FYI, this year's top 10 was compiled with a refined methodology, drawing on a balanced combination of individual track ratings and overall album impressions compiled over multiple listens. More than ever, I am convinced that this is the best of what I have heard this year, although as usual I reserve the right to discover new things that I've missed and retrospectively change the list! On with the countdown...
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10. Animal Collective - Painting With
In the aftermath of their 2009 magnum opus Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective have been cast as a band in decline by many critics. I really liked 2012's Centipede Hz, but it lacked the killer singles of Merriweather, as well a distinctive new creative direction. In some ways, Painting With is a more frustrating listen than Centipede. It is one of Animal Collective's most inconsistent albums, with some tracks that really detract from the overall experience, like 'Vertical'. Yet there are also incandescant positives. 'FloriDada' and in particular 'Golden Gal' are a couple of the best songs written by the group. Crucially, there are enough other high points scattered through the record for it to sneak into my top 10 for 2016. 'Natural Selection', 'Spilling Guts' and 'Summing The Wretch' and a host of others all add up to what is an overwhelmingly fun listen. Don't cancel your subscriptions just yet.
9. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith was a major new discovery for me in 2016. Following quickly on the heels of official debut Euclid (2015), Ears is a more focused offering of organic synthesizer music that conjures a rich tapestry of distinctive, sometimes tantalisingly brief soundscapes. While others have likened it to Rifts era Oneohtrix Point Never, this record sounds much more crisp and teems with life. Although there is some structure here, the album seems more than content to fill space while it unfolds, drawing in the listener with changes of vista before slow release comes via a kind of wide-screen ambiance. The wonderful album cover is a really apt visualisation of the music: colourful, eclectic and quite simply gorgeous.
8. The Field - The Follower
Continuing in the vein of electronic music, this time at the (opposite) very structured end of the spectrum, comes The Follower. This is the fifth album by Swedish producer Axel Willner, aka The Field. Differing little in style from his previous releases, this is minimalist ambient techno at its finest. The Follower is all about the progressively subtle layering and varied use of samples over tracks that can last between 8 and 15 minutes. Getting the best out of records by the Field has always been about finding the right circumstances to allow the music to penetrate one's subconscious, for example, repetitive chores around the house or data-entry work well for me. While I have used the word 'ambient' to describe The Follower, stand-out tracks like 'Monte Veritá' demand attention and encourage the imagination to wonder in equal measure. The beautifully unexpected mid-track tempo change here is just one of many small joys on this album.
Yeasayer may not enjoy the popularity and critical acclaim they once had, but nevertheless delivered a cohesive gem of an album in 2016 in Amen & Goodbye. From intro track 'Daughters Of Cain' to 'Half Asleep', the first third of the record makes for compelling pop with a sophisticated sheen, until 'Dead Sea Scrolls' breaks ranks with its fun but ultimately tedious repetition of 'Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba baa yah'. The rest of the album falls into line nicely until the gorgeous and heartfelt penultimate track 'Uma'. Good as it is, there's a sense that Yeasayer sound a bit left behind in 2016 - but if it really is amen and goodbye from Yeasayer, this would not be a bad way to say it.
6. James Blake - The Colour In Anything
The much-anticipated follow-up to slightly disappointing Overgrown (2013) finally arrived in 2016, clocking-in at a whopping 75 minutes and 17 tracks. While I'm not against long records per se, The Colour In Anything could have been a really great record if it had been subject to more critical quality control. The first 10 tracks make for an utterly compelling if typically bleak listen, with 'Love Me In Whatever Way' and 'Timeless' being particular highlights. After 10 tracks, the record sounds like a genuine album of the year contender, but then comes 'I Need A Forest Fire', featuring Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. While I've enjoyed past collaborative appearances of JV (Lia Ices' 'Daphne' is a particular favourite), this track just drags on, with a tedious repeating vocal sample, and ultimately signals a downturn in the quality of the rest of the album. Although several tracks show promising hints such as the title track and 'Modern Soul', it never quite hits the same heights and immediacy of the first 10 tracks. A flawed masterpiece.
5. PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project
Another long-anticipated follow-up, this time to the excellent Let England Shake (2011), which conjured an emotive post-colonial critique of English history and identity. The Hope Six Demolition Project addresses similar political themes, this time taking aim at the spectre of global capitalism and its various negative consequences. While tracks like rousing opener 'The Community Of Hope', 'A Line In The Sand', and 'The Orange Monkey' most certainly hit their mark, the album suffers from a disappointingly weak closing quarter. Although it does not really break away from the shadow of its predecessor, this is nevertheless a more than worthy follow-up.
4. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Radiohead's latest offering provides yet further evidence that they are incapable of making a poor album (well, Pablo Honey aside). What's more, A Moon Shaped Pool sounds as essential and urgent as Radiohead have ever sounded. For me, the real highlights here are the beautiful 'Identikit' and 'Present Tense', but there are no obvious weak points on the album, as we've become accustomed to with the band over 20+ years. If I had to quibble, the closer 'True Love Waits' is not a good fit with the rest of the record, which makes sense given the song was originally written in their (first) heyday in the mid-nineties.
3. Jóhann Jóhannsson - Orphée
Jóhann Jóhannsson has built an impressive back-catalogue of records over the last 15 years, subtly blending classical composition and instrumentation with background electronica. While much of his past work focuses on scoring film soundtracks, Orphée represents the first stand-alone record since 2008's Fordlandia. Taking the Orpheus myth as a general theme, this album represents an important shift from smaller labels like Fat Cat to renowned classical label Deutsche Grammophon, seemingly following a similar path to composer Max Richter, who shares a similar musical approach. Unlike Richter however, whose DG debut From Sleep (2015) did not quite live up to previous releases, Jóhannsson manages to showcase his undeniable talents to great effect on Orphée. There are many beautiful moments here, some fleeting, others more sustained, ranging from the child-like sadness of 'The Drowned World', the regretful 'A Sparrow Alighted Upon Our Shoulder', the shimmering and contemplative 'By The Roes, And By The Hinds Of The Field' and the cathartic closer 'Orphic Hymn'. This is undoubtedly one of his finest albums to date.
2. Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing
Second place in 2016 goes to Frankie Cosmos' brilliantly concise Next Thing, which packs 14 songs into less than 30 minutes. Cosmos, aka Greta Kline, is already the master of melodic indie pop songs that cram witty reflections into 2 minutes or less. What's more, Next Thing is tremendously consistent, a real step up from its otherwise solid predecessor Zentropy (2014). Everything bubbles along nicely until the latter half of the record, where many of the highlights seem to be gathered, including 'Outside With The Cuties', 'What If', and 'O Dreaded C Town'. The perfect accompaniment to a spare half-hour, whatever the circumstances.
1. Jessy Lanza - Oh No
This year's number one goes to a record that has slowly pushed itself to the top of the line after listen after listen, until one day it dawned on me that this would become a personal favourite. It follows roughly three years on from Lanza's well-crafted debut, Pull My Hair Back (2013), which marked her out as a new artist to watch. Oh No is a sublime blend of sophisticated pop sung over sharply produced electronic dance music, the latter immediately coming to the fore on opener 'New Ogi'. While the record stutters a little with second track 'VV Violence', the tempo ebbs and flows in the more challenging first half of the album before settling down in part two. The final four tracks 'Vivica', 'Oh No', 'Begins' and 'Could Be U' effectively propelled this album into my number one spot for 2016. This closing song arc gradually builds up steam towards crescendo and release on 'Begins', with 'Could Be U' providing a kind of chilled retrospective on the whole affair. Much of this is understated and detached, which is admittedly a big part of the charm of both her records for me, but perhaps also a factor in the record's below the radar status on some of the more prominent end-of-year lists so far. If Oh No is anything to go by, however, it won't be long before Jessy Lanza gets the recognition she deserves.
