The Chorus.fm Staff’s Top Albums of 2016 • Page 10

My list:

1. Bon Iver - 22, A Million (Total surprise for me, actually. I didn't like it on the first listen.)
2. John K. Samson - Winter Wheat (The long awaited album from him totally delivers.)
3. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth (Aside from The Hip, easily the best live show I saw this year.)
4. Every Time I Die - Low Teens (Contesting with Junk as my new favourite from these guys, honestly.)
5. Brian Fallon - Painkillers (New Brian is always welcome in my books, especially of this caliber.)
6. Blink-182 - California (Probably the most fun I had with an album this year.)
7. Jim Bryson - Somewhere We Will Find Our Place (Ontario represent. A masterclass in atmopshere.)
8. Frightened Rabbit - Painting of a Panic Attack (Lump Street.)
9. Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues (A little disappoiting for me, but still real good.)
10. The Dirty Nil - Higher Power (Real good year for Canadian music actually. See John, Jim, Pup and the Hip as well.)
11. The Hotelier - Goodness
12. Explosions in the Sky - The Wilderness
13. Pinegrove - Cardinal
14. PUP - The Dream is Over
15. The Tragically Hip - Man Machine Poem

HM: Balance & Composure - Light We Made

EDIT: Listening to WORRY. for the first time, this is going to shake things up.

 

For me, growing up doing choirs and musicals and then studying classical voice for seven years was what made me a very vocally-focused listener. It ultimately comes to the same thing, though: there are just a lot of voices that I don't like, and if I don't enjoy the voice, I have a very hard time enjoying the artist. I think this part of my musical history is also why I tend to be very focused on melody.

I don't know if you saw this when it was on AbsolutePunk, but I actually did an interview with him earlier this year. I moved it to my blog when AP.net went down.

Closer to the Truth and Further From the Sky: Interview: Donovan Woods (February 10th, 2016)

I haven't heard the EP. I tried to check it out a few months ago, but it wasn't available on Spotify in the U.S.

 

I'm just starting to read through this, so sorry if I'm late but...

Did I miss something about Painkillers? It seemed so anticipated for a lot of people, but I noticed it's not on the Top 30, and it's relatively low on the lists its included on. Curious to know what people's opinion of it is now.

 

I think it was a combination of it being an early release and it not being quite what people expected from him. I mean, it came out in March, but a bunch of people on staff had it in January or February. I had it in early-mid December, so it hardly even felt like a 2016 release to me.

I still had it at number 7 on my list, and I still love that record. I got it on vinyl for Christmas and spun it yesterday, and it definitely holds up for me. It's very much up my alley and pretty much exactly the style I wanted him to explore. But I think a lot of people were either hoping for something that sounded more like Gaslight or something that sounded more like The Horrible Crowes. This was neither. A lot of staff still liked it--I think it made our mid-year--but the back half of the year was pretty stacked, and I think it just fell down enough lists to miss the collective list.

 

I liked BF a lot but it def got drowned out by being an early release

 

It was my favorite album of the year and one of my favorite albums ever. This year was fantastic for music (in my opinion), and it set itself apart. I could not love it more.

 

Two of my top three came out in February. If it's a good album, it'll stick with you throughout the year

 

Two of my early favorites from last year were definitely

Is it your favorite Fallon album period?

 

It's very, very close. But yes. Elsie and Painkillers are both top, top shelf for me. It's so hard for me to say I like ANYTHING better than Elsie, but Painkillers has done it. I think.

Certain albums mean so much to me that I just have a hard time bringing myself to saying other stuff is better. And both Elsie and Painkillers are both at that level.

 

Probably always going to be The '59 Sound at the top of my Fallon list. I can never pick a second favorite, but it could end up being Painkillers in time.

 

I agree. Frightened Rabbit and Brian Fallon both came out early in the year. Both of them stuck with me all year.

 

For me it's always back and forth between Elsie or American Slang. Love Painkillers too, but his single release was opposite of what I wanted him to do, haha!

That lyric "I got your name tattooed inside of my arm" actually led me here:

 

American Slang is my favorite Gaslight album, and honestly has my favorite stretch of songs on any album ever (I know that seems obscure, but it's a thing in my brain). 'Orphans' through 'We Did It' is a five song stretch that, in my mind, every band should kill to replicate. It flows perfectly, every song is insanely good, and it just encapsulates everything great about the band.

For me, it's Brian Fallon, Jim Adkins, Nathan Hussey, and then there's the rest of the world when it comes to song writing. But most days, Fallon is on top. Even his weakest effort is better, in my mind, than 99% of artists (and I don't even know what that record would be. I guess Sink or Swim? Get Hurt gets a ton of flack, but frankly, I think that's nuts and that record is a masterpiece).