2016 may have been great or terrible depending on who you are, but the year blessed us with positively good music. We’ve put together a few of the album releases which were so good we’ll be listening to them next year too.
99.9% - Kaytranada
Blend a mishmash of groovy funk, soul, R&B and dance and you get Kaytranada’s debut album 99.9%. An easy listen, 99.9%’s tracklist sports coffeehouse chilled-out vibes like “Bus Ride", but also indie-funk dance club beats like “Together". The latter third of the album sees more experimental funk that resembles a lighter, less trippy Flying Lotus sound. “Lite Spots” breaks into an instrumental tangent full of classical guitar, brass and hand drums and “Vivid Dreams” dabbles with a minor house chord progression. 99.9% also featured a roster of impressive guest vocals from AlunaGeorge, Vic Mensa, Syd tha Kyd and Anderson Paak, with “Glowed Up” especially exhibiting pure chemistry between Anderson's and Kaytranada’s respective styles. “Got It Good” stuck to me as the most solid track, with its sensual vocals, clean drums and simple progression. Overall, 99.9% is proof that Kaytranada is here to stay.
Ashes - Illenium
In regards to creating his debut studio album, Illenium said he hoped Ashes would “let people breathe and be in the moment while also taking them to a different reality.” Ashes is emotion fueled at the very least and a complete magical journey into vocal dubstep. Tracks like “Reverie” and “Fortress” layer airy female vocals over finger-style guitar and culminate in deep synth drops. The 4th track “Sleepwalker” picks the pace of the album up significantly, drawing more dubstep influence and featuring harder kicks and an electric synth melody. The climax of the album, Sound Remedy collab “Spirals” is easily the most uplifting and enlightening track, featuring melodic piano chords, throbbing synths and beautiful lyrics. My personal favorite “Only One” combines powerful vocals from Nina Sung with drops reminiscent of older dubstep, giving the track a nostalgic feel. All in all, Ashes is intense from beginning to end and undeniably successful at invoking emotion.
Encore - DJ Snake
After breaking into mainstream with party banger “Turn Down for What” and globally successful Major Lazer collab “Lean On”, DJ Snake came back full force with his debut studio album Encore. The album provides a more comprehensive taste of DJ Snake as an artist; the tracklist mixes catchy pop-influenced songs like “Middle”, “Talk” and “Let Me Love You” with funky, trumpet-filled ones like “Sober” and “Pigalle” and hiphop beats on “The Half”, “4 Life" and “Oh Me Oh My”. The more heavy trap tracks saw a drastic departure from “Turn Down for What”, using harder hitting drums and bass. Skrillex collaboration “Sahara” and “Propaganda” use dissonant wonky synth leads which might be harder to digest, although the latter track has been received popularly in festival sets. Encore isn’t ground-breakingly good, but it showcases DJ Snake’s versatility in producing dynamically across genres and crossing over into pop music.
Skin - Flume
Flume’s second studio album Skin marked an artistic development, introducing new sound palettes while keeping true to Flume’s signature future bass style. Grammy-nominated “Never Be Like You” may be the star of the album, but the rest of the tracks feature hidden charisma which contributes to the cohesiveness and personality of the album. Skin is refreshing and diverse, ranging from sing-a-long tracks to ambient instrumentals to rap-influenced songs. Flume’s sound ventured into experimental territory, focusing heavily on using glitchy synths, heavy drums and distinct beats. Numbers like “Wall Fuck”, “Smoke & Retribution”, and “Free” are percussive-heavy while incorporating Flume's future synth, resulting in a distinctive sound which becomes synonymous with Skin. Skin also saw diverse vocal talent from the likes of Tove Lo on “Say It”, AlunaGeorge on “Innocence” and Beck on “Tiny Cities”.
Opus - Eric Prydz
Eric Prydz debut album Opus has quickly risen as one of the years best albums and for perfect reason. The 2-hour long, 19 song tracklist exhibits production at its finest and pushes the boundaries of genres. Each track is masterfully created with progressions of layers that culminate into tingling synth leads. Save for a few songs (“Moody Mondays and “Breathe”), the majority of Opus consists of instrumentals, twisting progressive and electro into the realm of transcendence-like music. The album culminates at and ends with title track "Opus", 9-minutes of intricately woven melodies and high intensity synths which build up and down in oscillating waves. While the individual tracks stand alone as artfully crafted pieces in themselves, each constructed with unique swelling or shimmering synths and unexpected progressions, the true beauty of Opus is appreciated as a whole.
