Is Rock and Roll dead? In a podcast between Steven Hyden and Chuck Klostermann this year, the rock critics clarified what they mean when writers like themselves make such a bold statement. It’s not that guitar-centric rock music will disappear altogether (although maybe it could), or that great rock albums won’t come out year to year (they seem to be getting fewer and fewer). It’s just that as far as landmark albums go, the ones that sell massive amounts of units, that are widely critically acclaimed and that make a significant impact on the culture at large and the history of music, very few seem to be clear-cut, meat and potatoes rock records.
In a just world, or maybe in another time, an album like Car Seat Headrest’s would be as acclaimed as the early Weezer records. A band like DIIV would be as influential as Nirvana. An artist like Angel Olsen would be culturally important on par with Joan Baez or Carole King. Savages would be massive feminist icons. William Tyler would be as successful as Clapton. Wye Oak would be a band that people would’ve actually heard of. Radiohead would be, well, Radiohead. And David Bowie would still be alive.
All that shouldn’t diminish the greatness of Chance the Rapper or Blood Orange, who are making monumental waves in rap and R&B, spiritual and socially poignant albums that advance their respective genres. But I only wish half of these rock acts were taking over the world in the way Chance and Dev Hynes are. My list reflects those diverse tastes and hopes for the survival of good music.
- Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial
The first words Will Toledo sings on “Teens of Denial” are a manifesto of the modern misanthrope: “I’m so sick of/(fill in the blank).” In a world of Internet outrage and privilege, Car Seat Headrest’s songs speak to internal angst and conflict in a time when so many outside forces and cultures shape how you should feel. And the band achieves its wisdom through raucous guitar rock and upbeat anthems. Many of the songs are simple, catchy power chord riffing behind songs that celebrate and normalize feelings of loneliness. On “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” Toledo wails, “It doesn’t have to be like this,” seemingly carrying the weight of young males everywhere on his shoulders. But on the nearly eight-minute “Vincent,” the band exerts twitchy energy and rage as Toledo’s guitars screech in staccato attacks. These are sad themes, but with an album this invigorating, Toledo’s right when he sings, “You have no right to be depressed.”
- Savages – Adore Life
On their second album “Adore Life,” the all-female post-punk quartet has advanced from merely sounding like an opening act for Joy Division to cement themselves as the most ferocious band in rock. The chugging bass riff on opener “The Answer” is the loudest and closest the band has come to straight moshing music. A guitar has rarely sounded more menacing than it does on the resonating, industrial noise tracks like “I Need Something New” and “Mechanics.” And you can practically see frontwoman Jehnny Beth poised to pounce as she calls forth an assault of furious sound on the vengeful, “T.I.W.Y.G.” or “this is what you get when you mess with love.” But you can hear Savages’ evolution in the soaring, yet still pitch black anthem “Adore Life,” a grand statement from a band that previously just haunted the shadows.
DIIV – Is The Is Are
“Is The Is Are” may be an album title that’s designed to be impenetrable, but with this album DIIV has taken a massive step forward as a pop-rock powerhouse. The rhythm section is still propulsive, the guitars are still melodic, and the vocals are no less garbled, but each song churns along with immense forward momentum. Zachary Cole Smith’s lead guitar glistens with elegant, melodic lines that are only heard on Cure records. But they continuously bounce and repeat in a way that’s immediately indelible. On songs like “Bent (Roi’s Song),” dual guitars chime the melodic riff while another sustains a mystic drone that keeps you in this blissful state.
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
I wasn’t alone in wishing that someone would give Jonny Greenwood his guitar back after hearing the cold, impenetrable, mathematical sounding “The King of Limbs,” the shortest album in the band’s catalog. Who would’ve thought that Radiohead could double down on Greenwood’s cinematic score and world music influences in to make their longest, most sprawling and gorgeously orchestral album yet? The brisk, staccato strings of opener “Burn the Witch” are anxiety attacks that crop up again and again, like in the erratic guitar solos on “Identikit” or “Ful Stop.” But they also smooth out into transporting ballads like “Daydreaming” that make the most of Thom Yorke’s ethereal gifts as a vocalist. How fitting that such a lush album would end with a gorgeous, syncopated piano version of one of Radiohead’s most beloved deep cuts, “True Love Waits.” It makes you wonder if this could be Radiohead’s swan song. “Just don’t leave.”
Angel Olsen – MY WOMAN
With her third album “MY WOMAN,” Angel Olsen has officially defied categorization. The first half of the album churns with gritty pop songs and an incredible penchant for melody. “Shut Up Kiss Me” is a gut punch of a song as Olsen wails in unison with her guitar during its climax. But even these are profound songs of ambition and reflection, like when she sings “Still got to wake up and be someone” on the lovely opener “Intern.” But she further resists easy genre labels with a series of luscious, jazzy, slow burning dirges. The best of these is the over 7 minute “Sister.” “All my life I thought I’d change,” Olsen sings, escalating to a passionate fuzzy guitar freak out. She’s not folk or rock or country or jazz; she’s just Angel Olsen.
Blood Orange – Freetown Sound
“Black is Gold!” On “Freetown Sound,” Devonte Hynes’s third album as the R&B, alternative dance project Blood Orange, that message rings true in an album that speaks to what it means to be African American. Hynes channels optimism, spirit and intimacy into vital songs of racial and sexual identity. “Hands Up” recalls the Trayvon Martin incident, but it has a light groove that disarms the gesture of its violence. Hynes’s voice has angelic beauty on “With Him” and others, reminiscent of Michael Jackson, as his singing seems to echo miles away from soothing, scurrying horns. But “Freetown Sound” is at its best when Hynes turns over work to several female muses, including Empress Of, Nelly Furtado and Blondie’s Deborah Harry, or to provocative poetry clips and monologues from Ta-Nehisi Coates or Ashlee Haze. These powerful black voices inject meaning into some beautiful R&B and soul tracks.
Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book” bursts with so many styles and feelings. It captures every shade of the rainbow with a spiritual celebration of music and the lord. Although the gospel touches throughout the album are truly revelatory, Chance’s gift is his modesty, which he confesses on “Blessings” is a rarity in this genre. He sings of the good praises “falling in his lap” as he’s ascended to super stardom he recruits a godly choir to chant hymns of uplift on “How Great,” and he upholds his stature as a “people’s rapper” by spreading the love around to even someone like Justin Bieber. The distinct variety of genres that come across his palette make “Coloring Book” genius. The bouncy patter of his delivery atop the heavenly auto-tuned hums on “Summer Friends” is intoxicating. He gives a feather-light touch to the piano ballad “Same Drugs,” He even has a straight shake your butt dance number in “All Night.” Truly this Chicago MC has been blessed.
Wye Oak – Tween
Wye Oak is the most underrated band in the world. Those fans like myself who can’t decide whether they prefer the experimental guitar mastery of “Civilian” or the textured synths of “Shriek,” both massively different yet equally dreamy, should welcome “Tween” with open arms. The album’s eight tracks were recorded in between both the “Civilian” and “Shriek” sessions, and it’s the perfect bridge to chart Wye Oak’s sudden evolution. On “If You Should See,” you can hear Jenn Wasner’s guitar picking battling for volume and the standout melody with her synths. It’s a perfect harmony. And best of all, this band rocks. Just listen to how “No Dreaming” bursts in a conflagration of grungy noise. See them live and be amazed that they’re still just a two-piece act.
William Tyler – Modern Country
If Pat Metheny ever went full-on Southern Rock, it might sound something like William Tyler’s “Modern Country.” This fully instrumental guitar showcase rambles along as the best summer drive soundtrack of your life. Close your eyes and see the sound of Tyler’s guitar form tiny bursts of color on opener “Highway Anxiety.” Other tracks are more intricate in their finger picking elegance, like how he manages to double up his sound in high and low registers on “Gone Clear,” but they sound graceful and blend together into a seamless, pitch perfect whole.
David Bowie – Blackstar
He was a showman until the end. David Bowie’s “Blackstar” arrived just two days before his death, and its proximity carried an extra burden of surprise to learn he had been battling cancer for so long. Suddenly “Blackstar,” an album as theatrical, avant-garde and surreal as any in his catalog, had new meaning. “I’ve got scars that can’t be seen,” he sings on “Lazarus,” a line that’s no longer strictly metaphor. And “I can’t give everything,” he opines on the album’s closing track, a final lament for being unable to fulfill all that his many identities aspired to achieve. But Bowie invokes death sonically as well, whether contorting Kamasi Washington’s saxophone into a snake charmer on the title track, in the breathless percussion throughout the album, or in the chugging guitars sounding a death knell at the end of “Lazarus.” Bowie may be gone, but with his dying breath he left this beautiful, bizarre opera destined to make him immortal.
Other Solid Albums
Mitski – Puberty 2
“Puberty 2” is easily the best St. Vincent album Annie Clark never recorded. Mitski has gifts as a songwriter, singer and grungy frontwoman for a record that’s as surreal as it is heavy.
The Joy Formidable – The Hitch
The Joy Formidable’s third album is less uneven than 2013’s “Wolf’s Law” yet just as sprawling and ambitiously operatic in its explosive guitar sound. “The Hitch” is a fun record from a seriously underrated band.
Sex Stains – Sex Stains
My personal friend Allison Wolfe anchors this gleefully upbeat riot grrlll punk. It’s complete with trading vocals screaming about childhood, identity and feminism, not to mention lickety split guitar lines that echo early B-52s with a sound that makes you want to get up and move.
Whitney – Light Upon the Lake
Whitney’s “Light Upon the Lake” is the kind of album George Harrison might’ve recorded today. Its slide guitars, mezzo forte horns and delicate, feather light vocals are pure bliss.
Parquet Courts – Human Performance
Parquet Courts have solidified themselves as the heirs to The Velvet Underground, plodding, calculated art rockers with a distinctive approach to melody and mashing guitars that no one can match.
Best Songs of 2016 (alphabetical)
- “The Answer” – Savages
- “Bent (Roi’s Song)” – DIIV
- “Best to You” – Blood Orange
- “Better (For Esther)” – Wye Oak
- “Blackstar” – David Bowie
- “Blessings” – Chance the Rapper
- “The Brook” – The Joy Formidable
- “Burn the Witch” – Radiohead
- “Candy Sam” – Ty Segall & The Muggers
- “Doing it to Death” – The Kills
- “Fill in the Blank” – Car Seat Headrest
- “Gone Clear” – William Tyler
- “Hands Up” – Blood Orange
- “I Can’t Give It All Away” – David Bowie
- “Kiss it Better” – Rihanna
- “Land of La La” – Sex Stains
- “Loose Ends” – DIIV
- “Oblivius” – The Strokes
- “No Problem” – Chance the Rapper (feat. Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz)
- “No Woman” – Whitney
- “Revolution Radio” – Green Day
- “Sister” – Angel Olsen
- “Shut Up Kiss Me” – Angel Olsen
- “Still Breathing” – Green Day
- “T.I.W.Y.G.” – Savages
- “True Love Waits” – Radiohead
- “Two Dead Cops” – Parquet Courts
- “Vincent” – Car Seat Headrest
- “Wow” – Beck
- “Your Best American Girl” – Mitski
Best Concerts of 2016
- Pearl Jam – Wrigley Field
- Coldplay – Rose Bowl
- Savages – El Rey
- Beach House – FYF Fest
- LCD Soundsystem – FYF Fest
- Cloud Nothings – The Hi Hat
- Wye Oak – Teragram Ballroom
- Mikal Cronin – Thalia Hall
- DIIV – The Echo
- Father John Misty – The Observatory
- Alabama Shakes – Greek Theater
- Tame Impala – FYF Fest
- Ty Segall & The Muggers – FYF Fest
- Wilco – The Theater at Ace Hotel
- Cherry Glazzer and Sex Stains – The Troubadour