Reba Meyers // Credit: Marshall Amps
This is my second favorite time of the year, just after summer time. You get all the special holidays, NFL playoffs, and the NBA season getting more serious. I find time slows down more learning earlier this year it’s a great time to vacation. Everyone’s broke by new year day. I look forward to going somewhere next year. I’ll never forget my religious in Japan but I think I need something more… tropical I’ll say next time. Vacations add to the plus column for this time of year.
Ranking my favorite albums of the year though, a tradition like Christmas eve. I’ve listed the best each year since I got started buying songs on iTunes almost ten years ago. I wish I had archived my old tumblr posts before deleting the entire account. I started extensively writing back in 2010 after joining a journalism class my senior year of high school. Check out my favorites last year. I fortunately listed previous years on my listography. Take a look before proceeding with this list. Those old lists archive where my tastes were that year. I look back ever year to remind myself of where I was.
Perhaps that’s why I find myself doing this each year. I’m anthropologist. Music says a lot about us individually and culturally as a society. Look back twenty years later and you’ll find music always tells the story of that year, and those times. My lists have evolved from me just gushing over albums I really liked into recognizing where I am now and how that might speak to the rest of us. I really hope you enjoy these entries below, at least a fraction of how much I reveled in writing this. Four through six next week!
Uniform
Wake in Fright
10
“Everyone was saying it was morning in America. Someone had to say, ‘It’s fucking midnight man!'” Vic Bondi said on the American Hardcore documentary eleven years ago. Just like then, we’re in another Reagan-esk climate where life gets crueler for most and the wealthiest among us retain and further ingratiate society’s resources. I’m not here to get political, only to indicate when people like Trump, the Koch brothers, or any other oligarch shatters the glass of society its pieces always reflect the eventual revolt.
When I see Black Flag’s four bars I’m reminded to never surrender. Symbolically its a way of life. The primal roar of Uniform and the image of their cross and scythe represents the same anarchy towards society’s numbness to cultural issues. Wake in Fright confronts a world on fire. There’s no amnesia with these guys about any moral that’s melting. “Tabloid” mobilizes the blood flow with Ben Greenberg’s buzzsaw guitar ripping flesh like Kerry King in Slayer. Michael Berden’s voice sounds like a smelting factory or burning witches.
Just two men and a drum machine make the sound of chaos for an audience. It’s a contemporary version of hardcore punk in the early eighties.
“The Killing of America” defines the band’s social voice yet sounds as gruesome as the subject matter. If Slayer orchestrated the symphony of war, Uniform would fit perfectly in percussion section. The music video shows every mass shooting in America by location. According to the Gun Violence Archive, in 2016 there were 383 mass shootings resulting in 432 mass shooting deaths. The reality and art match in unison. Most of the big publications have no awareness about Uniform’s unapologetic attitude to bring the worst of society into their art.
I haven’t heard another artist speak so directly to issues like gun violence since Uniform emerged. The urgency in their records and live show breath the kind of real life we’ve been missing since the original wave of hardcore.
Cigarettes After Sex
Cigarettes After Sex
9
A few years ago Cigarettes After Sex seemed like some bedroom gem I found on Bandcamp. Never thought they’d have a sold out a show in San Diego. Thankfully I won’t miss them again but they’re charging twice the price now, and why shouldn’t they? Obviously their sensual bedroom jams caught the attention of audiences across the county. They’re selling out multiple venues and embarking on a world tour next year. Their self-titled debut is a hipster foreplay soundtrack after a night out on the gentrified neighborhood, i.e. my North Park experience.
I haven’t seen the same level of appreciation I have from other publications. After another album release the Pitchforks of the world will probably trip all over themselves to praise how great this band is now. No, they were good 5 years ago, got serious in 2015, and put together a debut far ahead of bands together for three or four albums.
“Apocalypse” sounds exactly like waking up with someone you just met last night. He or she doesn’t have to be anywhere. You don’t want them to leave, so let the infatuation take over. You’ll find this theme throughout. They’re not breaking any kind of new ground in the love song department but Cigarettes After Sex have established themselves as the hipster millennial heart-ache band. Listen to “K” which sounds exactly like its title; a disappointed text message.
I can’t pick these albums each year simply off one single. When I hear an album I’m looking for some kind order or theme, but most importantly coherence. Not just talented people making great songs but the sculpting of a finished product. No filler tracks. Everyone song placed purposefully. On their first record Cigarettes After Sex don’t just manage but excelled beyond the years of their existence. I can’t stress enough this is their first album and on the level of bands multiple studio albums.
They’re simply impressive and I’m excited to see them next year. I get a great sense of satisfaction doing these lists with bands I remember putting great work when no one was paying attention. Well they’re listening now.
Joey Bada$$
All-Amerikkkan Bada$$
8
In a few years I might regret only putting this eighth. Joey Bada$$ popped up on my radar five years ago with his 1999 mixtape. Still one of the best summers of my life. His vibe recalled conscious rap from the early nineties. Think Nas and Tupac. All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ modernizes his influences for today’s political and social landscape. Just take “For My People” his best song to date and an anthem for all time. It’s one of the best songs of the year too. Joey throws respect to Jay with “I don’t wanna be good, nigga, I’m tryna be great.” There’s a positive unionizing theme that’s easy to remember and vibe with.
“Temptation” borrows more from Me Against the World than anything else. Zianna Oliphant’s speech in the intro gets my eyes a little wet when I even think about it. Joey has a knack for tapping into your emotions in the beginning of songs like this one. In the first verse there’s a great diss at Drake “I really came up from the bottom. Strugglin’, my momma on her last dollar.” Drake started in acting and made his way as a rapper. Joey made his way a couple years ago on Mr. Robot with a reoccurring role.
His ability on this record to utilize his influences and add more anthemic pop sensibilities makes him a unique individual. Joey writes songs now to reach the ears of the world, not just the rap community. He’s becoming more like Jay-Z than any other MC.
“Y U Don’t Love Me? (Miss Amerikkka)” and “Devastated” feel more uniquely his own than heavily influenced by the nineties. Miss Amerikkka finds Joey hating America in one breathe but longing for it to love him back. It’s a bit more ambitious than the rest of the project and doesn’t try any pop gymnastics. I enjoy the album being front loaded with “singles” or hits and the back end features traditional riffing with Schoolboy Q and J. Cole. More for the people than the masses.
As great and raw as 1999 was it didn’t have these kinds of captivating elements. It had all the pure lyricism but not the advanced song crafting. Clearly Joey matured past being a kid making mixtapes. He’s starting to master song writing. He’s not good, he’s great.
Code Orange
Forever
7
I’ve admitted over the past few years feeling distant from metal. When I quit City of Crooks in 2015 I started checking out of the scene. I’m not one of these pretentious “I grew up” guys. I still love certain bands. Meshuggah and Metallica made some of my favorite albums last year and of their careers. I totally missed the boat on Fallujah last year. It’s just not dominating my ears like in past years. Rap, indie, and everything else impacted me more. This year even more so. There’s only one heavy record on this year’s list, a first for me, but it’s a seminal career defining album.
Code Orange appointed themselves among the elite heavy bands on the planet. In my opinion the number one live act you should go see right now. I bought tickets to see them with Meshuggah January 29th at The Wiltern. It’s going to be a wet dream to see these two nuke Los Angeles that night. I missed them coming through San Diego with Gojira and couldn’t miss them again on an even better ticket.
Forever like I mentioned before is already critically acclaimed. I wrote a review back in February. If you want in depth analysis I encourage you to read my piece. I prefer to talk about its impact since the release. The album is universally praised by their peers. When Randy Blythe, Lamb of God, loves your album that’s all the justification you need.
If I could draft a band for a chaotic anything goes group I’d pick Reba Meyer. She can sing beautifully and thrash on guitar with the best of them. Watch her performances on social media since Forever came out. The whole band devastates every performance but she’s the one leading it. They’re special as a group but she strikes me as the mastermind, especially as a fan of her side project Adventures.
I can’t get over how fucking slow metal publications are on these guys. Metal Injection called the album “a little inaccessible at first” while drooling over other chaotic projects. This is far more accessible than anything Nails or The Dillinger Escape Plan has done overall. Find me a better metal album that’s more artistically pleasing in every way.
The musicianship is insane, yet it crosses over into popular territory earning them a Grammy nomination. Say what you want about the academy, the acknowledgement to me says it all and hopefully a win will say even more.
Disaesthetic 