izzy Bizu - Someone That Loves You
47. LUH – I&I
46. The Kills - Doing It To Death
45. Blood Orange - “Best to You” (ft. Empress Of)
44. Cullen Omori - Synthetic Romance
43. Metronomy - Back Together
42. Methyl Ethel - Idée Fixe
41. PJ Harvey - The Wheel
40. Father John Misty - Real Love Baby
39. Mind Enterprises – Girlfriend
38 Devendra Banhart - Middle Names
37. Money - You Look Like a Sad Painting on Both Sides of the Sky
36. James Supercave - Virtually a Girl
35. Christine and the Queens - It
34. Beyonce - Formation
33. Austra - Future Politics
32. The Palms - Push Off
31. Michael Kiwuanuka - Love & Hate
30. Porches - Be Apart
29. The Weeknd - Starboy (feat. Daft Punk)
28. Globelamp - Controversial/Confrontational
27.The 1975 - Somebody Else
26. The XX - On Hold
25. Yoko Ono - Soul Got Out of the Box (feat. Portugal. The Man)
24. Anohni - Drone Bomb Me
23. Kanye West – FML
22. Júníus Meyvant - Color Decay
21. Operators - Cold Light
20. David Bowie - Blackstar
19. Julien Doré - Le Lac
18. Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles (feat. Gucci Mane)
17. Jarryd James - Do You Remember (feat. Raury)
16. Andrew Bird - Left Hand Shake (feat. Fiona Apple)
15. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - In a Black Out
14. Georgia - Move Systems
13. Empress Of - Woman Is a Word
12. Beck – Wow
11. The Last Shadow Puppets – Aviation
10. Glass Animals - Life Itself
Glass Animals discuss How to be a Human Being with sass and swag, tackling the ridicule of some scenes of “life itself”, with a sense of derision felt equally in lyrics, synths and guitars. You can bounce your ass off as he admits “I can't get a job so I live with my mum / I take her money but not quite enough / I make my own fun in grandmama's basement / Said I look mad, she said I look wasted”.
09. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Hot Coals
This band involves quite a bunch of people, but rarely do they connect as much as they do on "Hot Coals", a jazzy, expansive number that breezes through a tickled intro, sexy and lively arrangements, percussive transitions, a piano-horns climax and a quiet landing that revolves around one of Alex Ebert’s rare displays of seriousness and humility (he’s usually quite annoying). The line "Stay the fuck in my heart" is aggressive, while the massive build-up is softly supporting it. The song is in full possession of the band’s collective skills.
08. Damien Jurado - Exit 353
Visions Of Us On the Land marks the end of a prolific album trilogy. Jurado’s voice is unique: tearful and brittle on acoustic songs. It’s also interrogative and existential, when he tackles the grandeur of of a spiritual journey, as on “Exit 353”. “You were with me all along / I let go and you held strong” is a transcendent contrast to the final part of the song where he acknowledges, in a loop, “I was alone there / I was alone then”. His state of grace, on the land, in the country, or within himself, becomes ours in a true grasp of communal beauty.
07. Loney Dear – Hulls + SOHN – Rennen
I don’t know how to characterize Loney Dear’s music, especially as I discovered him with “Airport Surroundings”, a song quite at odd with the rest of his catalogue. But this guy can haunt with all sorts of minimalism (hear the early “Harm” and “Distant”). ‘Hulls’ does that in a ferocious way, disturbing with piercing pulses and sharp words about estrangement. It climaxes subtly, sharing in part the tortured violence of not being loved back.
“Rennen” from Sohn picks up the same mood as with his previous album, Tremors. It’s isolated (this time literally, as Christopher Taylor secluded himself in Northern California to record his new album). It’s icy, nocturnal and pretty damn soothing. As the rest of the album again shows him to be clumsy in motives and styles, his voice is self-assured of its beauty, and emerges as one of the most pristine foreground to the kind electronic anxieties he puts forward.
06. Radiohead Burn the Witch – Daydreaming - Decks Dark - Present Tense
I always use the stupid first-grade imagery of music that makes you float, but if a band truly has the power to challenge gravity’s configuration, Radiohead reshuffle again the palpable arrangements of upright rock/electronic music, with guitar, bass, synth and drum sounds all muddled to uplift Yorke’s newfound transparency. It’s not to say that the band settled on a desirable balance between clarity and ambiguity, but a few, scarce moments of contrast bring the most rewarding seconds on the album: as “Identikit” is set afloat by Ed’s back vocals (and that choir!), Jonny conflicts the tones up and down with one of his crudest electric solo (see also the final of “Decks Dark”, with raw bass and guitar lines framing an highlight on the album). It’s Jonny too that, bringing magnificent string orchestrations, makes the record sound pastoral and idyllic even in its gloomiest moments. The contrasts are truly atmospheric, and serve as a support to a clear theme of “lightness”, persistent in the lyrics (am I really writing about Radiohead and lightness?). “Present Tense” offers such mutation in the singer’s cynicism, in a way that one can actually believe him when he sings “Don’t get heavy / Keep it light and / Keep it moving”, backed with some of the loveliest and charming music ever penned by the band (choir vs. echoed vocals vs. old-fashioned continental fingerpicking). Such words ultimately make me the most liberated too, as if I’ve watched old cousin struggle for more than 20 years, reaching a point where he embraces enlightenment: “With my spirit light / Totally alive / Totally released”.
05. M83 – Solitude
The retro-looking music of M83 always toyed with a form of adolescent, dream-like purity. It’s lovely when it’s innocent and doesn’t make sense. The whole world discovered that it could also be exhilarating with 2011’s “Midnight City”, or saturated with immature happiness on Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. M83 gives the music for those who want to feel small and silly in a big world. But this year’s Junk also proved that the cool-irony gets clumsy when that vintage obsession is overblown. Yet, “Solitude” is all that: it’s excessive and immoderate. It’s superb, grandiose, melodramatic, and lavish. And to the credit of Gonzales, it’s also immensely skilled and savvy.
04. The Tallest Man on Earth – Rivers
A sweeter voice, less Dylan, evermore Matsson. Fingerpicking magic. The song is delicate and poignant. The bareness of its first half is slowly lifted by soft horns and subtle piano notes. This guy is steadily good.
03. Whitney - No Woman
At the moment when I feel that indie music has not many ways left to re-characterize itself (indie is a ‘character’, right?), two former Smith Westerns guys come out with the perfect indie-folk song, making that indie thing as relevant as ever. And they do so without reinventing a single ingredient: a vacillating falsetto, inexpensive Em-A-G chords known for bringing down cynicism in an instant, a mythic-american narrative of isolation and drifting the land looking for a sense of purpose. It’s solitude without pathos (thanks to those horns). It’s sad and beautiful. It’s humble and hopeful. It knocks you down in less than 4 minutes, simple, competent and candid. I shared this song the most this year, usually with the same immediate response: “yeah, I’m hooked too”.
02. Frank Ocean - Pink + White
The fact that I’m not so passionate about R&B or soul music kept me unreasonably distant from Frank Ocean. It trickles down also (shamefully) as an involuntary estrangement with some of the most relevant black voices elevating the contemporary cultural discourse. I mean, I can go to sleep to Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and wake up to Kendrick’s “Alright”, but I missed out on the latest of D’Angelo, Miguel, and yes, Solange and Beyonce. “Channel Orange” is revered on every sides of the universe, but it surprisingly never gave me the thrills. I read of how much of a talented singer-songwriter he is, and can’t deny any of the praises thrown at his relevance and his voice. But a few blogposts from him also hinted at a profound humanity, which kept me curious to whatever he (seldom) chooses to sing about. And here I am in 2016, finally joining the collective applauses, abusing of his ineffable empathy, worshiping the true beauty of his sensibility. Compared to the previous album, the R&B tag isn’t that obvious, probably due to the album’s deliberate minimalism. He dissolves any need for labels, cuts instead his flesh open, and makes his bowels sing along some of the most creative melodies of the year. It’s raw yet meticulous, comforting yet secretive, avant-garde yet immediately rewarding. Blond ended up as one of the albums I replayed the most this year. The combination “White Ferrari” and “Seigfried” are so well crafted in introspection and intimacy, it’s like you can hear him bleed (also, thanks Jonny Greenwood). I’m guilty of choosing also the duo of “Ivy” and “Pink+White” in particular, especially as the latest is the most immediately likable song here. But damn, how willingly am I grooving along the pristine voice, breezing with the chill and sensuous summer melody. It’s 2016’s song for walk-grooving on bass and piano tempos, set adrift on dreamlike lyrics and imageries. This is smooth smooth smooth. I’m glad I’m now fully onboard with this Ocean guy.
01. Bon Iver - 33 "GOD"
What the fuck is this guy singing about? “Holocene” was arguably one of the prettiest songs of the last decade, but there is this line about “laying waste on Halloween” that makes it surprisingly mundane. The whole ‘mood’ of such songs aligns with the Divine, yet any attempt to dissect it (maybe no one should) shows rather a collection of references to everyday places and times. It is an undeniable signature of Justin Vernon that whichever mediums he works with (may it be the resonance of elementary guitar chords, the cold echoes of autotune, or stretched electronic pulses), human-scale alienations will dominate, and will be collected into a transcendent ‘mood’. And for me Vernon is exactly that: not much of a skilled musician, but a skilled collector, a curator. Fragments of sounds and words are built in such a universal and relatable image-space; vaporous lines draw contours of quotidian episodes; passages are momentarily crafted between memories and estrangements. He gives order to what are merely fleeting impressions of the world. In “33, ‘GOD’”, when Vernon juggles aptly from sacred allusions (“I could go forward in the light”) to everyday realisms (“Well I better fold my clothes”), his questions, struggles and uncertainties briefly take shape as an engaging and responsive ghost figure. The most enduring appeal of Vernon is to do so without veering into overconsciousness, without sounding like a self-professed guru of ‘crystal healing’ bullshit (or in the case of this song, “bird shit”). Like most, I breastfeed shamelessly on the allusive accessibility of the opening piano line, or the immediacy of words like “I’d be happy as hell if you stayed for tea”. But later these tangible trajectories quickly dissolve in foreground/background disorienting dialogues. Vernon’s vision traces a mythical path in such conflicting suggestions, a path that varies with each listening, and probably will vary with the next albums to come. His voice, as always, will remain the only trustable, guiding structure.
In only 10 years, Vernon positioned himself as that father figure, for me and the music industry. Has it been only 3 albums? He gave voice to many with his own festival in Eau Claire, and assured his presence through numerous collaborations of all scales (from Kanye to this year’s Francis and the Light). Bon Iver were once revered as an easy folk band, but it appears ‘logical’ and ‘in line’ with this ascension that “22, A Million” is their most experimental and obscure record. It’s quite claustrophobic in fact compared even to the cabin made “C Em Am Em” sing-along progressions. This voluntary opacity isn’t a surprise also for bands struggling with 2nd or 3rd albums, panicked with stardom (or grammys). The result is too often a naive form of conceptual obscurantism, a way to shout something like: “People give me credits, but I’m not obvious. I’m genuine. I’m fucked up. I’m a dark creator.” To be honest, it is slightly the case here: the album’s cryptic visuals and song titles are mysterious (or fucked-up) for about 2 minutes, but perdure as uninteresting, unnecessary packaging gimmicks. Still, the album, and “33, ‘GOD’” in particular, ranks on the good side of the catchy-experimental trend, as Vernon got us accustomed to use his pervasive vulnerability as the code-cracking tool to float over the opacity of his text. It is an intimate, subtle, relationship, and here again his trademark voice will succeed to draw you as close as always.
LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE PLAYLIST HERE
via SPOTIFY
ALSO ON DEEZER HERE
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