December 2016 Review

The final month of the year is never really that good for new music. Everyone's on their holidays, or lazing about in the label's offices, watching the clock tick down and shopping for their Secret Santa present. No one wants to actually put the work into releasing an album. I found it hard to make up the numbers with the releases. I even considered a Neil Young album, for Chrissakes! The top album in December 2016 is the weakest no.1 of the year on this blog. It's still great to listen to though, even if you're not a fan of the artist. And so:


The Rest:


Omar Rodríguez-López - Some Need It Lonely - B

Experimental Rock/Dub


Omar Rodríguez-López - Nom De Guerre Cabal - C

Electronica/Experimental Rock


Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3 - C

Hip-hop


EL-P and  Killer Mike dropped Run The Jewels 3, the predictably titled follow up to RTJs 1&2 on Christmas Eve, an early present from one of the game's most popular groups. There's been some pretty damn monumental rap records released this year but this one? Eh. Not so much.

Is this a joke album? It feels like a joke. The lyrics are appalling. Bragadoccio is the self-evident currency of Hip-hop, but lines like "I'm the shit/Looking at the money like it's mine to get/I'm the shit bitch/Everybody down, throw the pistol and fist" and "I got a good thing with a bad bitch/ that's rare bitch/She don't even like you hoes/she'll walk in the room take errr bitch" would have you laughed out of any half decent open mic night, so why do RTJ think they can spunk out such garbage? So it goes for all of the songs on this album, with far too many examples to mention.

The beats are bassy and decent enough, they keep the record simmering along with no real aural challenge and it's at least nice to hear a rare Zach De La Rocha guest spot on the final track. Ultimately though, RTJ3 carries on EL-P and Mike's infuriating insistence on constantly proclaiming themselves gods of Hip-hop without ever deigning to prove it. A schoolboy pissing contest.


The Best:


01: Omar Rodríguez-López - A Lovejoy - A

Experimental Rock/Synthpop 


After 12 releases in 2016 and 364 days, my best buddy Omar finally hits the top spot. A Lovejoy is as it's name suggests - euphoria on high, romping through verdant fields of pop, rock, synth and classical styles to achieve a truly brilliant climax to this year's releases. The record bubbles with tight pop loops and whispery vocal hooks, mixed with complex acid synth riffs. For the first time in 39 solo releases, El Maestro has taken command of a wonderfully effective synth string section in I Bet He'd Like That, which is a rare first for an artist with such a vast back catalogue.

You can be up in the clouds with the driving beats and basslines and then dropped flat out into ambient noise forests on the turn of a sixpence. This harsh dichotomy of pleasure and pain lifts the already stratospheric album above the rattle and clang of his middling releases to place it in the top tier of the Ipecac spectrum, along with Cellphone Bikini and Arañas en la Sombra.

Though this doesn't beat the exemplary Sworn Virgins to the top of the baker's dozen of releases from OR-L in 2016, it comes a close 2nd, and is a welcome surprise, dropped less than 48 hours before the close of the year, putting strength behind my regular lament at major publications putting out end-of-year lists in bloody NOVEMBER. It ain't over, 'till it's over.

02: Kid Cudi - Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' - A

Experimental Pop/Alternative R 'n B


Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' is the latest project from the genre-busting, ambitious and voraciously talented Kid Cudi. Split across 4 sections, each titled more opulently than the last, (the final quarter is named It's Bright And Heaven Is Warm, for goodness sake,) this album explores a wide range of moods and textures in search of a defining moment of  spiritual clarity.

Slayin' is best listened to as a skimming exercise for good tunes, rather than as a full-length session. There's plenty of R 'n B flavoured treacle to wade through to get to the good stuff, but it is worth it for highlights such as Cosmic Warrior, Frequency and Surfin', the latter of which features a subtle but effective guest spot from Pharrell Williams. My cut of choice is Distant Fantasies, a dark, enigmatic tune that harks back to the dark MF DOOM beats of a decade ago.

This one is a lot like The Weeknd's album from the other month. Not only stylistically - I should think the Venn diagram for fans of both artists features a healthy overlap - But also because it's just too long! Slayin' is almost 90 minutes in length, an enormous project, but that's not justified by the content. You could trim off a lot of filler and have one of the best records of the year. As it stands, Slayin' is a great listen for a long drive, and unfortunately, far too much of a good thing.

03: Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events - B

Alternative Rock/Industrial Metal


Not The Actual Events was released with a characteristic lack of pretence to fulfil Trent Reznor's promise that Nine Inch Nails would return in 2016. Three and a half years hence from the superb comeback record Hesitation Marks, Events clocks in at barely over 20 minutes, so it doesn't quench the thirst a full length Nails LP would, but it is good to get stuck into a new chunk of flesh from the grand master.

Events has big shades of Reznor's 90's material, chainsaw guitars, enormous walls of  sound and distant, pained screaming are all over it. Along with that, there's a marked determination with this release to distance it from the rest. To that end, there's a measured influence from Atticus Ross; The Idea Of You has the most industrial feel to a Nine Inch Nails song since Broken, and the smooth production and industrial noise have his fingerprints all over it. There is also an ever-so-slight hint of How To Destroy Angels slipping through the cracks.

In the end though, the bulk of the sound comes from Reznor himself, as you would expect. Nine Inch Nails has this brillliant idiosyncrasy threaded through 30 years of releases, the same leitmotifs and lyrical phrases littered throughout the 3 decades of music, and Events is no different. Whether this is no more than a perfunctory flourish or an indicator of a new era in the disparate vista of releases from this life-long artistic project remains to be seen.

04: J. Cole - 4 Your Eyez Only - B

Hip-hop/Trap

05: Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love! - B

Soul/Funk/R 'n B/Psychedelic


Donald Glover's musical alter-ego snuck out a nice little record at the start of December. Moving away from his traditional rapping style, Awaken, My Love! represents Gambino's 3rd studio full-length, and a departure into more adventurous territory. I've always appreciated artists that take a left turn and try something new. Awaken at least covers that base, giving it some worthy moments, with elements of many different styles.

It doesn't do them much justice though, and after all's said and done, there's quite a bit of fluff on Awaken, and you'd have to be really dedicated to get any more than a handful of spins out of it. The music Gambino makes feels incredibly happy and fun, an open invitation to the world to enjoy the ride along with him. The appropriately sunny, keys-soaked California and the Megadrive synth-guitar masterpiece Redbone are the two stand-outs from this enjoyably flawed record.

So that's that for 2016. I'm gonna compile a top 40 over the the next few days and push that out. I'm very happy with my top choices from 2016, there's some obvious releases, some that have been wildly popular this year, some that have been underrated, and some I don't think I've seen in any end-of-year lists at all. I like to think my list reflects as wide a range of music as possible, which is the aim of this blog. One thing I noticed is lacking is debut albums, I think I've probably listened to less than 5 all year, which is something I want to remedy in time for 2017's top list. 2016's top choices are coming soon!