10. The Lemon Twigs, Do Hollywood<\/i> (4AD)<\/strong> 9. Kendrick Lamar, Untitled Unmastered<\/i> (Aftermath Entertainment)<\/strong> 8. Solange, A Seat at the Table<\/i> (Saint Records\/Columbia Records)<\/strong> 7. Bon Iver, 22, A Million<\/i> (Jagjaguwar)<\/strong> 6. Archy Marshall, A New Place 2 Drown<\/i> (True Panther Sounds) 5. Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool<\/i> (XL Recordings)<\/strong> 4. A Tribe Called Quest, We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service<\/i> (Epic Records)<\/strong> 3. Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial<\/i> (Matador Records)<\/strong> 2. Angel Olsen, My Woman<\/i> (Jagjaguwar)<\/strong> 1. David Bowie, Blackstar (Columbia Records)<\/strong> Top 10 Albums 10. The Lemon Twigs, Do Hollywood (4AD) If you know where to look, there has never been a drought of the fanciful, orchestrated, power pop of bands like 10cc and ELO. Sure, there are the Flaming Lips and Of Montreal, but go further and you\u2019ll find Foxygen and now the Lemon Twigs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2479],"tags":[1516,398,1887,1888,1541,245,1057,1886,1861,1889],"class_list":["post-5420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-of-the-year","tag-a-tribe-called-quest","tag-angel-olsen","tag-archy-marshall","tag-bon-iver","tag-car-seat-headrest","tag-david-bowie","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-radiohead","tag-solange","tag-the-lemon-twigs"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nIf you know where to look, there has never been a drought of the fanciful, orchestrated, power pop of bands like 10cc and ELO. Sure, there are the Flaming Lips and Of Montreal, but go further and you\u2019ll find Foxygen and now the Lemon Twigs, the latter being a brotherly duo actually mentored and recorded by the former. Do Hollywood<\/i> is this saccharine micro-genre magnified. These kids obviously have great record collections, but the trick is being able to reflect said collection in your own skin. The Twigs do that with a glamorous maturity that was unrivaled this year.<\/p>\n
\nDropped in the middle of the night and intended as simply an addendum to Lamar\u2019s 2015 masterpiece, To Pimp a Butterfly<\/i>, Untitled, Unmastered<\/i> is not supposed to feel complete, but it certainly does stand on its own. Were it not for the revolution-psych of the Tribe\u2019s comeback, Kendrick would have reigned over my hip-hop hierarchy for a second year. Then again, it\u2019s Tribe to whom Kendrick owes his vision and politics, Big Daddy Kane and Rakim to whom he owes his talent, and a total disregard of the average hip-hop trajectory of his peers to which he owes his iconic status. These are in no way B-sides, but excursions that didn\u2019t fit the massive Butterfly<\/i> and just as vital.<\/p>\n
\nYou can gladly have your Lemonade<\/i>. Where Beyonce thrives on bombast and event-based entertainment, Solange is the true artist. A Seat at the Table<\/i> is all about nuance and a narrative that deals with a reality more authentic than her sister. It\u2019s a concept album with indelible hooks and a dramatic ebb and flow.<\/p>\n
\nWhen 22, A Million<\/i> was released, Bon Iver fans didn\u2019t really know how to react. Justin Vernon has been viewed as a folk sage for our times, but that\u2019s only half right. He has incredibly, in two albums very far apart, constructed an adventure hippie persona with a heart tableau for millennials to stoically gaze into, yet on 22, A Million<\/i> he quietly smashes that image and retreats into technology. Sure the numerals and sigils could be seen as pretentious, but they actually fit the music, and Vernon uses stunning smoke and mirrors to create a new slang, a new way to sulk in the eclipse.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Archy Marshall, a.k.a. King Krule, is a melancholy Brit who usually operates in bleak folk. On A New Place 2 Drown<\/i>, he instead dabbles in wobbly beats, dank purple dub, Burial-esque riddims, and half-sung, half-spoken ghost moans. The dig is it\u2019s immediately catchy and disorienting, with songs that stick like subconscious memories.<\/p>\n
\nI consider myself a closet or contrarian Radiohead fan, privy to put on In Rainbows<\/i> before most of the catalog. That\u2019s not denying OK Computer<\/i> still being the band\u2019s masterpiece (that’s a given), and in a lot of ways A Moon Shaped Pool<\/i> feels like that album\u2019s spiritual sequel. It\u2019s a simultaneously subtle and grandiose comedown that rewards the more one finds the tiny guitar excursions that exist outside of a verse-chorus-verse realm. As singular a band that Radiohead is, they truly shine when they are at their most mysterious.<\/p>\n
\nOut of nowhere? It sure felt that way. Given Tribe\u2019s coffin was built with a contentious documentary, I hadn\u2019t given a care since the turn of the century. So the biggest surprise of the year was this grand finale, the most fun I\u2019ve had with a hip-hop record perhaps since those raging late \u201990s. But this is not a nostalgia trip, not in the slightest. It\u2019s inarguably also the absolute best hip-hop album of the year\u2014confident, brimming with hooks and memorable samples, ace features, and an invigoration you never thought you\u2019d hear again. Dare I say this may even be Tribe\u2019s best record?<\/p>\n
\nWill Toledo followed his \u201cdebut\u201d (actually a re-recorded selection of past hits) with a sprawling re-imagining of the Car Seat Headrest brand as bolder, catchier, more literal, and more muscular even. (It\u2019s still the worst name in indie rock, though.) Sometimes overly prolific basement popsters become diluted simply because they can\u2019t stop writing songs, but Toledo continues to amaze with each new transition.<\/p>\n
\nWith three stunning albums in quick succession, singer-songwriter Angel Olsen has become a superstar of sorts without succumbing to any cornering identity. She\u2019s the odd one out, capable of wearing multiple hats: the mystic folkie, the alt-country starlet, and the indie goddess with guitar chops that resemble Yo La Tengo in their \u201990s buzzbin days. Though My Woman<\/i> magnetizes with the pop immediacy of its irresistible first single \u201cShut Up Kiss Me,\u201d it mesmerizes throughout with its sleight of hand and subtle graces. Olsen\u2019s rich arrangements rarely shout, and most times, whisper. Whether the influence is a rough-hewn tribute to Neil Young or a metaphysical ode to Stevie Nicks (\u201cSister\u201d), simplicity is at the absolute center. Olsen\u2019s voice serves as the anchor, a confident siren song and the vulnerable sound of pure heartache. My Woman<\/i> is a record that is various shades, but demands repeated listens to realize Olsen as a singular force in a sea of similar counters and less inspired peers (of which there are many).<\/p>\n
\nBlackstar<\/i> is my favorite record of the year, not because of some obligatory debt I feel is owed to this year\u2019s first massive musical tragedy, but because in concept and context it is certainly one of Bowie\u2019s finest moments, looking towards a sonic future and a spiritual beyond with equal aplomb. Sure, it doesn\u2019t match Ziggy Stardust<\/i> or Aladdin Sane<\/i>, but it wasn\u2019t intended to do so, as Bowie was never one to look backwards. He was facing encroaching death, and in this knowing, he left us a puzzle of an album (even the jacket was created with mysteries to unlock). There are touches of his Eno\/Berlin-era doom updated in the title track and \u201cLazarus,\u201d while modern psychedelic jazz tropes are interwoven throughout, as is Bowie\u2019s curious proclivity for Kendrick Lamar and cinematic beats. (It\u2019s easy to imagine a K-Dot verse on \u201cGirl Loves Me.\u201d) All this without mentioning that \u201cI Can\u2019t Give Everything Away\u201d is one of Bowie\u2019s finest pop songs in 30 years. Wanting to leave behind something dark, twisted, and encompassing, the icon knew it would take us at least this entire year to unravel the genius within.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"