Losses and legends mark best of 2016
It was the year of tremendous loss: David Bowie, Merle Haggard, Sharon Jones, Leonard Cohen, Prince and many more.
A few artists managed to make remarkable final statements before their deaths, while superstars and newcomers alike strived for immortality with their exceptional albums.
Here are the best album of 2016 picks from Journal Sentinel music writer Piet Levy and longtime contributors Jon M. Gilbertson and Erik Ernst. PIET LEVY’S TOP FIVE 1. “Lemonade,” Beyoncé: Performing a Black Lives Matter-inspired anthem at the Super Bowl is about as bold as you can get, yet it was merely the beginning for Beyoncé in 2016. With “Lemonade,” the larger-than-life diva displayed shaky vulnerability with surprise journeys into rock and country, all in service of the album’s complex reactions to betrayal. Rarely, if ever, have we seen a star of Beyoncé’s stature take such massive risks. Rarely has an album been as rewarding.
2. “Blackstar,” David Bowie: Bowie didn’t plan for “Blackstar” to be his swan song, but it’s impossible to imagine a more fitting finale. Calling himself the “Great I Am” on the title track, Bowie proceeded to live up to the proclamation, yet again embracing a new sound (in this case, experimental jazz) while assessing, and ultimately enriching, his legacy.
3. “22, A Million,” Bon Iver: Eau Claire artist Justin Vernon secluded himself in a cabin to make Bon Iver’s breakout album “For Emma, Forever Ago.” But he could no longer make a go of it alone. Relying heavily on improv sessions with friends and electronic experimentation to end a five-year hiatus, the jarring yet mesmerizing “22, A Million” is a towering testament to inspired collaboration.
4. “Teens of Denial,” Car Seat Headrest: One of these albums is not like the other. Whereas Beyoncé, Bowie and Bon Iver embraced arsenals of instruments and armies of collaborators, indie rock outfit Car Seat Headrest didn’t get fancier than the occasional trumpet or piano on “Denial.” It matched those other top albums’ sweep anyway, thanks to Will Toledo’s heart-racing, shapeshifting songwriting style, and damning, deeply personal lyrics informed by his own bouts with depression.
5. “Coloring Book,” Chance the Rapper: When times get tough, we turn to music for comfort. No album in this tumultuous year was as uplifting as the gospel-inspired “Coloring Book,” which didn’t shy away from hardship, but helped listeners take stock of their blessings, be it faith, family, love or powerful music. JON M. GILBERTSON’S TOP FIVE 1. “Blackstar,” David Bowie: On his 69th birthday and two days before his death from liver cancer, the avatar of commercially viable art rock issued a beguiling final LP. Drawing upon sources from lounge-lizard post-bop to Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Bowie rode into that good night on an intelligent, sinuously bucking groove.
2. “Skeleton Tree,” Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Fathers aren’t meant to bury their sons. When Cave was forced to do so by the accidental demise of 15-year-old Arthur Cave in 2015, he seems to have turned his current suite with the Bad Seeds into an uneasily ruminative, Gothic, electronically pulsating elegy. Even by Cave’s standards, it’s a very black album.
3. “You Want It Darker,” Leonard Cohen: Not unlike Bowie, Cohen created his last long-player while awaiting the death that overtook him about two weeks after the album’s release. Yet Cohen long had a voice suited for the sepulcher, within which his longstanding love of classic melody and song structure allowed him to arrange jeweled lights around his readiness to depart.
4. “American Band,” Drive-By Truckers: In 2001, “Southern Rock Opera” proudly, loudly displayed the Dixie heritage of Drive-By Truckers. Fifteen years later, “American Band” drapes the band’s punk attitude and straight-up rock stories in Old Glory, and the pride remains. The lyrics try to make sense of what being “American” means.
5. “X Infinity,” Watsky: If this San Francisco rapper and poet’s first name, George, doesn’t necessarily mark him as a nerd, then his voice — half Beastie Boy, half debate-club champion — certainly does. His latest full-length defiantly accumulates hip-hop cred through rat-a-tat flow and gets depth through Beckian eclecticism. ERIK ERNST’S TOP FIVE 1. “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” Sturgill Simpson: After infusing psychedelics into the depths of classic country on his first two albums, Simpson unveiled a tender ode to his firstborn child, framed as a missive from a seafaring mariner. It’s an album that has made him an early darling of the Grammy Awards as a surprise, but most deserving, Album of the Year nominee.
2. “Big Day in a Small Town,” Brandy Clark: The heart of country music is its songwriters’ ability to capture life’s challenges and triumphs, sorrows and celebrations, and
Actor Dick Miller, 88 R&B singer John Edwards (The Spinners), 72 Singer Jimmy Buffett, 70 Country singer Barbara Mandrell, 68 Actress Sissy Spacek (left), 67 Actress C.C.H. Pounder, 64 Singer Annie Lennox, 62 Singer Shane MacGowan (The Pogues, The Popes), 59 Actress Klea Scott, 48 Singer Dido, 45 R&B singer Ryan Shaw, 36 Pop singers Lisa and Jess Origliasso (The Veronicas), 32 The Best Music of 2016 Look out for more year-end music lists through Jan. 1, including: Best Milwaukee Songs (available now at jsonline.com/music) Best Milwaukee Albums (online now) Best Milwaukee Concerts (Jan. 1)
heartbreak and love. No songwriter’s work has been filled with emotions as stark, yet relatable, and characters as unique, as the songs Clark crafted on her sophomore album.
3. “The Weight of These Wings,” Miranda Lambert: Proving that country music stardom is not synonymous with the largely bland and homogenized sounds, Lambert has consistently filled her work with sharp songwriting, threadbare emotion and a wicked tongue. Her first album post-breakup with Blake Shelton ups the ante as a stunning double disc of classic, engaging melodies under reflections on heartache and newfound independence.
4. “Lovers and Leavers,” Hayes Carll: Forging his place in the tradition of songwriters like Merle Haggard, Steve Goodman and John Prine, Carll’s fifth album treads in the same kind of smart, gut-wrenching honesty. “If you’re nobody’s business, or you’re front page news, folk, rock, country or Delta Blues, tell your truth however you choose. Do it all for the sake of the song,” he sings as he does just that.
5. “Kid Sister,” The Time Jumpers: In honoring and paying tribute to their bandmate Dawn Sears, who passed away as the band began this album’s recording, The Time Jumpers — a collective of some of Nashville’s finest voices, pickers and writers — continue to preserve the sounds of traditional country music. The disc is rife with Western swing, waltzing beauty, rollicking rhythms and one of the year’s most poignant moments in Vince Gill’s vocals on the disc’s closing title track.