Top 25 Albums of 2016

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We tend to underestimate albums because of music's over abundance. We tend to discount years as the twirl of time spins faster each year turning into decades. I only get 50 (if I'm lucky) more #1 albums of the year in my lifetime. In the grand scheme of things, that's not whole a lot of albums. My eyes will gray and so will Frank Ocean's. But his voice will always remain on Blonde, my #1 Album of 2016, and his lyrics will always be on the page. These are the best albums of my life.

Just like I wrote in my Top 25 Albums of 2012 when Frank Ocean's debut album Channel Orange was my #1 Album, Ocean's music has a beauty that feels fragile and naked but completely confident. His songwriting - both lyrically and musically - drastically expanded on this album. Thematically, Ocean covers similar topics to Channel Orange, including longing and heartbreak, loneliness, cars, Hurricane Katrina and trinkets from New Orleans life, drugs, and love. He was great lyrically on Channel Orange and continues to be here. None better exemplifies this than my favorite lyrics from "Solo,"

It's hell on Earth and the city's on fire
Inhale, inhale there's heaven.

In "Ivy," a track about longing after an ugly breakup, Ocean's whispers,

All the things I didn't mean to say
I didn't mean to do
There were things you didn't need to say
Did you mean to? Me too
I've been dreaming of you

Blonde took me time to fully appreciate. I remember sending a text to someone after listening to it for a day that "it's no Channel Orange," but now having listened to this album hours and hours on end, I think it's better. It's exploratory and unique, and the songs sound so different yet they all work together.

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Anderson Paak - NPR's Tiny Desk Concert

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The best newcomer of this year has been Anderson Paak. His album Malibu is a treat from start to finish. I've missed seeing him a couple different times, but I am always weary seeing newer artists because they tend to be very raw live and still finding themselves. WELP...Anderson Paak is one of those exceptions, a guy's whose talent shines even more so in his live performances. 

If you haven't gone down the rabbit hole of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert, please do so immediately. There's a treasure trove of live gems. And this one from Anderson Paak is certainly one of them:

Top 100 Songs of 2016

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I saw The 1975 at Coachella two years ago enveloped in the desert of Indio as the sun was setting over the tops of palm trees, and the lead singer was draped in a deep V tank top, weighing in at a cool 95 pounds, constantly stroking his sheen of hasn't-been-showered-in-months hair, looking more like the newest member of One Direction than someone I'd ever think would be capable of writing my favorite song of the year. WELL PEOPLE, life is full of surprises, and The 1975' "Somebody Else" was my favorite track this year, eclipsing all sorts of other phenomenal songs.

"Somebody Else" reminds me of what 80s music could have been: a sultry and subdued synth driven jam that cruises to a bass line and the sweet falsetto of said One Direction-like vocalist, Matthew Healy. It was released in early 2016, and I've NEVER gotten tired of it, listening to it an ungodly amount of times.

As it goes for the other 99 songs, there are some usual suspects showing up on the list: Frank Ocean (four songs), Drake (three songs), Radiohead (two songs), and Kendrick (one of his own and featured on two tracks), but there's also two new artists that I have become mildly obsessed with - Night Moves (three songs) and Isaiah Rashad (three songs).

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Monday Mixtape, Xmas Style!

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So it's due time for a little bit of Christmas music flavor - Monday Mixtape style! 

I am hard at work compiling my annual Top 25 Albums and Top 100 Songs of the Year lists, so I'm hoping this mix will keep you busy while you're "out" shopping (beer in hand, Amazon online and you damn well better be spending more than $50 to get that free shipping).

Enjoy the week AND HOW CAN YOU NOT WITH VINCE GUARALDI BLOWING YOUR EAR DRUMS?? 

Listen to this Song - The Weeknd "Secrets"

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A year or two back I had an intervention with The Weeknd. He was doing entirely too many drugs and did not sound well. So I had to step in. 

Unfortunately, the intervention didn't work as The Weeknd continues to sing about doing copious amounts of drugs on his new album. 

If there's one thing I've learned in my old age it's that drugs make you cool and then once you're no longer cool you're addicted to drugs. 

But this is neither here nor there! The important part of this rambling is that The Weeknd released a ridiculously catchy song on his new drug-filled album. It's called "Secrets" and I can't stop playing it.

I'd just like you to hear it before it gets played so damn much that you can longer feel your face. 

Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 62

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Greetings! It's been a while, my apologies. As it has tended to do, life has been quite busy. Lots of really fun events in the past few weeks coupled with business travels and a brutal cold. But it's been far too long since a Monday Mixtape!

There's been a ton of music released in the past month or so, none bigger than A Tribe Called Quest's final album, We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your service. And what an unbelievable final album. You know that Tribe would never dishonor the late great Phife Dawg (who might have seen mortality knocking on the door) by making an album after this, and it's an honor to get something as well done as this album.

I would put this album on par with Beats, Rhymes, and Life. Both Midnight Marauders and The Low End Theory are hip-hop classics located in the upper echelon of rap, so it's silly and impossible to try to compare this to those. But DAMN this first track! My favorite part is when Q-Tip comes back in ("Reputation ain't glowing / Reparations ain't flowing...") in the middle of Jarobi's bars - so sick. Q-tip absolutely annihilates this track, one of my favorites of the year.

Q-Tip produced the entire album himself, pasting one last stamp on his legacy, a man at the highest of heights amongst titans of rap. This man produced some of the best hip-hop albums of all time and was part of the greatest hip-hop group of all time, had one of the most iconic voices, and his influence on rap is monumental.

With all this adoration, I have to include my Best of Tribe playlist which I made when Phife passed away.  

Jim James new solo album is a must hear for any fans of his. "Here in Spirit" is my favorite track on the album, a precious song with James' patented vocals bellowing and bouncing through his mansions of melodies. He bleeds what he sings, I believe it all. 

If you like this track from Horse Thief, 2014's Worst Band Name (says a very well known blog, Layers & Sounds), please check out their debut album from 2014, particularly "Human Geographer" and "Come On."

WHO THE HELL do you compare these guys to?? They sound a little bit like another bit of an unknown band (that I saw open for Radiohead years back) that's also pretty out there, Other Lives. I always like to compare weird and unique bands to Radiohead, but I just don't hear it here. Anyways, I'm excited for a new album as their new track "Another Youth" is pretty badass.

Jai Wolf is some sort of DJ I heard about years ago from my buddy who had a really interesting mixtape. I hadn't really heard from him since (I wasn't really looking around though), but this is a pretty catchy tracks, one consistently on repeat for me. 

And we end with Tribe's "Lost Somebody," a tribute to the Phife, the five foot assassin with the roughneck business. For all that Tribe was and all the success bestowed upon Q-Tip as the mastermind, Tribe would NEVER have been what it was without Phife. RIP