Honorable Mentions
Whitney - Forever Turned Around
Fruit Bats - Gold Past Life
Black Keys - Let’s Rock
The Raconteurs - Help Us Stranger
The Main Event
15. Spiral Stairs - We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized
Genre: Indie Rock
Spiral Stairs is the solo/side project of the second most famous member of Pavement, Scott Kannberg. Admittedly I’ve never listened to much of his other stuff, and while I appreciate Pavement for what they are/were, I never really enjoyed much of that either. This album, however, caught me pretty good. Musically it’s mid-tempo and has some extremely catchy riffs and hooks frequently supported by trumpets and sax’s and what have you. His vocals are tolerable and the lyrics are simple and sometimes clunky and stupid. I did dig it quite a bit though and still go back to it from time to time.
14. Divino Nino - Foam
Genre: Psychedelic Garage Pop
These guys are a collection of acid enthused Colombia born musicians assembled... via Chicago. This album drifts in and out of English and Spanish seamlessly, blending different approaches and influences along the way. The South American sound is ever-present and damn is it catchy as hell. If you try really hard you can hear American boy band songs. It’s just a psych-y cool ass album to listen to with the windows open in the summer.
13. CRX - Peek
Genre - Indie Rock, New Wave
CRX is if course Nick Valensi’s secondary band. Their first release, New Skin, was largely enjoyable but just didn’t get me going for unknown reasons. Josh Homme produced that one and I feel that steered Nick away from the New Wave direction later period Strokes stuff has. THIS album is self-produced and it’s very much what I would’ve expected the sound to be like from the get-go. Mix in some killer ass guitar riffs and solos with a touch of synth and I’m all in. A much better effort than their debut, this one deserves some fanfare.
12. Sam Cohen - The Future’s Still Ringing in My Ears
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Indie Folk
Cohen first hit my radar when I discovered Apollo Sunshine a while back. His stuff is largely hit or miss. He released his first proper solo album Cool It a few years back and that one hooked me hard. This is essentially Cool It part 2 and I’m just as into it. Cohen is one of those guys that plays all the instruments himself, which I always thought was super cool. Catchy ass riffs and subdued vocals abound. It’s just a truly great album to casually listen to at night.
11. Mikal Cronin - Seeker
Genre: Garage Rock, Psychodelic Pop
Cronin is part of that little musical pocket that orbits around Ty Segall and includes guys like King Tuff and Charles Moothart. Each of these guys solo work and side projects, including Segall, all verge on greatness before taking detours down obscure roads or reverting to bland platitudes. Seeker is, IMO, the best Cronin release to date, and it’s almost, almost, really, REALLY good. I’ll settle for just really good. The guitar howls at times and is complemented by some perfectly placed piano and percussion. He carries some real energy in his singing. It’s one of those albums where you just keep turning it up.
10. Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Blues Rock
Holy goddamn shit. Sturgill largely ditched his entire established sound and genre to deliver an epic, loose concept album that unexpectedly rocks your face off beginning to end. I had no idea he could play the guitar like this. The track order is perfectly constructed and I can’t find a more cohesive or “put together” album this year. This was truly a surprise. To quote Ironfish, “he made a Black Keys album, and I mean that in the best possible way”.
9. Desert Sessions - Volumes 11&12
Genre - Desert Rock, Stoner Rock
Josh Homme does it again. No QOTSA offering this year, but no worries because he’s just recruited a different crew of seemingly mismatched musicians to put together an incredibly cohesive album of rock music in a very short period of time. Admittedly much of this sounds just like a Queens album but of course, it isn’t, and even the songs that Josh doesn’t sing are excellent. The single slip up, “Chic Tweetz” keeps it out of the upper section of this list.
8. The Berries - Berryland
Genre: Alt-Grunge, Americana
All credit goes to Jake for this gem of a find! These guys mix and match several different genres really well. Mid/up-tempo guitar-driven rock with the most perfect song fitting solo’s this side of John Mayer. Upon discovering this I found a review that said it sounded like Superdrag covering a bunch of Neil Young songs, which is perfect.
7. Floating Action - Old World Camels
Genre: Indie Rock, Folk, Dub, Blues (Everything?)
Seth Kaufman is a session musician, usually bass player, for many of Jim James solo work and other related things James produces (like Ray Lamontagne’s excellent Ouroboros). He also has quite an extensive solo collection. This is his third release in the last two years and I cannot get enough. A total oddball mix of sounds and genres and instruments, the appeal is at its core in Seth’s songwriting ability. He crafts hooks and pop songs with ease and I catch myself humming along to almost all of this. Do check it out.
6. Marco Benevento - Let it Slide
Genre: Experimental Rock, Indie Pop
The Story of Fred Short was my album of the year runner up for 2016, so to say I was eagerly anticipating this one is a bit of an understatement. Marco has had a long career of differing genres and approaches but this is only the second release of his where he actually sings. If you’re into keyboard/synth/drum machine, this is the shit you need. It’s not as good as Fred Short but its damn close.
5. White Denim - Side Effects
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
There’s very little chance I’ll ever hear a White Denim release that doesn’t make my yearly album list and this one isn't going to be the one to break that trend. This is considered a companion piece to last year’s Performance - but it mostly sounds like leftovers and previously unfinished stuff. Overall, I love it, but you can sort of tell it wasn’t the A grade stuff that Performance was. Still, there are at least a dozen really, really kick-ass songs on here. I’m a total homer.
4. Oso Oso - Basking in the Glow
Genre: Emo
This year I discovered two albums from genres I previously drew no enjoyment from (stay tuned for the other...). I don’t know shit about these guys other than this album and frankly, I’m scared to go down that road. I came across an online review of this that I didn’t read but just saw glowing praise and saw something about “guitar-driven in nature” so I, of course, added it to my queue. I put it on several days later and was digging the guitar work and overall sound immensely right away. “Man, this sounds sorta emo’y though”, I thought. Ah, whatever. 2 songs later: “FUCK this is really, really, good but damn this guys vocals are so emo.” 4 songs later: “Oh dear god in hell I like Emo”. Truth be told, it is a fantastically crafted album start to finish with some of the catchiest guitar/drum interplay you will ever hear. I unquestionably love it and I cannot in good faith bring anybody down with me. Do not listen to it.
3. DIIV - Deceiver
Genre: Dream Pop, Shoegaze
Shoegaze is a genre I’ve always tried to get into and never enjoyed. Until now. Frontman Zachary Smith has led the traditional rock-star life, checking off drug addiction, rehab, and dating high profile singers/models (Sky Ferreira) in one fell swoop. The vocals are hard to digest due to it being, ya know, shoegaze-y, but this is the hardest, nastiest, grungiest, dirtiest guitar tone I’ve ever heard. It’s somehow heavy but not hard or fast. I cannot get enough of this. Do check it out.
2. Son of Stan - Diamond Cuts
Genre: Pop Punk, Yacht Rock
This bad boy launched hot and heavy into my rotation and stayed there for quite a while. Frontman Jordan Richardson has a long history of session and tour work with a large array of Texas-based musicians, mostly as a drummer. For his own band (Son of Stan) he sings and plays guitar, naturally. Riffy, melodic, and infectious as all hell, it’s truly a whirlwind. A distinct 80’s sound sets the tone and the guitar drives it home. If it was 2 songs longer, it would’ve been my album of the year.
1. Amo Amo - self-titled
Genre: Dream Pop
Omar Velasco strikes again! Ironfish first discovered him a few years back with the Jonathan Wilson produced Golden Child, which was excellent. Now he’s back with a full band and Jim James on production. This offering is an absurdly cool album front to back, with catchy ass melodies and alternating lead singers (Omar and Love Femme) and almost perfect song fitting guitar. Put this one on when the weather is nice and float away. This is my album of the year.
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