A year in music, and counting

hqdefaultThey call me the count because I love to count, and also because of my irritating habit of turning into a bat at night. By day I continue my obsessive-compulsive behavior: list-making, hand-washing, piano practicing, songwriting, etc. Inspired by my role model On Kawara, who seemed like a real g-d head case, I’ve gotten into various forms of record keeping on navel-gazing subjects that couldn’t possibly interest anyone but me: what did I eat today? what did I spend money on? who did I meet socially? what board game did I play? What my obsessive-compulsive behavior has taught me — other than the fact that obsessive-compulsive behavior is serious fun — is that the more I list something, the more I want to do it. Therefore, I skate free of New Year’s Resolutions: if there’s a thing I want or need more of in my life, all I need to do is begin keeping track of how often it happens. Works like a charm. A neurotic type of charm, but why quibble with success?

Since I started keeping track of every album I listened to, the number of albums I’ve listened to has increased each year. At some point, I’m going to run out of hours and completely tax the patience of the people around me. But I haven’t reached it yet, and 2016 was another landslide of music new and old (but mainly new). Since my recent liberation from the trash compactor called 2016 has put me in a magnanimous oversharey mood, I’m going to reveal some of my findings with you. There’s actually very little correspondence between the big list of artists and records I’ve listened to most frequently in a given year and the best-of ballot I put together with my friends at the end of January — some albums and some artists are just easier to listen to than others. Tegan & Sara’s most recent albums play well in most contexts. I don’t think I could make the same claim on behalf of Steven Wilson, or Van Der Graaf Generator’s Pawn Hearts. No knock on those meant, believe me.

I look forward to this particular count all year, and go out of my way not to hazard guesses about what’ll come out tops. Part of the fun of the project is to preserve the surprise: I add it all up and discover that my speculations about what I’ve been spinning have been totally wrong. A year is a long time — looking back, it’s hard to imagine that events that took place in January could have happened during the same swing around the sun as this just-passed holiday season. If you’re self-absorbed enough, and fruitfully forgetful enough, and committed enough to writing everything down, you don’t have to wait for an eon to pass for the archaeology to begin. The filthy facts of your life are shovel-ready.

If you’d asked me in mid-December what artist or album I’d listened to the most in 2016, I think I probably would have said Kamaiyah. That was my short-haul bicycling music this summer, and I found A Good Night In The Ghetto so vivid and so entertaining that it seemed like its primary colors extended to every corner of the canvas. Was I right? Let’s see:

Album artists most frequently played, 1/1/16-12/31/16

  1. Drake
  2. Paul Simon
  3. Laura Marling
  4. Chance The Rapper
  5. Natalia Lafourcade
  6. Kanye West
  7. Beth Orton
  8. Look Park
  9. Pusha T
  10. Lucy Dacus
  11. Young Thug
  12. Tegan & Sara
  13. Okkervil River
  14. Noname
  15. Basia Bulat
  16. Jenny Lewis
  17. Kamaiyah
  18. Jamila Woods
  19. Francis & The Lights
  20. Pet Shop Boys

Drake had a bit of an unfair advantage this year; both If You’re Reading This and What A Time To Be Alive felt fresh at the time of the release of Views. We have a tradition of listening to Drake on the Fourth Of July and when we’re decorating the Christmas tree, too. So while the rest of the world was getting really, really sick of his nonsense, I was playing his records over and over and singing along in my Drake voice. (Maybe doing the Hotline Bling dance, too?) It’s worth noting that Drake was also my second-most played artist last year behind Belle & Sebastian. What can I say?; Drake is like a bag of breadsticks that I can’t stop myself from raiding.

Speaking of raiding: as you’re about to hear firsthand, I may have borrowed a bit from Paul Simon while writing songs this year. Stranger To Stranger was heavy summer listening until it scared me so much that I had to put it away. Turns out he was the only election forecaster who had it right, and for the right reasons, and much as I tried to pretend that wasn’t what he was singing about, in retrospect it’s all horrifyingly clear. May has been a Paul Simon month for me for the last few years; something about the first warm days always makes me want to put on Graceland or Rhythm Of The Saints and go appropriate some poor sucker’s culture.

Other things of interest: I was under the strange impression that I’d broken my shameless dependency on Laura Marling’s music this year, or at least that I was giving it a rest until her new one comes out this spring. That… was an inaccurate assumption. In fact I listened to Laura Marling so much that she dragged Beth Orton into the Top Ten of this list by sheer association; once it became an insane and untenable proposition to play Once I Was An Eagle another time, and I had no choice but to turn to Sugaring Season and Trailer Park and the like for my austere, Bert Jansch-y British trad. fix. A mid-year Audit/reassessment of Critics Poll years 2003-2008 (we really did do this, complete with a listening schedule and a Poll day!) was a boon for Kanye and Okkervil River. Verdict: those guys are pretty good.

For xtra thrills, spills, and chill pills, let’s go month by month.

JANUARY

  1. Natalia Lafourcade
  2. Pusha T
  3. Laura Stevenson
  4. Erykah Badu
  5. Julien Baker
  6. Tame Impala
  7. Joanna Newsom

FEBRUARY

  1. Joanna Newsom
  2. Natalia Lafourcade
  3. The High Llamas
  4. New Order
  5. Air
  6. Pusha T
  7. Richard Thompson

MARCH

  1. Laura Marling
  2. Natalia Lafourcade
  3. Joanna Newsom
  4. Eleanor Friedberger
  5. Julieta Venegas
  6. Allan Kingdom
  7. Kendrick Lamar

APRIL

  1. The High Llamas
  2. Pet Shop Boys
  3. The Shins
  4. Kanye West
  5. Pusha T
  6. Natalia Lafourcade
  7. Kamaiyah

MAY

  1. Paul Simon
  2. Lucy Dacus
  3. Kanye West
  4. Kamaiyah
  5. Quilt
  6. Sandy Denny
  7. Frightened Rabbit

JUNE

  1. Drake
  2. Beyonce
  3. Kanye West
  4. Weezer
  5. Laura Marling
  6. Lucy Dacus
  7. Paul Simon

JULY

  1. Chance The Rapper
  2. Drake
  3. Beyonce
  4. YG
  5. Kanye West
  6. Tegan & Sara
  7. Kamaiyah

AUGUST

  1. Xenia Rubinos
  2. Paul Simon
  3. Jamila Woods
  4. Chance The Rapper
  5. Noname
  6. Jenny Lewis
  7. Say Anything

SEPTEMBER

  1. Homeboy Sandman
  2. De La Soul
  3. Beth Orton
  4. Noname
  5. Jamila Woods
  6. Bruce Hornsby
  7. Look Park

OCTOBER

  1. Francis & The Lights
  2. Okkervil River
  3. Look Park
  4. Bruce Hornsby
  5. Margaret Glaspy
  6. The Hotelier
  7. Frank Ocean

NOVEMBER

  1. Jimmy Eat World
  2. Look Park
  3. Car Seat Headrest
  4. Vanishing Twin
  5. Alicia Keys
  6. Butch Walker
  7. Tinashe

DECEMBER

  1. Miranda Lambert
  2. A Tribe Called Quest
  3. Vanishing Twin
  4. Martha
  5. Jimmy Eat World
  6. Saba
  7. J. Cole

As a boring individual, I’ve fallen into many familiar annual patterns, and I see I didn’t really deviate from any of them this year: British folk in the early spring, a hip-hop midsummer, a blanket of guitar rock when the weather gets chilly in mid-autumn, and a hodgepodge of styles once the listening schedule starts and the December landslide of recommendations begin. My Laura Marling fixation forced me a little deeper into the fens than I usually go, which partially accounts for the presence of good ol’ Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson on these lists (not that there’s ever a bad reason to listen to those two.) As usual, my year in music started to take shape in June when I turned off the oldies station and began engaging in earnest with what the new stuff. In ’16, the big moment for me was when the Soundcloud broke over the Great Lakes and all that free Chicago music started raining down — but if that hadn’t happened, something similar would have.

Yet there was one major difference between 2016 and prior years. Usually the very last thing I want to listen to after the calendar turns in February is music from the year gone by. I’ve played it out and I’m ready to stop thinking about it. This year that didn’t happen. It’s a testament to the depth of 2015 — possibly my favorite year in music ever — that I continued, habitually, to play last season’s albums even when it was no longer last season. Natalia Lafourcade’s Hasta La Raiz dominated the first three months of ’16, and I went back and picked up her other albums, which weren’t quite as fantastic but still had plenty to offer. Hasta (and a really good video for “Suavecito”) led me to reconsider Julieta Venegas’s Spanish-language Algo Sucede, which I fell in love with in February, and Ximena Sarinana’s No Todo Lo Puedes Dar, an album I never gave a fair shake to since I was intimidated by the language barrier. I kept listening to New Order’s Music Complete and Joanna Newsom’s Divers — albums that got a bit crowded out by the glut of fantastic stuff released in ’15 — well into the new year, and I kinda think they still haven’t stopped growing on me.

Most of all, I couldn’t quit Pusha T. That was my psych-up music during the winter, or my ride-my-bike-through-the-freezing-cold music, or my miffed at power structures music, or just my bunch of betting on a sleeper anthems. Then I spent the rest of 2016 waiting in vain for him to put out the follow-up he promised. I should have worried when he subtitled his album The Prelude. Elzhi gave us The Preface in 2008 and it’s taken him years to get to the rest of the book. Well, what the heck, it’s not like there weren’t dozens of other great albums to listen to in 2016; I’m just greedy. Let’s list some of them:

Albums most frequently played, 1/1/16-12/31/16

  1. Look Park — Look Park
  2. Drake — Views
  3. Lucy Dacus — No Burden
  4. Chance The Rapper — Coloring Book
  5. Kamaiyah — A Good Night In The Ghetto
  6. Noname — Telefone
  7. Tegan & Sara — Love You To Death
  8. Jamila Woods — HEAVN
  9. Basia Bulat — Good Advice
  10. Natalia Lafourcade — Hasta La Raiz
  11. Mitski — Puberty 2
  12. Francis & The Lights — Farewell, Starlite!
  13. Pusha T — King Push: Darkest Before Dawn — The Prelude
  14. Kanye West — The Life Of Pablo
  15. Paul Simon — Stranger To Stranger
  16. Xenia Rubinos — Black Terry Cat
  17. YG — Still Brazy
  18. Homeboy Sandman — Kindness For Weakness
  19. Margaret Glaspy — Emotions And Math
  20. Quilt — Plaza

Huh. That’s not what I was expecting. I knew I liked the Look Park album, but I absolutely did not realize I was listening to it more than any other album this year. I’m not entirely sure how to process that, but it seems weirdly anti-social of me. I’m not even sure I know anybody else besides Hilary who has even given it a spin. (Tom Snow, are you out there? I think you’d enjoy the wry perspective.) Most big 2016 albums existed in communal space: even and especially before their release, they were discussed to fuck and back on the Internet. It would be just like me, or my belligerent unconscious, to resist cooperation. Or maybe it was, you know, the melodies.

As for Drake, what can I say?, besides that all of y’all are butt wrong. I dig the production, the performances, the arrangements, the choruses, even the dumb jokes. I know you’re sick of his nonsense, and he’s to blame for his own overexposure, but trust me, this is not the time to press the strip and get off of the Drake bus. If you’re looking for Lemonade, it was at #21. Funny thing: I kept meaning to set aside some time to watch the visual album, but I never did. I oughta do that tonight.

Month by month:

JANUARY

  1. Natalia Lafourcade — Hasta La Raiz
  2. Pusha T — King Push: Darkest Before Dawn — The Prelude
  3. Erykah Badu — But You Cain’t Use My Phone
  4. Julien Baker — Sprained Ankle
  5. Joanna Newsom — Divers
  6. Laura Stevenson — Cocksure
  7. Trey Anastasio — Paper Wheels

FEBRUARY

  1. Natalia Lafourcade — Hasta La Raiz
  2. Joanna Newsom — Divers
  3. New Order — Music Complete
  4. Pusha T — King Push: Darkest Before Dawn — The Prelude
  5. Julieta Venegas — Algo Sucede
  6. Allan Kingdom — Northern Lights
  7. Trey Anastasio — Paper Wheels

MARCH

  1. Natalia Lafourcade — Hasta La Raiz
  2. Eleanor Friedberger — New View
  3. Allan Kingdom — Northern Lights
  4. Kendrick Lamar — untitled unmastered
  5. Laura Marling — Laura Marling
  6. Lucy Dacus — No Burden
  7. Julieta Venegas — Algo Sucede

APRIL

  1. The High Llamas — Snowbug
  2. Pet Shop Boys — Super
  3. Kanye West — The Life Of Pablo
  4. Kamaiyah — A Good Night In The Ghetto
  5. Eleanor Friedberger — New View
  6. Basia Bulat — Good Advice
  7. Weezer — Weezer (White Album)

MAY

  1. Lucy Dacus — No Burden
  2. Kamaiyah — A Good Night In The Ghetto
  3. Quilt — Plaza
  4. Kanye West — The Life Of Pablo
  5. Sandy Denny — The North Star Grassman And The Ravens
  6. Lucius — Good Grief
  7. Frightened Rabbit — Painting Of A Panic Attack

JUNE

  1. Drake — Views
  2. Beyonce — Lemonade
  3. Weezer — Weezer (White Album)
  4. Kanye West — The Life Of Pablo
  5. Kamaiyah — A Good Night In The Ghetto
  6. Lucy Dacus — No Burden
  7. Anderson.Paak — Malibu

JULY

  1. Chance The Rapper — Coloring Book
  2. Drake — Views
  3. Beyonce — Lemonade
  4. YG — Still Brazy
  5. Kamaiyah — A Good Night In The Ghetto
  6. Tegan & Sara — Love You To Death
  7. Esperanza Spalding — Emily’s D+Evolution

AUGUST

  1. Xenia Rubinos — Black Terry Cat
  2. Paul Simon — Stranger To Stranger
  3. Jamila Woods — HEAVN
  4. Noname — Telefone
  5. Say Anything — I Don’t Think It Is
  6. Chance The Rapper — Coloring Book
  7. Mitski — Puberty 2

SEPTEMBER

  1. De La Soul — And The Anonymous Nobody…
  2. Noname — Telefone
  3. Jamila Woods — HEAVN
  4. Homeboy Sandman — Kindness For Weakness
  5. Look Park — Look Park
  6. Young Thug — Jeffery
  7. Joey Purp — iiiDrops

OCTOBER

  1. Francis & The Lights — Farewell, Starlight!
  2. Okkervil River — Away
  3. Look Park — Look Park
  4. Margaret Glaspy — Emotions And Math
  5. The Hotelier — Goodness
  6. Frank Ocean — Blonde
  7. Solange — A Seat At The Table

NOVEMBER

  1. Look Park — Look Park
  2. Jimmy Eat World — Integrity Blues
  3. Car Seat Headrest — Teens Of Denial
  4. Vanishing Twin — Choose Your Own Adventure
  5. Alicia Keys — Here
  6. Cymbals Eat Guitars — Pretty Eyes
  7. Danny Brown — Atrocity Exhibition

DECEMBER

  1. Miranda Lambert — The Weight Of These Wings
  2. A Tribe Called Quest — We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
  3. Vanishing Twin — Choose Your Own Adventure
  4. Martha — Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart
  5. Jimmy Eat World — Integrity Blues
  6. Saba — Bucket List Project
  7. J. Cole — 4 Your Eyez Only

See, wasn’t that fun? For me, I mean. It was fun for me. Thucydides, or somebody who resembled him, said “know thyself”, and what better way to do that than by scrupulously logging irrelevant stuff? Get out of here with that soul searching, pal; this isn’t the 19th century. Internal investigations are messy, and expensive if you hire a shrink. As for you, the reader, well, I’m glad you came along for the ride. I promise to keep up this practice, and I’m going to post some of my year-end lists for your general examination. Because it could always be worse: you could be paying attention to the news. Nothing good for you there, I promise.