2016 was a laudable year for music. We saw artistic reinvention, song reinterpretation and dazzling repetition. To borrow from Ornette Coleman… “You don’t have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don’t have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition.” We might argue a little about placement, but never about inspired repetition.
The songbook suffered some weighty losses in 2016, including: David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Sharon Jones, Leon Russell, Phife Dawg, Paul Kantner, Sir George Martin, and Buckwheat Zydeco. Bowie’s Station to Station tour at Empire Pool Wembley was my first concert and it opened with images from the film “Un Chien Andalou” by Buñel and Dali – a razor blade cutting into an eyeball. I’ve never seen an opening act that could quite top that.
Bowie’s Blackstar and Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker were two favorite albums from 2016. Cohen’s prophetic lyrics “you want it darker, we kill the flame” spoke almost too directly to the loss of each artist. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree also hit hard, released after the death of Cave’s son. It’s an articulate reflection on love and grief. Each of these album picks is for and from the heart.
Other 2016 album standouts include: Frank Ocean’s Blonde, PJ Harvey’s The Hope Six Demolition Project, Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! and Akira Kosemura’s One Day – Kosemura’s album is simply striking. Angel Olsen’s My Woman rocked – the line “shut up kiss me” never sounded more authentic.
On the reinvention-meets-repetition front, A Tribe Called Quest had a profound impact again on music. The band reminded the world old skool rocks and is always current. Childish Gambino’s album Awaken, My Love! draws its inspiration from 1970s R&B, soul and funk. Reinvention, reinterpretation and repetition.
Gambino’s song on this year’s playlist “Redbone” draws influence from Bootsy Collins’ “I’d Rather Be with You.” Funkadelic indeed! Bootsy played bass for Funkadelic as well as Parliament before forming Bootsy’s Rubber Band and recording “I’d Rather Be with You.” And to bring it full circle, Bootsy released that song the same year Bowie toured for Station to Station. “Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” We can't trace time.
On the reinterpretation front, there are several classic songs that made this year’s playlist via artful reinvention. One standout is Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings recording of the Allman Bothers’ classic “Midnight Rider” – though the lyrics “Lord I’m comin’ home to you” posthumously sing bitter sweet.
Phosphorescent and Jenny Lewis recorded a version of “Sugaree” that came out in a tribute album to the Grateful Dead: Day of the Dead. It’s a 59-song album that was pulled together by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National – they managed to bring new meaning to Deadhead.
Our favorite reinterpretations go to Murder of Crows for their rendition of the Talking Heads “Sycho Killa” and SOAK’s take on a Zeppelin classic. You can almost picture Murder of Crows up on stage at CBGBs. SOAK’s version of “Immigrant Song” is spectacularly unnerving. Ah-ah, ah!
On the repetition front – under the guise of “if it works, don’t muck with it” – there was great music put out by bands that manage to evolve yet repeat making consistently brilliant music. We’ve included this year tracks by Tame Impala, Radiohead, Wilco, and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.
Under the category of unadulterated fun, there are tracks from Benji Hughes, Animal Collective, Mayer Hawthorne and Brett Dennen – “Stand Up For It” indeed. Father John Misty even got a retro-rocker included this year with “Real Love Baby.”
As always, happy listening….
“Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.” Leonard Cohen