Top 10 albums of 2016
 

we ready to do this?

Apparently I'm not, or I would have made this topic by now. Was kinda thinking today would be the day, but then I saw this. :(

What about you? You made the topic. Kinda seems like you should have a list to go with it.

i've edited this list a few times, hence the numbers are a bit off.

1 m geddes gengras - interior architecture
2 fennesz & o'rourke - it's hard for me to say i'm sorry
3 kaitlyn aurelia smith - ears
4 patten - Ψ
5 deakin - sleep cycle
6 tim hecker - love streams
7 sean mccann - music for public ensemble
7 jan st werner - felder
8 qluster - Echtzeit
9 suzanne ciani - buchla concerts 1975
10 john chantler - which way to leave?
11 apex twin - cheetah
12 venetian snares - traditional synthesizer music
13 tyondai braxton - oranged out
14 matt carlson - view from nowhere
15 suzanne ciani & kaitlyn smith -sunergy
15 bracken - high passes
17 biosphere - departed glories
17 m geddes gengras - two variations
18 julianna barwick - will
19 pita - get in
21 jefre cantu-ledesma - in summer
21 v/vm - between nothingness and eternity
22 bat for lashes - the bride
23 battle trance - blade of love
24 lolina - live in paris
25 lonely island - popstar: never stop never stopping soundtrack

of course there are more things to check out before the year is up. i always go through tinymixtapes list. the new aphex twin ep is sweet but i've only listened to it once. sarah davachi's vergers might be good but i haven't had a chance to listen to it.

1. Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
2. Maxwell - blackSUMMERS'night
3. Anderson .Paak - Malibu / NxWorries - Yes Lawd!
4. Solange - A Seat at the Table
5. KING - We Are KING
6. A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service
7. David Bowie - Blackstar
8. Isaiah Rashad - The Sun's Tirade
9. Common - Black America Again
10. Frank Ocean - Blonde

meh, you mean the top boring hip hop/pop and boring indie avant rock/electronic albums of 2016.

1. Tribe - Thanks, got it from here
2. Kendrick - Untitled

_
10. Kanye-Pablo aka. pottymouth boring shit talker about himself Adderall eating out of his mind middle aged man with some interesting samples Pablo.

are albums a thing anymore? if so, what a weak farewell it is.

is music even a thing anymore, all i hear is tinnitus and voices

hell if I know, I don't like answering questions when im asking questions myself.

though, by yr post I feel I should check if I have tinnitus. since I caught a hot air balloon full of sarcasm, I haven't cared about new music since..... do yr thing man, enjoy. I don't have time to get excited about records anymore. family, kids concern me much more. of course people make albums. I just like to come off as jaded but, that doesn't mean I don't find it all leftover tributes .

thing is, where's yr top of 2016 dead_battery? you could help out. everyone here is hip hop like expected then, there is d.sound with all the fluukey dookie obscure stuff. and that will be just about it. end of thread.

it all goes along with you not really talking about music on here. what do you like?

Kanye and political gossip is all anyone gets from this place anymore. talking about drawing lines.

Not sure it's done. There are a lot of albums I want to recognize, but very few that I played over and over and over. Anyway, the year was basically all Pablo, sonits really unfair to even pretend to list anything else except for Nicolas Jaar's SIRENS, which was strong enough to steal the attention from Kanye for a little while.

So as of now...
1. Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
2. Nicolas Jaar - SIRENS
3. Kornél Kovács - The Bells
4. A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service
5. David Bowie - Blackstar
6. Thought Forms - Songs About Drowning
7. Holy Fuck - Congrats
8. Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
9. ANOHNI - HOPELESSNESS
10. Kaytranada - 99.9%

boring. blah blah same old electronic/avant shit that's been done before.

According to you, hip-hip, indie, rock, electronic and avant-garde music is ALL boring shit that's all been done before. Do you even recognize the linguistic contradiction that sentiment contains?

All you do is bitch like a whiny little pantywaist. At least in the past you peppered your shit talking with the occasional humorous WTF-ism, but now you're just a constant fucking naggy cunt. You don't even try to be friendly.

YOU are the most boring thing in this thread or on this board. Shut the fuck up.

no. im not going to argue with that. hot damn boy. again, it's like I've insulted you.

have fun with yr post internet music. my passive aggressive reply should tell you I don't give a damn.

fuck it boring all.

Ok great bye!

uh, bye. guess I see you later.dafuc?

Nice. I still haven't really listened to King at all.

what the fuck does this even mean? you don't have the enthusiasm and love for music to actually seek it out? this has been the best year for new music since 2011. there has been plenty of bad shit, but you toss it aside and try something else. i find lots of records i love because i love music. enough to try new things. there were a couple years where i was severely depressed that i only listened to like 5 albums the whole year. maybe that's what's up? are you depressed? my love of music is what brought me to a sonic youth board, a board for sharing the love of music. (i thought?)

that said, what's up with sonic youth fans only listening to kanye west albums and other mainstream hip hop? that's like the farthest thing from sonic youth. at least to me it seemed like rock and roll hit a peak in the late 90s and has been pure shit ever since. i'm pretty sure rock and roll has died. so i guess the alternative is mainstream hip hop?

i would think people who are open minded enough to enjoy sonic youth so much they join a message board for them would be more adventurous in their taste in music. i mean when i got into sy when washing machine came out, the only way to find new music in a rural area was mtv and magazines. with the internet i've found so much different music than i ever thought i could. i don't see how that's a bad thing at all. more music. always more music.

oh noes i doubly posted

Agreed.


Disagree.
First of all, Kanye may be a major figure in hip hop, but his music is anything but "mainstream" on a sonic level. You talk about it like Kanye is the same as whoever the fuck has a radio hit this month. Not so. He's one of the most adventurous musicians around.

Also, I don't think my list has any mainstream hip-hop on it unless you want to count Tribe. But so what if it did? Good music is good music, mainstream or not.

These are some of the records I'd include if I had more than 10 spots:

Tim Hecker - Love Streams
Jessy Lanza - Oh No
DJ Earl - Open Your Eyes
G.L.O.S.S. - Trans Day of Revenge
Aphex Twin - CHEETAH EP
DJ Koze Presents - Pampa Vol. 1
Autechre - Elseq 1-5
Swans - The Glowing Man
Pantha Du Prince - The Triad
Patten - Ψ
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Leonard Cohen - You Want it Darker
Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Bitchin Bajas - Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties
The Body - No One Deserves Happiness
Not Waving - Animals
Christian Fennesz & Jim O'Rourke - It's Hard For Me to Say I'm Sorry
PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project
Babyfather - "BBF" Hosted by DJ Escrow
Big Ups - Before a Million Universes
Glenn Jones - Fleeting

All great records, but I just don't have the time to sort them out in order.

You're coming off a little high and mighty man. I've heard all but a couple of the albums on your list, and honestly it's probably less diverse than mine. Yes I enjoy hip-hop (even *gasp* mainstream type stuff!!!) but I keep my ears open and have a vested interest in any and all genres and styles of music that interests me.

Tell me again more how I'm not musically adventurous though. Fascinating stuff.

Yeah, Kanye held my attention more than anyone else this year, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to a lot of different music. Also, like, 80% of the conversation in Non-Sonic Sounds takes place in the hip hop thread, so ... do something about that. Get people talking about other music.

God knows I'd love an electronic/ambient thread, but whenever I bring up that stuff (which I listen to far more than hip-hop) nobody gives a shit, or people insult me for listening to bleeps and bloops.

Shit, if I wasn't adventerous in my music taste I'd still be stuck listening to the same old Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Radiohead, Pavement, MBV etc albums every day.

Tribe is alternative hip-hop. Kanye and maybe Frank are the only "mainstream" artists in my list but even they made some weird and polarizing records.

Those who frequent the hip hop thread will be able to testify on how it took me 8 months to come around to the Kanye album, one that initially sounded to me like everything I hate about music, but ended up making me cry.

I think of myself as a very open minded guy, and out of sheer curiousity I actually streamed some tracks off a few albums d.sound listed, before he even made that post. Not my cup of tea but I can respect his knowledge and passion.

I listen to a whole fucking lot of R&B, funk and soul music, so writing it all off as "mainstream hip hop" is silly and makes no sense. By the way I could've listed maybe 50 albums, I just decided to pick the ones that matter to me the most.

I really appreciate criticism, but d.sound's just came off as lazy. ;)

my bad, i didnt mean to say everyone on the board werent inclined toward adventurism in music tastes. i meant the dude that said all music was the same. i am inebriated.

i have heard probably 5 kanye songs. each was as boring and vacuous as any other contemporary hip hop, and the lyrics were sophomoric. but hearing him was preceded by knowing he's borderline. (asshole, god complex, cyclically psychotic) so maybe it made for some bias.

I think Kanye is probably autistic. But he's pure. Seriously a harmless, good natured, very childlike naive genuine dude. Wouldn't hurt a fly.

SONIC YOUTH - Spinhead Sessions (Goofin') /does this count as reissue?/
BIOSPHERE - Departed Glories (Smalltown Supersound)
DEMDIKE STARE – Wonderland (Modern Love)
MASSIVE ATTACK-Ritual Spirit/The Spoils/Dear Friend (Virgin)
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST-We got it from here…thank you for your support THE CARETAKER “Everywhere at the End of Time” (History Always Favors The Winners)
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS “Skeleton Tree” (Bad Seed Ltd.)
ALAN VEGA/MARTIN REV “SUICIDE” (Superior Viaduct)
SAM KIDEL - Disruptive Muzak (The Death Of Rave)
PJ HARVEY - The Hope Six Demolition Project (Island)
RAINFOREST SPIRITUAL ENSLAVMENT - Green Graves (Hospital Productions)
KLARA LEWIS - Too (Editions Mego)
KOREA UNDOK GROUP (Penultimate Press)
MICK HARVEY - Delirium Tremens (Mute)
MARK LECKEY - Dream English Kid 1964-1999AD (The Death Of Rave)
RAKTA - III (Iron Lung)
PORTER RICKS - Shadow Boat (Tresor)
CARLA DAR FORNO - You Know What It's Like (Blackest Ever Black)
EOMAC - Bedouin Trax (Bedouin)
BLACK MERLIN - Hypnotik Tradisi (Island Of The Gods)
OLIVIA WIATT + BITCHIN BAJAS - Sailing A Sinking Sea LP/DVD (Drag City)
REGIS - The Boys Are Here (Blackest Ever Black)

reissues:
HARRY BERTOIA - Sonambient (Important)
TONY CONRAD WITH FAUST - Outside the Dream Syndicate (Superior Viaduct)
GAS - Box Set (Kompakt)
THE CLEAN - Getaway (Merge)
SUN RA AND HIS SOLAR OKESTRA - I Roam The Cosmos (Art Yard)
VARIOUS "Music of Morocco: From the Library of Congress, Recorded by Paul Bowles 1959" (Dust-to-Digital)
DELIA DERBYSHIRE AND ELSA STANSFIELD "Circle Of Light" (Trunk)

I was happy to see some old names back in the action like Underworld, Roisin Murphy, MIA, Autechre, Locust, Brian Eno, Pantha Du Prince, Dinosaur Jr., even though I was not bother to listen to any of them albums yet.

across the years in my different user names i used to post A LOT about music, a shitload. all the time.

i made a few lists on threads like these.

now i have severe tinnitus and also dont care as much about music anymore. what i am into now is classical, 20th century stuff. i went to see a performance of messiaens pour le regarde sur l'efant jesus recently. a couple in the row in front where horrified, the lady walked out and the man stayed but shook his head in confused disgust every few minutes. i am sure they were expecting some sort of classic fm xmas lite music. i got off on seeing them get freaked out.

i can handle classical better but everything else just hurts the brain.

i don't really care about music like i used to, since what i am focused on now is reading. to get through the work day i will blast some opeth, pavement, tool, general old alt stuff from my younger days. for a while i was heavily into vaporwave and i tried talking about it on here but noone was that interested. i was also very heavily into black metal for years but don't care about it so much anymore.

what burnt me out of music was not just hearing everything and getting bored grinding against the dull limits of it, but never having any other human beings into the same shit as me. i mean, i know that probably noone else in my entire small country heard hairdryer peace before me. i ordered that lp before its release. i got very tired of my friends despising anything i was into, not understanding it and never being aware of it. also there was zero music scene were i lived and so i was a person into shit too weird for even the weird people in places like ny or sf nevermind a small irish town.

i basically gave myself tinnitus trying to live inside my headfones and desperately reaching into the music which could never satisfy me.

i am so bored and burnt out on alt/weird/indie/electronica stuff, like you are. that doesn't mean i think it's all bad. there are other people on here who you should look to for recommendations in those categories but i don't have the interest like i used to. kinda sad but it is what it is. tinnitus is perpetual hell and unless it goes away i don't want to make it worse with treble and noise. my brain is already scrambled enough. i can barely handle continuing to live at the moment so music is not a priority. what i want above all else, other than death, is SLEEP and SILENCE which i cant fucking get due to my ill health.

i went from a weirder than weird alt noise guy into a sensible jumper wearing snobby quiet bourgeois weirdo. i like weird and discordant modernist classical music now and that's probably all i'll ever care about.

5 songs isn't enough to judge an artist who's released 9 albums and something like 150 tracks.

Admittedly, he has had a bunch of no. 1 albums and singles, and is probably one of the most well known artists of the past 20 years, so there's definitely some mainstreamness to what he does. But honestly I think he's more sonically varied and interesting than most "underground" artists. A lot of what he does isn't even rap. You should listen to more before you judge.

But honestly I don't care how you feel about Kanye. I was just mad that you seemed to be calling me musically unadventurous. I spend more time and money on music than just about anything else. Previous years I've had to narrow down lists to top 100. Just my top ten (such as it is) contains several different genres, and exactly zero "mainstream hip-hop albums," as far as I'm concerned.

what kanye would you recommend i try?

bound 2 made me want to stab my eyeballs

I'm not sure who you're actually talking to, but I'm developing tinitus as well. I think it's been developing for about 10 years actually. Since around the age of 15, I made a point of going to as many concerts as possible. Local punk shows, regional bands from any place I visited, festivals, raves, blah blah. I went through a hardcore phase where I saw Botch something like 30 times, and tons of other basement-hopping louder as fuck bands. I think I used to gain part of my sense of self worth from my breadth of musical knowledge and the diversity of my tastes, which is sad as hell now. But for a while, many years actually, it was extremely hard for me to say "no" to a show.

Kicked into overdrive when I was an undergrad. I don't think I went a week without going to a show, even if it was just a house performance by a nothing band. I also played in four or five bands in those years, and I was of course way too "punk" (read: short-sighted and full of shit) to wear any kind of ear protection.

Now, and the for past few years, I have noticeable hearing loss and strange cut-outs in my hearing. But regarding tinnitus specifically, I hear a ghastly sound like a burst pipe slowly spewing gass a couple times a day. It gets louder and louder until it gets disorienting, then it usually subsides, but sometimes reduces into a dull hissing for the rest of the day.

I also hear ringing in my ears at random intervals throughout the day. It's scary as hell, mostly because music has always been my one true escape. If my hearing is permanently damaged to the point where I can no longer use headphones or go to shows, it will be like losing a limb. I swear. I guess there's always reading, which is the only passion I have that is equal at times to music, but my eyes are already super fucked up (in addition to needing glasses for basic vision corrections, I also have a musculature problem (esophoria and strabismus,) that requires me to need harsh prism lenses in rise to see correctly and safely) and will have to have surgery at some point to avoid legal blindness because of the rate at which the issue is worsening. SO as a substitute, reading isn't a sure thing.

How did you learn about your tinitus and how to manage it? I had my ears checked recently and I have a lot of scar tissue from inner ear infections which is making anything better, but the doctor didn't really say any thing about how to address the ringing/hissing, other than to "avoid loud music and concerts." Which -- well... fuck... I'm not ready for that shit.

Hey look, now you know a bunch of random shit about me and the degenerative toll that age and stupidity have taken on my body! Merry Christmas!!

i was responding to pepper on the last page.

there is no cure for tinnitus yet, but there is a lot of money and research being pumped into it, those in the know say we can expect one in the next few years (possibly involving stem cells).

but the important thing for you, is for the love of god to stop loudness NOW.

i could link to an article about a uk man who murdered his family then ran into traffic because he had been driven mad by tinnitus. people will kill themselves.

it IS potentially that bad. people can have it for decades until they die.

i was the same as you, only caring about music and having an identity wrapped up in it. i blasted headfones loud for many years, gradually the loudness started to feel 'wrong' and the cymbals and vocals were drowning out the guitars, so i kept hitting it louder to try and recapture this lost sensation i had from the music. eventually this developed into aftershocks from the sound which got worse and worse. now i have permanent tinnitus. i am kidding myself by saying i can enjoy any music now apart from very very quiet stuff at very low volumes and even then, only when i can briefly forget the ringing that is ruining it.

you obviously have the onset of it. there are many different types of sounds people hear and yours is one i read a lot of others have on tinnitus boards. you WILL eventually get some sort of permanent tinnitus unless you stop. i didn't. if you were me, you'd stop all the loudness immeadiately. find a volume level that is about as low as you can go without losing too much of the texture of the music then go 2 steps lower and just stay there. try and cut out headfones completey and just use speakers kept at a reasonable distance from yourself at a low volume. i just wouldn't go to any shows at all if i were you. i know you don't want to hear this but believe me, it's going to get worse unless you can put a stop to it.

for a lot of people, tinnitus will eventually cure itself, seemingly at random. you might have 5 years of hell then it will just dissappear. for most others, it will go on until either you die or science cures it. there are endlessly alleys of alternative cures and treatments you can throw money at. you can pay 1000's to clinics who will give you white noise therapy and other such scams. a lot of people try to deduce the frequency of their tinnitus then listen to white noise or pulse noise on youtube to try and fix it. you don't want to have to go down this exhaustive road. do not expect a cure because one just doesn't exist yet, but there is an unlimited supply of people who want your money.

some people seem to be cured by ginkgo biloba but ONLY a specific type of it from a german pharmacy because apparently 99% of the stuff out there sold as it is literally just pills made of nothing.

the thing is, you've obviously got it already but it's going to get worse. if you can imagine what you have now only PERMANENTLY, as in from before you wake until after you fall asleep, that is what is in store for you. and you will notice it get slowly worse and worse until one day it becomes permanent. then you will hate yourself and never enjoy music again.

Hah. Well, that's weird because I love that song and so does pretty much everyone else (critics, supposed authorities on the matter, Kanye fans).

Aaaanyway, it depends on what you're into. Are you into hip-hop at all? If you're into hip-hop, what Kanye I recommend will be based on what kind of hip-hop you're into. If you like lyrical backpack shit like Talib Kweli, Mos Def (or Mos Def and Talib Kweli as Blackstar for that matter), I'd recommend his output from 2004-2007.
If you're into bangers, and hip-hop with a dancehall edge, industrial elements and raga-influenced vocal sample, there's some specific tracks that I'd recommend.
If you're into sprawling productions, or dark, epic hip-hop, there's an album for that.
If you're into weirder-the-better, then that's another conversation entirely and there's so much to recommend that we should probably do this over pm.

But really the takeaway here, and the big headline about Kanye's music that I'm always trying to get across to people, is that it spans such a wide and diverse world of sounds that it's unfair and inaccurate to even describe it simply as "hip-hop." He has music that sounds like traditional soulful good kid conscious hip-hop, sure, but he also has minimal synth pop, industrial, music that has more in common with electronic genres than anything else. He has crooning ballads and droning dirges, he's blended m hip-hop and no wave, resulting in something that Sonic Youth fans should by all rights enjoy or at least appreciate.

So... tell me what you're into. If you don't like "Bound 2" that's ok, because "Bound 2" is the only song that sounds like "Bound 2."

Not promosing you'll love any of it, but if you give it a shot you'll understand that it's not accurate to call it "mainstream," or to act like it sounds like anything else. Some of it is definitely mainstream, most of it's hip-hop, but fuck man... it's genuinely interesting and very adventurous. And this is coming from a guy who built his world around Sonic Youth, Aphex Twin, Unwound, Tom Waits, Beefheart and Lou Reed. I value interesting music. I value the weird. Boring music is terrible.

http://www.albumoftheyear.org/lists.php

Wire's list
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/6...eases-of-2016/

Jesus fucking Christ man! Merry goddamn Christmas to you too! Sheesh.

Seriously though, that's absolutely terrifying, but I appreciate your candor (if indeed you're not just fucking with me). The otolaryngologist I saw didn't put it this way. Made it seem like more of a "something to keep in the back of your mind" kind of thing. Didn't mention going mad or being in a state of constant misery of anything like that.

Jesus though. I already struggle with anxiety and over-reacting to responding to things that happen in my body. When I get that "hissing" sensation, it sometimes gives me a straight-up panic attack because it feels like I'm losing my grip on reality. It's a very disconcerting feeling. At first I would flip out and ask my girlfriend, "what is that? What's that sound?" and she'd just stare at me. Now I know it's my ears and it will pass, but it still makes my heart race.

I wonder if I shouldn't consider getting some prescription sedatives or something ... like, real ones.

i am being totally straight with you severian. and i encourage you to do your own research on it.

i wish you well bro. at least try and keep the volume down to a sensible level.

Wow. AOTY.com is like crack for a list addict like me. Wire has a damn good list. I forgot about Oren Ambarchi's amazing album when I was doing mine (and a few others, goddamnit).

Shit. Jesus. You know, I've thought about it before and decided that I'd rather lose a hand or foot than my ability to hear (or see), because that's just how important music (and reading) are to me.

I will do some research and I've already toned down my concert going significantly. In the late '90s/early '00s I averaged about 40 shows a year; sometimes way more, rarely less. Last few years it's been 10-15. This year I had a really hard time at a few of the shows (like Kanye... fuck, that was louder than hell) and apart from seeing the Flaming Lips for the umpeenth time in 2017, I have nothing on the docket.

God I was stupid when I was younger. I broke a piece of my tooth on a microphone at a show once and didn't get it taken care of because punk rock blah blah. Now I'm going to have to get it capped because it's dangerous to have the inside of a tooth exposed like that. It will probably cost a couple thousand. Oh, and I fucked up my hand at a concert when things got rowdy. Little guy went through about 4 inches of glass. Permanent damage, that. A chunk of bone came right off my knuckle (still looks weird to this day), broke my wrist and two fingers, severed two tendons, had to have reconstructive surgery and a year of physical therapy. Tons of fun. Physical therapist said "No guitar for (x) months!" and I was LITERALLY playing the next day. Fucked my entire physical therapy schedule, and now I have chronic pain, limited function, bursitis all the way up my arm to my shoulder and I'm stiff as hell.

Now the ears.

If I could meet young me, I'd kick the the living shit out of him.

check the Worst Album list
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/ratings/worst/2016/

hey severian i'm just glad that you can recognize the risk, take care man. you really want to preserve your hearing at this point, because you don't want to face a future where you get old without it.

i wish you the best, i think taking precaution is very sensible.

I was working in hearing aid audiology field for a few months. I am glad I do not have tinnitus (after all them loud gigs I have attended), it is real pain in the arse for people experiencing it. seen a lot of them coming into the shop going nuts. there's plenty causes for tinnitus though. sudden hearing loss was another sympton I have seen and was like wtf is that...

Well I haven't listened to the new MIA yet either. But FUCK you have to listen to the new Pantha Du Prince.

I didn't even know there was a new Locust.

Aaahahaha!! Nice. But it's weird that Gwen Stefani is on this "worst" list and also turned up on a lot of the best ones. Not that I think the album is probably anything other than shit. Still.

Haha Wiz Khalifa and Blink 182.

Drake belongs on that list.

re: kanye

weirder the better.

hip hoppy i like:
dose one / themselves / subtle / clouddead
missy elliot
dr octogon
deltron 3030
dr dre's the chronic
public enemy
some beastie
stankonia