25. Free Cake For Every Creature - Talking Quietly Of Anything With You (Double Double Whammy)
Bedroom pop and big ideas
Year ago, when consumers could first go to iTunes and buy just the song they knew, the album was pronounced dead. Lately I hear that the single is also dead, because listeners only pause only to hear a few seconds of a song pulled from a streaming service. I love singles. No question there. And I celebrate and opine on them on my Top Songs lists. In fact, this year I'm even calling out my Top EPs of the year. However every track I play on the podcast is chosen after multiple complete listens to it's album. Here I recognize the albums that were great listens from start to finish, and provide you with just enough of a description to send you off to that streaming service for a taste.
24. So Cow - Lisa Marie Airplane Tour (Jigsaw Records)
Indie pop jangly, urgent, and bright
23. Employer - Everything Gets Worse (Self Released)
Finger-picked, delicate, and raw
22. Shotgun Jimmie - Field of Trampolines (You've Changed)
Crashing and rightous indie rock
21. Nudie - Everything's Different In The Night (Self Released)
Classic honkey tonk with all the word play and hard liquor
20. The Phantoms - The Phantoms (Rum Bar)
Rocket-fueled power pop propelled by hormones and whiskey
19. Bob Mould - Patch the Sky (Merge)
Luxerious indie rock blanketed by that guitar
18. Darren Hayman - Thankful Villages Volume 1 (Rivertones)
Intimate pop glimpses into the smallest, most important things
17. The Struts - Everybody Wants (Interscope)
Biggest glam party sure to explode
16. Bleached - Welcome The Worms (Dead Oceans)
Top down cruising nostalgic for its punk roots
15. Big Eyes - Stake My Claim (Don Giovanni)
Pop, punk, power-pop, and bachelors in bad ass
14. Pale Lips - Wanna Be Bad (Resurrection)
Punk rock handclaps and Ramones worship
13. Kurt Baker Combo - In Orbit (Wicked Cool)
Power pop, longing, and deft hooks
12. Big Ups - Before A Million Universes (Exploding In Sound)
Indie rock deliberate, explosive, and concerning
11. Cheap Girls - God's Ex-Wife (Asian Man)
Power pop tempered by cool rock swagger
10. Lisa Prank - Adult Teen (Father/Daughter)
Perfect pop punk from your little sister's bedroom
9. Dressy Bessy - Kingsized (Yep Roc)
Brassy indie rock that answers to no one
8. Martha - Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart (Dirt Nap)
Deadly serious DIY about joyous living
7. Descendents - Hypercaffium Spazzinate (Epitaph)
Pop punk romantics still have hooks
6. Eureka California - Versus (HHBTM Records)
Noisy DIY punks play pop with abandon
5. Berwanger - Exorcism Rock (Doghouse)
Haunted power pop not afraid of big guitars
4. Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (Polyvinyl)
The biggest power pop hooks are to the left of the dial
3. Camp Cope - Camp Cope (Self Released)
Voyueristic, exposed, and refreshingly smart
2. Tacocat - Lost Time (Hardly Art)
A bouncy castle disguised as pop punk
1. Damien Jurado - Visions of Us On the Land (Secretly Canadian)
Awesome, grand, and transportive
And that's it. If you're curious about my criteria, I got 322 releases this year, of which 230 of those were new 2016 full length albums eligable to appear in this list. Please note that this is not the best albums or the most important albums, but the ones that I liked the best. Did I miss something? Maybe I dismissed an album but should give it another listen? Let me know your thoughts via Twitter.
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