End of 2016 album list!

I listened to a ton of new music this year, I came up with 135 new releases that I enjoyed in some degree or another this year.  Here we go:

Top 20 (in alphabetical order):

Against Me! - Shape Shift With Me - I would certainly argue that over the last three years Against Me! has become my favorite band.  It took me some time to get into the band over their almost 15 years of putting out records.  This album was no different, but after a few listens it wasn't long before I was getting these songs stuck in my head and finding myself singing along at top volume.

Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings - Another year, another Beach Slang full length.  I sure hope this becomes a theme.  Catchy, Replacements worship, punk with songs about girls and getting fucked up.  Let's hope 2017 brings us more Slang.

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial - I didn't discover this record until real late in the year, so I didn't get to spend as much time with this as a lot of the other albums on this list.  Excellent lo-fi, indie rock.  I can't wait to dig more into this and hope that he puts out more records like this.

Culture Abuse - Peach - This one sort of denies categorization.  It's sorta punk, sorta grunge, sorta something else entirely.  It's entirely amazing and incredibly catchy and energetic, which I am told carries over to their live performance.  I, sadly, missed them both times they played Buffalo this year.  I won't make that mistake the next time.

David Bowie - Blackstar - Bowie was amazing, he constantly was changing up his sounds, never getting stale, never settling into a mold and staying there.  This was another amazing record in the catalog of amazing records, by one of the best.

Direct Hit! - Wasted Mind - This record is so, so good.  A pop punk concept record, about drugs, with songs that get stuck in your head for days.  There is one of those records that I find myself wanting to start back at the beginning right after the last song finishes.

Frank Ocean - Blond - So worth the wait.  This is a little bit of a more mellow and slow burner of an album than Channel Orange.  But, it is a shining example of the how good and complex R&B, Soul, and Pop music can be.

Fury - Paramount - This was not the best year for hardcore, no Blacklisted release and all, but this record smokes.  This is fairly straight forward youth crewish hardcore, but it also has the rage that makes the better records in this style.  Can't wait to see these songs live.

Gatecreeper - Sonoran Depravation - This came out of nowhere for me, I had never heard of this band before.  This is heavy and rages.  Americans doing Swedish metal very well.  It's rare that I wish a metal record was longer, but this is one I wish had about 4 more songs on it.

Jeff Rosenstock - Worry - This was the album I listened to most this year.  I can't express enough how much I love this record.  If I were ranking these, this would probably come up as number one on the year.  This is the catchiest album I've heard in a very long time.  I tend to equate quality with how frequently I find songs working their way into my brain and I catch myself singing along sometimes days after the last time I heard them.  This album has a lot of those songs.

Nails - You Will Never Be One Of Us - This might just edge out the Fury record as my hardcore record of the year.  This is just straight brutality.  They keep putting out these intense, smash you in the face, pissed off albums and I hope they never stop.  Another example of too short, though.

Neurosis - Fires Withing Fires - My favorite metal band puts out my favorite metal record of the year.  They may not be as heavy as they once were, but that doesn't mean the heavy is gone.  They are still masters of crafting songs that stay interesting even when the songs are long.  They are now thirty years into making music, and I hope they keep going for thirty more.

Nothing - Tired Of Tomorrow - I don't love the term shoegaze, but I guess these guys would fit into that classification.  I feel like these guys would fit in just fine with mid 90's alt-rock bands, like Dinosaur Jr or Sonic Youth.  Great songs that are both mellow and intense at the same time.  Would love to see these guys come back to Buffalo again where maybe the vocals might be heard.

Opeth - Sorceress - I sometimes feel like a poser with Opeth.  I didn't get into the band until they got rid of the metal and went straight prog-rock.  I love the three albums, so far, since they went this route.  I have found love for the earlier albums too, but if I'm being honest, the prog-rock is where it's at.  I = poser.

Pup - The Dream Is Over - Love, love, love this band!  Somewhere between punk and some sort of intense indie rock band.  The songs are intense and catchy, making it seem so much fun to sing along to songs about self loathing.  I can't wait to see these songs live, which is where Pup songs really take flight. 

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool - Along with Against Me!, Radiohead fits into the whole "favorite band" mold.  I loved The King of Limbs, but this album blows that one out of the water.  This is classic Radiohead, which is to say that while it sounds just like them, it's different than all the other albums in their catalog.  I am so happy that they finally recorded a studio version of True Love Waits.

Schoolboy Q - Blank Face - I know at least one person who will dispute this, but this was my hip hop album of the year.  Q keeps it gangsta throughout, but lyrically he explores all kinds of topics.  Love the inclusion of Vince Staples, E-40, and Anderson Paak.  I don't even hate the Kanye feature. 

Solange - A Seat At The Table - How great of a year was it for R&B.  What I have always considered to be the more talented of the Knowles sisters.  This is a much more soulful, less poppy, album than I was expecting from Solange.  But, it hits perfectly and keeps the attention of the listener throughout the 21 tracks.  Hopefully it isn't as long between releases.

White Lung - Paradise - Canadian punk was definitely on point this year.  This one was another one that hit me out of nowhere.  I had never paid any attention to this band before and now I wish I had. Female fronted punk, with both intensity and melody.  Would love to see them live.

Whores - Gold - 2016 Noise Rock!  I have been listening to these guys for a couple years, as their previous EP's were awesome.  The debut LP did not disappoint.  It's got a very heavy influence from the AmRep roster, but a little more sludgier. 

The Rest (sorted loosely by genre and in alphabetical order):

Alcest - Kodama
Angel Olsen - My Woman
Bat For Lashes - The Bride
BJ Barnham - Rockingham
Bloc Party - Hymns
Bob Mould - Patch The Sky
Crippled Black Phoenix - Bronze
Elise Davis - The Token
Hinds - Leave Me Alone
Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Until the Hunter
Ian Sweet - Shapeshifter
Into It, Over It - Standards
Jack White - Acoustic Recordings 1988-2016
Jeff Buckley - You and I
Jim James - Eternally Even
Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues
John Samson - Winter Wheat
King Dude - Sex
Kino Kimino - Bait Is For Sissies
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
Lush - Blindspot
Margaret Glaspy - Emotions and Math
Mogwai - Atomic
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Pete Yorn - Arrangingtime
Pity Sex - White Hot Moon
Public Access TV - Never Enough
Robert Pollard - Of Course You Are
Sheer Mag - III
Steven Wilson - 4 1/2
Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth
Tegan and Sara - Love You to Death
The Album Leaf - Between Waves
The Claypool Lennon Delirium - Monolith of Phobos
The DMA's - Hills End
The Hotelier - Goodness
The Joy Formidable - Hitch
The Joy Formidable - Sleep is Day
The Julie Ruin - Hit Reset
The Posies - Solid States
The Strokes - Future Present Past EP
Thee Oh Sees - A Weird Exits
Thee Oh Sees - An Odd Entrances
Thrice - To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere
Tortoise - The Catastrophist
Tyrannamen - Tyrannamen
 
Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Arc
Brujeria - Pocho Aztlan
Cobalt - Slow Forever
Conan - Revengeance
Deftones - Gore
Dream Theater - The Astonishing
Gorguts - Pleiades' Dust
Grand Magus - Sword Songs
Graves at Sea - The Curse That Is
Hammerfall - Built To Last
Iron Savior - Titancraft
Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep of Reason
Oathbreaker - Rheia
Pallbearer - Fear and Fury
Sumac - What One Becomes
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation
UXO - UXO
Wrong - Wrong
 
Absolute Power - Absolute Power
BAT - Wings of Chains
Cruel Hand - Your World Won't Listen
Eternal Sleep - The Emptiness Of
Every Time I Die - Low Teens
Expire - With Regret
G.L.O.S.S. - Trans Day of Revenge
Gag - America's Greatest Hits
Head Wound City - A New Wave of Violence
Manipulate - Becoming Madness
Nails/Full of Hell - Split
Omegas - Power to Exist
Pure Disgust - Pure Disgust
Red Death - Deterrence
Ringworm - Snake Church
Sick of it All - When the Smoke Clears
Trap Them - Crown Feral
 
A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it From Here....Thank You 4 Your Service
Ab-Soul - Do What Thou Wilt
Banks & Steelz - Anything But Words
Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
Common - Black America Again
Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered
Kevin Abstract - American Boyfriend
NxWorries - Yes Lawd!
Royce Da 5'9" - Layers
Run the Jewels - RTJ3
Vince Staples - Prima Donna
 
Anderson Paak - Malibu
Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman
Beyonce - Lemonade
Blood Orange - Freetown Sound
Charles Bradley - Changes
Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom
Daya - Sit Still, Look Pretty
Maxwell - blackSUMMERS'night
Rihanna - Anti
Tove Lo - Lady Wood
 
AJJ - The Bible 2
Camp Cope - Camp Cope
Cloak of Organs - Demo
Descendents - Hypercaffium Spazzinate
Mike & The Melvins - Three Men and a Baby
Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost
Pkew Pkew Pkew - Pkew Pkew Pkew
Planes Mistaken For Stars - Prey
The Cowboys - The Cowboys
The Dirty Nil - Higher Power
The Falcon - Gather Up the Chaps
Vanishing Life - Surveillance